On endurance...

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds...” Heb 10:22-24. What a calling we have. We are given authority to draw near to our God if we have sincere hearts! Are our hearts capable of such glory? It is if we are cleansed of an evil conscience and we are born of the water and spirit. The writer continues in verse 35 “...do not throw away your confidence, which has a GREAT reward. for you have need of ENDURANCE, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. for yet in a little while, He who is coming will come, and not delay. but My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the CONVICTION of things not seen.”
Hail Him who saves us by His grace!!! Oh that I could remember these words daily! In a world full of every temptation and outlet of flesh, we must remember to hold fast to endurance. I have fallen short of almost every aspect of these stimulations because it is so easy to forget our assurance. God has established for us a marvelous path in Hope in His promises, but we all get so caught up in our own failings. That is not our glory my brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is absolute, and we must not forget He has become failings on our behalf so that we do not have to bear such thoughts. We all fall short in every way, and our meat vessels are corrupt in every way, so where does this leave us? “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” 1 John 3: 2-7. We will not know what we will be till He appears. We must PRACTICE righteousness! If any of you have ever practiced anything, you know that we usually stink pretty bad at it, but that is the nature of practicing. If it where not for the grace He gives us we would all (especially myself) have been struck by lightening convulsing where we lay, but that is why we ENDURE!! KEEP RUNNING!!! We must all strive to be ambassadors, and vessels of mercy because we were all shown more than abundant MERCY. Look to the ROCK in which you were hewn!! The Church today seems to be trying to find a comfortable “church home” today, and all seem to forget that “the church comes to the building” , not the church “finds its home in the building”. May we never hinder the power of God to Sundays and Wednesdays! We must not “forsake our own assembling together” Heb 10:25, for we need each other as the body of Jesus the messiah which spans time and is not limited to buildings on certain days. Our everyday lives must be filled with practicing things of righteousness regardless of how much we fail at it. In the same way there is a HUGE difference between practicing sin and falling to it. We all fall, but we must never stop ENDURING. Love each other and bear one another's burdens with absolute sincerity for it is the way of the people of God, and absolutely foreign to the world. We have to love each other, forgive and have mercy towards each other so that our lights can be seen and not hindered. Remember “faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the CONVICTION of things not seen.” I have failed all of you at some point, and most of you have seen me at my worst, weakest points and you all know I am not a religious person at all, and dont even pretend to be righteous, but I do love Jesus who is God and walked in the flesh amongst us. So I trust that all my failings, as all of our failings will, manifest good in Him if we endure and BELIEVE in Him who became sin on our behalf. so that is my encouragement to you all... KEEP RUNNING!!!