so i just watched one of francis chan’s sermons entitled lukewarm and loving it and it brought up some really powerful and convicting points to which i believe quite a lot of Christians take for granted.

i think most north americans and myself often dont realize the level of comfort and wealth we have living here and how difficult it is to really live out a life for Christ in a culture that is constantly telling us to want more and more and if we work hard enough we can get it.
Sure you always are hearing people saying that they’re broke and need money and even with myself i realize im like that so much of the time. yet when you look at the facts, it’s so true when francis says that we make 100% more than what half the rest of the world makes when people are living off as little as $2 a day.
and i thought it was terrible that i was making $8/h at some part time job.

With our unquestionable wealth in mind, francis checked out some verses in luke 18 and 19 and i just find it amazing how God can juxtapose two situations with Jesus right beside each other in the Bible where one man is saved and the other walks away.

Luke 18:18-29 and 19:1-9

in the first instance, a rich man comes before Jesus asking how to receive eternal life and Jesus tells him to give away his posessions and give his money to the poor, and the man, saddened by this, walks off and does nothing.
in the second, a wealthy tax collector names zacchaeus searches for Jesus and after Jesus tells him that he will stay with zacchaeus and the tax collector, overjoyed, gives away half his possessions to the poor and pays back 4 times the amount to those he has cheated and Jesus declares salvation unto him.

i look at these two passages and i look at my life and the people of north american culture and the vast majority, even christians even myself, are the first man, afraid to give up comfort and security to pursue (in the case of Christians) someone that they say they are completely devoted to.

you cannot follow only some of the teaching of a man you profess as the living God and pretend that the ones you struggle with are not applicable.
i think over the last little while, ive really come to dislike what i see in a generalized view of Christianity in the western world and im not really surprised that those people like zacchaeus are so hard to find in our lives and it’s no wonder that Jesus says that:

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24b-25)