Sometimes…
Temptations come when you realize how much easier it seems to be a non-Christian. It looks like life would be soooo much more easier and pleasurable… but God won’t let me leave; not with his Holy Spirit that he has given to me already.
Temptations come when you realize how much easier it seems to be a non-Christian. It looks like life would be soooo much more easier and pleasurable… but God won’t let me leave; not with his Holy Spirit that he has given to me already.
Very encouraging. God is good. Comfort in the midst of the mystery.
I have been learning that it’s ok to wrestle with my anger with God for this season. I know that God is bigger than my anger and he will hold me. I have so many questions and hurts, and even when I’m in this messed up state in my walk he still calls me his beloved child because of Jesus. He is a good and patient Father.
The essence of the Christian Way is the all-embracing and life-giving relationship of normal human beings with the living Christ who, following his death and resurrection, is as alive today as when he touched the lepers long ago. Jesus is our contemporary. So being a disciple means much more than going to church, having correct beliefs, or observing Christian liturgy. Being a Christian involves something more than following the teachings of a once-vital but now entombed guru, or living by Christian principles. Discipleship is essentially a transforming relationship with someone who is as influential today—even more so—than he was when the first Christian disciples turned the world upside down. Christianity is Christ, and to be a Christian is simply to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Discipleship implies growth, nurture, education, deepening intimacy, shared goals and life-direction, all facets of a relationship with a person.
…nothing but transformed lives will be able to intrigue and attract a generation that is bored with religion and cynical of pious talk [to Christianity]. Love will do it. Lifestyle will do it. The manifest power of God will do it. And so will the dynamic Christian worship, where the Beyond comes into the midst and deeply touches those who would not even admit to believing there is a Beyond.
My Favorite Hymn.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.
That God in eternity looked upon me—foreseeing my fallen nature, my pride, sin—and said, “I want that man in My family. I would do anything to get him in My family. I would pay for him to be in My family with My Son’s life.” That’s love, folks. That is mega, off-the-charts love.
How does it feel to know that we have brothers and sisters who are suffering and being tortured for believing in Jesus Christ while trying to bring the gospel to unreached peoples, and others that starving to death with young girls being sold into slavery to be continually raped… All the while Christians here cannot stop arguing over issues of Calvinism and Arminianism, church politics, worship style, teaching style, and other trivial issues, making Christianity entertaining with concerts and church camps for emotionalism and competitive games, excommunicating brothers and sisters over eschatological differences and arguing over the smallest Greek discrepancies. There are places to do some of these things but it’s clear we have our priorities wrong. This is not the heart of Jesus. We’re wasting our lives.
What’s more disturbing is that most Christians who are confronted with this truth will do nothing to help those who are needy and poor in spirit for a countless number of excuses.
Maybe the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not being heard and falling on deaf ears because the church has stopped taking action and stopped obeying the commands of Christ to go out into the hard places.
How can we say that we highly revere the Scriptures when we don’t obey their commands. I include myself in this critique. Maybe the world will hear the glorious gospel message of the risen Christ when we start taking action, bringing social justice to our communities. We do this so that we may show the world that the Lord is God and there is no other besides him.
Just some thoughts.
A vibrant and full-orbed spirituality, as exhibited by Jesus, involves active engagement with the world on mission for God and as empowered by the Spirit