Own It!

Our current sermon series at church right now is called, "Elements: Essentials for Owning Your Salvation".  We've been talking about how we are each responsible for our own spiritual growth, and that in order to "own it" (take responsibility for it), there are 5 "essentials" that every Christ-follower should be doing.  So far, we have discussed four of them:

1) Pursuing God 

2) Forming Christ-Like Relationships

3) Being Good Stewards of our Lives

4) Sharing our "Grace Story" with others

(In the event that you were interested in learning more about any or all of the above, you can listen to the sermons online http://mediaplayer.hcbc.com/. )

Anyway, last week, Pastor Tim gave us a huge challenge.  (and really, there shouldn't be anything all that challenging about this "challenge", but for some reason, it is).  He  talked about how most of us are OVERLY eager to share so many aspects of our life with others.  For example, we post all kinds of things on Facebook, blogs, etc about our new house, our new job, the milestones that our children are achieving, our current workout regime, the fact that our kid peed in the potty for the first time (ahem ahem), what our views are on politics and specific candidates, and the list goes on and on.  How many of us though bother to share with others the very thing that a LOT of us CLAIM is the most important thing in our live...our relationship with God?  Not many.  Hang on...it gets more convicting.  

He went on to say this: as Christians, we believe that there is such a thing as Heaven, and we believe that there is such a thing as Hell.  We believe that a relationship with Jesus....accepting and acknowledging Him as our personal savior...is the ONLY way to get into Heaven, and thereby avoid Hell.    We CLAIM we believe this...we accept it OURSELVES...and yet......we don't tell anyone else about it?  What!?!  The point (right now) is not even whether we are right and wrong about our beliefs.  That would be a whole other sermon.  An entire sermon series, perhaps.  The point he was making in THIS particular sermon, was that we BELIEVE we know the way to have eternal life, and yet often times, we don't feel any urgency to tell others.  He compared it to a person who found the cure for cancer, used it to cure themselves, and then never bothered to tell a single other soul about it, despite the fact that millions of people worldwide suffer from cancer.  

ANYWAY.  He concluded with a challenge, to EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON sitting in church that day.  He said, "I challenge you this week to tell someone your "Grace Story"...YOUR personal story of what Jesus has done in YOUR life".  He said it multiple times.  Like, maybe the first time you could just pretend you didn't hear him say that.  He said it at least three times though, and even if you were there and you are deaf, that wouldn't be an excuse, because they have a sign language interpreter.  So personally, I feel like if I don't take him up on this challenge, I'll be the lamest, most timid little mouse of a person ever, so.......up next is my "Grace Story".  ("up next" because I hear a certain two year old starting to stir around in his bed, and I'm betting I have about two minutes left before I start to hear "Mama" being yelled at full volume from his room)