contagious tolerance

We live in a world where every one thinks to be different, independent and self-directed, when the truth is we are not. We are always guided by the culture, the movies, the atmosphere we live in or, in a minority number, guided by God.

We all want to think that we choose our future, that we plan who we will become, but the truth is that our plans are submerged in the culture we are surrounded by, and very few go "unmoving" towards the goal.
We can have a very strong Christian faith, but if we don't guard our beliefs we may end up in "tolerance".

I have had the opportunity to live in different places, different countries and different cities in the same country, and each place we had been part of a Christian community, and I have learned a lot.
Some people, without realizing compromised their beliefs because of the culture they live in, and that is what I call "contagious tolerance"...the more we are immersed in a culture, the more we will embraced it as ours, unless we are more immersed in the truth of The Word.

When I lived in Mexico, must Christians will not even consider to celebrate Halloween, because of its roots, and even now days it is impossible to say it is a "innocent" day when the world celebrates death, witches, devils and demons. And even though we may want to cover it with a "Noah costume" it is still the day of the death. For me that is what it is and I am part of the light not the darkness, I am part of the Life not the death, so as for me and my house we will be part of God's team 365 days, I will not pick and choose according to my culture or my entreatment, but according to what God loves, and leave behind what He hates.

But then I realized that the more I was with Christians that celebrate Halloween the more I questioned if I was been so religious, then I would back to the Bible and realized what it says about it.
But then again, more and more Chirstians seam to embrace things I was not, like Wizzard of Oz, etc...was I wrong? Was I been mislead in my Christian walk while in different country?
Well...the Bible is the same every where, and the Bible is clear that he does not like wizards, magic, witches, and everyone that enjoys with them (even if they are not that).
So here was my answer, the Bible does not change by culture, does not change by ages, we do change if we let the world dictates who they want us to be. We change if we let culture and tolerance to take away our beliefs.
We change drastically when we let culture and tolerance to modify small things in our beliefs.
Jesus clearly said he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So NOTHING he likes or dislikes changes according to culture, age, race, or religion.
Matthew 7:15-23 talks abut the importance of obeying His whole Word, not only what the culture accepts, and that our life is a proof of our faith when walking by it, faith is not proved by words (calling Him Lord) but by making Him our Lord in all, even when we don't like it.

Tolerance, as I know it, it is lack of beliefs, because anyone who really believe something would not be ok with any other thing, if one has the truth, then, that one person knows that the contrary is a lie, so if we have the pure Truth of the Gospel, why to dilute it with the culture?
If we have the truth in the Bible, why not living by it? instead of picking and choosing according to what our times accept as good enough.
There is no "good witches" according to the Bible, so why chirstians accept wizard of oz? why is Harry Potter any good for our kids to read?, why do we tolerate some clear teachings on movies when it is opposite to what we believe?

We need to be picky if we want to pass the baton in good shape!

you can be the one contagious and pass on what you have, or you will be "contaged" by the world. In every culture, group, and relationship, there is always one giving and one receiving...who are you? what beliefs are you passing on to the next generation? and what are you receiving as your truth?