Casual. Merriam - Webster Dictionary gives this definition for the word Casual.
c: met with on occasion and known only superficially a casual friend
3a(1): feeling or showing little concern : NONCHALANTa casual approach to cooking
(2): lacking a high degree of interest or devotion casual sports fans casual readers
(3): done without serious intent or commitment casual sex
Casual should not be a word in a believers dictionary. There are so many times where I hear the questions, “Well how far is too far?” or “How much is too much?”. Or the phrase "It's fine." "It's no big deal."
We should long to remove things in our lives instead of asking what we can keep. OR excepting a mediocre life. Are we keeping...Casual Relationships, Casual Drinking, Casual Sex? Are we Casually going to church? Are we even Casually Serving God instead of longing to please His eyes at all times.
There are so many areas that we can evaluate in our lives and ask ourselves, "Am i doing this Casually? or with Passion?
Psalm 69:9 states "Zeal for Your house has consumed me". We Should have Zeal for His house not our own. Our hearts should long for what His heart longs for and that's the heart of righteousness and a heart for the lost.
Now this is more than an opinion, this is all over the Word of God. As i have been studying on why we do good or why we live rightly and justly, I have found many many verses that encourage us to live righteously. I believe that God wants us to live by faith in His wonderful grace that was so freely given. But I also believe He doesn’t want us staying in our fleshly desires any longer. I believe He wants us to be fully aware of the traps that the enemy sets for us, and how can we be on full alert of an attack if our eyesight is blurry and we are stumbling around, looking to another, or even satisfied with our own works?
“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8 NLT
http://bible.com/116/1pe.5.8.nlt
If a lion were walking down your street would you be glad you just relaxed yourself in that glass of wine? Or so pleased to been busy lying in a mans bed not your husband? Or would you like to imagine yourself fully armed and ready to engage in a fight to protect yourself if needed?
God has given us armor to clothe ourselves in. Did you know righteousness is the breastplate? There to fully protect your most vital organ... your heart. Righteousness must be super important for God to place it there.
I think sometimes believers get caught up in only grace, and again without His grace we miss out on salvation completely. But are we focusing on what we are allowed to do and not on the heart of God?
““Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.””
Luke 21:34-36 NLT
http://bible.com/116/luk.21.34-36. Nlt
“He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile.”
Romans 2:7-10 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.2.7-10.nlt
“Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:1-23 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.6.1-23.nlt
God longs for us to be fully alert! God longs for us to live righteously!
David was a man after God’s own heart and he cries out over and over about how he loves the law. Just in psalm 119 alone he hammers how much Gods commands are good! How they protect him. How they make him wise. In fact so wise even more so than his elders.
Please read 1 Peter 4:1-9, Romans 8:1-17, 12:1-2, 12:9, 2 Cor. 4:1-3, 5:14-15, 6:1-4, 6:6-7, 6:14-18, 7:1, Galatians 5:13-26, 6:1-10, Ephesians 5:1-20, Philippians 1:27, 1:9-11, 2:12-13, 3:8-9, 6:18-19, Psalm 145:13. PLUS SOOOO MANY MORE! Just get in His word and start looking and you'll find it everywhere.
Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, which is probably the biggest life guide inside the Bible along with the ten commandments, in Matt 5 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." UUUMMMM Woa!
It is so clear to me after reading all these verses that His heart longs for us to do good and to live righteously. It has nothing to do with earning salvation, but in fact everything to do with Loving The Lord God with all our hearts soul mind and strength. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 22 to do this which is "the first and greatest commandment". He then reminds us the second most important is to " Love your neighbor as yourself". “But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.”
1 Corinthians 8:9 NLT
http://bible.com/116/1co.8.9.nlt
And this is why i called this "Casually" Killing a Generation. Because the up coming generation is suffering and we should be the light that leads them out of the darkness. We carry His marvelous light around with us and we are more worried about what sin we can hang onto instead of walking in the full freedom Christ gave and all the while the world is watching. And we don't look much different from them. Unfortunately the divorce rate in the church isn't any different from the world. We are proud, haughty, after the "american dream" rather than the mission of every believer which Christ gave Himself which is to go into all the world and preach the good news...
NO MORE COMPROMISE! Stop just writing a check and expecting someone else to be like Christ for you. Stop being so busy doing "good" you forget His people. God is not impressed. Stop sitting around complaining about the young people and their disrespect when you can't even respect His Word. Our culture hates correction and the church doesn't look much different from the culture. The problem with that is He said that we shouldn't look like the world at all in fact they should hate us John 15. Stop making excuses. Get in His word. Find out what it says. and do what's hard... APPLY ALL OF IT. Not just what you want. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3
Broken people are depending on us. They need us to rise up. They need us to start living passionately for Christ. They need us to reflect His goodness. Are we? They are not too far gone just like we weren't. Sure you may inherit the kingdom of heaven but will they?
Is this too hard? No. He wouldn't call us to something we could not endure. Because of Jesus, holiness is obtainable.
And it comes down to this... Just Love Jesus.