When it comes to the things of God, you can't be Switzerland. You have to take sides -- in more ways than one.
One way is in the answer you give to the question of "Who is this Jesus anyway?"
You can choose to be with the allied forces by acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, fully God and fully man, come to earth to live among us and die on a cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, thus ushering in the start of God's spiritual kingdom here on earth.
Or you can choose to be with axis forces by claiming that Jesus is just a "carpenter who talked a lot", a philosopher, a good example (but still only a man), a prophet and nothing more, or even a legend. That's a sad choice because its a wrong choice.
But choosing not to decide to answer the question at all is still making a choice. In a song called "Free Will" by the band Rush there is a line that goes "if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice" and that is absolutely true. Not choosing still leaves you in the hand-basket along with everyone else who rejects the savior of the world.
No, to inherit eternal life, you must choose to acknowledge who you are before God acknowledge who Jesus is, repent of your sins, and accept his free gift of salvation. When you really and truly do that he will be a new heart in you that only wants to please him. In short, as the Bible says, you must be born again.
Another way you take sides in how you walk Jesus once your are born again of the spirit of God.
You're either moving closer to God in your walk or further away. You can't stand still, you can't tread water. Its one way or the other way.
We who are believers should constantly check ourselves, check our actions, check the motives behind them, and see if we are growing in faith and moving closer to God or not.
Its like being caught up in a fast moving current of water. If you try to stand still, you'll just get swept up by the current and moved far away from where you are. And so it is with following Christ -- we can either actively check ourselves and take measures to keep moving forward on the road to life or we can get swept away by the cares of the world, or carried away by false doctrines that center around a false Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, test yourselves often to see what the evidence in your life says about your walk with the LORD. Others, please throw your very lives to Jesus and ask him to transform you from the inside out -- he is this only one who brings lasting joy!
Grace and Pace
Showing posts with label narrow road. Show all posts
Showing posts with label narrow road. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Monday, August 3, 2009
Light Of The World
At one point in his life Gandhi went on a quest to determine which religion of the world was best for his country. On his quest he visited Britain. He stayed in a Christian home. He went to a Christian church. He went away concluding that Christianity is not the religion for his country. Why? He felt no love. He reasoned that if God is love and he felt no love, then God must not be there, and in that home, and in that church, he felt no love. Not one person in the church extended a hand to welcome him, and the Christian home looked no different than a non-Christian home.
No wonder he also said something to the effect of "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."
Why? Because many of us do not practice what we preach. We're often hypocrites. Period. That makes me hurt inside, especially when I realize the ways in which I also fall into this category. But I pray that anyone, especially myself, who falls into this category doesn't shrug it off and ignore it. I pray that we, who claim to follow Christ, all realize what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I pray that we all realize what it means to be the light of the world.
I pray this because too often we want to be just like the world, liking the world and having the world like us. Rubbish. We're supposed to be set apart, which means that while we're in the world, we're not of the world. It doesn't mean isolation, and it doesn't mean conformity. It means standing up against the darkness around us and being the bright lights we're called to be.
Think about this. What if someone followed you around for a day? From the time you got up in the morning to the time you went to bed? Would you look like a Christian, or would you look just like everyone else?
1) What about your reactions? Do you race to beat someone on to the freeway or get the parking spot? Do you look the other way when you see someone in need that you really don't want to help? Do you ignore the phone when someone calls because of what you think they might have to say? Do you ignore people that smile at you and say good morning just because you're having a bad day?
2) What about your speech? Are you kind to everyone, or are you kind only to the people that matter to you and rude to others? Are you quick to snap at someone, or do you hold your tongue? Do you join in with gossiping about others or making fun of them, or do you refuse and walk away? Do you yell at other people in your car, even if no one else can hear you? Do you speak graciously to your spouse even when you disagree?
3) What about your appearance? Do you dress modestly, or do you flaunt what you've got? Do you dress down to earth, or do you dress to impress with designer clothes? Do you come as the real you to church, or do you dress way up (or way down) just to stand out from other believers and make them look at you? Do you pick out clothes that represent your Lord and your heart, or do you wear clothes promoting man made "heroes" that have nothing to do with Christian values?
4) What about your music, television shows, movies, books, and video games? Do you make wise decisions about which ones to buy, or do you grab whatever is new and popular? Do the images and sounds glorify God, or are they filled with gore, sex, murder, theft, deceit, foul language, coarse jokes, wicked lifestyles, and demonic imagery?
5) What about your faith? Do you witness to people when the opportunity arises or do you shy away? Do you share the Lord in regular conversation when you're prompted by the Spirit, or do you ignore that prompting and steer the conversation to worldly things? Do you stand up for the Lord when your friend or co-worker takes his name in vain, or do you pretend not to hear? Do you take God's word seriously or do you cherry pick what you want to hear and ignore the rest? Do you pray earnestly and fervently, or do you just rattle off something canned and heartless in the last 5 minutes of your day? Do you teach your children about the Lord and set the right example for them, or do you leave that only up to the local church?
I could go on, but I won't!
I know there are places here we ALL fall short. That's not the point. The point is what we do about it. Are we content to fall short and chalk it up to "the flesh" and "our human nature" and "that's how I am"? Or do we mourn over our shortcomings, our failings, our sins and desire truly to pursue a godly life with all we've got? So, regarding these questions, and the million others that can be asked, the most important question is this: in everything we think, say, and do, is there an overwhelming amount of evidence to convict us of being Christians? If the answer is not yes, we have many things to work on.
And. Even if the answer IS yes. We STILL have many things to work on.
If we are to be a light of the world; that light needs to stand out and shine brightly, not fade into the darkness that surrounds.
