Something that has been bugging me for some time is this statement I hear alot from Christians. "Well I got my fire insurance, I know I'm not going to hell". Now that is a nice statement and I am sure that the heavens rejoice on high that you have accepted Jesus Christ as the only son of God, that died on the cross for your sins, and was resurrected 3 days later. But the next thing that comes to mind is this....is it merely enough to accept that Jesus is Lord or does it require much more of us.
If you look at the great commission in Matt 28:28 it does not say go and make converts. It does not say go and make Christ like people, it say make Disciples and teach them everything that Jesus commanded. What a pitiful job we have done at this command. I for one was horrible at this. I always thought it was simply about seeing people come to accept who Jesus was and what he did. I never thought about the next step which is instruction and training in the Lord.
Now don't read in to my statements...I am not saying that if you accept Jesus in your heart and confess with your mouth that he is Lord that you aren't saved because scripture is very clear in this regard that you are forgiven of your sins and are going to spend eternal life with God. But how when you accept Jesus can you not thirst to serve him and serve others, by not being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The process of being all that God would have us to be is a long process and requires a lot of time, prayer, and study. I simply hope that anyone reading this post would hear my heart....I want to see people live the abundant life that God as planned for them and a relationship with Jesus is the only way to do that. Anyone reading this knows that a relationship of any kind requires more than one day a week for 2 hours. Saying that you believe Christ is who He says he is would only be the first step(The most important step as we can't go any further with out taking it) but there are many other steps in the life of a Disciple of Jesus.
2 comments:
I just heard a great comment from my professor that totally backs up what you're saying.
"The saying "Don't look at me, but look at Jesus" is total baulderdash! We are the only images of Jesus that our neighbors will ever meet."
Colossians 3:12ff is a great place to start with this. Thanks so much for the great post.
The question is what can we do about this lack of "discipleship" that is happening in the Christain faith today?
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