"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is
offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot
imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (C. S. Lewis)
There was once a European family that boarded a ship on their way to the United States. They took all
the provisions they could eat, as a family, as they occupied one of the ship’s lower cabins. Days and
weeks went by. The family huddled in their cabin eating cheese and crackers while hearing the
merriment of those who were eating in the banquet room above. On the last night of their long sea
journey, after the captain announced that they would soon make landfall, the father decided to
celebrate by taking his family to the banquet room where everyone else had been eating the whole
time. He approached the captain to ask how much the meal cost. The captain looked at him in surprise
and said, “You mean you haven’t been eating there? Those meals were included in the price of the
fare.”
Many Christians eat “cheese and crackers”, spiritually, and are completely unaware of all their “fare”
purchased.
Like the Samaritan woman who was content to eat the crumbs that fell from the master’s table or the
woman, with the issue of blood, who settled for touching the hem of Jesus’ garment, we have settled for
less, even though Christ offers us much more (Matthew 15:21-28; 9:20-22; John 14:23; Revelation 3:
20).
Christianity is about a Person, not a religious philosophy, concept or doctrine. Jesus is as an endless
landscape, full of mountains and valleys, rivers and oceans, waiting to be explored (Ps. 145:3). Those
who dare to journey beyond what they’ve experienced, who will risk everything to explore realms of
mystery, will find treasures that are exceedingly abundantly above all they could ever ask or think.
Recent studies, according to barna.org, have shown that 75% of young people will turn from the faith
within 1-year of leaving home. This number is even higher among Southern Baptists, one of the
strongest evangelical denominations, at 94%. Something is very wrong.
Modern Christianity has been dumbed down from what it was in the early church. Would these
disturbing statistics have been true with the first century church? No! The early church had so much
more of God than we see and live today. Anyone who has the courage to study the four gospels and the
Book of Acts and then compare it to the church today, has to conclude that there’s nothing more
boring than religion and nothing more exciting than the true Christian life. As Christians, we are
assimilating far less than all that Jesus purchased for us on the Cross. Fear, ignorance, popular
theology, religious form and the traditions of men, as well as other similar vices, have put the Church
to sleep.
I dare you to study the Book of Acts, for yourself. Saturate yourself in prayer and fasting. Put
everything you’ve heard, up to this point, to the side, and let Jesus show you Who He really is–what He’
s really like–apart from what you think and what is commonly believed in popular Christianity. Let the
Holy Spirit show you “more”, in the light of the entire weight of His Word, and don’t limit Him. If you
have given your life to Him, then He’s with you, to direct your paths, if you will let Him.