What ARE you doing?

This morning isn't much different than others in my life.  Probably not much different than yours in some ways.  You wake up and as the sleep of the night fades you start considering the things that are to be done today or need to be done or ought to be done. 

I have always had a desire to write science fiction.  Yet, it's evident to me years, if not decades later, that God has shown me that's not a path for me.  Story ideas abound but before I either finish them or really get started, I am reminded of how short life is.  

I really believe something that I was told at a very young age.  That in my lifetime, I would see the Rapture of the Church happen.  That it would be my generation that it would occur in.  In as much as God has enabled me to be able to a great many things, His mission for me is to keep reminding and telling others the words of warning, that He is coming soon.  

I would be lying if I didn't feel a sense of regret at not being a published author, to see my name in print on a hardcover book.  But when praying about it, Jesus has shown me that I was thinking too small.  A book published and distributed globally would be too small?  This blog was what He had in mind.  Where it's gone in this world no published book could ever go.  Over 39 countries already.  

The point isn't the achievement, the point isn't the method either.  The point is, each believer has been given THEIR mission to complete for the Savior.  It's a grave mistake to believe that we have it all figured out.  That we ought to all become Pastors or teachers or some high position in the Church.  Really read Corinthians. Really read what Paul meant by the parts of the body of Christ.  If all were the mouth where would the hands be? If the arm believes it's not as valuable as another part of the body, what gain is that?  

I have seen a great many Churches constantly teach of everyone going down a singular road towards obedience to God in ministry.  Yet the object lessons taught in the Bible are to bloom where you are planted.  Be what Jesus needs you to be, right where He has you.  Can a square peg fit in a round hole? With enough force and a hammer, yes. But does that make it right?  I have read of people trying to be Pastors who are not and wonder why they suffer from writers block.  They can't put a sermon together.  Yet also have seen the opposite.  Bloom where you are planted. 

What are you doing?  Has God began showing you, but you ran the other way as some of the prophets of old did?

Is hearing "Well done" from Jesus just not something that's important enough to you?

What are you doing?  Do you live each day for yourself? Are your thoughts and concerns only about your wellbeing and your welfare and not that of others?  Do you ever sit and pray for others around you?  You may never be a Peter, a Daniel or a Paul.  But you can be a you for Christ.  Look at the man chosen to be the one to restore Paul's eyesight!  Ordinary man going about his life, serving God.  Is called to be the one to go to a man known to be a murderously angered man to heal him.  Remember Saul, before he became Paul was out to shut down the Church in any way possible, including killing people.  

Ananias was chosen by God to just be his hands for that moment.  After this we don't read about him again.  But his obedience was important enough for it to be repeated throughout the centuries. 

What is important to you?  Your rights or your obedience and obligations to your Savior?  

Anyone and anything can be slowly built up around and into your life to be a snare to slow or stop your walk with Jesus.  Being consumed with the things of this world is big enough to have been a stumbling block to even some of the top men of God in the Bible.  

What part of your day is dedicated to Jesus?  Is it only for asking His blessings on your food?  Or do you at all talk to Him about life?  Do you at all find Godly men to talk to about the things of God?  

It's not popular in this day and age but Godly men are to be the leaders in the Church.  That's the role of Pastors and Elders and Deacons.  Women are to teach women, but not men.  Women are not to be Elders or Pastors.  Look at the original language of the Bible and you will see that when God wrote it, He was specific enough to include gender.  Likewise there's no role or responsibility for anyone who adheres to the homosexual life. Romans is clear on that.  Obedience to God must include all aspects of life. An intentional sin is not acceptable and such is that lifestyle.  The Apostles were attacked for taking a stand for obedience to God's Word.  Stoned even on numerous occasions.  But as Scripture says of itself God's Word is forever. 

