People all over the world are searching, people are all striving for excellence in this life. They want to have more money, higher status, fulfilled desires, answered prayers... people claiming they're christians without pursuing a life that matters.
I have heard some really awesome sermons lately, by radio with Greg Laurie, and at church by Loran Livingston, really talking about sin, repentance, salvation, and heaven. I learned SO much yesterday, that my brain still hurts today!
Greg Laurie hit the nail on the head when he said that "the real reason people don't come to Jesus is because they are practicing evil and they don't want their deeds exposed." How TRUE is that!? I can totally relate!
Even in the times where my life was so far from the Spirit, yet I still called myself a "Christian." That term really means "Christ- Follower" but I can guarantee that I didn't want to go where He was. He was at church, he was at boring get-togethers with sober people that liked to play pranks for fun, he was in quiet, serious places, he was where there were a lot of "don'ts." He was where all the people I didn't like were, he was with the misfits and the holy-rollers, and the moms and the dads. He was where there were too many rules and not enough FUN.
He definitely was not where I wanted to be. I wanted to be beer-in-hand, center of attention, riding the bull in the middle of the bar. I wanted to be dancing on tables, falling down stairs, feeling good and doing whatever I wanted. I wanted to be with the popular people, the hot guys, the cocky people, the people that always had something to do- something fun! I considered myself a "Christ-follower", a "Christian", but I was not going where he was. I had no desire to. I had no convictions and I didn't want anyone around that would tell me I was wrong, that I was sinning, or that I was moving further and further from the Spirit.
I think it is different for me to know what to do. I was saved at the age of 5, I re-dedicated my life in the 6th grade, and I followed Christ into a deep relationship. Then I experienced LIFE, and as my testimony demonstrates I ran as far as I could from Him. It was easier to live my life the way I wanted and to never feel guilty. At the bottom of my pit, I decided to REPENT of my ways, I started to HATE the things I was doing, and I ran into the arms of the Father, and decided to live for Him.
Pastor Livingston preached an AWESOME / difficult sermon on the importance of REPENTANCE yesterday. I can definitely see some parallels in the life I lived before. He said that there are many people, christians and non-christians alike, that appear to be "Christians." (We won't know for sure until Jesus comes to take his children home)... but "if a person does not say I hate sin, he cannot repent, and a person who has not repented, can't be saved." OR "If you're still doing, now, after you say you're "saved", what you were doing BEFORE you were saved, you WEREN'T saved."
Ouch. Also, Loran refers to a passage about the Demon inside Lazarus. Demons cannot be inside Christians, BUT if you can't help but do the things you do, if your life is disgusting to a Holy God, you may not be a Christian. This demon can make itself at home in your life... make you LOVE the way you're living. The verses in Luke, say you can clean your life up, get your act together, "pour the liquor down the drain, they go back to their wife, they get rid of their videos, they say they're doing better...they get cleaned up but they don't get cleaned out!"
The demon may leave for a bit, but when it finds no one else to dwell in, it comes back to you, and brings 7 more wicked than the first- causing the person that started living BETTER, to live WORSE than they ever were before!! WOW.. how true is that?! "It just gets worse and worse when people leave out repentance."
"We don't have to DO anything to get to hell. We were born on our way there."
"if you are not living right, you are lost... if you are shacking up, you're lost, if you're under the control of drugs or alcohol, you are lost... if you need the love of a man to make you happy and you're willing to leave your husband to get it, you are lost!"
This world is NOT what Matters! This world is nothing compared to ETERNITY. I don't want anyone to go to hell...especially people that I know that THINK they're Christians, yet still love the way they are living! "Some of you won't live right because you're in love with someone who won't live right..get AWAY from them...what's your SOUL worth?!?"
That story of Lazarus talks about his view from Hell. Loran teaches, "People in heaven will not remember you (the things of this Earth will pass away). BUT for eternity you will see your mom, your dad, you'll hear the preacher with tears in his eyes or compassion in her voice asking you to come, and you said 'not now', 'not interested', 'i'm having a good time', etc. You'll be praying for eternity, but no one will hear you. The devil won't be ruling or laughing, he will be squirming and begging just like the people he has deceived."
"Jesus did not save you so you could excel at your business or make a lot of money,
he saved you from a place called Hell."
I know that this is a touchy subject and that no one wants to evaluate their soul. No one wants to say they're not a Christian, No one wants to talk about hell, eternity, demons, sin, God, church, etc. I KNOW! It makes you uncomfortable. But I'm willing to take that risk. I'm willing to make sure that in my OWN life that I focus less on my search for the good things of this Earth, and focus more on spreading what I've already FOUND- A life that Matters! A life that has a purpose, a Life that is lead by the Spirit, ONLY because I have TRULY repented! I TRULY HATE the things I do that dishonor God.
It was hard to get to this point. It didn't happen over night. I made a decision in a second, but it has been over a year in digging down deep, repenting of things I didn't even know were "sins" at the time. It's a PROCESS... but at the SECOND you repent, you can KNOW that you are His child. You can KNOW that you're going to HEAVEN and not hell. You can KNOW that no demons will control your life and steer you of course. You can KNOW that He'll give you the power to say "No." You can KNOW that YOU MATTER!
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