Where is the Service Due?

Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV)

 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

I am really starting to think we have gone off the reservation in most of the church. We teach a gospel of accept Jesus, let Him pay for your sin’s, change your lifestyle to reflect a moral standard and we will see you in heaven when you die. But where is the service due?

My most treasured verse in the Bible is 2 Timothy 2:4. No soldier entangles himself in civilian affairs, so that he can better please the one he serves. Ephesians 6:12 runs a close second and there are many others like them that appeal to me. But I am really finding I am alone in the way I think. If you look at every individual that Jesus either called or for those that asked if they could follow Him; He asked them for a virtual abandonment of their former life. And if you look at Paul’s conversion he left a life of wealth, power and prestige… never looking back; and later he said that he counted all of that as nothing! The early church as well as the Apostles believed fervently that Jesus return was immanent if not in their lifetime certainly in their generation; and their lives reflected that. They lived many times in a communal state. They devoted their lives to spreading the news of a life transformed by Jesus… many times under persecution and threats of imprisonment, death or being cast out of the community of Jewish believers. And they transformed the world! But because we no longer see Jesus return as immanent we go about our lives as the rest of the world and our service to God is a footnote.

With just a cursory reading of the New Testament it is not hard to see us being called to a far different life than the one we currently live. It would be redundant to start naming and quoting all the scripture both new and old testaments that describe a radically abandoned life of service or specifically and directly speak of an abandoned life. The bible also tells us in; 1 Corinthians 7:20 (Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them). So it doesn’t mean we immediately go join a monastery or embark on a mission trip to Africa. But it does mean that every motive for your next breath belongs to Jesus, and our lives should reflect that.

If our government told us a giant asteroid was going to hit earth in two years but not to worry they have found a habitable planet we can go to. But all of us as a people need to pool our resources and all of our time, money and effort into building the escape ship… Would you abandon your life and join the cause? Or would you keep living like you never heard the good news?

That asteroid (figuratively speaking) is still coming, we don’t know when, but we know it is. No one ever condemns the early church for the radical separation they made from the world to live different lives and spread the news of Jesus. They are our example are they not? Yet, we don’t even come close to following it, why? What changed? I will tell you what it is; we look at them as immature in this great Faith we think we have a hold of. They are immature because they don’t have the historical lens we use to know that Jesus is still along way off, so we might as well make ourselves comfortable while we wait, and all these years later Jesus has become a Sunday morning footnote.

I am making changes in my life to reflect a different purpose and way of living… if you study the scripture you will find a choice to do nothing else if you really are in love with and want to please your Heavenly Father!

Isn’t it time to start putting stuff on the ship before the asteroid comes? I think He is closer than many think!