How can I express this?<\/p>\n
It seems that we just refuse to live by faith, refuse to listen to even simple instructions from the God whom we claim to be all-wise and all-knowing.<\/p>\n
We play, we downsize, we manipulate until church is comfortable, doable, and we are content.<\/p>\n
But we can’t be.<\/p>\n
I can’t stand before God one of these days and admit that for all the accolades I throw his way that I just couldn’t bring myself to trust him in the things that matter most.<\/p>\n
Everything that we do in church or in Christian service can be done while still keeping our heart far from God.<\/p>\n
Praise, worship, sing, serve. . .talk to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Christ.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 MSG If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. (2) If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. (3) If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bankrupt without love, and not what we interpret and define as love but God’s idea.<\/p>\n
And that kind of love means faith. Faith to love Christ, follow him and die along the way.<\/p>\n
All the stuff means nothing, clanging bells of nothingness.<\/p>\n
I guess I am just tired of so much pettiness and selfishness in the Church, so much not caring about what matters, and calling a national emergency when we get our feelings hurt or don’t get our way.<\/p>\n
(Romans 1:17 NKJV)\u00a0 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hebrews 11:6 ESV\u00a0 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Do we really want to stand before God with the satisfaction that we did a thing or two right, that we actually trusted his words instead of paying lip-service to his thoughts and ways?<\/p>\n
By faith then.\u00a0 The things that we do in his name must be things in which we have to trust God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How can I express this? It seems that we just refuse to live by faith, refuse to listen to even simple instructions from the God whom we claim to be all-wise and all-knowing. We play, we downsize, we manipulate until … Continue reading