When Friedrich Nietzsche proposed the statement that “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him” it came about because Nietzsche was an atheist and did not believe God existed. In one way he was showing that science had taken God out of the picture. Even though that may have been the original intent if you look at Christianity today the statement could also be applied that “God is dead” in regards to our faith. We are not saying that God is actually dead because we believe that He is alive! As Christians we often don’t really live like God is actually alive though. During the next few weeks we want to take a look at what we as Christians can do to revive our dead faith and become what God intends for us to be for Him.
If you look around at the world there are many Christians who seem to be living in this area of “dead faith”. They believe that Jesus is their Savior. The real issue is you wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at their lives that they are Christians. We as a culture are in a place where becoming practical atheists while professing to be Christians seems to be the normal way to do life. This is something we as the youth must start to change so we can get back to the original intent of what we are all about.
There are many stances on how we as Christians should live. If we really want to get down to the core of what we are about we are supposed to be different. Somewhere along our lineage we have implanted in our mind that Christians are supposed to stay contained to their Christian friends, their Christian church, their Christian t-shirts and sayings, but Jesus was never contained. We live in a society of cookie cutter Christians who all look the same as everyone else. While we should make every effort to live differently in this world most Christians look exactly the same as the rest of the world. We must stop living like this because it conveys the message that we really don’t care about God, so as Nietzsche suggested we live like “God is dead”.
When we look at the life of Jesus Christ who we know was sent as God incarnate to save us from our sins there was nothing ordinary about His life. He didn’t just go to the places everyone else went and he didn’t do the things that the typical “good Jewish person” would have done. This doesn’t mean that Jesus did anything wrong but that the culture had gotten it all wrong. The Pharisees had lead the people into a very legalistic culture and if we look at our present day culture there are not many differences. There is a problem with Christianity when we are the ones who are legislating our religion, persecuting minority groups, and living like non-believers when we should be living like Christ.
The great thing is we still have a chance to make changes that will positively effect our generation. We are stuck in a cycle we must get out from under. Superchick sums it up well in their song Hero when they say:
Now it’s our time to pick a side.
So don’t keep walking by not wanting to intervene,
Cause you just want to exist and never be seen.
So let’s wake up, change the world
Our time is now
It is time for a revolution of our generation that isn’t afraid to love those who others won’t love. It is our time to make a change instead of allowing it to continue on the current path. Instead of living in our Christian circle we need to break out. We need to flood the world with a love they have never seen before, something no one ever gives. We need to spend less time on legislating religion and more time on actually taking time to love the people around us.
Christ spent most of His time hanging out with those people who were living in sin. He was the ultimate example of what we should look like. Be willing to do life with those who are far from God and just be different. We were not called to be like everyone else, but to be the ones willing to stand for the oppressed, the persecuted, the underprivileged, and the ones who have no voice to offer. We should not sit in our houses with all of our stuff and look down on those who are not like us.
The things of this world will fade and at the end of our lives it will not matter what people here say about us. The only opinion that will matter is that of our Heavenly King. Begin to look internally and see how your life is doing. Are you living out an untamed faith that is fully on fire for God? On the flip side of that are you living like God may as well be dead because you say what you believe but never act it out? Take some time to see where you are and look for our upcoming blogs about how we can make a difference to show the world our God is alive. Let us be different for the cause of Christ!
Dive Deep,
KC
If it’s true both that we’re too ghettoized and that we look just like the world, I would ask how we know who to isolate ourselves with. I can also answer my own question by positing that we really don’t.
so true, I am a mother of two teens who constantly has to remind them of the consequence to the choices they make in regard to their Christian character and in the body of Christ I see more of the world image and attitude portrayed then Christ’s. I try to live appropriate to the gospel message and mission and will join you in encouraging others- especially youth- to do the same. With mercy, compasion, & long suffering.
Deborah,
Thanks so much for your comment. It is great to hear of people like you working to inspire your children and other youth in diving into Christ and living out their faith! Thanks for all that you and other parents do to help ignite a revolution in the current generation. God bless!
Dive Deep,
Kyle