All in Christian
Does what is happening in the world frighten you? Do you fear for yourself and your family because of the earthly shaking, and evil that surrounds you? Well take heart because we are in the hands of God, and no matter the ominous storms that come racing across the world, He will keep us, and protect us.
Why is it that we look at certain followers of Christ and call them saints, but we are reluctant to refer to ourselves as such? Do you think that sainthood is beyond your reach, or only for some and not others? Well, this is the work of the great deceiver, and sainthood is just as available to you as it was to the apostles, and the early members of the Church. Being a saint should be every Christian’s desire.
Have we confessed our sins, asked forgiveness, and pronounced ourselves believers in Jesus Christ, and yet are not transformed? Do we claim God’s grace, but do nothing more? Well, empty words are like faith without works, hollow and without substance. They are like love without the holding, kisses, and sacrificing of ourselves. We should do more than profess, but live what we have claimed.
Is your faith consistent and always looking out at the sun from the mountaintop, or do you go up the mountain only to slide back down a ways and then begin the climb again? Do you find that you can’t hold onto the joy of those amazing days of faith, and find yourself slipping back towards your old sinful self? Well, maintaining our faith requires us to be more than a pine branch in a fire that pops and cracks as it burns bright for a moment... then dies quickly down.
Do we pray and hear only silence in return? Are we satisfied to live out our spiritual lives in the silence of God? Well this is not what a faithful soul should expect; our lives should be spent seeking, listening, and obeying the voice of God. When we have become content with silence we have become accustomed to being separated from God, and this should be fearful and torturous to us.
In our present time men look to find secrets concerning how Jesus Christ should be worshiped, or some new hidden way of looking at faith that would justify the way we live, but other than by imagined contriving there is no redefinition of truth... no justification for sin, or hidden grace.
Do we give thanks to God as we should? Are our words the outpouring of our hearts, and the underlying foundation of our thankfulness a true and firm love of Him? It is not enough to thank the Lord when He has been exceedingly good to us, but in all things. Do we do this in sincerity, or maybe the question should be... do we do this at all?
You have prayed that the Lord would reveal His will to you, and you have been obedient in it, but do you have the patience and endurance necessary as you await His promise? We love to work, and to accomplish things, but waiting is not one of man’s great virtues, or strongpoints. Can you wait patiently for God’s promise?
Are you wandering in your faith, or worse than that are you lost in it? Do you want to go home, but not how to get there? Sometimes we become lost for no reason of our own, we think we know where we are until suddenly we realize that we are lost. At other times it is because we didn’t follow directions, but occasionally we are intentionally led away and left to our own devices. All of this can happen to us in our journey of faith, but Jesus, and our Holy Father come to find us.
God wants to walk among us, to be our God, and for us to be His people, but are we making ourselves presentable to Him? Have we become so involved with modern day idols like money, fame, riches, power, sex, or some other powerful influence over our lives that we have placed God second, third, or maybe way down the chain of importance in our lives? God wants to be first in our lives but dies the smell of our sin repulse Him?
By believing in God, and having knowledge of Him, God gives us life and godliness, but what do we do with them? Do we practice our faith to it’s fullest, or do we attempt to wear it around our neck like a trophy; something we take pride in having achieved? Scripture tells us that we should be more than just the recipients of God’s grace, but to partake of it, and escape the corruption of the world.
Do you trust in the Word of God? Do you believe in it as the rock that you can stand atop forever? From your perch there are you able to see all that He has created, and marvel in amazement at His magnificence, truth, goodness, and love? Do you feel the conviction, dread the wrath, hear the hammer fall on Calvary, and thrill in the grace flowing forth from the risen Christ? This is what the Bible declares to us, and this is our taste of relationship... of God Himself.
Affirmation is something we all need from time to time. Do you ever find that you begin to question something that you once felt so certain about? Do you need some time alone with your spouse so that you can rekindle your love, or maybe you feel that the profession you once thought was so perfect for you, might not be after all... you just don’t know? Well, how about your faith; are there times of questioning it as well?
Much like a marriage, which begins at betrothal, grows more certain with the wedding ceremony, and is finally made complete by consummation (which is the joining together as one flesh), so will our full adoption as sons and daughters of God not be made complete until Christ returns to claim us, and God announces us as His Children.
We talk about our treasure as being accumulated in heaven, and we also speak of our mansion there, as well as the storehouses, but do we ever stop to think about where all of the hard labor is done in building these structures, mining the gold, or cutting those gems, and how it was accomplished?