"Pressing Forward" - To

 "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this." (Ecclesiastes 7:10 KJV)

  "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death." (Romans 8:1-2 NLT)

 Really, there is nothing here that makes any sense! If you have been walking with the Lord for any length of time, then you know by now, you cannot stand by yourself: without abiding in Christ, you will have nothing to your ability to stand, let alone, walk uprightly as a child of God. Oh, we can play church and pretend that we have it all together; but if we think that we are strong, we find ourselves weak and hope is not within sight. 

 Last night on the way home from church I heard Pastor Chuck sharing on this, saying, "When we are weak, then we are strong!" If we think we have the ability to not sin, we are only fooling ourselves and do not fully understand why Jesus had to come and die for our sins. If there was another way, then God would have made the way available to us; but because He created us with a heart to choose, between good and evil, the only way was the forgiveness of our sins, because we chose evil! 

 Do you think God was not serious saying, "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts; and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine". (Isaiah 55:8 NLT) This life here has nothing that can compare with the life we will spend in His presence, so we must keep our mind focused on what is to come...

"But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God's righteousness." (2 Peter 3:10-13 NLT)