Can You Feel The Tension?

The Bible can free you if you grasp it with faith or bind you if you hold it with unbelief.

The last few weeks I’ve been digesting how radical the word of God is. Once we read what it says and not what we infuse into it, the Word calls us out, tells us when we’re wrong, and gives us instructions on how we should live. That’s uncomfortable, and sometimes it’s physically caused me to cringe. But, there is not tension in scripture, the tension is in us and our sinful natures. The ungodliness inside of us rejects the truth.

The Bible was radical then and it feels even more radical now. It doesn’t change with time, we do. And it SHOULD feel radical, they killed Jesus over these same words and our world has moved even further from His truths. Christianity isn’t supposed to be comfortable or PC, God sets a standard and that standard doesn’t bend to the culture. There’s no middle ground. Do you believe him or don’t you? There’s no, “I believe this but not that.” It’s all or nothing.

Christ has called us to obey Him and be a set apart people. That phrase “set apart” is not a cute saying. It’s a call that should scare the bejesus out of you. Being set apart doesn’t always feel good, it requires us to kill our fleshly desires and mentalities daily. That’s uncomfortable! The gain on the other side of the pain however, is a life lived for the glory of a God who is good and fair and shows us grace unending when we fail. A God who knows our heart and desires and has a plan for us once we live our lives in complete submission to Him. If you are riding the fence, pick a side. God or the culture?

Mark 8:34-38 If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.