Hey guys I have been reading this book by Jon MacArthur lately called Hard to Believe. The book as a whole has really been challenging how I and I think how many others view the Christian life. It is about easy believism or "Christianity Lite" as Johnny Mac calls it. I am going to post a few passages from the book and I would love to hear how you feel they apply to you, life in general or the church today. Not a church specifically but the modern church movement I guess.
"If someone who calls himself a christian doesn't think and act like a Christian, he's not on the road he thinks he is. He has likely joined the mighty band rushing through the wide gate of false religion. He exhibits none of this self denial stuff: Hey bring all of your baggage, your personal ambition, your will your selfish desires, your immorality, your lack of repentance, your reluctance even to submit fully to the leadership of Christ!... Many claim to be Christians yet are still self indulgent. They may not know it, they are on the broad road to destruction."
What hit me here is the lightness in which I often view these issues. Often times I think we as children of God need to realize that the gospel calls us to give all and submit fully and when we share the word with people we need to make sure that we are not watering it down and are confronting people with the with what God demands from believers. Our lives, hopes, dreams and lusts. We are to pick up our cross and bear it.
Another passage that really hit me was this one, "Hell will be full of people who thought highly of the sermon on the mount. You must do more than that. You must obey it and take action." This to me just challenged me in the way I react to God's word. Am I reacting even? Am I just taking it in, realizing what I should do and never doing it.
"It is not enough to listen to preaching about the gate; it is not enough to respect the ethics, you've got to walk through the gate."
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"(13)Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.(14)For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." - Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
I don't think many "Christians" realize the severity of God's calling. There is not an option to be a Christian and not live a submissive life for God.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that we can't have both our way and God's. We need to choose to live for God or ourselves. We can't live both. And this applies to our sin, dreams, ambitions, goals, time, etc.
Christ is the perfect example of living a fully submissive life to God. Even when He didn't want to suffer, He submitted to God. God had a plan and He knew that God's way was the only way.
"39And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."" - Matthew 26:39 (ESV)
Amen Davey. That was awesome and true. Many of us try to live one foot in and one foot out. Lately God has been breaking my heart over the areas of my life where I do this. I think it has challenged me to test my faith and evaluate it constantly. In doing so my shortcomings have become blessings and resulted in growth.
i have found it so important to ask myself have I sold everything for that treasure hidden in the field? Or am I on a budget so someday maybe I will be able to afford it. Matt 13:44.
"Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father." Sometimes I think about all of the people who think they are going to heaven that are going to get there and hear God say this. People that are just misled in the church or led down a road of easy believism where they believe that they can live self honoring lives and God honoring lives simultaneously.
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