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Shameful Me
by Steve Countryman As much as I would like to think that I am not that kind of Christian, I have to be honest and admit that I have been one. I have spent the better part of my adult life being a shameful Christian. A shameful Christian is a Christian who only cries out to God when they are in a bind, pickle, trouble or desperate. The rest of the time God takes a backseat to other more important things in life like going to hang with your friends, meet someone at a party or not wanting to miss your favorite TV show. It is disgraceful when you think about the way we Christians treat our awesome God at times. Giving Him one to one and a half hours of your time one day a week in church, if that, and thinking that you have "paid your dues" by doing so is pretty sad. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than sitting in your garage makes you a car. For the majority of American Christians going to church has become a chore that interferes with their day off plans. And for the majority of those who attend church, they have made it more of a social club than a time and place to have an encounter with the Creator of the Universe! Don't get me wrong I'm including myself here too. Born again at the age of eight and being raised in church, I had a fair idea of what I thought being a Christian was. Then there was the time when I spent thirty years thinking that I didn't need church and didn't have time to fit God into my busy schedule. Looking back on those days, I wonder how I ever made it. Then God reminds me of His blessings and presences in my life and my old career. What a change the Holy Spirit has made in me. Now if I miss my morning time in His Word or my morning prayer time with my God then my day just doesn't seem to flow right. There always seems to be something missing!? I only fool and lie to myself anytime I think that I don't need God everyday. How shameful to treat God like our personal genie who is here to give us all we desire and leave Him on a shelf the rest of the time. Once you start a personal relationship with Father God then you will better understand what it is to be His child. If you had an invitation from your all time favorite president and he wanted you to have lunch with him, I guarantee you that you would move heaven and earth to clear your schedule to make that lunch date. Now once you show up for that lunch date and exchange greetings and pleasantries, you start to sit down but suddenly remember that you forgot to turn off the fire on the stove. So without saying a word you get up and leave. What do you think that president thought of you leaving? But yet that is what we do with our God when we think that we are to busy to spend time with Him or in His Word. The Creator of the Universe who chose us before time began for a time and place such as this and yet we struggle to make any time for Him, how shameful! It is the desire of His heart to spend time with YOU! God wants to be in your daily life not just one day a week. You don't have to spend hours everyday with God. Just set aside time everyday at the same time to spend with Father God and watch what God will do to you, in you, for you, with you and through you! I guarantee that if you show up daily to spend time with Father God that He will honor that and Father God will show up to spend time with YOU! Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |