As I walked through my house thinking of all that society is dealing with in 2017, it was crystal clear to me that the blog I write today was why God put this on my heart in the first place…..as a society, we simply have lost our Foundation Of Truth.  In truth, this is proof of the “evolution of thought”……and that is the idea that one logical thought followed by many others does NOT lead us to the truth….it leads us to a mess.  And that is what we have.

 

Before I continue on from this point, I am going to ask for prayer.  Please….cry out to the Lord that I would write this in the Spirit and that it would be received by all who read it in the Spirit.  Because the flesh is what drives all the political agendas, all the cultural mindsets, and all the evil that we currently see in society today.

 

But all of that….and I mean ALL of that….can be gone in an instant when we, and I mean WE, submit to the will of God and become a people who follows after the risen King.

 

As I mentioned in 71….God is ALL we have.  Jesus….is ALL we have.

 

So let’s build a Foundation Of Truth and lay waste to any thought or mindset that is not true so that we can actually walk in Truth and not build a house on a structure that will not stand up.

 

Here it is:

  1. We were created by God in His image…and in 2017 that means:  You Are Not An Accident.  You are here because God has a plan for your life.  His plan is to light a fire inside of you different than the world has ever seen.  And that fire is to inspire you to love so greatly that the people around you ACTUALLY see God in you and through you.  That you have something so different in you that others are drawn to you because you are distinct and set apart and different.
  2. We, due to the choice of one man, fell into sin…and in 2017 that means:  You Were Born Into Sin.  This might not seem fair but it is reality…it is truth.  And it is fair because all men, given choice, choose just like the ONE guy.  We are all God’s enemies….and we are born with it in us.  It is kind of like pork…..in the Bible, God calls pork unclean and it is….If you set it on the counter, it will rot INSIDE before it will be ruined by what is on the outside.  In fact, you have to cook the rotten out of it in order to eat it.  It is simply UNCLEAN on the inside—just like you and I.
  3. All of us, and I mean ALL of us, are filled with sin…and in 2017 that means:  You ARE NOT What You Are Tempted To Be.  And it is in this foundational lie that our society is headed in the wrong direction.  God HAS GIVEN US AN IDENTITY.  Read about it and find out who He says you are.  Instead of making our temptations our identity, we need to say no to them and allow the Lord to tell us who we are.  This is as true for me as it is for any person on our planet.  After all, if I were what I was tempted by…..I would have lost my way a long time ago…….
  4. He laid down His life to save us…and in 2017 that means:  He Gave His Life That You Might Be Free.    2000 years ago a guy named Jesus changed the world.  He was crucified on a cross between two thieves, for a crime He did not commit, in a court of law that broke its own rules, by a group of men who were supposed to know Him, and at a time when all His friends ran and forgot Him.  The story is incredible but the bottom line is this:  He gave it all for you.  And, no, you are not free to go do whatever you want.  You are free to have hope, and love, and identity put over who you are and all you do.
  5. We get to choose to follow Him or not to follow Him…and in 2017 that means:  You Can Not Follow Someone Unless You Go In The SAME Direction.  Following Him involves change.  It involves saying no to some things and yes to others.  It means that we are going to go where He leads.  Freedom is not jumping out of the sheep pen and running out to “mix in” with the wolves….it is staying under the direction, and protection, of the Shepherd.   

 

That’s it.  That’s the offer from God that we are free to accept or reject…..and it is….OUR INDIVIDUAL CHOICE.

 

So there it is…..

 

I want to end with a thought:  All of us are tempted.   We will all be asked to turn away from something that we want to do.  It is important to remember that turning away and saying no is the beginning of finding out who we truly are.  We….are children of God.  This is a simple concept….but we have turned something very simple into something more complicated than it needs to be.  When we are tempted to do something or enter into a mindset we need to ask:  Is this where He is going?  And we have to remember:  You ARE NOT What You Are Tempted By…..Just because you have an angry thought, a greedy thought, a jealous thought, a lustful thought……that does not mean that you are defined by that thought.  It just means that we need to “take every thought captive” and ask if it was planted there by the enemy of the living God.  If it was….we can simply get rid of it.

 

The bottom line is that we must ask the Lord to lead us….and then we get to follow.

 

And so there it is.  We must choose to follow Him or NOT TO follow Him.

 

So if Followers of Jesus seem intolerant, or different, or mean-spirited as believers in getting this message across….we could not be further from that notion.  That being said…..we should care a lot more about what He thinks of us than what others think….and if I am worried about offending anyone—it is Him.  Because without Him…..I have nothing.  After all…..He died on the cross that I might live.  So I want to go in His direction no matter where He goes……after all—–He died for me…..and that…..is the VERY LEAST I CAN DO.

 

Lord, change our hearts.  Let us be convicted of our creation, accountable for our sin, unwilling to connect our temptations to our identity, grateful for His sacrifice, and ready to follow……..

 

Choosing to FOLLOW Jesus is the most important decision you could ever make…….but that does not mean, under ANY circumstances, we can start making our own decisions and then say we are following Him…..To FOLLOW, you must be going in the same direction…

 

Our King did not die on the cross to watch us be ordinary.

He WIRED us to the best.

 

In The Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

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Coach J