Live as an Ambassador

“Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.”  (1 Peter 2:12 HCSB)

Peter’s letter to suffering Christian’s is one of my favorite in the bible. In it we hear the now wise Apostle Peter urging believers to hold fast to the faith and to glorify God with their lives.  He reminds them they are strangers in this land.  He reminds them there will come a day when Christ will return and we are to look forward to that day.  He also gives them strong words to live by to protect from the world around them.  The Roman world was an evil place.  From the top down everywhere a Christian went they would face the challenge of not compromising their beliefs. 

Peter doesn’t tell to blend in and become like the Romans.  And he doesn’t tell them to draw attention to themselves and bad mouth the government.  In those times that could get one killed, but he tells them to live honorably.  He encourages them to live in such a way they will have to glorify God.  In others words when they compare their lives to yours they will have to acknowledge God and give him praise! 

Today we live in an ever changing world and it is difficult to see some of these changes.  The world around us is becoming increasingly “ungodly” in that many live their lives without even acknowledging God exists at all.  This reflects in all levels of society and we have to pass more and more laws to govern the masses.  It’s easy to become discouraged in this as a follower of Christ.  But we have to remember this is the world Christ died for and he has placed us here now, in this time for the purpose of displaying Christ to this generation.

I recently read a post form a pastor I know and he said, “God is all powerful, all knowing and ever present.  Live like a person convinced of this truth.”  I think we lose sight of who we are and what we are here for.  I think we lose sight of the God we serve.  We are not here to uphold a nation or a politician we are here as representatives of the King of kings, we are ambassadors to an eternal kingdom.  We need to start living in light of this truth and represent our King honorably.  We need to live to bring glory to Him and our future home.    By "living kingdom minded" we can be used by God to show his love towards those who don’t know him.  Live your life in such a way that when the people in your life examine your life (and they will) they will want what you have.  They will want the fruit of peace, love, kindness, self-control, patience and joy that is displayed in your life.   The time is short and when Christ returns let us not be found living like the people around us, but let us be found living for Christ and his glory.             

~PS

I Ask You?

I have been reading through Jeremiah and Ezekiel now for a few weeks.  It has troubled me greatly.  And I know you cannot connect America, the Church with Israel and the Jewish people.  But God’s character is clearly displayed.  He hands the people over to their desires. God hands the people over to lust for sex, money, material things, greed and to the oppressing of the poor.  He hands them over to their idols and the killing of their children to those same false gods.  He then judges them and he pours out his anger on them for one purpose…to make his name known.  In the midst of destruction people turn to God and pray for his mercy.  He is their only hope from themselves.  

People say they don’t want this kind of God, they shake their fist in his face and curse his name.  He then turns them over to the desire of their hearts.  They plunge themselves into the depths of their sin without restraint, whatever their hearts desire they do.  They engage in sexual sin at the expense of thousands lured by the possibility of easy money, in turn they use the innocent to inflame the lust of the people who enslave millions of young children and young adults to further satisfy their desires.  They abort the millions whose voice cannot be heard in the name of freedom of their genital and exchange the truth for a lie and natural relations for unnatural.  

Their quest for lust of things cannot be satisfied, they sacrifice their futures and the futures of their children for the satisfaction of the now.  God hands them over to the desires of their stomachs and thus we create an entirely new line of medical problems never seen before in the history of man.  GURD, diabetes, hypertension, knee and hip replacement to hold the weight, cancers and on and on the list goes.  

God Hands us over to the technology and toys which enslaves us to mindless entertainment and endless distraction around us.  On the other side millions are enslaved who toil in mines of needed metals to eke out an existence for the promise of a better life, while other grows fat by their labor.  Factories workers work 16 hour days in city factories to produce the next fruit phone or big screen television.  In this pursuit of self-desires we sacrifice our children and abandon them to the machines of mindless games, fatherless refuges, which grow up strong in youth without moral restraint and the character needed to control their anger and rage…and cannot understand why one would walk into a classroom and shoot children dead.  We'll give up freedoms in return —with the hopes of controlling their broken and sick hearts with words written on pages of books for lawyers and judges. 

This is just a little piece of what’s going on and how long will a just God sit back and let this happen before he steps in.  I ask you.