Raw Truth is Never Popular

I was reading Amos this morning from The Message. I LIKE The Message. :) It's BLUNT and to-the-point. For me anyway I have to be careful to not read the Word with routine contemplation but with awe and fear and the reverence it deserves. I appreciate being able to read it from a fresh perspective.
In Amos 5:8 it says: Do you REALIZE where you are!??!?!?! You're in a cosmos...star-flung with constellations by GOD! :) A world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night!!! ......God-revealed does all this. And He can destroy it as easily as make it. 5:10 Raw truth is never popular but here it is bluntly spoken. 5:21 I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions........I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. *WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SANG TO ME?"
Yes....raw truth is not popular. But HERE it is BLUNTLY spoken. What is it that we are offering to Him? And with what kind of heart are we offering it?....................................Where is our fear of God? Is what we are doing every day done in a way that we can be confident that it will bear good fruit in our lives and bring honor to His name? How MUCH of what we DO can we offer Him being confident He will receive it when we live our lives with complacency and apathy? We might as well not do it at all. The manner in which we serve Him has become so routine and we have become SO apathetic about it that it has become fruitless. Sadly it has become of NO value to God. He can do absolutely NOTHING with our empty sacrifice!! And that is what it is. EMPTY. USELESS. Our worship is just noise. Our service is meaningless. What are we HERE for!?!?!?!?! What is it that we're DOING!?!?!? And what are we doing it FOR!?!? Where is the PASSION? Where is our FEAR of GOD!??!?!
Look around you and you will find stress, complacency, lack of propriety, lack of graciousness, dishonor, a lack of restraint, unrest, no joy, selfishness, greed.......why? We've lost our sense of the fear of God.
Whether you are in a "position" of ministry or NOT...your *LIFE* (from the moment you wake up till the moment you go to sleep) IS a ministry. Everything that we do is to be done to honor His name and to showcase HIM!! Our lives are to be lived out with PURPOSE! We need to be deliberate in our actions, in our words, in our service to Him. Knowing that EVERYTHING we say, think and do will be significant. But will it have eternal significance? Will it be something we can offer to Him being confident He can USE it and be pleased with it? Are we a determined people living our lives as a testimony in Holy reverence to Him honoring Him with every moment of our existence?
Or could it be said of US as Abraham said in Genesis 20:11..."There is SURELY no fear of God in this place."What a scary place to be. Where there is no fear of God.......we've made NOTHING of Christ's incredible sacrifice. We've quenched the power of the Holy Spirit. We've minimized the work of grace. And we've dismissed the very presence of God HIMSELF in our lives.
I said it the other day and I'll say it again: It's time to get our heads in the game and be about our Father's business! It's time to stop "playing church" and get SERIOUS about Him and His purposes for His Kingdom! You can be a part of it or you can watch it all happen. He's moving with or without you!
LET God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field! Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over! Get serious, really serious! Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet. James 4:7-10
Hebrews 12:2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because He never lost sight of where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
Run your race! Live your life *DELIBERATELY* and *ON PURPOSE* always having the fear of God as the power that drives you in all you do so that what we DO offer Him can be done so with JOY and confidence...pure, undefiled, and sincere.

I am ready for a Christianity that ruins my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable.-M. Yaconelli (Dangerous Wonder...The Adventure of Childlike Faith) ********BRING IT!

 Raw truth is NEVER popular. No. But necessary.