"Hanging on the skirts of Zion..."

Yes. Hanging on the skirts of Zion. What insanity. What loss. 

I have to ask the same question I've asked myself and others: why are we satisfied with crumbs, when we could have had the loaf?

Is your spiritual experience dwarfed? Are you sick of sinning, repenting, sinning, repenting, and doing it again?

I am. 

But we can either sit here and wish we were better, or we can choose something different.

I have discovered the answer. Want to know the way out? Keep reading.

“There is but one genuine cure for spiritual laziness, and that is work,--working for souls who need your help.” --Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 236.

Interesting. Only one cure. 

“It is those who are not engaged in this unselfish labor who have a sickly experience, and become worn out with struggling, doubting, murmuring, sinning, and repenting, until they lose all sense as to what constitutes genuine religion. They feel that they cannot go back to the world, and so they hang on the skirts of Zion, having petty jealousies, envyings, disappointments, and remorse. They are full of fault finding, and feed upon the mistakes and errors of their brethren. They have only a hopeless, faithless, sunless experience in their religious life.”--Review and Herald, Sept. 2, 1890.

I pray you've not experienced that. But if you have, there’s hope. The only one keeping you in this sickly experience is… ahem.

 You. 

“The world needs missionaries, consecrated home missionaries, and no one will be registered in the books of heaven as a Christian who has not a missionary spirit.” --Review and Herald, Aug. 23, 1892.

Why this statement? Is this some arbitrary doctrine, something just pulled out of the sky as another yoke to bind on the necks of Christians? 

Not a chance. 

“Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me."--The Ministry of Healing, p. 143. 

That’s how Christ lived. If He ever thought about Himself, it was if He had time after taking care of everyone else. After seeking to share His love with them. To save them from certain destruction. 

I doubt He ever had time to think about Himself. 

Friends, are we Christ-ians, or not? Do we seek to follow Christ, to be His disciples, to allow Him to live His life out in us, or not?

I've been a sickly Christian. I know what it’s like. It is pure misery. 

But I've seen a different way. There’s no pleasure, no joy, like helping someone to Christ. There’s nothing that will drive you to your knees with a desperation and heart-wrenching agony, like seeing a soul in the valley of decision between Christ or Satan, and you fear like everything that your sinfulness will turn them away. If our physical muscles were in atrophy, we would exercise, right? 

It looks like spiritual muscles are on the same program.  

Want a goal that’s worth seeking in life? Work to help others who need your help. It’s really that simple. 

It’s more fulfilling than that new iPhone. Or new car. Or house. Or relationship. Or anything else, for that matter. 

Hanging on the skirts of Zion, or living in it to the fullest? 

We choose today. It’s that simple.