"The Far Side"

"Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes." (Psalms 119:155)

  It is really a sad state of affairs, to be trapped in a place of despair! For many that do not regard the statutes of God, this is one reality, but for those that might regard them in their minds, but do not seek them in their hearts, this is altogether wickedness and disheartening. Here is the word that the Lord is speaking into my heart this morning, and I am sure that He is including me! I really do not want to be counted with the foolish virgins at His return, but if I disregard and ignore the Holy Spirit, it is bound to happen; this is something I feel I must not only understand, but I need to diligently make sure that it does not happen. I hope you get the point of what I am saying, because I really don't feel like diving into the illustrated version of what that looks like! If you, like I, consider yourself to be a Saint, then you must understand what that term means: it is a term that represents 'a virgin' to sin; undefiled and justified, free from sin! This is the result upon our lives as we come before the Lord and surrender our lives to Him, making Him Lord of our lives. All ten of the virgins in the parable, I believe, were saved. I base this upon the fact that they are all called virgins, although five were called foolish. That is something many might want to debate, but I would caution anyone who does not know what a fool is, to first explore the Bible for the proper definition. There is more than one salvation, in case you did know this. There is our initial salvation when we first accepted Jesus into our hearts, which was our justification; there is the salvation of living out Christ Jesus in our lives, which is sanctification; and there is the salvation of being present with the Lord in heaven; which is glorification. The Holy Spirit that resides within us, every since our initial salvation, is there to make us sanctified in Christ; a word that means that He makes our conversion legitimate or binding. This is not only for those that observe our lives to take notice, it is for ourselves, first and foremost! I guess the only way to make this point more clear, is to finish off the closing Scripture from yesterday's post; then I think I will take some time to pray...

"And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living the truth. But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those that say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." (1 John 2:3-6) NLT