It is getting more and more difficult to serve God in America. Nothing is considered wrong anymore, and the line between the world and the church is so thin that it is barely visible.
If you are one who still believes the Bible, and who is trying to live as God wants you to, not as you want to, it is a constant swimming upstream. It is one thing to have to deal with the world mocking you and telling you that you're wrong, but another thing when others professing to serve the same God as you are mocking you, criticizing you, and telling you that you don't have to do that.... or that you don't have to abstain from doing that.
I've become a lot more open about talking about my same-sex attractions on here, probably to the dismay of some..... but just because it may make some people uncomfortable and they don't know how to deal with the subject doesn't mean I have to go back into the closet, so to speak. This is one area where it is becoming increasingly difficult to live as God wants us to. There is such an acceptance and promotion of being gay today. TV promotes it - even in Disney shows aimed at kids, songs promote it, politicians, churches, and Christians. If you are a Christian attracted to the same sex and not living the gay lifestyle, you are very unpopular and hated even more than the average Christian who believes it is wrong. But the Christians promoting and encouraging it are the worst. I have had Christians give me a really hard time and argue til they are blue in the face trying to get me to just accept my sexuality and live as a Christian gay male. Thank God that I am well enough versed in Scripture and have read enough from the correct viewpoint that I have never fallen for those lies.
I grew up in a very conservative church, with very conservative beliefs. I have grown and matured as a Christian enough that I have my own beliefs, and don't do everything the church thinks I need to do... some may call that rebellion, but I call it finding God's will for my life, not the church's will. I have gotten used to swimming against the current. Other Christians have questioned my beliefs and tried to convince me I was wrong and that I can do certain things I don't. Christians in my church circle have questioned why or how I could do certain things........ you just can't please everyone, but they aren't the ones I want to please anyway.
And though I am trying to stay away from politics, this fits into my blog post and plays into why I am doing this one: there is a really hard push to vote for a certain candidate. Other Christians who are voting for him refuse to acknowledge that as a Christian some of feel we can't and should not. I know, I have done my share of saying why I don't believe a Christian should vote for him....... and I stand by that. However, we all need to stop telling other Christians how to live, even when we view it as something important that we believe they should or should not do....even if it involves the fate of our country.
This may come as a shock to some of us, but we aren't God. There is a wide variety of beliefs across this country, and some are very wrong, while there are a lot of things that are not salvation issues. There are things that are truly in black and white and not open to interpretation, such as homosexuality, while others are open to interpretation and principle.
Unless something is very clear in the Bible, we need to be careful telling people what they can or cannot do, and un-Christianizing them if they aren't living just like us.... or voting just like us. (Yeah, I had to throw that in there). We should be very careful trying to convince people to do something they believe to be wrong and something they believe they should not do..... even if it is something we believe to be important for some reason or another..... even if we think the fate of our country lies in their vote. (it doesn't)
Some day we will all stand before God, and we will be judged. On that day, excuses won't matter. "But my friends told me it was OK to do that....." "But the church I went to was OK with that....". I don't know how God will deal with us on that day, and I am definitely not saying people will go to hell if they felt they should not vote for a certain candidate and did it anyway....... but I want to be able to face God and know I lived as He wanted me to live, that I did the things He wanted me to do, and didn't do the things He didn't want me to do.
Christians are to deny ourselves, take up a cross, and follow Jesus.... not other Christians. We aren't called to be like others in the church, but we are called to be like Jesus and do His will. And others are not called to be like us and do our will, or what we believe to be right..... and we'd all do well to remember that during this election time and all through the year.
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