AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO DELIVER

A friend of mine passed away about a month ago, she was younger than I am.

Hadn’t spoken to her in years. But I was thinking eventually I would see her and we would catch up about all the time we’d missed.

This wasn’t something I was planning to write about, but it’s been heavily swelling in my heart, causing me to feel compelled to share the message behind it. The message is important to me, so here it is.

THE PERFECT THORN IN MY SIDE

My faith has been the most important thorn in my side since I was 22-years-old. Why would I call my faith a thorn? I’m referring to it as such as a reflection of the way my sin views the impact my faith has had on my life, my flesh, and my choices. The reason it’s been a thorn is because it’s forced me to reconsider the way I’ve lived my life, thought my thoughts, the behavior I chose to enact, the people I’ve stayed in touch with and why, and most importantly of all: it’s haunted the way I view sin.

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD

Faith is without substance if it doesn’t do this to a person. It’s like a poison that doesn’t kill. What kind of poison doesn’t make us sick and then kill us? Faith is the opposite of poison: it’s meant to bring us alive inside (Ephesians 2:5). Faith is meant to reshape perspectives, heart postures, mindsets, lifestyles, and the way we interact with the world. It’s meant to permutate every aspect of our being. If it isn’t doing that, it’s not authentic. It’s like putting a diamond in the fire to test it: you test faith by the ripple effect it has on one’s life. Someone on the outside should be able to notice a difference and comment on it like night and day.

Since receiving Jesus into my life, He’s allowed me to be deeply moved every time I try living without considering every facet of what Christianity does to a person. I know the reason why is because to live blindly is not to live a focused lifestyle of following Jesus. After all, Jesus isn’t blind. So if I’m blindly living, then my sights clearly aren’t centered upon His leadership. By blindly living, of course I mean living in sin. We are blinded by our sin (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Unless we turn to Christ in repentance and seek His Lordship over us, we are slaves to sin. If we’re slaves to sin, we aren’t serving Jesus, and if we aren’t in alliance by faith in Jesus, we are citizens of hell. It’s that simple.

THERE IS NO TOMORROW

What happens when we live like there’s going to be a tomorrow? We don’t really live today. The choices we make are compromised; the people we interact with get sub-par efforts on our part to actually engage fully. We aren’t paying full attention because part of our focus is already assuming tomorrow will bring more of what today is missing. At least that’s the lie our minds tell us. Or more accurately, that is the lie that the devil tells us to keep us from comprehending the truth that tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow is today, because time is one big timeline. It’s only separated by light, and the numbers we acknowledge via clocks/phones. But ultimately, life is one long string of existence, and we allocate certain efforts to specific parts of the that string in the order of what we find more or less important.

And who or what, one might ask, is the compass or judge of what we find more or less important, if we believe there is no God defining those parameters for us?

A WORLD WE’RE COMFORTABLE WITH

That’s the secular way of life. That’s life without God, without a transcendent purpose, without a reason to really do anything other than follow the way of the world—a way we’re more comfortable with. But we weren’t born to be comfortable, we were born to be the salt of Earth (Matthew 5:13-20), to reflect the nature of our Lord (Genesis 1:26), to live a new life (Ephesians 4:22-24), to be lamp on the hillside (Matthew 5:15), to heal and to pray (John 14:12), to serve and love, and to do it all in the name of Jesus Christ. That is supposed to be what life is all about. But sin is more comforting to the flesh, so we return to our vomit and get sick all over again.

A LIFE WITHOUT GOD

Faith has helped me find disgust with my old life so I can turn to the life I want more in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit speaks loudly when I’m veering off course and not seeing the light the same way anymore. Sin is attractive, but living a purpose-filled life of joy and peace of mind is better than being comfortable, lazy, and without God, which leads to existing without any part of Him forever. Eternal separation from God: No peace, no joy; no comfort or love, no affection, no sweet scents, no painlessness. All misery, suffering, endless agony, and the horror of its reality not being just a dream. The terror of the screams. Hell isn’t a place I want to go to… I don’t even want to think about it. I’d rather just fight my sin in the name of Jesus, follow His Lordship, and carry my hope for the Rapture.

