"So now: Fear GOD. Worship him in total commitment. Get rid of the gods your ancestors worshiped on the far side of The River (the Euphrates) and in Egypt. You, worship GOD."

~ Joshua 24:14, The Message//Remix

There is one thing about the world today that I feel is very close to what the world was like before Jesus came around: that people today pick and choose the religion they like, as it is convenient to them.

In the past, the Western World had a myriad of different gods. But from culture to culture, pantheons remain, more or less, the same, as with the myths behind these gods. More often than not, you have entire congregations worship one principal deity (exempli gratia, the prostitutes who follow Aphrodite/Ishtar/Ashtaroth/Venus in Corinth), but most of them sought petitions from other gods from time to time. At the same time, people were free to choose whatever god to worship as long as it did not offend others.

Let's say young a Thracian joins a Greek army. For protection, courage, luck, et cetera, would he not worship Ares, the Greek god of war for these things? Yet, when he returns to his father's fields, he would pray to Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. All the while, on the side, perhaps, he would ask Aphrodite for luck in finding his woman. And when the weather gets too hot, he might chance upon the use of "by Apollo, lessen thy gaze!"

In the Middle Ages, paganism was significantly less. People didn't really have the same options toward paganism.

What about today? Today, we see an entire generation of Christians who believe in the idea of "to each his own".

"God - my way," a friend tells me a few years ago. He worships God, sure. But to him, God is limited in the way he (my friend) sees God. God becomes an object that he (my friend) serves at his convenience. But does he live out the precepts of Christ? According to my friend, not God, he has his own set of Christian precepts - a special measuring stick separate from others. To him, this is also one of the many millions of ways to heaven. He feels, for example, that he does not need to go to church, because there's no point in going to church if one has God in one's heart. But, then, what about community worship? Accountability? He says that he is accountable only to God.

Recently, I heard that this friend is practicing both Kabbala and Christianity together, at home, at his convenience. He can quit whenever he wants and "pick it up" again later. It's kind of like wearing a top. Last year, pin stripes were in. This year, we should be going for solids. But that's phasing out too. It's better to go for something more original - like the filigree patterns so many men are wearing nowadays.

"Hey, you know, Kabbala is in. We'll try it this year. If we don't like it, we can always switch to Zen Buddhism."

Faith has no half measures. It's for real. Stake your life on it. Live it. No one part of your life is untouched by your faith. Because when God says He wants you, He means all of you.