The real followers

I heard an incredible quote today from an Oakland pastor visiting North Park University this week. BK Woodson really had my attention, and I don't even remember exactly what topic he was addressing when he said this. But I'll remember it for a long time...

"Christianity has a lot of admirers... but it has few adherents."

Whoa. Pastor's got it right.

The adherents have a serious call upon their lives that makes Christianity unattractive. The feel-good benefits, the promises, the happy stuff of Christianity... those are admirable. Those bring a lot of people into the doors of the church. The "Jesus is a good teacher" and "going to church is the right thing to do" notions reach a lot of people, but it doesn't carry them too far.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 that we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. Everyone knew at the time, and I think we should know today, what happens after you pick up your cross. You die.

Your dreams die. Your plans die. Your intentions for wealth die. Some friendships and relationships die. Your old personality dies. Your controlling tendencies die. Your rights die. Your demands for comfort and complacency and self-sufficiency and autonomy and unlimited options to do what you want without consequences and affirmation and attention and admiration and a raise/bonus at work and the latest trends and the perfect soul mate and a cute house in the suburbs with white picket fences and a family dog and a corner office at a 9-to-5 job... all die.

Dead.

You die. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31 that he dies every day.

Adherents dies.

But adherents have what admirers don't. They have replaced all of those things that died with... get this... FREEDOM!!!!

An adherent can live for God and with God as God perfectly and wonderfully designed them to be. There is a place of relationship with God that is so breathtaking, so exhilarating, never dull, always on a mission, joyful, peaceful, and so full of life...

and it has nothing to do with the crazy, unstable, and selfish world around us. I heard a story yesterday about how the Lord healed a third of someone's cancer, and shrunk the rest by 50%. I saw a prayer of mine answered last week that restored so much joy to my soul. I saw two dear friends get jobs a couple of weeks ago after months of toiling as we prayed.

You give everything up to adopt God's ideals. The old Joe dies every day. And to sustain us as we continually crucify that which does not belong to Christ, we get glimpses of the greatness of our God. Just enough to sustain us, not too much that we are overwhelmed or even prideful, but those brushes with the divine, the living and God, provide energy to endure the race...

vision for the future...

mission for today...

victory over the past.

Admiring doesn't do me any good. Adhering gets my head off of the pillow each morning. Ask yourself if you are an admirer of Christianity, or an adherent. Has a part of you died recently? Have you had a brush with the divine lately? Do you know His voice?