Christianity, Hijacked by the American Dream

How often do you hear the hopes and dreams of those in the church sound strangely similar to those of the world? Families hope their children have a good education so they can get a good job and a better life than they had. They also hope, and if time permits pray, that their children do not commit crimes or have premarital sex but if they do succumb to temptation that they are protected. The standards of many in the church mirror the best the world hopes for and even that standard of hope is falling as the bar is lowered more and more every day.

Is this what we are to aspire to for our families? Does education, moral living and a good job say anything at all about our faith. Have we allowed the American Dream to hijack Christianity and in essence be allowed to commingle just as the many foreign gods and belief systems were allowed to commingle with the Israelites. Scott over at These are the generations of…. continues to write on Multigenerational Faithfulness and touches on how we are to regain what God intended.

I know at times I tend to see these issues and write on the problems and even offer up solutions. However, at the root of all of this is that I need to raise my family in a way that is Christ exalting and God honoring. And where do we learn how to do this, well in that place that people seem to neglect to look, God’s Word. While I read as much as most I know that the extra reading is simply to see how God has revealed spiritual truths to others but at the end of the day it is God’s word that defines how we are to live.

We are a people that are often quick to claim the Bible as the inspired word of God but when issues arise we turn to Oprah, Dr. Phil and every other Thomas, Richard and Harold but neglect the one source that is infallible, the Word of God. We have become so complacent in searching out what God would have us do that when we have to have answers we have no idea where to turn and even if one does turn to the Bible we do not know how to discern what it says.

So let us commit to be faithful to the word of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit raise our families as God directs in His word. From there we should commit to being part of Christian communities that do likewise and over time the look of Christianity can be restored and rescued from the world.