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Shout Gate Christians

There are many people alive in our day whose experience with God is mostly, if not entirely, second-hand. All they know about God is what someone else has told them. They are living off the spiritual experience of others, never really knowing for themselves the joy and peace of living with Christ. They allow others to spoon-feed them when it comes to spiritual things.

In some rodeo circuits there are those known as "shout-gate cowboys." They are nothing more than spectators who sit on the gate and offer an unceasing barrage of advice and criticism to those who participate in the rodeo. What makes this rather amusing is that these shout-gate cowboys wear the jeans, the boots and the hats, perhaps chew the tobacco and speak the language of the rodeo--but many of them have never even ridden a horse. Their entire knowledge of the rodeo is second-hand in the sense that it is something they have watched, but in which they have never participated.

Shout-gate Christians will never be in a position to see the wonder of holy ground. They are unaware of the awesomeness and majesty of Holy God, because their experience of Him is only second-hand. They may wear the costume, speak the language and even fool a lot of people with their apparent spirituality. But they've never "ridden a horse"--they've never experienced the power of the Risen Christ for themselves. They don't know what it means to walk with Christ in a victorious life, with full assurance of their salvation and peace with God.

So let me ask you: is it time for you to get off the fence and start walking and talking with Jesus?

--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com