The "On the Clock" Christian

Most of us have been to jobs where you have to "clock in" when you get to work. For those that haven't, I think we can all agree when you are scheduled to be working you are using company time. In almost any work environment, many of us realize that there are people that try to cheat the system. Co-workers wasting company time and robbing their employers by taking extra and extended breaks, being lazy, talking on the cell phone, etc.
However, I think that many may be unaware that people that go by the name of Christian do the same thing to God. I call these "On the Clock" Christians, people that claim the name of Christ and then try to cheat God. How many of us have been "On the Clock" Christians? We may wake up in the morning and "clock in" with God and do our 30 minutes of reading and prayer and then we "clock out". Or maybe we go to all our bible studies, prayer meetings, and church during the week THEN we feel have put in our time with God. We do these things where we give God a small portion of our day, or an alloted time during the week, to ease our conscience and make ourselves feel better that we made room for God.
How many people just do not get it! Christianity is not about making room for God. Christianity is about giving up all for God, and letting Him be in control of all that we do so that "in all we do, in word or deed, we do ALL to the glory of God". We cannot be Christians for one hour a day, or 3 days a week. That is not a Christian at all. Our lives are to be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God. Is the Lord who gave His life for you only worthy of an hour a day? It ultimately boils down to your heart motive. If you are an "On the Clock" Christian, then you have not given control over to God. You are still master of parts of your life. You cannot serve two masters .... Christ must have your heart! Once Christ has your heart, it will be your desire to be in His presence .... to give Him your all .... to please Him morning, noon, and night.
There is no greater joy or purpose than giving Christ the throne of your heart and letting Him rule your life. No more "making time" for God to ease your conscience. You don't have to because you are no longer your own, you were bought with a price. All you have is now God's and all your time is God's. No more "duty" in reading the Bible and doing devotions. These things that were once duties turn into desires. Serving others, prayer, worship, reading .... all the things that are a grind for the "On the Clock" Christian now simply come naturally out of a heart that is totally surrendered to Christ.
Let us make sure that Christ is not a duty that we attend to as an "On the Clock" Christian. But let Him be the Lord of our life, who we serve naturally out of a thankful heart as "On fire" Christians .... willing to give all for the Lord who has given all for us. How can we ever re-pay? How can we ever express in words the gifts He has so freely given? Let us give back to a God that is worthy than so much more than we can give. Let us not insult the Lord by giving him a spot on our calender. If you have been an "On the Clock" Christian, examine yourself and see where you need to change ... and in the areas where you still sit on the throne, give them over to Christ and let Him rule your life.

Fattened ... Part Deux

After my last post, I continued reading through "The Challenge of Missions" by Oswald J. Smith and found that he talked about the ideas mentioned in my last post. So, I thought I'd share what he had to say about the topic. In chapter 7, he talks about his trip to Palestine and getting the chance to swim in the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee.
And he says, "I thought of the difference between the two bodies of water; one, the Sea of Galilee, teeming with life, and the other, the Dead Sea, stagnant and lifeless. 'Why', I asked myself, 'the difference?'
The Dead Sea takes in and takes in, but it never gives out; hence it is stagnant. The Sea of Galilee takes in but it also gives out; hence, it is filled with life; and its water is fresh. There you have a perfect illustration of the missionary church and the church that is not interested in missions. The latter takes in but it uses everything on itself. It never gives out. Hence it is filled with all sorts of loathsome creatures like a stagnant pool-criticism, gossip, fault-finding, division, and strife, etc., etc. The missionary church takes in, but it also gives out. Hence it is alive and aggressive and God's blessing rests upon it.
The same is true of the individual. The one who keeps everything for himself and refuses to share it with others, becomes a stagnant pool-a Dead Sea, a blessing to no one. The one who invests in foreign missionary work, is living an abundant life. It is for us to decide whether our lives are to be symbolized by the Dead Sea or the Sea of Galilee."
I think that goes along perfectly with what I was trying to say, and he did it shorter and more to the point. We must not become stagnant pools only focused on ourselves! God wants servants that a ready to do his will, not leeches just want to suck out the things that benefit them. Life is too short, we must not be useless and unfruitful.
As Oswald J. Smith wrote, "God so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only Son. He gave Heaven's best. What have you given?" Are you holding back? Saving the best for yourself? We are blessed to be a blessing! Let us go and bless others!

