What Have We Left Behind

Saturday, October 28, ‎2023

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: 1 Peter 1:24-25

because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.

Memory verse: Philippians 4:8 ►Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Today's reading: JEREMIAH 12-14 2 TIMOTHY 1

What Have We Left Behind?

So much has changed in the last 60 years. 60 years ago a lot of smaller churches had no air conditioning and so the windows were up during worship and you could hear the singing down the street or across the pasture. I remember seeing some really weathered faces above neckties and faded suits in church, (some only had one suit for years).

The majority of the children in the small town where I grew up went to church while today most children do not. Public schools were trusted and now there are private schools, charter schools, and home schools.

Children brought up by parents who attended church usually held to the belief of their parents. When they went off to college or to work many fell away but a lot of them found their way back.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.

What have we left behind? While we live in a world that embraces progress above all, what have we forsaken? In a country that chooses personal choice over purity, what have we sacrificed?

Some would claim that we have raised a couple of generations without a conscience. That is what the enemy would like for us to believe. He would like for the people to believe that if they live like they want to for long enough they would forget right and wrong and that seems to have happened on a large scale.

Mind games of the enemy will never erase the effects of sin. I have lived long enough to have seen the long range results of sin in folks who lived by their own design. People carry sin forever. One day it turns to guilt. That pain needs a pill in this world and so big business provides a pill for each sin to mask the guilt. But sin never goes away. The load of guilt is a burden for millions.

One writer wrote these words in a song:

"So, I squandered my resistance taking any kind of drug,

I'd smoke or shoot or eat it or drink it from a jug,

And I offer no excuses for your sympathy to gain,

Oh........I wish it would rain."

A wish for rain...is a wish for cleansing...a wish for freedom from the mental and physical anguish. The enemy has the world chasing after something he can never deliver...

...deliverance. No, it is not just the drug addict. It is the housewife and the businessman-the doctor and the teacher. These are the fields that are white unto harvest.

What have we left behind? The truth has been forsaken. The simple and eternally profound truth of salvation and deliverance in Christ Jesus the Lord. The truth of faith in God that provides resistance to temptation has been squandered for temporal self-satisfaction.

Christ Jesus, the Liberator, offers freedom in His blood. This is not popular to mention these days, but the truth is still the truth.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Do you feel an urgency for the people you meet? Do you feel the Spirit of God move in you for the lost folks around you? The question is the same for those of us who have placed our faith in Christ. What have we left behind?

Spending time alone with God and walking in Him daily is not just a line on a page. It is the necessity of the Life in Christ Jesus. It is in God's presence that God instills this urgency in our lives.

If you have left your consciousness in Christ behind, Christ has never left you. Wake up. Confess.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is always here. He never leaves you. His eyes never leave you. His love endures all your sin. He is patient and kind. God loves you and is excited and waiting for you to return to Him.

Leave no one behind...

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I have chosen to leave Your urgency for the lost and the imprisoned behind. Have mercy on me and forgive me. Build Your fire for them in my heart.

Forgiving and patient God,

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen