Surprise!!

Ever been taken completely by surprise?

It can be an amazing experience.

Life itself can be a surprise - our plans and dreams can come crashing down in an instant - all it takes can be some sort of accident or illness, death or disablement, loss of a job or family breakdown.

On the other hand there could be a birth of a child or an engagement, a sudden and unexpected promotion and unplanned and spontaneous holiday - lots of surprises can be exciting and marvellous.

One of the biggest surprises that occurred in my life was when Jesus tore down the curtains, smashed the rock that was my heart and replaced it with His brand new one.

Talk about "taken by surprise" - here I was trying to build a life based on the world's standards - looking for happiness the world's way - most of my hopes and dreams that I had carted around for years kept on tumbling down - I was frustrated and sometimes depressed.

I never really knew why? - I never REALLY understood - I was groping around like a blind person in a strange place - vaguely knowing what I had to do but unwilling to do it.

All my life it seems that I had been searching and looking for some 'missing part' I always knew wasn't there.

Hoping upon hopes that God would accept me anyway - Then came the big surprise!

In 1 John 2: 15-17 God tells us to "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." and again in 2 Corinthians He tells us to "Be separate"

God wants first place in our lives - He doesn't want to and He will not play 2nd fiddle to anyone or anything.

As Christians we are destined to live our lives here on earth and live in the world. BUT we should not let the world dictate to us how we should act and live while we are here.

We need to be separate from the world in everything we do. The world out there should be able to notice we are different from them.

Whatever we do - we should be doing it for God's Glory - His glory is our aim, our one desire and why we are here in the 1st place.

We can't afford to spend our entire lives stocking up treasures and wealth, homes, cars, promotions and anything else here while eternity waits for us.

We can find our joy in the Lord - we can certainly enjoy His creation - His boundless and amazing gifts to us.

The joy of being forgiven and willing to forgive others. The Joy of being very content with what we have and willing to share with others. The Joy of true friends and a willingness to bring others to our awesome God.

We should be very separate from the world in our actions - if something is right even though we may lose by it - it MUST be done.

If a thing is wrong even though we may gain by it we must put it aside completely. NO compromises!

There is no such thing as 'white lies' or anything at all that is a bit suss - no matter how trivial.

We can't let anything of the world's values rub off on us - if we are truly God's, then He must have full control.

We must walk worthy of our calling with all dignity remembering we are children of the King in fact the King of Kings.

When we think of it like that - there is absolutely no room for compromise in anything we do - running our business, running our homes, raising our children, shopping in fact everything we do we need to glorify God in the doing.

We MUST keep ourselves "unspotted" from the world and not get our hands dirty from playing the worlds games.

We can't let our eyes, feet, hands or minds take us along the paths of darkness .

These eyes of ours will see our amazing and awesome Lord, our feet will walk the streets of gold and our hands will be praising our Lord.

Give our Lord our entire lives - Nothing lasts here on earth -NOTHING! except the very GRACE of God - He is so willing to accept you into His family but we need to hand the controls over to Him.

We have to come to the place in our lives where we say enough is enough - no more struggling with God, no more trying to live in two worlds and no more fighting for two Generals.

We either have to have one or the other - either the world with all the razzle dazzle or God with His forgiveness, love and mercy.

We all have to choose!

Either way - every sin ever committed will be dealt with one way or another either:-

At the foot of the cross where Jesus took our sins and paid for them with His death or at the throne of God where we have to give an account.

I know I would have most definitely fallen away from God without His grace.

I am so glad that His great SURPRISE completely took me by surprise. I was so absorbed in me that I took my eyes of Him.

It is so easy to live our lives in a fantasy thinking that God is some distant, far off Deity, when in fact it is as simple as asking Him in to take the controls of our life.

All our wealth and 'stuff' we have accumulated here on earth means nothing and there is nothing we can give to God to make us worthy of His grace.

Going to church and pretending we are holy won't cut it - giving our time and effort to others won't cut it and trying to buy our way to heaven definitely won't cut it.

There is only one way - and one way only. -

Accept what Jesus did on the cross - ask forgiveness BUT make sure you count the cost and turn everything over to Him 100%.

It is SO worth it - the freedom of a transformed life is awesome and amazing.