True Christianity

Lately a lot of Christian's faith has been shaken to the point where they are teetering like a top running out of steam. When you first throw it down the top is spinning nice and tight standing perfectly upright proudly. But then after it's been spinning for a while it gets all wobbly and starts making all those different gyrations before it falls. Then when it falls it goes racing away and flipping around until it finally comes to a dead stop.

That is what happens to a lot of Christians. Have you ever watched how we kind of do the same thing when we are going through trials ? We ask the Lord to help us…that's if we haven't stopped praying by then and it's really a demand…to help us to have the strength to overcome the thing that is making us shaky.

But if the victory doesn't come quickly we start looking like that top wobbling around loosing its balance. You can tell when someone is getting ready to fall hard just by the things they say, their actions and attitudes change as they slide down that slippery slope to destruction.

A lot of it has to do with the fact that most of the people who are being shaken are simply nourishment deprived. Just as our bodies need food, so too does our spiritual life need nourishment.

Where do we get that nourishment from ?

1. The Bible…how often do we open that book up and read in it really, and do we just read it like it is a novel or do we believe it to be the living word of God ?
2. Prayer…how much time do you devote to talking to God alone, no TV, no Music or no running around or trying to figure out what needs to be done that day ? Just you and God together alone.
3. Fellowship…do you surround yourself with the people you know will help you get to God's kingdom or do you hang out with those who are in darkness ?
4. Service…are you truly helping those around you who are in need, devoting yourself to service in your church or just being a friend to someone who is having trouble finding their way.

Can we just pick one of these 4 categories and still be fine ?

No. Our spiritual health is dependent on all four of these things to live in a victorious Christian life. We can just pray, we can just read, we can just fellowship and we can just serve but in the long run we will just pay the price for failing in these other areas.

Our spiritual health is tied into the type of nourishment we provide for it. Just like our fleshly bodies if we were to only eat carbohydrates all our lives we would be deprived of the minerals and vitamins that protein could provide and our bodies would weaken and break down. We would loose muscle and wither away in our belly bloated bodies. If we just had protein then we would lack certain motor skills because Carbs feed our brain and supply the gas we need in our tanks.

The point is that we need to be balanced in every aspect of our Christian walk to be at our peak operating capacity. When you aren't, then you can bet everyone knows about it. If you know that you are weak in certain areas then you need to reach out for help because all of us fall at one time or another. But because you fall it doesn't mean that you have abandoned God or God has abandoned you, it just means that you are being tested and when it is all over you're going to be a healthier, stronger Christian. That is where we have victories.

Where do the people who are lost or fallen away get their nourishment from ?

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. I Timothy 4:1-4

If you want to know how to live an ungodly life…then turn on your TV, go to a movie or play a video game. We are just the like computers we use to do so much of our work with.

Everyone on TV is trying to help humanity out for ratings. Are you're the real father, would you like a DNA test to find out? Look at Oprah, she was a Christian at one time, but all she did was question everything she was taught because she only wanted to serve the nice god who doesn't punish sin. So now she has a new guru and she is really bought into it so much that she is now preaching and deceiving all the people who will listen to her.

Satan a long time ago took her to her high mountain and showed her what he would give her if she bowed down and worshiped him. She liked what she saw.

You go to see most Hollywood movies and they are pushing homosexuality, perversion, violence, lawlessness and hate. They are cramming it down our throats. Kids here in San Diego are killing themselves racing each other because they think they can do what professional drivers do by watching the Fast and the Furious or playing the video games. They are brought to the point where they are having trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy.

Clint Eastwood said so much truth when he said in one of his Dirty Harry movies…”You got to know your limitations”. People have pushed the envelope and have gone beyond their limitations and it is costing them their lives and salvation and there is only one who is enjoying it. Satan !

Video games are full of corruption and murder now…what is the most popular game on the market right now ? One game is totally off limits in my house…Grand Theft Auto.

Have you heard what is in that game ?
Is that game okay for your kids to play ?
Do you really think that it is okay for you to play ?

There are areas where Christians think that it is okay to dabble in that will eventually suck them back into the things that they ran away from in the first place because as Clint said...” You got to know your limitations” and since they weren't honest with themselves they are as Peter said, “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”. I know what He means about that because I played in my vomit for 15 years and all you get is stinky dirty.

New Catch Phrase and verse :

Stinky Dirty: To return to swim in your own vomit..
Stinky Dirty Olympian: Long term vomit swimmer…

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” II Peter 2:22

We are just like computers…What does a computer do?

Whatever you want it to. What you put into your computer is what comes out of your computer. Garbage in, garbage out. What you put into your spiritual life is also what comes out.

When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”
But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Matt.15:10-20

We have to be careful of the things we allow to come into our thoughts and lives. The more permissible and liberal we are concerning the things of God the more easily we are deceived and led away from the things of God. I hope you understand that…As long as we focus our minds and actions on ungodly things we will have problems that have tentacles that complicate every area of our lives. You cannot dabble in sin…it will eat you !!!

What happens when one of us is on shaky ground or falls, what should we do ?

We should do what we would want our brothers and sisters to do if it were us who was faltering. Even though we would run and hide act like we didn't want to hear a word they said and we would at times push people away, the truth is that we still don't want to be alone and forgotten.

I would rather be around a bunch of people who have the same goal in Christ that I have even though at times they do stupid things, say idiotic statements or become so needy that it is irritating at times. Whether you agree with them or not doesn't matter, what matters is that they are all important and they are all our family and we do not abandon them to the world.

We are in God's Marine Corps !!! We are soldiers in Christ… We do not leave behind our wounded on the battle field. We go back and snatch them up because God snatched us up when we were wounded. Just as Jesus takes us into His wloving arms we too must take them into our arms and help them steady themselves.

We have to give them the same respect and care that Christ has given to us. We have to help them shore up the parts of their faith that they never knew was eroding away.

If we have tried to help them and they continuously reject our help then sometimes we just have to let them go and hope they come around sometime later. We do not persist to the point where we sacrifice our own relationship with God. Some people have done that and that is completely wrong.

We don't have to be perfect…we just have to be there, and if they don't want us to be there then tried our best and we just continue to pray for them.

So what must we do to maintain a healthy Christian lifestyle ?

Read
Pray
Fellowship
Serve
Do only the things that you know are pleasing to God.
Help your brothers and sisters stay focused on Christ.