For too long the church in America, and most of the World, has fallen into these distortions of the Bible that cause the hearers to think that Chritians don't have to suffer. Wouldn't that be nice if it was true. As with any distortion of the Bible it gives the reader a gospel that has no power to create a disciple, and leaves the reader weak and vulnerable.
Those kind of Church goers will never truly serve Christ sacrificially out of love, but will always seek to give, at best, the bare minimum. They will always put themselves first over the will of God and attempt to sanctify their loveless service under terms like; We need family time, or I've already done my part let someone else serve, or one of my favorites; I just need some time for me. Everyone of these excuses tells the truth, the "Cotton Candy Christian" doesn't love Jesus enough to sacrifice their lives for Him. They don't want to be inconvenienced, let alone actually suffer for Him.
The real believer though loves Christ so that when they read in Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." The real belivers don't try to hide from opportunities to be living sacrifices for Jesus, but instead, we look for opportunities to honor Christ, because we have seen through the Scriptures Christ is worthy, as the Moravian brothers did that sold themselves into slavery.
The Moravian brothers knew of slaves that were in need of the Gospel and wished to tell them. The owner of the slaves let them know only slaves would be allowed on his plantation. The two brothers sold themselves into slavery so they could tell the slaves about Jesus. In the narrative it was said of the Moravian brothers, as their ship sailed away, they could be heard saying; "Worthy is the Lamb to receive the reward of His wounds." Do you see that the Lamb is worthy?
Love ya'll
Pastor Philip
