Truth Keep

Good Morning from my neck of the woods!!!!     I hope and pray that where ever y'all are that you are happy, joyous and know that you know you are blessed.     If you are reading this, you are blessed.     If you was able to get out of bed today, you are blessed.    If you are able to inhale and exhale air with your lungs, you are blessed.     If your heart is beating, you are blessed.     Ok, ok, you catch my drift.    We are blessed to have life this morning.     I do believe that a lot of us just don't realize that life itself is a blessing.   If we know Christ as our Savior, we know we are blessed.     If we don't know Him as Lord and Savior, we don't and we can't even begin to realize that we are blessed.

I heard a preacher say one time that there are 4 kinds of people.

1. People unsaved and know it.   They don't care.  Maybe even blatantly anti God.

2. People unsaved and don't know it.    They just haven't or don't realize that they need Jesus.

3. People who are saved.    They are the ones who have made Christ Lord of their lives.

4. People who are unsaved but think they are saved.     These are the ones that the enemy has really deceived.

That pretty much covers the scope.     If I was to ask you which one you are, what would you say?    My husband worked with a couple of men, number 1's, that was unsaved and they knew it and they was not willing to change their lifestyle in this life for something they didn't even believe exists and if they did believe it exists, they was willing to go to hell for temporal enjoyment.    This is basically what both of these men said, on multiple occasions.    We can just pray that somehow, someone can get through to them.

Me, I was number 2.   I was unsaved and didn't know it.    I was seeking after something better, (a better way of life or something) than what I knew up to that point and I was seeking in the proper direction and God made Himself known to me in a very real way.    I knew I needed something.    I knew I was lacking something.     I didn't know what it was.     I kinda knew, but I didn't know.    The best I can say is that I didn't know what I didn't know.     That is just about the best way to describe it.   When I finally met Jesus and had an encounter with Him, that's when I knew I now had what my heart had been longing for, I just didn't know what it was, before my encounter.    It's hard to explain this to someone who doesn't know Christ and doesn't want to know Him.    But, if you are someone that is lacking something and you know it, but you just don't know what it is, maybe, just maybe, it's Jesus!!!   

Now, I am very happy and excited to tell you that I am number 3 and have been for about 43 years now!!!  Sweeter gets the journey!!!    Am I perfect?   Way NO!!!!!!     NO way!!!!!   hahaha     I'm not ashamed to tell you that.    Because in my 43+ years of following Christ, I've never met anyone else that is perfect.     Oh, I come across a lot that THOUGHT they were, but they weren't and aren't.    Do I love Jesus perfectly?     I would love to say yes.    Do I love Jesus as much as I can love Him?    Again, I would love to say yes.     In reality, I can't and don't love Jesus perfectly, because I am not perfect.   My lack of imperfection does not give permission to blatantly sin and walk in the flesh.    My imperfection gives me the permission to walk in the spirit, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and try to live a life that is pleasing to God.    Again, not perfect.    Just in obedience to the will of God.     A regenerate heart is a heart that DOES have love in their heart towards Jesus.   If you don't have ANY love in your heart what so ever for Jesus, then you don't know Jesus as your personal Savior.    I have seen people recoil or flench at the very mention of Jesus and seen their whole countenance change to something almost unrecognizable.  Not someone I want to be around.    On the other hand, I have seen hard faces softened at the mention of Jesus and their countenances change just at the mention of His name.     The very mention of Jesus is the calm assurance that externally, I may be like a hamster on a wheel, but inside, I am so at peace and joyous when I hear that sweet name.     If you have love in your heart for Jesus, then you know Him.    

Compare Judas and Peter.    Jesus told Judas that what you must do, do it quickly.   The betrayal is what Jesus was speaking of.     He was the one who had no love in his heart for Jesus.   Peter on the other hand, told Jesus that he would never deny Him.   Jesus told Peter that the devil was going to sift him like wheat and after wards, he was to strengthen the disciples.    We all know that Peter had great love for Jesus, but Peter denied Jesus just as Jesus said he would do.    Was that the end of Peter?    A big old honking NO!!!     In a way, that was the beginning of Peter!!!     When Jesus restored Peter wholly, fully in front of the other disciples, they in turn accepted Peter fully and wholly back into the ranks.     And a little later, we know that Peter preached one of the greatest sermons ever preached!     Peter is who I am reminded of when I have royally messed up.     I have to keep thinking how Jesus loved Peter so much that He, Jesus, prayed for Peter.    If Jesus prayed for Peter, guess what, I believe He is at the right hand of our Father, praying and pleading on behalf of me and you, while the enemy sifts us like wheat.     The enemy can sift us, Jesus keeps us!!!     Jesus gives us strength.    Jesus encourages us.    Jesus loves us.    Jesus makes a way for us.     Jesus is our rest.     Jesus is our overseer.      Jesus is our watchman.     Jesus is our bread.     Jesus is comforter.     Jesus is our covering.

