You always grow to love the people you pray for. That's because you
develop God's heart of love for them. Don't pass up the chance to
experience that.
That's a quote from my little daily calendar Nikki got me - and I liked what it said, because it goes along with the Sunday School lesson I heard this past weekend. Ms. Denease talked about how the early Christians were characterized by the love they showed to each other, as well as how they loved the world - and showed it with actions.
Because of some discussions I've had lately, I've been reading books on other religions, and reading books on "historical evidence of Christ" - and while I think that it is very important for us to be able to defend our faith to a world that looks for facts... I think I was getting too caught up in finding ways to have facts ready to "convince" someone of the truth of Christ. As important as that is, faith isn't something that is reached by being "convinced" by words... otherwise it wouldn't be faith.
The only earthly evidence we truly have to change the world's attitude today about Christ is how our lives change because of Him... and I think the world has begun to laugh at what we say, because our actions so rarely show it.
In the Church History class we learned about what the skeptics said about Christians in the early church - and as much as they thought the Gospel was foolishness, they were amazed - "my how they love one another and even those who persecute them".
The proof God gives us to share with the world that rejects Him is our lives being changed and by showing a love that is impossible to have within us without Him. The actions of Jesus described in the New Testament were revolutionary at the time, because He reached out and touched lepers, and talked to Samaritans and the "worst of sinners" - when other Jews crossed to the other side of the street rather than walk by them.
That lesson, this quote, sermons I've heard even so far this week, and some things that Pastor Mike said last night are making me examine myself... and examine what it is I think I am supposed to do in order to share Christ with others. What is faith? How does it differ from belief, and how do we show it to the world? Am I doing that? Am I allowing a supernatural love to be manifested within myself and then pouring out to others?
No, I realize I haven't been. I've been relying too much on my effort, and my "ideas of how people should act" and that is quenching what the Holy Spirit can do through me if I get myself out of the way. It's so easy to fall back on self and not even realize it... and self always ends up being selfish, prideful, harsh... that doesn't speak of Christ to the world.
Once we proclaim to be "Christians", the world automatically puts our lives and actions and words under a magnifying glass - because they so desparately want to see proof that the cross is real and that the message is real... and the cross is real, and the message it sends is many-fold, but here are two important ones I think:
1. Sin is real, and it is an offense to a Holy God and it cannot exist in His presence. We all fall short and cannot escape sin without the help of that Holy God.
2. In an unfathomable demonstration of love to the human mind, God sent His Son and took on His own wrath of our sin by letting His own creation nail Him to a cross. He allowed His perfectly obedient Son with a servant's heart to experience the wrath that He could have been pouring on us... that is the love that we are supposed to come to understand through true faith in Christ that is given to us as a gift. That is a love that no human could have dreamed up.
Then - we have to remember that faith is a gift given through the grace of God. If we ever stop thinking it was a gift, and start thinking that "we made a decision", then we stop loving those who are blind to the message, and start elevating ourselves above them because we think we "achieved something".
Religion makes us proud because we think we've accomplished something, but the Gospel shows us all that we are just as unworthy of God's grace as those who haven't yet accepted Christ.
I heard a song yesterday that sort of drove this point home for me:
Only Thing
Ronnie Freeman
I heard someone say the other day
They'd seen in me true love displayed
Blessed by something I had done for them
No sooner had they said these words
I found myself somehow disturbed
Uneasy as I took their compliment
Cause I know the heart inside this man
I know the truth of who I am...
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
I know me well enough to know
No matter what this life may show
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
If you could walk the hallways of my heart
And see things as they really are
I wonder if you might be surprised
Seeing faded walls of pride and fear
Rooms I've filled with faithless tears
And corners where I've stood in compromise
But you'd see the work His grace has done
You'd know just how far I've come
In a thousand years
When the dust of this world clears
And I look back on my life
And see in perfect light
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
I know me well enough to know
No matter what this life may show
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
I know me well enough to know
No matter what this life may show
The only thing that's good in me is Jesus
When I start thinking I'm good - I've lost the truth of the Gospel myself.
It is our responsibility to be obedient to God's Word - faith does evidence itself through good works done for God's glory. But none of those works done by us can be credited to ourselves. The minute we start patting ourselves on the back for something "good" we've done - we've forgotten that it's only by His work within us that anything truly good comes out of us.
Only once we realize that can we stop looking down at those who don't believe, and instead look up with gratefulness that we have been given a gift of faith. That should make us realize that we were only given that gift in order to share it and to show the love of Christ that has been shown to us so that the world might have proof of Him.
We can't convince them with intellect or facts - and if we could, it wouldn't be saving faith... it would just be belief, just like believing the sky is blue because we can see it (and even the demons believe and tremble - James 2:19).
I realize I can't "convince" anyone of the Gospel - it has to be by faith given as a gift, by the hearing of the Word and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. All we can do is speak and share the Word and lay the rest at Jesus' feet!
Matthew 16:16-17And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father
which is in heaven.
The Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing... but evidence of the presence of His powerful Word in our lives and hearts shown through actions to each other and the world, even in the face of persecution... that's how the Gospel is proven true in the world today.
That's how the early church spread across the nations, even while Christians were being burned at the stake and persecuted left and right. Even in the face of persecution they showed Christ's love pouring out of their lives, because they loved Him because they truly realized what He had done for them. Only if we are different can we truly claim that the Gospel is true and changes hearts...
Lord renew my mind, heart, life, and guide my thoughts, words and actions so that:
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:35
Lord let Your Holy Word be spoken through my every thought, word, and action... for Your glory. Hide me behind Your cross and Your glorious Gospel.
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