BELT

You may not know this but Wisconsin, where I live, isn't the center of the Bible belt.

It's the center for milk and cheese making.
It's the center of Green Bay Packer country.
It's the center of Harley-Davidson riding.
It's the center of cow-tipping and other such hobbies.
It's the center of the nation's largest music festival - Summerfest.
It's the center for bratwurst.
It's the center for famous people like Harry Houdini, Douglas MacArthur and Frank Lloyd Wright.
It's the center of lake country - more than Minnesota.
It's the center for toilet paper making, which I'm sure has something to do with being the center for milk, cheese making and bratwurst.

But I digress.

It isn't near the Bible belt.  But it isn't exactly secularized the way places like San Francisco or Seattle or New England are.  It isn't that.  Still, here's what makes doing church in a place like Wisconsin perhaps even more challenging than those places.  In those other locations, people know they have no desire for God.  They know they don't believe.  They know they have no intention of submitting their lives to Christ.

That isn't as true here.

We play the game here.  We think we're friends of God here because we think if we're kind of moral, we have God.  We come to church on a weekend and think we have God.  We think we're moral simply because we're better than the guy over there.  But that isn't it.

There's giving it all to Jesus ... and that's it.

Going to church doesn't mean God is our ultimate.  V. Havner said, 'Most church members live so far below the standard you'd have to backslide to be in fellowship with them.'

(Open grimace and groan)

Don't get me wrong.  I think going to church is an awesome thing ... to set you apart.
I think life groups and serving and giving are spectacular ... to grow you in Christ.
But if we're using them in any way as some kind of proof or method of salvation, then we're enslaved to something that will never deliver.

There's giving it all to Jesus -- and that's it.

It's time to pray.
It's time to be in the Word.
It's time to prioritize our lives with Jesus at the center.
It's time to get after the heart of God.
It's time to let it be real inside you.

And be blessed.