To be different - righteous

Christianity issues a challenge in the world to be righteous. To be righteous is to be set apart. Simply we are to be different than the world.

You see if we are different than the world we must first have a way in which to be different. This is what we find in the bible. Second we must understand the world in which we are in.

Also we must understand that often part of being righteous is to be skeptical of the teaching of Christians and the church. You see other Christians and the church are blessings from God, but they error.

Our brother in Jesus is a blessing to us but he is a sinner as we are and blind as we are blind. Often he is blind in different ways be we all see through a glass darkly.

We are all on the journey together and need to realize that our brother in his moment of giving wisdom may be more lost than we are in our state of needing wisdom.

John Piper Sermon Quote About the Name of God

A bit from a John Piper sermon:

I want to try to unfold at least seven implications that I see
in the divine name, I AM WHO I AM.
First, God exists. Or as Francis Schaffer never tired of saying,
God is there. At first this may seem so obvious and so basic that
we wouldn't need to mention it. Well, it is obvious and it is
basic, but the reason we should mention it is that most people live
as if it were not true, or as if it were a truth that makes no
difference in life.

Suppose the President of the United States invited you and a few
of your friends to the White House for a reception. As you enter
the cozy green room the President is sitting by the fire place and
you walk right by him without a glance or a greeting. For the whole
evening you neither look at him nor speak to him nor thank him nor
inquire why he called you together. But every time the one reporter
asks you if you believe in the existence of the President you say,
Of course. You even agree that this is his house and that all this
food came from his kitchen. But you pay him no regard. Practically
speaking you act as if you do not believe he exists. You ignore
him. He has no place in the affections of your heart. His gifts,
not himself, are the center of your attention.

The vast majority of people who say they believe in God treat
him this way. He is like hydrogen. You learned once in school that
it is in the air you breathe, but after that your belief in it has
made no difference in your life. Every time someone takes a poll
you say, Of course, hydrogen exists. Then you return to things that
matter.

Put yourself forward a few years to the day when every human
being will give an account of himself before the living God. God
will say to millions of people, "Now it is my understanding that
you said often during your life that you believed in me. You
affirmed my existence. Is that right?" "Yes." And is it not true
that in your life the more honor and importance and virtue and
power and beauty a person had, the more regard he was paid and the
more respect he was shown and the more admiration he received? Is
that not the case?" "Yes." "Then why is it that I had such an
insignificant place in your life since you say you believed in me?
Why didn't you feel more admiration for me and seek my wisdom more
often and spend time in fellowship with me and strive to know the
way I wanted you to make all your every day decisions? Why did you
treat me as though I were like hydrogen?" What, I ask you, what is
the world going to answer? What are thousands of so-called
Christians going to answer, whose faith in God is virtually the
same as their faith in hydrogen?

Our Hearts Turned to God

I think most people will read this passage differently than I do. But, now days as I look around I see so many people who claim to be Christians (and they may well be) whose care about God is so superficial. If our hearts are not turned toward God on a regular basis I think we should ponder what we are doing. If there is an eternally important gift and we care for it not and instead we do what follows, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for (a shadow) of an image made to look like mortal man..." (Romans 1:22-23), we should wonder if we really have faith. Faith without love is dead. It seems foolish to claim you love someone you only drag yourself to hear about once a week. So if we are not energized daily by Christ we need to look deep into our hearts for as it is written in Luke:

22 Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?"
He said to them, 24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’

"But he will answer, ‘I don't know you or where you come from.’

26 "Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’

27 "But he will reply, ‘I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’

28 "There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. 29People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. 30Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last."