meaningless...what's your (follower of Christ) life like?

Christians, we've come a long way. God wakes us up every morning...we get ready for school, work, or whatever it is that we do everyday. We go through life throughout the week then what...we wake up Sunday morning to celebrate Jesus. Then back to the normal routine. We may even go to a mid-week Bible study...read and study God's word everyday, pray everyday...for what? To prepare us for Sunday morning? We play our instuments as part of the worship team on Sunday, lead Bible studies, serve in the different ministries, take our kids to church programs...and this is what Christianity is all about?

I don't know about you guys, but I see way too many of us doing this routine and we're satisfied with it...satisfied with our Christianity. What's wrong with that? We're living a good life, fellowshiping with believers, we're serving in the church...that's what God wants us to do, right? Of course, but does it end there? The problem with those routines is that we get satisfied and comfortable. Comfortable is not a bad thing but if that is it...if that's what our Christianity is all about, then it's a problem. The outcome of being comfortable is losing sight of what it's really all about. When we lose sight/focus on Jesus, we focus on other things...like the style of music. Do you really think that the music style you like is what they're going to play in Heaven? Really? It's just that I hear way too many of us, when looking for a church, that's the first thing we we look for in a church...style of music. Wow, that's our Christianity? Yeah, it sounds so obvious..."it shouldn't be like that." But, you know what...that's what it is when we lose focus. Another example...the pastor didn't go deep enough, read enough from the Bible, or too much, or he's too seeker friendly, or even this..."I didn't get anything from him." Is that why we go to church? To get more from God? To hear our style of music? To hear the message we want to hear? Sounds a bit selfish...but that's where most of us are...that is what our Christianity is looking like. Since when did God start calling us to go somewhere to be comfortable, to get what we want from the church, to be entertained?

When Nate and I finally got free from Castlewood, we looked at 2 churches (New Harbor and North Gate). North Gate was great, awesome worship songs, good sermon (don't remember what it was about...that's how good it is), and the people were very nice. New Harbor, well, it was a lot smaller than Norht gate and we saw that they could use some help with the music ministry. Then, we knew right away that New Harbor was where God wants us to be. We knew God had a place for us in that body. What's the point of this story? Jesus came to serve and not to be served...remember? Jesus was always serving. So why do we have this...mentality of...being entitled to be served? Why is it about us now? We have walked so far away from Jesus that we don't even include him when it comes to making decisions about life. We have walked so far away that we don't even see the opportunities he gives us everyday to serve others. All we see is "me." We go through our everyday lives without seeing God work in our lives. Yes, it's great to go to church and serve, help with the children minsitry, play and instument or sing as part of the worship team,...but what happened to the rest of the week? Can we really say we follow Jesus if that's all we're doing? What happened to following Jesus when we're at work? What about when we are in school? What about following Jesus as we go shopping or when we go out to eat? On our way home, when we see someone stuck on the freeway? How are we following Jesus when we see the homeless? Better yet, how are we following Jesus with our money? Look at the things we have...can we say that we used the resource God gave us for good? Or do we have the fancy-er car...the better sound system, better clothing, ...? Can you see what I'm getting at? It's the everyday things that we do, everyday decisions we have to make that really defines our Christianity. It's easy to be "Christian" within the church walls because we do it all the time and we got comfortable with it. You see, we can have all the knowledge about the Bible, we can have the greatest prayer life, best voice for singing worship songs...if we are not going to live it outside of the church walls, then what's the point? God wakes us up everyday...for what? So we can live out our lives and be ready for Sunday morning? I don't think so. God gives us life everyday...to serve Him everyday...by serving those around us everyday. If we miss this...if we forget this, then we forget the reason why Jesus came to die for us. Then our "follower of Jesus" life is...prety much, meaningless. Is that what our Christian life is like?

daniel m.