Thank You Jesus!

II Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

If you didn't know Jesus as Lord and Savior, and you looked around at the condition of good ol' planet Earth, you'd think that God didn't even exist.
Murder, rape, robbery, drugs and alcohol. Sexual immorality, child pornography, greed and all manner of sin on an unprecedented scale. Throw in church buildings scattered here and there through out the country and you might think that God has left the building. He hasn't.

God has not abdicated His place or His plan. He is ever mindful of those who are perishing and is constantly wooing and calling them to repentance. In fact, God is more evident today than at any point in history. How can I say that? Well, more people have been saved during this last century than at any other point in time.
No matter what you are struggling with, God's promises to you to deliver you and heal you are not slack or long time coming. God is an immediate God. That means He is here, now and ready to act when you cry out to Him.

In fact, through Christ we have been given everything we need to live godly lives. We become part of God's family and, as such, we are partakers of the divine nature of God. In other words, when we are saved, we are given His Holy Spirit to guide and instruct us. The most important part of this relationship we now are living is that we have been freed from the power of our old, corrupt, sinful nature. We are free! Not free to do what we want to, but rather free to do what we ought to.

No longer a slave to the crack pipe.
No longer in bondage to the needle.
No longer called slave by the pill or bottle.
We are changed into sons and daughters of the most high God.
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You know, one of the greatest pleasures I get is when someone comes into our program full of hate, and bitterness. Right up front, they let me know that they don't believe in God and they sure don't want to hear anything about God. I tell them that I am not here to shove anything down their throats or to brain wash them into little robots for Jesus. I am merely here to love them. They hear the words, but the don't really understand what it means.

Over the 7 weeks, we talk. I talk they listen, then talk and I listen. Very seldom do I mention Jesus, or the Bible or God. We simply talk. What does transpire behind the scenes is much prayer. Prayer that God would begin to break through the hardness and darkness so that this man can be awakened to the truth of God. Somewhere along the way, the lights do come on. They usually come to my office at night, knocking on the door, they enter. "Can we talk?" they ask.  The conversation that follows involves their history and how they had walked away from God and found themselves trapped in addiction. Slowly I began to share what is on God's heart. That God longs to have a renewed relationship with them. How much He loves them and how He has missed them.
This leads to prayer. Prayer leads to repentance. Repentance leads to salvation. All because of love. God's love.

I could write stories about lives changed from now till Christmas. The one common factor in all of this is the salvation that God brings to each individual. The loving, caring way God simply unwraps all the sin and destruction and replaces it with mercy and grace and love. Where once sat a man whose life was characterized by selfishness, broken relationships and destruction, now sits a new creation. One whose future is certain and in the hands of God.
I'm telling you, it doesn't get any better than this.

God on you.....
mb