Various political and social pressures have gradually changed our society into a secular one. They have slowly driven the Word from government (perhaps this much is good), but it also bashes and marginalizes religion in the media, our universities, and even many places of employment.

Yet people thirst for spiritual fulfillment. They turn to the likes of Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, and other new-agers to get a politically correct spirituality. What they end up with is a non-transcendental experience which does little to quench the dryness of their soul… and another failure in their quest for spiritual meaning.

Christianity provides a lasting, fulfilling purpose, as well as the nurturing each man and woman needs. Without a transcendental spiritual dimension in your life, I doubt you will ever find peace.

Yet Christianity is on the wane in Western society… the same West that the Protestant Work Ethic birthed. While Christianity is growing throughout the world, giving hope to millions, it is on the decline across Europe and the United States. It is no wonder that as God leaves the public consciousness, so does the moral underpinnings, as cultural decay increases.

However, God  is not dead, as much as Nietzche and other existentialists took delight in proclaiming. The transcendental spirit yet survives, as does man’s need of it.

And the Bible does, too. 1 Peter 1:23 assures us that the Bible will endure forever. Perhaps this may be viewed as a circular reference… but I view it as an expository statement. Despite all the attacks in various forms over the centuries, the Bible endures.

Voltaire famously proclaimed that the Bible would be gone in 100 years. Now one of the houses he lived in is presently home to the French Bible Society.

Islam has trained many intellectuals to rigorously attack what they see as the Christian Bible’s contradictions. Yet Christianity is on the rise in the 3rd world.

Seen as the province of conservatism, the American left launches bitter attack after bitter attack against the Bible and Christianity. Some of their criticisms are founded. Many are misguided. Yet the Bible endures, as God said it would.

One of the best things a Christian can do, after becoming closer to God in a personal relationship, is to understand — intellectually — how to defend their beliefs. Which includes teaching their children how to hold their ground when under attack socially, in a peer group; intellectually, by university professors; and various other encounters, where they will be outright scorned.

It has been asked: if you cannot defend your beliefs, should you have them? I think this is an important question worth asking yourself.

Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid (English Standard Version)

Barry Adams (http://www.365promises.com/daily-promises/?currentPage=3) recently made a post about how God wants us to walk. About the attitude he thinks God wants us to have.

This strikes me as true, and worth sharing:

There is a confidence that the Lord wants us to walk in that will cause fear to flee from our lives. It is the confidence that the shepherd boy David walked in when he defeated the lion and the bear while tending the sheep. It is that same confidence that David had when he ran towards a huge giant named Goliath armed with just a sling shot and a few stones.

David knew that the Lord was his light and his salvation and the strength of his life. As a result of this revelation, David could walk in a holy boldness without being afraid. God wants us to have this same revelation too! Jesus Christ is our light and our salvation and the very strength of our lives! We have nothing to fear because if God is for us, who can possibly stand against us?

Now, if you still walk in fear, let me ask you something: do you think God wants you to be insecure? Does it serve him in any way to have your attitude to be riddled with emotional weakness, to be crippled with anxiety?

Of course not. To “fear God” means to respect him. To be humble before him, and others, to show proper love and respect.

The idea is to live in peace, and to be at peace with others, too. To have the confidence that God is with you, loves you, and is on your side.

Then, I figured I should incorporate the Lord into my daily life, not just as a random occurrence when I needed something.

So, I got a daily devotional from Joyce Meyers. Downloaded it to my Kindle. And I started daily contact with God.

Then something occurred to me – following Joyce Meyers, Joel Osteen, and Norman Vincent Peale were very much treating God like a vending machine. Behave a certain way, say your prayers every day, follow the law – and God will reward you.

Well, C.S. Lewis has a great answer to that one. We do not “strike deals” with the Almighty. He is not bound to you because you do the right things. Oswald Chambers, in his collection of daily devotionals “My Utmost For His Highest” hammers that point home quite bluntly.

He gives his love without condition. You were already bought and paid for by the cross. But anyone who thinks he is here to grant material riches has a misunderstanding of their relationship with God.

Sure, prayers are answered. But we are here for God. God is not here for us. We are bound to him. Not the other way around.

And if you truly love the Lord, you will want to serve him. You will do good acts because you want to please him. And because Jesus dwells inside of you, and wants to do good things… and encourages you to do so.

Once you finally accept that God is not going to do great things for you because you think you are doing great things for him… then you take an important step towards having a more authentic and loving relationship with him.

If you experience love, it is impossible to experience fear at the same time. Now, for those who want to split hairs, you could say that love of someone may motivate you to fear for their safety in some situation. But to split hairs even further, you will not experience both emotions simultaneously.

So, generally speaking, love is a great cure for anxiety. If you immerse yourself in love, fear dissipates. For if you focus on the positive, it pushes the negative off the viewscreen.  Or, at least, shoves it into a corner.

My conclusion is, should you find yourself given to excessive worry, fear, or anxiety, practice love. Practice focusing on the things that bring joy to life and living.

1John4:18 Says: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

How profound! At its base, fear has to do with an expectation of harm. Of course, if a harmful situation of event is imminent, then by all means, take care of it.

However, living life in constant vigilance of every possible negative outcome is to often ignore the possible positive outcomes.

Check out 2Corinthians 1:20

By the way — I got this through my daily devotional with Joyce Myers. Despite her faults, she’s got a great message.

Let’s look at Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s affirmation: “God is with me, God is guiding me, God is helping me.” Yes, that provides comfort to believe and repeat. But where is it supported in the Bible?

