The words of Jesus are not just some cute sayings, words of wisdom or even principles that will make your life better. The words of Jesus are life and truth. Not just the ones we find palpable but all the words of Jesus are too be taken to heart and applied in our lives. The title for the blog today 'America' God of Convenience' comes from the observation over 3 decades of pastoral ministry of watching people try to say the right words, convince themselves that they are OK with God but there is little or no fruit attached to their lives. Allow me to give you a couple of examples to what I mean. First, Jesus said that if we believe in Him we will be born again. Many will confess Jesus as Savior but never make Him Lord of their lives. This same Jesus also said that if you want to be my disciple you must deny yourself daily, pick up your cross and follow me. So when a person claims to be a Christian but is still living a selfish life with little or no concern of doing the will of God then their actually confession of faith is one of convenience. They do not want to go to hell and Jesus is their Savior so they accept Jesus as Savior and though they maybe saved it will only be as through fire as the apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 3:15. I am glad and excited for everyone who has accepted Jesus as their Savior but that is just the beginning of our encounters with God not the end in itself. When we make it the climax of our life we will miss out on God's wonderful plan He has in store for us as His disciples. I also encourage you to read Philippians 3:12-14. Second, this one comes from observing people doing the supermarket approach to Christianity. That is they pick and choose the teachings and principles they want to live by and then conveniently dismiss the rest. Jesus used the Sermon of the Mount, Matthew 5-7, to convey the principles of the kingdom of God. The basis here are principles to live our lives by the help of the Holy Spirit. Several times Jesus said you have heard that it is said, but I tell you. My point here is real simple, the teachings and principles of Jesus are not up for personal opinion but for personal opinions. To make excuses of why you cannot do something that Jesus to us to do is just an attempt to explain sin. Let me list just a few things I have seen many Christians dismiss: loving others, forgiving others, witnessing to others, being an active member of His body, the church, lack of generosity which includes the tithe, lack of serving, lack of a prayer life, and how we handle conflict. Some people do well in some of their areas while for whatever reason they do not think they need to one of these other things. Let's remember the words of Jesus "If you love Me you will obey my teaching." John 14:15 and "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 Let us be found making God our source, strength, refuge, light, life and salvation and not just a God of convenience when I need something from Him or just as a ticket to heaven. Let us be found making God our sole purpose of living and be willing to love and serve Him wholeheartedly with no conditions attached.
May the God of all love and mercy be with us.
Pastor John
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