Being in the world but not of it makes for some interesting issues. You're essentially a counter culture type without being a "culture warrior" cat whose sole goal in life is to make sure everyones doing the right thing. No no, being counter culture is literally about the world looking at you, scratching its head, and saying, "What the heck is that?" Yet, it isn't a repulsive "what the heck is that?" It's an attractive and mysterious "what the heck is that?"
It's a beautiful and mysterious thing that has been lost in todays church. The earliest Christians were an absolute puzzle to Roman authorities because of their loving and caring behavior. Whether it was their joy in being fed to lions at Roman Circuses or the way Christians pooled resources together to make sure one of their own would not go without an essential, it completely miffed Roman officials. In an age where many people disavow religion, Church, and Christianity it is important to reflect the Spirit's love that transforms hearts and minds and not give a bastardized version of the thing that has been running around under the moniker of "evangelical" in recent decades.
The facts are this: people are NOT going to church and there is a generation coming up that will never have even stepped inside a church. Are we to be alarmed? Should this scare us? NO! It should invigorate us that we get to share God's LOVE with people who have otherwise never heard it or have become so disillusioned by it. It is about showing a crazy love that will stop the world right in its tracks to question, "What the heck is that?"
Don't worry though, just as Jesus said the world will continue to hate you. But not because you're a law banger, because you accurately reflect what it means to be a follower of The Way. Part of the world will hate you when even after you've been feeding the hungry and dressing the homeless you call them to repentance. And the other part will hate you when even though you call sinners to repentance you refuse to elevate homosexuality and abortion to levels of utmost important sins that need our every ounce of strength in the "Culture War." News flash: There's been a culture war going on for quite some time now. It's a war that deals with the reality that brothers and sisters lay in their own filth day after day without real help and friendship. It's a war that has people wallowing in their own sins and choosing the path of destruction instead of yearning for the Light. It's a war alright, and all the distractions the Slanderer throws our way work. Be it becoming obsessed with a particular sin or thinking everything is A-Ok.
Crazy love will make the world stop and think. Because only a crazy love can call sinners to repentance and offer the joyous gift of salvation won by the One called Jesus on that lonely tree on Mount Calvary. Crazy love is Jesus telling a thief he will be with him in paradise, because the thief recognized his sin and his need for a savior. It's that crazy love that will transform this world and many of those in it. Political grandstanding on either side will do no good. It's that crazy love that only empowers us because Jesus took a grand stand at Golgotha.
All of creation groans, are you ready?
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