I'm blessed to be a part of God's plan. I'm grateful of the things He's placed in my life. I love how He loves us. I'm proud to be a Christian. What's a Christian you ask? Well a Christian is someone who believes God and that He saved us from eternal damnation because He loves us and sent His son to die for us. What do Christians do? Oh well we go to church and sing songs about Jesus and then hear a good sermon about what we should be doing. As long as we believe then we're ok...
Does that sound like you? If not, does that resemble any of your friends? Co-workers? Family members? It did for me. Almost to the point where Christianity seemed like a 401k. I gave my life to Jesus at an early age that I wouldn't have to touch in order to gain while I continued to satisfy myself with things of the world, thinking that when the day came of passing that I would have a secured spot in heaven that had a larger portion of my life waiting for me. Why would I want the life I gave to Jesus? I gave it to Him so I could gain HIS life, not my own back! Because what we seem to forget is the life we gave was saving us from death since our old life lead straight to it. Yet some Christians believe that after your wiped clean of sin that that's a good excuse to start messing it all up with more sin.
Now don't get me wrong. Romans 10:9 states that "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Nothing I've previously said has contradicted that. As you just read though, believing in your heart that the God of the universe raised the perfect man that Jesus was due to his sinless life that was not punishable by death has serious implications to it. This not only means that He loved us enough to paid for our rightful punishment, but that He has given us the choice of life! If we understood that, how could we NOT want to praise and thank Him everyday? He asks that we believe in Him and praise the most worthiest of names in return. Not for you to leave him unrecognized and disrespected. Think about it, if you decided that you wanted to be saved and then go and abuse your gift as an excuse to wrong; that would be disrespectful no? If I gave you a full ride to the school of your dreams and then all you do is party, get into trouble, and fail all of your classes. You never had respect of the opportunity I had given you used to gain success.
I'm happy to watch people become saved. I'll be even more delighted to watch saved people save themselves and others from disrespecting the gift of life they've been given. Jesus has invested his life into you before you did. Isn't about time to invest in Him? In order to gain everything you must first give everything. "If we die with him, we will also live with him." [Timothy 2:11] Save the saved in order to open their eyes to the canvas God is painting rather than the one that you may be trying to paint.
Does that sound like you? If not, does that resemble any of your friends? Co-workers? Family members? It did for me. Almost to the point where Christianity seemed like a 401k. I gave my life to Jesus at an early age that I wouldn't have to touch in order to gain while I continued to satisfy myself with things of the world, thinking that when the day came of passing that I would have a secured spot in heaven that had a larger portion of my life waiting for me. Why would I want the life I gave to Jesus? I gave it to Him so I could gain HIS life, not my own back! Because what we seem to forget is the life we gave was saving us from death since our old life lead straight to it. Yet some Christians believe that after your wiped clean of sin that that's a good excuse to start messing it all up with more sin.
Now don't get me wrong. Romans 10:9 states that "If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Nothing I've previously said has contradicted that. As you just read though, believing in your heart that the God of the universe raised the perfect man that Jesus was due to his sinless life that was not punishable by death has serious implications to it. This not only means that He loved us enough to paid for our rightful punishment, but that He has given us the choice of life! If we understood that, how could we NOT want to praise and thank Him everyday? He asks that we believe in Him and praise the most worthiest of names in return. Not for you to leave him unrecognized and disrespected. Think about it, if you decided that you wanted to be saved and then go and abuse your gift as an excuse to wrong; that would be disrespectful no? If I gave you a full ride to the school of your dreams and then all you do is party, get into trouble, and fail all of your classes. You never had respect of the opportunity I had given you used to gain success.
I'm happy to watch people become saved. I'll be even more delighted to watch saved people save themselves and others from disrespecting the gift of life they've been given. Jesus has invested his life into you before you did. Isn't about time to invest in Him? In order to gain everything you must first give everything. "If we die with him, we will also live with him." [Timothy 2:11] Save the saved in order to open their eyes to the canvas God is painting rather than the one that you may be trying to paint.
