Good morning and happy Friday. Yesterday I was talking about selling out to Christ. Is He worth that? In my studies and reading I'm finding more and more how deluded and disconnected I am in my relationship with Him. Our culture is partly to blame but my willingness to accept what is preached and perceived versus' what is really at the heart of it all is more to blame. I've talked before about Jesus in the garden and as to why He was in agony as He prayed. It wasn't because He didn't want to go or afraid to go it was because He would be bearing the full wrath of God, which was ours to bear, and be out of God's presence while it takes place. If God is just, and He is, then if He's pouring out His wrath on Jesus for us, He must be mad at us. Why else would He have anger? Well it's because we're sinful and ugly. We don't deserve to be with Him. So the loving part of God that is so over used so that we can justify things we do, sends His Son to take it for us. Imagine standing below a dam 10,000 ft high and 10,000 ft wide and it breaks. Just before you are destroyed a gapping hole opens and takes in all the water. Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath for us, which we could in no way handle, and after the last drop, turned the cup upside down and said "It is finished". So does He deserve us to be sold out to Him. Absolutely. In love always. <>< 

Good morning and happy Thursday, Friday eve for the optimist. Have you sold out, sold out fully for The Lord? During our lesson last night it really occurred to me that I don't really think I have. I don't think I know too many people who have. I have this image of me flying off the earth toward Heaven as I grow and mature in my relationship with Christ. It was harder at first and my trials and tests seemed too hard to break the bonds of gravity to move upward. As I get stronger in my relationship and could see that I was way above the earth but seemed to be in a holding pattern. Closer examination shows satan on the ground holding a few lines still tied to me. As I thought I was free of those things, which I am set free but true freedom comes only when I let them go and put them in the past forever. Jesus set us free, we have to decide to accept His gift. I may be just a speck in the sky from where I was, but what scares and bothers me most is that I really haven't let go of some things that keep me tied to the ground. That's all satan needs to reel me back down to him. Sure it will take a while but for him it may be worth the effort. So the question is, have I gotten to a point where now I'm just comfortable and not willing to work to move further on? When I meet and talk with young Christians, no matter their age, I see the fire that drives us off the launch pad toward the stars. How do we keep our fires burning so that we don't settle into an orbit of lifelessness and comfort not to be moved anymore? It's different for all of us, but for most it comes when we study and read the Word. Selling ourselves out to Christ, Jesus told the young rich ruler to sell all his things and give it to the poor and then he could follow Him. He's only telling us to let go of what holds us to this earth. To know that it costs us everything to follow Him. At least everything worldly. Join me in cutting loose of our strings that hold us back and keep us tied to this world. Remember, we're not of this world. In love always. <><