"When people make changes in their lives like this, it carries greater impact than when they merely make impassioned declarations. The world needs christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives."
It is not enough to simply claim Christianity. Everyday the christian is faced with the decision to tell others about their God or live quarantined, cut off and removed from society with no chance of interaction. Sadly, many today do not attempt to reach beyond the scope of the comfortable, the familiar. I am guilty. I am a christian who has been more than content, I regrettably say even happily chosen, to remain comfortable. That is not what God has asked of me. As my friend Traci Ferguson said tonight "I am a Christian because I am a sinner and Jesus Christ is my Savior." That is what I am called to share and called to live out everyday, not my pride in this gift of life, or a hoarding selfish attitude. Because that is what I am if I do not tell others His name; a selfish, spoiled child who refused to share what has been given to me, undeservingly, at no cost of my own. That is where my belief becomes a command, and that command fosters an action that develops into a lifestyle. I have life because one man dared to do what no other could, because God gave up His only son to die a sinners death, to be torn, beaten, broken, bruised, and nailed to a cross baring my transgressions, and those of His people. It is because of this that I have been commanded to "go and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19)." That command does not leave room for me or any other Christian to settle into our lives, easy and comfortable, unwilling to tell others the name of our Father. Instead it requires that we go beyond the familiar and share, in love, the life we have been given, and make God known through all the earth. The lifestyle of a christian should not be self-seeking, introverted, empty and complacent, but instead laced with humility as we proclaim the power, majesty, mercy, grace, and love of God.
If left to merely preaching the good news I would fall short. I would find myself once again fervently proclaiming Christ with my words, but if my actions do not also fervently proclaim Him as well than it is an empty zeal indeed. By the grace of God, and his Spirit working in me, every step that I take and every gesture I make must reaffirm what the movement of my lips teach. I can only do this by kneeling before my God every day, humbled by my sin and His sacrifice, willing to live obediently, and constantly relying on His strength alone to accomplish what He has commanded.
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