Getting your own way can be tragic….
John 12:37 But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”
The religious leaders just refused to believe their own eyes and ears of all that Jesus had done including the raising of Lazarus from the grave after Lazarus had been dead for four days. The scripture then gives us those tragic
words…..Therefore they could not believe..!
God, in the end, will not go against your free will to reject Him and His love.
But He only gives over such a matter when people’s hearts are absolutely set in their ways and have continually refused every effort by God in His offer of grace and forgiveness to them!
Rom 1:21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. Rom 1:24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.
They had hard hearts and God let their hearts remain set in that condition!
Christianity is not a method of religion. It is not a set of rules.
It is a relationship!
It’s a relationship between sinners who have recognised they are lost in sin, have asked for God’s forgiveness, and then received His love and grace!
Church is not where you come to act out a number of religious acts and after having done that you leave and go about ‘your’ business once again.
No, when Christians gather together, those who have a relationship with God, those who know how much God loves them and has done for them – for those church is a time to gather to give thanks, to passionately hear God’s Word taught, and a time to express their relationship with Jesus Christ with other ‘forgiven’ sinners!
A Christian as such, cannot wait for the church to be gathering again. This is now their life. This is who they are. And it all happens because of their precious relationship with Jesus Christ, who is revered as their Lord and Saviour!
Billy Graham tweeted the other day – “Have we made Christianity too easy?”
Could it be the reason why people now are ‘comfortable’ simply to attend church? To not be emotionally desirous to sing and praise God but simply lip-sync the words whilst their mind wanders?
When the Bible is being taught do you sense God speaking to you? Do you desire to hear His voice and His direction and love for your life?
The next time you are in church, examine yourself.
There is only one reason to be there – because you love Jesus Christ and there is nothing more important to you in your life than to be in God’s presence in the living organism that Jesus Christ Himself created – His church!
Christianity is a relationship – we love Him because He first loved us – and He suffered and died that we may know Him.