Thursday, March 19, 2009

Looking the Part

"I once saw a man at a golf course step out of his cart and approach the first tee. He looked immaculate -- expensive set of clubs, sharp looking clothes, confidence all over his face. He looked every inch the pro...until he tried to play golf. He was simply not very good. He might have looked the part, but he should have just hung around the clubhouse where he was a convincing golfer instead of demonstrating his true abilities by actually attempting to play."
--Benny Perez

"We are a generation of cheap Christians going to heaven as inexpensively as possible; religious hobos and spiritual deadbeats living on milk instead of meat, crusts of bread instead of manna, as though we were on a cut-rate excursion."
--Vance Havner
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Are we dressed for the part of living for Christ -- but unable to actually live it out, as the golfer was? Do we have the form of godliness without the power of God? Are we truly living victoriously, using and showing the power of Christ....or would it be better if we just hung around in our "clubhouse", where we can look convincingly spiritual? If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit -- for if we live after the flesh, we shall die: but if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, we shall live; for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

If He has given us strength that is according to His glory (which He has), and if Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (which He does)-- we must live our lives out according to His glory, and according to the love in which we are rooted and grounded. If we do not...we are in serious trouble!

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