Dear Pastor Susan,
What happens when a woman claims she’s a Christian but she’s shacking up and pregnant?
Well, she’s a liar, her life doesn’t match her words. Just because you think you’re something, doesn’t mean you are. I color my hair every six weeks or so, today I’m a chestnut brown-headed woman, this is how I would describe myself. I just got the new color this week, last week I had blonde highlights, but my roots are dark brown and show what color my hair really is! She also stains the name of Jesus. Seems really harsh huh? Here’s some scripture:
1 Samuel 15:22 Then Samuel said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices – empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.
2 Corinthians 6:1 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. 2 God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. 3 Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. 4 Our work as God’s servants gets validated – or not – in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; 5 when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; 6 with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; 7 when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right;
Psalm 119:4 You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. 5 Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set;
Ephesians 5:1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.
3 Don’t allow love to turn into lust, setting off a downhill slide into sexual promiscuity, filthy practices, or bullying greed. 4 Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, Christians have better uses for language than that. Don’t talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn’t fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect. 5 You can be sure that using people or religion or things just for what you can get out of them – the usual variations on idolatry – will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. 6 Don’t let yourselves get taken in by religious smooth talk. God gets furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but want nothing to do with him.
1 John 2:3Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. 4 If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. 5 But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. 6 Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
If these aren’t enough, let me know, the bible is full of scriptures that tell us that we must walk the walk and talk the talk and not live as the world does. Thanks for writing in!
Pastor Susan 