In the past several weeks, I can say that I've grown up in my faith. There have just been circumstances that I've needed God to show me the way, and He has. It's liberating just hanging on to Him, trusting that He'll get me where I need to be. When I don't control my life, it's one less thing that I have to do. It's one less thing on my to do list.
In reading this book, God has been showing me so many things about being a Christian.
1. Chan talks about "lukewarm Christians" in one chapter. I read, and re-read what he wrote, because I was so convicted. He gave example after example of what it meant to be lukewarm. Some of them didn't apply to my life, but some of them did. I wrote them all on a sheet of paper so that I could see them all. It made me reflect on my life to see what I'm doing wrong and where I need to change.
The more I read, the more I realized that there's really no such thing as a lukewarm Christian. God detests lukewarm. (See Revelation 3:15-18) To put it plainly, you're a Christian or you're not. Some days I haven't acted like one.
2. To give you an example of what Chan writes, he says, "Lukewarm people call 'radical' what Jesus expected all of his followers."
Some might think that our former Campus Minister is "radical" because she and her family live in North Africa and is proclaiming the Word of God to non-believers over there. Sorry, but that's not radical. God expects us to "Go and make disciples of all nations." Get off your tush! Get out of your comfort zone! That's what God calls us to do! Ouch...that kinda hurt my toes a bit.
3. God is an all or nothing God. Let's just be real...He wants all. He's given us a free gift. All we have to do is wholly surrender our life to Him. When we do, life becomes a lot better than what we could ever do on our own.
4. In life, we generally only make changes if we think it's going to affect our salvation. To be completely honest, we don't make changes solely on the fact that God commands it, but because "we might not go to heaven."
This made sense with me, especially after he gave examples of how we do that:
- Can I divorce my spouse and still go to heaven?
- Do I have to be baptized to be saved?
- Am I a Christian if I'm having sex with my boyfriend or girlfriend?
- If I commit suicide, will I still go to heaven?
- If I'm ashamed to talk about Christ, is He really going to deny knowing me?
If we ask these questions and call ourselves Christians, what does that say about our relationship with Christ? Do we really know Christ? That really got me thinking.
God is calling us to be his disciples! A disciple is a follower of Christ, but if we don't obey His commands, how can we say we "follow" Him? Ouch...got me again.
5. I've also been learning how much I need God in my life daily to keep Satan out! Satan is alive and well. He's anger lashing out. He's sarcasm. He's a bad attitude, bad thought, or bad words that come out of our mouths. He rejoices when we do these things. He's everywhere, but so is GOD! God shows love instead of hate. He shares encouragement instead of sarcasm. He's the positive words, not the negative.
It's our decision which we serve, and I want to exude Christ's light.
My relationship with Christ is changing. My life is changing. God is my everything. I need Him every day of my life! I'm done forgetting about God. I want people to see a difference in my life, because Christ has given my grace and love. I choose to accept it.
this is powerful. That book has really convicted me, another book that is powerful is the book Radical.
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