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Lou Coleman
By Lou Coleman
It’s time for you to wholeheartedly give yourself to the will of the Lord. I tell you time is running out! Paul said that it is closer than when we first believed. The night is just about to be over and it is day time. Wake up! You can’t continue to live like you have been living. Wake up! It is time to do what God has called you to do. Yeah, the world’s philosophy says, “Live for self”… but God’s Word says, “Die to self!” Don’t you know that being in God’s will is far better than being outside His will? The problem is that most of us as believers today is committed to this world and not the things of God – everything is about “what we want” and not about “what God wants.” The flesh is running rampant in the Christian world today and I tell you that ought not to be. My purpose is to challenge you to understand that Jesus came to give us something new in our spiritual life. According to Christ, it is absolutely imperative and important for us to be transformed if we desire to enter into God’s Kingdom. Remember what God told His people Israel, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14). Scripture is very clear on our need to direct our hearts toward God –Remember, “Dying to self” isn’t the goal – “Life” is the goal!
This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart…” [Ephesians 4:17-19]. I want you to know that Paul gets very specific, describing those things which we as Christian must put off and those which we must put on [Ephesians 4:25]. We got to lay aside the old self he says, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind…”[Ephesians 4:22-24]. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! For sin shall not be master over us, for we are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6: 1-14). As you therefore have received Christ, so walk in Him, (Colossians 2:6).
Decide today to give yourself over to the will of God, letting each day count for eternity. Allow God to have His way with you. “Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away. [James 4:14]. Paul realized he had to fulfill the call of God upon his life. He said, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel…” [I Corinthians 9:16-17]. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” [Romans 12:1-2]. Understand that God has called you to live a separated life, to be a peculiar people unto Him. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” [ 2 Corinthians 6:17-18].
I want you to know that there are two consequences in life. You can either attend the feast were wisdom spreads her table for those who enter her house. She strengthens them, she satisfies them, and she sustains them. She gives them all they need for now and for the future. [1 Cor. 2:9] [John 14:1-3]. Or you can attend the funeral – The context and the contrast. While the wise man goes off to enjoy the feast, the fool goes off to endure his funeral [Proverbs 7:5-27]. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live [Deuteronomy 30:19]. The alarm has been sounded. What will you do?
