Often I have a hard time trying to really live out my faith in Christ. I think that all Christians could empathize with me here. I have read the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and my life didn't really change. Now I am going through the book again with my Bible study group. I am reading things that challenge me to live differently. Not according to Francis Chan, but according to what the word of God says. My thought today is that we as believers are called to risk it all. What am I so afraid of that I hinder myself from living the way God wants me to? Is it comfort, pride, fear, uncertainty or lack of control? It could be and probably is a mixture of all those things and some others. As a youth pastor I am held to a higher standard by people who know what I do. I hold myself to a higher standard because of the calling on my life by God. But yet I still fail to embrace the risk of letting everyone know that I am a Christian. I don't care if they know what I do. All I want them to know is who I do, what I do for! It doesn't matter who approves or disapproves, the reality is that in the end only the truth matters and only God's opinion matters. If you do not find favor with him then you've lost it all. I could try all my life to appease one particular person, and I might achieve that. That is not what will get me into heaven though. Only one person controls that....GOD! I have a responsibility though to accept Christ as my Savior, to live for Him and acknowledge Him before all mankind. If I fail I have no one to blame but myself. My prayer is that I serve God with a reckless abandonment...that nothing will hold me back or quench my fire! I pray that God moves over you in the same way as well. To God be the glory, great things he has done! I am reminded of a quote by William Carey that sums all of this up, "Expect great things from God, ATTEMPT great things for God!"