Fattened in a day of slaughter

James 5:5 states, "You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." This chapter of James talks about the misuse of riches and the sin of loving the world, and it also exhorts the christian to be patient and look for the coming of the Lord.
In my opinion, the verse above describes the church of America today pretty accurately. Judgment begins in the House of God and I believe we need to wake up. We are living lives of pleasure and fattening our hearts for a day of slaughter. We lavishly spend money on ourselves. We are focused on bettering ourselves and marketing the gospel to make ourselves prosperous. We need to wake up! Being a Christian is not about becoming a better you or about you being comfortable and prosperous. A Christian is dead so that Christ may live! Christianity is about serving others and bringing the good news of the gospel to a dying world at any cost!
Something that God has been speaking to me is that I need to stop talking and start doing. Many of us (myself included) have a collection of Christian books, dvds, tutorials, etc. Everytime a new book comes out or there is a big stir about something we grab the merchandise for it. What God has been telling me is that I need to get my head out of the books and off the t.v. screen and look up at a lost and dying world. Now please dont misunderstand me, I don't believe it is wrong to read Christian books or that it is a bad thing to have Christian merchandise. However, we cannot constantly fill ourselves all the time and simply read the next thing and have our head stuck in a book while a dying world goes to hell. We cannot be always learning and never doing anything. We must take what we learn in those books, and then get our head out of the book and use what we learned to help a world in desperate need of a Saviour. The purpose of filling ourselves up, is so that we can be prepared to pour ourselves out to others and be a blessing to them. Too often I think we get caught up in "I need to find the secret to prayer" or "I need a new special revelation of the Word" or "I need this guy's new secret for world evangelism". But if we would only look to God first and seek first His kingdom, he would show us these things Himself. Where do you think the people that wrote these books got their revelation and inspiration? If we would ACTUALLY pray ourselves, read the Word ourselves, and seek God with all our heart than we wouldn't need someone else's revelation. There is not going to be a secret formula for some special experiences in these books. We simply need to walk daily with God ourselves, pray, read the Word, and let Him mold us into what he wants us to be. My hope for you after reading this is not for you to think I am against Christian literature or merchandise, because I have a collection of it myself and some that I cherish because I believe we can learn from men and women of God and be encouraged by brothers and sisters in Christ. I am just firmly persuaded that we need a healthy balance of filling ourselves up without forgetting to pour ourselves out. We must serve others, not simply focus on ourselves and accumulate head knowledge. If we do not do this, I believe we are going to be doing exactly what James 5:5 says and be fattening our hearts in a day of slaughter.
My pastor talks quite often about those who claim "The message hasn't changed, only the methods have changed." I believe that anyone with any sense would realize this is not the case. I saw a church sign driving down the road on Sunday that said "We don't change the message, the message changes us." Now that is a much better quote. In the book "The Challenge of Missions" by Oswald J. Smith there is a quote about missions support that is "We do not raise it by means of suppers, bazaars, concerts, rummage sales, or oyster stews. Not because I am against these methods, but because they will not work." This is the same message my pastor has been giving for some time on reaching the lost. These things do not work, but this is where we put all our money. There is so much we could be doing, but we are wasting our time. If we would just be willing to give up one McDonald's value meal a week, or one movie ... I think you get the point ... we could send a missionary to share the gospel that could save souls for eternity. What are we going to tell God when we face Him in Heaven and he says, "Look at the misery you have caused. All your treasures have rotted away, rusted, and been eaten by moths. All that you have built has been consumed by fire and nothing is left but rubble." Those are not the words I want to hear when I see my Lord and Saviour. I want to hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Share in the joy of your Lord." We need to wake up and make some major changes in order for this to happen. We need to seek God with all our heart and see what He would have each of us do.

Drifting

On August 17, 2008 Pastor Darrell used in his sermon Hebrews 2:1 which says, "For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it." He then went on to ask, "Why would the Bible say not to drift away if it was not possible to drift away?" This is a very obvious but good question. The question touches on the issue of eternal security (another blog for another day), but I'd like to focus simply on drifting right now. I would like to look closer at Hebrews 2:1. It begins by saying "For this reason" ... for what reason? To be able to understand and logically interpret this, we must read before this in Chapter 1 to find out what reason he is talking about. As Pastor Darrell teaches CONTEXT IS KING. So, if you read Chapter 1 to get context, you find that it talks about God who spoke long ago to our fathers in the prophets. It talks about God in the last days speaking through His Son. It talks about Christ being made lower than the angels for a while but then given a greater name and place than the angels. It also mentions the angels being ministering spirits for the sake of us who will inherit eternal life. So what this verse is saying is that FOR THIS REASON .... meaning that since God has spoken to us through prophets, and angels, and even His Son .... since God has so clearly communicated to us through signs, miracles, wonders, prophecies, and undeniable events .... since His chosen vessels sacrificed so much .... since His only begotten Son became flesh and gave His life for us .... that FOR THIS REASON we should pay closer attention to what we have heard so that we may not drift away from it. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

