Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Perservere

1 Kings 9:1-6 says
When Solomon had finished building the temple of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, 2 the LORD appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The LORD said to him:
   “I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
 4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
 6 “But if you[a] or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All[c] who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.’” 

Now why did I just copy you those 6 verses? Because it is where Solomon is dedicating the temple to the Lord and the Lord explains to Solomon look I'll be there as long as you don't turn away from me. Wow. Isn't that what He tells us too? That He will be there. If we call He will answer? Such a beautiful promise. I put the next verses about what will happen if we do not keep his word and pursue Him because I think a lot of times we get messages about hte love of God and miss that He is holy and perfect and demands us to live for Him. It's for Him or against Him there is NO in between.

In my own life, I have to remember that and not neglect to spend the time with the Lord that I need to. Some days I need more time with Him than others but there is nothing in this world that is going to satisfy me as all other things will come to pass but the Lord is eternal. The relationship I am building with Him is set to eternity so the time I am investing now will be not be forgotten when I see Him, it will simply be a start to the eternal relationship I will have with Him.

Now I have to make the point with this text that while we are called to holiness the laws this text is referring to were bought by the blood of Jesus. His life, death and resurrection fullfilled the law. We, then, need only to love the Lord and love our neighbor. If we truly love God we will follow the instructions He has given us, and if we truly love our neighbors we will serve and share our joy with them. There are no longer sacrifices that need to be made in the form of animals ect as Jesus was the sacrifice. Now we must invest our lives for the cause and purpose of the Lord. We must not get complacent.

So dear friends. I am still praying for you that you would run after HIm. Don't give up. Perserve until the end. For it is that perserverence til the end that does not earn your salvation, as that is by grace a gift from God, but it affirms your salvation. Once you know Him, truly no Him, there is no way you want to go back to where you were before Him. Not that you won't stumble, because none of us are perfect, but have the general pattern of your life be that you are runnings after God. As you draw near to Him He will draw near to you. Let's walk faithfully with hearts of integrity and uprightness and let's keep His commands as this passage said David did. Let's be like David, and be men and women after God's own heart.

:) God Bless.

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