Dear family,
I felt a sense of urgency to write this letter to you, please read on.
How do you know if you’re saved? Our culture has really twisted what salvation means in the first place. How do you know if you have a very real and authentic relationship with Christ?
Your life looks very different according to 2 Corinthians 5:17.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed away, the new has come.”
Your old way of life, your thoughts, your actions, your words, they’re dead. That’s not who you are anymore.
Paul Washer (the teacher from the last letter) uses this example.
“Let’s imagine that I [Paul Washer] show up late and I run up here on the platform and all the leaders are angry with me and say, “Brother Paul, don’t you appreciate the fact that we’re giving you the opportunity to speak here and you come late!?”
And I say, “Brothers, you have to forgive me.”
“Well, why?”
“Well, I was out here on the highway and I was driving and I had a flat tire and I got out to change the tire and when I was changing the tire the lug nut fell off and I wasn’t paying attention that I was on the highway and I ran out and I grabbed the lug nut and soon as I picked it up in the middle of the highway I stood up and there was a 30-ton logging truck going 120 miles an hour about 10 yards in front of me and it ran me over, and that’s why I’m late.”
Now, there would only be two logic- …. I know no one studies logic anymore, but there would only be two logical conclusions:
or
You would say, “Brother Paul, it’s absolutely absurd. It is impossible, brother Paul, to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck and not be changed!”
And then my question would be to you, What is larger? A logging truck, or God?
How is it that so many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ and yet they are not permanently changed?!”
-Paul Washer
One of my dear friends had just shared a story with me this past week of a terrible car crash she had been a part of about three years ago. A large semi-truck attempted to change lanes on the highway launching her truck right off the highway and rolling over many times before coming to a halting stop.
The truck was absolutely totaled.
Through God’s grace, the only injury she obtained in the accident was a small scratch on her ankle from a man breaking the truck’s window to get her out safely.
God saved her, she knows it, her time on this earth is not finished. She isn’t in the business of wasting the time she’s been given. Neither should we.
You don’t just pray a prayer. The last letter referenced Mathew 17:23 saying “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
The definition of the word lawlessness is… a state of disorder due to a disregard of the law. I’m not here to encourage you to view a relationship with Jesus Christ as a religious point system. You don’t just do what God says in the Bible and He’ll favor you and bless you.
Due to having a deep reverence and love for the God who saved us from eternal damnation, we ought to desire to follow what God has told us to do. We’re wicked, we have no good inside of us, Christ is the only exception.
If you’ve had the immense joy and life-changing interaction with Jesus Christ and His father The God of the Universe…
You cannot just sit and mope around.
You cannot just go to church on Sunday.
You cannot just live your life as the world tells you to.
You are set apart.
We should be a direct reflection of God here on this earth. Our love and Joy should confuse people with how evident it flows in our everyday life.
Go, live set-apart lives, and share the Gospel, the one thing in this life that holds any value.
This life is fleeting fast, I urge you to bring this before God, ask Him what needs to change in your life to live this set apart lifestyle. When you hear your response, say “yes.” and run towards Him with everything you’ve got, honestly what have you got to lose?
Until next time,
-Mitchell
