Get Off the Dime

My dad always said: “Don’t just sit there. Do something!” In reference to ministry, I heard it said before too that Christians need to: Get off your Pews and do something!” There is an old saying too, “Get off the dime” (a term that has been around since at least the 1920s meaning “quit standing in one place”, and today it’s generally used to mean, as defined by the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, “to take action after a period of indecision or procrastination). As the old proverb goes: Idol hands are the devil’s playground. 

 

It is being identified that the lack of Christian engagement in the culture with the Gospel truth, biblical morality, ministering the Word of God and standing firm with the full armor of God against ungodliness is the reason that our generation and society has lost its moral compass, turned from God, and the Biblical Worldview is declining. The Gospel truth of Creator God’s holy Word, Will and Way, the reality of sin and its eternal consequences (Romans 3:23 and 6:23a), God’s loving and merciful grace in His plan of Salvation through Christ by faith (Romans 6:23b), and the Great Commission of the Lord (Matthew 28:19-20) are mission omissions in His Christian church today. Darkness always fills the void once light has been removed; likeness in a fallen world, sin fills the void when God has been removed. The rich young Ruler in Mark 10:17 asked the question that is critically missing in society: “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” But, the natural man doesn’t have even see that they are a “dead man walking” or know why -  Ephesians 2:1“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins”

 

The call to “ministry” has me thinking and “getting off the dime” 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”, therefore spiritual blindness exists in the culture. John 3:3, Jesus explains this to a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Christians are given a sixth sense of spiritual discernment at consecration conversion. People do not understand that generally being a “good person” or doing more good deeds than bad doesn’t get anyone into Heaven. The Lord and Savior of the world goes on in John 3:5-7 to explain, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ It is not natural but supernatural transformation of the soul and regeneration of the spirit by God’s Holy Spirit in Christ, through our repentance and saving faith alone. Do not marvel that this is God’s way to salvation; marvel that God, by His love and mercy, made a way to salvation at all – the gift of amazing grace. 

 

John 3 is a eye-opening chapter that explains the issue of sin, our love of sin, God’s answer to sin, the darkness of sin, and ends with this reality in John 3:31-36, “He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

 

This movie clip from the 1999 Academy Award Best Picture nominee “the Sixth Sense” has a scene that has a phenomenal metaphoric biblical message to all Christian Believers, which I never forget to associate with why Jesus calls us to seek and save the lost. Check it out @ https://youtu.be/b9GNkCHknGs or click below.

I see dead people walking around and they don’t even know that they are dead. I see them all the time ... people lost in sin, justly under the wrath of a just God, destined for Hell, and in need of redemption by the Savior graciously sent by God. Quit pretending that nothing is wrong. Time to get off the dime and bring the Gospel truth to point them to the foot of the Cross where dead in sin people repent and are born again to life eternal. Offer the gift of God.

 

In Christ, Brian