To Live Differently

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Henry David Thoreau

I came across Michelle Lesley’s blog while searching for something else, something utterly and entirely different. I don’t know if I could count it as an accident. I just know that I can count this as a discovery in my book, and that carries a lot of weight as I evaluate where and how to spend the limited commodity of time.

Michelle Lesley got me thinking when she served up the blessing of social media for believers. I looked to the Simple Preacher, hoping his feed would clear my head, but he merely indirectly confirmed some of this woman’s findings.

Stop for a moment and consider what this Christian blogger did by simply adhering to the content calendar credo and posting an item for Throwback Thursday. She used a name that is attached to both our faith identity and our answer for who is our Savior.

“Live out your beliefs. . .”

Believers.

In a word, our identity is summed up. We believe, so we are to live differently. Yet, we are called out and expected to live differently due to those beliefs. We walk out our beliefs, and we put our faith on display in the flesh as we engage other believers and those who remain in unbelief.

“. . . and you can turn the world around.”

We are now identified differently because we live our beliefs. Since we believe, we live out those beliefs and accomplish the miraculous. I don’t mean water into water. We achieve the impossible before the eyes of the hopeless and helpless. We overcome the insurmountable as our enemies and other bystanders look on with awe and amazement. We survive and stand out as miracles of the Maker.

We are to “turn the world around.” And I believe that to be part of our calling. That is why I started my podcast Coffee & Chat with Rev Bruce. That is why I launch the video live stream for Coffee & Chat with Rev Bruce on YouTube ad Facebook.

It is not enough for us to say that we believe. We need to get over it and get on with it. We need to get busy and get to what the Lord has for us to do. If we are called to “turn around the world” as a result of our beliefs, then we can definitely do so by living differently, offering inspiration and encouragement for people from all walks of life to better themselves.

“The highest human act is to inspire”.- Nipsey Hussle

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A Cause for Christian Concern

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. – Jude 1:3 (NIV)

God’s people have been entrusted with “the faith.”

The ability to contend for the faith is based on commitment to the faith.  However, there is cause for concern in Christendom.

The Prop. 8 Debate: Arguing about What We are Against Rather Than for What We Believe

Homosexuality is a sin.  That’s biblical and sound.  However, adultery, lying, murder and a load of other things are sinful, too.  In church, we are to speak out against sin and speak up about salvation.  We cannot attack one group of sinners and turn a blind eye to others.  That type of soap box ministry feeds the media frenzy, but does little for the kingdom of heaven.

Preach the truth and teach how to live by the truth.

Denominational Divisions and Disunity 

For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? – 1 Corinthians 13:3 (KJV)

We are divided over doctrine.  We are divided over religious practices.  We are divided over women and their roles in the ministry.  We are divided over heaven and hell.  We are even divided over Christ, His deity, and His miracles, even His messages.

We are just plain divided.

Return to the Word and resubmit to His Spirit.

Let the Lord lead you in how to go forward with brothers and sisters in the faith.

Lackluster and Lost Leadership

I oftentimes contemplate whether we are part of that generation that was led astray, destroying the landmark left by our ancestors and removing the reminders of God’s faithfulness to us and those who came before us.

Are we the generation who did not know the Lord of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob?

Have we forgotten the Law of Moses?

Have we neglected the work and ministry of Jesus Christ?

Our leaders are leading us in the wrong direction.  They are leading us down the road away from God, where many of us have fallen away.  They have led us down a path that has led to our demise, all the while losing their own sense of calling and making their followers lose faith in them and the Christian faith that they represent.

Truth trumps everything else.  Let’s stick to the truth.  Let’s teach truth.  Let’s preach truth.  Let’s uphold the truth.

It may not cure everything at once, but it sure can cure a lot of things immediately.

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