Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Religiously Unchanged

One of my greatest concerns is knowing I will one day stand before God and give an account of my life to Him, and realizing only then that I was more "religious" than changed. According to Romans 8:29 , God's ultimate goal for my life is to transform me into a person that looks, thinks, and acts as much like Jesus as possible until He takes me home.

Have you ever stopped long enough to consider that perhaps a lot of the activity that makes up church life may be just that - activity, as opposed to transformation? Don't get me wrong. Much of what we do in church life today is goal centered and eternally purposed, but I am afraid that somewhere in the mix we misinterpret movement for making disciples. As I understand it, a true disciple is not just someone who prays a sinner's prayer, but is someone who loves God wholeheartedly and seeks to love others the same way.

Let me be the first in line to admit that I have all too often found myself in the mix of religious activity and at the same time totally missed Jesus in the process, which brings me to ask a very important question: How is it that we can be surrounded by Christianity and sometimes miss Christ? How can we be so involved in church (serving, giving, teaching, etc) and miss the One for whom it is all about?

I do believe it has something to do with the heart. In fact, all of Christianity revolves around the heart:

• We are told to "love the Lord your God with all of your heart" (Deuteronomy 6:4 ).
• When we seek God with all of our heart, we are guaranteed to find Him (Jeremiah 28:13 ).
• We are to forgive one another from the heart (Matthew 18:35 ).
• We are to love one another from the heart (1 Peter 1:22 ).

Jesus was onto this in the story of Martha and Mary found in Luke 10 :

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'

'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"

What Jesus was getting at was the fact that we can be very busy for Jesus and yet miss Jesus, our whole point for being busy. So how do we find the balance of staying busy for Jesus and being found walking with Jesus as we go? Here are a few brief thoughts on how to W.A.L.K. effectively and truly follow Jesus with our hearts and not just our activity:

• Welcome Jesus into the very beginning of your day. Don't allow Jesus to be an attachment to your daily agenda (Mark 1:35 ).
• Allow Him to speak to you from His Word. Your eternal productivity in any given day is based on your abiding in Jesus, not your gifts, abilities, and time management alone (John 15:5 ).
• Look for opportunities to serve Him by serving others. Find joy in serving others wholeheartedly, knowing your reward is being kept for you by the One who really matters (Galatians 5:13 ).
• Keep enough breathing room in your daily routine to reflect on the Person of Jesus and who He is in your life. Reflect on Him often (Psalm 46:10 ).