A Sugarcoated Faith

I was convicted today at ACF when we were discussing having a fire for Christ. We watched the video, "The Fire" by Nate Pfiel and i could really feel the holy spirit speaking to me. The video touched on themes from commitment, to worldly things, but what was brought to my attention the most was the issue of lukewarm Christians. I truly believe that being lukewarm is one of the biggest issues we as Christians are facing.

First off, when we call ourselves believers, followers of Christ, it is a commitment, a 100% commitment to Christ to devote your life to follow him. We are to follow his commandments, and many of these commandments are not of the world. Our faith and commitment to God should be plain simple, straight forward, black or white. You either whole-heartedly are for God, or you are not. There is absolutely no grey area between the two choices. Being in between would count as being a lukewarm Christian. Indulging in the world and following God at the same time, being two-faced, or a "sunday christian", we cannot serve two masters at once. We have to make that clear decision on where we choose to stand and stick with it. We are representing Christ, so represent him well. The world is watching us if we call ourselves Christian, and we should not only be glowing for Christ, but to be shining, radiating and on fire for God.

In the video, Nate really spoke about how serious our faith should be taken. I feel like everything has been sugarcoated for us, we sugarcoat how we pray, the sins we commit, our confessions, I know that i myself have taken all this way too lightly. Our sins lead us to death. An eternity in hell, in torment, and in pain. God gave up his son to die for us. Our actions and words costed a life. This is an extremely severe topic, yet I know that i havent realized how serious this faith should be. Why dont I recognize it?  What do i need to do to help me realize this? What is holding me back?

As a Christian, what kind of fruit are you bearing? Good fruit? Bad fruit? No fruit? When we head the to supermarket, we are always picking our way through the apples and oranges, hoping the find the best, and only the best to eat. We discard and put the bruised ones or bad ones aside and we choose to take home the juicy, sweet and ripe fruits. We want the best for ourselves, and at the same time, so does God. In John 15, God is the vine and we are the branches. We are responsible for bearing the fruit. If its good fruit, thats great, if it is bad fruit, the branch is chopped off and burned in the fire. Thats it, no going back, burned to ashes.

Being convicted tonight, several other things were popping in my head. I was worrying about my friends. I worry that they are being lukewarm Christians without even knowing it, and after realizing so strongly of where i've gone wrong, i really hope that other Christians will also realize the same thing. Its frustrating, not know how to approach it, because at the end of the day, they are the ones that have to realize and change.

Watch the video, and listen, take it in, and truly take some time to reflect on where you stand, where you relationship is with God. Have you been bearing good fruit? Are you being lukewarm? What will you do to change that? Don't let this be a peak of conviction, and don't let it just slide back into the normal routine you've always been following.

Following God was never meant to be easy, look past all the sugarcoating thats been put on and may the severity of our faith reveal itself to you.

verse of the day: Revelation 3:15-16

¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.