Choosing Another King

Who is your king? Who sits on the throne of your life? These are questions that will determine your eternal destiny, so give them some critical thought.

Making a difference

The true people of God are the ones making a difference in this world as they follow and act upon the prompts from the Holy Spirit. Conversely, it is not the people who attend church on occasion and live like hell the rest of the week. Their king is self.

And since it is the Christmas season, let us not be distracted by the music, light shows, food and gifts, but rather I admonish you to maintain your focus on Christ Jesus.

The reason the truth is not celebrated today is because the majority of us who call the upon the Lord as our Savior have lost our passion for the gospel and its power. We can no longer remain silent because truth is not subjective.

The Power of God

Among non-believers, they are unable to see the power of God. But this is also true of professed Christians. But the true people of God do recognize it and are willing to participate in whatever way they can. You see, God is out only true ally in this world. We read:

"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31, NIV).

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4, NIV).

See, the powers of darkness in this world are fighting against those who believe, but Christ in us is greater than these evil powers. The gospel message is the greatest gift and hope ever given to humanity. Do not diminish it with your indifference. Instead, cooperate with God!

Another king - another gospel

There are numerous false gospels that abound in this world, not only today but also in the past. One of these is the health and wealth gospel. a demandable lie.

Then there is the gospel of pleasure. Sure, be a Christian and everything is going to be cool and go your way. Not true. God's gospel calls us to be obedient and seek holiness, though He is by no means opposed to us having some fun.

And how about the gospel of social justice? No government is able to properly serve justice.

Let's look at what Paul had to say about another gospel:

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-7, NIV).

So, like Paul said, let's agree with him: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile" (Romans 1:16, NIV).

Nobody is beyond redemption no matter what they have done. Ask the Lord for His help and He will; stop relying on yourself when you have the power of God working within you! And don't make the presumption that you have another day, week or month to make the decision to follow the true King, Jesus Christ.

Asking for a king

Samuel was the last of the judges of Israel. By the time he was old, Israel had no leaders but judges for 400 years. Then one day, we read: The elders "said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have” (1 Samuel 8:5, NIV). Samuel wasn't too happy about this, but the Lord said:

"Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king" (1 Samuel 8:7, NIV). In verse 9 God tells Samuel to warn the people what will happen.

The future of our children

Their future hangs in the balance today and going forward. We need to summon up the courage to speak up or they will be lost and succumb to this worldly system. We need to avoid syncretism, that is, mixing God with other belief systems. Elijah spoke to this very issue:

"Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him. But the people said nothing” (1 Kings 18:21, NIV). They were quite willing to compromise. We see this today; it is nothing new.

You see, we have a choice: "Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person continue to be holy” (Revelation 22:11, NIV). God is telling us to go all out one way or another.

Results of serving another king

There are three and they are guilt, shame and compromise. Guilt is a powerful weapon of the enemy. So don't ignore the prompts of the Holy Spirit to make changes in your life.

Shame tells us that there is no way out of our dilemma. It tells you that you are a bad person and always will be. Shame is both toxic and destructive.

Compromise is even worse. Look at Solomon. We are unsure if we will see him in heaven. His heart was not fully devoted to the Lord.

Outcome of guilt, shame and compromise

Quite simply, it is our silence. We become immobilized and do not do the will of God, nor do we speak up when 3,000 babies a day are being sacrificed on the altars of abortion! In the end, the outcome is anger and violence. We want it our way or we act like children, pitch a hissy fit, and when that doesn't work, resort to violence.

Resolution

We need to be "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).

The Lord deserves our allegiance and honor. He scorned shame despite what they did to Him because he loved us so much.

Failures and mistakes

We who believe have failed but we are not failures. We have made many mistakes but we are not a mistake. Jesus knew is before we were even in our mother's womb! (Jeremiah 1:5).

Remember this and be encouraged: we will see Jesus one day! He paid the price to set us free from th guilt, shame and compromise that sin brings. Acknowledge Him as Lord of your life and put self aside. Again, He is coming one day and we will see Him! Glory be to God!

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