Keeping it Real with Jesus - Volume 7

Sandy went forward one Sunday morning and prayed the sinner's prayer. Isn't that wonderful! Every time a soul is saved is awesome! So many Christians get saved but never start the journey. That is like paying for a cruise and not getting on the ship! So much time is being wasted and they are missing out on so much. God has given you a lifetime to serve him and so many people are not doing what we were put on this Earth to do. Even worse, so many do not know what it means to know Jesus! So what does it mean to know Jesus?

First, you never have to worry because he is always there - in the sunshine or the rain:

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

^3-5All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort-we get a full measure of that, too.

It means to trade in our current temporary life, which we can see, for the unseen eternal life which is coming through belief in Jesus;

2 Corinthians 4:18

¹⁸So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

It is very important for Christians who know Jesus to share his word because one day we will all stand in judgment and we have been told to tell the world about his love and get them ready!

2 Corinthians 5:11

¹¹Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

God wants us to give up the things of the flesh and our sinful ways and start living according to the Bible and his commandments. I would like to point out for clarity that they are the 10 commandments and not the 10 suggestions!Ephesians 4:20-24 (New International Version)

²⁰You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. ²¹Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. ²²You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

If we know God are we going to automatically be perfect? No! God does not expect that of us, thank goodness! He just wants us to forget our old ways of sin and deceit and focus on serving him according to his word. He will show us the way and he will slowly mold us into what he has planned for us! So all we have to do is believe and keep our eyes focused on Jesus instead of the world.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

To me, to know Jesus is to want to know him more!