There are many, so many others who don’t share these beliefs. I don’t want them to go to hell blindly. The way to hell is the life of carelessness, living without any semblance of faith in God, without fear of God, without recognizing our sinful nature and God’s redemptive, sacrificial act of mercy in Jesus Christ.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND CHRISTIAN

I could type this out all day, but only you decide for yourself who Jesus is to you. There’s a difference between being a good person and being a Christ-follower. Being a good person is defined by the world, but being a Christ-follower is defined by God. We live out His definition by loving Jesus in the way we live our life in rebellion against sin. Being a good person has nothing to do with it. We can’t even define what good is most of the time. And when we try, our definition contradicts itself. Unless we turn to God’s objective moral law, we have no idea what we’re talking about in regards to goodness. We have no idea how to really live unless we believe in God and place our faith in Christ, opening our Bibles and seeking His leadership.

My friend will never have another chance to see anything differently, but you do, right now. What are you doing with that chance?

WE JUST WANT OUR SIN

When my friend died, I wept for days. I wept because I’ve never seen her again. I wept because I didn’t take the chance to reach out to her sooner than waiting for an in-person visit. And I wept because so many people do what I did; they wait, and then the opportunity dies in the waiting. So many people think they’re living, but they’re already dead. They don’t even know they are because they don’t believe in that, but what they do believe in contradicts itself. And they don’t want to hear about it. They just want their sin. They just want to be left in their sin of choice—to live in blindness. They want hell without realizing that that’s the direction their life is aimed at eternally. That is why I wept, for days and days, because it’s not okay for me to not help people see that there’s more to life than that. Jesus Christ didn’t suffer a horrible death on the cross so we could live in blindness. He also didn’t die so that those who believe in Him would live in silence, either.

DON’T WAIT FOR LATER, TOMORROW IS TODAY

This blog isn’t mine. It belongs to Jesus. I write from the passion my faith in Jesus gives me. The reason I wrote this article is because it’s critical that we don’t take any day for granted. Don’t wait until your deathbed to figure out the ways you would have lived differently today. Don’t wait until the last moments to do what you think you would have done, or to say what you would have said. Tell that person you love them, spend time with that family member, witness to that homeless person you keep seeing; attend the church you feel called to, answer the knock at the door of your heart. Life isn’t about tomorrow, it’s about right now. Death can come at any time. There’s no way for you or me to know if we’ll wake up tomorrow, if we even make it to sleep tonight.

LIVE LIKE TODAY IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO LIVE THE WAY YOU WOULD LIVE FOREVER

People everywhere think death happens to “everybody else,” but that’s just not true. Death comes in many forms, many times unforeseeable. Therefore, live today like it’s your last. Do what you would have done. Don’t wait! Don’t wait to give your life to Christ. Don’t wait to say yes to the most important decision of your entire existence. Don’t take hell for granted and live in sin without fear of God. Rebuke the devil in Jesus’s name, and he will flee from you. There isn’t much time left. Whether it’s tonight or in 20 years, today is its last day. Because every day is right now, there is no tomorrow.

A PRAYER WE ALL NEED

Lord Jesus, thank You for allowing me to share this turmoil with everyone You brought to read this. Help us to comprehend that today is not only not just another day, but it could literally be the last day of our Earthly lives. Humble those who haven’t received You as their Lord to have a change of heart today. Grant those who have answered Your knock the boldness to live fully for You and not take for granted the time You’ve given them. Let us see the world the way You would see it, that we would have Your eyes, and live the way You call us to live, so that truly, our lives would be Yours, and not our own. Thank You for Your grace, for loving us when we don’t deserve it, and for leading us to Your eternal glory. We ask everything here in the everlasting name of Jesus. Amen.

Photo by Nicolas Houdayer on Unsplash