The Lord has laid it on my heart to write and share with you what the Lord has been doing in my life. This last summer the Lord turned my life around. I stopped living for myself and started serving the Lord with my whole heart. I have always been considered a "good kid" by most people and even a good Christian by some. I faithfully went to church every Sunday and even read three chapters of the Bible almost every night. I never swore, smoked, drank, or had sex.

What I had to turn from is this. I was self-seeking and did not delight in doing God’s will. I hung out with friends for the purpose of pleasing myself. God was not the center of all I did. I had many halfhearted convictions that amounted to nothing. Such convictions were not listening to certain secular music, and I would not watch R rated movies. What I didn’t realize, or rather didn’t want to apply to my life was that God hates all sin. Just because a movie is rated PG doesn’t mean that it glorifies God. A PG movie that takes my Lord’s name in vain is, in God eyes, nothing less than wicked. We are commanded to do everything for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), not just some things. If my motivation for watching a movie is not for the expressed purpose of bringing glory to my Father then it is sin. Anything that does not come from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). We must discern what is best, and not just what is "acceptable" (Philippians 1:10). I was selfish. I was watching these movies for my own enjoyment and not to please God. I laughed at perverse jokes on the movie screen and television. We are called to love righteousness and hate wickedness (Hebrews 1:9). We must utterly abhor the wicked ways of this world. What do righteousness and wickedness have in common (II Corinthians 6:14)? James 4:4 says, "You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." I was God’s enemy and I was willfully ignorant of this fact and of what God desired of me.

Until last summer I was a slave to sin. I had no fear of God in my eyes. I "flattered (myself) too much to detect or hate my sin" (Psalm 36:2,3). Although I claimed to be a Christian I was a hypocrite. I acknowledged Jesus with my lips but denied him by my actions (Titus 1:16). I came near to God with my words, but my heart was far from him (Isaiah 29:13). Before I decided to become a Christian, I never considered the cost of following Jesus (Luke 14:31-33). I didn’t realize how much Jesus demands of his followers. I failed to act out the lifestyle that Christ required of me. Matthew 10:39 says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." When I gave myself to the Lord my life as I knew it was gone, I had to reevaluate my every action. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" I realized that earlier in my life I had made a half-hearted decision to follow Christ, not realizing how complete of a transformation in lifestyle is demanded. The old hadn’t gone and the new hadn’t come, I wasn't a Christian.

My faith in God amounted to nothing; it yielded neither obedience nor fruit (Rom. 1:5). God’s grace gives us the ability to have faith and in turn be saved. This faith should yield works simply because we were created for them (Ephesians 2:10). If we say we have faith but no works then our faith is dead. James puts it best in 2:14-17 saying, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? … In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Deeds are not the means to salvation but are rather essential evidence of salvation. Luke 6:43-45 says, "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." If our lives are yielding bad fruit (sin), or if there is a lack of good fruit, then we must question whether our faith is true in the eyes of God. II Corinthians 13:5 says, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course you fail the test."

I realized that a true Christian was someone who delights in the Word of God (Jer. 15:16). Someone who is fixed on doing what God wants them to do rather than what they want to do. It is someone who offers their body as a living sacrifice to God, for his purposes and his purposes only, with no strings attached. It is a person who does not conform to the world (Rom. 12:1,2). A Christian takes up his cross and dies to himself daily (Mat. 16:24). A Christian does not bear bad fruit, and does not continue to sin (Mat. 7:18, I John 3:6-9). He obeys God’s every command and finds joy in doing so (Ps. 119:45). It is someone who is not idle and makes the most of the time that God gives him, a person who seeks to glorify his Maker in his every action (I Thess. 5:14, Eph. 5:8-17, I Cor. 10:31). A Christian seeks God with all of his heart for all of his life (Jer. 29:13).

So what does this all amount to? Why did I tell you all this? It is because I have noticed a lot of professing Christians are living in the same hypocrisy that I once was and I fear that you may have a false sense of security as I once did. I lived for myself and did not carefully consider my ways to see if they were God's ways. I wasn’t willingly serving the Lord with ALL of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Are you willing? Are you willing to live above sin by the power of the Holy Spirit? Are you making every effort to do the will of God at all times? Are you willing to examine your motives behind everything? Are you willing to call sin what you do not do to glorify God? Are you willing to give up everything you have (Luke 14:33)?

If you find that you fail the test (2 Corinthians 13:5) and your life does not match up with what the Bible declares a Christian's life to be, what should you do? Fall down on you knees before the Almighty and turn from your life of self. Diligently study the Word of God and seek the Lord will all your heart because that is the only way that you will find Him (Deut. 4:29).

By His Grace,

Ryan

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