Our Faith is Urgent.

What we project is either the Truth or a lie and either Gods work, or the devils. As a seventeen-year-old chilling in a small state in a big world, I have a lot to learn. I have a lot to try and grasp. I can tell you one thing I know, however. The world I live in, the world you live in, it's scary. I don't want or like to think about it all the time but I realize as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called higher. I have been convicted of what I share recently. I choose to share encouragement on my pages, but here is what I know MUST be known. If we know God, we need to share about him. We need to talk about God regularly. We need to share more than the good things. We need to understand the authority of God in Heaven, walk out his calling, and follow his instruction. Our faith is URGENT!! If we only share the highlighted parts of our Bible or the quotable encouraging parts of the Bible, I’m afraid we’re not being the hands and feet of Jesus. At that point, it’s like acknowledging an optimist but forgetting to acknowledge the person and their range of emotions past visible happiness. The truth will set you free but for that, you must know the Truth. This week I was sitting on one of our living room couches when the Lord convicted me. If the Lord came today, what would I be doing? If He came today what would you be doing? I don’t know how you roll but I always think I have time. I am super laidback to a fault. I think I have time to do what I want/need to because time keeps going on, right? So what’s the rush? Even in a pinch, I think I have time to get ready, turn in assignments, get to bed, finish tasks, etc. I am a very “on my time” oblivious because "everything is fine” rule follower. But oooooooh that.is.a.trap!!!! You never know the real-time. The real-time meaning/being the time when Christ will make his return. James 4:4-10 says, “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty, is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”

This verse convicts my heart over and over again. If you want to be a friend of the world, and try and blend in and follow the trends, okay but you are accessing your free will and putting comfortability above God. Exodus 20:3-6 ESV says,

“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

When you stand before Jesus will you have a good reason for scrolling on social media and sitting around when you had the ability and freedom to further his kingdom (which IS your purpose)? Teachers, when questioned about your teaching what will you say to the acquisition that all you shared was the good attainable stuff?

Our hearts should BREAK over sin. We should not give in to the illusion of ownership under sin. We need to WAKE up. The ringing of the alert alarm is getting louder every day. Will you turn the snooze button off and get up?? In Isaiah, in the second chapter, during a warning of Judgment, the prophet says this, “Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment.” There is no use trying to elevate anything but Truth here on earth as when judgment day comes, ONLY the Lord will be exalted.

When we refuse to confess our sins, our bodies will waste away. (Psalm 32:2) Sin deteriorates. If not confessed the sin in our lives does not evaporate, it creates a greater and greater detriment to our walk. Clear instructions: Humble yourself, resist the devil, make the effort to come close to God, and God WILL come close to you. There is grace, there is abundant grace. But you have to repent of your sin motives.

Not everyone will go to Heaven. Not everyone you have come in contact with is saved. Your friends and family are fighting battles, some believing they are bound to sin. You may not be perfect, in fact you WILL fall short every day and are sinful but your life, one that follows God's commands and repents of sin allowing God's redemptive grace to shine through you- a vessel - has the opportunity to save a life for Christ's sake. Let that sink in…. Yes, God is good in everything and above everything. Yes, God makes everything beautiful in his timing according to his will. Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 says, “I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” God is good all the time but if we as people only think of God without fear involved, if we are oblivious to the weight of sin, we are choosing not to walk the narrow path. The rewarding path. We are choosing to do the same old same old and follow the wide path of trickery and deceit. Some parts of the gospel are harder to understand than others. Parts of the Bible are hard to digest. However, it is is still God-breathed TRUTH. We need every part of Him. This faith, our faith is urgent.