This blog entry is part two of a multi-part entry.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, 
but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, 
they will heap up for themselves teachers; 
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, 
and be turned aside to fables."

Our lack of spiritual endurance seems to both flow from, and also lends itself to, a version of the gospel that is rather narrowly focused.  In fact, we have taken the gospel and razored it down to our own spiritual sound-bite.  Our gospel sound-bite is John 3:16 . . .

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

I grew up memorizing this verse and the verse that follows.  It is a precious truth that I endeavor to see deeply rooted in my inner man.  It is certainly a powerful truth.  The problem is that a growing number of people on planet earth do not understand what it really means.  Their lives have no context for this passage.  Many do not even believe in God to begin with, so the first couple words invalidate anything that follows (that is, from their perspective).  

Our approach to sharing the gospel is going to need to be deeper and generally more prolonged.  We are going to need to be relational.  A shallow Christianity may find it difficult to be relational and deep with others.  Let's ask ourselves the question, "How deep are our relationships?" If you consider yourself a Christian, "How deeply do you share in other Christian relationships?" Do we really have more 'acquaintances' than genuinely authentic relationships?

You may be one of the fortunate ones . . . someone who has a couple of deeply authentic and transparent friendships. Hold on to them, because they are indeed one of life's rarities and certainly a cherished blessing from God.

To go deep relationally, we must go deep ourselves, personally. If we lack depth, we cannot provide relational depth to someone else. We must press into the heart of Father God where the Scripture itself states, "deep calls unto deep". As a community of believers, we must each press in and pursue the heart of the Father with greater passion and abandon. We also need to provide the deeper message of the Scriptures . . . that the Heavenly Father has a unique calling, of the utmost importance, which He has placed upon each of our lives. There is a place in the Kingdom He has established just for you. Only you can arise to fulfill that individualized calling. His shed blood, death and resurrection has not provided just a ticket to heaven. He has paved a pathway toward divine empowerment, which enables us to live in the blessings of the surrendered life. His heart and desire is to pour out a bestowed glory which heals and purifies the most painful trauma and dark recess of our heart.

Our brokenness and pain goes deep.  God desires to go deep with us.  He came to heal the broken-hearted.  Will we surrender our self-ways and invite Him into those places? We are going to need to learn to go deeper personally and deeper with others.  Will we allow the Father to cultivate a depth in our character, so that we can go deeper with others? A sound-bite gospel and shallow spirituality is just not going to cut it.