Seen It, Heard It, But Can You Live It

Sometimes being a Christian can feel like living one huge cliche after another. There are many things that we hear all the time. "Be a witness for Jesus," "Be transformed by Christ," "Be different," "Obedience is better than sacrifice," "Real Men Love Jesus," "Take up your Cross" and so on. Some are these are very biblical and some are just nice statements to validate our fan club. There are many theatrics that can be involved in our religiosity also, lip service, perfect attendance records, and holy fake smiles. But in the grand scheme of our lives what is it that we really accomplish. When we read God's word it is clear in James that if we are hearers of the word only and not doers then we are a like a man who goes to a mirror and then after he leaves forgets what he looks like. Some of us(including myself) live this Christian life hearing, seeing, and reading God's word often. But it never gets to our fingers to application. Our minds are full of things we would say if we had the opportunity to evangelize, but we never do, say, or live these things out.
I have been in and around church all of my life. Christ permeated my heart with the gospel in my 20s. So for a large part of my teenage years I never realized what I was living for, but I knew exactly what to say to sound like I was spiritual and so forth. And even today I have a knowledge and experiential premise of the grace, mercy, and peace of God, but I am reluctant to get past myself to give this knowledge away. There is a book that was written recently called "Live Sent," and I haven't read it yet but I'm convinced that there are more books that talk about living sent than individuals that actually do it. We are all consumed with ourselves, even those of us that seem to have a knowledge of what we are suppose to do. We need those practitioners in the field to give us insight on this Christian walk, but more than anything we need to be gripped by God and his word to obey what it says. Which is often the testimony of these many authors. My confidence is in Christ, and I pray that God would allow me to practice those things that I am convinced are his truths. And that God would use all of those leaders who are living this day in light of that day to be an example to the larger number of us that have seen it, heard it, but aren't gripped by the living of God's true mission for our lives.

JTeverything