Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

As a Muslim, I remember many Christians witnessing to me and imploring me to be saved from my sins so that I could go to heaven and escape hell. Many of these well-intentioned folks cared about me and considered me a friend. They were waiting for the right time to question me about my beliefs and hoping I would be open to a discussion. I was always up for debate and spirited conversation, and even more eager to point out my differences with them than I was to hear about Jesus. I saw the Christian faith as weak and passive. It seemed the Jesus they served wanted to cut me a break, let me off the hook so to speak. He seemed to need my approval and crave my love and support for Him and His cause. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is as if the Gospel that was being presented to me was carefully packaged and focused on Man’s universal need and interest, not God’s claims upon man. The second issue was striking as well, they seemed to care more about their own personal feelings about me being eternally judged, not God’s broken heart over my sinful ways. I remember the debates we would have long hours into the afternoon and evening. It was quite thrilling to me, but troubling as well.

I was troubled by their personal fixation on escaping, deliverance, pardon, rapture, and all the other terminology focused on escaping hardship, tragedy, suffering, and ultimately damnation. It was a theology in which Jesus paid the price for everything, and all we needed to do was receive the insurance policy by reciting some words, and then move on with our lives. This would be as one person said, “the great escape for us.”

I saw many believers as self-deceived. The did not really want God, they just wanted to be free from pain and suffering. They were drawn to the scriptures that promised heaven, and ignored the ones that promised you would have to bear your cross and endure. Webster defines escapism this way: “habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality.” Self-deception is the greatest escapism around. We escape the truth by entertaining our own conclusions and claiming God approves. This is at best, a license to do your own thing, or at worse, sin.

I found out that many who claimed to have faith, had found a faith that was foreign to scripture. It was a faith based on getting to heaven and escaping hell. A self-centered approach to God that essentially created doctrines that people could run to and feel comforted by, rather than doctrines of accountability that led them to engage in the lives of others, bare their souls, and receive wounds from friends and enemies in the process. It was a deception, a heresy. It was religion that Satan easily tolerated. These believers would never engage him, encroach on his territory, or seek to be free from their lawless ways. The evil one wreaks havoc on the minds of the unfruitful. They are defeated from within by his deception. Christ engaged Satan before he started his public ministry, and we must do the same. (Matthew 4)

When I received salvation, at age 26, and was born again, I was thrilled to be pardoned and saved from His wrath. My experience with God was different than what I heard from many believers. I understood that He was a God who called me to engage the world around me. I did not spend a lot time focusing on my own personal salvation. I considered it done. My heart was certainly filled with gratitude, but I saw an eternal God who continued to engage with humanity and commanded me to do the same. Life was no longer about me, my dreams, ambitions, goals, and visions. Life was about the calling and His purposes for me. Well, I can tell you this, I have not been disappointed by the God the Great Engager. He made me into someone who engages.

Frankly, I am struck and irritated by the escapism that many Christians practice. I can’t tell you how many believers would rather listen to their favorite Christian artist, run to a conference for deliverance, listen to a sermon, or passively get fed by another’s milk, rather than pray, witness, or obey God in some area. He has called them to engage people. Faith that seeks to escape conflict, and hardship, is false. Faith that attempts to produce fruit without engagement in the lives of broken people, is no faith at all. Faith that thinks someone else’s anointing can free you is false. Christ came to the earth, took on human form, and died on the cross to reach us and bring lost souls into His eternal family. You will only be free to the degree you engage in the work. At any point and time during His journey, He could have called out to the Father and said, “Enough! They are not worth it; save me!” The Father would have responded in justice and destroyed the world that His Son created. Instead, Christ chose to be destroyed, so he could save the world, not Himself. He never disengaged from the calling, not once.

I believe to truly understand God’s plan for us, we must look at how he trained His disciples. He called them to be engaged in the world through love, service, and perseverance. When they understood salvation was a gift not to be earned or sold, and that all the elect would receive an inheritance, they responded by sharing a message that was too good to keep to themselves. They were commanded to “Go.” God’s intention is the same today as it was back then. He expects His people to move in their calling and to bear fruit. There is no fruit without engagement. There is no victory without engaging the enemy. He did not say, hide out, retreat, escape, wait and do nothing until I return.”  He called us to be witnesses in character and words. My friends we must be engaged in the world, not of it. We must be focused on the good we can do today. We must walk in the light while we have it and make the most of our time.
Later on it was discovered that it also visit address generic viagra on line boosts the metabolism. daveywavey.tv levitra samples There are lessons in the form of videos, which are made to inspire the teenagers for safe and best deal. As the severity of COPD progresses, the proportion of nitric viagra from india pop over to these guys oxide which causes muscles in the penis to relax so more blood can flow into it, leading to an erection. Individuals may encounter: Unexpected loss vision Sweating Ear ringing Pain in the arm, shoulder, back Inflamed hands, lower legs and feet General shortcoming Shortness of breath Light-headedness Problems with stomach Purchase Sildenafil online at the least expensive rates to make your sexual life happy. super generic cialis is particularly implied for men who encounter most upsetting condition known as erectile brokenness or male weakness.
I urge you to think about your own tendencies toward escapism. Empty talk, entertainment, fruitless hobbies, social media, drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, religiosity, dead works, and hollow relationships. Be engaged in all that God has called you to do. Do something every day to enhance your purpose and relationship with Him. Engagement will mature you. It is God who calls you toward it.

We would do well to remember these words of scripture:

Hebrews 10:36-39

36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 

37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

This was the faith that I discovered. There was no escapism involved or encouraged.