#002- Up or Down, No Middle Ground
If you're not going FORWARD in your walk with Christ, you are going BACKWARDS. There is NO STANDING STILL.
Charles H. Spurgeon has this quote that goes a little something like this; "If Christ is not all to you, He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything, He is nothing to you." What that basically means is this; if Jesus isn't everything to you, there's a problem.
And I'm not telling you to go sell all your possessions and turn into John the Baptist here (though it'd be cool and totally great if done for the glory of God). What I'm saying is you need to examine yourself. Are you lukewarm? One foot in the church and one out the door? Guess what Jesus does to those peeps..."So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16). Yeah, I don't want to be there either.
But what if you're not lukewarm? What if things are going great and you're doing great things for the Kingdom of God? You've got your morning devotional, your Bible studies, you serve at your church, etc? (By the way, none of those things give you salvation, but let's just assume you're genuine). Ok, awesome. You still need to move FORWARD in your walk.
Whether you've been a Christian for ten years or ten minutes, there should NEVER be a time when you're content in your walk with Christ. There should never be a moment when you can say to yourself "alright, I'm good. I'm doing enough." Guess what? You've already believe a lie; that you can do "enough" to satisfy God. You can never read the Word enough. Every time you read it, it teaches a different lesson. It's not a book; it's the word of GOD.
So what happens when you grow "content"? You also grow numb. Suddenly, sins aren't do bad anymore. You start becoming desensitized. And don't say "that won't happen to me" because it WILL if you don't continue to press forward.
Speaking of "pressing forward", I do believe someone said that once in that Bible. Now, who could that have been? Hmm...
"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:13-14
It was PAUL. Now, just in case you didn't know, this guy wrote most of the New Testament. He's a pretty deal in the history of the church. If HE never reached a point where he could say, after writing a ton of books in the Bible, spreading the Gospel everywhere, being beaten to a pulp for the sake of Jesus' name, among other things...if THAT GUY never sat down in a lounge chair on Miami Beach with his iPod in one hand and some iced tea on the other, saying "I think I'm good with Christ, I can relax"...then neither should we.
But the goal's not to imitate Paul. The goal is to imitate Christ. When you accept Christ, you're given this thing called Imputed Righteousness, and that's awesome...but it's not a license to sin. You can't just say "God's going to forgive me anyway". With that, God also gives you a new heart. Chances are, if you didn't get that, you didn't get the imputed righteousness either.
(But that's a whole different story)
"Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." - 1 John 3:24
Is there a SIN you KNOW you shouldn't be doing?
Yo. This isn't a GAME. You can't FLIRT with sin and claim to be MARRIED to Christ. THAT'S ADULTERY.
STOP. REPENT. MOVE FORWARD.
(By the way, if you need prayer with a sin you're struggling with, feel free to let me know and I'll pray for you. There is strength in numbers)