I was thinking about drifting after the sermon and was reading Proverbs and came across Proverbs 19:15 and it seemed to explain some ways that maybe I tend to "drift". The verse says, "Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger." Reading that started to convict me. I started to think about times where I've gotten lazy. Have you ever been there? Lazy in prayer time? Lazy in reading the word? Stay up late and forget about God? Sleep in instead of doing devotions? Watch tv instead of pray? Substitute any reason or excuse in place of spending time with God? We know that the problem is never with God, the problem is always with us. So we have to figure out where we are going wrong if we feel that we are drifting from God, or that our spirits are dry, or the heavens brass, or our spiritual man is starving. Pastor Darrell once said that "what you feed will grow, and what you starve will die." I think that is a very simple but very important statement. We need to watch what we feed in our lives, and we have to make sure to starve the wrong things out of our lives. We should be feeding the Spirit, and starving the flesh.

I HATE RELIGION

Hate Religion? You may say that it is not right to hate. To this I would simply ask if is it not right to have the heart of Christ? Should we not love what he loves and hate what he hates? For this reason, I'd like to share why I think God hates religion. Religion may be one of the main causes of sending people to hell, or hindering people from living truly godly lives. Listening to JR during prayer service last Sunday and listening to an old sermon by Dave Stoltzfus have led me to look deeper into this topic of "religion". Jesus himself said in Matthew 5:20, "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." As JR explained, the scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of their time. They were conservative, orthodox, pious, law-abiding, etc. These groups fasted, prayed, read, went to church, sacrificed, circumcised, tithed 30% of their income, were responsible for copying the holy scriptures, etc. The scribes and the Pharisees lived their life by the law. But where is God in the law? The law was never meant to save, the law was meant to show us OUR SIN. THAT WAS THE PROBLEM. They were self-righteous, putting their hope and faith in their ability to carry out the law in their flesh. God went further with them though. He pushed through their hypocrisy and went after the motive of their hearts. He exposed their "religion" by showing them how corrupt and evil their hearts were. He did this by going straight down the list of the laws ... saying that the law says do not murder, but if you hate your brother you have committed murder in your heart .... or the law says do not commit adultery, but if you look upon a woman with lust you have already committed adultery in your heart ... and he goes on. We should not exalt ourself in our ability to keep the commandments of Christ. We should not boast in our daily devotion and how we pray 3 times a day and fast more than anyone else. It is only by the grace of God that we are even saved from our own sin. We are powerless on our own. We have no ability or power outside of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are weak, and He is strong. Where is justice in the law? Where is mercy in the law? Where is faithfulness in the law? In Matthew 23:23 God calls these things the weightier provisions of the law. We should live out justice, mercy, faithfulness, grace, and righteousness as Christians and in doing so the duties of the law will not be neglected either. For we are not to neglect prayer, reading the word, and tithing, and God's commandment's ... but they are not to be our hope or the focus of our religion.

Dave Stoltzfus in his sermon used Colossians 2:6-9, "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one take you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according the to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of this world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Diety dwells in bodily form." You can see that these verses focus on walking IN CHRIST and being rooted built up IN HIM. These verses also warn us not to be taken captive and to guard against being deceived. How does this happen? We forget Christ and we go through RELIGION - empty deception, philosophy, and traditions of men. WE CAN NOT GET CAUGHT UP IN RELIGION. Religious traditions and the law keep us from getting to God's grace. It is by grace we are saved through faith! Praying, tithing, fasting, reading the bible, attending every church meeting and activity, giving to the poor, taking communion, keeping the ten commandments, and any other thing can not earn us righteousness! Our righteousness is through Christ!

