This morning at breakfast, a couple good friends and I were discussing church stuff… what we do… why we do it… what we should be doing… why it doesn’t get done… a number of things, really. The conversation seemed to settle a bit on why it’s hard to actually “do” ministry as Jesus would want… how we all too often either fall short or simply don’t seem to have the motiviation to do what needs to be done.
We don’t love the way we should. We don’t serve the way we should. We don’t share Christ as we should. We don’t take our spiritual development as seriously as we should.
We aren’t what Jesus wants us to be.
We need change.
It’s something the Bible is crystal-clear about:
John 3:3
3I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again!
Romans 12:2
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
2 Corinthians 5:17
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Love. Service. Evangelism. Ministry. Compassion. Grace. Forgiveness. Humility. Patience. Peace.
All of these should mark our lives.
Yet that’s not the reflection we see in the mirror.
Erwin McManus writes about this, in “Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul”. I’m paraphrasing, but he basically writes that until we hate what we see in the mirror… until we can’t stand the fact that we don’t see Jesus when we look at ourselves… nothing happens. Change won’t occur.
One of my friends shared something similar… nothing changes in this world until we get really ticked off by the status quo and get fired up enough to do something about it.
But personal drive simply isn’t enough… our strength has bounds. We need something FAR more powerful… more consistent… more persistent… more, well… moving. We need God’s Holy Spirit to drive us where we won’t go on our own.
May God awaken us from the slothful slumber that tends to encompass our existence!
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