Watered Down Gospel!

Most of you know that I love to read. Right now I am ending a Christian fiction series. I'm on the last book and it is as amazing as the first two. This series has opened my eyes to the words of the Bible. The stories and teachings have come alive. The author, Francine Rivers, has definitely studied her history before compiling her words on paper. Today during my time of reading something struck me and convicted me. The characters in the book were just arriving in the city of Corinth. Their boat had just come into port and they were discussing where to go and what to do. In their conversation, they began discussing the church of Corinth. They were carrying letters from John to the church and they needed to visit the members to make the delivery. They were talking about how the members of the church of Corinth had walked away from the purity of Christ's message. They had watered the gospel down so that they could live in their own sin. They had taken the love of Christ and his forgiveness to the point of discounting sin all together. They could live and do as they pleased because God was Grace. They had even stopped reading the letters of Paul because it made them feel "uneasy." I was so saddened. Isn't this what we often do? If we are walking in a lifestyle unpleasing to God, we run from hearing Truth. This is definitely not always the case but 9 times out of 10 when a regular church attender stops attending, I soon learn of their walk into sin. Sin didn't come because they left church, they left the church because of their sin. Scripture speaks of the written Word as the "perfect law of liberty." We must be doers of the Word and not just hearers. Here is that scripture. It is found in James 1:21-27.

21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone among you[b] thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

I pray that I never water down God's Word for my own fleshly desires. I want to live by God's standard and not move His standard to meet what I want. Because in all reality it is truly unmovable. If you find yourself running from hearing God's Word, you are probably not doing His Word either. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak. Listen and then Obey. You are never too far to come back to God. God is forgiving, He is Grace, He is Mercy and He is Love. God is also jealous and He does not want to share you with the world. The church of Corinth was on the road to destruction. So many followers of Christ were trying to warn them to turn back. Don't be like them and turn a deaf ear to the people God has put in your life. I love you and I am always here if you need me.