Enjoy Life, Enjoy God
URGE YOU
December 8, 2011
We are so busy, so driven by our agendas that often we are deaf and blind to other important matters. As a result, we are liable to miss what truly is weighty, miss the really urgent matters around us.
I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
--Romans 16:17-19 TNIV
Did you hear Paul's urging? The Romans, like us, were busy with life, yet they were naive, at risk of being so casual about their faith that they disconnect from Christ. Oh, they were in church, but had departed from Christ. Paul urges them to grow in Christ, and stay centered in Christ.
Eugene Peterson says, "You can hang out in a barn and moo, but still not be a cow." In other words, we can hang out in church, do church things, but if not in Christ, we might be mooing, but still have lost touch with Christ. Ponder the verses above, what they might mean for us.
Joyfully,
Dale Patterson