Are you doing anything in obedience to Christ?  Are you staying silent when the Spirit says to speak up? Are you living a Christ-like example?  A Christ-like example includes exposing sin for what it is. Jesus didn't have special programs for various groups of people to address their lifestyles.  He called them to repent and turn to Salvation.  Stop what they were doing and follow Him. Not when they got around to it.  Not when they felt differently or felt better.  Are you DOING life for Christ or for you?  Are you ar all attempting to obey Him in your day?  Or is the voice you hear and react to the voice of the world and not your Shepherd? 

What are you doing?  Everyone will give an account of their lives.  Both the believer and the unbeliever.  If Christ isn't on the other side of the scales of your life, you have lived in vain and are headed for Hell.  If you came to Christ yet aren't living wholly for Him, yes you will get into Heaven but as Scripture says it will be as though by fire. 

What are you going to do today for Christ?

Anything different now that you read all this?  My mission isn't to guilt anyone into anything.  My mission is to make you think.  Noah preached for a hundred years.  No stone was left unturned.  Yet as the Lord said only him, his wife, his sons and their wives would be saved.  Yet nobody who died was without excuse.  Nobody living since then is going to be without excuse.  All will be explaining themselves to Christ as to why they refused to receive the gift of Salvation.  All will be explaining their lives as to their living for Jesus or not.

So. What are you doing?

To Return is on Us, not God

Thus says the Lord of hosts:

Return to Me," says the Lord of Hosts, "and I will return to you."

God places much of the burden of what we will become on our response to Him.  If we have drifted from God, His call is to return to Him.  God promises that if we will return, He will immediately renew His relationship with us. James 4:8 promises that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. Matthew 7:7 guarantees that if we seek Christ, we will find Him. Much of the Christian life rests on our response and our desire to experience God to the fullest.  - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

This excerpt is the greater foundational truth to any revival planned by God.  A revival is NOT at the hands of mankind. It isn't some event and after you've completed it, you take a survey and see how you did.  When the Spirit is behind a revival, there's no doubt He was there. 

Revival begins in the heart. When we are at OUR end of ourselves.  When WE stop thrashing about and are finally still before Him with whom we have to do.  When WE start to realize that to be still before Him is greater than our constant talking and moving before Him. There's a few lessons it seems that I at least missed in my reading the 4 Gospels.  Yes, the Disciples asked Jesus HOW to pray, but His response was WHAT to pray. Both in what we infamously refer to as the Lord's Prayer, but the rest seems not to have been heard. Why? Because it has to do with silence before God. The Gospels say much about Jesus getting away to be with His Father.  Doesn't mean that Jesus did all the talking. 

We don't need to be doing all the talking.  Mary was lauded over Martha because she sat and listened. Stopping what was worrying her and took time to breathe and listen. 

We are all facing things related to cultural unrest, to virus fallout, to family crisis, to health problems.  There's really nobody who isn't impacted by life happening.  Everyone breathing has something going on. People alive and breathing are under some form of attack by Satan or his minions. Everyone, everywhere.  It's a fact of life. 

What to do about it is what God's saying today.  Be still and know that He is God. 

We want to get ahead of Him in our explaining our problems and our needs, but as we let Him hold us, we need to just be still.

There's never going to be a time when we as believers will ever be able to tell Jesus of something, using the words "but Lord! You don't understand!"

Returning to God in our daily life is a daily thing.  Daniel was consistent at prayer at least 3 times a day. It wasn't like the Pharisees or Sadducees. It wasn't out of a public display for all to marvel at.  It was in his home, with no obstruction between him and God.  Sure others could see it and they figured out what he was doing, even trying to use it against him, but nobody knew what he was praying until he wrote it down for us to read. 

Are you at all praying? It isn't some mystical thing to do.  My friend it's a conversation.  In the conversations you have with close friends, there's often periods of speech mixed with silence. 

