Dead.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?- Romans 6: 1-2

Certainly not. 

More casual than bold. A "dog returning to its vomit."(Proverbs 26:11) Casual Christianity seems to be the norm, unless of course you are so bold to deny Christ altogether. In that case, the critical perspective of your life, I have witnessed, seems to bring you closer to truth than those who know it and still turn away. 

Christianity, what I have come to understand in the church, is a belief in God the Father, sending His Son that died on the Cross for the wretched sins of mankind. Christians are "born again" living life dead to sin. Christ the son, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit now reside in us. Our sins are forgiven. Christians recognize this. This recognition and "new life" is now the part where casual Christianity diverts. Rarely, actually, do we see the conviction and change of a new life. Rarely, do we see sacrifice in our everyday lives. In fact, we hold tight to the "heroes" who mention they have any affiliation with Christ at all, yet we see them living the same old way. 

Should not our lives be defined by those who just met us and the love they see? I feel that Christians should not have to explain ourselves, or justify actions, but that the act is a stand alone for something greater than ourselves. Are we trying to serve God, but then also serve ourselves? It's easy in this world to justify poor time management to anything else other than God. After all, God is safe right? He forgives. He loves and is just and, well, we are certainly not that bad. Yet, casual Christianity may be worse, myself included. 

We are called to love on another as ourselves in the name of God and our overwhelming love for Him. Love for Him above all means above our own family, our own children, our own selves, careers, houses, status, body, any of it, cast aside, willing to be sacrificed like Abraham who was called to sacrifice his only son Issac. For nonbelievers looking for fuel against the Bible, early on a man whom had to wait almost a century to have a child was called to sacrifice him because God was testing his faith. (Genesis 22). Man has little faith in God, and yet, when we say it aloud about our own lives we realize just how sick we truly are. 

Do we believe, and yet lack faith, lack works, lack the love? Do we not believe that we should do anything, or that we owe anything to almighty creator of time and space? Are we so ego-filled that when we have to submit through claims of faith, we see it as OUR submission and not His Spirit in us? Do we not realize the humiliation God underwent to send his Son in man's flesh to be ridiculed, live in poverty, and die horribly for the disgusting sins of man that we, Christians, continue to do everyday? I mean, at this point, these words aren't even conviction but just what I see, as factual as the color of paint on a wall, or the clouds in the sky. 

Nonbelievers typically try to spend their life justifying why there is no God, or why Jesus was a lie, religion wants your money, etc. I can't blame them really. The sad part for nonbelievers is that many have been hurt by us Christians. Many nonbelievers have been judged, mistreated, cast away, put down by Christians. Thus, leaving a taste in their mouth of self-sufficiency. We Christians are called to do more because we know the truth. Yet, we make no changes and sit ourselves on some high chair of superior knowledge and status when this goes against everything the Bible and Jesus's life stood for. "The first will be last."(Mathew 20:16).  

Ah how we are wretched, and worse yet, claim to be so superior because we have a cross tattoo, quote a singular Bible verse, and yet nothing internal changes. We read the Bible with a physical view of woman's submission, focused on rituals and other misguided wastes of time. In the end what we are called to do, what we are required to pay, is everything. Not as a choice against what we truly want, but in accordance with it. A true believer, exhibiting faith, exhibiting love, willing to deny himself, his family, all of it and spend more time invested not only in the word of God, but seeing the spiritual behind the physical. 

Nonbelievers are not to be cast aside or mourned over, they are to be loved. If they need something, we are called to give it. If they hate us, slander us, misguide us, we are called to continue giving. We are called to continue to love. Yet, this world tells us we must put up a fight, right the wrongs, dispelling the disrespect. The world is dying, yet, this is where we are getting our guidance? 

Again, as Christ-followers we are dead to the old ways, He paid the price. We are anew, called to love. With this new nature we will appreciate the smallest of miracles, a change others will notice. Love conquers all, truth will set you free, only because true love and the only truth to ever exist is God. The new nature of a Christian is how little we are, and how much littler we are than that. Seeing Christ's love on the cross and the magnificence of God is truth, and yet Christianity has turned many into superior beings? No, we are less than we could ever imagine, saved by the grace, sick, wretched, covetous beings who fail to see how small we truly are. WE must be dead to the old ways, this is the peace. Christians have the knowledge of God and His word, yet we lack wisdom to live it. 

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."- Proverbs 1:7.  

God Bless.