I have had one of those weeks. I really devoted my time to working around the house this past week and the heat flat wore me out. Of course we’ve experienced a nice cool change in the weather since so I guess I won’t have any excuses to not continue my domestic exploits this coming week. I have to tell you as I sit to write this week I’m so tired I can’t even think straight. Just when I thought I was about to take a good rest near weeks end, I had a brother-in-law pass away from a long time illness and the family asked me to preach the funeral for them. That added two late nights and a full Saturday to my already weary body. Don’t get me wrong as I was honored to do it, let alone asked to do it. Here’s an article I hope you will gain insight from.
[Matthew 19:25-26; Mark 10:24-27; Luke18:18-30] “Way of Life” by Jeremiah Tatum: “There is an expression sometimes used by people to explain behavior. It goes something like this – “That is just the way I am” or “That’s just the way he/she is.” People do have “ways.” Singer/song writer Billy Joel wrote the lyrics, “She’s got a way about her, don’t know what it is, but I know I can’t live without her.” Everybody is unique, and every person has a certain way they go about living their life. But one thing each individual should keep in mind is that we are not locked into a specific lifestyle. The liar doesn’t have to lie just because he has always been a liar. The same could be said for any other sin. The fact is, we choose our way of living. We make a decision about who we are and what we believe every day. Since such is the case, then we can also change the way we practice our Christianity. We don’t have to be Sunday morning only Christians, even if that is all we have ever been. We don’t have to keep from being more involved in the work of the church, just because we have never been involved in the past. We don’t have to lack zeal for evangelism, just because in our former days we have lacked the nerve necessary to save a soul. What we need to do is really very simple. We need to pray earnestly that God will change our hearts and make us aware of our spiritual short-comings. Then we need to follow up by changing our behavior and making a habit of doing things we have always wanted to do for Christ. We can change our way of life! We can do things differently than we have done them in the past! Peter wrote about the importance of no longer living the rest of our time in the flesh for the sake of sin, but instead, living for the will of God (1 Peter 4:1-6). The point is that God has the power to not only save us from death; He has the power to change our life for today. This is a very exciting proposition! We don’t have to wait for Jesus to come again to be blessed. We can be blessed immediately by simply making the choice to live for God today. We need to stop making excuses for our lack of involvement in the kingdom. We must stop saying to ourselves that who we are and what we practice is good enough. We must stop telling ourselves that the way we live our Christian life is as good as we can do, because that is just the way we are. Faithfulness is a way of life. Commitment is a way of life. Evangelism is a way of life. Humility and Kindness are a way of life. We can do anything we want to do. We can be anything we want to be. Nothing is impossible with God.” When I decided to change my way of living twenty-something years ago I gave my life to the Lord and I haven’t regretted it a minute. I’m not who I used to be; still not the person I need to be.
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