Just this week I was told I needed to stop being a coward because the children of God are not wimps.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
— 2 Timothy 1:7

He further admonished that no coward has any place in His kingdom.

“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
— Revelation 21:7-8

I was instructed instead to be like the firstborn, Jesus, who was no coward.

“looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
— Hebrews 12:2

He then began teaching me how to overcome my fear by being strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10).

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
— 1 John 4:18

The point: God does more than comfort and give gifts, He disciplines and corrects His children. Hebrews 12:6 says He **scourges** them. That’s unpleasant. It’s not puppies and rainbows. But, the result is glorious!

“For whom the LORD loves He chastens,

And scourges every son whom He receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
— Hebrews 12:6-9

So then, I don’t want to be with Cultural Christians who are not Christians but reprobates, who comfort and justify themselves in their old, dead and unprofitable ways.

“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”
— Titus 1:16

I want to be with true believers who are being CHANGED, transformed into the image of Christ by the power of the God.

Yes, God loves you as you are.
No, it is no ok to STAY as you are.

Everyone can come to Christ but no one gets to stay the same.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
— Romans 8:29

I will be satisfied with nothing less than becoming like Jesus which is more than I can do alone but requires the whole body -the church eternal, to fully express His person.

“till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”
— Ephesians 4:13

Until we look like Jesus, we should be challenging ourselves and each other every day to press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)