Jesus is awesome. He died for us (even though we clearly all suck) because he loved us THAT much. It is almost impossible for our feeble human minds to really comprehend it. We often say that we would die for someone, but when faced with the situation, who really would? I'm not talking about spur of the moment, shove someone out of the way from getting run over by a bus. He knew it was coming a long ways off and he had a lot of time to think about it.
Now we all have this crazy idea that, as an individual, "I'm not a bad person." You really are, in the scheme of things, a crappy person - we all are. But just for the sake of understanding, think of someone whom you consider to be a worthless, rotten, waste of life and space on this planet. Jesus loved that person so much that he was tortured and died for THAT PERSON TOO.
It is so hard for us to really fathom it. For crying out loud, I don't even like to share a candy bar with anyone.... cause it's mine. and I want it.
Jesus did this for us, and asks very little in return. To most people, it would seem like a lot that he asks for. What if Jesus wants me to stop doing this or that? I love doing this or that...why would the Lord want me to give it up? I had many fears that the Lord would ask me to do things I didn't want to, or ask me to give up things.
The real "catch" of giving up everything for the Lord is that nothing you are holding onto can make you happy. The way you will be the most fulfilled, blessed, happy, and whole is by giving Him everything. All the Lord wants in return for dying for us is that we believe in Him. The rest will fall into place. So to dye for us, then ask that we just believe in Him and he will do the rest - oh, and that this will in turn give us everlasting life and peace in our hearts while on earth - is really not asking much at all.
Unfortunately (you may think it unfortunate anyways...), at some point, the Lord will ask for action. Just as faith without works is dead, believing in Christ is not going to stop at you simply proclaiming that you are a Christian. Where would we be if Christ verbalized his love for us but never followed through?
I remember when I was 13 and I decided that I knew Christ and believed in Him, but my young, troubled teenage heart could understand what Christ desired of me. It is only in the last few years that I have begun to hear God's voice and learn to trust and truly follow him.
For those several years that I was growing up and growing ever so slowly in Christ, I was one to constantly justify my wrongs. I had many strong opinions about what I believed, and most of these opinions began with the words "I believe..."
"I believe that it doesn't matter if I watch movies with sex and violence in them."
"I believe that it doesn't matter how I dress, because of what's in my heart."
"I believe that God will forgive me if I do this."
When I formed an opinion of something, it was directly related to my preferences on the subject. I rarely (if ever) pulled out my Bible and read as many scriptures as I could pertaining to it, I never prayed about it and asked God for answers. If someone who was a "better" Christian than me mentioned something sinful, I would justify to myself why it either wasn't sinful or why it wasn't sinful when I would do it - or I would just push it out of my mind altogether. Besides, that person is a hypocrite, right?
So many people have decided that they believe in God, but they want to stop there. They would rather sit on the fence, being generally a "good" person and yet never reading their bibles, never praying, and never trusting or relying on God for anything.
At one point, I realized how unhappy I was. I felt like I was doing everything wrong, and of course, I was. I could criticize these other Christians all I wanted, but I envied how close they were to God. When I finally turned my heart over to God, for REAL, a transformation took place. I felt like, instead of bouncing God's light off of my outer shell because I was proclaiming that I was a Christian, I was suddenly made into an empty vessel that had more knowledge and insight poured into it every day.
This should not be some profound revelation. You know, in your heart and mind, if you have been too scared and reluctant up until now to give yourself to God. I don't need to tell you; you already know. You knew when you read the title of this blog post.
But you don't realize how detrimental your whole-hearted belief is to the cause of Christianity; it is the person who thinks they are spreading the knowledge of Christ that is actually turning around and conducting themselves in an unholy manner that makes Christianity look absurd. The happiness of having Christ in your heart does not show through to your friends when you genuinely are not happy because you don't know to trust in the Lord with all that you are.
Matthew 12:30
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
Most importantly, you don't realize how far from God you really are. If you were a sinner, at your lowest point, it would probably be easier for you to look up and come to salvation. But having a comfortable position of believing in God but not actually having to do anything else is so much harder to move away from.
It is so common for Christians to reach out to non-believers, but they rarely reach out to each other. I feel compelled to reach out to the fence-sitters. I was reached out to, in ways that the reacher will probably never fathom, and I am so thankful. I am nowhere near perfect, obviously, but I feel finally that I am on the path to really being more Christlike and being a person that God can use someday.
You cannot sit on the fence. You cannot stand for Christ but stand in the world. Pursue Christ and be fulfilled and complete, the way God intended.
If you feel that something needs to change and that you are tired of sitting on the fence, please; ask for prayer. You can message me and I will be more than happy to pray for you. Talk to your local church. Reach out to your friends. There are many people who are consistently willing to pray for you, including me.
Most importantly, pray on your own. Open your bible and spend some time with God. He is just waiting for you to honestly turn to him.
