100 years ago, Europe was 70% Christian. Now it is less than 1% Christian. 100 years ago, Cathedrals were full of worshippers. Now they are full of tourist, who pay money to look at the dead monument of what used to be church.

How do we know this won’t happen to us? This is what happens when we stop BEING church and instead DO church. Following Jesus is not a boring religious obligation, where you do what you have to do. We need a resurgence of PASSION for Christ and HIS church, for the Lost, for discipling and for rerouting people from preoccupied lives with this world and carelessness with eternity.

The church has begun to define itself not by it’s love for God, it’s love for one another or it’s followship of investing Christ in others. Instead it has become defined by it’s programs, events and what it DOESN’T DO. We are defined by the idea that we don’t drink, have tattoos or that we dress a certain way or sing certain songs. We are not defined by what we DO, but are proud that we can say we don’t…we have created our own “safe” little box of what WE think should define us, while disregarding Scripture. What about things like gluttonly, envy, jealousy, greed, slander, malice, oppression, pride, racism, gossip…? We have defined what we are based on what people can SEE us doing or not. But God spends more time addressing heart sins, not outward appearances. And yet, we have become a people defined by what we do for “show” and not at all addressing the issues of heart.

When the ultimate question is DOES YOUR LIFE BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH? Not your truth, but Jesus…the truth? Are we fighting over programs and presentations or whether or not we believe or think Jesus is being poured into people? Are people being changed with the TRUTH-then why are we fighting? Isn’t our goal to have lives that bear/SHOW truth? Is this happening? This is what we should be fighting over. It is time we STOP DOING CHURCH and start BEING CHURCH. Passionate people who are investing Jesus in another-life on life as JESUS COMMANDED-not suggested. We have come to believe that making disciples is the great suggestion, not a command. You can say…no, I don’t think that. But let me ask you, do you have ONE? Do you have ONE disciple making relationship? If you can’t even name ONE that you are discipling, you are not fulfilling the great commission. How long have you been walking in that disobedience? And then we wonder why we are headed to becoming dead monuments instead of thriving Cathedrals.

Words from Christine Caine’s talk. STRONG words that challenge me.

I have been studying the verses from Luke 10:29 (and the surrounding) about the lawyer who wanted to know “what must I DO to inherit eternal life?”. I am constantly looking at Jesus’ way of explaining the gospel. This lawyer asks Jesus what he must DO to inherit eternal life. Then when Jesus gives him an answer, he tried to justify himself before Jesus as to why He didn’t have to do what he already knew was the Law. It strikes me as ironic that a Lawyer argued the Law and was trying to justify himself TO JESUS out of having to obey it.

I have been sitting in the thought that we are that man. Always trying to make some excuse as to why we don’t have to obey or justify ourselves before God and argue our way out of having to fully obey HIS way. I have been sitting in the making excuses deal for a day or so now-realizing we are a people of excuses, constantly looking for the loop hole, yet still “getting in on the deal”.

But tonight, I am struck by the verse that follows.

V 30 “you have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE”.

The question was what must I DO to inherit eternal life.

So often we say we have to DO nothing, it is a free gift. And yet, JESUS SAID-what does the LAW SAY? Love the Lord with all and your neighbor as self (not family as self, but neighbor). Here’s the part that is GETTING ME right now. It isn’t enough to KNOW THE LAW. The Lawyer KNEW the Law.

The question isn’t what must I know to inherit eternal life? What must I confess to inherit eternal life? What must I believe to inherit eternal life? It is what must I DO? I DO. While I believe Salvation is totally of God and a gift from God, I also believe we have a responsibility to DO, not just KNOW. We certainly can’t do what we don’t know. So knowing is a place to start. But the lawyer didn’t ask and Jesus never implies that what we know will get us in. In fact, the Lawyer KNEW, he quoted it and understood it. He just didn’t like the answer he got, so he was looking for a way out of the DOING.

