Friday, November 27, 2009

Are you circumcized???

You must think I've lost my marbles to ask that question, but as usual, there's a reason to my madness.
I was reading in Galatians 6 today, along with Proverbs 27. In Galatians 6, Paul talks about circumcision, should you or shouldn't you? The part that really struck me is this verse, Galatians 6:13 "For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh."
Here is what's going on. There are people, Gentiles (non Jews) who have been saved and are not circumcised because they never followed the Jewish custom; and there are Jews who, because of the Jewish custom, have been circumcised. These same Jews are trying to influence the saved Gentiles to be circumcised; I'm assuming because they are now in a faith that began in Jewish history. There are two problems. 1. These Jewish people in question are not even following the law of the Jews, sort of just have the name of being Jewish and one symbol to mark them apart and that's it.(Sort of like people who call themselves Christians but don't go to church and have never accepted Christ as their personal Saviour) Paul feels that if the Gentiles get circumcised, which has NOTHING to do with salvation, will boast the Jews and make them believe/think they've been able to side track the saved Gentiles.
I couldn't help but think of this in today's world.
Sometimes there is good Southern Gospel music on the "Christian" radio station here. I'll turn it to that station and we, the kids and I, hear what sounds just like worldly music, a bit heavy, with Christian lyrics. Needless to say, it quickly grieves our spirit and we go back to listening to the CD we were listening to.

Think about it. The music part of "contemporary Christian" music sounds like the world's music, they don't even believe the same as we do. They don't acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Son of God, who died for our sins, a torturous death at that, and is risen again, sitting at the right hand of God. They don't follow, respect, acknowledge or live any of this, yet we choose to "uncircumcised" ourselves (take off our standards), and be like the world. All this in the name of drawing people to Christ, so we think. First of all, do we think that by having an unsaved person listening to contemporary "Christian" music will give them a desire to become like Christ? The message is loud, "don't change, there's no difference between you and me, we still act foolishly, we still satisfy our flesh, we are still selfish." There is no difference between us and the world AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS, Christ died for all and salvation is available to ALL, but the bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Can we not praise God in softness? I do recall that God has a still small voice and when He can't get our attention, He yells, and it sounds/looks like what happens just before we drop to our knees in beggingthe Lord for mercy, whatever that might be for you. If God speaks to us with a still small voice, and we appreciate his softness and just sincereness of His love for us, don't you think that's all He wants from us?
Why do we think that we need to act or be like the world to draw them to Christ? If we are following them, they are looking in front of them, not behind. If God is hidden under all that worldliness, do you think they will notice Jesus Christ in us IF they happen to glance back to see who is following them? I dare to say no.
The bible calls us to be separate, different from the world. When they see us devoted to a God who deserves and merits our adoration, commitment and surrendered life, they will look back to see who's following and notice that there is nobody, but people are following us, who are following God, and will stop in their tracks, watch, listen and begin to walk in our direction.
Let's not be circumcised, taking off our standards and our white robes of righteousness that Jesus Christ paid highly for. Let's be separate not only in music but in all things of our life. Let's surrender ourselves to the way God wants things done.

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