“There will always be plenty of Jehovah’s Bystanders, people who believe in God, but just don’t want to get involved.” --Kinky Friedman
Now I hope you aren’t too offended by my title, but my post is actually about doing something for the sake of Christ and God’s Kingdom. Now when I read the above Kinky Friedman quote, the first thing I did was laugh, but after thinking about it, it is the tragic truth of many of our churches today and I fall into that category more than I want to admit.
This is not to say that we don’t have people in our churches serving God and making sacrifices for God. I just feel like many of us will at some time get so caught up in our lives on this Earth that we forget that there is a higher calling for us as Christians. This post is mainly a response to too many comments that I have heard lately that were just excuses from good Christians that helped them feel better about not doing what we are called to do. Here are some of the statements that have gotten under my skin.
1. Well what am I supposed to do, I have to take care of my own family.
2. The church leadership hasn’t given me enough support.
3. They aren’t even from America, why should we help them.
4. I am just waiting for the opportunity to arise.
5. I am too busy to do anything extra.
Please know that I am putting myself into this list of excuses and will admit fully that I have made some of these comments myself and made many other excuses throughout the years.
No matter what is going on in our lives we can choose to serve God in Everything. And this is what we should be doing. The problem for so many Christians is that we want to compartmentalize our lives. I have my God stuff over here, Family stuff over here, Friend stuff over here, and our Work over here. If I separate out my life like this, I will never have enough time for God. This is not how things are supposed to be. Every category of our lives needs to have God as the central figure. I can serve God through how I work and how I treat people at work. I can serve God through how I raise and treat my family. I can serve God in the type of friend that I am. So start serving God that way, but I pray that we will not only stay in those categories. Also go out of your way to find some other ways that you can serve God. Sacrifice a little time to feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, clothe those in need, take care of the sick, and care for those in prison.
The other concern is feeling like the good works that you are doing is enough. Paul in Thessalonians commends the believers for their good works but encourages them to do more and more of those things.
Show people the love of Christ in all situations and quit making excuses. It is my prayer that we will all find more ways to do this.
“And the King will tell them, ‘Whenever you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me” Matthew 25:40
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
What am I supposed to do? I have to take care of my family. Wait, you didn't like that response. Ummm...I'm too busy...no, that's not good either.
ReplyDeleteI especially like the "they aren't even from America" tripe. Someone actually said that? Really? Did you smack them upside the head? Heaven forbid someone other than a precious American receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. Holy crap that comment gets under my skin.
Unfortunately, comments like that are all to common for the American church. We (myself included) tend to think we are more important than we really are. We've got jobs, cars, houses, extravagent clothing. We're rich (certainly by the world's standards). We MUST be important, look at us! How could God possibly use those poor people in that unnamed third world country?
Well guess what America, Jesus was a carpenter, David was a shepherd, Moses was an orphan, Rahab was a prostitute. None were rich and none were white anglo-saxon North Americans. God doesn't need us, WE NEED GOD!
Thanks for this blog David. It makes me think and conveniently provides a kick in the pants too!
Jeff G.
PS - can someone tell me how to use the comment section without selecting Anonymous?
Jeff
ReplyDeleteIf you click follow on the right side of my blog it will ask you for an e-mail address, which I think it needs to be yahoo or g-mail, and then you can put in a password. This doesn't sign you up for anything, just gives you access to be able to comment on blogs. Once you have that set up, you can go to the blog, click in the very top right corner sign in, and put in your e-mail and password. then when you post something it should have your name there where it says comment as: That probably doesn't make much sense but if you try those steps it should become a little easier to understand. I am just not good at giving directions concerning computer stuff.
about the comment itself. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. That is what I hope we will be able to do is challenge each other and share with each other so we can all grow in our faith.
Ha ha ha ha! There's no stopping me now. You don't have the power to ban people right?
ReplyDeletemy husband and you are very wise men. maybe now he'll start a blog and get his thoughts out like you are.
ReplyDeleteabout the post: LOVE it!!! I hope that I am not one of the people that you have heard those comments from, and if so, I need to get on my knees and repent. Thanks for the reminder and the encouragement!
Like my Dad always says - we find time to do the things we want to do.
ReplyDelete"I'm too busy too feed the homeless because my kid has a little league game."
WOW - everyone thinks they are the busiest person on earth. We fill our lives with crap and meaningless activities by choice and think we deserve a Noble Peace Prize for giving up a few hours on Saturday to feed the hungry.
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
Thank you for the kind words Jessica. Jeff I agree with your wife that you should start a blog. Super easy and a great way for us all to challenge each other
ReplyDeleteAmen Sarah Grace! I especially like the Nobel Peace Prize comment. Very True!
Starting my own blog implies that I have access to a home computer. Yes, I do own a computer and it resides in my home. However, my wife guards the thing like a starving dog guards a filet mignon. Between email, Facebook, MySpace and her own blog, I barely have time to pay the bills. Ha ha, just kidding...sort of.
ReplyDeleteAlas, I am simply too lazy to start my own blog. It's much easier to crash the party here or at Pat's place or Dustin's.
"I'm busy" Seriously?!? Who the crap isn't? Sorry. This makes my skin crawl. I have no eloquence on this subject. It makes me mad. It also convicts the crap out of me.
ReplyDeleteI would just like to defend myself... I do not "guard the computer" and I don't even do myspace anymore. If we wanted to calculate the hours that my husband spends reading about the Longhorns on hornfans, burntorangenation, etc. than I think we would know the real reason why he doesn't have time for a blog.
ReplyDeleteand don't let him blame it on a home computer anyway. if he has time to "crash the party" on all of these blogs while at work, then he could type his own while at work too.
i love you honey, but really, that's not fair!!
Marriage Quarrels are not allowed on this blog. Do you know about the Weekend to Remember marriage conference that is coming up in April?
ReplyDeleteI just call 'em like I see 'em.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, do you give out prizes to the top contributors to your blog?
I thought the prize was gaining all the wisdom that I am sharing. But seriously, I really appreciate the comments. It is the main reason I started the blog. I wanted us to have a place to share our thoughts and challenge each other.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brother
Jessica - I was just kidding about the Marriage conference comment.
Oh no worries David... we are signed up for the conference already! Missed it last year, maybe that's the problem!
ReplyDeletelol
We are signed up also. We are really looking forward to it.
ReplyDelete