Christian worldview
What happens when two worldviews collide? How about you? What is your typical response and course of action when the secular worldview conflicts with your Christian worldview? Or do you even have a Christian worldview? It’s not hard to have a non-Christian worldview because it’s in your face every day. We live in a fallen world that is counter to most everything that we see in scripture. We have said it many times, Christianity is an upside-down theology. It’s a relationship, much more than a religion. God’s ways are not always our ways, and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
You get smacked, so you turn the other cheek and wait for more. The natural tendency is to strike back. So why would you turn that other cheek? Well, if you have a Christian worldview, God tells you to do so. Thus, you have a decision to make. Do I obey my instinct and act like the world, or do I take the high road found in the Lord’s word? Choices, always choices!! Poverty, politics, religions, war, sickness and death, suffering, love and hate, comfort vs. conquest, use of riches, gender, abortion, marriage, socialism vs. capitalism, creation, afterlife, faith vs. science, and so much more. Maybe you have experienced the conflicting two views on the world’s issues. I would suggest that if you are reading this message, you are alive and experiencing them.
Eternal truths
I want Jesus to speak to us. Straight from his lips. Eternal truths. Here goes. As you read these, let your mind drift to today’s secular world. These are in Luke 6.
- Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God
- Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied
- Blessed are you who are weak now, for you shall laugh
- Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven
He goes on…
- Love your enemies
- Do good to those who hate you
- Bless those who curse you
- Pray for those who abuse you
- When someone takes your cloak, give him your tunic also
- And do unto others as you wish they would do to you
Jesus’ lens
There’s more, but that’s enough for now. In America, the bastion of individualism, these are counter-cultural. Once you come to the point in your walk that everything is not about you, that the universe does not revolve around you, these words of Jesus start making sense. So, maybe we should all stop getting our messages for living from the world and start focusing on the One who is the epitome of everything he lists here and so much more. Jesus alone is our role model. “Let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12.1,2)
Humbled and exalted!! “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. (Phil. 2.8,9) Looking through his lens is the only way to have the proper worldview. And only by the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN?
