Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Christian Retirement

The following was something that I wrote for a class I took a couple of weekends ago. The assignment was to write a devotional based on a song that would deal with one of the tenets of the Free Methodist Church. The song that accompanied this writing was "Wholly Yours" by David Crowder Band.

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I like to be lazy. I know... hard to believe, but true. My favorite days are the ones where I don't have to set my alarm clock. I spend the day flipping the TV channels, cruising around on the internet, or reading a book. Those days are great! Although more often than not, I'm kicking myself the next day for the responsibilities that I neglected the day before.


It's that way in our spiritual lives too. We're taught from day one that we can do nothing to earn our salvation. That's the best news, but after awhile we end up getting spiritually lazy. We're physically in church on Sundays but hardly ever mentally and spiritually. God doesn't enter our mind most days and the people we encounter on a daily basis don't even know we're Christians! Rather than experiencing the freedom of God's salvation, we experience a freedom more akin to Christian "retirement."


This is not the life God has in mind for us. We're called to an active life of faith and growth. God calls us to live a holy life! In the Bible we see seraphs flying around God exclaiming "Holy, Holy, Holy," we sing songs every Sunday about how holy and awesome God is... and then God reaches His hand down and says "Holy... that's the life I want for you!" ... but we don't buy it. We make excuses. We say, "but I'm only human." We choose a lifetime of tumult with sin...


However, we see God calling us to this life all throughout scripture. He wants us to live holy, pure, and blameless lives that have victory over sin. He wants us to live a life that is completely submitted to Him. He wants our lives to be wholly His... and thus holy. It might sound completely impossible to you, but the God of the universe is telling us that if we work alongside Him in this process, He'll do it! I don't know about you, but that's a hard deal for me to pass up.


Get the monkey off your back. We can live in true freedom. It's not going to come quickly nor easily... but we're not alone...


May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (NIV)

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