Let it burn...

When I was little I went to the Catholic Church and I also visited a Baptist church for a little while. I never understood or saw much difference between the many different churches and their doctrines. When I was little I thought and still think that God doesn't judge us based on what church we visit, he doesn't put us in a group. He judges us based on one perfect example. Jesus Christ.  He judges us based on whether or not he sees Christ in us. So your church isn't as important as your relationship with Him. That direct link with God through Jesus Christ. In john 14:6 Jesus says: I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Do you live according to His will or yours? Are you coming to church because you want to please God and try and work hard to live the life he wants you to live or just because your parents make you? Or are you coming because you want to go out with your friends after? What is the motive behind your actions? Is it God or is it your own sinful nature?

A true Christian isn't one who goes to this church or that one. A true Christian is one who has been washed by the blood of Christ and daily walks with God. And I must admit a daily walk with God isn't the easiest task. With our lives filled with distractions, we work, we study, and we want to do other things like sports, music. One day we are full of passion and a fire burning from within and the other our fire has totally dimmed and is barely holding. It happens, we set goals, “I will pray 2 hours each day”, then it becomes 1 hour than it becomes 5 minutes. And then we stop praying. The danger starts there.

I love reading and I read this book one time and it spoke about Romans 12 and Leviticus. He explained how in the Old Testament their sacrifices were animals and  How our lives have to be living sacrifices now. In Leviticus 6: 12 -13 the Bible says: `and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it; and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. `A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.

 The fire shall always be burning. Why? Because it’s hard to start a fire. It was crucial to burn wood on it every morning.  The altar is where we burn our sacrifices.  In Romans 12 we are asked to make of our lives the sacrifice, we want to be a beautiful aroma for God. But we need to have wood burning on our altar. The fire is the presence of God, in order to start a fire you need wood. Wood is our prayer, when we pray we are asking God to be present in our lives. So every morning we shall put wood on the altar is for us to pray every single day, and put our lives on the altar to be the living sacrifice God wants from us. Every day worshiping the Lord, repenting from our sin. It’s a daily walk, We keep on keeping on. We bring our sacrifices of repentance daily. We are daily washed by His Blood. We are daily igniting our fire, feeding the passion for our Father.  He doesn't want animals he wants You. It's like this, you brush your teeth everyday, if you don't you'll get cavities. If you don't repent everyday from your sins, your life gets filled with cavities, until it rots and falls out.  

Once we have that, which is the most crucial, the most important part of our daily walk. Others will see a difference in us. I mean it sucks when you've had a friend, your best friend, and you've been a Christian for over a year, and they don’t know that you are a Christian. It’s bad. Our lives are the most important testimony. When people see God in us, they will see and believe that God is God. People don’t listen to what you say. People listen to your actions. If you don't brush your teeth everyday, your mouth starts to stink.  

My mother always says: clean your house before you want to clean someone else’s house. Why? So you don’t come off as a hypocrite. If you can’t keep your house clean, you have no business judging my house. What I hear a lot from friends who aren't believers is the crusades and the Christians who killed in the name of Christ and the church killed people, the pastors who rape children, abortion. What god lets kids starve in Africa.  You know what,  yeah, I know this happens, God knows this happens, but it’s not God who does these things. It’s the greedy mean, evil filled, money worshiping people who do this. 

We are here to make a difference, when the church started, it wasn't the church chasing the people to convert, it was other people chasing the church to wipe out Christianity. So let’s go back to the roots. Of course not be followed and murdered, which still happens in some countries, but to give more value the being called a Christian, a follower of Christ. Let’s truly live what the word of God has for us. What God’s will is for our lives?  Let’s not be cold anymore, but ignite a fire that we keep on feeding, daily no matter what happens. Let’s put wood every morning on our altar, and bring our lives as a living sacrifice on that altar and give it all to God, in Worship. Let us be that beautiful aroma. 

I encourage you today, to start over, if you let your fire dim, feed it with prayer, God is there, waiting for you to take that step. He already made the first move. Now it's time for you to make yours.

God bless you and be a blessing for others.