When we are struggling with life and wonder where the Spirit is, then, it's time to be silent. We have talked too much and not listened enough. I speak to myself as much as this is for you. I am facing new challenges this week that I have never faced before. The last 6 months have been escalating challenges. One slightly greater than the month before.  I pray with Jesus in my Jeep on my way to work.  Just Him and I, no radio. I pour out my heart.  We get to where I work and I ask Him to take my hand and lead me into the day.  I can't do it on my own.  In 2013 I never thought I'd ever set foot in that place again. It was on the heels of a nervous breakdown due to a manager who was brought in to totally disrupt the place. There are no vestiges of his being there today, nobody left in management that supported what he was doing.  But 'ghosts' if you will pardon the worldly description, sometimes hit me of days gone by.  I need Jesus to be with me to be successful in what He would have me to do. Prayer doesn't end at the door. Regardless of company policies anywhere, you can take Jesus with you into work.  I am often praying as Nehemiah did. Shooting arrows up to the Heavens.  I can only be successful if God's hand is on me.

It's all part of returning to God.  You too must decide to return to God. That your relationship with Jesus is worth more than your family or friends or work or anything else.  It has to mean more than your rights or desires. More than anything.  

People are constantly looking for peace yet it's few who find it.  Mary found it. When the Disciples stopped talking and sat at Jesus's feet they found it. The 15,000 or so found it. We can too.

Find and listen to the original version of Steven Curtis Chapman's "Be Still". It's on his album "Speechless". 

We cannot create peace in politics or policies.  It is found where mankind doesn't want to go. In the Word of God and a relationship he or she is avoiding having. 

Who are you?

. . . called to be saints . . . Romans 1:7 ESV

We are likely to think of the apostles as if they were “saints” in a more special manner than the other children of God. Anyone God has called by His grace and sanctified by His Spirit is a “saint,” but we tend to look on the apostles as extraordinary beings, hardly subject to the same weaknesses and temptations we face. But by thinking this way, we forget some important truths: that the closer people live to God, the more intensely they mourn over their own evil hearts, and the more their Master honors them in His service, the more the evils of the flesh harass and tempt them each day. The fact is, if we had seen the apostle Paul, we would have thought him remarkably like the rest of God’s chosen family. If we had talked with him, we would have said, “We find that his experience and ours are much the same. He is more faithful, more holy, and more deeply taught than we are, but he has the same trials to endure. Actually, in some respects, he is more severely tried than we are.” So don’t imagine the ancient saints as exempt either from weakness or sin, and don’t regard them with a mystic reverence that almost makes us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable—even by us. We are called to be saints by the same voice that compelled them to their high calling. It is our duty as Christians to force our way into the inner circle of sainthood—and if these saints were superior to us in their achievements, as they certainly were, let us follow them. Let us emulate their zeal and holiness. We have the same light that they had. The same grace is accessible to us. Why should we rest satisfied until we have equaled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus and for Jesus, and therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking to Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2 ESV)—and our sainthood will soon be apparent. - C.H. Spurgeon Morning and Evening 

Most get up each morning and inevitably find themselves in front of some form of mirror.  What is it you see?

Some people are more emotional than others.  They don't see a simple appearance, they 'see' emotional states. They look for fatigue, they look for how their smile or frown.  They are the ones that look for blemishes.  Me? I really just look to see if I have 'bed head', wet down what hair sticks up and move on.  The rest isn't important to me.  I have never been one to contemplate how I look. I only look beyond what my hair looks like, when I need to shave. 

These things don't tell the story of what's inside a person.  Glamor or other things do not define a person.  Money really doesn't define a person.  Celebrity status doesn't define a person.  When you stand before Christ, there will be no makeup. No fancy clothes. No bling. Nothing. Just you, wearing the same clothes as everyone before you. The only defining attribute is whether or not when God looks upon you, is does He see Jesus?

That's who you are. Either you are in Christ or you are not.  If God looks at you and only sees you, then you have a big problem. 

Salvation is found only in Christ Jesus.  You could be Billy Graham, Mother Theresa and the Apostle Paul all rolled into one, but without Christ your works mean nothing. 

