This post first appeared at REAL Men RoCK
Righteous Encouraging Accountable Loving Men Rely on Christ Kindness
I want to begin by recommending a book for you to read, "30 Days to Experiencing Spiritual Breakthroughs" by Bruce Wilkinson.
In this book he brings up in the book three types of chairs to describe our relationship with God.
The First Chair stands for Commitment. The person sitting in this chair has chosen to wholly love and serve God.
The Second Chair stands for Compromise. The person sitting in this chair has chosen to try to get for themselves the best that both God and the world have to offer.
The Third Chair stands for Conflict. The person sitting in this chair has chosen not to respond to God in any meaningful way, remaining at odds with eternal spiritual realities.
Let's look at the Third Chair first. God is trying to get our attention each and every minute of the day. I believe He uses the shows we watch, the music we listen to and the people we hang with to talk to us. Of course the number one way He talks to us is through the pages of the Bible. Having said that if a person is not reading the Bible then God has to use other methods to get their attention.
The person sitting in the Third Chair might seem to be doing okay but they are constantly facing conflict. God is trying to get their attention through the movies they watch, the music they listen to and the people they hang with. Usually the movies are not edifying or encouraging, the music they listen to are usually not a positive message and the people they hang with often are heavy drinkers, drug addicts or involved in illegal activities. As a result their life is full of conflict.
Now the person in the Second Chair attends Church now and then come Monday they fall back into their old ways. They look good one day and then the rest of the week they have to try to cover up how often they have their hand in the world's cookie jar. I call this person a CINO, Christian In Name Only.
I am going to focus the rest of this post on the person sitting in the First Chair which actually is made up of three different types of chairs.
There is the Easy Chair, the Straight Back Chair and the Stool.
The Easy Chair: The person sitting in this chair is a Christian but they are comfortable where they are. They do not see any reason to continue to grow and they believe they have overcome the world.
The Straight Back Chair: The person sitting in this chair is moving from being a Christian to becoming a Follower of Jesus. They often see that they need to make some changes and seek help in changing the things they struggle with.
The Stool: The person sitting on this chair has decided to commit their entire life to living a godly life. They are not always perfect but they every now and then they achieve perfection as described by Jesus in Sermon on the Mound found in Matthew. The Stool actually can be one of three different types.
The first stool represents the majority of Followers of Jesus. They are committed to Him and sit in an uncomfortable chair and are constantly examining their lives and making changes to overcome.
The Follower of Jesus that sits on this stool is similar to the one that sits on the first stool but this Follower is busy helping others.
The Follower of Jesus that sits on this chair is like the first two Followers but this person is ready to spring off of the stool at a moments notice to do the calling of Jesus. They completely trust in the Lord and do not rely on any other support except for God.
This post applies to every person who reads it. They are either non-responsive to God, responsive to God but straddling the fence, or they are committed to God and respond to each and every message from Him.
The question for us is "Which Chair do we sit in most often?" If we are honest we have to admit our goal is to sit on the one legged stool but more often than not we are sitting in one of the other chairs. The good news is God will patiently work with you to help you sit in a chair that is more committed to Him.
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