Challenge

What are we seeking? What are we searching for? What are our hearts yearning for? Desperate, even. What are we holding on to and what are we willing to give up? There are parts of all of us that we cannot seem to let go. Our pride, our money, ourselves?
I got into a debate with a man who told me that I would not go to heaven because my dad (He's my pastor as well) didn't say the magic words when I was baptized.  He has built his faith upon church dogma and ideology that he believes as strongly as I believe in mine. And yet we were stuck in this argument on who was more christian. If there is a distinction than I simply want nothing to do with this religion. I worship a God who commanded us to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and will all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." Simple, easy to understand, very difficult to muddle that message. And yet here we find ourselves. Not simply Muslim, Jew, Christian. But as christians, we have come so far that even the denominations have divided because we can't agree on what it is to serve God.
Meanwhile there is a world out there starving for the truth that God sent his Son to die for us and he LOVES us, muddled and all. There are people lost who are searching for someone to tell them they are loved. and that there is a God who created them for a purpose. Not to condemn them, not to judge them, to love them.
We as a church have become so absorbed in ourselves that we cannot see past our sunday's best to what is going outside of the walls we call the church. We sit in our bible studies and small groups praying for a world that is different. Abhorred by what we see on TV and in the culture around us. We cannot fathom how our country has gotten to the state it is today. Well it is us. We are the difference we refuse to make. Ironic how one of the icons of a secular generation made it so simple when he said, "I'm starting with the man in the mirror." And yet many in the church refuse that same challenge.
We are starting with our tithe, our missions trips, our home groups. And please don't misunderstand these things are necessary and wonderful and a powerful instrument for change, however, if we cannot fully let go then how can God fully use us to His potential. We need to focus on our own hearts, our own minds, and give up our own strength so that we can let God do a work.

So here is the challenge; pray, fast, search, whatever God is calling you to do. Find that thing that is holding you back. What are you not willing to give up because it is what you know, what you are comfortable with. If you are in a good place with God, GREAT! Dig deeper. There is more he wants to show you. If it has been a while since you have thought about God, that's fine too. He is there and he is looking to bless you if you let him. For those of you who may have just read this and you have no idea about anything that i just talked about, well cool, somehow the universe lined up and allowed you to read this. Take it, think about it, you don't have to agree that's not what I'm here for. But don't be afraid to just talk to Him.
He is a God that loves us, and yearns for us. It's time we dive into that love and find out what we are capable of through Him.