Going to Rehab.

We need to start caring more about the quality of our spiritual life than our outward life.

I was going to write a nice, non-threatening introduction to ease the reader into this post like one uses their big toe to test the water, but I think you'll forgive me. I couldn't help myself but get started quickly into the meat of this.

I was raised in traditional Southern Baptist church, so I knew at a young age that I needed to have Christ in my life. But, because I was raised in a traditional Southern Baptist Church, I also learned that what your life looked like on the outside was the most important thing.

Matthew 23:28 says,

"In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

At the age of 5 I believed that all you needed to do to get saved was cry and walk down the aisle because I witnessed it so many times. Even at 5 I knew that what most of those people were doing was a show (partially because I saw the same woman do that 5 times in a year). But to put it simply: I was taught that the inside matters, but if the outside isn't crying and making your face look a mess, it ain't real.

And that's too bad. Because it meant when I did give my life to Christ, I believed it was all about appearances. That as long as you look different, you stay a Christian. You don't have to reach out to those who are hurting, you just do your own thing. After all, Christianity is a personal thing that you only show everyone. You don't actually get involved in their lives....

But I was thinking last night- we as Christians really need to step it up. Live like Jesus, or at least attempt to. I know many of us aren't willing to give the keys of our house to the homeless man on the street and say "Here- you need a home, I have a home. Take it." But we definitely shouldn't be parading our material possessions around every chance we get. I know this because I'm the worst at it. And it sickens me. I get something new and have to tell everything about it to every single person, and I won't stop until they say something to the effect of "Holy cow, you are amazing!" Does that sound like Christ? Didn't think so.

We are more concerned with the quality of our outward dying life than our inward eternal life.

That isn't an easy task, but then again, when is Christianity easy? If Christianity is easy then you're doing it wrong.

How do we increase the quality of our inward life over our outward? Spend time with God and He will show you. There is no quick fix for this.

You have to go to rehab. You have to detoxify from the poisons of the world so that you can enjoy the life God gave you.

1 Samuel 16:7, But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”