How far is the gap between what you say you believe and how that belief get’s lived out? All of us have that distance between what we believe and how we live. Even one of the writer’s of the Bible, Paul, said:
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another powers within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. – Paul (a missionary and writer in the Bible)
Isn’t this disparity between belief and behavior so much easier to point out in others?! It is another thing entirely for us to see it in ourselves. Often when we do it can feel like such a different kind of life we start to question everything. Do I really believe in God? Am I really saved? What does a lifeactually lived in full to devotion to Christ look like?
These questions were the topic of series of teaching we had here at Church Online last year called Practical Atheist (see them here). But the topic connected with so many people and helped so many that our Pastor Craig Groeschel is coming out with a book that addresses the topics hit in Practical Atheist and takes them further.
The book is called Christian Atheist and comes out March 23, 2010, but you can pre-order your copy through any of these booksellers:
