Microwave Christianity

Those who have the battles and the trials, and overcome in them, shall wear white robes and carry palm branches. They shall be among the victors at the last. Nothing noble is attained easily. The crowns of life, can only be won on the fields of struggle!

            "Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life!" Revelation 2:10

            "All who overcome will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be My children!" Revelation 21:7

            Your writer, world traveler, has visited some areas of the world where there is very little wind (Gobi and Sahara Deserts, Chile, etc).  Without wind, trees and other plants do not grow.  It is the wind exercising-moving trees and plants, not just caressing them, that causes the tap root and the other root systems to grow deep.  Seeking the nourishment they must have to fight their battle for survival...to keep standing, growing.

            Some Christians, knowing the eternal security of God, think their life will be free of problems-struggles.  Relax, if you have not had problems because you are a Christian, they will come.  You are going to need that deep inner faith to keep you upright, and growing in grace and faith.

            So many Christians look upon their God given new life as just coasting to heaven.  They want to live like the world.  They show no difference in their lifestyle from their Pagan friends.  They want to take every "short cut" possible and still be on good terms with God.

            My parents and their ancestors for many generations, have been members of a small Baptist denomination.  The Free Will Baptist have much of the discipline of the primitive Baptists, yet some modern aspects of the southern Baptist.  Every time I spoke before a Free Will Baptist group of any type, ministers, church pulpits and even college graduations, I always spoke of my memory and devotion to the ordinance of foot washing, which everyone associates with that denomination.  Members of that denomination tell me that the younger members of many FWB churches, now refuse to participate in that ordinance.  I learned long ago in southern Baptist churches that many "card-signers", never went to the Lord's table.  What type of Christianity do these people think that they have joined; nothing required, doing just what pleases them.  They want a buffet, cafeteria type (pick and choose) Christianity; a fast food brand of religion.

            When this writer talks of the changes in his lifetime, outside wash pots, doing laundry, the kitchen wood burning cook stove, the canning-drying of fruits and vegetables for winter use. Just think what my mother and grandmothers would have thought about a microwave.  These women's lives revolved around creating large fires in these cook stoves.  People ate three meals a day back then, just as they do now.  People my age remember the quilts, the outside path to the outside bathroom.  Every time I see a child using a cell phone, I think of the one phone in the entire community located at my cousins country store.

            Modern Christianity, air conditioned foxholes, sophisticated-perfumed-prosperous pew warmers, knowing nothing of the saving grace of Jesus Christ; comfortable in their ideas of self righteousness.

            To show how far we have moved from the essentials of worship in my lifetime,  the funeral of a cousin at a primitive Baptist church; these were long funerals.  The primitive Baptist did not use musical instruments, no electricity in the church.  At the front pulpit, where several preachers were seated, a large bucket of water with a dipper.  On this hot day, windows open, everyone exercising their hand fans; one would walk over occasionally and drink a dipper of water.  If someone from the congregation got thirsty, they would go to the front for a dipper of water.  Today's sophisticated "Christians" anxious to get a funeral over with in just a few minutes, would not appreciate a real funeral service.  They want surmonettes for Christianettes.  They want their clothing, actions and language to be just as acceptable at the church house as the road house.  They actually believe that they will float to heaven on flowery beds of ease.  Why should a person be baptized, observe our blessed Lord's crucifixion at his table and even follow his example in the washing of feet...the example of ultimate humility.  After all, we want to attend church on our terms, live before the Pagan unbelievers on our terms.

            God's book is not a book to fool around with.  Who do we think we are fooling? "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him"  1 John 2:4

            Parents tell me that their children leave the church once they leave home and go to college; almost 70% of all high school students leave the church.  The truth is the truth whether anyone believes it or not.  Christian parents should produce Christian children; the absolutes of right and wrong.  Home bible study, parental examples of prayer and commitment in the home.  It is important for young people to know that Christianity is fact, not a feeling.

^"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  1 John 4:9-10