Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Do we have the right Gospel?
This post aint gonna be polite, and I wont try to sugar coat the blunt truth I want to get across.
I see too many so-called Christians who claim to follow Jesus. But do they even read their Bibles? Do they even pray? Do they even outreach? Jesus never preached that it was His desire to see a bunch of followers sit and do nothing to further His Kingdom. God desires to be glorified, and when we sit around complaining God hasn’t prospered us, it really makes me wonder if they’ve got the right faith. I’d even go so far to saying that they arn’t real Christians, for the scripture says very clearly that we are to “die to ourselves and take up his cross daily and follow him.” (Luke 9:23) There is no in-betweens, and if they hope to live a mediocre Christian life and enter the Kingdom of heaven, they’re in for a big surprise. Because I’m pretty sure that they’ve got the wrong idea. Nothing is luke-warm with God. (Rev 3:16)
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
- Phil 1:21
I hate when people refuse to spend time with God in prayer, then commence to spew out a bunch of garbage later complaining that God never answers. God is not a vending machine where you insert “prayers” to collect your requests. If so, your idea of prayer needs to be revisted. And reading the Bible is not an obligation, but rather it should be a place where you go to seek the solid truth about who God is. It is not a dry read, and it’s really a shame that people dont even take the time to read whats inside to affirm the things they hear. (It’s even worse when people mix verses together — paraphrase and preach/mutilate the truth)
But I digress, what I’m trying to say is that when we signed those little cards proclaiming that we believed in Jesus, or prayed the acceptance prayer – we didn’t choose to believe in some weaksauce faith where we just sit around and do nothing. We didn’t embark on a gospel of prosperity, where we just expect good things in life, but rather quite the opposite. We are to be God’s servants. We are to be different from this world, we are to run upstream when things are going the other way. We are to shine in a world of darkness. There’s really no easy route to follow Jesus, but just cause it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean it’s not rewarding.
Where do you draw your motivation in following Christ? Is it from God? Do you know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Is Jesus-Christ the chief cornerstone of your life? And what does Salvation mean to you? Does the Gospel compell you to share with others? Cause if it doesn’t, then you really ask yourself. “Do I have the right Gospel?” Although, I do believe in the perseverance of the Saints, where once saved – always saved. It’s just as easy for me to challenge you to think if you actually have the right beliefs. Because when God denies you at the gates of heaven, you better not cry to anybody else.
One thing my generation fails to do, is ask questions. And eventually when you ask enough questions, you’ll arrive at the right ones, and find the right answers.
So I challenge you, take what I’ve said here and really evaluate who God is to you. Is He just a God of love? Or is he more than that? And what is the Gospel? Cause if you can’t come up with an answer to those questions like it’s your life (which it should be, literally) then you’ve got some soul-searching to do.
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on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 8:39 am:
There isn’t a mantra in the Bible about accepting Jesus.
“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” – 2 Cor 13:5