Team Charger Challenge

"Big Red"

When I was in high school I had a red Ford F150 truck. This truck soon got the nickname of “Big Red” so you know it was a pretty boss truck. When I first got it I was in love with it. I decked it out with car mats, cd holders, and cleaned the inside and outside all the time. All of my friends thought it was great so we took it everywhere. Overtime the truck became less exciting and things started to go wrong with it. It also had over 200,000 miles on it. One night I wrecked it and ruined the front of it. I got a replacement fender that was black so you can imagine it didn't match the red at all. It was actually pretty embarrassing. So eventually I went from loving the truck to pretty much not wanting to drive it anywhere.

Revelation 2:1-5 says, "I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.  You also possess endurance and have tolerated many things because of My name and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place — unless you repent.”

This is a sobering part of scripture because it looks like this church (Ephesus) has it all together. It starts of praising them saying they don't tolerate evil, their discerning, experienced persecution for Christ's sake and so on, but that they also lost their first love. This is a church that started off in love with Christ at first and then just like the truck, lost it over time because of let downs, difficulties, more appealing things, and just life in general. It's kind of crazy that they were still doing all these good things, but they lost their awe and love for Christ.

We all know how it felt when we first started following Christ or when we felt so in tune with him. I want to strive for that all the time. I know it's tough at times but I want Christ to renew himself to me so I can take it with me everywhere. I don't ever want my relationship with Christ to become like my truck!

In John 6:67, Jesus says to his disciples, "you don't want to leave too do you?". Their response is great - "to whom shall we go?" ...there's no better place to be!