Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Futility Of The Christian Dance




“The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations….” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”” CHAMBERS

We are to live our lives based upon the authority of Jesus not based upon our feelings or personal desires.  People you care about are very likely on the wide path to hell.  So what can you do about it?  You can tell them that, but unless the Spirit is at world in their lives, your words will fall on deaf ears.  I was thinking about this morning, as I was preparing my devotion for the day, about someone I know.  That person, who is not a Christian, recently said that he had been on his knees praying.  I was thinking about the time before Martie and I became Christians.  We thought that doing the same things and saying the same things as my parents did was what being a Christian meant.  Because we did not have the Spirit in us, because we had not been born again, which is a spiritual miracle, we were ignorant, deceiving ourselves.  We were practicing vain religion but had no capacity to understand that was what we were doing.  (1 Corinthians 2:14)  “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

When that person prays, our Father does not hear them.  Sound harsh?  If a child walked up to me in a store and said “Will you buy this toy for me?”  My reply would be, you need to go ask your parents.  Because non-Christians, by definition, don’t know Jesus, they do not have access to the Father.  They are still “children of the devil”.  The thing is, that is a spiritual truth and they don’t understand spiritual things.  A person must have spiritual understanding and a person must have the Spirit to have spiritual understanding and a person must have been born again to have the Spirit.  To someone who is lost, the life of a Christian is one of activity, not relationship.  So what can you do?  Pray for that person.  Don’t encourage them in their vain thinking and actions. If they are on a journey to Jesus, then stay out of the way and let God work in them.  Most often when spiritually wayward or un-saved children “pretend” to be faithful Christians, it is because they want their parents to accept them and be proud of them.  In an act of desperation, they can only do the “Christian dance” so  their parents or spouse or friend will be happy and think good things about them.  But, discerning parents or spouses or friends will know that they are not what they would have them think.  They are only deceiving themselves.  What can the you do?  Pray for them and love them without enabling the behavior.  Don’t pretend along with your children or spouse or friend.  Don't join the dance.  Pray.  Something to think about.  ELGIN

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)

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