Sunday, June 11, 2017

A life lived well.

     It's Sunday morning.  The sun is beginning to shine through the wooded area at the end of my property.  There is no wind.  Everything but the air cleaner is silent.  My dog is laying beside me in my recliner peacefully sleeping.  There seems to be expectations in the air for me to put time in outside today.  Maybe pull some weeds or perhaps work on one of my many projects.  I'm blessed to have been granted yet one more day here on earth.  I start most every day with my devotions, journaling and writing this blog.  The rest of the day is unpredictable.  I like it that way.  No rut to stay in.  Some days I don't work on projects or even tend my gardens.  Then there are days that it seems like I've finished so much.  With my busy life directed by God you would think I live a life of bliss.  Not so.  Well, some days.  No one that I know has a life of bliss.  Rather they, like me, look forward to an eternity of bliss in heaven.  That's the way it should be.  I've just finished the last 4 days of journaling by sharing 10 questions about being an active Christian.  I don't want to be lukewarm or even cold in my representing the Lord Jesus.  There in lies my struggle.  Maybe it's your struggle as well.  You know.
     The title of my first book is "While I Was Yet Sinning."  I wrote the book out of my desire to share how we are sinners saved by grace living life on a day to day basis, failing and getting back up again.  Our lives as they unfold are the only Gospel some will ever se.  The book has a common theme of caring for the lost, the widow and the orphan...while you and I are still sinning.  There is no excuse for our witness of Christ.  None.  As Christians we need to get set free from the thinking which reflects why we don't share Christ.  We need to drop the guilt and be real with people.  Even though many know of my many failings, there are still opportunities that come before me to share my faith.  You know, the faith that Christians are blessed with.  People are watching us.  Some are watching us to take us out of the fight.  They are waiting for that fatal error where we sin in a way that they think disqualifies us for the race.  Then there are those who watch us to evaluate how much faith we have.  From time to time we all seem to decrease in our faith.  Finally there are those who seek to find out what it is that makes our lives so blessed.  These are the people that seek Jesus.  There is where we need to spend our time.
     I try to make no excuses for my life.  It's been lived with both success and failure.  There have been times of great faith along with times it appeared that I abandoned my faith.  I don't think I'm alone in all of this.  I think you have been there as well.  In the end we all want to hear those words "well done my good and faithful servant."  We desire to see personally the God who has forgiven our sins and "remembers them no more."  There are regrets that haunt so many because they don't believe that they are forgiven.  The past doesn't exist except as a historical perspective.  The future doesn't exist except as a longed for eternity with Jesus.  I'm a sojourner here in the land.  I'm walking down the road living for Jesus in hopes of being held by Him when I enter heaven.  We all should do the same.  There are few easy answers in this complex world.  All the more reason to drop the past and future from our world and die to self leaving Christ living through us.  We don't belong here for any purpose other than to bring the Gospel to a lost world of people.  It's always your choice.

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