Gideon Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 79 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 1,177 Content Per Day: 0.30 Reputation: 826 Days Won: 1 Joined: 10/04/2013 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 It is a hard question to have to answer, isn't it? Why? Because it requires that we ...... well, do exactly what the Bible tells us to do..... examine ourselves as to how we are responding to God's call to draw near to Him despite the distractions life presents. The days of cruising through life with our Christianity tucked safely in our back pockets, (unless, of course, we face a major mess up, lol), is ending. As the body of Christ, we have all been guilty of it, haven't we? We have been told over and over about God’s forgiveness, and so we tell ourselves when sin or a self we don't much like raises its ugly head, "No big deal, everything is alright. We have grace! ", right? And we do. But deep inside, we remember our first love of Jesus, when we were just saved and filled with the Spirit, when heaven dominated our thoughts, when the joy of the Lord flowed so easily, and we know we have somehow strayed off the path. The fact that our pastors and fellow saints themselves seem to be walking the same path, with no fear of sense of danger, assures us that all must be A-OK. But something is nagging at the hearts of multitudes of His children. Is it in yours? You see, up til now, because we have let sin in one form or another reside still in our lives, our hearts have ever so slowly been hardened to the still soft convicting Spirit of God, urging us back into the race. Ahhhh, there it is... the race. We are told our walk laid out before us is a race…. not a sprint but a marathon. But how many there are who somehow think that the race ended with our salvation. Jesus is running for us and assures us we will be winners! And so here we sit, ready to hear our names called to stand up on the podium to accept our participation medals. LOL. Yes, He did finish His race for us, but just as He told Joshua that He had given him the land of promise, God then said “Now, go take the land.” Guys, we each have our race to run, and an enemy dead set on keeping us on the sidelines. Oh, brothers and sisters, may I tell you that those days of participation medal Christianity are rapidly coming to a close? Most of us know the song about going through the motions. We love it. We identify with it. We sing along in our cars. And then we turn off the radio, and think nothing more about it. Doesn't that seem strange to you? We are the very subjects of that song and we do not even see anything wrong with our contentment to just sing it. That is our enemy at work and it is time we awoke to it. Let us remember, Paul tells us that in our Christian race, we are to run it as if there is but ONE prize. He tells each one of us to give ALL diligence to make our calling and election sure. whoa. That is a scripture to take to the Lord in prayer, that's for sure. With our shortcomings in plain sight, we want to hold up grace as the equalizer, but have we forgotten that He tells us that real grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world? So, with these things freshly in our minds, how are we doing in our own race towards God and His righteousness? For each one of us, we must finally look in the mirror, under the light of truth given to us in His word, and step back from our day to day lives, from under our religious security blankets, and examine ourselves. It may be painful but the reward promises to be enormous. Look, my dear friends. The purpose of this post is not to place any under condemnation. But if we are trying to hide from conviction, do we not see the danger there? Look, if after examining ourselves as to how we are running and the Spirit of God witnesses to our heart that we are running well, walking in all the light we have and pressing for more, praise God. If, however, if we find we have drifted off the path, and our light is muffled by things of this world, or by sin, or by self wanting to still run the show, and our race has become more like a meandering, then may I humbly share with you that the best thing you can ever do for yourself is to give the Holy Spirit permission to gently but firmly convict you and draw you back into the race that you once ran so well? God has clearly shown me that the day is soon coming that one-foot-in, one-foot-out Christianity will come to an end. The valley of decision, all or nothing Christianity, will soon be our new standard. This is not some radical religious extremism. It will simply be as it should have been all along, an ever increasing love affair with Jesus. And when we do that, draw back near to God, no matter how far we may have slipped, then glory to God, to our amazement, He will do exactly as He has promised, and draw back near to us. He has promised to change us into His image, from glory to glory, in THIS life! That, dear friends, is what we are racing for! Up til now, once we get saved, we think the race is over, and now we just try to be "good" Christians. In these last days, as we, His children, return to Him, running our race to glorify God with our very lives, God is going to radically change our view of us as to how good church can be. We think of doctrines, and church affiliations, retreats and Sunday services. But there is far more and we are destined to witness