MILK TO MANHOOD

Heb 5:11-14About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.Is it possible to be a Christian for 25 years and not be a changed person? Last night we visited our old church for a "Christmas concert" which consisted of a woman singing and then subsequently talking about her life, followed of course, by an altar call to a room full of Christians who were sadly unaware of the dying culture around them. Instead of an altar call I wanted to stand up and give a battle cry. I wanted to tell everyone to stand up, look at the dying souls around their cozy little church, and go get dirty for Jesus. I do not mean the kind of dirty that comes from a nice Saturday at the church where people pick up trash and then celebrate that they have changed their parking lot for Christ. I am talking about the kind of dirty where the people walk out of their unchanging bubble, and engage a culture full of sex, drugs, and disease, and let the light of Christ shine into the complete darkness that is America. I was saddened that although we had left the church 6 months ago, and I will say that it is a good church as far as "good churches" go, nothing had changed since the last time we had sat in that sanctuary. The people were still the same people, nobody new. The mood was still the same mood, depressed, but almost perfectly covered up with a well practiced "church smile." And the message to the people was still the same. Don't feel bad about your life, because God will take care of you. Don't feel bad that you struggle with the same sin, because Jesus already died for that sin which you give in to every day, after day, after day. And finally, if you are not a "Christian", pray this little prayer, and your life will be so much better...just like ours..."Church Smile." To that message I say. Feel bad about your life! You are so depraved that God had to do something drastic to save you. Stop committing the SAME SIN EVERY DAY, because Jesus offers you so much more than just a life of habitual sin covered up with grace at the time of your last breath. Love Jesus! Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! PICK UP YOUR CROSS! If you are not a Christian, become one. Not so your life can feel better, but so that your life can be changed. Love Jesus and the trivial little things you are so worried about now will quickly fade as you realize the battle you have just stepped into. Love Jesus and your life will not be the same 6 months from now. There will be new people in your life, new sins to have to look to Jesus for help with, and a new smile... a real smile. A smile that comes from deep within, because that is where you will have changed, that is where you will have found life. Real, hard, dirty, grace abounding...Life.If you are a Christian... make it count. He died for you! Make it count. He chose to save you from death. Thank Him, worship Him, Love Him. Let Him work in you, and never be satisfied with just being the same person year after year after year.