Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Faithful

Faithful


Are you? Am I? I wish I could say since I gave my life to Christ at age 12 I have always been faithful, but sadly there have been times where I have not.  Faithful is a word that carries great responsibility, commitment, and loyalty along with it.  I have failed my Lord many times and if not for His patience, grace, mercy, and given me another chance I wouldn't probably be in ministry let alone a christian at this point in my life.

We can say many things about God, but one this is His is "Faithful"!  He never leaves us, lets us down, breaks promises, or walks out on us.  Many people have experience the pain, heartache, and hurt of earthly relationships where someone like a parent, or spouse should have been faithful to us, but instead we were left with broken trust, promises, and hearts.

I have also found in my years in ministry and personal faith that I see a trend in our churches today that makes me sad and that is a lack of  true "Faithful" followers of Christ. We have a lot of people who claim Christ, or membership in His church, but we have fewer and fewer who are truly committed, loyal, and faithful to God and His church.  This trend needs to change and it will only change when me and you get dead serious about our Faith.

The sad part is we carry on our lack of faithfulness to our children, family, and friends. We make Christianity look like it's optional, or an elective, if we don't have other or better things to do.  We teach our children  commitment to sports, competition, and team and yet we teach them faith is optional and secondary. We teach others we don't care to skip church or involvement or serve consistently because it interferes with our hobbies or social lives.    Do you see how easy it is for this type of lack of faithfulness to the Lord to domino affect?

Instead we need to set the example and standard of faithfulness in our lives to God. Our spouses, families, children, friends, neighbors, co-workers, employeers, and coaches should all know that God is number one in my life and all else is secondary..  I am not just talking about church service attendance, I am talking about overall christianity. How faithful are we in sharing our faith? Reading or studying God's Word?  Daily prayer?  Serving? Helping Others?  Personal Worship?  There are many things we can be doing to grow our personal faith besides just attending church services, however, the local church is an extension of our faith, and if we are a Christian, we should be connected to a local church body, and be a "FAITHFUL" body part serving, giving, worshipping, on that local church body.

We ALL need to do some soul searching and honest evaluations of our lives and see how serious and "FAITHFUL" we are being to our Lord, God, and Savior. We surely want his Faithfulness to us. We want the benefits of His Salvation, Grace, Mercy, Peace, Comfort, Hope, Assurance, and Love, yet how many of us would be faithful to someone who used us, neglected us, or only wanted us when it benefited them or was convenient? I don't know anyone who would want in a relationship like that.

It is easy to give our lives to the Lord and be saved and baptized. It is a free Gift from God, however being faithful to God and making an effort to grow and mature into a fully devoted Christ follower is a lot of work, commitment, and we have to work at it. We will make mistakes, fall short, sin, and have a bad day here and there, but we all know there is a big difference in being Faithful to something and being fair-weather.

I want to encourage you to be faithful to God and His church daily.  Recently we buried a lady from our church who was a true faithful follower. She came to church when most people would have used it an an excuse to stay home and many miss church for much less. She was faithful in her prayers and reading of God's word and it reflected in her life, attitude, and actions. She inspired me.  She also convicted me, because even as a Preacher, I don''t feel I was as faithful as this dear Saint.

I pray we all can find a desire, a will, and motivation to be faithful til the end in our relationship with God. Be faithful to Him, His Word, and His church.

Hebrews 10:23(NIV)
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

The Motions

The Motions

There is a song I've heard many times, but last week at camp we sung it and the lyrics were up on the screen for us to sing and it really spoke to me, convicted me, and challenged me.   So many times especially when it comes to our Faith and Christian Walk, too many of us young and old, just "go through the motions", and we do not take our faith seriously, share it like we should, and we definitely don't spend the time committed to developing or deepening our relationship with Christ.

It's very very easy to become complacent, bored, or status quo in our faith journey and we have to realize that our Christianity is up to us, we are the only one who is going to answer to God and who can grow or destroy our faith.  We must be proactive, committed, and determined on a daily basis in our christian faith if not, then we are going to be just another half-hearted, well-meaning person going through the motions in our faith.

When we go through the motions, we do not hear God, see Him, or experience Him.  We are not good witnesses, examples, or influences for the kingdom of God.  We are hurting ourselves, the church body, and others when we do not take our faith seriously and just play christian or church.

I want to challenge you as I am challenging myself, to stop going through the motions and take your faith seriously.  Make an effort, be committed, put your relationship with Christ first, and make it a priority in everything you do.  Fair-weather christians are a dime a dozen,  God needs committed followers and members of His body that don't just go through the religious motions, but who have desire to grow, worship, serve, and give.  

Take a moment to read the song lyrics below and I have also placed a link so you can go listen/view the song on youtube.


"The Motions" lyrics by Matthew West
This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break
At least I'll be feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something

‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(‘Cause I don't wanna go through the motions)

Take me all the way
(Lord, I'm finally feeling something real)
Take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything
Instead of going through the motions?
Take me all the way
(Take me all the way)
Take me all the way
(I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)

Take me all the way
(Through the motions)
Take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions


Link to song: