Yesterday I did not feel so good. For the most part of the day I sat in a chair trying not to move my neck. So today is two for the price of one. As we saw in James 1 we are to persevere. We also saw that everything is about believing God and not doubting. This doubt and unbelief cause us to be like a boat being tossed about in the sea. We become unstable and double-minded. In order not to be this person we must submit to God. James later said in chapter 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” In order not be double-minded as James describes we must be a people who submit to God. We must be people who take seriously the call to die to our selves. We live in a culture as David Platt described recently that many are deceived. He said, "We're living in a day when it means almost nothing to be a Christian," said Platt, sharing recent statistics that show many self-professed believers in the U.S. are "marginally committed to Jesus," which he said shows that many are "deceived" about their relationship with Christ. "There are a whole lot of people in our country who think that they are Christians but they are not," he added, noting that there are many Americans who "culturally identify themselves as Christians and biblically are not followers of Christ." He cited Jesus as saying in Matthew 7:21 of the Bible that "not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." "This Jesus is more worthy than nominal adherence and casual association," the minister added while admonishing self-professed Christians "who confess Jesus" but whose lives "don't look any different" than the lives of nonbelievers.” This culturally relevant Christian Platt talks about is not submitting themselves to Jesus Christ. Since so many are not submitting there is no way they can be resisting. Satan is defeating many Christians and they are not even aware. They are being told from the pulpits that they are okay, their nominal life in Christ is just fine. In order to be a radical Christian we must persist in the word of God and submit our lives to Him. We then can resist the evil one. We must also resist the teaching that everything is okay. In this day we need to grieve, mourn and wail and change our laughter to mourning and our joy to gloom. We must humble ourselves before the Lord, and He will lift us up.” We must wash our hands of this nominal (so-called) Christianity and return to being radical followers of Jesus Christ who persist and resist. Unless there is a change the nominal Christian will not see the kingdom of God.