Lukewarm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIiMBJj8cI&feature=player_embedded

So I came across this video of Skip Bayless, who is on ESPN’s “First Take” show that airs Monday through Friday during the afternoon.  When I first saw it, I was shocked that ESPN would allow Skip, an outspoken Christian, to basically preach a mini-sermon during the show.  Of course it was about Tim Tebow, but I thought what he said was filled with truth.

Skip says that Christians are to be out-spoken and “over-the-top” with their faith.  I feel like we live in a time when faith, especially Christian faith, is supposed to be a private matter, not to be shared or talked about in the open.  Many professing Christians have this mindset and choose to keep their faith private, living Sunday-only, apathetic, moral lives that look nothing like the disciples Jesus commands us to be.  If we look at Scripture and what Jesus commanded, going through the emotions and living as lukewarm Christians, is blatant disobedience to God.

The cost of following Jesus is high.  The Christian life is not something we can coast through.  Salvation is not our work, but if we truly love God, we will not live an average, lukewarm life.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  Philippians 2:12

We are instructed to work out our salvation, striving to become more and more like Christ, with a hatred towards out own self and our sin. 

Lukewarm Christians is an oxymoron.  A love for God and an apathetic Christian life does not happen at the same time. 

Being moral and having "Christian" as your religious beliefs on Facebook won't cut it when we stand before God.  The only thing that will is what Christ has done for us, and if we live in Him.

“Lukewarm living and claiming Christ's name simultaneously is utterly disgusting to God.” –Francis Chan, Crazy Love

Jesus Isn't A Crutch

I recently was talking to someone who isn't a Christian.  We were debating, talking, reasoning about whether or not Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Christianity is truth and what this life is all about.  


He said something to me that I'm sure he expected to be a really good point.  He said, "You know, I just think that Christians use this whole thing as a crutch to make themselves feel better."


I thought about it a little, and then it dawned on me.  Jesus isn't a crutch.  Jesus goes way beyond a crutch.  To say that Jesus is a crutch would mean that I lean on him, but also rely mostly on myself to walk.  I think it would be more accurate to say that Jesus is a wheelchair, or that He just simply carries me though life.  


If it wasn't for God, I'd still be dead in my sins, I'd probably still be depressed and so deep in anger, bitterness, and every other sort of sin that I'd be way worse than the guy in a roadside ditch off the DirecTV commercial.  For me to be out of that position and where I am is not possible if I were to use Christ as a crutch.  It's only possible if He carried me here.  It's not my righteousness that will save me or my works, but His righteousness and His finished work.


And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, evenwhen we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  Ephesians 2:1-9


God made me alive with Christ when I was dead in my trespasses.  God raised me up and seated me with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  God saved me by grace.  It's not my doing and it's not because of my works.  


It's all about Jesus.