I Hope You Get it Right!

November 3, 2011

Life is so interesting. We don’t always notice change, because it often happens gradually. I have my school pictures all the way from kindergarten through 34 years of teaching. I am able to see that I have changed a lot over those many years. I can look at the photographs to see physical differences in myself over time, but memories are what I rely on to remind myself of how much I’ve changed in other ways. How many of us have ever described a part of your life as “my BC days?” That means, “my Before Christ days.” Well, I clearly remember those days. Like many of you, at one time I was on a self-destructive path of partying, drinking, living for fun and pleasure, and without much thought about eternity. I thought church was boring, and for goody two-shoes who didn’t have a life. Church wouldn’t work with my late Saturday nights anyway. I really enjoyed the drinking, and dancing, and partying. Sometimes we had a such a blast. The Bible says that there is pleasure in sin – for a season. (It does end!) There was no shortage of party friends in my life in those days.

Despite my life, God always kept a place reserved in my heart to know truth – to know my Creator. I knew I had to change, but I just didn’t know why, or how. I didn’t even really necessarily want to. I just knew I wasn’t living right. I knew in my heart of hearts, 30 some years ago, that I wasn’t bound for heaven, although I did think that my ‘good’ outweighed my ‘bad,’ and for that reason God wouldn’t possibly send me to an eternal hell.

No one had ever told me that salvation wasn’t based on good behavior, or lack of it….. until one day. Thank the Good Lord, that there was a Christian lady that cared about my eternal soul. She reached out to me even though my lifestyle and interests were quite different than hers. She made an opportunity to witness to me when an experience happened that she knew shook my world a bit. She took that opportunity to share the gospel, as well as her personal testimony. She spoke in my ear, but God spoke in my heart. Wow! Instantly, I was drawn to the truth of the Word, and I also wanted the peace and strength that this lady possessed. It wasn’t long and I became a whole new Cathy. I was born spiritually in 1979. I once was alive in my body, but dead in my spirit at the same time. It felt so good to now be alive in body and spirit. This is what God does for you when you have a new spiritual birth! Thank God that His Word could penetrate my sinful soul, search my heart, show me a true reflection of myself, instill faith, draw me to righteousness, and remake me in God’s image.

Because I know what God did for this ol’ sinner girl, I know He’ll do the same for you! He’ll take you and remake you – even if you are living hard, and ignoring that ‘God void’ in your heart. Give it up! God is so ready to fill the void. Love feels so good on the inside. God is love. No sin will ever feel as good as God’s love! God made me into someone much better than what I was making myself into. And He gave me eternal life too! There is a lot of misery in this world. And don’t get me wrong, a child of God endures suffering too, because we don’t cease to be human when God saves us. Nevertheless, we do have God’s promise that He’ll care for us, and give us strength and comfort to go through every trial. We look forward to the day when all trials are over and God’s eternal plan is complete. Then we’ll be home! We’ll be in Heaven. It will be worth everything we will endure on Earth – because we will “endure” sufferings as followers of Jesus Christ. The “world” basically hates us.

We need to multiply. Converting sinners is the work of a Christian life. We must thoughtfully contemplate, is a person truly converted to Jesus who takes no pains to persuade others to be reconciled to God? I don’t think so. We MUST warn sinful men of the consequence of a life void of God! Hell is the end result! Every one of us has to decide whether or not we want to be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ – the only Savior of mankind. This is the most important issue in this life. Will I choose to be loyal to the Lord?

If you already are a follower of Jesus Christ, will you be there when someone needs your testimony? Don’t forget where you once were! Always be ready to share your testimony and give an answer from the gospel to everyone that asks or seeks. That’s our mission! If you haven’t yet given your life to Jesus Christ, please don’t wait. Do it today. We don’t know when His return is, but when it happens, in the twinkling of and eye – POOF!!! – there is no turning back and your eternal destiny is sealed. This is it – your chance to get it right!

Posted in Edification