So, remember if you love Jesus, you will fail.    You will fail to love Jesus as much as you should.    You will fail to love Jesus as much as you can.     You will fail to represent Jesus to your fullest, probably daily.     Does that mean you don't love Jesus?   Absolutely NOT.     It means that you/we have to recommit to love Jesus.      It means we have to confess our sin.    It means we have to admit we have sin in our lives.    It means we have to seek forgiveness of our sin.    We're not seeking salvation again, (because we can't lose that), we are seeking forgiveness.   Seeking forgiveness for our sin; missing the mark, not doing what we should, doing what we shouldn't do; is putting us back in right relationship with God.     We want to be in right relationship with God at all costs.     So, when we do wrong, we need to acknowledge it to get rid of the guilt.

Have you ever been to the point that you knew you done wrong but didn't seek forgiveness?     If you have, it eats at you.     You don't take care of it.   It continues to eat at you.     You start finding it easier to let it go and then you let more and more sin go unchecked.    It starts snowballing and all of the sudden you are at rock bottom.     If you have been or maybe are there now, just know that there is nowhere to go but up from rock bottom and Jesus is waiting to help you up out of that pit.    It may be fair to say that anyone of us have been there on multiple occasions.    It is VERY easy to do.    We start thinking that we are something we're not.    We're not above sin.    When we think we are, that is sin.  Just know that you don't have to stay in the pit.    You don't have to spend one more second in there.    Jesus is always ready to help!!!  That is sweet to know.

Now, there is number 4.    Those who think they are saved, but are not.     How could that be?     Well, the enemy is always on the lookout for those he can lie to, kill and destroy.     The enemy lies to us.    Sometimes we don't know we are being deceived till it's too late.     But, once again, back to the point earlier about having love in your heart for Jesus.   If you DO and you know you do have love in your heart for Jesus, then you have a regenerate heart.    It is impossible to truly love the Jesus of the bible and be lost.      The only we can love in the first place, is because God first loved us.     That is what allows us to be able to love Jesus.     If you love Jesus, you love Him enough to deny your selfish desires and live for Him with His help.     That's the only we can do that, with His help.

One of the sad things today is that we have a lot of churches that are catering to the lost.     The lost need to hear the Word of God, for sure.   That's evangelism.    But we have gotten away from the fact that the New Testament churches were for those who had accepted Christ as The Way.    The church is for followers of Christ.     The church is to evangelize, that's right.   But we must NOT forget that the church is where the regenerated go to be with other like minded people, to study and to encourage and be encouraged and learn and grow in their relationship with Jesus and to be ready to go out and evangelize, spread the gospel.    When we dumb down the service and change the service to make it world friendly, then, at best we become worldly christians.     There is no such thing as a worldly christian.     That is where number 4 comes in at.     But we went to church, we done this, we kept busy at that.    When did you sit at the feet of Jesus and soak Him in?     You probably didn't, you didn't have time to do that.   I think some have labeled it "seeker sensitive".     They are looking for something that looks like the world.   If they find the world in the church, they think they have found Jesus.     More likely, Jesus is outside knocking on the door of the  church waiting for someone to let Him in, but noone will, because they don't recognize Jesus, because they don't know Jesus and they don't have love in their heart for Jesus.     Their heart is filled with worldly pleasure that they have found inside the "seeker sensitive" church.     If the church you go to looks like a rock concert, it's more than likely a seeker sensitive church.   Again, this church is more than likely filled with number 4 people.   You would probably be better off fleeing that church as fast as you can and shaking the dust from your shoes.  

I have not tried to be judgemental of any of these four people.     I pray that I haven't come across as such.    But, if anything you read sparked something in you, talk to Jesus and ask Him what it is.    Seek His help to determine which one you are.     I pray that you are number 3, with the knowledge that you are not perfect.     Imperfection does not give us the right to walk in the flesh and sin because we're human and can't help it.    It gives us the privilege to walk in the spirit as overcomers of the flesh.   Be an overcomer.     Be someone seeking Jesus in everything you do.   Be someone sharing Jesus in everything you do.     Be an encourager.     Be a friend.     Be a stepping stone, not a stumbling block.     Make sure you are someone who knows Jesus, because you have had an encounter with Him.   And be someone that's ready to share Jesus with the next person you meet.    Be someone who is ready to share the TRUTH and KEEP the truth.

Remember that God loves you more than you can possibly know, to provide a way for you to be in right relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ!!!      Don't ever forget that.     The enemy wants to see you dead.   In Christ there is life and more abundantly.    Be blessed today.  I love each of you and I thank you for stopping by.    hugs, patty