Some will hate and despise me for saying this, but what's gotta be said, gotta be said. If you decide to hate me after reading this, at least do something - open your ears & start listening to God. I don't care if my name is not found in your address book but I do care if your name is not found in the Book of Life.
It's no secret that many Christians have come under attack - the attack of complacency and spiritual stagnation. These are the go-through-motion Christians who come Sunday after Sunday (and then again, not all Sundays), sign off an invisible attendance sheet and then go about merrily with their after-church routine. They are the ones who excuse themselves at the slightest trouble (eg. migraine, feeling tired, etc), who find all kinds of reasons to avoid going to the altar to soak in God's presence (lest God has something to tell them that they would rather not hear), who have given up the habit of meeting together for real fellowship, preferring breakfast chitchat, coffeeshop talk and murmuring over God's Word.
Their blessings have become a curse unto them. They make all decisions surrounding the precious little children they have asked for once upon a time, and whom God has blessed them with. They make sure their kids attend Sunday School as if it's part of our compulsory national education system, but are themselves not found in any Bible Study classes or home fellowship groups. Or they pour their life into the wonderful job that God has blessed them with, to the extent that they have little energy and serious time left with God. They have every God-given talent and gift to serve but just as many reasons not to. They may attend the annual church camp and other Christian events, but hardly spend more than 30 minutes in the sanctuary each Sunday, and of those precious 30 minutes, how many were spent intently drinking in God's Word and gazing into God's eyes, only God knows.
Years ago, a sister attended our Sunday Service week after week, mustering all the strength she could find, to bring her cancer-ravaged body into the sanctuary. When alter calls were made, she would limp on her walking cane all the way to the front to soak in God's presence. She was always cheerful despite the pain her body was apparently afflicted with. Her strength & joy was obviously supernatural with God as the sole source. Life was a struggle for her, but she was in the front-seat with God, and is today happily reunited with God where He is. Another sister, polio-stricken, weak in her legs, not only attends church faithfully Sunday after Sunday. She also teaches in Sunday School and hosts the home cell fellowship meetings. And I have seen elderly ladies taking down notes during Sunday Service, responding to altar calls, and well, just being what a Christian should be.
No one takes a nap and wakes up in heaven. If your sense of self-sufficiency has lulled you into complacency and brought you into an all-time low point in your love affair with God, confront and confess it, and ask God to rekindle that flame you once had when you first encountered God intimately. God is meant for us to experience everyday. He isn't a trophy for display or a baptism certificate to frame. We need an acute sense of dependency. When Jesus says in John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches", He wasn't kidding. Put plainly, we are designed to depend on Him or die.
Time to wake up.
May God bless you,
Thomas
1 comment:
Thanks for the wake-call Brother! We indeed are asleep while the world is going to hell. Judgment begins at the House of God because we are responsible in this generation to bring the Gospel.
Father, forgive us for the causual way in which we have handled the gift of eternal life. Awaken us and fill us one more time with the Fire of the Holy Ghost. In Jesus' Name.
Post a Comment