Lifeless Christianity
Lifeless Christianity
The Christian life is often consumed with duty driven tasks, and religious
regulations, leaving many well meaning and sincere Christians lacking the life and zeal that is so powerfully displayed in the lives of Godly men and women of years past. Take for instance Watchman Nee, a man who spent at least twenty years of his life as a prisoner, and in the last five, he chose to honor the name of his God rather than denying Him and seeing his loving and most precious wife. Consider the well known evangelist Billy Graham, a man who has preached the gospel to a countless number of people and has devoted his life to one holy passion, namely, the preaching of God’s word. The list goes on and on, and when all is said and done one is presented with a rather convincing proposition, “An abundant and life flowing Christian life is most often found in one who chooses to pour themselves like water into the ever so parched lives of needy people.
It has been said that the predominant reason the Dead Sea has little life and a body of water such as the Sea of Galilee has abundant life is because the Dead Sea only receives water, but the Sea of Galilee not only receives but also gives. That this is completely accurate could be debatable, yet one thing is certainly for sure, a Christian who is more interested in receiving than giving is a Christian who will be more prone to losing than gaining. Imagine a man who is given a priceless treasure, worth more than the riches of kings, but who refuses to help the needy. Imagine a man who is forgiven a series of wrongs that would make others an example of ostracizing, but who refuses to offer forgiveness to one who hurt his pride. Imagine a person who realizes that abundant food supplies have been miraculously available in a time of suffocating famine, but who decides to hoard the food rather than offer a portion to those starving. Imagine a woman who is healed from a life debilitating disease, but who refuses to speak of the one whose healing powers slay sickness. Imagine a man who is freed from the enslaving power of evil, but who refuses to speak of the One responsible for providing such a freedom. Imagine all of this and you begin to more accurately grasp the ungrateful condition of many who claim Christianity.
Imagine such a world, but think not that it does not exist. For in the same hallways that displays men and women of God who have poured their lives out for the cause of Christ is displayed the lives of those who carried heavy bags of good intentions. In the same world where the life changing power of God produces life changers, are those who have been given abundant life, but who ration it only to themselves. In the same churches where people diligently give of their time, talents, fortunes, and freedoms, are those who patiently sit each week enjoying the show that has been called “Theatrical Christianity”. May this not be so! Yet, it is. Unfortunately we live with the constant temptation to be mere “Dead sea Christians”, never realizing that we were not saved simply to die, but rather to live and give. God desires a people who will receive His great blessing in order to be a great blessing!
