The "us against them" mentality

Yesterday I was struck by the use of the term "world" in Christian circles. We typically use the term world in a very derogatory way. "Don't give in to the world" "Don't be part of the world" etc. Well I understand that we are not to give in to temptation and I know I am to be living a life that reflects Jesus in righteousness.

More thoughts today are that its hard for us to get excited about witnessing and sharing Christ with the "world" when its really us against them. We preach one Sunday that the world is our enemy and the next that we need to be reaching the world. I can't shift gears that fast!

I would like to propose that we put faces to our words. Lets talk about people! There are approximately 6.7 billion folks on this planet as of today (May 14). There are some folks who have made good decisions and folks that have made bad decisions. There are folks who have received the salvation that only comes from God's grace through the shed blood of His only Son Jesus. There are some who have not. They are still people!

We've mixed up the enemy! The people aren't the enemy - they can't be and we still have a desire to share Christ with them; weeping over them dying without Christ. No Satan is the enemy in a very real war. Jesus calls him the prince of this world. That prince has an active fortress in this world. Some folks have become slaves to this prince - some by decision, some by default. Many have not had the opportunity to know there was another option. "Jesus is the answer for the world today - above Him there's no other Jesus is the Way!" as the song goes.

I believe its important to know the real enemy here. That knowledge changes the way we fight the war. I would encourage you to study how Jesus fought the war with this enemy. Not with political statements but with love and prayer.

You see we get upset with people for their decisions. We expect folks who are not believers and followers of Jesus to make decisions like they are followers of Jesus. That's ludicrous! They have no basis for deciding like a Christian. They decide based on what they know of. They don't know of Jesus - so duh!? They make non- Christian decision.

What do we do? Realizing why people make the decisions they do - we love them and serve them and pray for them in order to share with them about Jesus so that we might earn the right to lead them to Jesus - the other option.

Thats all my thoughts about that today.

Learning to love

Trent