"Keep it Up!" -2

"For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee." (Psalms 73:27) Interesting enough, those that want to continue to practice idolatry, will also prefer to stay as far away from God as they can comfortably be, without becoming noticeably pagan. As I was praying about this post, I asked God for Him to clearly speak into my heart about me, saying, "Lord, what is it that you want to change in me?" We all have issues that God wants to us to let Him deal with; but He is not going to suddenly cause you to wake up one morning and be free from them, we must lay them out before Him and allow Him to change our heart. The main reason people will not endure sound doctrine is because it cuts their heart; they do not want to deal with their sin, so they find someone who does not expose it; and as soon as that person exposes their sin, they move on and find someone else who is more liberal than the last. Pretty soon, they don't even go to church much at all, because where the word of God is read, there is bound to be conviction. There is the difference between those that are saved and those that are not: the saved ones have the Spirit of God within them, and they do not have the luxury of living in sin, at least not while feeling good about it. Besides, we can't really get too far from God, because He is in us, and if He is in us, where are we going to go where He is not always there? Yesterday I heard someone mention Jonah, and they were talking about how he could not get away from God. That's a lot like how it is, we really can't get away from Him; no matter where we try to hide, He is always there; no matter what we are hiding in, He will always expose us; and no matter where we end up, He is always with us, getting us to the place He wants us to be. God can and will change us, but it can be easier on us if we allow Him to make the change; the more we fight Him on the issue, the harder and more extreme our transition will become. But you have got to understand something extremely important about resisting God's instructions and guidance, none of what He tells us to do are suggestions or things that we can negotiate with Him on, as if we can take them or leave them. If you feel that God is telling you to change your direction, then you had better listen; otherwise, you could get swallowed up by something really really big! But guess what? He will still be with you... "What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won't He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one -for God himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one -for Christ Jesus died for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.") No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow -not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below -indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39) NLT