Missionary Henery Martin said before he left for the mission field “I go to burn out for God.” Our goal should not to cross the finish line of life with plenty more left that we could have given. We should arrive at the finish line completely spent for God.

This being said we need to make sure that the creeds that we ascribe to are of “Sound Doctrine” and that we are not professing something that Paul condemns in Gal 1:8-9.

I love how we don’t have to fully understand His awesome power and sovereignty over our lives. He is God and we are not.

Psalm 46:10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Isaiah 45:22-24 “Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame.

Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”

This is the hope I cling to as my wife and I wait on God for His timing for a future transition for us. He is sovereign and knows what the ultimate good for our soul is and we must wait on Him.

Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

“Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”

I am sorry to hear about your experience.

You are right, there must be the example of living Christ out as well. When I wrote you must preach the life of Christ, that presupposes the person preaching it has it! It also carries with it that the power is in the Gospel (Romans 1:16-17). I know that doesn’t always happen, but the Bible presupposes it. That is why there is so much condemnation against hypocrisy.

There is nothing worse than those who claim it, and yet do not possess it.

Brett, thanks for stopping by and for your much needed clarification.

–Steve

More importantly, why not place a larger focus on living the life of Christ? Or at least a Christ-like life?

That is what initially turned me from Christianity as a youth. People in my own church, leaders and the followers discriminating against me because of my haircut, hair color, piercings, etc etc etc. As if God does not love all of his children.
Then after working as a traffic guard for the Church to ease the transition of over 500 cars (at our old facility) entering one roadway at once, I saw [as one example] how little the church followers lead the life they preached. Honking, cussing, flipping the bird, I even almost got hit a few times because these Sunday-Christians felt it was time for them to go whenever they wanted, determined to run me out of the way. They served their hour to God and were ready to move on with their life until next Sunday.

Why a larger focus has not been placed on setting examples for children [within the Christian church] is beyond me. It’s easy to preach and talk, but when a child looks up to you as a role model, its your actions which matter most. Telling a child that when you sin, its ok because you’re forgiven, and then asking them to live a Christian life, as sinless as possible are two contradictory ideas to youth. This again is especially true when they see those they look up to not following the life they are preaching.

Just food for thought.

Regards from rVa.