Even now the axe…

An evangelical pastor challenged his congregation's lead team to get re-focused on the things that come out of our mouths. One of the team members writes,

"We’re trying to refrain from all of the following, between now and midnight, Friday:
Sarcasm
Negativity (that is not needed to express a valid point)
Bitterness about another person or a negative circumstance (like someone who does something “stupid” or an electronic device that won't do what you want it to)
Joking around and busting
Talking to someone with malicious intent about someone else
Rolling of the eyes when someone’s name is mentioned."

I was surprised that anyone would try to approach these problems in this way, by using a challenge to exact better behavior.
After all, aren't these Christians?
Aren't these people who should know that it is not in the power of our meager and weak wills to raise ourselves?
Aren't these people who should know that it is by grace that we are saved, by faith, and not by works of the law?

Wait a minute! All they're trying to do is behave more like Christians should. What's wrong with that? And why shouldn't they try?

By all means try. To try to behave in a Christian manner is commendable, but who gets the credit if you succeed?
Divine scripture says through holy apostle Paul, "not by works, lest any man should boast." I don't have to quote scriptures to you.
These are well-known, uncontested truths, or are they?

Back to my question, "who gets the credit if you succeed?"
Not to be a spoil sport or a pessimist, let me assure you that on your own you will not succeed. You may "branch out and flower for a time" as the Psalms say of the wicked, but in the end you will fail. If this were not so, then Christ died in vain. If we could be "good" on our own, then there is no reason for Christ to die for us, no need for His righteousness to cover us.

This is what I wrote to the team member as a comment on his blog (forgive me if I seem to repeat myself):

All of your efforts will come to nothing in the end, unless you submit yourselves to the truth of God's Word, which says, "What comes out of a man is taken from what he puts inside himself."

Practical application—
Rather than try to focus on and cure the symptoms,
go for the root, and axe it.

And how do you do that?

By filling up on the Word of God, not on television;
on the Word of God, not on the internet;
on the Word of God, not on computer games;
on the Word of God, not on newspapers and magazines;
on the Word of God, not on the contents of your iPod;
on the Word of God, not on the latest Christian books;
on the Word of God, not on rumors;
on the Word of God, not on hanging out with your friends.

Do you see a connecting idea in my example of practical application above?

The downfall of the churches as assemblies of God's people, and of the people themselves as individuals, comes from the utter lack of respect for and immersion in the Word of God, i.e., the Holy Bible.

Read the Word of God every day, throughout the day, fill yourselves with it, rather than filling yourselves up on that which cannot last and which divides and slays the spirit.

Remember, it is not just money that Jesus is talking about when He says, "You cannot serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or love the one and treat the other with scorn. You cannot serve both God and Mammon." The bottom line on Mammon is that it is anything that diverts your attention, unlawfully, from the Word of God.

Again I say to you, don't just try to cure the symptoms, strike at the root of worldly attitudes in yourselves by using the axe of the Word of God. Christ has already used it to fell the world tree of death. Now He has given it to you to do the same in yourselves.

"Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees…"

Glory to You, O God, glory to You!