Identity

While in my Intro to Religious Studies class I was confronted with an astonishing fact. Somewhere around 85% of the US population identify themselves as being of the Christian faith. Of that 85%, only 10-15% are able to identify one of the Four Gospels.

When we look at other countries, mostly in the Middle East, where the religion of the normal citizen is also that of the state religion, it is easy to see why they seem to take their religion much more seriously and integrate it into every aspect of their lives. We as Americans obviously don't have a state-issued or state-backed religion such as those countries, so there is nothing really making us follow up with the claims we make about what religion we profess to belong to.

Except...

There are many passages that talk about growing in our spiritual maturity (2 Timothy 2:15, 1 Peter 2:2), taking up roles as soldiers for Christ and winning people for His kingdom (2 Timothy 2:24-25, Matthew 28:19), and living your life for God (Romans 12:1-2, Titus 2:11-12, Matthew 5:13-16). So much is asked of the people who call themselves brothers and sisters of Christ, yet most of us settle with the Sunday-Wednesday routine followed up by maybe telling someone that you are a Christian if there is no way to work yourself out of saying it. Why is it that it almost seems socially unacceptable to be a true and honest follower of Christ? This is why I think that people who live in the Middle Eastern part of the world are much more at a benefit than we are. Not only is the country they are living in based off of their beliefs (although they are not the correct beliefs) but they are not guaranteed tomorrow. They live in a world where a stray missile or a suicide bomber could take their life away from them at any moment. Would you be more addament about being 100% full-out for God if you knew that you weren't guaranteed to get off the bus at your stop? Would you take advantage of every opportunity and try to win every person God put in your way because you didn't know if you would wake up the next day?

We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Christ may come back at any point in time and it will be unannounced, like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:4). We must live every day to the fullest, and that begins with accepting the life that comes with the identity. When Superman shifts into his alter ego Clark Kent, it would do him no good if he still went around acting like Superman. Neither does it help us out going around acting and behaving like non-believers when we profess and claim to be born-again Believers.

"...When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire; dealing our retributions to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Salvation is obeying the Gospel, refusing to obey the Gospel results in judgment. Obey the Gospel and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord And from the glory of His power. When He comes to be Glorified in His saints on that day and to be marveled at Among all those who have believed - for our testimony to You was believe. So He is going to come - He is going to judge the ungodly. And the Bible says, those of us who are saved; are going to marvel; this is going to be an amazing thing."
-lyrics from Flame's song "2nd Coming"

(reference in the song is to 2 Thessalonians 1:7-1o)