The status quo is all about uniformity. Of course we drive an SUV. Our home? A three-car garage is a given. And if anyone asks where we shop, we never admit to big-box. To be the best means we shop at the best.
At the same time, humanity is laced through and through with the need for individuality. We can order our pizza with anchovies or without, custom design our lavatory sinks, and play heavy metal music during a wedding. We have ear buds, and no one knows.
Our differences become charms on a bracelet, cute, glittering, and inoffensive. People can admire them, laugh about the goofy ones, then dismiss them. They’re not the real us, only entertainment to have on our wrist or remove when they’re in the way.
What does our Christ charm look like? Is it a crucifix hanging from our car’s rearview mirror? Or perhaps a Bible on our bedside table? Maybe, just maybe our charm is attending Sunday morning service. We wave at the neighbors on the way to make sure they know we attend. Tinkle, tinkle, another charm rattling on our bracelet.
There are still people alive with tattoos on their wrists, and not the kind kids wear today. These people were registered for their religion, stamped indelibly as prisoners in the death camps of World War II. They could no longer take off who they were. It was branded on their skin for the world to see.
Luke 2:1 tells us:
“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.”
Identity could no longer be a charm on a bracelet. It had to be established, in the records, there for everyone to see.
What records validate our faith in our Christ? Or is our walk with Jesus just another charm on our bracelet of life experiences?
Genesis 2:7 tells us God has tattooed his proof of ownership on us for the world to see.
“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
2 Timothy 3:16 is our sign-up decree for the rest of the world.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”
If we can take off Jesus and store him in a box, then we’re not really Christians. We need him tattooed on our lives as proof we belong to him.
Our Christian status quo comes from being totally different than the world.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.L.10.15.vp.esv