13th August 2004 The List
I was reading the list Christians in Hall earlier. I was looking through the names. There were may familiar and not so familiar one 110 in all.
Some names caused me to nod of acknowledgement of what I had suspected all the while but never really asked.
Yet I was shocked to find some names in the list. Some of them have never showed or revealed an inkling that they have come to believe in the same God as I. On the contrary they lived lives as if there where no God. As Christ had never come. As if His love had never compelled them to live their lives differently from that of this world. The power of the knowledge of Christ and the power of His resurrection seem altogether absent in their lives.
There's even one who had professed that he had long lost his faith.
It made me sober. Sober to the reality of the place that I live in. Have I lived my life as these people have? Do my actions reflect the living God? As salt and light, am I all that salty and bright? Or have I lost my saltiness and keep my light under a bowl so that none may see?
Am I Christian by name? Will Christ say of me "Good and faithful servant!" ? Or will He say "Away from me! Assuredly I say unto you I DO NOT KNOW YOU!"
For I have come to realise that the truth is that it doesn't matter how many times I attend church, the commitments in His Service and for His ministry. But the times I spent in solitude with Him. My relationship with Him.
Yet these familiar words rarely translate into action in my life. I recall the countless times I drifted away. The long list of things I have done against the Lord whom I profess to serve. Am I different from this world or am I the same?
Maintaining that respectful distance from Him or worst keeping that between Him and those whom He loves by not boldly declaring His love? His salvation? *Sigh* Am I different or do I think myself different?
Faith without deeds is dead. Faith not lived out is not faith at all. I think it was CS Lewis who once said that believing in something is the hardest thing in the world. Having a religion is the hardest thing in the world...
Aye. I'd say an "Amen!" to that. But isn't that a life that is worth living. A life that it deeply convicted of the truth.
Aye. I'd say an "Amen!" to that.
Some names caused me to nod of acknowledgement of what I had suspected all the while but never really asked.
Yet I was shocked to find some names in the list. Some of them have never showed or revealed an inkling that they have come to believe in the same God as I. On the contrary they lived lives as if there where no God. As Christ had never come. As if His love had never compelled them to live their lives differently from that of this world. The power of the knowledge of Christ and the power of His resurrection seem altogether absent in their lives.
There's even one who had professed that he had long lost his faith.
It made me sober. Sober to the reality of the place that I live in. Have I lived my life as these people have? Do my actions reflect the living God? As salt and light, am I all that salty and bright? Or have I lost my saltiness and keep my light under a bowl so that none may see?
Am I Christian by name? Will Christ say of me "Good and faithful servant!" ? Or will He say "Away from me! Assuredly I say unto you I DO NOT KNOW YOU!"
For I have come to realise that the truth is that it doesn't matter how many times I attend church, the commitments in His Service and for His ministry. But the times I spent in solitude with Him. My relationship with Him.
Yet these familiar words rarely translate into action in my life. I recall the countless times I drifted away. The long list of things I have done against the Lord whom I profess to serve. Am I different from this world or am I the same?
Maintaining that respectful distance from Him or worst keeping that between Him and those whom He loves by not boldly declaring His love? His salvation? *Sigh* Am I different or do I think myself different?
Faith without deeds is dead. Faith not lived out is not faith at all. I think it was CS Lewis who once said that believing in something is the hardest thing in the world. Having a religion is the hardest thing in the world...
Aye. I'd say an "Amen!" to that. But isn't that a life that is worth living. A life that it deeply convicted of the truth.
Aye. I'd say an "Amen!" to that.
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