O has suggested that I should be more challenging to the congregation - it's not enough just muddling along doing our best, with broadly Christian values, we need to recognise the call of Christ and make a firm decision for Christ.
Hmmm.
I can see there IS a difference between being a 'good person' and being a disciple of Christ. I mean it's a question of control. In the former - no matter how 'good' you might be - it's still YOU in control. Whereas in the latter, it's Christ in control and you are just following Him. That really is a challenge.
I mean, Paul had a good career going for him at the Jewish temple before he set foot on the road to Damascus. Then he had to kiss all that goodbye for a life of flogging around Asia Minor preaching the gospel and suffering a huge amount of persecution and ultimately death. I'm sure if he'd just been trying to be a good person rather than following Christ he could have easily justified staying in Jerusalem.
We want to be good but we want to stay in charge. The challenge is to give up that control to Christ and see what happens. If we really trust that God loves us, should that really be such a scary thing?
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