“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:11-14 NASB1995)

We need to not only be awake spiritually to the things of God, and of what he requires of us in the way of thought and deed, in order that we will obey him, and so we will die to sin, but we need to be awake to what is going on in the world and in our nations and to what the Scriptures teach about the last days and the kinds of things which will take place. Because these things are happening right before our eyes every day. So much of it is so blatant that it is impossible to miss, unless we just aren’t paying attention at all.

And daily we need to be putting on the armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s evil schemes against us. And we need to be putting our faith into practice daily, living the life of a Christian as the Scriptures describe what our lives should look like. No longer should any of us be living in addiction to any such sins as are listed for us here. But all of us should be living in obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living, for the praise and glory of God, making no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

For salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. And what does that mean? It means that our salvation, which is a gift from God, is progressive salvation. We are saved (past), we are being saved (present), and we will be saved (future) when Christ returns and he takes his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. For we are all going to stand before God on the day of judgement and we will all be judged by our deeds. If sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we will NOT inherit eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 9:23-26; John 8:31-32; John 15:1-12; Romans 6:16; Romans 8:24; Romans 11:17-24; Romans 13:11; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Colossians 1:21-23; 2 Timothy 1:8-9; 2 Timothy 2:10-13; Hebrews 3:6,14-15; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5,9; 2 Peter 1:5-11; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6,24-25]

Time is running out. Not one of us is guaranteed today let alone tomorrow and the days following that. And giving lip service only to God is not going to cut it. Putting on a show of righteousness will not grant us eternal life with God, either. We must, by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, deny self, die to sin, and follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. Sin must no longer have mastery over our lives. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death, but if obedience is what we obey, it results in eternal life with God.

For to lay aside the deeds of darkness, and to put on the armor of light, is what it means to be saved and to have eternal life with God. It means we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of righteousness in walks of obedience to God and to his commands. We now follow Jesus Christ with our lives in holy living and sin is no longer what we put into practice on a daily basis. For we want to please God with our lives.

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

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Put On The Lord Jesus Christ
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