There are many things I thought I knew about God. I thought there was nothing else to learn. As I grew up in church, I came to believe there is nothing any one can tell me I have not already heard at least once before. Pastors used to preach the same thing over and over again; I knew all the stories. I knew how God loved me. I knew the right way to live and the wrong way to live… I KNEW!
I could not have been further from wrong. I knew nothing, nothing at all. Head knowledge is meaningless. Congratulations, you can remember a verse from the bible. The verse you learned is useless, useless unless it gets into your heart. You can know the bible cover to cover. It is useless to you. Unless it gets into your life, and begins to change you from the inside out. I have seen preachers, their words are beautiful. They talk the talk, but do not walk the walk. They say pretty words to please the congregation and fill the offering plate, but at home they are living just like everyone else. They are just people who poorly represent God, and I wasn’t any better. I talked the talk and I knew the right words to say in front of the right people. I knew how to act in front of certain people, and knew how to hide in front of others. So many people get led astray because of this, and they call it lukewarm Christianity. It is because these people poorly represent God and every one who see’s this two faced Christian wants nothing to do with them. I can’t say that I blame them.
As Christians we represent God. What are you representing. Love? Kindness? Forgiveness? Acceptance? Or does your life represent drama? Gossip? Lies? Adultery? Addiction? Do people at your work even know you are a Christian? Do you fall in line when people who are laughing at some one or do you stand up and protect them? I can tell you I was the one who fell in line or just the same didn’t say anything at all. If we are the body of Christ why is it when new people walk into a church and they don’t “fit the mold” they feel unwelcome and most times judged, so they don’t return? God came to save the lost. It say’s in Mark 2:17 ‘When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” The lost don’t always look pretty, they don’t fit into “the mold” of Christianity PEOPLE have made (God did not make the mold he came to break it!)
I was one of these Christians I knew everything there was to know. I said the right things, but behind closed doors I had secrets. All the knowledge in the world cannot get God into your heart. All the knowledge in your head cannot keep you living a righteous, holy life. Just because you go to church on Sunday DOES NOT make you a Christian, you are using church as a get out of hell free card. Until you get into the word of God and let it penetrate your heart, your beautiful words are meaningless, just like that verse you can quote but you never let it impact your heart. ‘You know them by their fruit’. I had no fruit, just empty words and phrases I had heard a hundred times before. I thought I knew it all only to be proven wrong. I thank God for humbling me. I thought this was Christianity. The God I represented then I would not want to follow. Worst of all, I hated these types of Christians before I became one I called them hypocrite’s. I was a get out of hell free card Christian. I was lukewarm and I am convicted now because of it. I am not condemned but convicted. I tried to lead people to a Christ who, I, myself did not fully trust or understand. I never want to return to lukewarm Christianity
I know now that I know nothing. I am only just beginning to understand who God is. I have barely scratched the surface. I know that love is the greatest of all the commandments and to love your neighbor as yourself. I realize that reading my bible is not an obligation but a privilege. I ask the Lord every time for His words to seep into my heart. I have changed, I have changed a lot. I still have head knowledge but God is transforming it into heart knowledge. God is creating something new in me. I am a new creation. The more time I spend with him, the more I realize how much I don’t know, and at the same time how much I have learned. I know people who have spent their lives in church going through the motions and never seeing fruit in their lives. A relationship with God is so much more than going to church on Sunday. It is getting on your knees and in your bible daily spending time with God. ‘Seek and you will find.’ He wants to be a part of our every day lives. He has so much to give that is beyond more than just going to church on Sunday. He wants to penetrate every aspect of our existence, and living with him in this way has been so eye-opening. I asked God to let me see how he sees and next thing I know I am talking to a lonely women on the side of the road I wouldn’t have given the time of day to before. I asked God to let me hear how he hears, and next thing I knew I hear him in conversation every where. I asked God to let me feel how he feels, next thing I knew my heart is breaking for this girl who was crying in the corner. I asked God to give me dreams, next thing I knew I can interpret dreams. I ask God to show me his love, next thing I know I am praying for those deemed most unlovable. I asked God to change me from the inside out, next thing I know the world around me began to transform in front of my eyes.
There is so much more that God has for you. Going to church on Sunday and knowing the right things to say does not even begin to touch who God is and how you can impact the world around you. What is your fruit? Do you have any fruit? Have you been living like I did for years just saying the right things and going through the motions? A get out of hell free card Christian? Do you know the bible cover to cover but have secrets you keep hidden? I have seen both sides of the same coin. I know the difference between those who say I am a Christian and those who live their lives like they are Christians. I hope when I come home people see me and know through my actions without ever having to ask me “Are you a Christian?” They just know because of my fruit. All the things I thought I knew, I KNEW NOTHING! God is so merciful and he accepted me as I was even in my “know it all” stage. My life will forever look different because God has given me His heart. Beating for him 24/7.
