The Bible is God’s revelation to his people and the world. The Bible is timeless, which means it is new and applicable in 2000 BC and 2017 AD. The Bible is universal, meaning that it can speak to any culture, any people group or tribe, nation or language and it is timeless meaning that its message works in any age.That being the case, how is it for a Christian to live today. There are Christians in all manner of situations today from opulence to inject poverty, from acceptance by the culture to being hunted and persecuted. I shall restrict my comment to life in America and specifically the San Francisco Bay Area.
Famous church planters like Rick Warren and Bill Hybils have come to the San Francisco Bay Area and tried to plant churches and failed. Their conclusion was that the Bay Area is the modern day Babylon, a culture that is completely anti-God. I read an article once that said they shook the dust off their feet and went back home. My experience living in this area is that most people do not care and spiritual things. Our church has gone door-to-door talking to and handing out flyers to 1,700 homes, and no one came to our church. There is a general apathy that God is not needed, or certainly, church is not needed.
There is also an anti-Christian, anti-church quality in the State and county governments. Governor Jerry Brown has commented in years past that it would be nice if churches would pay their fair share of property tax. This is a fundamental lack of understanding of the place of a church in America.
As for living in this area, I must understand that I am living behind enemy lines, that I am living in enemy territory. The pro-LGBTQXYZLMNOP people that fight the idea of sin and right and wrong is everywhere. The public speech that is the Bible is a misogynistic old book written by a bunch of white guys.
Yet, how do I live? The point of Christianity is that people live for and with the power of God. We are “in the world but not of the world.” I live to please God and to grow in the grace and power of the resurrection. I am sanctified as I live for God. The world is going to hell. That is a stated fact in the Bible. I am not to be friends with the world and certainly not love the world. Yet I am light in the darkness, salt to a dead world.
When I worked in the corporate world, I always had a leather bound Bible on my desk. It was always visible from the door of my cubicle or office. I did that to let people know where I stood and to start conversation. By doing this I would always find other Christians at work. These were people I could talk to and trust. It also opened the door for me to share Christ. I remember one Buddhist who was very interested in my belief and practice.
My goal, no matter where I am or what I am doing is to live Christ and to let my light shine. I do what I do for the glory of God, not the praise of people.
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