Earlier this year, Pastor Raymond hipped me to a book that I also recommend to everyone who claims to be Christian - The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus. It's not a very long book, but it is life changing in the way it paints application of the Christian faith. The basic point of the book is that typical "Christianity" is very much a toned-down version of what is really intended by God. American Christianity has become a safe religion that isn't exactly changing the status quo. So much for the "turning the world upside down" mentioned in Acts.

I've been doing some other reading lately, and agree that the reason Christianity is so powerless in America is because its followers have taken out the passion that is its foundation. We believe "for God so loved the world," but we don't really live out the definition of that love. The love of God is a love of passion; a love "to die for." Passionate love is the type of love that is always willing to suffer as a result of itself. To us, passion typically means sensuality, and love rarely goes past our own levels of comfort. God's love, on the other hand, was driven by passion; He was more than ready to suffer on our behalf.

We were all created to be passionate individuals. The desire in us to be a part of something meaningful enough to die for was given to us by God, and is a characteristic of His, as well. Unfortunately, instead of viewing passion and God's love as being the same thing, we have separated the two. When passion is separated from God's love, it is misdirected, leading to sins of covetousness, lust, and idolatry. Blatant disrespect and rebellion are misdirected passion, as is greediness and promiscuity. The driving desire behind these sins, though, is the God-given need to pour our lives into something bigger than ourselves at any cost.

Sadly, the church (generally speaking) hasn't been able to do much to help re-focus passion properly, because we have also separated passion from God's love. When this happens, passion becomes misdirected, and God's love becomes nothing more than religious sentiment. When God's love is not worth suffering, it becomes another choice on the smorgasbord of religions. Barna says that by the time this generation runs society, no more than 4% will believe in the Bible. Why should they? If something isn't worth dying for, it's not worth living for, either.

I'm not saying I have all the answers, and I am certainly not the picture of perfect passion. I have a long way to go, and I'm not even sure where the road is taking me. What I do know is that I believe when a person truly trust in Christ, God's Spirit moves in and gives him a new nature. Something that big has got to make a difference, and if as many people who claim to be Christians truly have God's Spirit inside of them, there shouldn't even be a status quo.