Conviction #1: God Is Alive and Active in the Culture

The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
–John 1:14

If you are going to change your world, then you have to believe God is alive and He is active in the culture.

When Elijah stood before evil king Ahab and Jezebel, he said, “As the Lord, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand” (1 Kings 17:1). Elijah didn’t believe he was serving a set of ideas. He knew he was serving a living being named Jehovah God who had real attributes.

We live in a culture that doesn’t have a clue about who God is, and that includes many Christians as well. Not long ago, I attended a ceremony at a Christian organization, and the chaplain asked everyone to bow our heads in worship to “the god of our own understanding.” I was stunned. How could this man represent the Christian faith and imply that God is the sum of our speculations and imaginations about Him? The Bible says there is only one true God, and He is a real being who has real characteristics and attributes.

If you want to know who that God is, then there are two ways to discover Him. One is through the written Word of God. The Bible tells you everything you need to know about God. Second, you can know who God is through the living Word of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the embodiment of God Himself. In John 1:1-2, the apostle wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John continued in verse 14, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” If you want to know who God is, then look at Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). By the way, that same Jesus Christ who was the embodiment of God said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Those who choose to worship “the god of their own understanding” are on the highway to hell. There is only one God, and there is only one way to that God, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

In Elijah’s time, the nation of Israel was worshipping the god of their own understanding. What we call tolerance or inclusivism today, God has another name for: idolatry. To worship any other god was idolatrous, and God was fed up with it. And because of that, God sent Elijah to say to Ahab and Jezebel, “As I serve the living God.” There is one God, and His name is Jehovah.

If we are going to influence our culture, then we have to have the conviction that God is alive, He is real, and He is active in the culture.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Convictions That Will Change Your World” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2017.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.