Buckle up ladies and gentleman, I’m about to expose us all…
Yes, you heard that right, as Americans we have adopted our own culture of Christianity and sometimes it can be so toxic. Last week we studied Islam and their beliefs. I was honestly so surprised to see how similar Islam is to Christianity, at least American Christianity. I say “American Christianity” because while every Christian worships our God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) , they express it differently depending on their culture. The American Church needs a reintroduction with God the Father. Muhammad, the founder of Islam and believed prophet, is a direct descendant of Ishmael (Abraham’s son with Hagar). This steams the fatherless, vengeful, and scheming God that Muslims worship. Ishmael was not the son that God promised Sarah and Abraham, but is Abraham’s son with his servant Hagar. Sarah got so mad at seeing Hagar and Ishmael everyday that she told Abraham to send them out. Ishmael was stripped of a Father and abandoned. Islam is very performance based. It depends on how well you can preform for God, whether that be memorizing the “99 beautiful names of God”, walking the Al-Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), or tithing enough. They feel as if they need to preform to God to earn His favor; however, even if they do EVERYTHING perfectly, God could just choose to send them to Hell if he felt like it. There is no guarantee of his love, of his salvation, of his goodness. They are missing Abba, God as Father and we are too. We have a Bible in our language, we can pray in our language, we can investigate for ourselves(unlike many Muslims who do not speak Arabic yet their entire religion is written and prayed in it so they do not know what they are saying or reading unless they speak Arabic), yet we fail to take the Word of God and let it saturate our heart. We have such a performance mindset in the Church. Tithe more, make dinner for the neighbor down the street, make the coffee for church Sunday morning, never mess up, preform, preform, preform. Earn my salvation. “Yes,Jesus paid for my sins, but now I have to prove myself to God”, so many of us say to ourselves. Last time I checked, Ephesians 2:8 says “For it is my GRACE you have been saved, through FAITH- and this is NOT from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God” (emphasis mine), not “For it is by grace and WORKS you have been saved so that God might love you”. It’s not that any of the things I listed above are bad, they are GOOD things!! We are called to serve but we have our hearts in the wrong place. Service should be out of the overflow of the grace of God, not to earn it. We need to remember that we serve a loving, gracious, merciful Father who loves us enough to send his one and only Son to die on a cross that we may be washed clean, made new, and reconciled to Him. He is not going to just leave and forsake us, He is not a schemer, He is a secure Father who prepares us a seat at the table. We are not fatherless children fighting our way to God but we have been lavished with infinite love and grace. The Father delights in us, in YOU, in ME! What a gift. This is what the church needs to grasp. We need a heart change. We need to remember who God the Father is. We need to value resting at His feet. We need a reminder that service is out of overflow, to give away, not to earn favor. We already have all of His favor. What lies are you believing? Is there somewhere you are preforming for God rather than believing His promises to you? Do you feel full? Where are you lacking? I encourage you to think about these questions.
Ministry/prayer Update:
- Starting TOMORROW my team and the boys team will begin partnering with Out of Darkness to do anti-trafficking ministry! We are so excited to build relationships and speak worth and identity and value into such a dark place! Please be praying for hearts to be open, for opportunities to build relationships and that our squad would be able to bring the Freedom God has freely given us!
- In just over a week my squad and I are heading to Lake Charles, La to help do hurricane relief with Samaritan’s Purse! Pray for the residents and that they would cling to the Lord when everything’s been stripped from them, our squad and energy to do a lot of manual labor and to bring the light of Christ, and for government officials to have wisdom in how to build and encourage the state well.
- I’ve been learning so much and growing exponentially here and it is such a blessing! Please continue to pray for my growth and that my squad would grow in Freedom and Unity!
Please feel free to reach out to me at anytime with questions and prayer requests, I would love to be praying for you all as well!
Love,
Mary
