As I travel and observe how many Christians live out their faith, I am encouraged that the New Testament is alive in many places! In others, however, it appears as if they sought to create a Christianity to their pleasure. It is something like this:

Let us make God in our own image, and in our own likeness. And let us make Him provide for us as we desire, to answer our beckoned call as we want Him to, and to receive our worship when He does things that please us.

And let us give unto ourselves a Savior who comes to forgive our sins and give us eternal life while never challenging our lifestyles or changing our hearts.

And let us make a church where we can come and cry on the shoulders of our friends and receive their sympathy without getting too close to freedom and healing. Let us also find teaching that we can agree with and makes us feel good but never truly convicts us of any sin.

And let us bring unto ourselves prophets who provide spiritual candy and sugarcane, prophesying blessings and abundance but never calling us to repentance and covenant-relationship with the Everlasting God.

And let us create schools and universities that teach us that seeking knowledge about religion is greater than pursuing the presence of God in our lives.

And let us build unto our names and applaud ourselves when we accomplish great things through the works of our flesh. Then we will view brokenness as weakness, submission as unwarranted, and never truly participate in a lifestyle totally and completely dependent on His grace.

And let us become self-absorbed, seeking first the kingdom of man and his pleasures and comfort, denying all forms of sacrifice and using God’s Word to amass unto ourselves the blessings of the kingdom of this world.

And let us look at a lost world and declare and decree and speak all kinds of things into existence while waiting for someone else to personally touch them with the love and truth of Christ, because that’s someone else’s job anyway.

And let us be ever mindful that living in the Spirit, believing in the Word, and speaking about Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God as the only hope of our salvation might offend someone and therefore we should remain silent and keep our faith to ourselves.

Let us continue to walk in this spiritual blindness until false religions and immorality increase, our children deny faith in God, and we walk a wide road of deception straight through the gates of hell into eternal darkness.