So here are some of my thoughts from yesterday's church service. The sermon was on Revelation 2 and the spirit of Jezebel. A lot of talk has been given to this "Jezebel" --who she was and how she and her followers inhibited the health of the early Church. Here's what it comes down to: "I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants..." [Revelation 2:19-20]This was my revelation: God knew the deeds, the good works of the early Church; He knew that they loved God, yet they were compromising. They were settling for spiritual mediocrity. They had idols. They had sin. And they were okay with it. They thought because they loved God and did have good deeds that that somehow canceled out the sin in their life that they were tolerating. And that's when I put down my donut, coffee, and popped my head up from my almost-nodding out slumber. THAT IS ME. I love God and have good works and intentions, but I'm tolerating sin. Accepting its place in my life. And I can't be that person. I won't. I desire to be so much more, to not be a statistic Christian -you know, one of those statistics in those Christian magazines that says "so-and-so percent of Christians say it's okay to... *fill in the blank*."
It's time to take a stand for righteousness. To say NO MORE. And although releasing the control that "tolerating spirit" has on you is hard -and often times just SUCKS- it is what we are called to do. THAT is taking up your cross. Crosses are supposed to be heavy and hard and give you splinters. Who lied to us 20-somethings in the American Church and said that our cross would be light, fluffy, and marshmallowy? And when did we start believing them? It's time we take back truth. I for one am. You in?
2 comments:
I'm in. Preach it! Man, that hits home right now. I took took the Enneagram personality test and went to a workshop on it at Kevin and Esther's church Saturday. Dang! It was intense. The purpose is not only to help you learn about yourself, but more to help you see the areas you are allowing sin to corrupt the gifts the Lord's given you. They call it your "non-resourceful" traits. The goal is for you to see where you're being non-resourceful and ask God to help you change. After all, the more you know about yourself, the more you can surrender to the Lord. All of that to say, this test has opened my eyes to the sin in my life I've been tolerating. Once the big things get knocked out, we think we're okay. But it takes so much more commitment, sacrifice, pain, sweat and tears to allow the small things to be filed away. But if we want to be more like Jesus, it's what has to happen.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
Wow. That sounds so interesting -the personality test. I would love to learn more about that. I'm glad you agree with me and understand where I'm coming from with this. As always. :) Welcome to the revolution.
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