How Committed Are You?

Art Erickson recently posed this challenging question:

Am I a follower of Jesus Christ? If I am, what is my commitment: 100%, 50%, or 10%?

50% and 10% Folks Want:

• A safe neighborhood, a nice marriage, kids who behave, a good church, and good retirement benefits.
• Choose what is acceptable rather than what is right.
• Are moved by stories about the oppressed and the neglected… but do nothing.
• God is a part of their lives… but only a part (a small, controlled, and self-determined part).
• Will serve God… “But there are limits you know”.
• Hardly, if ever, share their faith with family, friends, neighbors or fellow workers.
• Hang with the rich… Do not hang with the poor

To live by faith, but their lives are so structured that they never have to because they:

Have a savings account
Retirement plan in place
Full refrigerators
Good health mostly
Have their lives figured out and planned
Think more about this world than the next one.


100% Folks Want:

• To serve and glorify God.
• Are not motivated by ego nor out to protect their own power, reputations , or resources.
• Look forward to heaven - and work to take as many people with them as possible.
• Try to deliver a positive, factual message about God's plan and power in loving truth.
• Do not harbor rebellious anger toward authority.
• Accept the costs of being loyal to the truth without rancor or bitterness.
  
  Final Quote and Thought:
  
  “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.
  
  It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.” -- CS Lewis