The Willing Yet Unwilling

It is still too early to tell who the real believers are. I have always held on to the conviction that true Christians are often found in places where it is dangerous to be one. When by God's mercy we reach that point only then will we be able to identify authentic believers. 

In the Maldives, which boasts to be 100% Muslim, only a hundred or so are Christians. This little flock is driven underground for fear of excommunication, harassment, assault, and being murdered. Losing one's citizenship for leaving Islam is common, and all fellowship is outlawed. Christian activities are monitored and reported to the authorities. Compared to countries where Christian's are severely persecuted for their faith, Christendom in the Philippines is wallowing in the mire of ignorance and comfort.

It is a dismal thing to be a professing Christian and be ashamed to bear and proclaim Christ's name. Methinks indeed that there is difficulty in having a willingness to share, without having a message to share. We cannot share what we do not know, and there are not many inside churches today that know Christ intimately. There are throngs who scamper to acquire knowledge about God, without an end or purpose. Subconsciously we believe knowing more about God is to be godly. Our main objective in knowing Christ should be that we are enabled to declare Christ and live holy. But today we only have willing Christians, not doing Christians. It is the doers, not hearers, that bear results. To be willing is to be unwilling if it does not end in doing. 

Churches are filled with deceived believers, who remain all their lives as merely that: believers. Belief is simply a seed. Having it does not equate to growth. When one truly believes, you will see evidence of a pooling of all resources, (studying the scriptures, investing money to the cause and the saints, more time in prayer, actively participating in missons, etc.) into turning that belief to reality. Action validates what you believe in, just as action validates a heart inclined towards obedience. Action produces results, not belief. If there are no results it is because you did not put what you believed in into action. Just as Abraham believed God and resulted in his obeying to give up Isaac, faith without action is dead. Christ is far, far more than a concept to be followed, He is a person to be loved above all.

Biblically, obedience to Christ often involves setting one's self at a disadvantage (John 15.20). Laying your neck on the line is a reality of the Christian walk that almost everyone wants to overlook and ignore (Matthew 16.25). A desire to live in compromising peace with the religious system. In the vernacular, "I don't want be offensive to my neighbor. I must mind my business and keep silent." A desire to sacrifice only the convenient things. A desire to save your life.

  But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.
But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:22-25

I have always imagined heaven to be a paradise of surprises. We will praise God there with people we did not expect to see, and miss those whom we expected to see.

May the LORD grant us mercy to stand before the Son of man on that day.