When I turned 18, I left the Catholic Church to attend the Baptist Church. This was a new experience. It took time to adjust especially coming from a Catholic Church. I knew the Catholic Church was not where I wanted to worship. I was trying to find my faith. I did not find it in the Catholic Church.

Do you ever feel as though the values instilled in you early in life, which you continue, that you’re just going through the motions from a sense of habit? Well, this was my reality at the time. I began attending the Baptist church. I was not saved. In fact, as I went to church, I did not know what being saved looked like. Everybody seemed to be doing the same things in and out of the church. There was nothing special or different about them, but they continued to show up each Sunday. Many had come for years. After a year or so, I left and went into the Air Force, still unsaved, unsure about what the hype was all about being born again. The church people all appeared to be the same as anyone else.

Eventually, I did become a believer upon returning home when I finally was lead to a few genuine believers. But my point is, today it’s still the same way, 75-80% of the church are not redeemed, of whom have attended church most of their lives. Many truly believe they’re saved and going to heaven. What is wrong with this picture? hurts my heart. I could have been one of these statistics. You have people sitting right next to you every week who are not redeemed, who knows nothing about the indwelling of the Spirit. For the longest, this stunted my spiritual growth in my early church years.

I don’t know if it is, because the Pastor is afraid to offend the church, (which I doubt) or the church, is too caught up in worldliness. In the book of James, He was not afraid to offend, he calls them out for their misguided love, “You adulterers and adulteresses”. James 4:4-5. The problem was and still continues to be, they were giving to someone else the love and devotion that belonged to God and God alone. Who was this rival lover? Glad you asked. It was the world. The people were more in love with their world than they were with God. This is the life they chose as if the present life is all there is; a life without regard to God or His commands. As I stated previously when I observed the church, I walked with people who lived according to the values, desires, and aspirations of this world. We thought as the world, walked like the world, acted as the world, and dressed like the world. This was the picture that presented me in my unsaved days. It saddens me to see not much as changed.

But here is the thing, have they truly been redeemed, have you truly been redeemed? Satan likes to make you think so. When you’re redeemed God places His Spirit in you. Even when you mess up His Spirit draws conviction, you repent, pray, and seek change. However, if we are rejecting the Spirit’s prompting or don’t recognize it, well, you may not be redeemed. In scripture, we are warned of this possibility; it is possible for a follower of Christ to be conformed to the world in such a way that it is hard to distinguish him.

Paul said this to the Corinthian church, (1Corinthians 3:1-3), “Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly…” There was division going on in the Corinthian church. Paul had fed them the Word, encouraged them, disciplined them, and help them win others, but still, they were immature in Christ, not growing but causing strife. At some point, we have to take responsibility for our faith. This is where the question comes from, are you redeemed, being filled with and controlled by the Holy Spirit or worldly, living by the standards of a fallen world, like those with no spiritual insight? What I saw was more of the latter. Though I felt surrounded by pretenders who were not encouraging growth, I began to focus on Christ. I understand when we first come to know Christ we’re babes, but years after salvation and no change you have to ask this question. Paul spoke on this very thing.

Here is a good example in Genesis 18, two individuals, in contrast, Abraham and Lot. Abraham believed in God with unwavering faith. He placed his trust in God. Yes, at times he did waver, but always rebounded by the grace of God and his great faith which God Himself controlled. Abraham pleaded with God to spare the entire city of Sodom. However, Lot was a man confused, torn between his upbringing in the faith and his enjoyment in the world. He made compromises with the lifestyle and morality in the city of Sodom. Some of us are torn like Lot. When God calls us to go forward with him, we hesitate like Lot, (Genesis 19:16.) For some of us, the opportunity for money and control pulls at us powerfully. The temptation of sexual sin has laid down roots in our lives. Our friends, business partners, and neighbors are like the men of Sodom; and we, like Lot, are so often desperate to make a good impression with them and are willing to compromise to do so. There was nothing in Lot’s life that would make one view him as a spiritual man of God. Instead of setting up his tents with Abraham in the promised land, Lot chose a wicked city probably because of its wealth. He no longer wanted to live in tents. He wanted luxury and the riches of this world.

How are people viewing you during this time of pandemic and political unrest? If you’re friends with the world, you do not have intimacy with God. Are you a believer obsessed with looking the part of a Christian? You deceive yourself when you mimic the essence of your heart instead of God’s. Are you devoted to this life and its enjoyments? Lusting the world opposes everything of the life to come. The burden I have for the church is for us to be the body of Christ, living, loving, and making disciples. It’s easy to get consumed with the world, but when your character becomes cold, unloving, finding joy in all the wrong places, I pray God grabs you by the collar and snatches you back. Otherwise, you may not have been redeemed. Early on in my Christian life, I continued to follow other church members right on down to hell, just blatant sin. Thank God I truly did surrender.

I have been guilty of most everything I write until I chose to let God renew my mind. In order to change my life, I had to change the way I thought and my beliefs. This entire website is built on Romans 12:1-2. There was no transformation with me until I began to let God transform me; “renew your mind”. I left unbiblical thoughts behind to embrace the truth of God’s Word. This is the only way we can be transformed. But, sadly, many don’t want to be transformed in Christ, they don’t want to change their ways, they do not desire to grow. So, this is why we have a crippled church making no difference in the world because we look and act like the world. I am not saying this applies to everyone, but it is way too prevalent in our church today.

Following Jesus comes with a cost. The WORD of God states, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny Himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) That cost is denying yourself, your motives, impulses, words, thoughts, opinions, and interactions that are in conflict with Christ. Is this what we see in our church? Jesus denied Himself to obey the Father and save us from our sin. We surely did not deserve it. Why do we crucify Him all over again? That is what we do when we choose to profess Christianity and live how we want. We reject Christ and live a life of hypocrisy.

Our world has changed. People have grown cold with callous hearts. Evil has become good and cheering on more evil. What are you willing to give up for the cross to stop worldly behavior? Are you ready to lay down your anger, bias, pride, hurt, racism, cultural worldview, frustration, shame, hate, and a hard heart? Maybe this is why you’re stuck in this world behavior. How about laying down anything that will hinder you from fully following Jesus.