Like most youth leaders of the Atlantic District, I was at Booster this weekend, which in my opinion was the best Booster I've been too. The speaker was Matt LeRoy. At the last rally he talked about the Cost of following Christ. This got me thinking about how we've watered down the Gospel. We tell people about how easy it is to accept Christ and then once we get them committed we start telling them about what God requires of those who follow him.
Please understand I am not intending to preach salvation by works. I do believe God freely gave himself for us, and it is only through Christ we are saved.
We sell Christ to our teens and THEN start telling them, "Now that you've accepted Christ, he requires you to do this and that". We're the fine print people.
"For only one easy prayer you can have eternal life and your own Personal Saviour. Now that you have eternal life here's what's required of you by your new Lord & Savior".
We need to be more clear about what God requires of us in the long run from the beginning. I gotta question my integrity if I don't let people know upfront Christ requires our whole heart and not just a 5 minute prayer.
When I look at Scriptures like II Peter 2:21-23, telling us how it's better for those who accept Christ and turn away to have never known him and then passages like, "Whoever sets his face to the plough and looks back is not fit for service in the Kingdom of God". I gotta wonder what God's gonna say to us when we stand before him.
By presenting a Consumer Christ, we attributed to Consumer Christians, who sign up for their free trial, and then when it starts to cost, they give up.
TSB VIII
2 months ago
7 comments:
I agree dave
We need to stop differentiating b/w the terms 'christian' and 'disciple'
To become a Christian MEANS to become a disciple, which of course, is difficult and involves persecution and discipline
Props!
Good post, Ace!
Ha - ooops ^ That was me. I am on my boyfriend's computer and he was signed into blogger by accident.
Laura: I was getting all excited because Dan commented on my blog. I was thinkin' "He used my camp name and everything". He must really like me, even though we've never met.
Matthew: I think we get so caught up in making Jesus attractive because we've forgotten how desirable he is. Like, wives who forget all the reasons they married their husband so many years ago.
i agree with much of what you shared here. well said and accurate. i loved you post on brokenness too. central, heart truths to real Christianity that the religious prefer to leave out.
dave--good stuff, my favorite dancin' post yet. i remember someone once saying that we should almost talk people out of becoming christians to see if they'll really still want to make the choice. kind of extreme, but the point was taken. this is one that takes some work...
Brew: I think we may have been in the same service, because I have avauge memory of the same thing.
Laura: The longer I'm in this gig, the more I come to grips with how truly broken I am and the restotarion God is doing in me. Sin didn't result in us being a manufactured defect; it resulted in us being shattered images of the people we are intended to be.
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