You cannot save yourself.  You cannot become more than who you are without Christ.  The man or woman in the mirror has lived a wasted life if that life was lived without Jesus.  Jesus said that apart from Him you can do nothing. Nothing.

You could have all the money and opportunity possible to accomplish the greatest wish list of life ever but without Christ it's meaningless. You will spend the rest of eternity in Hell. 

That example of those 3 greats of human history rolled into one...that fictional person would end up living eternity in Hell. 

Say you consider yourself a good person.  But still do not have Christ as your Savior. You will spend eternity in Hell. 

That is not my speculation.  That's exactly what God has said. 

There is no one good not one. That's from Scripture, from Jesus Himself. Your standard of good compares not with God's standard.

Apart from Him you can do nothing. So all the good you think you have done amounts to a pile of nothing in God's eyes. 

Without Christ as your Savior, you are living an empty life. With no destination that will be anything but Hell. 

But you CAN change that. You CAN become a child of God.  You CAN find a hope and a future in Christ.  You can find your life having meaning.  No it doesn't immediately follow that you will find yourself becoming a missionary or a teacher or even a Pastor if you are a man.

It will mean that you will achieve more in your life than you dreamed of.  It will mean serving where you are and working as unto the Lord and not yourself.  In what you do you will find that God will use to make you more like Christ so in that day you stand before God, He will see Jesus when He looks at you. Don't let your fears of what might be stand in the way of the potential that Jesus sees in you.

Why No Man has an Excuse

What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes? Isaiah 5:4

The prophet Isaiah told the story of a man with a vineyard on a fertile hill. The man cultivated the ground and removed the stones so that nothing would hinder the vines’ growth. He planted only the best quality vines. He built a tower in the middle of the vineyard so he could watch for wild animals and intruders. He constructed a wine vat so that he would be ready for the ripe grapes. Then he waited. Rather than producing good grapes, however, the vineyard produced worthless ones.

- Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

Blackaby goes on to write about how many almost countless ways God has provided mankind to find and be in a right relationship with Jesus.  

When Scripture says that man will be without excuse God really means that he will be without excuse.  

There will be nobody to say that they couldn't understand. Nobody to say it was too complicated.  Nobody will say it was too demanding. No...excuse. 

Satan is trying in ever more industrious ways to shut down the work of the Spirit in this world.  The truth is he isn't creative, he only tries what has been tried before.  He doesn't have to really work hard at it because, face it, mankind is predictable. 

Adam and Eve had a perfect intellect. 100 percent use of their brains. Nothing in the way to hinder right thinking.  Yet in a moment they blew it for mankind. 

I firmly believe that when it says in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun, it means that we aren't traveling some new pioneering level of culture and technology.  Satan only does what he has done before. We have, since the Genesis Flood, been recreating, not necessarily inventing life as we live it. 

The fossilized evidence supports this.

In your world, wherever it may be, God has prepared and provided for you to be able to understand and know that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, who is Jesus Christ.  

I have struggled all my life to memorize Scripture.  At some poignant moments I know it's the Spirit who brings Scripture to mind that I have read.  I Google what He's brought me to find the rest.  Many years ago it was a rather ludicrous response to my complaining to God about not being able to memorize Scripture. His response was I gave you Google didn't I?

God promised never to leave us nor forsake us. In all ways big and small, He has prepared for every single excuse any man, woman or child could bring about why they said no to His free gift of Salvation. Every single thought. 

Why are you resisting His call to you?  What's keeping you back?  Your erroneous understanding of what you have seen in this world by purported believers?  You see fanatics and use that as a reason? You see isolated people groups and use that as an excuse? You see protesters claiming to speak for Jesus and use that as an excuse?  

Under no circumstances use what you see in the visual, physical, Christian world as a reason to not come to Christ.  

