Saturday, January 17, 2009

Dallas Willard Chapter 2

#3 – Why bother With Discipleship
Here is a term I have never heard before: “Christian vampire.” It describes someone who wants to feed on Jesus forgiveness (through the cleansing blood of Jesus), but doesn’t want to trust in Jesus for anything else. Of course, this is how American Christianity has proclaimed the gospel. It is marketed to get people in, but not to make disciples. We have created a generation of Christian vampires who do nothing but suck in forgiveness with no real change in their lives. That may be too harsh a statement, but it is very true. God expects more.

Willard closes the chapter with an intense statement, “Someone will say, can I not get 'saved' – that is, get into heaven when I die – without any of this (Biblical discipleship)? Perhaps you can. God’s goodness is so great, I am sure that he will let you in if he can find any basis at all to do so. But you might wish to think about what your life amounts to before you die, about what kind of person you are becoming, and about whether you really would be comfortable for all eternity in the presence of One whose company you have not found especially desirable for the few hours and days of your earthly existence.”

Strange isn’t it? We want to be with God for all eternity but really don’t want to spend any time with Him here. Does that really make any sense at all? It does if you are a Christian vampire….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The comment of why would I want to spend eternity w/someone I had not spent any time /here really made me think. I find time for so many other things and not even equal amount of time for God.

I am going to take time and set aside time everyday and try to start to develop a habit of spending time w/God.