sins

ezekiel over an americano with room, half and half and 2 splendas... this morning...

i've found myself speaking about repentance a lot lately.
what the meaning of it is...
sure bothers me that it's such a difficult concept...
and yet it's so easy too...
if we are to be repentant, is it just that one time when you ask JESUS into your heart?
nope.
it's constant.
the hard part for me is that i think about things i need to repent
turn away from, and once i think of something, there are 10 other things, too!
so, what if i was in the midst of sin when JESUS comes?
if when HE comes back i've not repented of something?
even those subtle sins that I may or may not even be aware of... yet...
that's controversial, i know, because i think that we are aware of even our subtle sins
but we pretend we aren't aware of them...
you know the kind, like watching a movie that isn't glorifying GOD...
you know, the ones like stopping at a stoplight and seeing the guy with a sign that
says "just hungry?"
what if JESUS came back at that second and found me dialing my cell phone at the intersection so i didn't have to stop?
or what about the ones when i'm at a starbucks and i hear some distateful talk about someone who isn't present, or the use of the LORD's name in vain and I just keep typing on this laptop and don't stand up for Christ?
Am I denying HIM more than I think?
When I see young girls Cece's age reading tabloid magazines or mothers of children reading tabloid magazines, or when i myself read aol and click on the link to find out what celebrity broke up with who...
what if JESUS came back as i was reading that article?
what if JESUS came back as that mother was purchasing that tabloid magazine for her 11 year old?
what if?
pastor rudy was on the megans law website last night with nick.
after talking about it this morning, i was thinking about what if there was a website that was say, gossipers? slanderers? pornwatchers? fornicators? liars? pot smokers? drinkers? hypocrites?
what if you clicked on that and saw your face?
saw the faces of your children?
saw your pastor?
saw your teacher?
saw your spouse?
or what if there was a way to google your sins?
you typed your name in and 200 million links came up...
and you had to go from page to page...
here's the thing.
we are all sinners.
we all need to repentant to be with JESUS.
there is freedom found in HIS forgiveness.
and although there isn't a website or a google (yet!) that we can go to for a quick way to see all our sins,,,
there is an even better one and it's JESUS.
we're not hiding any of our sins from HIM.
we might be fooling ourselves or not owning up to them...
but JESUS knows them all.
He longs for us to choose life and walk in righteousness.
is it difficult?
yep.
very.
but that's where the relationship with JESUS really becomes real.
i can't do great things without HIM in my life.
i can't be righteous without HIS help.
i fail all the time and yet i can do greater things than even HE has done with HIM working through me.
i can receive the power of the HOLY SPIRIT when i surrender to it, when i am available to it...
and it's free...
yet it costs me everything...
i have to die to myself in so many ways.
i have to seek HIS face.
and the more i know and learn about JESUS the more i can't help but share about HIM.
on this day, i hope and pray that you would take time to repent of your sins.
to ask forgiveness from JESUS for them.
to turn away from committing them again.
to have faith in JESUS that you can be healed of the dis-ease in your life.
to accept the gift of healing and the power of HIS HOLY SPIRIT.
to be steadfast in that faith.
to stop thinking that it's too hard because with GOD all things are possible.
all things.
ALL things.
to no longer feel shame or guilt but to receive the liberty to walk freely with the LORD,
unblemished.
please.
repent and live.
amen.