What if today is my last day on earth?

Life….? What is the meaning of lfe….?

What a question. What is the meaning of life? I can’t answer that question, can you? Life is an amazing thing. It is an enormous thing. Once you reach a certain age and you look back over the life you have lived and then you look forward and realize how much time could be remaining it is enough to blow your mind. I have only been an adult for twenty seven years. I could live another fifty or more. That’s amazing.

But then again, I could die tomorrow. So, if it were true that my life were going to end tomorrow would it be fair to say that today is the most important day of my life? As a Christian I believe that there is a heaven and a hell. So, what I do today decides what happens to my eternal soul tomorrow.  Right?

Life, as with everything in the universe, is made up of many parts and pieces. Just as an object like the moon is made up of many elements life too has its protons and neutrons.  Every second of every minute could altar our eternal life to come. Each minute of each hour we could turn our back on God and face our eternal destruction. Every hour of every day temptations are thrown in our paths. What do we do?

Hold on to Jesus! Call on God! Receive the Holy Spirit! Absorb the word of God with every fiber of our beings. Pray without ceasing! Pray for others who need the Lord’s help. Get involved in church ministries and events and functions. Seek Him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength. Spend every waking moment with Him. Feel the presence of His Spirit within us. That is what we can do. We can strive to know Him more. To have more of Him in our lives. We can give more of ourselves and our resources to the church and vauluable ministries in our area. There is so much we can do.

Does this “earn” us a ticket into heaven? No. Jesus earned that ticket for us when He, who was blameless, accepted the punishment for our sins and died a horrible death so that we could be made right with the Father. But doing these things will strengthen and prepare us for the moment of Jesus’ return. Wouldn’t you rather be reading the bible to someone when He came back than to be yelling at someone in traffic? Wouldn’t it be better to meet Jesus with a clear mind than to be stoned or drunk when He comes?

I fight daily to maintain the right mindset and to accomplish things for the Lord whether in me or in some ministry. I pray that I grow stronger in my walk with God. I pray that I am busy doing His work when He returns. I pray that He will also call me a good and faithful servant. How amazing would that be? To meet Jesus face to face, to physically be in His presence, to feel His Glory radiating all around you?  That’s what I live for each day whether I am successful or not in my daily existence. I frequently fail to handle situations as I should. I frequently ask the Lord to forgive me and not to give up on me.

What if today were my last day here on earth? What would be remarkable about my final day? What would be different today? What would I do with this day if I knew it were my last? Would I call everyone I know and tell them I love them? Would I give my money to a charity, a mission or a needy family? Would I tell someone how great I really thought they were? Maybe apologize for some wrong I had done them? Would I hug many necks today? Would I appreciate the beauty of the blue sky? The smell of spring floating by on a breeze? What would be different about today if it were my last day?

Let’s live like today is our last day. Praise god!

To Have Faith or Not To Have Faith….That Is The Question?

To Have Faith or Not To Have Faith….That Is The Question?

Recently I began to realize how much I was fretting over things almost entirely beyond my control. Through the course of some good Christian fellowship, bible study, Chapel Night at the mission, Sunday Service and more these last two weeks I have heard loud and clear that I should not only strive to live a sin free life but that I should have more faith in God. More faith that He already knows my needs and knew them before they were needed. More faith that He will provide for myself and my children because He is faithful to His word. More faith that I have nothing to worry about with such an awesome God going before me.

So, I have made the conscious choice to have more faith. Problems have arisen in the last two weeks but now I stop and think. Then I say to myself “I have faith in God.” and I believe the Lord will provide. You know what? He hasn’t let me down yet. Not once. Not for a second. He is truly a loving and merciful God. I know this because I know myself and all my shortcomings. I don’t deserve any of the blessings He has given me recently or any ever. Why does He love me so? The only answer I can give is found in the Bible… “God is love.” Amen!

So to answer the original question… I will have faith! Faith that God’s word is the complete truth. Faith that His Son Jesus Christ died for the sins of all mankind.  Faith that He rose again! Faith that He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Faith that He has a plan, a perfect plan for each of us, a plan for our lives that far exceeds anything our imaginations can dream up. How far could the Lord take me if I really let go and had complete faith in Him? What height would be unatainable with God leading the way? What happiness could be found else where that could compare to the joy unspeakable that the God of the heavens can put in our hearts?

