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Jesus Reality Check

    A subject heavy on my heart recently has been living by what Jesus says is true and not by what the world tells us is true. Also called "faith." This faith thing is what we base our entire lives on as Christ followers. And I guess it's a pretty big deal because Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Maybe this is something worth looking into…

    The "Bing Dictionary" defines faith as "belief or trust: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof." If you have ever actually read what is in the Bible, I think we can agree that it is far from logical. Let's take the example of Joshua and the battle of Jericho. The Lord told Joshua he would give over to him the city of Jericho and gave him some instructions on how to win the battle in Joshua 6.

Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites-- no one leaving or entering. The Lord said to Joshua, "Look I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram's-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the trumpets. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse and the people will advance, each man straight ahead." (HCSB)

    This sounds like utter nonsense. Imagine the fighting men getting those orders from Joshua! "All we have to do is walk around the city? That doesn't sound right... Shouldn't there be more to this?" But if you have read or heard the story, as I suspect most people have, you would know that Joshua and his people obeyed God's instructions to a t. And just like God said it would, at the shouts of the people the wall came crumbling down. Then the army advanced into the city and won it over. Wow.

    How many of us have that kind of faith? That we can obey God when he tells us things that don't seem to make sense? But isn't that what the Christian life is? It's pretty safe to say that how we are instructed in the Bible to live our lives as is the opposite of how the world tells us to live. This is applicable to basically every topic. Let's look at what Jesus says at the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:3-9 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (NIV)

    None of those things are reasons to be blessed from the world's viewpoint! Since when is it blessed to be persecuted?  None of this makes sense!

    What about Matthew 23:11-12? The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

    The Bible is full of counterintuitive gems like that. It is so imperative for us to know what the Bible says so that we can live a blessed and fulfilled life by following those guidelines. We stand out when we truly live by the Bible because it is so different from the world. Our actions don't make sense to the world and they cannot understand why we are so blessed for living that way! That is the amazing thing. When we live life the way the Bible instructs, though it may seem silly to everyone else, God is exalted! When we humble ourselves and He exalts us, we can point others to Him because it is clear we did nothing to exalt ourselves! That is how the word gets out that we serve an awesome and loving God.

    I want to leave you with this convicting passage that jumped off the page of a book that my very kind friend lent to me (Thanks Stef if you're reading this). This is from the book "7" by Jen Hatmaker.

    "What if we are actually called to a radical life? What if Jesus knew our Christian culture would design a lovely life template complete with all the privileges and exemptions we want, but even with that widespread approval, He still expected radical simplicity, radical generosity, radical obedience from those with ears to hear, eyes to see? 
    What if we are camels, on this side of the needle, dangerously content with our fake gospel and avoiding the actual Christian life described in Scripture? What if only some have ears to hear, eyes to see and Jesus was not exaggerating when He predicted few would choose this narrow path and folks will be shocked on judgement day?"

    Food for thought. Let's change the Christian culture of this generation and live our lives how we were always meant to! Let's ditch the old way that Christians were known for doing things and do what Jesus actually wanted us to do. Today let's choose to live, not in the reality that we see around us, but in Jesus' reality. 

Matthew 17:20 Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (NIV)

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith not by sight. (NIV)

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. (HCSB)

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