Today I heard someone use the phrase "too close for comfort"; it was just after I had been contemplating the above verse penned by the Apostle Peter. As he continued, I began to ponder if it was not also true that we could get too comfortable because we are so close.
I live in the fabulous hills of Tennessee, snuggled between the legendary Civil War battlefield of Shiloh and the fabled Natchez Trace Parkway. About ten miles from my home is a naturally made land bridge and about thirty miles from my home is the birthplace of David Crockett, yet it has been years since I have visited any of these places. People travel for miles around to enjoy the beauty and history that surrounds me yet I am seemingly oblivious to it all.
A certain blindness comes from knowledge and familiarity. Unless we take the time to focus on something, it will never become a part of our life. Just because I own a beautiful flower garden does not mean that I have ever stopped to ponder the grandeur of the single rose.
As Christians, there is the danger of becoming comfortable with God.
As Christians we can get in a rut, we go to church, sing the songs, hear the sermons, read our Bibles, and pray our prayers, but none of it really makes a difference in our lives. Jesus told the Christians as Ephesus that this, basically, was their situation. They were doing all the things they were supposed to be doing yet Jesus says, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love" ( Revelation 2:4).
As Christians, we have something about which to be excited!
We need to let people know about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we are not in the position of Peter, where we can be eyewitnesses of his majesty, we certainly can be proclaimers of his majesty. We have a message worth sharing and that message is Christ's message.
We do not have to use "cunningly devised fables" or any other "heroic measures" when it comes to spreading the gospel. We have the power of God unto salvation if we will but use it to save those who are lost ( Romans 1:16). This power is the Bible and it is God's inspired word. "No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit ( 2 Peter 1:20,21).
There is nothing more precious, more glorious, more majestic than the word of God that can save mankind.
A proclaimer of the gospel, God wants you to be one; your neighbor is dying for you to be one.
1 Comment:
Great thoughts, and unfortunately too true.