THE POWER BEHIND "I BELIEVE"
;Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Over this last year I have felt the church slipping somewhat into a comfortable place...a rather dangerous place. John 12: 35-38 Jesus said: "You are going to have the light a little while longer. Walk while you have the light; before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of light. When H had finished speaking , Jesus left and hide Himself from them. Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him...this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet " Lord who ha believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed"
I see people growing faint hearted because the very leadership that they are drawing their strength from is weakening. The reason for that is directly tied to looking for the easiest way we can find to live out our commitment to Christ. We have become a society that operates through finding the quickest solution...which in most cases ends up being a very temporary fix for what ever spiritual problem that exists in our life at the time.
One of the things that I have learned in my walk with Christ is that God does not deal in temporary fixes. Instead He tends to take a long and sometimes very painful and costly route on the pathway to fixing something in our lives. For the most part I have found very few people who have been willing to take the time or make the effort to fix things they have broken in life...I know that is true of me; to my own dismay. When ever there is a surgery needed in our life we look for the first quickest pain killer we can find, or if possible something that will block any sense of pain we may have even after the surgery has been done so that we have little suffering or discomfort.
My point in all of this is that we have forgotten how to feel tings spiritually, and because of that we have begun to have a disconnect with God emotionally. We may still say the words of commitment to Christ, but the real power of our heart is no longer behind those words many times. Our love seems to have changed from that first love into a love that has become comfortable much like wearing a pair of older shoes that have conformed to the shape of our own feet. They may feel good at first when we slip them on but how much real support are we getting if we are required to be on our feet for a long period of time?
When it comes right down to it we must ask ourselves how much do we believe? In this year we have an opportunity to move from a stagnant position in our spiritual lives to a dynamic difference in the way the church operates. I want for each of us to grasp the importance of what it means to believe fully in Christ. I believe the time is coming when the light that we are given in Christ will be so challenged by the world that it will be very hard for us to shine. When I look at the warning that Jesus gave in the book of John I wonder how long we will have the opportunity to share that light openly. We have not yet seen the persecution of the world in this country, nor have we witnessed for Christ so strenuously as to shed blood for our beliefs; but I know in my heart that the day will come when we all must stand and give an account. Dear friends, we must know the power behind what it means to say I believe. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Over this last year I have felt the church slipping somewhat into a comfortable place...a rather dangerous place. John 12: 35-38 Jesus said: "You are going to have the light a little while longer. Walk while you have the light; before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. Put your trust in the light while you have it so that you may become sons of light. When H had finished speaking , Jesus left and hide Himself from them. Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him...this was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet " Lord who ha believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed"
I see people growing faint hearted because the very leadership that they are drawing their strength from is weakening. The reason for that is directly tied to looking for the easiest way we can find to live out our commitment to Christ. We have become a society that operates through finding the quickest solution...which in most cases ends up being a very temporary fix for what ever spiritual problem that exists in our life at the time.
One of the things that I have learned in my walk with Christ is that God does not deal in temporary fixes. Instead He tends to take a long and sometimes very painful and costly route on the pathway to fixing something in our lives. For the most part I have found very few people who have been willing to take the time or make the effort to fix things they have broken in life...I know that is true of me; to my own dismay. When ever there is a surgery needed in our life we look for the first quickest pain killer we can find, or if possible something that will block any sense of pain we may have even after the surgery has been done so that we have little suffering or discomfort.
My point in all of this is that we have forgotten how to feel tings spiritually, and because of that we have begun to have a disconnect with God emotionally. We may still say the words of commitment to Christ, but the real power of our heart is no longer behind those words many times. Our love seems to have changed from that first love into a love that has become comfortable much like wearing a pair of older shoes that have conformed to the shape of our own feet. They may feel good at first when we slip them on but how much real support are we getting if we are required to be on our feet for a long period of time?
When it comes right down to it we must ask ourselves how much do we believe? In this year we have an opportunity to move from a stagnant position in our spiritual lives to a dynamic difference in the way the church operates. I want for each of us to grasp the importance of what it means to believe fully in Christ. I believe the time is coming when the light that we are given in Christ will be so challenged by the world that it will be very hard for us to shine. When I look at the warning that Jesus gave in the book of John I wonder how long we will have the opportunity to share that light openly. We have not yet seen the persecution of the world in this country, nor have we witnessed for Christ so strenuously as to shed blood for our beliefs; but I know in my heart that the day will come when we all must stand and give an account. Dear friends, we must know the power behind what it means to say I believe. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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