Three Commitments, by John Wimber
If you want to know what kind of Christian you are, get your checkbook out, and look at your calendar.
We need to make three commitments. One to Christ. You can’t get in without that commitment. But it’s “Christ, Savior” as well as “Christ, Lord.’ So many people don’t understand the issue of lordship. But if you do, there’s still yet another commitment.
I constantly meet people who are committed to Christ, but not committed to his church. They don’t understand the necessity of being in a corporate body. For them Christianity is a solo flight. But it’s not something you do on your own. Its something you do in connection with other brethren.
“Love one another” is easy when you’re watching television. But when you have to go do things with people—some you don’t even like, much less love—that’s where the rubber meets the road.
Love is best worked out in shoe leather. You see it’s not just platitude. It’s not just something you mouth. It’s something that you live.
We must also commit ourselves to his church, his people, and his vehicle for our growth and development.
Likewise, I’ve met many people who are committed to Christ, and to his church, but not committed to his cause. Oh, they like the idea “Preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.” They love the Great Commission texts, and they’ll spout them sometimes. But when you ask them, “Are you involved in giving cups of cold water, are you taking food to the hungry, are you sharing clothing. Are you witnessing? Are you leading people to Christ?” “Well I ought to, but I’m not.” Then you’re not committed.
Committed people do this. This is what they do. They don’t do it every day, all day. Some do. But they do it. It’s part of their life.
If you want to know what kind of Christian you are, get your checkbook out, and look at your calendar. Where in the week are you giving food? Are you praying for the sick, or witnessing to the lost? When are you doing the deeds of Jesus?
Look at your checkbook. Where is the money flowing to? For pleasure? For things? Or for God? It’s that simple.
Remember Romans 12:1,2 and the living sacrifices we are to present to him? That’s us. Do you own the next breath you breath? No, it belongs to him, and he has set you on a course of action in which you are to commit yourself to him, to his church, and to his cause.
I can still remember a lady named Gladys. She was only about five-foot-two. She used to come up to me when I was a young Christian, and tap me on the chest and exhort me in a staccato rhythm: “Go home and raise those kids! Go home and pray for those kids! Go home and teach those kids the word of God!” Then she’d turn around and walk away. I’d go home and try. I wasn’t too good at it. I didn’t know very much of it myself. Then I’d see her a week or two later, and she’d come up to me and give me another round of exhortation. That went on for about a year and a half.
One day I said to her, “how come you’re always doing this to me?”
“Because I love you.” She started crying. And I started crying. I’ve never forgotten that woman. She’s had as much influence in my Christian life as any other person. Because she loved me.
I would to God that every one of you had a Gladys. If not, become one, and exhort and encourage the brethren along the way to godliness. That people might come to know him, and serve him for their entire lives in a way that would glorify him, and exalt him in the world.
PR
From Worship Update (3rd Quarter 1995).
©1995 Mercy/Vineyard Publishing, P.O. Box 68025, Anaheim, CA 92817-0825. USA.
Used by Permission.
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