Time is money!

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…”
(Luke 16:10)

“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
(John 3:12)

It seems the Lord was showing me that these verses can refer to how we manage and steward and understand TIME. He gives us TIME in this temporal world and watches to see how we will use it. And if we do well (according to His idea of “well”), then He is ready to entrust us with heavenly, eternal things!

Sometimes, when we experience God’s tangible Presence, Eternity invades our temporal reality and TIME seems to disappear, as it is overwhelmed and displaced by His eternal, infinite Glory. And as we experience Him like this, everything in our lives begins to be transformed. But if we want to experience this infusion, we need to approach and esteem temporal TIME rightly — by spending a lot of it on Him, being willing to lavish Him with one of the few types of CURRENCY that really impresses Him — our TIME.

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Never give up!

I was driving the other day and really wanted to hear from God.  I said to Him “God please speak to me!”  And immediately my eyes landed on this mural and I felt the Presence of God.

My dear brothers and sisters, don’t step back from the good PROMISES God has given you.  If you never quit, you never will lose!  Because in the fullness of time, He will fulfill what He has promised you!

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

Per-severe.

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.” (Hebrews 10:35-36)

This concept just keeps coming back to me.  To persevere.  And to persevere is often a severe action and heart focus and mindset.   In some ways, such a foreign word to our culture.  But absolutely necessary for spiritual victory.

The exclusivity of holiness.

“Forsaking all other lovers, so long as you both shall live…”

A lot of people equate HOLINESS with purity. And I think purity is marvelous and necessary — but it seems to me that purity, as wonderful as it is, is merely a beautiful symptom of what true holiness really is: radical, exclusive PASSION for Jesus.

I know that there are times when we just have to be militant and war against our fleshly appetites and not let them win, because we know it is the right thing to do. But the BEST times are when we are so in love with Him that other “lovers” just aren’t an option.

The Bridegroom and the Bride…

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the Church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  (Ephesians 5:31-33)

Marriage is not something humans invented. It is a divine mystery emanating from the heart of God. And defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman is not about hate.  Rather, it is eternally important Truth — Truth that is meant to bless all humanity.  Because marriage is not merely about humans and human love.  It is meant to point beyond mere human relationships to a more essential and awesome reality and destiny and union — the union between the Bridegroom and the Bride.

What Grace is and what it is not.

The reality and concept of Grace cannot be separated from an obedient, loving relationship.  Grace is not an unstoppable force that moves us along in life, regardless of our response to it.  Grace enables us to be set free from bondage, so that, like Adam and Eve, we have an abundant life filled with blessings, and the power and free will to, at every crossroads, choose God’s way.

And as we continue to respond rightly to His enabling Grace in each situation, we acquire what I like to call a “momentum of Grace” that makes the right choices more and more “spiritually intuitive” and less of a struggle. But if we, like Adam and Eve, choose to ignore that Grace, the consequences can be devastating.

“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

And as we respond rightly to each situation and challenge, it is an indication that we are truly walking by faith and truly opening our lives to His enabling grace, which is also an indication of our love for Him:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15)

This Present Darkness…

The most effectively damaging narrative and images put forth by most Hollywood movies (and other major cultural sources) has nothing to do with porn or demonic slasher movies or outright attacks on Christianity.  It is the insidious poison of Humanism — the lie that people can be good, happy, fulfilled and successful without Jesus — that they are actually OK and do not need a savior.

And this narrative affects Christians as well.  Because this message is so pervasive, it serves to erode the “evangelical compassion” of the Church and to make them passive, timid, non-communicators of the true and complete Gospel.

And really, only Heaven-sent, fire-filled revival can turn the Church from being tepid and passive into the true, white-hot Light the world actually needs.  And that is why we must repent – repent of our passivity and lack of concern for the lost – and step out of our comfort zones and be true Salt and Light.

But most of all we must pray – pray and cry out for revival.

You never quit…you never lose.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God,
because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists
and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
(Hebrews 11:6)

Today!

“Hello…hello…hello…
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
I…have become comfortably numb.”

We must fight against the flood of comfort and passivity that seeks to slowly swallow us whole and imprison us in a comfortable padded cell of our own design, deep inside the safe walls of the Christian ghetto.

All around us are the living dead…the zombies of this present darkness…moving tragically and resolutely towards a Christ-less eternity.

TODAY is all we have. Don’t let your amazing TODAY be hijacked by mere busy-ness and the worries and cares of this world. Unplug from the matrix and invade someone’s darkness today!

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13)

LIGHT INVASION!!!

YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!

INVADE SOMEONE’S DARKNESS TODAY!!!