Almost is not enough

 

www.TheDavidAlliance.com 

 

TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com 

 

webstix.com Tony Herman - the coolest cat on the net

 

It is the New Year and many of my friends, neighbors, associates and the like are aaaaallll in when it comes to their NY resolutions and fitness.

Like my one friend Archie who is going to lose 75 pounds and quit eating junk food and go to the gym every day.

Well he said he is going to try to lose 75, but he would settle for 50, and actually 25 wouldn’t be to bad. and he will still eat some junk food or have a couple cheat days a week, but he will try to eat a little better BUT- HE IS GOING TO THE GYM… every day, unless it is super cold out, or he needs some sleep, or he is sore from the day before, or he just isn’t feeling it… but he is set! He is doing it. he is going to change his life forever, most likely, probably, hopefully… Hey don’t hold your breath.

I have seen to many teenagers as a youth pastor storm the alter at a camp or retreat and give their lives to Christ, and cry and pray and snot all over their face… and later that night I pull them out of the bushes with their pants down with one of the girls…

 

But to be fair, I have met plenty of people with the same teeter totter experience. They give their lives to Christ and they still live like someone who is lost. Now before we talk about grace and forgiveness and no one is perfect… lets look at 1 John 5

 

1 John 5:1-21

(just the first 5 verses… read the rest on your own)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

 

I guess my heart for those of you listening today is not to be perfect but to be grieved…

What do I mean by that? Well when you are truly walking with God, you sin less and less as you get older in Christ… but even more than that you grieve harder and harder when you do sin. 

Look I am not going to lie, when I was younger I could mess up, say things, look at things, do things that were just plain sin. And I knew they were sin, and It would bother me over time and I would confess and repent and move forward…

Thats just not the way it is anymore for me. When I sin now I grieve… I feel wounded inside and even worse I feel the pain of being the one who wounded God which in turn makes me feel the pain as well. 

 

I used to play hockey as a very young kid, I would play once in a while as I grew up and when my boys got older I would go out and skate with them once and a while. Now when I was young, I loved knocking people over, a good hip check was like a high… yeah after a few minutes or if the person got hurt it would not feel as good and I would at some point say “sorry”… and kind of mean it. Now if I am out on the ice and just accidentally knock into someone and hurt them (especially if it is a young kid) I feel devastated. I can’t say I am sorry enough or I myself can’t hurt for them enough. 

 

if you are serious about really giving your life to Christ I would say you should be feeling the grief of sinning more and more and it should also be less and less…. or maybe… hold on…maybe you really didn’t give your life to Christ. Maybe you gave your life to the idea of being a Christian, but not actually dying to self. There is the rub… Jesus said pick up your cross daily and follow me. 

 

Imagine if you will a cross in your bedroom… you get up tomorrow morning and you see it there. Now carrying a cross to work is pretty humbling for most of us… but you get to choose wether or not you pick it up. Lets be honest we can carry it to the small group bible study, we can carry it to church and even once and a while in the car… but EVERY DAY??? 

And there in lies the cost, its not the picking it up… its the picking it up every day.

 

You know 1 John 5 gives us a hint of how to do this pick up our cross thing. John says “it is easy for those who love God”.

Why not ask God to help you fall deeply in love with him and to experience his love like for the first time. Its not a burden if you are in love with him.

 

My second date with my wife we were in a movie theatre and she forgot her purse in my car. I said I will go get it, no problem! I parked 300 cars away and it was raining… strike that… it was pouring… strike that… I had to swim out to my car. I came back into the movie and I was freezing cold… but was it a burden? NOPE, I was in love. There were times in our marriage it was a burden… but I kept loving her, I kept serving her and now more than ever I am farther in love with her than ever before. 

Ask God for the same journey… he will in fact help you fall in love with him.