New and improved from the old version we had. That thing just required too much, and didn't deliver the goods as early as we would like. But wow are we on a winner now.
Now would you like the standard model, can I entice you into some extras? Passion for the lost? Evangelism? Prayer? Total submission to Christ?
Maybe you are wondering where I was going with that, and if it sounds harsh then I do not mean to offend, but the point needs to be made. When did these things, specifically a 100% life to Christ become an optional extra for our Christianity?
When did our theology become so diluted that we believed it was ok, that Christ would accept anything less than our all?
On the one hand, we say he will take us as we are, certainly true, we surely cannot change ourselves. Has the phrase “meeting us where we are at” become the same as, “God understands I'm just not ready for that type of commitment.”
The beauty and power of Christ is Immanuel, God with us, coming down from on high to live as we lived, and so be a living demonstration of His love and grace to us.
We are so blinded by our sins and personal ambitions that we can barely lift up our heads to seek Him out. Yet he comes down and makes the first move, and the move after. Never will I say that it is our responsibility to be deserving of salvation.
Yet the Bible, the accounts of Jesus in the Gospels portray a picture that can be shocking. When men come to Him, looking to follow him, he turns them back, saying such things as, deny yourself, take up your cross. Leave your father, mother, brother and sister, and follow me.
When people were not ready to give their all, they were turned away.
It was all, or nothing. No lukewarms, no compromise.
Will I turn away those who I judge unfit to follow Christ, well I can't say that I will, as I do not know their heart, and I am not Jesus. Yet my commitment is this, to not water down the Gospel, and so render it powerless.
It requires all. Is that hard to give? Of course it is, but it's not about being ready or not, about being 'there yet'. It's about saying yes to God.
God this is your standard. I cannot fulfil it, nor do I particularly desire to. Yet not my will but yours be done. I will give my all, help me Father.
When we pray like that, this world will shake. I believe it. Do you?
Let His light guide you today, and His fire burn more brightly in you this year than ever before!
Daniel