Words for Thought

I heard Joyce Meyers say the other day this:
"You can go sit in your garage all day and that won't make you a car!"

How true! And I wanted to shout it from the rooftops! Seriously. I am tired of going to church and seeing the people sit there week in and week out, showing no changes, no turning toward Jesus more than they did when they walked in their first Sunday. Seriously. I don't get it.

Matt 22:1-14:
"Jesus told them several other stories to illustrate the Kingdom. He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son. Many guests were invited, and when the banquet was ready, he sent other servants to notify everyone that it was time to come. But they all refused! So, he sent other servants to tell them. 'The feast has been prepared, and choice meats have been cooked. Everything is ready. Hurray!' But the guests he had invited ignored them and went about their business, one to his farm, another to his store. Others seized his messengers and treated them shamefully, even killing some of them. Then the king became furious. He sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their city. And he said to his servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, and the guests I invited aren't worthy of the honor. Now go out to the street corners and invite everyone you see.' So the servants brought in everyone they could find, good and bad alike, and the banquet hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to meet the guests, he noticed a man who wasn't wearing the proper clothes for a wedding. 'Friend, he asked, how is it that you are here without wedding clothes?' And the man had no reply. Then the king said to his aides. 'Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen." - NLT

I call this my wake-up passage, and like Joyce's words I want to shout it from the rooftops. People, we cannot fool the King! He is not going to be fooled. He will know whether or nor we are wearing the right kind of clothing. We can go to church, sit in the pews, know the right things to say and how to behave, but still not be a real Christian. Being a follower of Christ is more than being in the building, it's about the relationship you have with the King of all Kings. I want this so much for our teens these days. I wish I could get them to get "it". I want everyone to get it. Just because we were invited to the feast, doesn't mean that we will get to stay in the banquet hall!

Everyone is/was invited, but we must then choose to put on the wedding clothes offered by the host. It was custom in those days that the host have wedding clothes for the attendees to wear during the celebration. People, it is more than the acceptance of the invite, we must then accept the clothes offered to us and put them on! The clothes he offers me are different than the clothes he offers you, but he offers them to us, some times daily.

The question is: are we sitting in church waiting to turn into a Christian- it's not going to happen on it's own, just like sitting in a gargage won't make you in to a car!