Grace and Peace
No wonder he also said something to the effect of "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."
Why? Because many of us do not practice what we preach. We're often hypocrites. Period. That makes me hurt inside, especially when I realize the ways in which I also fall into this category. But I pray that anyone, especially myself, who falls into this category doesn't shrug it off and ignore it. I pray that we, who claim to follow Christ, all realize what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I pray that we all realize what it means to be the light of the world.
I pray this because too often we want to be just like the world, liking the world and having the world like us. Rubbish. We're supposed to be set apart, which means that while we're in the world, we're not of the world. It doesn't mean isolation, and it doesn't mean conformity. It means standing up against the darkness around us and being the bright lights we're called to be.
Think about this. What if someone followed you around for a day? From the time you got up in the morning to the time you went to bed? Would you look like a Christian, or would you look just like everyone else?
1) What about your reactions? Do you race to beat someone on to the freeway or get the parking spot? Do you look the other way when you see someone in need that you really don't want to help? Do you ignore the phone when someone calls because of what you think they might have to say? Do you ignore people that smile at you and say good morning just because you're having a bad day?
2) What about your speech? Are you kind to everyone, or are you kind only to the people that matter to you and rude to others? Are you quick to snap at someone, or do you hold your tongue? Do you join in with gossiping about others or making fun of them, or do you refuse and walk away? Do you yell at other people in your car, even if no one else can hear you? Do you speak graciously to your spouse even when you disagree?
3) What about your appearance? Do you dress modestly, or do you flaunt what you've got? Do you dress down to earth, or do you dress to impress with designer clothes? Do you come as the real you to church, or do you dress way up (or way down) just to stand out from other believers and make them look at you? Do you pick out clothes that represent your Lord and your heart, or do you wear clothes promoting man made "heroes" that have nothing to do with Christian values?
4) What about your music, television shows, movies, books, and video games? Do you make wise decisions about which ones to buy, or do you grab whatever is new and popular? Do the images and sounds glorify God, or are they filled with gore, sex, murder, theft, deceit, foul language, coarse jokes, wicked lifestyles, and demonic imagery?
5) What about your faith? Do you witness to people when the opportunity arises or do you shy away? Do you share the Lord in regular conversation when you're prompted by the Spirit, or do you ignore that prompting and steer the conversation to worldly things? Do you stand up for the Lord when your friend or co-worker takes his name in vain, or do you pretend not to hear? Do you take God's word seriously or do you cherry pick what you want to hear and ignore the rest? Do you pray earnestly and fervently, or do you just rattle off something canned and heartless in the last 5 minutes of your day? Do you teach your children about the Lord and set the right example for them, or do you leave that only up to the local church?
I could go on, but I won't!
I know there are places here we ALL fall short. That's not the point. The point is what we do about it. Are we content to fall short and chalk it up to "the flesh" and "our human nature" and "that's how I am"? Or do we mourn over our shortcomings, our failings, our sins and desire truly to pursue a godly life with all we've got? So, regarding these questions, and the million others that can be asked, the most important question is this: in everything we think, say, and do, is there an overwhelming amount of evidence to convict us of being Christians? If the answer is not yes, we have many things to work on.
And. Even if the answer IS yes. We STILL have many things to work on.
If we are to be a light of the world; that light needs to stand out and shine brightly, not fade into the darkness that surrounds.
Grace and Peace
Monday, September 29, 2008
Road To Life
Props to Pastor Harry from CRB. I'm lifting some ideas from his message last weekend here; like I said before, I'm not that creative.
The road we choose to travel on determines where we end up. Every day we make choices about what road we're going to travel on. We can choose the broad road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life.
The choice seems pretty easy doesn't it?
But how do we know what road we're on? Sometimes the signs aren't marked so well. Sometimes we think we're lost and we're not. Sometimes we think we're not lost and we are. Sometimes there's a bunch of fog in the way and we can't see where we're going. Sometimes there's crazy turns, idiot drivers, and bad weather, all at once. Traveling sucks.
You know what we need? We need a really great navigation system.
We need a system that can see our entire destination from start to finish. We need a system that can give us accurate directions on where to go, even if we can't see how those directions make sense sometimes. We need a system that will still help us try go get to the correct destination -- even when we mess up, think we're smarter than the system, and try to take shortcuts.
You know what? We have one of those! God's a really great navigation system. A long time ago, He wrote down 10 important directions to follow, in stone -- and if we slow down enough and pay attention, we can hear our navigation system telling us when we're not listening to His directions well enough and are headed off the road into trouble.
Thanks, God.
The road we choose to travel on determines where we end up. Every day we make choices about what road we're going to travel on. We can choose the broad road that leads to destruction or the narrow road that leads to life.
The choice seems pretty easy doesn't it?
But how do we know what road we're on? Sometimes the signs aren't marked so well. Sometimes we think we're lost and we're not. Sometimes we think we're not lost and we are. Sometimes there's a bunch of fog in the way and we can't see where we're going. Sometimes there's crazy turns, idiot drivers, and bad weather, all at once. Traveling sucks.
You know what we need? We need a really great navigation system.
We need a system that can see our entire destination from start to finish. We need a system that can give us accurate directions on where to go, even if we can't see how those directions make sense sometimes. We need a system that will still help us try go get to the correct destination -- even when we mess up, think we're smarter than the system, and try to take shortcuts.
You know what? We have one of those! God's a really great navigation system. A long time ago, He wrote down 10 important directions to follow, in stone -- and if we slow down enough and pay attention, we can hear our navigation system telling us when we're not listening to His directions well enough and are headed off the road into trouble.
Thanks, God.
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