God is depending on us! It is true! The King of the Universe relies on us to be living demonstrators of the power of the Spirit to transform a mere human being into a living saint! What a privilege and honor and what a responsibility. Believer, do your day to day decisions reveal an ongoing conversation with Christ and His Word in which you are applying His Kingdom truth and principles to your choices? Another way to ask it, do you show a life of faith, hope, and love that is built around the desire to know and please God? Have you settled for childish "bless me, Jesus" prayers, safe Christian friends that do not challenge your choices, and clichés about faith instead of fire-tested faith that wrestles with life's mysteries?
Jesus confronts us with a penetrating question that demolishes the vain hope of those who will not be truly transformed disciples. He said, "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes." (Luke 6:43-44, NLT) "So why do you keep calling me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say? I will show you what it's like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins." (Luke 6:46-49, NLT)
In a great little book called, unChristian, David Kinnaman shares his research about the Christian spiritual experience in America. In studies that followed accepted research practices, he found that two-thirds of adults in America claim to have made some kind of commitment to Jesus Christ at some point in their lives which remains important to them. Of those in that group who are ages 18-41, a third say they are absolutely committed to the Christian faith, while in those over 42+ about half make the same claim. That means about 50-60 million adult Americans claim to be absolutely committed to Jesus Christ. That's the good news! And, those numbers make me ask some questions.
That many people can exercise considerable clout - economically, politically- and they could accomplish a lot with volunteer efforts, so why don't we see a spiritual renewal of unprecedented proportions happening in America?
Why aren't issues like poverty, divorce, and economic opportunity being solved by millions of creative Spirit-filled people working to apply the Gospel's message and values to society's ills?
Here's the bad news. When these same individuals were asked questions that measured the depth of their faith and how they applied what they claimed to believe to daily life, the statistics went down remarkably. Only about 3% of Believers between the ages of 18 and 41 and 9% of those ages 42+ possess a truly Biblical worldview. Why is this true? Kinnaman suggests that the evangelical church is largely set on a 'get saved' mentality where a person is urged to make a decision to accept Christ that is largely emotional. A better model, he says, is to aim for spiritual transformation, a process in which a person is taught to think about truth, presented with the challenge of changing his life completely to serve Christ, and makes a choice for change that leads to adopting a whole new worldview centered on Christ and the Scripture. He writes, "the core of the 'get saved' mentality is a one size fits all message that fails to connect with their unique sensibilities, personality, or intellectual capabilities. ... people desperately need to be taught to process the rich complexities of life, to probe and test and stretch their faith from the perspective of a Christ follower."
Obviously we cannot ignore the power or influence of the Holy Spirit in the process of heart transformation, but we also know that he does not just magically change us. He works through our minds to change our way of living. If we want to fulfill Christ's commission to 'be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth,' we must shift our focus from simply 'get saved and go to Heaven,' to spiritual transformation that shapes the character of Jesus in us; sinners becoming saints.
Here's a word from the Word. Let the Spirit use it to challenge you to greater devotion today. "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us." (Romans 12:2-3, NLT)
No comments:
Post a Comment