As I mentioned in my blog from Friday, it's been an eye-opening experience to travel the world and learn about some of the bizarre belief systems in different cultures. In the squatter camps of South Africa, I find it most compelling that they pray to their dead ancestors and count on them to intercede for them and to do things for them while in Ukraine the Orthodox follower also prays to dead saints of the church in hopes that they can help them or do them a favor....just to clarify...1Ti 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
Okay, I'm off the subject a little but my point is that there are some strange thoughts out there about religion. The ones dealing in the powers of darkness, like voodoo or something like that, are twisted as it is, but the ones that take our God and make Him into something that He isn't is even more perplexing.
Ukrainians work so hard to become a "god" by doing good works, taking Communion, etc...they will even say a prayer of "repentance" when you witness to them because they think it earns them extra points towards their soon-to-be god-like status. Just to clarify what God's Word says about Him...Eph 2:8 God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
Eph 2:9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
It baffles me how different "Christian" beliefs just write off part of His Word like it never even existed. It's like how certain denominations would say that the sign gifts of the Spirit are dead in today's world...okay I am certainly getting off the subject but you get my point...just like God's Spirit is still alive and well and distributing gifts as He pleases to build up His kingdom, God does indeed want us to be LIKE Him, but not work to BE HIM!
There's a fundamental difference in mentality if you look at just that one single issue between the Orthodox and the Evangelical Christian. We are to have the mind of Christ. We are to be a REFLECTION of Christ that lives in US, not work to become a God. The Lord never called us to be HIM, but He did tell us that we are to be like Him.
What reflection do we give off to others? Do people around you see Christ living in you by your attitude and your actions and your words? One thing that I was so blown away to witness in Africa was the comments by people that we were witnessing to that went "Something is different about you...what's so different about you...you smile...you laugh different...what is the difference in you?" Oh it's Christ, just Christ that lives in me and shines out of me for the world to see.
Be a light, be Christ-like and let others see you as a reflection of your heavenly Father. They will see the difference. Ukrainians see the difference too. They work themselves to death trying to be good enough and work hard enough to earn their way into deification, but in the end they all say, "We're condemned to die and go to hell." How sad. They don't know of Christ. They don't know that He came to set the captives free and that by His grace and grace alone they can be saved. It's so important that we are Christ-like in every culture and let His Holy Spirit open doors and prepare the way for us to talk about His amazing love and amazing Grace!
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