Monday, June 1, 2020

Friend or foe? An Absolute.

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 

You do not choose to be a friend of God. That is by invitation only. Only two people in the Old Testament were specifically described as “friends of God.” Abraham walked with the Lord so closely that God referred to him as His friend (Isa. 41:8). Moses spoke to God face to face as a man speaks with his friend (Exod. 33:11). By His very nature God is a friend to us. He loves us with a perfect love and reaches out to us with salvation when we can offer nothing in return. It is quite another thing when someone has a heart so devoted to Him that God initiates a special friendship. David's heart was totally devoted to God (1 Kings 11:4). Although David was not sinless, he loved God. David hated sin (Ps. 103:3); he loved to worship God (Ps. 122:1); he took genuine delight in God's presence (2 Sam. 6:14); he loved to speak about God (Ps. 34:1); he was keenly aware of his transgressions (Ps. 51:3–4); and he delighted in offering gifts of song, thanksgiving, and praise, asking for nothing in return (Ps. 100). So closely did David walk with God that his words were on Jesus’ mind as He hung upon the cross (Matt. 27:46). Jesus called His disciples friends. He said He would disclose to them things that the Father had shared with Him, because they were His friends. There developed such an intimate friendship between them that He would share what was on His heart with His friends. If you cannot describe yourself as a friend of God, commit yourself to seek after God with all your heart. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

In reality there are indeed absolutes.  Many philosophers, poets, politicians, some 'church leaders' and others would have you believe otherwise. 

In Christ, in the Plan of the Father, in the description of people and Angels, in the Word of God, there are indeed absolutes. 

God has said, there are two genders. Male and female. 
God has said there is a punishment for sin. Death.
God has said that the gift of God is Salvation through Jesus Christ alone. 
God has spoken and it comes to pass. Every single time. 

God says there is a day coming where the thoughts and intentions of each person will be revealed.  Every person who has ever lived will be separated to either the saved or unsaved. The believer from the unbeliever.  Mankind has a period of judgment coming.  Whether or not people accept it is irrelevant. Absolutely irrelevant.  Because Christ said it, it will come to pass. Because the Father declared it, it must be. The created does not, will not, tell the Creator how to run the Spiritual world. Our physical existence is but the beginning of life.  Not the entirety of it. Death is a passageway. Not a destination.  It is far more than we consider while we are yet alive.  

The wages of sin is death.  There's no escaping this ruling from God.  A single sin is enough.  A single choice to receive Christ as your Savior, will wipe away that debt, it is a change of life, not just a change of address.  It's living for the one who saved you, not living unto ourselves. 
Our home is now with the one who bought us with a price.  Heaven.

Where is your thoughts today? In this moment.  Are your thoughts running in circles?  Worried about what your physical eyes see?  Scripture says we are indeed at war, but it's not physically what we see. It's Spiritual.  It's on a plane that requires a full armor of God to survive each day. It calls out for us to rely on Christ to do the battle because only by His authority and command does creation obey.

These riots, the vandalism, the destruction, the virus, the political fallout, none of it surprises God. It really shouldn't surprise you.  God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.  Even all that stuff!?!  Yes. Even all that stuff.  People burned at the stake, people killed enmass by Hitler. Mass shootings.  Plane crashes. Cancer, coronavirus.  All means all in God's eyes. Why? What would be God's purpose for any of those horrific things!?! You ask.  To save the souls of people.  To save people. That kind of stuff is permitted by Christ to save people. Every single person coming to Christ has come by way of the cross.  But every path to the cross has been different for every one. In the end of life you will either have received Christ at the cross or you will have rejected Christ at the cross.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  He is the door to Salvation.  Nobody enters but through Him. You either enter into Salvation through Jesus or you enter into condemnation because you said no to Jesus.  Absolutes. But in your life you have to choose.  What Jesus did on the cross was to give you that choice.  There's no NOT choosing. Indecision is a decision unto itself.  Every man woman and child stands before Jesus at some point in their existence. That too is an absolute truth. 

Either you are saved or unsaved. An absolute.  

Either you are a child of God or not. 
An absolute. 

Your choice determines whether or not you are a friend of God or not.

Christianity isn't complicated. We needed a Savior.  Jesus is it. He offers to save you. To pay the debt you cannot pay. To pull you out of the pit and set you on solid ground. An absolute. 


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