urgency

if you knew you were going to die tonight, how would that affect how you lived the rest of today?

well first off, if you don’t know Jesus…my goodness.  He is who He says He is.  He is who the Bible says He is.  He is the Son of God and God is who He says He is.  Jesus humbled Himself and became the ultimate Sacrifice to cleanse you and me of our sins so that we can spend eternity with the AWESOME God, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of life.

and for those of us who know Jesus as our Savior – are we living as though Christ may return today?  because He totally could.  and He will one day.  maybe today.  maybe tomorrow.  maybe years from now.  we don’t know.

a couple weeks ago, at the high school retreat we were leading worship at, I was struggling Saturday night with having the courage and faith in God’s strength to get up and lead one of the songs that night during the session.  but then Paul (not Paul in the Bible…living, breathing today Paul – Continuous Worship Ministries Paul…haha) posed a couple questions to me that I think might forever change my mindset.  I hope.  he challenged me with this: if I knew that later that night God was going to take me Home (aka die an earthly death), would I really not take this last chance I had to share this life-changing, life-saving message that I knew to be Truth?  Would I really not go out there and use the gifts God’s given me and allow Him to use me to reveal His power, His greatness, more of who He is to those teenagers we were about to worship with?  Or what if I knew God was going to take away my voice for the next 6 months – would I still wuss out and not do what He was calling me to do that night?  would I not worship with all that I have?

totally rocked my world.  it has stirred up a sense of urgency within me. when Christ returns, I want to be building His Kingdom.  I want to be found building the Kingdom of Light in whatever I’m doing and not building the Kingdom of Darkness.

it also challenged me to worship God with all that is within me.  I want to give Him everything.  I want to love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind and likewise, I want to worship Him with all my heart, soul, and mind.  He is worthy!!

I fail at it a lot.  but by His grace, we can get back up and start fresh.  refocus.  and move forward.

I came home to find that Shley has been filled with the same urgency, so much more so than I have.  I love it!  I want to be filled more and more with this urgency.