Saving...
A Call to Serve Christ …
with all of your Heart, Mind, Body and Soul
Yesterday, I received another package from Amazon.com. In this package came a book for my daughters, Authentic Beauty by Leslie Ludy which I will talk more about later.
The other book was God’s Gift to Women by Eric Ludy. I have not had time to read the whole book, but this morning I opened the book to quickly scan over some of the page to get the “gist” of the book. The first page I turned to was 62 and I read to page 64.
I can’t express my excitement enough! I had to share with you a few passages:
“Dude, I’m concerned about you.” Tom said sincerely, an anxious glint in his eye. “I just don’t want you to take this whole thing to an extreme.”Tom was a Christian youth worker who really cared about the direction my life took. During his ministry experience, Tom had seen a number of Christians who, as he termed it, “got weird” in their Christian walks. He identified the cause for this “weirdness” to be a sad case of overattentiveness” to spiritual matters. Tom felt that Christianity was most serviceable and appealing to society if it were kept in the confines of reasonableness. The new way I was choosing to live in Tom’s mind, was angerously close to crossing the line of reasonableness.
“God is delighted to see your zeal, Eric!” Tom encouraged me. “But he wants you just to know that you are safe in His arms. You don’t need to do anything more. God doesn’t want you to become obsessed with pleasing Him.” He paused for effect and the, with one final spiritual gush, he boldly exhorted, “He loves you just as you are!”
When the Brotherhood speaks to young Christian men , it knows not to come directly against the Truth – that would be too obvious. It must slightly twist the Truth, so that its words still sound right. Yes, Tom was accurate. God did love me just as I was. But He loved me too much to leave me as I was. My King wanted me to eradicate any influence of Self over my internal command center. He wanted me to be fully and completely His, not heeding the cost to my Self’s desires and wants.
But Tom’s sincere exhortation sounded so comfortable, so easy, so right.
Eric! my Self was screaming, you can have us both. It’s perfectly reasonable to let your Self be in control and at the same time be a Christian. Even Tom, a Christian leader, agrees! Listen to him!
Gently yet firmly, the new King within my inner command center challenged me to keep walking the path I had recently chosen – away from Self, toward Christ….
… Jesus came to earth two thousand years ago for a very specific purpose. Many of us have been taught that he came to forgive us of our sins. That, of course, is true. But it’s not the whole story. Jesus also came to deal a deathblow to sin….
Can I hear an “AMEN!”
For a very long time, I have felt so strongly that many Christian leaders in this day are leading people down the wrong path. You can not have it both ways. Jesus Christ said himself, “You cannot serve two masters.” Matthew 6:24
“Choose ye this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15
I took my daughters, Sarah and Emily, along with 5 other beautiful teen girls to the Young Women’s Retreat at Indian Creek Camp this past weekend. What an awesome experience! The speaker was Jennifer Woody. She was so inspiring! Her focus was igniting the fire within us. She emphasized giving our WHOLE HEART to Jesus – not just part of it. This is so important. And she asked the girls to think about and pray about what things in their lives might be keeping them away from being completely filled with the Spirit of God.
I am so thankful there are young men and women who are standing up for what it right. Do not live a mediocre Christian life. Give it all to Jesus!
Follow A Virtuous Woman on Twitter
Melissa,
I am seeing this more and more in my classrooms at the community college. There are young men and women who speak their faith with assurance and will challenge those who come against them. Some stay strong in their faith and others lag. But, I think it is significant that either way, they are standing up for what they believe. I hope for and pray for their strength. I was talking with a friend of mine this past week about her sister becoming pregnant before marriage and how we were concerned with this trend. "How," I asked her, "do we change this?"
Very calmly this faithful mother responded, "We teach Corrie (her six year old) better."
She was right. One child at a time.
Great post!