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“God so loved the world that HE DID SOMETHING!!”
That is what it said on the bumper sticker I used to have on my car. The car is gone, and so is the bumper sticker. But I think it makes a very valid point.
Our faith should call Christians to get off of their read-ends. I am sick and tired of spectator-Christianity. The Holy Spirit of God should inspire us to action. Everywhere we look, the enemies of the cross are advancing their agenda. Christians, on the other hand, leave everything up to God.
Pews were never meant to be padded. A session at “church” should make you uncomfortable. Our football players hated practice. Church should be like practice. That’s where the fat gets worked off and the skills get honed. The job of the “pastor” is to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry.”
“What…works? Are you kidding me? I thought Jesus delivered us from works,” the average pew-sitter says. “That’s why we pay the pastor…he is the ‘professional Christian’ and has been trained to share the Gospel. I have to earn a living and don’t have time to do it.”
Yeah pal, and that is why you have bed sores…er…pew sores on your butt. Faith is the breath of action.
The Apostle Paul exhorted us to “show” our faith. Today’s pastors have taught us to “share” it. Christianity is a “go ye” faith. We have turned it into a “come ye” faith. No wonder so little work is getting done. While the enemy works, Christians only pray.
Cue:
The Bible is full of action verbs. Go, stand, speak, exhort, oppose, occupy, contend…why do so few Christians obey those exhortations?
The idea that “God is control of everything” has paralyzed Christians. My friend Tom told me one time that God is IN control of everything, but He does not CONTROL everything. Instead, He EMPOWERS His people for the work of the ministry.
Empowering us is His way of controlling things. We are His ambassadors, His emissaries, His soldiers. It is His people that He sends to speak for Him.
Why is this so hard to understand?
What are works, and what do they have to do with me? Well, works are the evidence of your faith. That’s why Paul told us to “show” it.
Jesus showed it. He spent a lonely night in the garden praying before He went to His death. None of us know the struggle He had as He “wrestled” with the will of His Father, but we do know that He prayed so hard that blood came out of His pores. But at the end of his “prayer meeting” He got up and walked the rocky road to Golgotha.
Jesus so loved the world that He did something. He obeyed and He went. It was no walk in the park. He was beaten and broken. He put legs to His prayers.
Did He do what He did so we can sit on our hind end and watch His children surrender to evil?
This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Informing And Equipping Americans Who Love Freedom
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