Catch Me if You Can!

When we lose something important to us what do we do? We spend hours, days, sometimes even years looking for it until we find it again.....I imagine that God does the same thing when He loses one of us to sin, doubt, worries, or wordly treasures. He searches and searches until He finds us, then He chases after us until He eventually catches us.

Take a look at a few of the notes I jotted down from our sermon last week called "Running from God" ~ 

• "When we feel the weight of our sin, that's God trying to get our attention" 
• "With God, being 'caught' doesn't always mean punishment - Sometimes it leads to salvation" 
• "Sometimes we find ourselves running from God's will for our lives" 
• "Why would God spare you? Why would He forgive you of your sins? It's because He's not done with you yet" 

Do any of those quotes touch a nerve with you or seem familiar? They did for me.....

Growing up I spent a lot of time making bad choices and justifying them with various excuses. When someone wanted to talk to me about Jesus I diverted the conversation to something else. I avoided church and any activity that might cause me to face my sins and make changes. Quite frankly, I knew that admitting my sins and having a relationship with Jesus meant that I would have to change my life and stop doing everything that I wanted to do. The funny thing is, all the things I wanted to do made me happy at the time, but the happiness wore off quickly and I found myself spinning around in this circle of 'Why me?' and 'I wish things were different!' Good thing God never stopped chasing after me  all those years....

The funny thing about someone running after you is that if you're both running at the same pace, you eventually need to slow down or stop in order for them to catch you. What do YOU need to slow down or stop doing in order for God to catch up with you? Is there a sin in your life that keeps you constantly running from God? Is there a doubt or worry that you let consume you and keep you from being close to Him? Or is it the things of this world - money, possessions, relationships, your job, etc. that keep you running as fast as you can? 

Whatever keeps you on the run, I encourage you to SLOW DOWN and listen to what God is saying to you...Let Him catch you and your life will never be the same again, I promise. 

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" ~ Proverbs 16:9

The ONE Decision That Ruined Your Life.....

My heart has been heavy for several weeks now - I go to bed praying, I wake up praying, and I spend most of my day sporadically praying. You might say I have gone into 'desperate prayer mode'. For what you might ask? Well.....for you.

Truth be told, it's for me too. 

You know what I realized? I realized that each of us is ONE bad mistake away from ruining our lives. I mean think about it - ONE bad mistake and your life is turned upside down.

By itself, that's pretty depressing but then you know what else I realized? I realized that we are all ONE DECISION away from ruining our eternal lives. 

Jesus said over and over again "Do not love the things of this world!"

But what does that mean? Simply put, it means you should love God above all else. 

In Matthew 19:21-24 a man comes up to Jesus and tells Him how much he loves Him and that he wants to follow Him. Jesus replies "Go sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me". But the man went away sad because he had great wealth.

Jesus also says in Luke 9:23-25 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily to follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but lose himself?"

So what do YOU love more than God? Do your words and your actions glorify Him? Do people see Jesus thru you? Or if asked to describe what you love would someone answer "Sports, TV, work, food, the computer, etc"? Would Jesus even make the list??

Here are a few quotes that help put things into perspective: 

• "I am allowed to do all things, but all things are not good for me to do. We are allowed to do all things, but not all things help others grow stronger. Do not look out only for yourselves. Look out for the good of others also. " ~ 1 Corinthians 

• "The spirit wants to do what is right but the body is weak" ~ Matthew  

Look at the first quote - It means we are all given free will with the ability to make decisions and choices that will impact how we live on this earth. ONE of those decisions is the choice to follow Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to live in us and help us make the best decisions. Now look at the second quote - The "spirit" which is the Holy Spirit, will always guide you to do what is right because the body is weak. Those who do not choose to follow Jesus do not have the spirit living in them and their 'weak body/mind' will make decisions that impact them negatively.

So here's the bottom line - I said earlier that we are all one decision away from ruining our eternal lives. Let's change that around to say:

We are all ONE DECISION away from saving our lives - both now and eternally. 

Choose to follow Jesus. Choose to open up your heart, mind, and soul to Him and stop living for the things of this world. If you haven't been listening before now, it's not too late. Jesus is always ready no matter where you are in life. It's that simple.....I promise.