It is easy for me to expect great things from Church. After all, Jesus started it. And anything He puts His hands on is good. Looking at the book of Acts, it is easy to see that the church we have all heard about, the ideological church, is not the one mentioned and talked about by Luke and Paul. Murder, racism, hypocrisy, gossip...Wait...This sounds like church today! What I mean is, there was a willingness to lay it all down for the cause. People were changed, transformed and different.
we have become more interested in adding God to the list of things that make our lives better. Kind like central heat and air, carpet, padded pews, big programs. All designed to make life as the believer better, more meaningful, but not so different. Sure, we may stop doing certain things, but we seldom replace them with acts of charity and love and sacrifice. For most, when salvation comes, the rest of the journey is about them...A continual journey of self gratification. And the American Church perpetuates it.
do we really believe that for all the hassle Jesus put up with, all the beatings he took, the death he died, the words he spoke, do we really believe that what he wants from us is a comfortable existence with no problems and no brokenness? I guess when he said "the world will hate you because it first hated me" we thought he was just kidding.
I had a conversation with a guy the other day about really knowing God, being intimate with Jesus in every area of life. We realized that brokenness was the key. Few of us know Jesus intimately because we have never been broken. broken over our sin. Till we see ourselves as He does, we cannot truly know Him.
there needs to be an expectation of pain and suffering when the movement overtakes us. There can be no victory with out sacrifice. We must learn it is not for our glory that we strive against sin. It is for the Gory of the King...Jesus Christ.
the Church would be a lot less if we told them up front...OK, welcome to the family. From this point on, your family may disown you. Your career may suffer. You may be imprisoned and tortured. You may never find financial security. You will be mocked and mistreated. HOWEVER, Jesus will walk with you each step of the day. He will fill you with His love and concern for people. He will supply all your daily needs. You will have the priviledge to know Him in such a way that others can only read about. And when all the suffering and mocking and lack of acceptance by the world is over, you die...Only to be embraced by the King Himself, and spend eternity loving and worshiping Him.
ready? I thought you were.
2 comments:
Awesome! Hard facts but so true! How can we lie to people when they come to Christ and say "your life will be awesome now that you're saved!" - it is awesome, but it is awesome through the trials and pain, not a safety net from them!
Our very words betray us and have for sometime I'm afraid. The imagery portrayed through things like 'onward christian soldiers' or being 'more than conquerers' leads us to believe that we buy in and everything is just daisies & butterflies, when nothing could be further from the truth.
I sat & watched the very antithesis of this portrayed through sitting & watching the original star wars with Cameron my 5 year old. I was blown away as truth was on display so evidently from a movie that I loved from my childhood for totally other reasons.
As a kid, I watched in horror as Obi-Wan withdrew his light sabre, allowing Vader to strike him down. I cried out with Luke a resounding NO!!!!! as I saw his cloak fall to the ground empty. I couldn't understand such behavior.
As an adult, I watched with understanding as Obi-Wan told Vader that he would only grow stronger if he were to strike him down. I pondered the very words of Christ to His own and how he tried to tell them that He must go for their sake. Obi definitely knew that life was more than 'food, and the body more than clothing.'
I know that we're long over due for an overhaul & the heart is where it all begins. From there we can see the manifestation of the ancient truths in the words of our mouths. Problem now is, that our unbridled tongue is under the mind's management & until we change that, I'm afraid that we're doomed.
May the oar of my ship be guided by the heart conrolled totally by Christ.
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