I wonder how Jesus feels.
He instructed His disciples to make disciples who would make more disciples but some how in between then and now the disciple making has been watered down and many people think that its just enough to attend church service when the doors are open and be involved in all these "Christian" things but many never take the time to take up their cross and follow Christ which requires for them to die to self and be uncomfortable.
Die to self. Uncomfortable.
Words that I didn't even get a chance to hear until I went to college, but I grew up in church. I was a "church girl" but I had never heard the true gospel that explained that I would have to forsake all. I knew the 10 commandments and I knew about Jesus but I didn't really understand why I needed Christ. Yes I knew I needed Him to go to Heaven but why did I need Him on this Earth? I knew to pray to Him when I needed help so I prayed to a person that I had only heard about and read about, but I had yet to see, experience, and know who Christ was and why God sent Him.
So I became a habitual hearer.
A habitual hearer is one who hears the word of God continuously but never acts out or pursues to do what they hear. They are ones who have created a habit of hearing the truth of the word of God but it does not take root in their heart because they refuse to live it out or they think its to hard to live it our or they think I don't need to live it out and say its not necessary to do all that, but their wrong. Christ meant exactly what He said.
Men have died proclaiming the name of Christ.
Yes! Many have died, but we use the word to slander others and to make it fit what we want. We get into debates and verbal wars about theology while the church continues to produce more and more disciplines who know nothing about counting the cost to be a man or woman of God. They are nothing but carbon copies who sing empty praises to a God who just wants them to surrender all the Him and worship Him whole heartedly but they can't because they believe they know Him but they are so far away from Him.Out of their mouths they speak praises and curses but clearly the Bible says that we cannot do that. They are so focused on appearing to be godly but their hearts scream that they are an enemy of God.
So we continue to produce those who will hear and never get to see the fruit of a life that glorifies God. It is not enough to go to church on Sunday. It is not enough to sing praises to His name. It is not enough to do good deeds because our hearts have the wrong motives and clearly works cannot get us into Heaven. What we must do is hear the word and allow it to penetrate our very souls and turn us to focus on Christ. We must know we are a mess without Him and that no good thing can come from us but it is the spirit of the Holy Ghost within us. Open up your heart and let Him change you. If you have no desire to change tell Him that and that you know this is not the heart you should have.
Let Him work on you.
Let us not be hearers of the word but let us be the church wherever we are. Not just in Christian settings. Let us be the light to a world that is being chocked and suffocated with darkness.
But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].
For if anyone only listens to the Word without obeying it and being a doer of it, he is like a man who looks carefully at his [own] natural face in a mirror;
For he thoughtfully observes himself, and then goes off and promptly forgets what he was like.
But he who looks carefully into the faultless law, the [law] of liberty, and is faithful to it and perseveres in looking into it, being not a heedless listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he shall be blessed in his doing (his life of obedience).
James 1:22-25 (Amplified)
Peace, Love, and Blessings!
