Thursday, April 17, 2014

Unbelieving Believers

Thoughts on Michael Wells’ teachings in Sidetracked In The Wilderness - # 15
         
Michael’s book is available through:

Abiding Life Ministries International
Littleton, Colorado
(303) 972-0859       www.abidinglife.com

Notice:  this email is part of a BLOG, called Getting Out of the Wilderness.  Why a blog?  So that multitudes can receive the weekly thoughts I express on Michael’s writings in an easy manner.  In the event you sign up to receive the weekly emails (see info at bottom) and then sometime in the future stop getting the emails, please remember you can go to the BLOGSITE and read each posting each week.  Then let me know (my email address below), and I will work to correct the problem.


I remember the first time I heard Michael mention this term, “unbelieving believers.”  Incredible.  Powerful.  Accurate.

As a pastor for many years, I have experienced Michael’s description of preaching to a congregation filled with unbelieving believers…  It is amazing how powerful our emotions are.  And how crushing they can be when they are working against us.

I hope this travel through chapter 4 of this great book will do something mighty in someone’s life…


UNBELIEVING BELIEVERS

excerpt from pages 38-40 of SIW (5th printing, March 1998)
excerpt from pages 33-35 of SIW (14th printing, March 2012)
                   (used with permission from ALMI):

Is there any defeat, failure, instance of depression, anxiety, frustration, or sin that does not have as its root unbelief?  I have asked this question to audiences all over the world, and have yet to find one.

…an unbelieving believer is someone who is a Christian, is born again, and will arrive in heaven; the problem is that this person has never believed in the Lord Jesus with his whole being…with his mind he received and believes all that is told him about the grace, care, concern, and love of the Lord Jesus – he is a believer.  And yet at the same time, he feels that he is in charge of every aspect of his Christian life…in his emotions he is unbelieving.

The Church today is full of such unbelieving believers…

It has been said that unbelief is the mother of every sin!...

…before we look at the source of unbelief, we must understand the effects of being unbelievers…

Yellow – VIP, Very Important Point      Green – IT, Incredible Truth        
Red – GP, Greatest Promises
Turquoise – UR, Unfathomable Riches           Pink – PV, Priceless Victory



Just thinking about the term, “unbelieving believers,” sends all sorts of thoughts and emotions through my mind and being.  What a sad testimony of life as a Christian.  How can it be?

Chapter 4 is almost 30 pages long…and Michael does a superb work in showing us all sorts of things about idols and idolatry, our concept of God, and ends with “It is a great step of faith to go against all the lying emotions you have concerning who God is and to just open that door to His life one time, for one time is all that it will take for you to discover the abundant life for which you have searched so long.”

Egads!  “lying emotions.”  No wonder “unbelieving believers” are so frustrated!  And as one other minister once told me, “in the emotions of our life is where the enemy gets his hooks in us.”  This walk through Chapter 4 will take some time…come and enjoy the journey!


Note: if you don’t have one of Michael’s Sidetracked In The Wilderness books, please contact ALMI (www.abidinglife.com) and get one today!

To access ALL past weekly blogs, go to Getting Out of the Wilderness by logging onto www.leemcchristianministries.blogspot.com  

If you desire to get a weekly email of this blog, look to the top right hand side of the web page, enter your email address in the box under “Follow,” then click on SUBMIT.  You will receive a “confirmation email,” and when you click on the link and “confirm,” you will receive all new posts via email.

NOTICE:  another blog on Michael Wells’ book, My Weakness For His Strength, called Living Life With a Capital “C”.  You can access by logging onto www.leemccm.blogspot.com


Lee McDowell Christian Ministries
leemccm@gmail.com

1737 CR 2051    Nacogdoches, Tx 75965                                               936-559-5696

No comments:

Post a Comment