We are all fallen; no man can match the glory of God. Though it is becoming more apparent that parishioners have stopped trying. The once narrow gap between religion and Jesus is not far from resembling the Grand Canyon.
I recently heard a Christian woman tell her quarreling family, "We should not fight. After all, it is Sunday." Most Christians, I think, live according to such a model. They will live for God on the seventh day and live for themselves through the six.
We are becoming more like the religious leaders who Jesus criticized in Matthew 23 and less like Jesus. We will let the community know that we are Christian. Then we turn around and we commit evil in secret or before only our families. We drag the glorious name of God through the dirt. We give the non-believers something to point at and say, "Look! That is why I am not a Christian!"
Though the pointed finger of the opposition is invariable. The opposition will persecute Christians. They persecuted Jesus despite that He led a sinless life. While they will persecute, they can never snatch you from the hand of God. (John 10:28)
It is only you that makes the decision to wander asunder of God's hand. Often we have not even realized how far we have wandered. We live for our natural selves through the six and live for God during the seventh. We embrace every impulse of anger or pride and shun them only on Sunday.
God is still God on Monday morning. Yet we awake and prepare for a day of curse words, complaints, that great feeling which you get from lifting yourself up by putting others down, and the general taste of evil. We love that taste so much that we give it precedent over God.
When we are angry, we must turn to prayer rather than cigarettes. When we are depressed, we must find it in ourselves rejoice in the Lord, for we came into the world naked and all we have, we have because the Provider provided it. When we are jealous we must ask the Lord for wisdom. When we are full of pride we must confess to the Lord that we are but a grain of sand on a beach. Jesus is in the lives of those who confess they are imperfect, for only the sick need a doctor. (Mark 2:17)
A wise man once told me to stop playing with the Lords' mercy, lest He draws it back like a hand from the flame.
Read the New Testament. Become like Jesus.
"There are two types of people. Those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "Alright then, have it your way." - CS Lewis
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