I choose FAITH! Life is hard but I have faith that God can get me through it. Pain and suffering, hardships and catastrophies, sacrifice and expense seem to be the normal lifestyle these days. Many people live that life. How many, I wonder, have joy in their hearts during those bad times that seem to never end? How many, do you suppose, praise God for the blessings that come in the middle of the storms? How many lose their faith completely? I pray very few but suspect that I am wrong.

Father God help us all to have more faith in you! Help us to live sin free lives. Gives us that joy unspeakable that only you can provide! Thank you for all your blessings past, present and future! Thank you for your Son! Thank you for the Holy Spirit! We love you because You first loved us!! In Jesus’ name Amen!

Free To Be Me

Praise God I am free to be me!

Those days when I wake up in a bad mood and the morning takes a sharp downward spiral, those times I am distant and detatched from those closest to me and when I am rude, thoughtless, grumpy, pushy, sarcastic and just plain ornery, that’s not really me.  I’m not that guy who just cut someone off in traffic when he could have been polite and let them have the right of way. That’s not me! Not often anyway, praise God.

That used to be me all the time. Angry, stressed, panicked, paranoid, selfish, deceitful, manipulative, inconsiderate and the center of my universe is who I used to be. I was an altogether different person than I am today. I had nothing spiritually, I was emotionally ravaged and my mental state had deminished through years of turmoil, betrayal and abuse. I expected bad things to happen and was rarely disappointed. I thought of suicide and half heartedly attempted it once or twice. Depression hung over my world from sun up to sun down and usually through the night as well. What a dark and lonely world I was trapped in for so many years. Praise God nothing lasts forever!

The Son came up over my world one day. He shined His light into my dreary existence and gave my life meaning. I have always known who Jesus was and what He did here on earth. I was saved at an early age, so early I don’t remember the exact moment and I was Baptize when I was small enough that I had to stand on a cinder block to keep my head above the water.  I knew of Him, knew many of His words and had grown up with His picture hanging on the walls of our home and a Bible on the coffee table. However throughout my life I never really knew Him personally. He was the guy who died for me, the one who saved me from my sin and the reason for Christmas and Easter and Sunday School and on and on…. but I never really knew Him.

I have a totally different view of my life since being delivered from my world of darkness. I see a purpose, reason or plan behind everything that happens. I feel led by events in my life, by sermons, by the words of the Holy Bible and the music I listen to everyday. I am prompted by His Spirit to do and say what He wants me to do and say. Not that I do what I should all the time and I am sure I have firmly planted my foot deep in my mouth on more than one occassion but I am trying. I truly desire it in my life. I am getting better day by day. Stronger as I travel the path He has laid out for me.

I am struggling to grow in my walk with the Lord. I want to be right beside Him everywhere He leads me. I want to say the words that He puts in my heart. I want to do the things that His Spirit prompts me to do when others need my help. It is my desire to be instrumental in bringing others to know Christ as I now know Him. On a personal level. I consider Him not only my Savior but my friend, my confidant, my adviser and my guide. He is the reason my life does not fall apart everytime something bad happens to me or my children. He is the reason I do not lay down and give up. He is the reason I struggle endlessly to maintain that relationship through life’s chaotic happenings.  He is all there is in my life that is beautiful. Without the Lord Jesus Christ in my life today I would have nothing.  I would be nothing.

What is there in this world that is worth trading my soul for possessing it? What can I have here on earth during this struggle called life that would be worth my eternal soul? Eternity. What would I give up eternity to have?

Nothing! There is nothing here on this little world worth trading for my eternal soul. Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and I will serve Him until I die. I may not always do the perfect thing at the perfect time but I will strive to grow in my personal relationship with Him and to serve Him in more ways everyday. I want to help my church to grow and prosper, I want to help my family to strengthen their belief in and their relationship with Jesus Christ and I want to help bring Jesus to this lost and dying world. There are so many people out there just like my old self. They live daily in misery because they have no purpose in life other than the struggle they face every day. I want to lead them to the one who can lift that burden. I want to introduce them to the one who can shine joy and peace and love into their dreary days. The one who can lift them above all of life’s troubles. Above all the pain that life inflicts. He is the only way, the only truth and the only life. Jesus is everything. He will bring us through anything life can throw at us.

