“Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb….”
– 1 Peter 1:18-21 The Message (MSG)
To be a “Christian” requires endurance. No two ways about it. Christ endured to the end – dying on the cross for us. Mission accomplished. I want to finish well. How about you?
Faith in Christ is not a faith you hold strong one day, let go of it the next, get it back another day, let it go again, and then get it back… and so on and on and on. That “on again off again” faith is a fickle faith – not what the saved of God practice.
Our daily practice of our faith should not let us be satisfied with a useless way of life.
- We are not satisfied being useless and worthless.
- We don’t give it up.
- We give it our all.
- We endure through it all.
“Endurance to do the will of God” (Hebrews 10:36-39) is what the verifiable saved of God practices. We hold tight to Jesus. We hold tight to His promises – through to the end.
Yes, we have struggles. We have testing. We have sin. Believers have plenty of that! We groan with pains all through-out our life while in this body. But we fight it. Through our times of struggle… we hold to His promises, to Him as our Savior and Lord. We endure to the end.
I often recall this song and sing it: “God said it. I believe it. And that settles it for me.” God will carry me through whatever comes my way. I may die without seeing God rescue me, as did many of the heroes of the faith described in Hebrews, but I know He holds my future, and my inheritance as a child of the King is secure in Him.
In Romans 7 the Apostle Paul says that he struggled with sin — but then immediately says that he is eventually victorious over those struggles.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! – Romans 7, verse 24.
We are not slaves to sin, Paul teaches us. We do not have to sin. The Spirit empowers us to enable us to not sin.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. – Romans 7, verses 9-11.
Living a worthless life? Or are you striving for conduct becoming? Are you Livin’ it to the max!? Are you a maturing, true Christian? It’s a lifelong process – maturing. It takes perseverance to “fight the good fight“. (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7; 1 Timothy 1:18) Source: Is this you?
Habakkuk 2:4 explains the difference between being “rash” and “having faith”.
4 See, the rash have no integrity;
but the just one who is righteous because of faith shall live.
Abraham was “righteous” because he acted on God’s word to him. He held tight to God’s promises. That is what the Christian does: the Christian endures.
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. – Jude 1:20-25
Source: Livin’ it to the max!
I am living life to the maximum! I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back! I have chosen to be a born again follower of Jesus Christ. How about you? I have put my faith in the One who makes heaven possible for sinners.
Jesus said that after this life on earth, when I die I will go to be with Him in His Kingdom, because I’ve been redeemed. My sins are all forgiven. So I’m pushin’ it forward, all my wealth, that which will not be burned-up. All for Jesus.
This life’s fears and dreads, threats and evil and havoc — bring me no fear. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
I can do all things [which He has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]
He holds me in His hand, and nothing can snatch me away from Him. Not a damn thing.
“For to me… to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
FOR MORE:
Habakkuk 2:3–4; Isaiah 26:20; Hebrews 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11
Hell’s Best Kept Secret, by Ray Comfort: Download PDF to your download folder
People of Faith and What They Did
Inheritance: Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 1:18; Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 1:12; Colossians 3:24; 1 Peter 1:4
Fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7; 1 Timothy 1:18)
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