Ready

Are we getting ready to leave here?  Think about this; this is not our home, we are just passing through, we are sojourners here if we are truly born again.  How are you living?  Are you living like you are getting ready to leave for your real home with Jesus or are you living like you belong to this world?  

Sometimes it seems like we forget the purpose we are here.  We are not here to possess everything we can get our hands on or have all the riches we can acquire or be the most popular person or even the most powerful.  No, we are here to love God above all things and love our neighbors as ourselves and bless and encourage others and to give of ourselves in the hope of furthering God’s kingdom.  As we go through life we need to keep in mind this truth, we need to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness and put these things first in our lives.  We need to act like it is the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ that we desire and not this world or even the things of this world.

I am ashamed to say this but I have strayed from this concept and I needed to get back on track.  A few years ago I started to go to garage sales to buy things that I could save money on then I started to realize I could buy most anything fairly cheap if I looked around and bartered with people.  The problem came when I started to buy, fix and sell them, then I started to get greedy.  The next thing I knew I had a lot of things for which I could always make an excuse for but where was my dependency?  Not on God, but on my own ability to acquire things for myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I gave things away at times also and at times I lost money on some things.  Doing these things I thought I could use them for an excuse for what I was doing, but in the end there is no excuse for taking advantage of other people and call myself a Christian.  It got so bad there came a time I made a deal with God, the problem was that God doesn’t make deals and it wasn’t long and my sin had found me out and I had to repent, which I have.  I have said this as a warning to others because these kinds of things happen so gradually at times, that instead of dealing with them you just allow them to go on and on until it seems God has to do something drastic to get our attention.

Think about King David when He sinned against God with Bath-Sheba and had her husband killed to cover up his sin.  It went on for about a year before he was corrected by the prophet God sent to him; then he dealt with his sin and repented. You can read his repentant prayer in Psalms 51, if you would like.  I have used this same prayer when I have sinned also.

It says this in Mark 8:34-38, “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.’”

Let me say this, I spend a lot of time with the Lord and have over the years, but we are still able to be tempted and enticed to sin.  But, when we fall into sin it is no one’s fault but our own because God always provides a way of escape that we may be able to bear it, if we look for the way out and God never tempts us.  

Read what it says in James 1:12-14, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”

It seems that sometimes we live like this is our home when we spend very little time with the Lord each day but find time to do everything else that the world has to offer us.  When we spend huge amounts of time on those things, are we preparing for God’s kingdom or are we more interested in the things of this world?  Only you can answer that question!

Now read this in 1 John 2:12-17:

“I write to you, little children,

    Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

I write to you, fathers,

    Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

    Because you have overcome the wicked one.

I write to you, little children,

    Because you have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers,

    Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men,

    Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,

    And you have overcome the wicked one.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”   

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you can’t have anything or do anything, no, what I’m saying is not to let the things we have own us and to always keep a balance and not be greedy and don’t fall in love with the things of this world!!  This is something very important to think about!  I hope you will have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!