Stuffing

All

We are working on Romans 12:1-2 this Sunday. I read a sermon called "Challenged to be Changed"on these verses.

J. David Hoke ends the sermon with:
Let me ask you, "Are you His?" I am not asking if you have made a decision for Christ here. I am not asking if you are a Christian. Are you His? Have you given Him all?

A friend of mine was telling me of the kind of church we are developing these days. It is "Church-Lite" or "Christianity-Lite" in its approach. It is the home of the 5% tithe, the thirty minute service with sermonettes for Christianettes. It is the place where the hymn of commitment is "I Surrender Some." Instead of "Standing on the Promises" we are merely sitting on the premises. But this isn’t what God has in mind at all.

You see, He wants everything. Everything! He wants all your time. He wants all your money. He wants all your work hours. He wants all your leisure hours. He wants your family, your wife, your children, your car, your house. He wants all of you! Are you really His?

Be challenged to be changed. Do not be conformed — be transformed. Come to Christ for a change.

All can be a lot. And He deserves it because He died for us. When we first start all may only be a little. We're happy to have God take all of it, because we've made such a mess of it anyway. Looking back, giving all may have been easy, but there may not have been a lot God wanted in that. It seems to me, as one matures in Christ that all becomes harder when one thinks it should be easier. As God reaches down deeper and puts his finger on things closer to your heart.
This 'giving all' certainly also goes against what the world says- that your rights are important- that it's important to take care of yourself, what you want and need. All. All. All.

On a separate note (may or may not be related!) I am having issues with integrity at work. My boss has me write emails that are not the truth. He has me say he's away when he's not. He has me say that a document is at the printers when it's not. They are only little things, but they do bother me because we could easily tell the truth. I like truth. But he doesn't want to look like a 'bad guy', so we say that the document is at the printer instead of saying that they missed the deadline (deadline was sept 7, they handed it in sept 21). Why not say they missed the deadline and we don't have time to get it all fixed up for the printer, which would be the truth. But I think he sees it as the truth because the copy was ready for the printer and so *virtually* at the printers. When writing these email I would say to my boss "So we're pretty much lying to them aren't we?". What do you think- is it better to lie and (possibly) not hurt their feelings so much or better to tell the truth?

posted by Aphra @ 9/28/2007 11:56:00 PM