...Discipleship

This wasn't on my first list, but I decided to add it.  Lately, I've realized what a lukewarm Christian I've become. I'm not sure where it is, but in the New Testament...somewhere, God says that he dislikes Lukewarm people so much that he literally SPITS them out of his mouth.  Can you imagine God spitting us out, like venom or a bad taste? The truth is, lukewarms taste horrible.  We are like...the stinky moldy cheese of Jesus.

What is worse than a person that has learned a life changing truth, but sits on it and does nothing?  What's the point of this all if we don't let it change us?  This has convicted me a lot...I see a lot of new Christians set on fire for God and I remember when I was like that.  I was so encouraged and felt the need to tell others the Good News, but found the "hopelessness" of our world...a little depressing.  I think that all of us become extremely discouraged at some point in our lives and that defines how we work for God.  Some people (not me), after becoming so discouraged, turn to God right away, and persevere.  However, there are others...(me)...that get stuck in the mud.  We've been hurt before and don't want to get hurt again, or we just lack the motivation to actually do ANYTHING.  That's where I've been lately...just stuck in the mud (is this a good title for a book?) and I don't know really how to get out myself.  I can try and change or turn over a new leaf, but that's not going to be permanent.

Just going off on a tangent before, has anyone ever played the version of tag called stuck in the mud?  It's this game where someone obviously tags you, but instead of becoming it, you get "stuck in the mud."  How does this relate to our Christian lives?  We all at sometime get stuck in this mud of the things we've done, our lack or forgiveness and just general poop of the world.  We are stuck in the poop/mud.  The beautiful part of this game...is that to survive, you need someone to save you.  Someone has to get on their hands and knees and crawl through the proverbial mud and poop so that you can play the game again.  Is that not amazing?!?  Jesus did that for us!!! He crawled through the mud for us.  But this game would be so idiotic if we just sat there....right?  Once we are unfrozen from the mud, we are supposed to RUN as fast as we can away from what got us there in the first place, and run towards freedom.  But we don't, or at least I didn't.  I decided that I didn't deserve to be saved, which is true for everyone :/ and ended up just sitting there like an idiot.  I can see everyone else around me running, laughing and playing.  But I sit there...hmmm....and while I'm pondering whether or not to leave, the tagger realizes that I'm unfrozen and gets me again...this is where it gets even more beautiful...We are sitting in the mud, and get tagged again and again after being rescued from our fate, but no matter how many times we fail to realize the depth of the sacrifice, that same guy comes back around to get us out of the mud when we call to him.  My point is:  We can sit in the mud and think about ways we could change once we are saved, but we need to be saved FIRST.

So, while I was sitting in the mud wondering whether or not I truly deserve it, the tagger comes back AGAIN and AGAIN relentlessly pursuing me, wanting me to lose.  But, God's love is greater.  He saved me multiple times.  And now I'm deciding to get out of this mud of my life, the poop, crap...whatever, and run towards freedom.

How can we disciple people if we live in this mud?  We can call out to them from where we stand, but to actually show them Jesus' love, we need to be saved, and then go crawl on our knees through the mud for others.  We need to earn their ears and show them what sacrifice truly is. This sequence is quintessential.  You can't skip around, or do it backwards.  One comes before the other.


 God's crawled through already, are you going to run towards Him?

Challenge: Make a list of people this week that God has put in your life, and you are far enough into a relationship with them to talk to them about Jesus.  Make the list, and then pray about it.   Prayer works.