Further reading:
Faith without Compromise
Decisiveness
Now we all have this crazy idea that, as an individual, "I'm not a bad person." You really are, in the scheme of things, a crappy person - we all are. But just for the sake of understanding, think of someone whom you consider to be a worthless, rotten, waste of life and space on this planet. Jesus loved that person so much that he was tortured and died for THAT PERSON TOO.
It is so hard for us to really fathom it. For crying out loud, I don't even like to share a candy bar with anyone.... cause it's mine. and I want it.
Jesus did this for us, and asks very little in return. To most people, it would seem like a lot that he asks for. What if Jesus wants me to stop doing this or that? I love doing this or that...why would the Lord want me to give it up? I had many fears that the Lord would ask me to do things I didn't want to, or ask me to give up things.
The real "catch" of giving up everything for the Lord is that nothing you are holding onto can make you happy. The way you will be the most fulfilled, blessed, happy, and whole is by giving Him everything. All the Lord wants in return for dying for us is that we believe in Him. The rest will fall into place. So to dye for us, then ask that we just believe in Him and he will do the rest - oh, and that this will in turn give us everlasting life and peace in our hearts while on earth - is really not asking much at all.
Unfortunately (you may think it unfortunate anyways...), at some point, the Lord will ask for action. Just as faith without works is dead, believing in Christ is not going to stop at you simply proclaiming that you are a Christian. Where would we be if Christ verbalized his love for us but never followed through?
I remember when I was 13 and I decided that I knew Christ and believed in Him, but my young, troubled teenage heart could understand what Christ desired of me. It is only in the last few years that I have begun to hear God's voice and learn to trust and truly follow him.
For those several years that I was growing up and growing ever so slowly in Christ, I was one to constantly justify my wrongs. I had many strong opinions about what I believed, and most of these opinions began with the words "I believe..."
"I believe that it doesn't matter if I watch movies with sex and violence in them."
"I believe that it doesn't matter how I dress, because of what's in my heart."
"I believe that God will forgive me if I do this."
When I formed an opinion of something, it was directly related to my preferences on the subject. I rarely (if ever) pulled out my Bible and read as many scriptures as I could pertaining to it, I never prayed about it and asked God for answers. If someone who was a "better" Christian than me mentioned something sinful, I would justify to myself why it either wasn't sinful or why it wasn't sinful when I would do it - or I would just push it out of my mind altogether. Besides, that person is a hypocrite, right?
So many people have decided that they believe in God, but they want to stop there. They would rather sit on the fence, being generally a "good" person and yet never reading their bibles, never praying, and never trusting or relying on God for anything.
At one point, I realized how unhappy I was. I felt like I was doing everything wrong, and of course, I was. I could criticize these other Christians all I wanted, but I envied how close they were to God. When I finally turned my heart over to God, for REAL, a transformation took place. I felt like, instead of bouncing God's light off of my outer shell because I was proclaiming that I was a Christian, I was suddenly made into an empty vessel that had more knowledge and insight poured into it every day.
This should not be some profound revelation. You know, in your heart and mind, if you have been too scared and reluctant up until now to give yourself to God. I don't need to tell you; you already know. You knew when you read the title of this blog post.
But you don't realize how detrimental your whole-hearted belief is to the cause of Christianity; it is the person who thinks they are spreading the knowledge of Christ that is actually turning around and conducting themselves in an unholy manner that makes Christianity look absurd. The happiness of having Christ in your heart does not show through to your friends when you genuinely are not happy because you don't know to trust in the Lord with all that you are.
Matthew 12:30
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
Most importantly, you don't realize how far from God you really are. If you were a sinner, at your lowest point, it would probably be easier for you to look up and come to salvation. But having a comfortable position of believing in God but not actually having to do anything else is so much harder to move away from.
It is so common for Christians to reach out to non-believers, but they rarely reach out to each other. I feel compelled to reach out to the fence-sitters. I was reached out to, in ways that the reacher will probably never fathom, and I am so thankful. I am nowhere near perfect, obviously, but I feel finally that I am on the path to really being more Christlike and being a person that God can use someday.
You cannot sit on the fence. You cannot stand for Christ but stand in the world. Pursue Christ and be fulfilled and complete, the way God intended.
If you feel that something needs to change and that you are tired of sitting on the fence, please; ask for prayer. You can message me and I will be more than happy to pray for you. Talk to your local church. Reach out to your friends. There are many people who are consistently willing to pray for you, including me.
Most importantly, pray on your own. Open your bible and spend some time with God. He is just waiting for you to honestly turn to him.
Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life ~ John 8:12
Further reading:
Faith without Compromise
Decisiveness
John 15: 17-19 one of my favorites!
ReplyDeleteI would like to re-post this on my Facebook page because its so true and what I want to say to the lukewarm Christians that I know. But I know if I typed this out and posted it everyone would say I sm just "judging " them :) Can I post a link to your blog? Heather Brunson Baskall
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Heather! That's why I write it :) I'll be checking on it to see how it goes XP
ReplyDeleteReally impressive and true. Carry on the good sharing.
ReplyDelete