JUST BECAUSE.....I GO TO CHURCH....and

Luke 13:23

A bystander said, "Master, will only a few be saved?" He said, "Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you'll sit down to God's salvation banquet just because   you've been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you're going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you'll find the door locked and the Master saying, 'Sorry, you're not on my guest list.'

So simply put.....do you just go to church, or are you really the church?  Surely we can all testify to the very heart of this scripture that we've encountered "spiritual" people that carried themselves like modern day Saducees and Pharisees that hung around the church, did church like stuff, talked "churchy" and really didn't love people (espcially if they were sinners, looked differently, or dressed outside of their standards), but put on as if they loved GOD!

In the 2 & 3rd chapters of Revelations the picture is painted of these 7 churches, and I challenge those of you that actually said you "are the church or becoming the church" to peer inside the scriptures of that book to discover which church are you.  All of us are a work in progress so we will be one of the churches mentioned in that book, and it offers us encouragement to join Christ in working out our issues regarding our serving as the church. So that He may be pleased and glorified!

At the end of the day...at the end of this life...how awful would it be to have lived it thinking just because we attended services, fed a few hungry folks, and gave away some of our possessions that we are surely in......and go to knock only to discover.....we didn't......really LGLP.  FOCUS PEOPLE....He really meant it....LOVE GOD (HIM) and LOVE PEOPLE (all of them, every last one of them....no matter the ethnicity, what path they've chosen in life, where they live....you get to them....and LOVE THEM).

NEXT WEEK's BLOG we TALK ABOUT:     NOTHING

JUST BECAUSE......WHAT, DID/DO YOU REALLY ENCOUNTER CHRIST?

John 4:42
And they told the woman, Now we no longer believe (trust, have faith) just because of what you said; for we have heard Him ourselves [personally], and we know that He truly is the Savior of the world, the Christ.

Here's the scriptural encounter of the Woman at the well, and immediately following it was her running to tell here people (Samaritans) of encounter with the Christ.   After she had informed them of her time spent with Him, her story was convincing enough that they too, sought to hear for themselves and experience Him.  It appears to me today that people still haven't changed, in most cases seeing, is believing for most people.   Albeit that too, isn't great because with technology being what it is, we have the ability to make things look one way, when in actuality they never even happened.   So my question to you is....how do people KNOW your FAITH is real?  Or a better question is do people have a genuine experience of CHRIST from your daily living?  Does it (your living your faith aloud) encourage them to GO FIND CHRIST for themselves....or do they rather not....again because of you?

We don't read later about the woman in the well, preaching outside of her initially tell them about her encounter with Christ.  Nor do we see or read her feeding the hungry, clothing the naked....etc, but for that one excerpt her retelling them about Christ converted many that day.  JUST BECAUSE you are a Christian, DO the watching world EXPERIENCE YOUR CHRIST, or you daily encouters with Him (your prayers with Him, your devotional time, etc) through you....or are they still left empty.   I KNOW THIS....there is NO WAY you can encounter CHRIST, and not rub off on NO ONE!  LGLP