Ok this is gonna be a rant, hope you get something or multiple things out of it:

As Christians, we believe certain things, we have a moral code that God wrote on our hearts when we had 'the salvation experience', I believe this experience happens somewhere in every believers life no matter if they were brought up a Christian, no one has 'always believed' because everyone must make their own choice to follow God or go their own way, Jesus talks about two differing roads and how many walk the wide path of destruction, but ultimately we have to make the choice of which road to follow and also to actually start walking down that road ourselves. Anyway I'm getting off topic. The point of this journel is to talk about our beliefs.

How strong are your beliefs?

Do you believe that it's wrong to steal?
How many burnt cds do you have or albums you don't own ripped on your computer? That's stealing.

Do you believe swearing is wrong?
Do you watch movies with swearing in them? Watching movies with swearing and other bad themes eventually leads to you swearing and doing bad things, a loss of morals.

Do you believe adultery is wrong?
When was the last time you looked lustfully at a member of the opposite sex? Same thing in God's eyes.

Do you believe in lifting and encouraging others?
When was the last time you made a joke at anothers expense, no it's not ok because it's just a joke, that joke comes from somewhere inside your own soul.

Do you believe coveting is wrong?
When was the last time you compared yourself to another in a particular area, it's the same sin.

Do you believe your a wonderful creation of God?
When was the last time you put yourself down? Your disagreeing with God and saying that His worksmanship isn't good enough when you do that.

All these issues are common to man, but as 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, God will never let us be tempted beyond what we can bear but will provide a way out so that we can stand up under it.

Isn't it time that us Christians started having conviction and not just beliefs? Beliefs are what buddhists have or atheists, we need conviction in our heart and mind. It's time for no compromise, time to leave behind the things we've held onto for so long, let go of the sin that is holding you back, it may seem like a security blanket but it's actually a cage.

No Compromise.

The early church didn't witness with how much common interest they had with the world, they witnessed with great signs and wonders, don't you think that maybe we could also do that if we weren't so lukewarm?

A their was a 17 year old boy in america who went into a walmart shopping centre, healed someone in the queue, then jumped on the loud speaker, prophesied about two other sick people in the supermarket, who met up with him at the cash register and were healed. CNN heard of it and went to the church that the boy attended asking the senior pastor if they could follow and do a documentary on the healing teams the church was sending out to shops. The pastor replied with: 'We don't have any healing teams, we just have Christians who shop.'

How awesome is that!? We can do that as well you know, if we would just really become living sacrifices and let God renew our minds.

This is not meant to be a condemnation, I am not perfect but when are we going to stop talking about how imperfect we are and start talking about how much better we could be? If your not growing, your dieing, no other way around it, that's how all of life works, physical and spiritual.

Be encouraged, die to yourself, the sacrifice is the hardest part, but once you've made it I guarantee that the Christian walk will be easier than it was before, but the trick is that living sacrifices tend to crawl off the altar after a little while so we need to keep dieing to ourselves, keep making that sacrifice.

LET US BECOME THE SACRIFICE!