Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
4/29/2021
Convicted for doing nothing!
I have a lot of questions today. What have you ever accomplished without a plan? How have you ever move forward without intentionality? Can you build a successful business or a home without a firm foundation? How about a marriage or children how can you do that without a real effort and thoughtful forward movement?
Do you just stumble into love? Was there no plan, no effort to win or serve them? Isn’t love an action? What do we ever accomplish by doing just a little?. There surely can’t be much success. Would you leave on a trip without a driving plan for hotels with gas and money in reserve?
I think you get it. Where am I going? There are too many people in the church who know the facts but won’t make it through the gates because their fruit doesn’t support the facts. Jesus is Lord to many. But he can’t be your Lord without the faith that comes from really knowing God through his word. Through the planning and intentionality of serving and obeying God in your daily life.
From the overflow of a loving heart.
Without knowing God and his ways there can be no real intimacy or relationship. Many mislead themselves into knowing about God but missed the part about serving God, making Him Lord, and first in their life. Worshiping him for who he is, not what he can do for their career or wish list.
They/you missed the one simple commandment Matt 12:30 “love the Lord thy God with my whole heart my whole mind and my whole soul”. Simple question: are you loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? If your answer is no or I’m not sure. Then he never became Lord in your/their lives because they never gave him place. Did you know that there is a false God in your mind that allows you to live in rebellion? The truth is you can’t put God first if you’re not saved.
William Lauf said: “If you have not chosen the kingdom of God first, it will, in the end, make no difference what you have chosen instead.”
A. W. Tozier said: as God is exalted to the right place in our lives, 1000 problems are solved all at once.
Matthew 15:8 “these people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me”.
It is this overflowing of the heart which demands a real effort of time and real love. Too many, so-called Christians, will go down under the judgment. “Get thee away from me for I never knew you”. Matt 7:23 Perhaps this life is a dress rehearsal. But you’ll never make the final performance doing it your way… without surrendering your all: life, work, marriage, kids, and past times.
God will be first or nothing.
When someone is everything to you then it is quite apparent to everyone around you. What does your minute-by-minute, hour by hour, day by day walk with God look like?
Romans 11:36 “everything is from him and by him and for him”. When you put God first you realize that you are nothing and God is everything. You come to realize you didn’t choose him. He chose you. John 15:16
Look, let’s be honest with ourselves. Don’t say that God is first in your life when you don’t spend time with God in prayer. When was the last time you didn’t want to ask for something but just wanted to be alone with this person that you love? Jesus Christ himself. When we have a passion for the Lord it will be seen in our prayer life and our daily walk, in what we talk about.
Jeremiah 2:32 “does a young woman forget her jewelry? Does the bride hide her wedding dress? Yet for years on end, my people have forgotten me” Can you hear his heart breaking? And finally Matthew 10:37 “anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, whoever loses their life for my sake will find it”.
Will you search your heart right now? Give your real-life to Christ and invite His Holy Spirit in to change you? Or would you rededicate your life that has become distracted and gone cold?
Come pray with me and your family for one hour. He is pursuing you if you are reading this. Come meet up with Him.
Josh Groban You raise me up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJxrX42WcjQ
