If we look over church history, we see lots of heroes of the faith. Some are called saints because of their work, their influence on society, and the fact that they have preformed a couple of certified miracles.In the world there are billions that are/claim to be Christians - I know I was surprised when I looked HERE. How many are in what denominations? HERE is that info.
2.1 Billion Christian worldwide with 84% of the US claiming to be Christian - that's a lot of bread and wine every month!
I find it interesting that only 1% define themselves as non-denominational or "other." That leaves a lot of folks that tow the party-line of their denomination. I am a little jaded living in New England, where we are predominately Roman Catholic; about 72%, where as the national average is only 22%. Oh yeah, and one more tidbit: only about a third of so-called Christians attend a church service every week.
This blog is not about denominations, it is about Christians. Regardless of what your basic doctrine is, or style of worship, saving faith in Jesus makes us a family; brothers and sisters in Christ. If we look at the subset of "true believers" - those that agree on salvation by faith, we can still further divide that group into a few groups - the very ones that I want to talk about today.
Lets say we have 5 levels of Christians - like a Jeopardy category. Pretend that I am Alex Trbek, and here is your category "Committed Christian."
$500 - The White Hot Christian, loves God and wants to serve Him.
$400 - Passionate Christian - loves God, fits Him in as much as possible - well, around work, family and church meetings.
$300 - Luke warm Christian - Gets up and goes to church each week, occasionally attending other events, and lives their life with a number of other priorities before God.
$200 - The Fair Weather Christian - It's what Christians believe, not what they do that matters. It is more fun to go on vacation then be at church. If God needs me, He'll find me.
$100 - The Nominal Christian - disconnected for church, the Word, from God.. thinks about church in religious terms, but not really motivated to seek after God.
Sure, this is the same type of "get better sermon" you have heard a hundred times. You might be thinking I just need to get going here - that's all - just get more into prayer, reading the word and getting to more church stuff.
What might be better is to just be honest with God. Hey, I'm just a $100 question. It just might be that if you are, you might get the Daily Double. The very little effort that you put into being up front with God, may in fact return you more than you thought possible. That's what I love about God. When we are real, so is He. When we get all plastic and religious, He may as well be too.
So, just be real and remember that God thinks you're worth a million even if you chose Commitment for $100.
Matthew 25:14-30
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