|
 
 
|
 About me Contact me |
|
|
About me Contact me |
|
Articles recently commented on:
Follow Mar Matthias on Twitter Follow Rev. Mother Theresa on Twitter
Website thumbnails generously provided by ShrinkTheWeb |
The Comfort Zone by Rev. Dr. Leslie Mary Trombly People who are wealthy think they are in a comfort zone for themselves, but in reality they aren't and neither are Christians. Just like the poor or the elderly or those who are handicapped, there is no comfort zone. Oh sure the wealth the rich may have can buy them anything they want; but in reality after they have all they want materially, what is left? They can't buy real love or happiness or fulfillment and all they are left with is emptiness and loneliness. All their material goods and worldly possessions come to mean nothing. What they soon learn and figure out in the end is that for all they have - they have nothing! Nothing they have is lasting or permanent and fills the empty space within their beings. Some never realize it or when they do, it is too late for them to change it, while others do but ignore it. So it is with Christians and their "comfort zone". They accept the gift of Salvation and from there, they settle into what they think is their comfort zone. They reason that they are now saved and will enter heaven with out having to do anything else and they go about their normal lives as if nothing has changed, except their eternal destination which they think will be heaven and not hell. Well folks, I am here to tell you straight out -NOT SO! There is more to having accepted the gift of salvation that is involved here and many are not taught it, know it and ignore it or have one excuse after another as to why they didn't find out what was involved in accepting such a gift. Even when they do know, they still fail to do anything about it. So what is involved, once you accept the free gift of Salvation? Let's begin with commitment. When you commit your life to Christ, you in essence turn your life over to him to fulfill the destiny that he had laid out for you long before you were born. I. Commitment to Christ involves: 1. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:6,7). 2. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day. [1 kings 8:61] 3. Being a committed Christian is like being committed to a marriage. There are those who take their vows seriously and do all they can to make their marriages work. Others quit when the going gets tough and they don't want to deal with any of the issues at hand, so they walk away. But time after time the Bible turns our attention to God's faithfulness to us and the life he can produce in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. In the bible we can see that "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." [1 Thessalonians 5:24] 4. Accepting the gift of Salvation is a commitment to Jesus in and of itself. That commitment involves giving up old ways, sins and following the new direction that he has laid out for you. 5. Commitment to Christ involves: a. Being rooted in Him - "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: 7Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. [Colossians 2:6-8] When we are rooted in Jesus, our thoughts are not of this world, but of his world. This is as it should be considering the commitment that he made to us at Calvary. We have to be on guard against the purveyors of evil, as well as, Satan and his minions; lest they drag us from our true destiny b. Separating yourself from that which is of the world - "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 18For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. 1Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another". [Romans 14:17-19] You may be in this world; but once you accept Christ you are not of this world. What does that mean? It means completely separating yourself from the illicit pleasures and ways of the world and concentrating on the things that are of Him and his kingdom. This doesn't mean that we should ignore what is going on in the world. It simple means that we do not become attached to this world and all its worldly goods and pleasures and forget God until we "need him". We are in this world to learn and grow, watch and pray and to be delivers of the gospel of Truth and the gift of Salvation. II. Realizing that we owe a great debt to God and His Son for the greatest Sacrifice given and the Gift from that sacrifice. 1. Question: If someone gave you a Gift of great value and there is nothing on earth that can be of more value or be replaced by something else, what would you do with it? God gave us the most valuable gift of all. We see in Matthew 13:45-46 where it tells us of the great value that God placed on his creation. Let's read: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." We are the goodly pearls. In other words we are God's treasures and when one is found, God sold all he had [his son to Sin] so he could buy it back from Satan. Why would he do that? Because HE Loves us. Satan, in the beginning re-claimed the earth that God had taken from him and created Adam to have charge over the earth. Satan stepped in and through lies and trickery regained the earth. That means that every one on this planet is owned by Satan, unwillingly as the may be, until they reclaim [accept] the gift that was given to them by God, himself. When Jesus died for our sins, we became that pearl of great price that he `sold His son" for. He gave his son over to the world to pay the price for sin and reclaim us from Satan; BUT it is up to us to take that gift. 2. Knowing this, what would you do in appreciation of receiving the greatest gift of love for all mankind? Would you take it and do nothing or would you take that gift and share it with others? 3. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, we owe God a debt that we can never repay. However, because of that great sacrifice that brought us this gift and if we have truly accepted it, we would feel driven to do all we could for God that we could do. Why? If it is a free gift, the why should we "owe" Him anything? In man's reality it would be interpreted this way and so we go on our "merry little ways," thinking nothing more about God until we "need something from him" or we are on our "death beds or never think of him again, which brings me to our next question. 4. What would you say and how would you feel, when you find yourself standing before God and he asks you the all important question: "What have you done on my name?" would you be able to answer him with things that you may have done or would you remain mute and not be able to say anything? If you remain mute, then the Lord would say to you, "But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." [Luke 13:27] Worse still is what he says to those who claim they have done things in His name. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." [Matthew 7: 21-23] III. Get out of the Comfort Zone - Matthew 7, 13 Get out of the comfort zone and take a stand for Jesus and bear witness to the truth and offer the gift of salvation to all. In Matthew 7:17-19, Jesus makes it very clear about the haves and have nots [Christians] of the world . "Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." This refers to not only those who are not of God; but to those who claim to be or are and are "do nothings". Matthew 13 tells us to be "sowers of the seed". What does this mean? In Matthew 13:3-9, he tells a parable about it. "And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." When we become sowers of the seed [the word of God], we plant seeds of truth and grace. This we do without obligation or guilt because we love the Lord and the spirit of God, if it is within us, gives us that desire. Though some of the "seeds" we plant may fall on rocky ground among thorns or by the way side, others that we plant will fall on fertile soul and they will grow and flourish. When we get out of our comfort zone and take a stand for Jesus and the truth, we are putting our lives on the line for him. Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24-27 - "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." If we choose to sit idly by and do nothing for the glory of God and his Kingdom then our salvation is useless. Even though we may have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb and received the gift of salvation, it will be all for naught if we do nothing for Him and to keep others from spending their eternity in the Lake of fire. In reality because we did nothing in his name, it is very possible that because of it, we will find ourselves side-by-side with those we could have guided to the Lord and eternal life. If this is what you want then, "go for it", if not then get out of your "comfort zone" and do something for God, who has done and given so much for us! 
Top tags: god, gift, world, jesus, lord, comfort, zone, christ, salvation, forth Comments from oner 202.93.36.71 Nice share... Here.. Daily tips on my blog http://enyong.com
PermaLink Home
Please share your thoughts on this article. |
|
![[Valid RSS]](http://matthiaschronicles.tanaya.net/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
