Casual Rebellion

     After having waited for several days to make certain that I should write this, I still believe that I should even though I am shocked by the revelation that I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me. I now believe that virtually all North American Christians, including myself, are in a state of casual rebellion against God. Not the cursing, fist in the air kind of rebellion that we see in the world around us but a casual, unthinking, rebellion. A good friend, and reader of this blog, commented to me recently that he no longer called himself a Bible believing Christian because there were too many things in the Bible that he did not practice. I may have to say the same. The biggest factor is the culture all around us, that we are not to be conformed too (Romans 12:2 but which we are usually too Biblically illiterate to know the difference. I am confronted with situations in the church that I am in, that we can't practice what the Bible says because it goes against the culture. The reasons or explanations that I hear about why we can't follow the Bible distress me. "I don't like that. It's cultural. I don't understand why." Does the God who created the universe (Genesis 1:1), and whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9) have to explain Himself to us? Does our ungodly, pagan culture which has produced the largest mass murder (abortion 55 million+) in history have any possible claim to superiority over any other? Or is this just a way to evade New Testament commands? Are we the judges of the eternal Word of God or is it to judge us? "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12NKJV) Should we call Jesus Lord if we are not going to do what He says? (Luke 6:46) 1 Timothy 3:12 states that "all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Is the reason that we don't experience persecution in North America because we are not living godly in Christ Jesus?