Book entiled "The Pressures Off"

I haven't read the book, but:

James 2:20
"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"

 

drfuss,

I think there's far too many places already that ignore the need for a Christian to do his duty towards Christ, which is to be a faithful servant.

The relationship ought not be ignored of course, but then in my experience the teaching has always been that we have a relationship with Christ AND we do those good works. If we are unwilling to work and do those things Christ commands, than we must not have much of a relationship with Him.....

Doesn't the Bible say that those who love Him obey Him?

Perhaps Im reading too much into what you wrote....but "just" worship God? That makes it sound like we are supposed to sort of just sit back and relax and be satisfied with an inner knowledge of God.

And we do not glorify God if we are not working for Him in some way.

 

drfuss,

actually when you clarified with your next to last post, I realized what was meant. Thank you. Id have to agree it sounds like good reading for mature Christians. You are right in that it can often be easy for us to get so busy for the Lord that we forget to be WITH the Lord.

 

As in everything there must be a balance. The Bible says we must worship Him in spirit and truth. Truth being the Word of God, that implies obedience. A truly worshipful soul will be one who carries out his service toward God.

 

Crabb's thesis as stated here is fundamentally flawed. One Greek word often translated "worship" in the NT (latreuo) can mean either "worship" in the conventional sense as well as "serve." The truth is, both attitude and action are vitally important. God demands both proper heart attitude and proper service.

I will say, of course, the proper pressure for that should be the Holy Spirit's leading in our hearts. And we must put worship above service, as the story of Mary and Martha teaches. If that is what Crabb is saying, okay.

I haven't read anything by Crabb in years, but his philosophy of "spoil the Egyptians" in his book Effecitve Biblical Counseling repels me. This philosophy is that we should add equal measures of Biblical truth and psychological "truth" to our counseling and we'll come out prospering. Martin and Deidre Bobgan do a number on Crabb in their book Prophets of Psychoheresy I.

 

When it comes to the works of a Christian: "When it has all been said and done, there'll be a whole lot more said than done".

In other words, we love to say which is more important because then there is no Holy Spirit balance that must be struck.

I, for instance, have times in my life when I work much and feel wore out knowing I need to be refreshed in the Lord and have been imbalanced.

There have been other times though, where I become a "deeper lifer" and circumvent my responsibilities as a servant of Christ.