On Sunday, a couple working as tentmaker type missionaries in the United Arab Emirates remarked that there is no political correctness there regarding religion. They do not separate church and state and thus do not expect a Christian to do so either. If you are a Christian, why wouldn’t you celebrate Christmas? What you believe is part of who you are and there is no pressure to hide who you are in the society or the work place. Therefore this couple live openly as believers modeling Christ in their lives and sharing their beliefs with their neighbors and co-workers. The only thing the Muslims object to is the word “convert”. So avoiding that word, this couple live freely as Christians in a Muslim world.

In the United States under the guise of freedom, all other religions are tolerated and encouraged, while Christianity is being legally bound into hiding. Is this the reason so many Christians here, live dual lives; being spiritual at Church or in their homes but living secularly in schools, work and in society? Can we blame spiritual mediocrity on our government or is the problem an internal one?

John Ortberg refers to this condition in believers as “compartmentalizing” their lives. He uses a pie chart to illustrate the division of a Christian’s life. There are sections for work, play, family, friends, hobbies, etcetera, and a slice for spiritual things. Many Christians are especially proud if that slice of spiritual pie has a larger percentage of space than those allocated for other areas. However the point John Ortberg is making with the pie chart is that we, as Christians should not make division within ourselves. Every aspect of our lives should be Spirit filled and led. To separate our beliefs from other areas of our lives is to live a double life of opposing ideals; which the scripture refers to as serving two masters (Matthew 6:24).

When I was first married, my husband would be sent on these long field problems or deployments overseas for the Army. While he was absent I was in complete control. I raised and schooled our daughter, handled the finances, dealt with problems, managed our home and worked. During the first week of one deployment, I had to deal with a dead battery in our vehicle, a mailbox that was run over by a drunk, and a front lawn that went “squish” like a sponge due to a broken water line. I handled everything quickly and efficiently because I had no one else to rely on. I became very good at managing life on my own.

The only problem with those absences earlier on, was that when my husband returned I had difficulty relinquishing authority back to him. It isn’t that I didn’t want him to resume his role as head of the family, I just felt as if he was rescuing me and now that he was back everything would run normally and correctly again. Inside, emotions took hold and thoughts like “everything ran smoothly and efficiently without you, thank you very much!” popped into my head. There were no words of recognition offered for what I had done by myself; no gift of appreciation; no request to catch him up and relinquish control back to him. He was back and I was dismissed. My emotions really chaffed over having to relinquish control to another master when I was capable of doing it on my own.

It didn’t take my husband and I long to adjust our attitudes and learn how to transition better after separations and in fact, now, I am delighted, even eager, to give everything back when he returns, but when John Ortberg was sharing this pie chart illustrating believers attempt to co-rule with Christ, this is the story that came to my mind. It is so difficult to have two masters and even more difficult to give over control to another when you feel you can handle that area fine without assistance. The problem as Christians is when we do maintain control over those areas in which we are capable we continually relegate God to smaller and smaller portions in our lives. And, when God tries to move into areas that we do not want to yield, we fight against him just as I resisted my husband when he returned from field duty early in our marriage. The more we control ourselves the harder it is to yield to God.

When Christ died he freed us from our debt to death and the power of sin to reign in our lives. By faith we are buried with Him in His death and raised to walk in a newness of life. This new life is a Spirit filled, Spirit led, God controlled life (Romans 6:1-14). Through Him we have the freedom to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ. We have the power to overcome sinful habits and live victoriously over our sinful natures which war against us. We have all the blessings of heaven at our disposal. Yet many brothers and sisters in Christ choose to allow sin and self-control to reign in their lives and thus live frustrated and unfulfilled.

As in all things pertaining to the Christian life, our mind-set dictates our actions. The wellsprings of life flow from our heart thoughts. We therefore must not make division within ourselves. We can not live peacefully with a spiritual and secular life co-residing within us. We are new creatures; Spiritual creatures! The old man (self-nature) has been “done away with” (Romans 6:6) which means rendered inoperative. We must fix our minds on this truth and live accordingly.

To try to live our lives our own way and still try to please God reminds me of a teenager in a Bible study I taught a few years back. Every truth of God was countered with her questions of how much, or how far? She wanted to know in every circumstance how far she could go and still be “okay” with God. Her narcissistic search for spiritual fulfillment meant she wanted to live as she pleased but still feel okay spiritually. Our pastor describes it as believers praying for the blessings of God, but really wanting the blessings of this world dressed up in religious jargon. Is it any wonder that our society does not desire Christianity when they witness too many people just like themselves dressed in the pretense of spirituality? They may see religion (or more likely hypocrisy), but what they don’t see is Christ!

When we see other Christians who are spiritually mature and have a witness to others, we long to be like them, yet are we willing to make the choices they made? They aren’t carnal beings disguised in spiritual dressing. They are transformed people yielded to God. Just as repentance is a turning away from the thing you were doing that was wrong, so it is with transformation. We must turn away from the things of this world; the things dictated by our sin nature, and turn to the things of the Lord continually, or as Romans 12:2 puts it, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

As God pleases, dispose the day © 2007 is an electronic devotional by D. A. Brewer. All Bible quotations are from the New American Standard Version, © 1993 Lockman Foundation and used by permission. The title “As God pleases, dispose the day” is a quote from Henry V by William Shakespeare. John Ortberg references are from his video series on Spiritual Discipline.