What’s wrong with “WE THE PEOPLE?!”
While most of this nation is currently focused on deciding between the political parties and their candidates for the 2008 presidential candidacy, it struck me that there is a decision that WE ALL (Christ believers and/or followers and Not-Yet-Believers and/or followers) make daily, hourly and might even be making presently.
That decision is whether or not to live in freedom and love of Jesus Christ or to live in the brokenness and sin of this world. We have a choice of either living in the world and in Satan’s dark kingdom of lies or living a life in Jesus, in His kingdom of truth and love, which begins right here on Earth, just as it is in Heaven.
Sadly, we often choose (and I am DEFINITELY including myself here) to live in brokenness and destruction. We often choose to live according to our own desires, plans, earthly thoughts, compulsions and urges. We also choose to live in the bankrupt thoughts of this world, which tell us that obtaining certain things (fortune, fame, good looks, romance, etc.) is what we need to be happy.
We are obsessed with such things as money, appearances, the opposite sex and material possessions instead of living a life of sacrifice (where we SHEMA Jesus and love our neighbor) just as our Lord and Savior, Jesus, sacrificed for ALL of US.
IT’S TIME TO GET A CLUE. YOU DON’T BELONG TO YOU!
1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20 states “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
What a thought! We don’t even belong to ourselves?! How different would we all be if we understood and truly lived this reality?!
We were bought at a price. Whether you are a believer, a follower, a seeker or a doubter of Jesus, Jesus died for you. Even if we choose to trample on His sacrifice by continuing to live in sin, we need to realize and accept that WE WERE BOUGHT at the price of Christ’s precious life at the cross, where He took on every one of our sins!
So, what’s left for us to do? How shall we respond?
Shall we continue to put ourselves first by being self serving? Is God’s creation, US, so insignificant that we choose to continue to gossip; to lie; to lust others and thereby commit adultery; to cheat; to envy; to covet; to steal; to put our friends, loved ones and spouses last; to mistreat our children and siblings; to hate our neighbor (the homeless and the working poor), to prostitute our bodies – not just by selling our bodies, but by actively engaging in the sad and lonely act of pornography, by engaging in premarital sex, by being intimate with another who is not our spouse or by misusing our bodies for OUR personal pleasure or by allowing others to misuse our bodies for THEIR pleasure!
If anyone out there is listening, are you willing to join me in saying “I’ve had enough of my sinful selfish nature and I desire to change and turn my life over to the life that He desires for me. His plans are so much better than our own, and if we can just get a hold of this reality, then we must seek His purpose and will for our lives?
If you are with me, speak out here or just pray about this, BUT make yourself accountable to another person for this committment to change. WE ALL, no matter how ‘good’ we think that we are or how mature we ’pretend’ to be or how far we mislead ourselves into thinking that we’ve arrived, MUST CHANGE. EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE!
As for me, I will not only committ to making myself accountable to another person, but to anyone reading this blog, I confess my sinfullness right here. I am a sinful, broken, selfish man who wants to be self serving by lusting over and coveting the things of this world. I am selfish, prideful and impatient. I am broken and I DESPERATELY NEED JESUS to restore me and to bring me to the redemption that He so perfectly died for on the cross. I desire to be His follower and not to just believe in Him, but to be obedient and to seek to be like Him. I, at this moment, have determined to give my all to being his follower and to discover His will for me. IMPOSSIBLE? I say POSSIBLE for me and for everyone else who puts their trust, faith and belief in the living words of our risen Lord Jesus in Luke 17:21, which states: “the kingdom of God is within you.” After all, Christ himself tells us that “with God all things are possible.”
MORE THAN JUST A DO AND DON’T LIST!
We are not put on this Earth just to “get saved” and to help “save” others!
WE are constantly being fed the lie that if we just do this or don’t do that, then we are good with God. Remember, its not by works that we are saved. God loves us so infinitely more than we are aware of. This last statement goes way beyond well known scripture like John 3:16-17 and Matthew 28:16-20.WE belittle God’s unconditional love for us and His perfect sacrifice of allowing His son Jesus to die on the cross by making lists of things that we can and should do vs. can not and should not do for our lives. WE ARE MEANT FOR SO MUCH MORE. We were created for more than just accepting Jesus as a “personal savior” and then sharing Jesus with others. These things are just the starting point towards the long journey of arriving at kingdom living.
We need to begin by dying, EVERYDAY, to those things, as mentioned above, that enslave us and keep us distant from the being one heartbeat with the living God of the universe – JESUS! We live in a county that proclaims freedom, yet, we become slaves of our own sinful nature. There is only liberty in one place and that place is in TOTAL obedience, with humbleness and resolution, to be one with our risen Lord Jesus.
I pray in Jesus name that any one who reads this (including the author) will be willing to make a complete turnaround and walk in the light and truth of JESUS CHRIST by denying his/her sinful self and taking up our crosses at every waking moment of the day.
It is in the precious name of Jeus Christ that I make this prayer for all of us! AMEN!
