Life Journal July 17, 2007
Today's Readings: Isaiah 29-31; James 1

More Than Lip Service

Topic: Discipleship

Scripture

"And so the Lord says, 'These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more than human laws learned by rote.'"

Isaiah 29.13-14 (NLT)

"And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don't obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you just listen and don't obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you keep looking steadily into God's perfect law--the law that sets you free--and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it."

James 1.22-25 (NLT)

Observation

Whether we truly "get it"--believe--is demonstrated by how we live our lives.

Application

Knowing all the right words is easy--I guess that is why we gravitate in that direction and find ourselves comfortable with religious traditions. But, living the life that God calls us to requires us to die to our old selves and be obedient to what He calls us to.

Our Churches today are dying . . . Why? Because we have been just listening and not obeying and living the life that God has called us to. We are so inward focused and worried about if things are done our way (which of course we have determined must be the right way)--that in many cases it is the tradition and the words that we worship--not God. We say we worship God, but we are concerned about all the wrong things--style of music, getting our way, dress, etc--we don't care about all the lost.

We are called to obey God's law--Jesus tells us what the most important commandments are: 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neightbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (Matthew 22.37-40, NLT) Loving God and loving others. That is what we are commanded to do. And everything else that we do should come as a result of those two commandments.

Living out the lives that God has called us to is not some religious practice--it is a life lived sacrificially and radically. It is hard and dirty work--but it is the work we have been called to in serving God.

It is time that we quit giving lip service to the religion we practice and embrace the call of God on our lives.

Prayer

Loving God, You love us and created us to love in return. Help me to love more--to love better. I pray that you will continue to stir within my heart a desire to love my neighbors--and to reach out to the lost. Change me--help my focus be on You and loving and reaching those outside the church so that they can know You. Thank You for not letting me remain the same. It is because of Jesus that I can pray this--Amen.