Go to the author of the Bible yourself.  It's on you and only you to decide to accept or reject Christ. It's not going to wash when you face Him to explain your decision to say it's because of this person or that person you said no. He gave you a mind to understand and plenty of evidence to know the truth. 

It will have nothing to do with what your ancestors have done, nothing to do with how your life has gone up til now. Nothing.  Jesus will look you in the eye and will already know the truth you will speak for yourself before Him. 

So while it is yet daylight and while you still have a breath to breathe, now is the moment you need to get right before Christ.  Not 1 second after He returns and you find yourself screaming at the sky for Him to come back and get you. 

You will have had your chance. 

With all that He has put before you...every reason that you can think of for rejecting Jesus is worthless. 

He isn't going to call every single person to be missionaries or preachers or public speakers.  He plainly says in Corinthians that we who are believers are part of the body of Christ. Each part has its own function. A ear is not an eye. An arm is not a foot.  Your part in the body is what you are needed to be.  Don't allow fear of what He might ask you to do cause you to stay away from Salvation and spend eternity in Hell. It would be the same ad rejecting a lifeboat because your not particularly fond of the color of it. So you don't get in.

Consider your excuses.  God's showing you that He had already understood them and prepared for them. 

Quit putting it off until some other time.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it will happen and those who have believed will be taken and all you will be left with is hearing yourself screaming at the sky for Jesus to come back.  

Destroy Sin Don't Tolerate it

Therefore I also said, “I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” Judges 2:3

When you became a Christian God declared war on sin's strongholds in your life.  Sinful attitudes and behaviors were firmly entrenched in your character, but God commanded that you tear them down. The Holy Spirit pointed out areas of your life that were resistant to God's will. Were you tempted to establish a truce versus obliterating that sin? - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

People wonder about what's going on in the world.  There's one larger than life answer. 

People are being conditioned to accept sin and reject God.  That sin is what's good and right and denying its benefits is what makes for an unhappy life.  That those who would embrace a life in Christ are what's wrong with this world. 

Interesting that is exactly and only Satan's message throughout the last 8 thousand years. 

So what are you doing in your life concerning sin?  Look well at the beginning of the nation of Israel in the Bible.  The Lord God commanded, not suggested, commanded they destroyed utterly the people and way of life of the people in the lands He was giving them.

Obliterating.  Meaning nothing is left of. No pictures, things, buildings, monuments, anything that would turn people from God towards Satan's way. That form of destruction of things is Biblical.  Not what's happening in the world today. God didn't command what is happening right now with the destruction of lives because of not wanting to let go of sin. He was commanding to get rid of things and people who would inevitably entice people to sin.

Sin is a trap.  Or to borrow from a popular scifi movie "It's a trap!!".

The only way to deal with sin is obedience to God.  I am by no means perfected in this. I struggle daily with errant thoughts and actions that are not right in God's eyes.  My life, regardless, is not my own.  I was bought with a price, the blood of Jesus purchased me. In Christ I am perfect before God, but until I receive my glorified body I still have sin to contend with.  So do you. 

Although if you do not have Christ you can never do more than offer truces with sin. You cannot conquer it. You will appear to be a good person.  Probably very content with life. Yet without Christ's Salvation, you will still spend eternity in Hell. 

There's billions of 'good people' in Hell.

What are you doing about the Spiritual warfare in your life?  That's the battle within to conquer the sin within. 

It's not easy but it's worth every second spent on the battlefield of your mind. 

We are His workmanship. Meaning slowly or quickly, sin WILL be dealt with in our lives.  We won't be left in chains until He calls us home or are Raptured. 

That's God's promise to us. Not to leave us how we were found.  

Hold Him to His promises is what I try to do. It's not always easy to remember in the moment when sin attacks but it's what to strive for.

Today's the day to begin walking as you ought and to start removing sin from your life. 

Simple question Simple answer required

And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:18 Before you were a Christian you were a slave, in bondage to sin. Even when you did not want to sin, you were unable to do otherwise (Rom. 7:15–24). 

