"EVIDENCE"

Soo....

its the summer...

and you would think that since I have a little more time on my hands, I would be writing these more often...

Nope.


Anyway, I was thinking a little bit earlier today and listening to a sermon (Mark Driscoll), and one of the points he brought out is, If we truly and genuinely love Christ and seek his face within our daily walk...then there should be some sort of evidence and change in you displaying his work in your life...

Some people might get mad at me for some of the things im about to say, Im ok with that...this is all in love.

I agree with Driscoll on this point. A common lie spread amongst people today and for quite some time now is that if we believe Jesus is the son of God and that he died for our sins and we say a little 3 minute prayer, then we are granted our spot in heaven. There is only one problem with that...many church leaders who lead people to Christ (with good intentions of course), forget to preach to these new born again believers that following Christ is a LIFESTYLE and that when you follow him you are radically changed for the rest of your life! Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, " But everything that was gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...", Paul was extremely self righteous before God changed his life. For those who don't know what that means, it's not a good thing....Unfortunately a large percentage of Christians today reflect that attitude and lifestyle.

Now when I say all of this, i'm not saying that when we surrender our lives to Christ some of the sin and temptations in our life will magically be erased right away...some will right away, and some will be a life long battle. What i'm saying is that because Christ has rescued us and saved us from eternal damnation we should love him with everything that we have. 1 John 4:19 "We love him, because he first loved us." That means before you even cared to know about him! I mean if someone pushed you out of the way of a speeding car and saved your life, wouldn't you be eternally grateful to that person?? That person saved your life!! It's no different when giving your life to Jesus! He saves your life FOREVER the moment you give your life to him. The least you can do is live for him.

All too many times, people say the 3 minute prayer and expect something magical to happen. It doesn't happen that way. I've seen this storyline waaaaaaaaaay too man times, and I think a lot of you know what i'm talking about. Someone in the youth group goes to a week long christian camp during the summer, and the pastor gives an invitation to receive Christ and that person walks up, prays the prayer and gets saved. This person is really happy, and is on what a lot of us call a "spiritual high", and it lasts for about 3 weeks......if that. After it wears off and school starts back up, they get back into the groove of things...and back into their old sinful habits, like nothing ever happened. No change. No evidence. Some of you all might call me out on this, but I would seriously question whether this person is even saved or if they were just caught up in the atmosphere of the camp and made an emotional decision. It's sad. Now while the Bible does say,"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God " Ephesians 2:8, James 2:20 also says " faith without works is dead". It takes more than believing to follow Christ, it takes LIVING.

Now don't misunderstand the point i'm trying to drive here...we Christians are not perfect, nor will we ever be. When I point the finger on this topic, three are pointing RIGHT back at me. If you look at some of the backgrounds of the people who wrote these books in the Bible...you should know first hand that God doesn't want "Perfect", "Moral", "Self Righteous" people serving him. He wants, on fire, genuine, repentant believers who earnestly seek him in their daily walk. Everyone of us have our demons that we face everyday, Satan is powerful and has the power to steer us off track if we let him. As long as we live by what the word of God teaches, repent of our sins daily, immerse ourselves into his glory, worship God and know that he SOO much bigger and mightier than us....we won't have to worry about the change in our lives because people will already see it, it will be evident. There is freedom in Christ and many don't know that, or know what it really means. Living for Jesus is never boring if we're doing it right, the moment we think we have God figured out is the moment we start slipping away...we should always be amazed by our mighty God. Don't try to change yourself, let God change you...and the only way that will happen is giving your life to him.

God Bless.