We don’t get into heaven because we know the Law, know that we are to love the Lord with ALL and our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus’ response to this man is “you have answered correctly.” Jesus tells us this is the RIGHT answer. The correct answer to how do I get eternal life is to Love the Lord with all and my neighbor as myself. However, if that were enough-to have the correct answers-He would have stopped there and not said the following words-DO THIS and YOU WILL LIVE.

What is said is important. You only live-eternally-if you DO THIS. What must YOU DO to inherit eternal life? You must DO THIS. What is the this? Love the Lord with all and neighbor as self. NOT know this, confess this, talk about this, memorize this, quote this, require this of others-but, DO THIS. Eternal life is granted to those who DO this. Eternity with God comes to those who DO LOVE HIM WITH ALL and LIVE LIKE IT. It is in the doing, not the knowing that we get eternal life.

Which means what is unsaid is just as important. If you don’t DO THIS-you don’t get eternal life in heaven. How many are confessing, but not DOING? How many Know, but don’t LIVE? How many are justifying away eternity, trying to find a way around the DOING? Perhaps it is in teaching a gospel that says you only have to admit, believe and confess. Problem is-these are NOT JESUS’ words. JESUS says-DO THIS and LIVE.

So I guess the million dollar question is how many are justifying their lack of followship and totally missing Jesus because though they may KNOW, quote and confess the right answers-they are NOT DOING THEM, but instead-making excuses as to why to Jesus.

Today, I cleaned the dog pen. I don't usually do that job. I leave it for my sons to do, rationalizing that it is good training for them. But sometimes they don't get the pen as clean as it needs to be. So when I took Micah outside to play for a few minutes, I decided to be the "nice" mom and do their job for them today. It was sooo gross. I had to scrape all the poo off the cement and pile it up, shovel it and haul it off. Then I had to hose down the cement-man it stunk. All the while trying to keep Micah out of the poo and away from the mess. In the meantime, guess what? I stepped right in it! Yep, had on my Lands End, suede shoes...and stepped right in a pile of mess. I was so mad and frustrated.

So I did what every other person on the planet with poo on their shoe does. I began to try to scrape it off in the grass. I slid my foot this way and then that. I banged it on the side of the porch. I danced around the yard like a crazy woman doing the poo dance, but to little avail. Yeah, some it came off, but then there was the poo that had gotten down in the crevices of my shoe. You know, the treads! The place all moms hate because we know the only way to get that clean is to pick it out. ARG!

I sat down on the steps of the deck, picked up a stick and started scraping the poo out of my shoe. Man, I am hating this dog now. Micah is very intrigued at what I am doing. I scrape a little here and a little there, slinging it off the stick as I go. The smell is making me sick, all the while I am thinking I shouldn't have been such a good mom and none of this would have happened....the boys can do it next time. (although I end up cleaning it out of their shoes too...doesn't seem fair somehow).

Don't laugh, you have done it too. If you are a mom or dad, somewhere down the line, you have scraped poo out of shoes. Anyways, I get MOST of it out. But realize that the only way to get it perfectly clean is to put water on it-suede shoe, remember. I carefully wash the soles of the shoes, trying to keep the tops dry. Finally done, what a mess. However, while my attention was turned to the cleaning of my shoe. Micah has stepped in the mess where I was picking the poo out of my shoe and now has it all over his shoe. Great....round two. This is my life!

As I am scraping poo out of shoe number two, it occurs to me that there is a lesson in this. (yes, a point to why I am grossing you out with my poo story). We all have sin in our lives that we step into, intentional or not. And it gets into our walk/shoes and leaves a nasty odor. We often try to clean it up, wipe it off, scrape it out. But the only way to be truly clean is to be washed. Jesus longs to wash us clean. But so many times we try our own methods of clean up first before we go to the ONE who can cleanse wholly. By doing so, sometimes we leave a mess behind that effects others and where they are walking. The truth is when we step into sin, just go to the water (living water that is) and be cleansed, because when we don't we just endure the odor longer, realize we can't remove the total stain and leave a mess for others to walk into.

So the next time you step in poo....remember, God does not want us to walk around with sin stuck to our shoe/walk. He wants to clean us up so that the stench and the mess is not left for those who come behind us.