I'm wondering why so many Christians want to be or are satisfied being a marginal Christian and not pressed down and over flowing with and for Jesus?
Luke 6:27-38 is some radical things we are called to do to witness Jesus to the world. Loving our enemies is off the chart - we have trouble loving one another.
If we are to reflect Christ, why is it so hard to be filled with His Spirit as we read in Galatians 5:22-26?
These are things I am wrestling with for this Sunday's sermon. Any insights would help!
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When Quoting Scripture Inflicts Harm
6 years ago
16 comments:
I'd guess like most issues folks struggle with (ex-weigth loss, more excerise, etc), lack of discpline, selfishness, don't see the immediate impactful results. If we could drink it, eat it, and feel an immediate physical sensin feedback to it, then more of us would respond accordingly. Wish this wasn't the case, but I'd think this is a fair assessment. If something requires, time/dedication & our own personal indepth effort, we fall back to our normal lazy, rebillous, needy fleshly selves.
Perhaps we aren't as led and controlled by the Holy Spirit as we profess to be... You can't do or give away what you don't have!
since the first sunday is homecoming and the second streetreach and reaching out, what about a prep to those two by talking about reaching out in different ways to those we encounter during our week. Grocery store, work, sports, etc.
marilyn
That's a lot to cover in one message. Each of those sections is 14 sermons each!
Not sure if this is where you are going. But what it really boils down to is that its just not about us. We are to consider the other person--despite where they are, who they are, what they are doing, what they represent--as worthy of love, respect, time, patience that can only come from God. And because there, but for the grace of God, I would be--no, I am that person in need of compassion, mercy, love, kindness, etc. And because of who Christ is in us, we have to choose to allow the person that He's created to "life-out" of us. If we are seeking Him diligently, then our actions and reactions to people are just an overflow of what HE is doing in ME.
maybe it's not that.. maybe the soda has bubble and needs to be shaken a few good times. maybe it needs to be refilled with some fresh soda so it will bubble.. maybe the soda needs to take its cap off and receive the fresh soda it needs...maybe you are mistaken as to how much ice cream is really on the cone.. it has no middle, just a hollow...
i am of the persuasion that once you are a soda, you are a soda, but sometimes you stay out of the fridge and you need to be refilled with fresh soda and shaken again and have pressure applied like when you came off of the assembly line....
Response to the post RE comment" Luke...", actually I think Loving enemies,and strangers is a lot easier than truly loving those that we have chosen to be with or are in one another's association with on a daily basis. I think we have to be more tolerant and caring in those situations, and generally we don't recieve and or they or us let those close relationships down more often at times than the "general public". Probably place unrealistic expectations that we each create upon those close relationships, and then when they in their humanness don't respond to they way "we expect them to", we get our feelings hurt.
At least that's been my life experience.
It's a tough life, hoping eternity is LOTS better and nicer.
I have a blog of my own and someone made a comment that was very anti-Christian and I shared this with a friend and what they said may help. They said that people fight against God really hard to make what they want to do seem right. People often get caught up in human needs and choices. If you focus on this life, how can you accept the Spirit that will lead you to the next? It's like the whole, unless a grain of wheat dies thing. You have to die to this life in order to receive the next, and as much as people talk about loving Jesus, they love things like eating and gossip more than they would like to admit. So there is no room for overflow of Jesus. That's my understanding of it anyways.
Good morning, Pastor,
I know you may not see this before your message, but your question about why we as Christians want to be marginal Christians and not pressed down and over flowing with and for Jesus has kept coming back to me over and over this week. For me it's two things: wanting control and being content with things other than Jesus. Any time I give up the control of something God has pointed out in my life that has taken his place in even the smallest way, I have more intimacy with Him and His love for me is overwhelming. It is in those moments that I feel "pressed down and overflowing" and want to live for Him alone. I will say that when He commands that we love Him with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength, He is not content with anything less. It's a choice we make. Our culture is constantly tugging at us giving us things that please for the moment, and we make that choice. My prayer is that He will never let me be satisfied with those things and that Holy Spirit will continue to draw me ever closer to Him, and that I will choose to spend more time with Him. That really is the key.
I spent nine days in Paris with Cavan's chorus and had so little time with the Lord that when I returned I felt drained; it was almost measurable. Paris is an amazing city, and we had a delightful time with the children, but the people I went with never mentioned the Lord, and my boss, especially, makes no bones about her disbelief. Of all Paris had to offer in the way of history (which I love) and amazing sights, lovely people and French culture, the thing I missed and couldn't get over was the presence of God. He was in my heart but was not acknowledged around me. When I spoke of Him, people either politely smiled or ignored my comments. My heart cried that He was not acknowledged and that no one shared my love for Him. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and that is certainly true in this case. I had taken my God for granted and the people I am normally around who share my love for Him. Since I've been back, I think about Him constantly and never want to be without His presence again - not His omnipresence - but His intimate, every moment, caring about my every thought, presence. The more time you spend seeking Him for Himself, the more He will pour into you and you will be pressed down and overflowing.
I pray for you and for all my Mount Oak family that He wouldl not let us be content with anything else.
Rebecca Imai
Just a question I would wonder how others may respond to. There's no doubt many of us are marginal (if that) Christians, facts are facts and along w/ this aspect as with so many other life aspects. Should we strive for more in this and other things, we sure should,but when obiviosuly we don't, how should/does that play out spiritually? Bsc we are marginal, do we then just forget about attending church all together? I wouldn't think not? This as with so many things, what do you do, just give up? Or accept where you are at, & settle for second best? If God doesn't grade on a curve, (he shouldn't he sent Christ to die for us), then a good 95% of us will have no choice other than being sent to Hell, & other than accepting Christ, well it's nothing we have control over any way.
