It amazes me how people can profess to be Christians and strive with every ounce of life in their bodies to serve the world. It is no small wonder that churches are not effective in the ministry of reaching souls for the kingdom. People today want the social comforts of a church meeting without a genuine transformation taking place in their lives. This leaves the question of why. Why do people who claim to have a relationship with the King of Kings refuse to be transformed by His almighty power? The answer, although harsh, is rather simple. They do not obey Christ’s commands because they do not know His commands, or actually they are pretending to be something they are not.
It makes me sick almost to the point of throwing up to watch people play church and live like the devil. Christ called us to be part of His Kingdom. If there is no other single motivation for serving Christ with passion, it would be one look at the cross. This alone should be our call to arms. We should be reminded that salvation was not cheap for Christ. He paid our debt with his life. The least we should do is serve our Lord with passion and tenacity.
In keeping on point, people do not obey the Commands of Christ. Often they just do not care. They will do whatever they want to do. This should not be the attitude of followers of Christ. Maybe they have not yet read 1 John 3:9 "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning."1 The continual practice of sin is not the mark of a Christian. The Apostle Paul records in 2 Corinthians 5:17 " Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." When we accept Christ the old nature is put to death and the new nature has come. This means that we do not desire to continue to do the things we know are sin.
God did not call us to be of the world, just to live in the world. We serve the King, and he has paid the price for our sin by his blood. We should live for Him in every way possible.
The second area to be discussed is touchy. I strongly believe that people who are given to continual sin practices are lost. They have never truly asked Christ into their lives. True repentance has never taken place. Just for the record, true repentance involves turning away from the sin. People like to dress up on Sunday’s so others can see them at church but have no idea what it means to be a child of the King. Maybe the appropriate word is hypocrite. That is not a popular word in church groups. People have to admit that are pretending. It will be a sad day in heaven when Jesus speaks to the posers of the church with these words, "Depart from me because I never knew you." That is what happens, regardless of how often ones goes to church, if they have not been transformed by the Grace of God.
People in church today do not obey the word of God because they do not know the word of God. People in church today are encouraged to think that church is a social institution. People are not being transformed into the likeness of Christ because they are not reading and hearing preached the words of Christ. It is time for those who stand to proclaim the words of God do so with passion and authority. It is time to stop having church to get the warm fuzzy feels goods and know that we are coming into the presence of Almighty God. We should seek repentance and forgiveness and serve with love and passion.
Preach the Word
Todd Peebles
Friday, February 13, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)