Two Sundays ago (the day before Independence Day), my minister talked about a lot of the current beliefs in our country and how our “citizenship” as Christians lies within the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Earth. I recently wrote a post about interpreting God’s grace and I thought this was the opportunity to tie it in with what I’m talking about today. So, here I go…

It seems like we live in a world where many of us believe in God but we don’t live like we believe in Him. Take patriotism, for instance. It’s a great thing, a fun thing and something to be admired. It makes us feel proud when the national anthem is played on the 4th of July and it makes us come together for a common love for our country. I am not at all demeaning the act of being patriotic, but have you ever thought about putting that much emotion or devotion into your love for God?

We need to decide what is more important, and not create our own translations for what we think the Bible says. We can’t live a life of thinking, “We are already forgiven so sin doesn’t matter.”

I know I sound very “preachy” today and I don’t want to give the impression that I am perfect in living by my own words. I fail at honoring God first on a daily basis. I get caught up in worldly things all the time. The point is, we invest a lot of time and attention into things that won’t get us very far in life, all while we are promised a better life and an eternity in Heaven if we just believe and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You would think that with that kind of promise, we’d want to be a little more dedicated to Him… it just takes more of a conscious effort.

So there you have it… my two cents for the day.