The Life of Keith

What is your life all about?
What drives you? What makes you what you are, today?

* If you are not born again, then, well, it does not matter any way, one way or another, what you are about – because it’s all up to you and nobody else should constrain you to one way or another. The law, yes, but other people, no. You are your own person. Well, at least you should be. Are you? Who constrains you? Who keeps you from being what you yourself want to be? And why? YOU are the maker of yourself.

* If you are following Jesus, the One sent from Father God to represent Him on earth, then of course you are constrained by the love of God, and you want to follow what Jesus taught. You became brand new inside, and life takes on a whole new dimension.

The life of Keith (this man clicking-out these words) is “a born again life”, wholly committed to following Jesus. The eternal values which God gives me in the Bible – are guiding me to be who I am, today. What I am tomorrow will be …less of me and more of Him.

My goal each day
My goal each day: to be more and more like Christ my God. Not an overnight process. I am not the brightest bulb in the room! But the Lord is patient. He is not finished with me yet.

I am saved. Born again. But, I am still just a man in the flesh. Still.

I am amazed: after all these years I still don’t do only what I want. I often do what I do not want to do ¹. The decision “Getting born again”, or “following Christ”… does not make anyone “sinless”. Becoming more righteous is a day by day by day process. That’s because we are still in this body of death (the flesh).

Confessing quickly – not wallowing
Being “better”, being more righteous, is every Christian’s goal. But Christian maturity is not so much a matter of sinning less – it’s a matter of confessing more quickly! Instead of wallowing…, one turns from sin more quickly, admitting to God “I have sinned”, I repent sooner, recognize sin and repent, confessing and renewing, and starting afresh.

I do not want to be like drunk people, like a dog, like a pig:

Isaiah 19:14 …like drunk people stumbling in their own vomit.
Proverbs 26:11 [Full Chapter] …A fool who repeats his ·foolishness [foolish mistakes] is like a dog that goes back to ·what it has thrown up [its vomit; 2 Pet. 2:22].
2 Peter 2:22 …What they did is like this true ·saying [proverb; parable]: “A dog ·goes back to what it has thrown up,” and, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud.”

With experience, one looks ahead and discerns what is right and what is wrong, what is desirable with Christ and what is not. Getting into the Bible – one begins to see what is the mind of Christ, and what is not.

I am looking forward to the day when this body of flesh is all over and done with. Because then God is going to give me a complete make over! New body, new mind, new capabilities.

We can’t even come close to knowing, or even imagining, what it will be like – from this side of heaven. Based on 1 Corinthians 2:9, the Bible gives us a glimpse: Heaven is full of…

…what our eyes have not ever seen,
what our ears have not ever heard about,
what our mind has not ever even been able to imagine!

Fight the good fight
God has plans for us. He had us in mind — way before the creation of the universe. Way before earth! Way before I was born, He thought of me, Keith. And He wanted me to be with Him forever. Forever in His graces. Forever free.

“Things which eye has not seen
and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that
God has prepared
for those who love Him.”
– 1 Corinthians 2:9 [Full Chapter] NASB

I will continue the fight ², for as long as God keeps me on this planet, but, because all of this, here, is merely temporary — I will keep my focus on eternity.

What about you? What really counts, what is really of true value – is my faith in Christ, and living for Him — living with eternity’s values in view.

Fight the good fight of faith;
take hold of
the eternal life
to which you were called,
and you made the good confession
in the presence of many witnesses.
– 1 Timothy 6:12

My earth days
What a fool I would be, to merely make my earth days my focus, when my eternity is so much longer. Why waste my eternity by living my earth days in sin, unforgiven, not ready for heaven!

I do not consider my life of any account
as dear to myself,
so that I may finish my course
and the ministry
which I received
from the Lord Jesus,
to testify solemnly
of the gospel
of the grace of God.
– Acts 20:24

Eternity
If you are not “in Christ“, born again… then, of course, anything goes! But, in Christ, Creator God makes everything come into focus, for this life, and for eternity.

What really counts — living with eternity’s values in view.

FOR MORE:

What is your life all about? What drives you? What makes you what you are, today? The life of Keith (this man clicking-out these words) is “a born again life”, wholly committed to following Jesus. My goal each day: to be more and more like Christ my God. Not an overnight process. I am not the brightest bulb in the room!
____________

Being faithful, little by little

Who Are You In Christ

Not Afraid of Hell

Vile to Jesus

Accepting What God Rejects

Me, When I Die, still in sin