it.... and BE it! Glory! What is coming is Christ IN us, not just with us, and when we get that, it is going to change EVERYTHING! I have said before and I will say it again. To all who hunger and thirst for real overcoming victory, for real joy, for an amazing, intimate walk with the Lord, buckle your spiritual seatbelts. What is coming is going to take our breath away.... which is the natural response to any running hard after Jesus, amen? ? Blessings to you all. Gideon 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Hartono Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Royal Member Followers: 0 Topic Count: 783 Topics Per Day: 0.34 Content Count: 6,969 Content Per Day: 3.02 Reputation: 1,995 Days Won: 1 Joined: 02/15/2018 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 Every body who runs in this RACE give first priority on their stomach first, instead of sacrifying themselves for another as God wants it should be, so here comes the race as we know it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logostician Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 2 Topic Count: 32 Topics Per Day: 0.02 Content Count: 364 Content Per Day: 0.23 Reputation: 440 Days Won: 0 Joined: 03/03/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 Great post. Christ's work on the cross is a finished work sufficient to save anyone who believes it, and confesses their unworthiness without this sacrifice and the One who made it. I am very non-denominational. I'm just a Christ man. But the Wesleyan ideal of sanctification is a good one, that is well supported in the Bible by verses like 1 Pet 1:16,17, "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy." What does this mean? Grow in Christ! Move forward with Jesus, or you will find yourself falling back. I always viewed the Christian race as my Christian self running against my carnal self. I don't even want to see my old carnal self in the rearview mirror. And yes it is a marathon. Our relationship with Jesus should get stronger every day, until we meet him face to face. We should want to hear words from Him like "well done my good and faithful servant"(May 25:21). We should strive to leave this world at our highest point in our relationship with Jesus, rather than handing him a get out of hell free card dating back to the day we were saved. God gave us hearts minds and souls to grow in relationship with him, and raise us up to be sons of God (1 Jno 3:2). In 2 Cor 3:2 Paul says, "I have fed you with milk instead of meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are ye able.". The message seems clear. Grow up! Do not remain spiritual infants forever. In Heb 5:12 we are told, "for when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracle's of God, and are becoming such as have need for milk, and not of strong meat." The message is the same. Grow up. Grow your relationship with Jesus. If you are not moving forward, even if you think you are standing still, you're probably going backwards. Not the best way to run the Christian race, right? Vaya con Dios. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willa Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 68 Topic Count: 186 Topics Per Day: 0.04 Content Count: 14,271 Content Per Day: 3.31 Reputation: 16,688 Days Won: 30 Joined: 08/14/2012 Status: Online Share Posted April 1, 2020 1Co 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, Php 3:11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Php 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Heb 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not me Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Royal Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 516 Topics Per Day: 0.23 Content Count: 3,205 Content Per Day: 1.42 Reputation: 3,365 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/06/2018 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Willa said: 1Co 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Php 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ Php 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— Php 3:10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, Php 3:11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Php 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Php 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, Php 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Heb 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. A very nice grouping of scriptures Willa... They were very much on point, and were food for the inner man... Be blessed in Him, Not me Edited April 1, 2020 by Not me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not me Posted April 1, 2020 Group: Royal Member Followers: 14 Topic Count: 516 Topics Per Day: 0.23 Content Count: 3,205 Content Per Day: 1.42 Reputation: 3,365 Days Won: 1 Joined: 04/06/2018 Status: Offline Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) @Logostician If you wouldn’t mind me saying so Logostician, I see many great truths put forth in your post. What was said, how it was said, the Spirit from which it was said and what was not said... A most blessing of a post to read...Be blessed as God continues to answer the call of your heart.. A fellow servant of His, Not me @Gideon Be blessed as we run our races that we might get the prize.. A brother in the faith, Not me Edited April 1, 2020 by Not me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts