A PUPPET CHRISTIAN
A Puppet Christian is one whose actions are controlled or influenced by another. We are living in a world that dictates the moral habits of others and many are as a puppet whose behavior is the direct result of the will of its master. Its strings are pulled this way and that to control its moments to the glee of its puppeteer. Scripture reveals that to whom you yield (or present) yourselves servants to obey, his servants (or slaves) you are to whom you obey (Romans 6:16).
Being A Slave
How many Christians has become a slave to something that is contrary to the Word of God? I can name one that has captured the attention of many a Christian with little effort to rid oneself from its clutches - that is television - that is very much in opposition to God's Word. It has become as an idol to many as it has oftentimes become the center of attention in one's home. What other areas in one's life are controlled by other influences?
Our Leadership
When Israel's leader, Moses, departed from his people to go up to the Mount of God they soon returned to their Egyptian influence by preparing a golden calf to worship. Because the leadership of the church no longer ministers on sanctification and holiness - and if they do it is often a watered down version - their congregation has returned to the influence of the world, rather than God's unadulterated Word - allowing others to pull their strings - as that of a puppeteer.
Where is our leadership today to encourage one to abstain from the influences that are being promoted? Our Lord asked: Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch? The disciple is not above his master (or teacher): but every one that is perfect (or trained) shall be as his master (Luke 6:39-40). Who is in leadership today, is it the world and its influnces through such a medium as the television, or that of Christianity? Who has become the puppeteer controlling the strings?
Who Is At The Helm?
In the days of Moses, during the rebellion of the people, there were those who sought to misguide, even such exists today in the Christian realm. Who is at the helm of the television that one views, is its content as that of yesteryear? Does it have good moral programming or does it promote the very things that God's Word opposes? Does one continue to watch its display of profanity, nudity, immoral behavior, unable to rid one's self of its influence?
Can God Still Bless?
Can God bless a people, or a nation, that is not in obedience to His Word? Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of disobedience. God no longer blessed Israel when sin came in the midst of the camp, but after that sin was dealt with then God's blessings begain to flow once again. Many once godly nations have allowed themselves to be ruled by the puppeteer, who pulls the strings, rather than Almighty God, and immorality has flooded their land.
We live in perilous times in that even those in the Christian realm are consuming the fruit that God has forbidden, becoming wise in their own eyes, rather than seeking the wisdom of living a life in accordance with God's Word.
Partaking Of The Same Fruit
There are many issues in our land that are prompted by the ungodly and many times the Christian is allowing consumption to take place. How many are unwilling to speak out because they themselves are partaking of the same fruit? Scripture asks: You that teaches another, teach not yourself? You that preaches a man should not steal, do you steal? You that say a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery (Romans 2:21-22)?
Consuming The Characteristics Of The World
We live in a land of plenty because this nation was conceived in God but now we are seeing ungodly influences having their devastating results and many are being swayed. I am seeing far less conviction and more acceptance of the previously unacceptable that I have ever seen before. Where are those who are not afraid to speak out against the atrocities that are consuming our land?
Lifestyles before unmentionable are now acceptable. Traditional Christianity is being replaced by a more liberal and easier way. Why has the world become an influence to the church rather than the church to the world? Why does the church look and act like the world with very little separation being in evidence?
The values (or convictions) I learned as a young Christian have now become obsolete to some. Those values are now deemed old fashioned and of little value according to the modern day Christian concept. Is the church being consumed by worldliness or is it continuing to be separated to God? Has it allowed that great deceiver - the Devil - to pull the strings and dance with glee as he sees the church's acceptance? Now is not the time to dance to the tune of a compromised world or church.
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