12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, having put me into service, 13 even though I was previously a blasphemer and persecutor and insolent man, but I received mercy, because being ignorant I did it in unbelief; 1 Timothy 1:12-13 (translated from the NA28 Greek text to English)
The older I become as I journey down this narrow way the more that passes for Christianity seems more and more absurd. Why? I suppose it is that I have become very convicted that we are very guilty of taking God for granted. Instead of worshiping Him for who He is, we seem to be totally focused on His works. While we should worship Him for His works with a grateful heart, we are leaving out direct worship of our Wonderful, Awesome, and Majestic God for who He is.
Our salvation is an incredible gift by His grace. That is why it troubles me so when Christian leaders cheapen it with their man-focused, easy-believism. Easy-believism produces professing Christians who believe their salvation came as a result of something they did. I know this because I was one of them for nearly 20 years. If this is our mindset about our salvation, we believe that our walk as Christians is also totally dependent upon our will power. It is as if what the Bible teaches about regeneration is unheard of or at least completely misunderstood. Also, Jesus’ own words about the exclusivity of who are His disciples and who aren’t seems to be in code because few seem to grasp what He is saying. <Continue reading post>