Still recovering

I heard a preacher say this morning, "Whenever you say 'no thanks' to God you better be very careful. Because He might just stop speaking to you for the rest of your life. He'll never leave you or forsake you, but He might say 'you know what, okay, I really will go use somebody else.'"

I'm too tired to do much thinking right now, but there's a bit of sadness to the truth in the statement. We no longer know Who God is if we're willing to tell Him "no." I say that because I don't think our "no's" really stem from a lack of trust anymore, I think they're because we simply don't care. We've integrated the belief that Jesus is Who we choose Him to be. "I like Jesus because He did this, but I don't agree with Him when He said that, and therefore I'll believe only what I want to believe." This is sad to me - not only in the false sense that "all roads lead to heaven" (you're not a Christian if you believe that because Jesus himself directly stated otherwise), but in the sense that we've lost sight of Who God is, and we're okay with it. This is sad because I know that it was only when I truly surrendered that I found life and true joy. But we don't really grasp the concept of surrender anymore...our culture teaches otherwise. Yes, I say "no," but I also know how good it is when I say "yes."

Sorry for the rant.

I've always loved this passage by Jesus, because it scares the @#*& out of me.

Matt. 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matt. 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”