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Don't Forget!

Your life is a journey, you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. 1 Pet 1:18 msg

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors 1 Pet 1:18 niv


 

There's a song I love based on the NIV translation of 1 Peter 1:18 called Incorruptible by Watermark. It's one of those songs that will be with me forever. I can remember being in Lonnie Wollmuth's lab listening to the album, All Things New, tears rolling down my face, completely enchanted by the God who redeemed me and loves me for all time. Those are good times to remember. 

Over time my faith, like my marriage, has become a lot more about pragmatism than about passion. This is a natural progression, but I still have to question it. Not only on the merits of the exhaultation of the feelings associated with religious and marital bliss, but also on scripture:

You never saw him buy you love him. You still don't see him, you you trust him -- with laughter and singing. 1 Pet 8-9 msg

Don't lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn't know any better then; you do now. 1 Pet 1:14 msg

But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Rev 2:4 NLT

There was a sermon at Abundant Life where Pastor Dennis preached on "remembrance, because we forget." It is important not to forget the moments of bliss. Their permanence may not be for us now, but they are a taste of things to come. The more practiced we are in the art of exhibiting their presence, the more we are ready for Jesus for all time. 

As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God's life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness, God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

Heavenly Father, it's so easy to get off track, to come up with abundant rationalizations why wisdom of the flesh must be pursued. But You call on us to be "holy", something other. In the everyday interactions today, I pray for "obedience" to what You are telling me to do, to conform "God's life". 

In Jesus Name,

Amen

 

 

  

 

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