When God saved you, He freed you from sin, but you remained a slave. Now, rather than being bound to sin, you are bound to righteousness. In every area of your life you are obligated to do what honors God. There are some who believe that when Christ sets them free, they are free to do whatever they want. That is not so. -Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

I have used the phrase "get out of Hell free card" many times.  There are those in the professing Church that live like they have no obligation towards obedience to God.  They are saved so they can do what they want.  

That's not what the Bible says.  To be clear, Salvation begets obedience.  Read the whole section of Romans highlighted above.  We are most certainly not to just go about life, living like we're safe to do whatever.  That there's no need or requirement to change how we go through life. 

Quite the contrary, if our coming to Christ was genuine, then obedience is the first fruit of the day.  Putting off the old self a d it's practices.  Putting on the new self in Christ.  Putting off means to stop.

What habits do you still do that God says are sin?  This is no joking matter.  To willingly continue a sin is to call it what the Bible says, its a practicing sin. In spite of the truth you are living in defiance to God. 

It's not the same as the accidental sin.  The practicing sin means it's a choice. 

Excusing the practiced sin is yet another sin. It's not my fault, I just can't stop.  It's not my fault was what Adam said. It's what Eve said.  It's what Cain believed. That's how old that excuse is. 

You who are in Christ are to be slaves to obedience in Christ.  That obedience is for us to pursue.  We will falter and fall. We aren't perfected yet. Sin will always, obviously, continue to rear its ugly head from time to time until either we are called home or Christ returns.  But we are not to excuse our behavior. 

Most of us have seen the dumb television shows where the siblings in a small town get away with about anything because of who's kids they are. In the end justice arrives and they are somehow held accountable.  

It happened in the Old Testament to a priest, a Levite, who's sons were a disgrace and he wouldn't reprimand them for their actions. God made it known his judgment towards this man and his sons yet it didn't motivate him to do anything.  Just as it was predicted so they all died. Excusing behavior because of belonging to Christ id just as wrong. 

Your actions will catch up with you. 

This is why there are no saved homosexuals nor saved homosexual priests or pastors.  To claim to be of the family of God yet intentionally sin every day means you were not saved to begin with.  God will not allow sin to prevail in the life of a true believer because it's not their name that's on the line, it's HIS own name that's on the line. 

Many, many other sins are in this same category.  Intentionally, knowingly, living in sin and yet claiming to be a Christian will not cut it with God. His Name is on the line. 

You cannot serve God and serve yourself. 

This goes farther into the Church and it's practices in various denominations. Even within the professing Church there are sinful practices going on.  That if properly searched out, would yield that their stand on certain issues is wholly unacceptable in God's eyes.  The Spirit would reveal such errors if they wou just let Him back in the picture and quit saying they speak for Him. 

Realize this: it was sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. It was your sin and my sin that held the Creator of the Universe to that cross.  He could have considered a single thought and have come down from there but He didn't.  His love and concern for you and I is what kept that thought away.  Consider it well He thought, and spoke the world's into existence. He spoke and it happened. Nothing didn't happen when He said for it to happen. There was no disobedience in all creation when He created everything. His thoughts are that powerful. 

Why would you think that He would consider willing disobedience acceptable?

Look at your choices and decisions today. 

Look at where you attend Church. If full obedience to the Scriptures isn't being taught, if compromise is a part of what they do, for any reasons, get far away from there. 

This isn't going to be popular but this includes liberal teachings. It includes the notion of women pastors or women who teach men. In the original language of the New Testament it's stated clearly that men are the only ones qualified under God to preach and teach.  Women are permitted to teach women under the authority of the Pastor.  

It includes more than these hot topics but in the end of the day it's not whether or not you have an argument with me.  It's whether or not you believe the Word of God.  Your behavior must comply with that.  Your obedience must follow that.

