"Life" Time!

Author Andrew Murray said, “With the carnal Christian, there may be much religion and much zeal for God and for His service. But it is for the most part in human power. With the spiritual, on the other hand, there is a complete subjection to the lead of the Spirit, a deep sense of weakness and entire dependence on the work of Christ.”

Often LIFE is not lived because our priorities are all wrong.

John states further, “By believing in him, anyone can have a WHOLE AND LASTING LIFE.”

There is an experience, though usually brief and short-lived, of an awakening sense of LIFE when we invite Jesus Christ to come into our lives and control our destiny and direct our paths. WOW! Then, reality comes caving in like being in huge hole with ground falling in around you.

We have to deal with reality and reality demands that we have to order and prioritize our lives. Reality demands that we face the facts that life is tough and problems don’t just disappear. To quote the guru and “master” of psychiatry, your favorite shrink and mine, DR. PHIL (don’t tell me guys you don’t sneak a peak at his shows!), “It is important that you understand that the term life can be just as broad and ambiguous as the term happy. Thus, for you to say, “I want to be happy in my life” is so broad as to be completely meaningless. You must be specific in determining where you are and where you want to go.”

I cannot say DR. PHIL did or didn’t have God in mind when he said this. I don’t know where he is on LIFE with purpose and the Cosmic Creator in control. I agree with him though in principle. In following his advice of determining where we are and where we want to go, we have to decide what we’ll do with God’s gift.

Putting God in right perspective is the key to A WHOLE AND LASTING LIFE – the verse says, “BY BELIEVING IN HIM…”

Carol Mayhall is well known for ministry to women as an author and conference speaker. She tells her own story how her “marriage was developing some serious problems, my spiritual life began to stagnate…The reality was there weren’t many big things happening. My life consisted of dishes, dust and diapers. And at that point, God wasn’t the Lord of the everyday for me.” She discovered why this was her reality some time later. Her thoughts are stinging and may hit close to home for too many of us. “I began to realize that…much of the knowledge I had stuffed into my head had never dropped into my heart. Part of my faith was authentic, yet part of it consisted of going through the motions. I was living a routine…”

Jill Briscoe, another woman known for her conference speaking and ministry says the key is honesty. She writes “To make your faith authentic you must be honest. First, be honest when you pray. Second, be honest in your thought life. Third, be honest with your family and friends. Finally, be strict with yourself. Don’t allow yourself to be “shoddy” in your Christian disciplines. Check your lifestyle. If you were watching yourself, would you consider yourself hypocritical? If so, be honest about it – then deal with it.”

- God offers you LIFE - here - NOW

- That LIFE is found in responding to the invitation to be in relationship with Him