Ch. 571 - Conviction [Squared]

... Shout-out.

One of my favorite professors spoke at chapel today. : ) Now, he doesn't use big, fancy words to show us that he knows his stuff. He doesn't seem to be a fan of formality and he's not always the most eloquent speaker in the school. And sometimes he says things that he probably should have thought about before letting the words come out. Yep - he's a trouble-maker... but he's impactive. Passionate. He tells it like it is. He doesn't skirt around certain issues. He doesn't sugarcoat what he believes to be important, and he challenges those around him to do better. Be better. Not just for themselves or their friends or their families or their significant others... but for God. Which is exactly what we should be doing.

We so often talk about what we're doing "for God" and the good that comes from our being Christian [or our attempting to do and be so...].

"I'm in church every Sunday!"
or
"I'm preaching the Gospel!"
or
"I'm going on mission trips!"
or
"I'm working with [church] youth!"

And that's good.
That's great.
Positive thinking, right?
"Focus on who you want to be and who you are - not who you used to be or who you aren't!" or "Think about the cans rather than the cannots!" Yadda, YADDA, YADDA.

Anyway. The thing is, I think we do need to focus on what we're not doing now and then. Bring out the negative aspects of your life on purpose, you know?

We say we're going to change [repent].
We constantly talk things up.

But we don't change.
And we certainly don't "walk the talk". Cliché, I know... but it works.

We don't focus on God.
We don't make sacrifices.
We don't give offerings.
We don't hand over everything of ourselves to Him.

Idols.
Obsessions.
They consume us.
We are surrounded by them and they affect us to a greater extent than we most likely realize. It's not necessarily about how much money or time we find ourselves investing in them; it's how far apart they separate us from our Lord God. Obviously both money and/or time aid in that separation, but we don't have to spend a terrible amount of either on our obsessions for them to come between us and God.

......

Does Christ know who I am?
What are my obsessions?

......


'Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.'
[1 Corinthians 6:9-10, emphasis my own]