Remember that little song from when you were a kid?
Oh be careful little ears what you hear,
Oh be careful little ears what you hear,
For the Father up above is looking down in love,
So be careful little ears what you hear!
There has never been a more important time for us to be careful with our eyes and our ears and our hearts than right now. There is a war being waged against us, but it's not what we're expecting. Most of us aren't even in the battle.
I've never been real big on spiritual warfare - I've left that to the "fanatics" of Christianity for the most part. But I've noticed something lately that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. The war waged against us is absolutely not a struggle "against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)
Now hear me out...
I've always been a big fan of our Christian sub-culture. I love Christian music, Christian literature, Christian movies and Christian conferences. But here lately, I've noticed that there are a lot of influences in this Christian sub-culture that are leading us astray and most of us don't even recognize the subtly twisted truth we're being fed.
I was listening to a Christian radio station last week that played a little testimonial recorded by one of its listeners. The woman told a story of how she was an "overcomer" because she had been poor and destitute, driving a beat-up old car and headed for certain demise, when she met a couple of pastors who later ended up giving her $50,000 for a Mercedes. The DJs praised God for the way this woman "overcame" her circumstances with her new car. Check 1 John for specific references to Scripture that address being an overcomer. Each time you'll see that as believers we overcome sin and death and the evil one, not poverty and the lack of a car. It's a slight twist of Scripture. Indeed, we are overcomers. But if you aren't grounded in the truth of Scripture, if you don't know what the Bible says, you'll gain a terribly wrong perspective on this concept of overcoming.
Yesterday I watched a video posted on Facebook by a very prominent Christian author/speaker/blogger that many of my friends adore. It was a video taken at the "Belong" tour that just this year replaced the old "Women of Faith" conferences. What surprised me is that this video showed a band performing a decidedly secular song at this event. I really liked their sound, so I checked out their website to learn more. I was disappointed to see that (although they could be believers), there was no evidence on their website that the members of this group are followers of Jesus. Their music is secular and their message is secular. They claim to be very involved in volunteering in humanitarian causes, but never claim to be Jesus-followers.
That led me to wonder why a conference marketed to "Christian" women, following in the footsteps of "Women of Faith" would put a secular band on their main stage. (Please note here that I have absolutely no problem with secular bands in general and I have many on my own playlists.) Instead of choosing from all the many Christian bands with Scripturally sound lyrics, this conference chose to present a couple singing a catchy love song on the stage. I love catchy love songs. But on the stage of a "Christian" event? I was surprised they went that direction.
So I checked out the website for the "Belong" tour. I was super disappointed to find that the name of Jesus was only written on their website once that I could find (in Jen Hatmaker's bio). The mission stated on the website is for every woman to know that she is not alone and that she matters. Much is made of women being their "true selves", and there is no mention of the good news that Jesus offers to sinners. This message of mattering seems so good. And at the conference it is quite possible that they did point people to the message of Christ. (I don't know - I wasn't there!) But the definite message of Scripture in Luke 9:23 is that in order to follow Christ, the believer must deny herself, take up her cross and follow Jesus. As a Christ-follower there is no room for me to be true to myself. My self is full of sin. Instead of being true to myself, I need to deny myself and embrace the new creation that I am in Christ.
Here's the problem I see with the radio station and the conference I referenced. Many of us have slowly and without realizing it, replaced our personal relationship with Jesus for things that look like "good, Christian" things. We read blogs and books and attend churches and conferences and listen to radio stations and albums that are meant to encourage us in our walk with Christ, but were never supposed to replace our relationship with him. We've been satisfied with these replacements of Scripture for so long that we hardly even notice when these things become more and more un-Christlike.
I certainly am not trying to say that K-Love is evil or Jen Hatmaker is leading us all astray. But if we are taking everything that we hear from the Christian sub-culture and its representatives as gospel truth, we need to reevaluate our spiritual lives. And upon reevaluation of our spiritual lives, if we find that we have neglected our own personal relationships with Jesus due to our acceptance of all other things claiming to be "Christian", it is time to repent and change things.
2 Timothy 3 warns us that there are people who have the false appearance of godliness and will try to worm their way into the homes of weak women. Friend, don't be that weak woman. Open your Bible. Search the Scripture. Refuse to fall victim to the subtle twists of the truth that are popping up throughout our Christian sub-culture.
Oh be careful little ears what you hear.
Click here to read more from me about 2 Timothy 3 and Weak Women and Worms.
PS - If you did attend the Belong tour or plan to, PLEASE let me know if the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached there. I pray that it will be!
