...AND LET YOURSELF THINK!!!
John 12:42-43
"Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. For they loved human praise more than the praise of God."
--> What a horrible position to be in. One that I was in before I was saved. I knew that God was real, but chose to live apart from Him. Not set apart in Him, but separate from His love. I see that in the people in my life. In my family, in my friends, in my co-workers, and in the strangers I meet. I don't want to ever fall into that trap again, of living separate from God, and I desperately don't want that for these people. For these people that are supposed to being living as God's people.
The 'end of the world' fear that occurred yesterday was silly. It was people believing a lie because they DO know the truth. They know God is real, but were frightened because they didn't know Him. They didn't know that no one knows the final day, not even Jesus. Its God's set time and He alone knows it. All of these people worried and I hope that it's shed some light on their own beliefs.
1 John 2:21
"I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth."
Our society moves at the pace it does so that its members can exist without giving time to their own thoughts. Stay busy: to not think. Watch this: to not think. Always have noise going on: to not think. Take up the opinion of the last person you talked to: to not think. Care about celebrities: to not think. Talk only of surface things: to not think. Medicate yourself to sleep: to not think. It's scary, but it's true. Recognize the way you're thinking when you're making decisions. Learn the pathways of your brain. Know the reasons behind your actions. Stop and think. Believe something for yourself. In what other way can you have a foundation? These things are so much more important for a Christian to consider. We need a firm foundation for God in our lives. How else can we share it with unbelievers? We need our beliefs to be personal, otherwise how could we possibly try to move forward in a personal and meaningful relationship with God? That's when religion comes in - it takes away that depth. We let ourselves be comforted by surface beliefs and routines, when God is asking for our whole hearts! It's a lot, it's all, but what else can we offer? I don't want to give my second, third, fourth, or hundredth 'bests' --> I want to live an all or nothing life. I want to be all for God because I just can't be nothing anymore.
You can't go back after knowing Him. You can try, but you will fail. The Word says you'd be worse off and I know that to be true because I know the Bible to be true. Then the Holy Spirit gets ahold of you and even looking at what you came from and thinking about going back will have you shaking in your boots! Looking at choices and determining decisions based on an all or nothing faith is scary, but it's also real. More real than what happens when we try to fractionalize our faith. When we do that - look out - we've already lost the faith necessary to stand for God. He is good though. Always. No matter how far we go, repentance and a sincere heart can bring us back to Him. We can stand again. The people who know of God without knowing Him can stand, if they turn to Him with everything. That they would, Lord.
Galatians 4:9
"but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?"
2 Timothy 2:19
"Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness."
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