Sorry I missed a few days. After a storm, there are a lot of downed trees and debris that needs to be cleaned up. I'm pooped! Here are my highlights from chapter 3 by Bill Hybels.
[Horse Trading with God] . . . but privately they come to God and say, "I'm really not cut out to take walks across rooms, God. I'm terribly uncomfortable with risk, edge, and adventure. And frankly, this whole 'mystical' realm isomer unnerving than I can even articulate! . . . But here's my deal, God. I will get all over spiritual development. I will be a Bible knowledge hound! If you want, I'll throw myself into building Habitat for Humanity homes - every summer, if fact. I will climb all over volunteerism - I'll show up at church five nights a week if you ask me to. You let me off the evangelism hook, and I'll prove my love for you in half a dozen other ways if it kills me. That's my deal."
If Christ-followers' tactics only went this far, I would still hang my head in dismay at the selfishness and ugliness of it all. But things can get even worse than this. I've seen scores of Christ-followers get so cut off, having horse-traded away any sense of responsibility or adventure about reaching people, that they actually get annoyed with those outside the kingdom of God.
Instead of walking toward people who need God's redemptive love, they step into a mode of no longer wanting anything to do with them. Self-proclaimed followers of Jesus Christ develop an aversion to nonbelievers, going to all lengths to avoid the exact people Christ came to redeem.
The aversion can become so intense that a Christ-follower has to plumb new depths of dysfunction to deal with it. "Here's what I think I'll do," she says. "I'll set my alarm so that in the morning, I'll get up to Christian music. I'll email my Christian girlfriends all throughout the course of my workday so that I can stay pumped up with Christian thoughts. At break time, coffee time, lunchtime, I'm going to sit by myself and read my Bible. Then, I will fill up my evenings with family and church activities, and (if I watch television at all) it's only Christian shows for me. I'll go to bed, wake up tomorrow, and start all over with Step One. My life will stay exactly how I want it to be: simple and safe. Spotless and uncluttered. Protected and predictable. Just the way I like it." . . .It is the polar opposite of the way of Christ.
. . . there is unparalleled joy in knowing that God is using you to shape and mold another person's life.
Kind of hard-hitting for Chapter 3, but good stuff nonetheless. I was here once too, not even realizing it. Then I got a passion to see people grow through discipleship. Then God called us to plant a church, which means reaching the lost as well. Step by step, God leads who will follow.
Blessings on this warm, sunny Saturday.
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