You either believe and obey God or you claim to believe and don't.  There are consequences for both.  Read the part in Genesis that Moses proclaimed to the Israelites. He set before them blessing and a curse. The repercussions of both held to be 100% accurate in the life of Israel. 

So don't pick up stones to throw at me. 

Your beef is with God if you disagree with whatever has been said. 

Look at your life.  If you are claiming to be a Christian are you obeying Christ? Simple question simple answer required. 

No freedom to Sin

Before you were a Christian you were a slave, in bondage to sin. Even when you did not want to sin, you were unable to do otherwise (Rom. 7:15–24). When God saved you, He freed you from sin, but you remained a slave. Now, rather than being bound to sin, you are bound to righteousness. In every area of your life you are obligated to do what honors God. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

It's interesting the thoughts people have of wanting something for nothing.  They want free money from Publishers Clearinghouse. They want free scholarships. They want free this and free that from the Government. They want reparations for things that might have happened to their ancestors. 

There are many who carry this mentality into to Christian life.   They come to Christ and think it means freedom of a kind to live as they want now because they got a get out of Hell free card.  This isn't Monopoly and it certainly isn't the game of Life.  This is reality folks.  This is making decisions in your life that determine either riches or chafe are stored in Heaven.  It determines whether you will be a blessing or a curse to those around you. A curse? Yes.  Even believers can be a curse.  When they claim to have come to Christ yet live lives as though they had not. When their mouth is used for swearing while it's also used to praise God or to pray. They become a curse when they lash out with flipping people off and yet were known as having gone to Church.  

As Blackaby says later on in that devotional, we are as what Paul described of himself. A bond servant of Christ.  We willingly set aside our views, thoughts and actions in order to please the one to whom we serve.  

What are you showing the world?  Are you a believer showing the world Jesus or are you showing it that you can be just as vile, disgusting and sinful as them, with no repentance evidenced in your life?  Are you at all being a light to the world or an almost extinguished candle?  You cannot be both.  Because for the sake of His Name,  Jesus WILL do something about your behavior and life. Truth is either you will go to your knees in acknowledging He demands obedience or He will take you out of this world to preserve your soul. 

If you claim the name of Jesus it means you relinquish your rights, dreams and life in exchange for what He wants of you, to learn from the Spirit and become the man or woman of God that He intends to make of you.  To become a Disciple means exactly that. 

Do you praise God on Sunday yet break into a swearing laced tirade on social media or to the person in the vehicle who just cut you off?  Do you grumble at God for the changes He is bringing into your life? 

We all are tempted by stuff with the minor disclaimer of "Oh it's not that bad...others are doing it...".  

Are you glorifying God in your actions or are you making Him a laughingstock in Heaven while Satan points at you and declares your misdeeds? 

I have to be truthful there. Quite often that's what crosses my mind.  The beginning of the book of Job.  Satan reporting in as he has to before the Lord Jesus and pointing at my life.  It's recorded, it's what he does with those who believe. 

Some take the grace of God and use it as an excuse to live as they want.  King Hezekiah was healed and granted grace on his Kingdom.  He became proud and boasting before visitors from Babylon.  Then a prophet came and declared what was going to happen to his family after he died.  His pride would have a price. 

Look at what you do and why you do it. Are you at all walking WITH Christ or have you wandered off to do your own thing? 

We do not have a license to sin or to do things that bring shame to the name of Jesus.  We have access to the storehouses of Heaven if we but obey.  

If you are delving in dark things, music, movies, fiction etc, you are playing with fire and will get burned.  It's not all in fun. It's not 'just interesting'.  It's playing with the tools of Satan to get your eyes off Jesus.  He cannot stop you from getting to Heaven but he can stop you from growing in Christ as you should.  

The time is now to be right before Christ.  Our nation is falling into disrepair and disarray because the so-called Christians here are not casting away the sin in their lives, they are embracing it.  They are more concerned about their rights than living right before God. 

The time is now.