That is why I am free to be me. Because Jesus gives me the inner strength, hope, joy and peace to face each day as if it were the best day of my life. I don’t have to be grumpy because I’m tired. I have no desire to be distant from those I love. That’s not me. The real me wants to encourage and to inspire. The real me wants to laugh and have fun. Jesus gives me the ability to be me even when my life has exploded for the day. He allows me to be me even when the world tries to distort my personality. He’s the reason I can smile when most would say that I should be crying!

I am FREE to be me in Jesus Christ everyday. Praise God!

A Fire Shut Up In My Bones

 

The first thing I would like to do is to say that God is more wonderful than all the words I could ever write. He’s more glorious than all the words that have ever been written about Him or shall ever be written about Him. There is no masterpiece hanging in any musuem or painted on any ceiling anywhere in this world that could express the beauty and majesty that radiates from our God. He is the most just judge ever to sit on the bench, He is the most merciful  ever to impose  sentence on the guilty, He is the most loving Father ever to rear children, the most gracious Host ever to accomidate his visitors, the most caring guardian of those under protection and He rewards us when we have done nothing to be rewarded for doing.  How amazing our God truly is in all the universe.

I was thinking earlier about the Lord and what He is doing in my life. I have taken a beating the past couple of months. I have been under constant attack from every direction you can imagine. I’ve felt completely alone at times and experienced great lows in my spiritual, mental and emotional strength.

Praise God I was never really alone. Praise Jesus,  He loved me enough to die for me…. but not only me. He died for each and every one of us. He died for you, reading this post, He died for that person working in their front yard. He died for that mother getting her child off to school this mornng. He died for that Dad working hard today to support His family. And what about that person behind the counter at the corner store? Yeah, that’s right He died for everyone. He died for the baby that was just born and for the elderly dying at this very moment. He gave His life for the one loved by everyone and the one who is loved by no one. He died for the nurse working the E.R. and the patient under her care. He died for the police officer responding to a burglary call and for the one committing that crime at this very moment. He died for the emergency workers tending to the accident victims on the interstate and all the disgruntled travelers stuck on the highway because of that accident.  He gave His life for the millionaire in the mansion on the hill and for the one living under a bridge right now. He died for the model citizen and for the menace to society. He died for the politicians and the voters, the able bodied and the afflicted. He gave His life for the school teachers and all their students. He died for the virgin and the whore. He died for the drug addict lighting His crack pipe as you read this. He died for the murderer just as well as his victim. He died for each and every soul in this world today. However, there is no one alive now, there has never been anyone who has ever lived and there will never be anyone born in the future who deserved what Christ did for each and every one of us. A gift can not be earned. It can only be received and hopefully accepted for what it is and appreciated.

I accept my Savior’s gift that He freely gave to me and all the rest of humanity. I thank Him for His sacrifice which has made me right with God. I am covered by His blood which washes me clean. Praise Jesus for sending us the Holy Spirit through whom God speaks directly to our hearts, minds and souls. I have recently wanted to give up. Just to lay down and give up the fight. My joy had been replaced by misery, my peace by strife and my faith had waned and I was flat on my face being beaten down day by day.  Though I felt like I could not handle any more His Spirit would not let me escape. The desire to struggle forward burned inside of me.  I cried out to God many times through this period. Sometimes I felt an immediate response and others I felt nothing. Then I reached a point spiritually and mentally that changed things.

I became very desperate to get my life back on track. To make God the center again. I had let too many things push Him from the center of my life. I cried out to God and asked Him to rescue me, to draw me back, to not give up on me and to save me from my misery. He has done just that. He has put a desire in me to work harder than before, to serve Him with all my strength and with every talent He has given me. A desrie that burns like a fire shut up in my bones. I want to serve the Lord and that is a conscious decision. I want to serve the Lord in any way He lays before more. I desire to serve the Lord more than anything in life. I have allowed many things to detour,  discourage and distract me from that desire but I am getting stronger,  praise God.  He has never given up on me. He will never give up on me. It is I who almost gave up. It is I who must fight harder. It is I who must NEVER give up.

I love the Lord and with His strength and guidance I know that I will fight my way back to the place I was spiritually and then I will exceed that place as the Lord carries me higher. Praise God that He doesn’t give me what I truly deserve. Praise God that He loves me so much He is willing to do anything, including sacrificing His only Son, to save my soul and give me life eternal. Praise Jesus for His death, for His blood and most importantly for His triumphant return from the grave. A return which gives me hope for that day when the Father will raise me from the grave. In that day I will worship all the persons of the Trinity and continue to do so forever. I look forward to that day. What a day that will be! Amen?!