If you look at Matthew 23:15 it says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around the sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." This is why in the opening of my blog I said that RELIGION may be one of the main causes of sending people to hell, or hindering people from living truly godly lives. Because when religious people "share their faith" with sinners, they change them from a non-believer into a false christian. Religion withouth Christ is counter-productive and gives false hope and empty deception. Sinners who enter into these traditions of men and religious practices find no freedom and find no salvation! All they find is more condemnation but they are too blind to see! We need to get rid of empty RELIGION and simply preach CHRIST!

How easy is it to look at the scribes and Pharisees and point out their faults, but what about me? What is in my heart? Sure, I can condemn the life of the Pharisee ..... but would someone looking at me consider me a Pharisee? Do I try to appear righteous before my fellow Christians and win the approval of men? Do I neglect prayer during the week and then pray loud in church so people can hear and know I am praying? Do I ignore what God is telling me to do in my life, but then point out everyone else's shortcomings? Do I point out everyone else's faults and confront them without ever offering a prayer for them? Do I offer others godly advice that I don't even follow myself? Do I just read and pray out of duty or because I want to grow in Christ? Do I get lost in keeping a checklist of do's and dont's instead of having a relationship with God?

God forgive me and change my heart. As Keith Green's song lyrics say, "I want to, I need to be more like Jesus!"

Wisdom

To follow up my last blog about making godly decisions, I wanted to add godly wisdom into making godly decisions. I think it is quite obvious that we need godly wisdom to be able to make godly decisions. Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." So, we see from this verse that we cannot lean on our own understanding but in ALL that we do we need to acknowledge Him and trust him to direct us. But if we can't rely on our own wisdom or understanding, then where do we get our wisdom to make decisions? James 1:5-6a says, "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting . . .". It's that simple. If we want wisdom from God, we simply have to ask in faith without doubting His Word and He will give it to us GENEROUSLY. Why do we need this kind of wisdom though? The previous verse from Proverbs says that I shouldn't lean on my own understanding, but can't I just read the Bible and just use that as my guide to make decisions? Well, that's a good start, but God's Word says that there are two kinds of wisdom. James 3:13-17 basically compares the wisdom of this world that is earthly, full of jealousy and selfish ambition to wisdom which is from above that is pure, peacable, gentle, reasonable and full of mercy. So along with using the Word as our guide, we need to pray to God for wisdom from above and not use our own wisdom in making decisions. Proverbs 2:1-7a says,"My son, if you will receive my sayings, And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord, and discover knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright . . .". After reading this passage, we clearly see that it must be our want and desire to receive God's wisdom. This passage shows us plainly what we must do . . . we must MAKE our ear attentive, INCLINE our heart, CRY OUT to God, LIFT our voice, SEEK for understanding, SEARCH for wisdom. These are the actions we must take if we want God's wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

Along with these biblical principles, I came up with my own little checklist for making decisions:

1) We cannot rely on our own wisdom
2) We must be dead to our own plans, wants, and selfish desires
3) We need to pray for wisdom from God
4) We need to consult the Word of God
5) We need to plan ahead of time to make godly decisions
6) We need to believe in faith that God's plan and wisdom are best
7) We need to act on the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom God gives us
8) We must not waver or back down from decisions we know are right

Making Godly Decisions

I decided to write a blog after listening to Soldiers by B.H. Clendennon and hearing the sermon by Gary Thull on When and Why to Make Godly Decisions. Clendennon said in his sermon that "it takes more courage to be right and take a stand than it does to fight a war". That phrase seemed to burn in my memory and it's been the topic of my study in the recent past. When he made this statement, Clendennon was talking about how Christians need to have courage that is born out of conviction to stand up for what is right. While I was thinking on this topic, the same Sunday Gary Thull preached on godly decision making and it seemed to go perfectly with what I had been hearing and thinking about. One of the examples he used was Daniel who had made up his mind not to eat the choice food and defile himself. He went on to say that as Christians we need to make up our mind to follow Christ. Before we get into a situation where we have to make a crucial decision, we should already have prepared our hearts and made up our minds that we are going to please Jesus Christ. If our minds are made up beforehand, then when a seemingly hard decision comes our way there will be no struggle. We have to PLAN to make godly decisions. Gary's quote of the day that seemed to sum up his whole sermon for me was, "God has required us to plan, but with a renewed mind in the context of his will, and willing to change as God directs." We need to PLAN to carry out God's will and PLAN to make godly decisions so that we will be ready to live for Christ no matter what we face.