Weaknesses

This is an email I wrote to my brother. After I had written it I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to post it.

"I read that sermon. It was very good. It's so hard nowadays to hear sound teaching and doctrine. I DRINK it in when I get the opportunity. I'm realizing SO MUCH how "lukewarm" so many believers are. The Holy Spirit has been working in me to pull me away from that. We give in so much to the culture around us and don’t even realize it. We're afraid to claim Christ- to be bold in Him. We’re ashamed of the Gospel but would never admit it. We're afraid to rebuke one another in love because we're convinced its judgment. We're afraid to study Scripture and share it with others because we don't want them to think we're better than they are. We think the definition of humility equates with cowardliness- though we wouldn't admit it. We place ourselves and mankind above God but are oblivious that we’re doing it.

Proverbs 9: 8 says “Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you; reprove a wise man and he will love you." Our faith is often so fragile and we are such fools that we cannot take rebuke. We scoff at it by claiming others are "judging us," rather than prayerfully considering the words being spoken to us.

It's heartbreaking and it's scary how weak the church has become. I'm praying that the TRUE church takes an ever increasingly strong stand for Christ. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread while we sit back and watch TV shows and movies we shouldn't even be watching- these things consume more of our time than God does. We cannot expect God's Kingdom to spread when we idolize other things before Him. We cannot expect to grow closer to God when we are not sacrificing to God by giving our time to Him. We have to learn what true discipleship is.

The other day I was reading Mark 4- the parable of the seeds that were sown. Jesus talks about how seeds were sown among thorns.

"And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among thorns; these are the ones who have heard the Word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful." (Mark 4: 18-19 NASB).

This is our culture’s church. We are so deceived by riches and by what we think we ought to have. We "think" we're advancing God's Kingdom but don't even know what that looks like because we're so distracted. We can focus on everything but God and God's Word. There is something fearfully wrong with this. We are not being who God’s called us to be.

Prayer is essential but how often do we fail in this? All throughout the Epistles, prayer is emphasized. We NEED to lift each other up in prayer. We fail to even find time to pray, let alone to pray for one another. This is pleasing to our enemy. Yet if we continue living in this way God will be ashamed of us.

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and my Words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:38 NASB)

Anyways, sorry this is kinda long- I just couldn't stop! Thanks for the sermon!"