LEAVE THE BOAT BEHIND

(Post by: Lilly Hobbs)

These last seven weeks, I have been taking an intense look at Jesus’ method and passion for evangelism due to a college class I am currently taking. There’s just something about it that I believe we have lost in our various methods of evangelism in present day.

I cannot help but wonder if it’s the answer many of us in the American Church have been earnestly searching for as we watch the moral decline of our society, church attendance dwindle down to be next to nothing, and families fall apart one-by-one.  

When Jesus called the first disciples, He called them to leave everything and follow Him. In other words, He asked them to put their faith in Him. We know this to be the case, and this is what we often reiterate to others when witnessing.

Here’s the thing, though… Jesus didn’t just ask the disciples to merely say they believed He was the Messiah. This wasn’t a “pull one bumper sticker off the boat and replace it with a different one” kind of deal.

When Jesus called them, they had to intentionally choose to leave their boat behind. On the foundation of their faith, they stepped forward in obedience to live a new lifestyle. 

Why don’t we expect new converts to live in reckless abandon for the Lord? Hear me when I say that the American Church views evangelism as nothing more than a data transfer.

We are too embarrassed to call others to follow Jesus in the radical ways He has always intended for them to, and many of the conversations we have end like this: “So long as you have faith, that’s all that matters,” or “So long as you’re sincere, that’s what really counts.” 

That certainly sounds good, and on the surface, it may even seem Biblical. However, that’s not all. There is a further question that needs to be asked: “Faith in what? Sincerity regarding what?”

Unfortunately, what I see taking place in many Christian circles today is that so long as we get lost souls to decide to make the decision to put their faith in Jesus, we have been successful in the area of evangelism.

It is one thing to call Him Lord and it is quite another to fully submit to His lordship. To be a true Christian is to do both. Christ saves those who trust Him, and those who trust Him follow Him.

Faith is not the intellectual acceptance of certain propositions about Jesus. It includes the acceptance of propositions, but that in and of itself is not saving faith. James 2:19 tells us that “even the demons believe” that there is one God. The devil is orthodox in what he knows to be true about God, but he has not submitted to His lordship.

This is why I believe the devil is pleased and makes no effort to put an end to the way in which we often witness today. To be transparent, we aren’t calling them to live any differently than our own enemy desires for them to live.

True faith always overflows in obedience. Obedience thus springs from faith, not the other way around.

I’ve been praying fervently about this recently, and I believe it’s time we intentionally choose to leave our own boats behind. We can’t call others to live in complete obedience to Christ when we ourselves are still functioning in complacency.

Let’s leave everything we’ve been used to behind and follow Jesus in reckless abandon.

“If we try to obey without faith, we get nowhere. If we try to have faith without obedience, it ends in nothing.”  (A. W. Tozer)

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= Are you living a life that is obedient to Jesus?

= Is there anything you are purposefully not surrendering to Jesus because you want to remain in control?

= What are you going to do differently?