"Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God." --William Law
The church is full of hypocrites. How often is this the reason given for not going to church. When something is so persistent, it is usually worth investigating. What response runs through our head first? "I know but I'm not one... not my church, not my friends." We as believers need to examine ourselves daily. So many times we are like the duck who made friends with the dog. It learned the same tricks and even started to eat the same food but when the dogs owner went to the park, he wouldn't take the duck. It couldn't come because it was a duck, not a dog. We can learn the tricks like the duck. We can even eat the food like the duck, but like the duck, we may not be a dog.
This idea of being "wholly devoted to God" seems to have fallen by the wayside in our trendy comfortable churches. The consensus idea of a North American Christian meets only a few requirements; attend church semi regularly, tithe once in a while, and keep up the appearance of being moral. We have become moralistic church people instead of Christ followers. We fall into the pit of "being good enough to make it into heaven". We look at stories like David and Goliath and try to take moral lessons from them instead of realizing that they serve to point us to our standard which is Christ who is worthy of total devotion and all glory.
I am as guilty of this as anyone. I pray that God would give me a passion and concern for the church, for His people.
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