Truth vs. Junk Food

I recently started Weight Watchers. I love it.  Well, the principals are really easy to understand and live by, I love that part-not the doing. Every time I diet I consider how easy, it is to study the principals of the diet, dedicate it to memory, be able to recite it to others and act like a know it all when someone asks a "How To" question.  I could even roll my eyes, in judgement, at someone who doesn't diet and probably should. :(

Kinda like Christians. So many of us have been fed the word of God our entire lives. We can recite the principals, some memory verses, may even have a few catchy T-Shirts.  I can turn my head in disgust when I see someone in sin. I can tell you what you should and shouldn't do.  We may even think we have "All the Right Answers".

But what's the point in studying all of those Dieting principals if we're not applying them.  What's the point in filling my head with all of that knowledge and chowing down on a Big Mac?  How can I be living out the diet plan; and look at someone, who needs to diet but isn't, with disgust and not with compassion. Since I know exactly how hard it is to diet.  Wouldn't I instead become their biggest encourager - Because I've been there?

I think the biggest problem with the "Kinda Like Christians" is that we're "Kinda Like Christians".  We grew up being fed principals and never realized we had a "Sin Problem".  We were born into the church and were accepted and learned to live a lifestyle that looks- "Kinda Like Christians." 

I heard this verse this past weekend and the Lord has brought it to mind repeatedly.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.- James 1:22 (ESV)

Whats the Difference?

• Do you know that gossip is wrong - but the Holy Spirit inside of you is not convicting you of it...
• Do you know that negativity (always finding complaints for everything) is wrong - but the Holy Spirit is not convicting you?
• Do you Know that Lying is wrong - but there's no conviction?
• Meanness...
• A Critical Spirit...
• Do you struggle with a constant fear of others (Self Conscience) ....but you've never stopped to consider that's something the Lord wants to free you from.
• Do you struggle with Pride or you never considered that you should...
• Do you have the Fruit of the Spirit (or are you daily fighting for it) Gal. 5:22
• Do you consider the needs of others above your own?
• Has the Lord filled you with compassion for the lost, broken, wounded, neglected...others?

The reason I mention the above is because these are not things you can fake. These are things that as your pursue Christ, He begins working on your heart in these areas or areas like this. Only His work can overcome these. 

This is How I Do not doubt God's presence; because I played "Kinda Like Christian" until I was 24yrs old. I remember clearly who I was without His presence in my life and He's graciously continuing to remove these differences. 

Am I trying to get you to question your faith? I Absolutely am! Not out of harsh judgement or condemnation but, look at the High Price you'll pay if you Don't!  So many times the bible calls us to examine ourselves - Read the entire book of 1 John.  Examine yourself!

Know, for certainty, that you have not been blinded by having a knowledge of truth, without Living a life of Truth!

Let me warn you of our immediate tendency to compare ourselves to our brother, who's not our FATHER.  Examine your life up next to HIS.

I'm not suggesting here a works based salvation. The question is: is He changing your life. 

I would look like a fool to tell you I was late for work because I was just run over by a train but I had no apparent marks or bruises.  How much more foolish is it for me to say I've had an encounter with the HOLY GOD but I look the same?

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! - 2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV)

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Are we feasting on truth or junk food?

HIS clay~

Melissa Bradley

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A Pause on the Path - Mrs. Shanda Oakley