In the middle of the chaos that is life, the Lord has put a few things on my heart to share. It's nice when you finally get the time to sit down, gather your thoughts, and take a deep breath. It's nice to know that no matter what you are going through, you're never alone. The Lord is always with you, even when it doesn't feel like He is. He is always there to be your strength, your light in the darkness, and the giver of your eternal salvation. He is always looking for you.
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Hebrews 5:7-9 (ESV)
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him
The Lord had given me a vision and put the luke warm on my heart. He is calling His beloved, every one of you. Sometimes, I forget that luke warm includes myself at different times in my life. We all want to be good people, at least I hope we do. We were all raised with different belief systems, different religions, different families, and different levels of acceptable expectations. We tend to sneer at others when they do something that we don't approve of, no matter how well we were raised. Here's the thing, even growing up in a church and following the "rules" of what it's like to be a good Christian your entire life, doesn't measure up to the expectation given by the death of Jesus on the cross. When you are freed from religion and gifted with revelation of what being a Christian truly means, it becomes a different story. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the supernatural, biblical evangelical, scriptural Christianity becomes your every day walk. You realize that the expectation Jesus died for, was for every single one of us to walk in His righteousness here on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus died for us to live on this earth as He lived, equipped with the Holy Spirit, walking in love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Healing the sick, casting out demons and speaking in new tongues, no evil thing able to harm us. The bar gets set a little higher then doesn't it? Can anyone here say they are enslaved in righteousness? It takes a lot of internal reflection and self improvement gifted by the grace of the Lord to walk the Christian lifestyle, but it is what we are called to; righteousness and relationship, not bumper stickers and brunch.
Romans 6:18 English Standard Version (ESV)
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Acts 10:34-35 (NKJV)
34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.
The vision was one of a basketball court. There were two teams playing and ultimately there would be one winning team and one loosing team. Here's the catch, you have no idea when the game will end. Winners go to heaven, losers, to Hell. Here's the next catch, the entire world population is playing together at the exact same time. Uniforms were white and gold or red and black. Your job as a player is just to play the game (live your life). If you have sin in your heart, your Jersey turns red. When you seek the lord in true heartfelt repentance and turn away from your sin, your Jersey turns white. When you fall into sin again, it's back to red. When you pray to Jesus and repent, no matter how many times you need to, your jersey is easily turned to white. When Jesus comes back, it's game over. The trumpets will sound and your jersey at that moment in time will seal your fate.
1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He put on my heart that there are different types of relationships when it comes to the people and the Lord. Some fear the Lord, forgetting about the grace He gives and the love He has for all of us. They are seeking to accomplish salvation through works, only to end up frustrated and with a constant heaviness or feeling not good enough. Some spend their days and nights seeking relationship, worshiping and are successfully fitting worldly life into the Godly plan laid out for them. They are inspirational. Some are so consumed with the idols of this world that they have forgotten that the Lord even exists or they doubt Him altogether. They barely fit in their time with the Lord, if they ever do at all. Some call themselves Christians but hide behind grace and see it as a get out of jail free card for letting their fleshly desires corrupt their path. Some seek forgiveness, some forget to pray every day, some are helping others and others are hiding in fear. Some are spending their days living in sin and their nights repenting in prayer, waking up to repeat the cycle for weeks on end. Some just don't care. There are a thousand different ways that we can try to find a way to fit the Lord into our life, without putting the actual effort into fitting Him into our life. We can try to twist grace and forgiveness into permission for sin; but to the Lord it's simple. There's the wrong and the righteous. Which team are you on right now?
Titus 2:11-14 (NKJV)
Trained by Saving Grace
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
The Lord loves each and every one of us equally. He doesn't discriminate. We only get one chance at this life. Is it worth the risk to not know if you'll be caught in a red jersey or one that's white when that end game trumpet sounds? Would it make you think about things a little differently? Repent a little sooner? Forgive a little sooner? Pray more often? Open your Bible more often? Would you still sneak in your sins hoping to have time to repent? I'm not here to say that I'm living this amazingly anointed, Christian life of righteousness 24/7. I'm here to say that I am right there with you, repenting with every sin. Doing my best to be on the right team when the final trumpet sounds. Asking for forgiveness, wisdom and grace. Do I think this is truly how judgement takes place, No. That's entirely up to the Lord. I'm simply presenting a what if, in the hopes that it will land on someones heart and make them think.
James 5:19-20 (ESV)
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
As I was praying tonight I received another vision of someone kneeling down in prayer. They were covered in a robe similar to the one that Jesus had wore. It was covered in a light gray dust. It reminded me of someone who had walked miles along a dusty road, As they were in prayer, the Lord walked up behind them. He placed His left hand on their shoulder and reached His right hand out to help them up. As they stood together, the Lord began to dust off that person's shoulders, then their back. He swept His arm from shoulder to hem, over and over, removing all the dust from this person's robe. Then the Lord smiled and embraced them. The Lord put it on my heart to share that He is waiting to dust you off. He is waiting to embrace you, to be your refuge in every storm. He is here to help each and every one of us, every single time we call on Him.
Psalm 145:18 (ESV)
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
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