God is passionate about this, and it directly affects you …

If you scan through an average person’s full email inbox, many of the messages aren’t life-impacting, much less life-changing. But sometimes, receiving an important message can change your life.

It did for Colonel Johann Rall.

Rall was the commander of Hessian troops during the Revolutionary War. A loyalist spy appeared at Rall’s headquarters carrying an urgent message for him. That message would have informed the Colonel that General George Washington and the Continental Army had secretly crossed the Delaware River that morning and were advancing on Trenton, New Jersey where the Hessians were encamped. The spy was denied an audience with the commander and instead wrote his message on a piece of paper. A porter took the note to Rall, but because he was involved in a poker game he stuffed the unread note into his pocket. When the guards at the Hessian camp began firing their muskets in a futile attempt to stop Washington’s army, Rall was still playing cards. Without time to organize, the Hessian army was captured.

Rall may have saved himself if only he had read and acted on the warning provided to him.

In a similar way, James offers a serious warning to Christians that could help them greatly if they only read and heed the message …

“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God,” James 4:4.

But notice what James writes in the next verse: “Do you think the scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him,” James 4:5.

By ignoring the exhortation of scripture, and the message it provides for us, we miss the vital warning it contains: “… that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within US should be faithful to him …”

Have you made scripture important enough to take it seriously and heed its warnings to you? Or are you too busy with pleasure so that you’re ignoring the Word?

God is passionate about your faithfulness to Him … are you? Ignoring that message comes with a very steep cost.

Scotty