I know you not

Matthew 7:21-23 KJV — Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

If I had a favorite movie star and I kept track of all that happened in their life, studying up on all their favorite things, what would happen if I just showed up at their front door and asked to go into their home? They would probably ask me, “who the heck are you?” I could tell them my name and that I’m their greatest fan, that I know their favorite color, their favorite food, every movie they were in, how many kids they have, how many times they married, and to whom, if they ever battled addictions, where they like to vacation, etcetera, etcetera and they still would not open their door embracing me and call me their friend.

It’s more likely they would call the authorities and have me arrested for stalking. They would say, “I don’t know you and you’re creeping me out.” No matter what I say at this point it would not convince this movie star, that never met me in their life, to just open their door and let me in. You can bet there’d be a restraining order put in place so they will never see me at their doorstep again.

Those of us that are socially self controlled understand this is not something acceptable to do. Sadly, This is what so many think is OK to do to Jesus. Those of us that call ourselves Christians but choose not to read His Word, or choose not to pray and live our lives completely surrendered. Some of us can tell you all about Jesus, what He did here on earth, and how loving, healing and forgiving He is. Yet we choose to entertain ourselves with the world and harden our hearts to any change that we need to make within ourselves.

Matthew 25:11-12 KJV — Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

I have experienced relationships in my life that have proved to be very one sided. As long as I was willing to join them in what they wanted to do, or go to their house every time, then they were willing to be my friend. If I wanted them to come to my house or do something I like they always had some reason they couldn’t. They were never really interested in me or what was going on in my life but they loved to talk about themselves and their lives. These friendships only lasted until I got tired of feeling like I didn’t matter. At which point I would just stop trying and instead move on to friends that really cared about me too.

If I truly want someone to stay in my life and they really mean something to me, I will give them the most precious thing I have in this world to give them, my time. I would be interested in what they are interested in. I would want to know everything about them and would want them to know about me. If someone meant that much to me, I wouldn’t want to go one day without them in it. Once a week for a few hours certainly wouldn’t be enough time to know each other. More than likely this someone and I would be inseparable. If you saw me, you’d see them and vice versa.

As Christians, we want to be accepted into heaven where Jesus lives. We don’t want to hear Him turn us away saying, “I never knew you.” The question really is, Have we become friends with Jesus? How much time are we willing to give Him daily? Do we truly love Him, or is it our intent to just use Him to get into the door of heaven?

Faster than anyone wants to admit everything we spend all our time doing in this world will be gone. The only currency we actually have to give in this world is our time. No matter what excuses we try to use to excuse our choices we will still be confronted with the consequences of what we choose to do with our time. Did we invest it in the world and our current, vapor sized life, that’s here today but may be gone tomorrow? Or did we invest it in Jesus and our eternal, never to end, ever, life that comes immediately upon our exit from this life?

Matthew 19:29 KJV — And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Father God didn’t create us to be distant or indifferent from Him. No he wants relationship, a very close, intimate relationship with us. This is why He sent His Son to pay the price for our reconciliation unto Him. Have you ever loved someone so much it felt like life wasn’t worth living without them? If so have you ever loved someone that much but they didn’t return your love?

John 3:16 KJV — For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

How can anyone expect to enter into His house if all they ever did in this current life was turn their nose up at getting to know the one person who truly loved them enough to sacrifice everything just to be near them. We can’t even love ourselves with this kind of perfect love.

So we must ask ourselves once again, have we made Jesus our friend?

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you as you seek Him with your whole heart.

Courtroom of Heaven

Revelation 12:10 KJV — And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

No matter what we have done wrong, even the tiniest of sins, the enemy brings it to the courtroom of Almighty God, day and night.

If we default on a payment with a creditor and the penalty is beyond our means, that creditor will take the matter before a judge to obtain legal right to collect, regardless of our personal circumstances. Our non-payment might be due to a loss of income, an extended hospital stay, maybe we had to replace the furnace in our house, or our paycheck might have bounced. No matter the reason, that creditor wants their money and they have no mercy.

When the court date comes, and we decide we are too embarrassed to show up to court, what happens?

The creditor will be granted their legal judgment against us. Now they can garnish from the small amount we receive to keep our family fed. We know they are not suffering because of our little debt but they will show no mercy as to our struggle. They have legal right and that’s all there is to it.

The creditor will not bet on us to take their legally obtained judgment seriously either. No, we already defaulted so instead, they go to our income source and tell them they must pay them directly under penalty of law. Even if our employer wanted to help, their hands are tied. Until the debt is paid in full, we have no choice but to suffer the burden of garnishment.

