I’d like mine with a nice country club membership included

November is going to be a difficult month. Our study, “Casual Christianity,” poses some tough and uncomfortable questions. Are you prepared to honestly examine your habits and attitudes about Christianity? Are you willing to make any necessary changes?

It seems that many who call themselves Christ-followers are fine with limiting their Christianity to showing up on Sunday mornings, singing along with three or four songs, half-listening to a thirty-minute talk, and then heading to lunch. Task completed, check it off the list! But you should know that casual Christianity just won’t do.

Here’s a fun task: let’s make a list of guys in the Bible and ask them if they would consider their faith casual, easy, or fun.

• John the Baptist: “Easy? No, I wouldn’t say that. Having your head separated from your body is not easy.”

• Jonah: “Fun? You ever been inside a whale? Not fun. Fantastic, yes; incredible, absolutely; but certainly not fun.”

• Paul: “Well, I did get to travel the known world telling people about Jesus, but I wouldn’t call it casual. Dodging rocks and getting arrested kept things exciting. I’d never trade what I did, but a church with a country club membership included in their package, now that would have been a lot easier.”

• Abraham: “Following God started out pretty easy until He asked me to leave my home and just start walking. You ever leave home without a destination? Kinda crazy. There was also that time where I almost killed my own kid. I’d definitely say following God demands a pretty hefty commitment.”

• Moses: “Not too sure about those words. Exciting, adventurous, and remembered forever are more how I’d describe it. I mean, God allowed me to see the Red Sea open up and become like dry ground under my feet, rescue His people, write that song about letting my people go, and then actually see Him. But then there was the whole wilderness snafu, and I can honestly say there was nothing fun about that.”

Where did we ever get the idea that following God would be easy? It NEVER was in the Bible. So is being a Christ-follower worth it? Absolutely. It’s worth anything you’d have to pay, but casual or easy? Definitely not.

Some passages of Scripture are tough to understand and apply to our lives, but this week’s isn’t one of those. We may not like what it has to say, but it’s simple, straightforward and life altering. Read James 1 and 2. Notice how he explains things in very easy-to-understand language: “Rid yourselves of moral filth” (1:21); “Be doers of the word” (1:21); “Show me your faith without works and I’ll show you faith from my works” (2:18). Start this month’s study with a clean slate and examine yourself each week. Does your faith look like the one being described by James as active, or is it one that just hears and is comfortable to live in filth?

I love the closing paragraph on page 80 of the learner guide: “A faith that is void of works is a faith that is void of substance. A faith that is void of substance is a faith that will land someone with the demons in hell. Once we realize that the theology of James matches perfectly with the theology of grace, then we can begin living a life that substantiates a faith we say we possess.”

Does your faith have any substance to it?