What Seperates You From God?

There are so many titles I have thought about for this post.  How to know you are not a Christian.  Why isn't everyone a Christian. Why are some Christians so "troubled". etc

Yeah, this is a little study I have put off doing for quite some time because it is a talk I wanted to have with one of my sisters, to help her understand how her excuses, only show that she is not what she thinks she is.  Which kills me on the inside.  She is tremendously strong - in man's wisdom and blinder than a bat in God's, and it took me decades to come to  the understanding of this.  Yeah, I may be terribly jaded but I can very naive at times with people I trust.

So, how did she get the way she is?  She grew up in a Christian home, so she had the ability to observe.  Or was it just family tradition?  Had her family generations been "Christian" for so long that it had become family tradition to think and act a certain way?  Certainly, as with any family, there were those bad examples in her life to make her see that all was not as she saw in her family structure.  I have wondered at what point did she reach disbelief in her life?  Did she even realize that she was making a choice to go her own way and not God's way?  I know she has talked with me through the years about screw ups she had, which drove her away from God and she would stumble back.  Or did she?  At what point did her heart grow hard against the Holy Spirit so that it no longer could be heard in her life?  Certainly, she reverted to a form of superstition to substitute for the loss of the HS in her life, using others whom either claimed to be "in touch" or she decided were more so than her.  And then there is that little problem of the "knowledge", which often has left my mind swimming at how she has come to some of the conclusions she has.  And in the end, I saw the problem defined for me through her various distractions which substitute for real fellowship in her life, making her and others feel good - but in no way bringing her or others closer to the real Jesus.  As I said it has been a multi-decade puzzle.

Are you unimpressed with God?  Think of Jesus' ministry.  How many saw and/or knew of His miracles and did not care?  Within our post-Christian culture, we are so used to the Bible and its message, that the culture's apathy is obviously rejection of the "standard".  But, what I have come to understand is that within this culture is the problem of exposure to Jesus' message without having every made a decision.  "So what ....." becomes the response to even the "Christmas" story.

So, this rejection I just mentioned, does that mean that God has failed?  Rejection of Jesus was predicted by Isaiah!  So, it is not failure, it is fulfilled prophesy every time man turns his back and heart on God.

So, are your habits hardening your heart?  Have you allowed someone else, through man's logic, to steal your chance of salvation?  The opportunity for response is not always going to be there as we harden our hearts or death intervenes or we just reach the point where we can no longer hear.  It is and always has been a battle between our will and God's will.  (And here I am reminded of sitting beside my father as he died.  I had prayed for 35 years for his salvation, witnessed to him numerous times - and yet, here I sat next to a man I never really knew as he died in a coma - no chance to have that "talk" one last time.....)

And what of "camouflage Christians"?

You might even be one, you know, the ones whom "believe" but will not confess to it, because they love the praise of men.  We all want to be liked and loved, not rejected by those whom are important to us.  But do we really need man's praise when the importance of eternal life is being considered?  Consider Mark 8:38.

No, my sister does not read this blog and there is little I can do to have any input into her life.  She believes she is a Christian, she drives herself crazy keeping busy with what she believes is the Christian life, and yet .....  Well, that is the problem I have come to understand, she has deluded herself.  Perhaps somewhere deep inside she really is but has just buried that new creation to that point that it is now so compromised with sin that there is no life possible for it.  But, the day will come again, when God will show her the error of her way.  She will again feel dumb, having to apologize to everyone, etc.....  But, unlike past cycles of this, I now understand and will be ready with to have this talk with her.

So, now I am saddled with another prayer item, as if my list is not already full enough!