Had we, despite the embarrassment, went to court that day, we would have been able to plead with the judge. We could have reasoned with the judge, telling him the circumstances that kept us from fulfilling our obligation to pay and ask for the mercy of the court in working out a fair deal.

Chances are the judge would empathize with us and rule more in our favor due to the circumstances we had no control over. The creditor may not show us mercy but the judge is likely to be fair, just and rule with mercy.

Our enemy, the Devil or Satan, is counting on us to not show up in court. Like that creditor, the enemy goes after any and all legal ways to throw the book at us for every sin we commit, even those we didn’t consider to be sins. The judge has little choice but to allow him judgement against us unless we go to court and plead our case.

The enemy fills our minds and hearts with unworthiness, shame or a downright rebellious attitude knowing we are unlikely to approach the courts of heaven full of anger or guilt. The enemy is well aware that the atonement for our sin is found in that courtroom. He knows God’s mercy and grace, and He is very well aware of who our advocate, our lawyer is. It Is in the enemy’s best interest to make sure we do not show our faces in court.

Sadly, most of us fall for his deception, lies and tricks. We then live lives’ less than we were created to live. Our purpose is stolen or taken, our joy, comfort, peace, our health, all our blessings, our sanity, sometimes even our will to live. We may have been just barely surviving and still the enemy showing us not a shred of mercy will debit from us again and again.

When a trust has been set up for someone under the age of 18, or in some cases age of 25, we can’t use the money in the trust even in an emergency, without going before the courts and producing convincing evidence of a need to make a withdrawal. Although it’s our money, the way it’s set up is to protect us from squandering it all away in our young, naïve understanding.

The court then is our advocate and will decide if what we present is a true need or not. Chances are, if we have taken time to go before the courts to ask, we have already thought about it long and hard and we are convinced of our need, and we certainly don’t wait until our need is met to go ask the courts to meet the need.

This is the main reason our enemy goes to any length making sure we never show up in the courts of heaven. What we ask for is already there and it’s already ours, we just need to ask for it. The enemy deceives us into believing we can’t go into heaven’s courts dirty, sinful, unworthy or ashamed. He convinces us that somehow we must meet the need first. Truth is, we must wear the need into the courtroom and plead for said need to be met by what has already been deposited for us. The blood of Jesus!

Romans 5:8 KJV — But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus didn’t wait for us to stop sinning, He didn’t even wait for us to agree we needed saving. No, even while we were yet sinners, He died for us. We have a trust already set up for us, all we need to do is go to court and show we realize and understand our need and with Jesus as our Advocate, our Judge, full of mercy and grace waits ready to grant us our request.

Romans 8:33-39 KJV — Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s not allow the enemy to bully us out of going before the courts of heaven where we can’t lose. We call the Judge Abba, Father and Jesus already paid the debt. Let us go boldly into the courts with thanksgiving and praise, laughing at our adversaries loss.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you as you seek Him with your whole heart.

God’s Attributes

The enemy saw God’s attributes and considered Him weak. He really thought he could put himself next to God without breaking a sweat. I wonder, does he regret all he did now? The enemy hasn’t even seen half of what’s actually coming to him in the real near future. He doesn’t know yet, the actual extent, of just how wrong he really was, when he mistook God’s all-encompassing love, goodness, gentleness, kindness, mercy, self-control, patience, etc. as weaknesses.

To overpower a person or take advantage of their gentleness, kindness, patience, or their love, so often wins the battle. But each time someone wins like that, they grow even more blind to reality as they pride-fully bask in the illusion of having won.

Reality is God wins! The war is won by Christ Jesus and those who courageously take the abuse of others, still holding on to His Will, His purpose, His ways, refusing to let anyone shake their faith, they come share in His victory!

You may be able to hurt them, knock them down, break their heart, but you will never be able to take away their victory in Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT — We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed but not driven to despair. We are hunted down but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

The attributes of almighty God are not weak!

To turn the other cheek takes more strength than to fight back.

To do good to those who hurt you takes more strength than to get revenge.

To forgive seven times your brother or sister for the same wrongs they have done to you takes more strength than to disassociate.

To continue to serve the selfish and ungrateful takes more strength than to throw up your hands and give up.

In a world that so aggressively teaches and applauses focusing on self, it takes a lot of strength to put aside your wants and needs for others.

I’m stunned at how many people seem to believe that those who live their lives emulating the attributes of Jesus are weak. Wouldn’t it be wiser to remember who is being emulated? Almighty God, Creator, Savior, Judge! If you ask me, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who is weak and who is strong! Does it?

You can win a battle with temporary strength, but to win the war, you need everlasting strength found only in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:8-10 NLT — Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you, as you seek Him, with your whole heart!