Apr 20 2016 Are you a member or a believer?
Punky and I recently finished some spring-cleaning. We got rid of things we do not need anymore. Things that were cluttering our house and honestly just taking up space. I don’t look forward to the act of spring-cleaning, but I really like the results.
It’s the same with our faith. We all need to take the time now and then to “spring-clean” our spiritual lives. It’s not enough to go through the motions or sit in the pews on Sunday or go to a weekly Bible Study. As believers, we need to continually and progressively grow closer to our Father. We need to know our Father so we can point others to Him.
There are so many men and women around us who do not know God from Donald Duck, much less have Jesus in them. Recently on “Watter’s World” (Fox News), people in New York City were asked what Easter meant. Of all those interviewed 50% had no idea. One woman interviewed said, “Easter has something to do with bunnies and Jesus laying eggs.” Moreover, when Jesse Watters showed these same people a picture of Jesus, most could not identify Him.
As believers, we should be amazed by a couple of things:
- How many people in Dallas and around the country, who go to church, don’t have any idea what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
- How many supposed church-going followers of Jesus tell no one how to have a relationship with HIM!
Norman Cousins, an American political journalist, author, professor and world peace advocate, wrote an editorial in the Saturday Review in which he reported a conversation he had on a trip to India. He was talking with a Hindu Priest named Satis Prasad.
The Hindu Priest said he wanted to come to America to work as a missionary. Cousins assumed he meant he wanted to convert Americans to the Hindu Religion.
When asked, Prasad said,
“Oh, no! I would like to convert them to the Christian religion. Christianity cannot survive in the abstract. It needs not membership but believers. The people of our country may claim they believe in Christianity, but from what I read from the distance, Christianity is more custom than anything else.
I would ask either that you accept the teachings of Jesus and apply (them) in everyday life and in your affairs as a nation or stop invoking His name as a sanction for everything you do. I want to help save Christianity for the Christian!”
Prasad hit the nail on the head…..”It (Christianity) needs not membership but believers.” Are you a member or a believer? Do you act like a member or a believer?
“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one can come to the Father except through me.'” John 14:6
“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under
heaven by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
The time to be a BELIEVER is NOW! Jesus needs you to be bold in your faith. He needs you to tell others about Him. He needs you to want to know Him better everyday. Are you ready?
T A K E A C T I O N
1. Have you asked Jesus into your life? Do you know He is there? How do you know?
2. Make a commitment to introduce your acquaintances and friends to Jesus.
We’ve created a dynamic video presentation of The Good News. Click HERE to watch now or visit our website (www.thetolsongroup.com). I would encourage you to watch this video and also share it with others.