Have you noticed how ugly a person gets when they are stuck indoors a lot. I don't mean appearance but their attitude, temperament and perspective. I have noticed with all my children that the longer they stay in bed the grumpier they get. The longer they play video games the more fights they have. Yet, when they are outside, running around, riding their bikes, being with friends, they laugh a lot more and are pleasant to be with. I notice the same thing with the Church.
Christians are spending far too much time "indoors". We love to worship, take classes, study, be together, fellowship, but the more we do that the uglier we get. We end up in arguments, fights, debates over things that do not matter for the mission.We have this love affair with words. I am not referring to God's Word but our words. We love to hear ourselves talk. We write a lot of books too. We are staying "indoors" far too much, sleeping too long. We do a lot of navel gazing and it is not healthy. It is not what we were told to do.
About words, Paul told Timothy to warn his people:
"Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen." (2 Timothy 2:14)
We seem to have turned the Christian walk into some kind of academic pursuit. Everyone wants certificates and diplomas, letters after their name. We want to spend our time in discussion but Jesus called us to action. The Word is useless if not put into action. Our service is useless if it is not of action. The Word warns us;
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1:22)
Yes, study the Word; know what the instructions are; understand and then live it. I am not saying we should not study but if all you do is study you are wasting your time. We have to get outside, run around, ride our bikes, play with our friends. We have to live life, filled by the Spirit, acting on the Word, being the "salt" this world is so desperate for. We have to be in the world, the workplace, the hockey arena, the market place and we must live like Jesus, representing him so others can know him. This is when we will be the healthiest, when we will know the joy of the Lord, when we will see the most spiritual growth we have ever experienced. This is when we will be fulfilling our mandate, our commission, our purpose, our calling.
If we would be busy with our King's work we would have less time to fight about words, there would be less division and there would be more of Jesus for the world to see. It's great to be a student of the Word and hopefully you will be that for the rest of your life, but if all you are is a student then you have missed the entire point of it. Be doers and let the Spirit work through you to effect change in the hearts of everyone you have contact with today.
Showing posts with label doers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doers. Show all posts
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Are You In Need Of More Energy?
I am interrupting my regularly scheduled blog to bring you what is on my heart today. I was at prayer meeting last night and as I prayed the Spirit put words in my mouth that I began to listen to. That's the funny thing about prayer, if we really listen to the Spirit we end up being a mouth piece for what God wants released in prayer instead of our own thoughts.
I had a young man write me once to ask me what he should do. He was finding he had no energy or drive to do anything. My response was simple: Get off the couch. Sounds dumb but it isn't. Physically the best way to gain energy is to spend energy. The more you are inactive the less energy you will have. If you want to increase your energy start a walking routine. The more you put out the more you gain. The same holds true spiritually.
We have an obesity problem in the Church and it is causing a lack of energy. We have a lot of people sitting around on the couch, being entertained. We fill ourselves up on the Word but we never do anything. We gain a lot of knowledge but we don't do anything with it. We are much into the theory of Jesus, we couch others from our armchairs, we are great at calling the game, but we do not get up and participate. We go to the stadium every week to sit in the stands and act as a roaring and excited crowd but we never get out on the field. We lack spiritual energy and intimacy with Jesus because we have no exercise routine. We have to spend energy to gain energy.
There is nothing more energizing than leading someone to Jesus. When we are actually living our faith, trusting God to give us the words to talk to people about Jesus, we grow in our intimacy with the Lord. When we are living with the purpose of being sensitive to the Spirit we come alive in our own spirit. Suddenly we are a lot more aware of what God is doing around us and we want to be even more involved. Suddenly we are constantly aware of his presence, his will and desire for us, his call for us to take action. We are moving from cheering fan to full flung player with a desire to pour all of our energy into the game.
Of course it isn't a game. This is about life and death for people lost in a dying world. We seem to lose sight of the fact that this is not about us and everything about them. We are not here to gain all the "toys" or build our own little kingdoms. We aren't even here to have a comfortable life. We are here to tell others about Jesus. We are here to work out our salvation daily and this is done as we do the Word of God. We are participants in this war, not spectators.
It is great that people have a hunger for the Word and that they want to gain knowledge, but there is more to it than that. The Word of God must be put into action in our life and to do that we have to get off the couch. This world has a lot of distractions, some of which are interesting and attractive, but it is not for us to step aside from our calling and rest for a while. James says it best:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
So, it's time to get up off of that couch and gain some spiritually energy. It's time to get into the game. It's time to come alive in Jesus. Put into action all that knowledge you have gained. Just do it.
I had a young man write me once to ask me what he should do. He was finding he had no energy or drive to do anything. My response was simple: Get off the couch. Sounds dumb but it isn't. Physically the best way to gain energy is to spend energy. The more you are inactive the less energy you will have. If you want to increase your energy start a walking routine. The more you put out the more you gain. The same holds true spiritually.
We have an obesity problem in the Church and it is causing a lack of energy. We have a lot of people sitting around on the couch, being entertained. We fill ourselves up on the Word but we never do anything. We gain a lot of knowledge but we don't do anything with it. We are much into the theory of Jesus, we couch others from our armchairs, we are great at calling the game, but we do not get up and participate. We go to the stadium every week to sit in the stands and act as a roaring and excited crowd but we never get out on the field. We lack spiritual energy and intimacy with Jesus because we have no exercise routine. We have to spend energy to gain energy.
There is nothing more energizing than leading someone to Jesus. When we are actually living our faith, trusting God to give us the words to talk to people about Jesus, we grow in our intimacy with the Lord. When we are living with the purpose of being sensitive to the Spirit we come alive in our own spirit. Suddenly we are a lot more aware of what God is doing around us and we want to be even more involved. Suddenly we are constantly aware of his presence, his will and desire for us, his call for us to take action. We are moving from cheering fan to full flung player with a desire to pour all of our energy into the game.
Of course it isn't a game. This is about life and death for people lost in a dying world. We seem to lose sight of the fact that this is not about us and everything about them. We are not here to gain all the "toys" or build our own little kingdoms. We aren't even here to have a comfortable life. We are here to tell others about Jesus. We are here to work out our salvation daily and this is done as we do the Word of God. We are participants in this war, not spectators.
It is great that people have a hunger for the Word and that they want to gain knowledge, but there is more to it than that. The Word of God must be put into action in our life and to do that we have to get off the couch. This world has a lot of distractions, some of which are interesting and attractive, but it is not for us to step aside from our calling and rest for a while. James says it best:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
So, it's time to get up off of that couch and gain some spiritually energy. It's time to get into the game. It's time to come alive in Jesus. Put into action all that knowledge you have gained. Just do it.
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