Perhaps he was relying on what God told Jacob in Genesis 28:15… “I am with you and will keep you where you may go…”

So here’s my question: if he said that to Jacob, do we have the right to pull that out of its context and apply it to ourselves?

Though I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the center of Christian morality is not here.

If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self, and the Diabolical self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But, of course, it is better to be neither.

Commentary:

I can see why sexuality gained a predominant position in Christian thought. Throughout history, there has been little in the way of birth control, cures for sexually transmitted diseases, etc. Throw into the mix St. Paul, who, in my opinion already had a profound anti-sexual bias, and I can see why sexuality — part of the animal self — became central in its focus.

On the other hand, the diabolical self had biological utility. In primitive societies, being ruthless certainly had survival value.

Even today, we see this still at work. Not to condone it — quite the contrary. Sex is everywhere, even in our young, with disastrous consequences to the fabric of the family and society.

Yet violence is also everywhere, from thugs on the street, to thugs world-wide, who use their militaries not only to judge other nations, but to punish them as well. Sometimes it’s justified. Many times it’s not.

Even the socialist Isaac Asimov got it right one time: “Violence is the last resort of the incompetent.”

Truth be told, I don’t condone the animal self or the diabolical self. I condone the cognitive self, and the spiritual self. But both take a measure of maturity, and transcendence from the distorted view of the world we’ve all grown up in.

The Rolling Sones song, “Sympathy for the Devil” revealed so much about the adversary in so many ways, it can only be interpreted as an anthem against evil and moral relativism.

The words, “Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners saints” shows the bankruptcy of moral relativism. If you have no absolute values, it lets you twist any ethical situation to your purpose.

It gives you license to do — and justify — anything you want.

This is why, even though I’m not Catholic, I have immense respect for the current Pope. One of the first issues he brought up was the swamp of moral relativism.

Without absolutes, you are adrift in a sea of “anything goes,” so long as you can rationalize or justify your way through it. And who can say you’re wrong, if there is no standard to judge it against?

Couple it with today’s tendency towards narcissism, and you have a recipe for sociopathic behavior.

That said, let’s look at the flip side.

When you have accepted certain absolutes, and learn how to judge whether or not certain things — or people — fit that mold, the tendency is to judge and condemn those who don’t fit your version of reality.

Remember that we are commanded to love the sinner, but hate the sin. If you find a sinner, it doesn’t do much good to judge them in a way that condemns them. If you want to judge them for having an unacceptable behavior or belief, then fine. But remember that they are still valuable humans in their own right.

You are encountering a valuable human being that is saddled with a behavior or belief you can’t reconcile yourself to. In fact, if that person sets up a personal enmity with you, you are actually commanded to love them.

Sure, it’s difficult. But you must separate the person from their behavior. Otherwise, you’ll descend into the mindless philosophy of a B.F. Skinner, who thought that people were only complex stimulus-response operant robots.

God gave you a brain. He also gave you free choice. We must use it to “judge” wisely, and not condemn others.

Have you ever seen episodes of Jillian, making people sweat on The Biggest Loser? What I find fascinating is the response I’ve heard about that many in her home viewing audience have.

They see people struggle with their weight on TV, yet they are consuming junk food while watching them. Yeah, they’re right in there with the story, watching the struggle, sharing in the jubilation about the success…

…as if they were experiencing the same result, just by agreeing that the hard work and effort makes it possible.

In other words, they transfer the success of the participant in the show onto their selves, whether they deserve it or not.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

How many Christians go to church, or watch Joel Osteen, and get an inspiring message — yet don’t do a thing to apply it? It makes them feel good, yet they take zero action.

Agreement with a message, by itself does little.

Inspiration, by itself does little.

Faith without works is dead.

The bible calls on us to be “active doers.” To walk our talk. What are you prepared to do? What will you put into action?

I challenge you to take at least one new action today, based on one of your values.

Here’s what he said:

“If you want to leave here with a subject, everyone here repeat with me: Prioritize,” said Winans. He then talked about how living a life for God is often misrepresented as boring or dull. He disagrees.

“Faith always expects and faith always moves towards its goal,” said Winans. “Don’t think that the church is for somebody that don’t want anything. Don’t think that the church is for somebody that can’t get a gig anywhere else. Don’t think that the church is for people that have no hope.”

“The devil wants to use your circumstance against you by making you anxious when things don’t happen on your timetable,” said Winans.

“Jesus is saying I don’t want you to become anxious about life,” said Winans. “I don’t want you to feel that life has happened without purpose. God works all things after the council of his own will. You are not a mistake. You are not a mishap. God had a purpose before he ever created a person.”

“When people look at the bible, they look at it from the wrong perspective. This is the owners manual,” said Winans as he held the book up. The he said that the anecdotes in the bible have been provided “so that you can get the best out of your life.”

After breaking off on a tangent, Winans invited the media to attend church the next day. “Come on Sunday,” he said. “I do this every Sunday.”

“Sometimes we are believers behaving badly,” said Winans. “But Jesus says that ‘I’m going to give you the order of how this should go.’ In that same text he says, ‘Seek Yee First.’”

“I want us to recognize that our faith in god is not something that we attach to the end of our lives, but that we must prioritize,” said Winans. “You make your decision based on your faith. You walk according to what you believe. You can never say yes to God and have God make you a stranger.”

“You can never put God first and think that God will forget you and leave you,” said Winans. Then, he ended the eulogy.