"Their Hearts Are Far From Me"

Matthew 15:8 says "They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

Isaiah 29:13 says "The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men."

James 2:26 says "...Faith without deeds is dead."


We often refer to 1 Corinthians as the definition of love, but we skip over the first few verses when it says that you could have anything in the world but if you don't have love, you are nothing.. we are nothing.

So I hope I knocked you all off your high horses back to earth for the rest of my blog. Just wanted to put everyone in their place so you can really hear what I have to say with an open heart and mind.

How many times do we make this whole "Christianity" thing lip service? Practice what you preach, please. I can't stress how much I've seen this in my school lately. I am not pointing fingers at any of you because I know I'm guilty of the same things.
Honestly, I didn't even know that the church down the road from mine even had a large youth group. Is that sad or what? Appearently, a ton of kids attend it and claim to be Christains who love God, but probably only a couple of them I've ever even heard the name Jesus from their lips. Honestly, I'm sure a few times I've heard some of them utter "Jesus Christ" in a bad way...

I know I'm sounding extremely harsh right now, but sometimes we need Godly correction from others in the faith to help us get back on track. I know from experience that when you call yourself a Christain you're set at a higher standard than most people, even if it's not fair. That's just how it goes.

It gets discouraging when I see people's myspaces or facebooks from my school and they say they love God or love being at church... when if I never read that I would have never known.

That same church I was talking about just got back from a retreat of some sort and most are wearing a necklace of a cross with Jesus' name on it.
A few days ago I saw a girl cuss out her 'friend' in the hallway and storm away.. but that was after I saw that she had that necklace on.

Gaurd your witness, guys. People are watching and people are expecting you to hold yourself at a higher standard and set examples.

I'm sure some of you are doing that. I understand that we all slip up- but I'm talking to all of you hypocrites right now. (THIS ISNT DIRECTED TO ANYONE I KNOW, JUST THE BODY OF CHRIST IN GENERAL!)

It's time that the Christians step out of their safe little bubbles and start living radical lives for Jesus, no matter what the cost- I'm not sure what you're afraid of, because popularity and acceptance isn't important in high school. If anything, people will notice that you're confident in who you are, and you'll have REAL friends- when you chose to forget about trying to be the coolest one, the one with all the friends, or anything like that.

Guys, it's cool to love Jesus and show it. Cause the last time I checked, He's the only friend that has ever stayed there for me, and the only friend that will ever really last forever.

I know this blog was kinda harsh today but sometimes we all need a little correction, you know?
Hope you all took that in love and you're not offended... but sometimes its ok to be offended, because it gets you thinking- I don't remember that quote exactly but I do know that when something challenges you like this, it's a GOOD thing.

Love you all very much.. not that anyone even reads this blog haha.. I'll just post it on myspace.