Any responses to this? I would like to see others comments RE this. Just always looking for different views.
Thanks!
Anonymous 8:47 - wow - what a negative view. According to you 95% of Christians are not on fire but rather lukewarm Christians heading to hell.
I know our Lord said - 13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14
And He said - 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16
And that these indicate that a larger number of people will go to hell rather than heaven. I don't know where you come up with 95% of Christians (I assumed you didn't mean all of society) are going to hell.
Is being on fire for Jesus something you don't want to be or something you don't think you can be? Is your faith real to you or something to cover your posterior as I mentioned Sunday?
I never suggested that a Christian who wasn't on fire would go to hell. I simply indicated that like so much in life, we often take our relationship with God for granted. The differences between a powerless Christian and an empowered Christian are many, but heaven and hell may not be one of them.
I was trying to encourage us to not create a little box for God but rather to live an exciting ever changing life that others will want to participate in and with.
What would it take to revive the bubbles in you as Buddy asked? What is it that would awaken you in your faith? I mentioned that for some a heart attack helps them focus on their health or a divorce helps some focus on their whole self. What would cause you to want to be more than merely a Christian?
8:47 reply to Pastor Ray's post.
What I typed and what I had hoped to convey obviously didn't come across the same. No 95% aren't going to Hell, the 1-truth that I live by is John 3:16, by that personal acceptance that I and all other,will NOT perish. I merely believe than a more than, (ok 65-70+ %) are marginal. Simply guessing?? Again using the an example of weight loss & lack of excersie in this country (factual we are an ever increasing obese people), obviously people are just as marginal in this aspect of life as many of us are in our spiritual lives.
Your opening comments RE negative, now perhaps bsc of my not typing/expressing what I meant, is why you took it that way. But, upon reading it, I often times LOL, bsc simply a person makeing a comment it's then viewed as "negative", that alone is a lol to me. Again just sharing.
"What would it take to revive the bubbles in you as Buddy asked? What is it that would awaken you in your faith? I mentioned that for some a heart attack helps them focus on their health or a divorce helps some focus on their whole self. What would cause you to want to be more than merely a Christian?"- Very good question, goes back to the excerise scenerio thing- I guess ea of us has an internal drive to persue that which ignites ea of our personal sparks. Why are there so many self-help books, weight-loss (etc,etc), if ea person used 1-of these things and maintained some-level of success, then obviously the health industry would not need to be in business, w/ the next big thing. Don't know what IT would be or look like, but just like weight-loss (or whtvr life struggles) it has to become a daily life-endevor and personal enrichment to maintain, when anything becomes rigid, tight-boundry lines, 100% do's/don'ts then most will not succed muh more than 60-70% of a goal, I guess marginal?
Again just sharing feeback, not right/wrong, just sharing. Willing to share and listen, outside of my own box. Maybe, as people we each will hear what IT is that will evoke each of our own personal spark. So the more sharing, IT may come across somehow.
Thanks!
This seems like a good fair topic, how about making a poll using buzz words as to where folks would rate themselves in the "pressed down-topic". Exs: Ovrflowing, Marginal, Filled but not in cone, 1-scoop, 2-scoops. Just thoughts. That it might be interesting to see the poll #s on such.
Perhaps we are too concerned about the church as a whole.
What I mean by that is, we can't take the specks of sawdust out of our brother's eyes until we get rid of the plank in our own. As far as whether a professing Christian is really going to heaven or hell when they die does not concern me, because that is something only God is the judge of. I don't have the right to judge anyone anyway.
The only thing I can really affect is my own walk with the Lord; not out of fear for my final destination, but out of an active love for Him that will manifest itself inwardly first, then begin to overflow into the world around me as a result. If a Christian does not keep their own walk in check, everything else they do (good intentions aside) will be "second best" or just plain worthless in comparison to the power of God working through a heart dedicated to Him.
Reading the comments made me write this, so I do apologize if this isn't really "on topic" with the post. ^_^;;
Keely, I would support your thoughts, except part of my task or calling is to encourage or awaken the Body of Believers, to a deeper faith. Lukewarm Christians, and I didn’t name anyone (that is above my pay grade), may avoid the consequences of being lukewarm Christians (Revelation 3:15-16) if I could describe them, Scripturally, and someone reading or hearing a message may see themselves in the description, and be ignited.
Judging people is God’s job and He will do it with love and grace and perfect justice. My task is to inspire and ignite folks to full vest themselves in Jesus and not be satisfied with mediocrity. My analogy in a recent sermon of being an ice cream cone with a hollow scoop and an empty cone didn’t suggest that this person wasn’t a Christian but rather an undesirable Christian. The Christian or ice cream cone that was pressed down (full cone) and solid scoop, even hanging over, was the type of Christian God desires of us. It is also the type of Christian God often uses to draw others to Him. Which is our soul task, once we have received Jesus, to bring others to Him.
This is not meant to be judgmental but rather revealing. If our life isn’t living Christ to the fullest, how effective will we be drawing others to Him? Even in our own home, if Christ in us isn’t lived with excitement and fervor, why are we surprised when our children don’t receive Christ? What would draw them to be an empty cone and a hollow scoop?
Sure has been good to get some lively debate and feedback.
As we head into July 4th, Thank God we enjoy our freedom in the U.S. of being able to openly express each of our opinions.
I don't go to your church because I live in a different state - just happened on the blog today. You inspire me and help me fill with HIM. I think I am a packed-with-ice-cream Christian, but I often melt a bit and have to be put back in the right place to become solid again. This blog helps me with the self-examination I need. Thanks!
S
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