Hammer on Anvil '

          I am reminded of my high school experience and how, for me, it was not about the work or what I was learning, but it became a game to see the least amount of work I could do and still get an A. I became a lazy student...shockingly, it worked...and I was loving it....until A.P. English class senior year. I thought that it would be like all of my other English classes in which if I just listened intently during our class discussions about whatever book we were reading then I could use the knowledge I had gathered and apply it to the test without even reading the book for myself. Boy was I wrong. After almost failing the first comprehensive test over Tess of the d'Urbervilles, I quickly realized that this class could not be accomplished by observing and listening to fellow classmates. I actually had to commit myself to work out my own knowledge of the material I was presented. Then and only then was I able to pass the class

Sadly most Christians have become like myself, the lazy high school kid, and they base their knowledge of God from others instead of taking on the responsibility to find out the truth on their own. Philippians 2:12-13 states "... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. " We are saved by grace through faith, (Ephesians 2:8-9) and God's gift is salvation through Jesus (Romans 6:23) so for salvation we can do nothing but believe and accept this as truth. Yet that same faith without works is dead! (James 2:14-26 ) Simply put, it's not enough to know what you believe, you have to put that same belief system into action.

Now that sounds easy enough, if I just believe in God and do some good works I have this thing called Christianity in the bag...I hate to break it to you, There is more to it than that. 1 Corinthians 13 says  "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,  but do not have love, I gain nothing."

I believe that God is beginning a movement of love and He is calling a generation of holy disciples willing to dive deep into his love and the power that comes with it. People have heard time and time again that God loves them, yet they still refuse to believe. What people need is for you to show them love! God does not pour out His love power on us so that we can be happy, rich, and famous. He pours it out because people are dead and dying! And they don't need just a half baked "God loves you" statement, they need an example of that love! They desire that love! It's time we wake up and realize that we can no longer be like a lazy high school student, with the appearance of Godliness yet denying the power. (2 Timothy 3:5)We need to be so full of God's love that it changes our inner being so that we can't help but show all that surround us of God's pure love! Let this be your prayer for today...