So what are the 'real' issues?

Sunday morning is with us once again and as we dog-collars wend our happy way into the 'Quires and places where they sing' to celebrate the Apostle James (or perhaps Trinity 8) what are the real issues before us?

That we find ourselves in a world where people live without realising God's hand upon their lives and His love surrounding them.

That many of those who will come to churches across our nation (and further still) are not being discipled.

That many of those who occupy the pulpits of their churches today will preach from the shallow end and thus condemn their hearers to limited Christian lives and a weakened and largely impotent and irrelevant God.

That all are sinners and yet restoration and renewal is available to those who come to Jesus, the Christ, and acknowledge this.

The real issues have nothing to do with 'one defining issue' unless of course that issue is sin - let's take a look at Hebrews chapter three:.

"So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honour. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.

Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! That’s why the Holy Spirit says,
Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,” that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years, your ancestors refused to let me do it my way; over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked! I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God; they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed, “They’ll never get where they’re going, never be able to sit down and rest.”
So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as it’s still God’s Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.
These words keep ringing in our ears: Today, please listen; don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

Being on the journey doesn't always make us a follower, just a passenger, a sightseer, someone going along for the ride because we don't know any better.

Today, as we hear His voice and see His hand at work in our life and the lives of those we love, will we harden our hearts or respond joyfully and obediently?