Getting Back to the Basics

What would be your response if someone were to ask you: are you dead or alive?  The answer seems like a no brainer, right?  I mean you are reading this right now, so you must be alive.  You would be correct, in that physically you are alive.  You have a pulse, your heart is beating, you're breathing; by all medical terms you're alive.  But what about your soul?  Are you hanging on by a thread, barely passing?  What is being alive in Christ?  Is your soul hungry for more and more of God?  Are you staying connected - through worship, prayer, scripture?

It's so easy to get disconnected.  I often get overwhelmed with everything that I have to get done, so I make a to-do list.  Have you ever made a to-do list; how did God fit into it?  Did He make the cut?!  Or did you decide He could wait until tomorrow...  I'm very often guilty of not fitting God in.  On those days when I have a million things to do, yet I choose to make time for Him, it's oddly strange how much more I accomplish in less time!  Do you think that's coincidental?  Not at all! 

Matthew 6:33:

"Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need."

Alive in Christ...  Let's begin with the basics, many of you know this, but just in case... First of all, to be alive in Christ, you must be saved - to have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior and invited Him into ALL of your life (John 3:16); to confess of your sin (Romans 3:23 - all have sinned); to turn away from wrong; to live alive.  When I think of ALIVE - I think of power, of passion, of roaring fire!  How alive are you for Jesus?!

Romans 12:43-45:

  "When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.  Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation."

     

Just cleaning up life and getting rid of sin is not enough.  It is the first step.  Imagine this, you bring home a puppy and never train it and yet you expect it to be house-trained and obedient.  You know good and well, that just NEVER happens.  You can't just repent of your sins and then expect everything to be spectacular.  You have to take that next step of filling your life with God's Word, with worship, with prayer, with listening, with His Holy Spirit.  Without that filling you leave room for Satan to enter in and to potentially be worse off than before.

Do you want to be connected, to be ALIVE - to experience a passion like nothing you ever thought possible?  Run, run hard, run fast, and never stop persevering to Jesus!  Take the time to FILL your life with Him.  There will be many times when persistence will pull you through, but trust me it's SO worth it!  The more you dig deeper into Him, the more overwhelmed you feel with His LOVE.  And let me tell you - that feeling is far greater than anything I could ever put into words!  Is running a race ever easy?  Absolutely NOT, but the reward is at the finish line!  Will being ALIVE in Christ be easy?  No, but our reward at the finish life is eternity with Jesus!  

Romans 6:23:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Philippians 3:14:

"I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

Hebrews 12:1:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."

Don't waste what little time you have finishing today's to-do list!  Make every moment count; put God first and let Him take care of the rest!  Never stop running - look beyond yourself and run into the arms of the Father!   

"Running" by Hillsong:

 

Ready at the line looking out
Looking out to all that's ahead
When every heart
Confesses Your Name
We're pressing on towards that Day
We're never gonna stop
We're never gonna stop

Letting of every mistake
Throwing off the chains of resistant
All that will remain
A passion for Your Name
Burning as we run this race
We're never gonna stop
We're never gonna stop
We're never gonna stop
We're never gonna stop

We are running
Chasing after all that You are
We are running
'Cause all that You are
Is all that we want Lord

Every stride is taken in faith
Every step compelled by Your grace
We're taking up our cross
No matter what the cost
We give it all to go Your way
We're never gonna stop
We're never gonna stop

Onwards we draw towards Your light
Desperate we seek to know You more and more
Further to look beyond ourselves
To Your love
To your love