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The ABCs OF Christian Survival and Growth Step 1.B. Recognition And Confession Of Who We Are

We know something about who our Lord is, so lets take a minute to think about who we are...

We're a creation of a Holy and all-righteous God, who longing for fellowship created men with the hope and desire that they would choose, with an equal desire ... to fulfill that purpose. This is the answer to the questions regarding the meaning of this life and the reason why we were created - to have the unequaled opportunity and honor to choose to be called friends of God. This is why we live this life. Think about this for a minute.

I find myself wondering if lucifer's rebellion doesn't directly have something to do with our Lord's decision to give us that choice - lucifer was created beautiful and allowed to exist in the presence of God's glory from the beginning. Our Lord gave it all to him right from the start. But in the end, lucifer made a choice and decided ultimately that that wasn't good enough. If you know the truly loving and tender heart of our Lord, then you can perhaps begin to imagine the combination of pain, disappointment and fury that He might have been made to endure because of this traitor to His heart. So perhaps with this in mind, one could imagine that our Lord would determine to make those who would choose to become His friends, choose to do so from the beginning. Maybe He decided to make them choose before He gave them heavenly bodies and the unimaginable gifts that only He can give, and before He brought them into His glory as His friends - things that He's promised to us.

But something I can say with certainty - our God is pure and Holy by His nature and character, so unclean things repulse Him and He won't allow them to remain in His presence. satan by virtue of his treachery was driven out of heaven - and we, starting out by the design of an omniscient God, as heirs of man's treachery in the Garden, we won't be allowed in until we prove our choice. Notice I said prove. I'm fairly confident that we've all heard and know the truth of the saying "actions speak louder than words". I'm not so sure that the origin of this saying isn't Godly and didn't preceed us. Scipture tells us that "faith without works is dead". So perhaps the title Christian without proof is death. A well respected Christian by the name of Graham Cooke made a statement that really hit home with me. In fact, I placed the quote permanently on my blog - he said "It is not the title that people give themselves that defines who they are; it is the fruit of what they produce."

God knows better than any of us how easy words come to us. But to actually be something requires proof. I gurantee you that He's not fooled by anything ... least of all us. I'm assuming that if you're reading this you're a fellow Christian either attempting to get things in order, or perhaps just reviewing. So we can be blunt about the truth. The sole omnipotent authority over all that lives has said that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - this means me, and it means you. The word "all" doesn't leave room for exceptions. So this is where we started in this world and to be something else, to be a friend of God ... requires action on our part - it requires proof. Please make certain my friends, that you prove to Him that you are indeed His friend. Do this by doing your absolute best to live according to the method of proof that He's laid out in His Word in order to prove that you're His.

If you've fallen short in your life so far, as we all do at times, just go to Him and ask His forgiveness and ask Him to help you in this. He wants you to succeed and scripture tells us that He's faithful to forgive. So do what you need to do, then begin to live your proof and get your head up - after all, you're a child of God! I love you. Walk in His Spirit...

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