Another Ninety-Five

T H E S I S # 35

Evangelicals choosing evangelical traditions over Bible teachings have a feeble relationship with Jesus.

So how does an evangelical transition back from feeble to dynamic? Simple. Just reverse the trends that made the relationship feeble.

Simple, but it will be a challenge.

We won’t go after what we don’t want sufficiently. Intelligent consideration of Christ will leave every christian seriously wanting a meaningful relationship with the number one Person in the entire universe. Anything other would be unreasonable and unsatisfactory.

Quality of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ must be paramount. Better comes only by wanting better. Think improvement. Allow no lower ambition to surpass the holy endeavor of gaining more of Him. If better is not the goal the opposite – deterioration – will result.

Increase is the natural objective of the eternally minded. Those who can see beyond today will be desperate for a healthier attachment to “the true vine” because only the life of Lord Jesus flowing into the branches will make the branches fruitful. We’re not talking earth fruit that decays, but spiritual fruit preserved eternally.

The eternally minded realize earth-life is but a moment compared to heaven-life. Thus they refuse to live for today, and willingly forego comfort and leisure and inclusion to gain a wealthier tomorrow. New Jerusalem should be a daily consideration: purity, order, sanity, the “cloud of witnesses”, angels of various rank and glory, the throne of God, and many more heavenly delights. It would be life-changing to daily focus on that day we will see the “King of kings and Lord of Lords” face to face.

The eternally minded have been impacted by the reality of heaven and hell, two eternal residences for every man, woman, and child. Man’s desperate need for salvation has gripped their heart, and they refuse distractions. They know salvations come only through a healthy bond to Christ. (“Without Me you can do nothing.”)

It wasn’t attendance that made the evangelical an evangelical, but the adaption of evangelical traditions. Like the before Galatians – the Galatians before embracing the traditions of the circumcisers – the before evangelical was doing well. He was a healthy born-again. Paul would say to him, “Who has bewitched you?”

To escape feeble, to regain dynamic, one simply needs to repent of shifting Lord Jesus from First Love to something less, and return to His lordship. Such is the “wise man who built his house on the rock”.