5 days out of the week I am driving to work at 3:15 AM. I decided it would be good for my soul to listen to the Christian radio station as I drive in every morning. After all, their motto is “encouraging and uplifting”. So I’m thinking, “yeah that’s what I need at this time of day”. All that to say, I got sick of the same ten songs being played over and over and everything else was a Christmas song, so I found myself listening to all sorts of stations. I confess, I have been listening to the local pop and hip hop channel here and there and this is where I get to the point of all this. There is a popular song out right now that poses the question, “what do I stand for?” over and over. It has a really motivating beat and makes me think about Christ, the cross, and His blood and how that has solidified what I stand for. Pop songs aren’t supposed to do that and I think the song was intended to be anti-Christianity so………..oops.
This song also pushed me deeper into some other thoughts that had been lingering in my mind. What DO I stand for? First of all, what a GOOD question! Saved or unsaved, this question is like a hand grenade for thought provocation. I don’t know if that’s a word, but you get the point. It demands self evaluation and then if you are “cool” you ask yourself, “why do I stand for that?” and then you set out to find out exactly why.
Second, I am a part of the body of Christ and unwaveringly believe in the word of God as absolute truth. I don’t have it all figured out but I know exactly what I stand for and why I stand for it.
Third, Facebook is gross. If I didn’t have so many friends all over the world I would sink that ship in a minute. However, it is a good tool. If you wanna know what you stand for look at several recent posts, status updates or pictures. Since we forgot how to communicate in real life back in, like, 2005, we have taken refuge in “the facebook” to be able to thoroughly communicate our feelings and opinions to the whole world. And I’m not going to talk about that. That’s just the nature of the beast.
The song also provoked a fourth thought(and getting a little more into the thick of it now): my ability to freely look into the lives of my Christian brothers and sisters and see what makes their heart beat, what makes them excited, what makes them angry and what they stand for, has resulted in my heart breaking. And you know what? I’m not going to go into any specifics. There are a handful of cultural issues that so many have latched onto and have decided, “This will be my fight. This will be my cause and my banner”. I will just call those topics “this, that, and the other thing”. You can probably figure out exactly what they are by looking down your news feed. Thank the Lord that if you live anywhere close to Baltimore, we are now distracted from “this, that, and the other thing” by the Ravens nation, which is at least a nation I can have some confidence in. But oh wait, I don’t want to get into “this, that, or the other thing”. Anyway, its the stuff everyone is talking about. Everyone has their thoughts and opinions and are courageously and boldly putting them out there. We are trying to create justice and make everything fair. Well if we got what was fair, we would all go to hell tonight. Besides, all we are doing is like the equivalent of picking at the crusty skin created by a deadly cancer. Gross! Our system of leadership will NEVER be righteous, holy or complete. However I could use those three words to describe a certain something or someone. I’m not saying we should not be in the know and up to date on current affairs, I’m just saying that this country is not what we stand for (I’m talking to those that belong to God). If we waved the banner of Christ and lived lives that reflected Him as much as we do for all this other stuff, we just might have an active body of Christ in America. But the moment we latch onto one of these offshoots of a fallen world, and say, “This is the basket I will put all my eggs in”, then we have stopped fighting the good fight. If you had asked Christ what He stood for He may have said, ” I stand for truth and proclaiming the Gospel to a dying world, so repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand”. But I don’t even want you to care what I think Christ would say. So, Do yourself a massive favor and read Philippians chapter 2. This chapter will tell you what Jesus did with His life and how we get to live our life because of Him!
Verses 5-8 say, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Notice in verses 10 and 11 it says, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” I don’t know if you know this, but there are over 7,000 unreached people groups in the world. That’s a lot of people that don’t even know of a Jesus Christ to confess as Lord. Now I hate big numbers but lets have some fun. According to “Perspectives,” There are 900 churches for every one unreached people group. (USCWM, Mission Frontiers, 2001) There are 95,000 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group. Christians! What do we stand for? (Commence tar and feathering)