nuff said

(HT: Wretched)
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Examine yourself

Have you ever wondered about your true standing with God?

Up until age 44 I was 100% sure I was saved, that God and I were good-to-go. That is until one day, in His own divine timing God showed me His holiness and the reality of my sin, revealing my actual standing with Him and it wasn't good. Oh I had a relationship with God but it wasn't pretty; I was in opposition to Him.  I'd been careening toward an eternity separated from God and in hell. Before then, I thought my spiritual vision was quite clear thank you very much..but I was blind blind blind.  When the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit mercifully at work in me caused the scales on my eyes to drop away there was dramatic change. Heart change, desire change, my whole world-view was turned right-side-up.  It was as if I could see for the first time in my life, and similar to Isaiah,(in 6:5) I said:  'Woe is me! For I am lost...and I dwell in the midst of a people likewise lost!'.

Not long after that day I came upon one of the most startling passages in scripture:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' " Matthew 7:21-23

Startling for a few reasons.  For one, it points to the magnitude of our salvation.  For another, it points to the reality that there are still a great number of people who, exactly like I was, are walking in darkness blind to their unrighteous standing before God, though they think they are safely in the clear.

"No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:14

I haven't questioned my standing with God since that day but that doesn't mean that born-again believer's can't have doubts or be confused.  Struggling isn't bad, it can actually be good. Struggling helps us grow in Christ's likeness, it produces character.  What should be troubling for any Christian is if we never struggle! 

to every nation, tribe, tongue and people

gorgeous, poignant, Powerful.

"Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.' " Isaiah 45:22-23

(HT Challies)

TWR: Speaking Hope to the World from TWR on Vimeo.

Salvation, essentially

"Essentially, salvation is the restoration of a right relation between man and his Creator, a bringing back to normal of the Creator-creature relation. . . .God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode"
~A.W. Tozer

The Greatest Story

Reconciled..what?

I was a professing Christian for most of my life, then at 44, God actually made me one.

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit," Titus 3:4-5

Up till then I'd walked aisles and prayed the prayer several times over, and cried plenty sorry tears,  but my sorrow was never more than a worldly sorrow and my faith was in vain.  However I was sincere..really truly sincerely sincere!  Little did I comprehend the utter  impossibleness of "sincereing" my way to God or with Him in heaven.

"Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." "  John 14:6

I was a false convert.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8

Married at 18, twin baby boys by 19, those early days were a blissful time. I loved being a mother and wife. Skipping by relatively normal kid-raising years, our boys were out of the house and were by all accounts happy, healthy young men on their way to productive lives of their own. Still youngish ourselves, husband and I were happily settled-in to the empty nester life. We had financial security, the home, the toys, and plenty of friends we shared this life with. It felt like we had "arrived", that is, if all there is to life is health, good times with family and friends, and collecting stuff....of course all this along side healthy doses of philanthropy and "good deeds". I was feeling pretty great about life, myself, and about my relationship to God at this point