WHOLEHEARTEDLY COMMITTED

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life --- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life --- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." ~~~ Romans 12:1-2 from Eugene H. Peterson's The Message.

What would happen if every member of our congregation was 100% committed to loving God wholeheartedly? What if every member of our congregation decided to prioritize their life by placing Jesus first and everything else under His control? If we truly believe that Jesus died for us and lives for us today, shouldn't that make a radical difference in the way that we conduct ourselves from day-to-day?

We are called to make an eternal impact in the community where we live. But too many times it seems that the culture around us is defining what we do and how we do it. This shouldn't be.

Whether we are a newborn babe in Christ or we've been a Christian for many years, every one of us should strive to become more like Jesus in everything we do. Our Father expects us to grow in our relationship with Him and with others around us. In order for this to happen we must be continually feeding on the Word of God. Remember it was Jesus who said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples." Just as our physical bodies need the proper nourishment every day … men and women of God need to be into the Word of God for spiritual nourishment on a daily basis.

Church, we have fantastic opportunities with unlimited potential placed all around us, but will we seize the moment or will we simply look the other way and let it go by? The choice is yours and the results could have an eternal impact.

Have you decided to make every effort to become transformed into His image? Will we see you in Bible Class this week?

Ted Edwards

West-Ark Church of Christ, Fort Smith, AR
Bulletin Article, 25 June 2000


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