SEEKING GOD

by Ronnie Mutina

I find it interesting, but a shame unto me, that it has been so long since I wrote a devotional. It is amazing how we allow things to take place in our lives to separate us from doing things, that I believe God wants us too. I have a job, which I know God gave me, that has become more of a hindrance to me than anything else. I know that serving God has to be the most important thing in my life, then family, and then work. However I have seen that my company has become just like most jobs in this world. Even though their motto says, "Serve God," they still have self in mind, and they serve the almighty dollar bill. They don’t care seem to care about God or family, but we could also say that there are a lot of ‘saved’ people, who have the same attitude. What has happened to our great nation that we have turned our backs on God? The answer is simply! Sin in our nation has taken our focus off God and put it on ourselves.

I am reminded about the scripture in 2 Chronicles 7:14, where the Lord addresses the issue of not serving HIM. The Lord said, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Granted, I may preach this before long, but we need to see what we are being told. This passage is addressed to a certain people. It is address to the people who are called by the name of the LORD, which are Christians. We need to seek the Lord and seek His forgiveness. We need to be humble about it and turn from our wicked ways, which we condone in our lives, and turn back to Christ. Our nation is falling, because we, as Christians, are not truly seeking God in our lives anymore. Wouldn’t you agree? Isaiah 55:6 tells us, "Seek the Lord while HE may be found, call ye upon HIM while HE is near." Jesus told us, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness," and Moses told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 4:29, "But from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek HIM with all thy heart and with all thy soul." There are many scriptures that tell us as a nation, and more importantly, a child of God, to "Seek the LORD." So, we have the solution to our problem now, don’t we?

Paul said, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye will be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (1 Corinthians 6:17 -18.) We see all these scriptures and know what to do, so why don’t we do this and get right before God? The answer is simply this; before we can seek the LORD, we first must admit we are wrong, which means that we have to be humble. To be humble means we must put our pride to the side. We are in a world that says, "If it feels good do it!" or "You only live once, so live life with all the gusto you can get." I realize that both of these statements have been heard before, and the last one was used as a beer commercial years ago, but these statements are made, along with other statements, by people who say they have be saved.

So, what’s the problem? Problem is that many churches have forgotten to tell people that if they are truly saved, they really do change! Many preachers have gotten away for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and went to watering down the scripture to make people feel good and that everything is okay. With churches today, it is all about how many we can have in church and how much money we can bring in so the pastor can look good and our church can be seen. This is the wrong motivation! If we watch what’s going on in some of these churches, we see that people are not truly being fed what they need. We have not been taught that there is a change in our life, when we are saved, that is supposed to make a difference, not only in our lives, but how the world perceives us. You may ask why do I say this. The scripture teaches that when we are saved, that the world hates us now. However, I feel that some people, who have been saved, still want to fit into a world that they are not supposed to be a part of any longer. When a person is saved, we are like a square peg trying to fit into a round hold, when it comes to us trying to fit into this world still. What’s wrong with the fact that we still may fit into this world? EITHER WE ARE STILL LOST OR WE HAVE LOST OUR FOCUS, WHEN IT COMES TO SERVING GOD!!! Why do we think Paul said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new?" It has gotten to the point that people that claim salvation cannot be seen in this world as Christians any longer. Why? Today, they live like they did before Jesus Christ, supposedly, saved them. It is the fact that we have got this attitude that salvation is a ticket to do what we want to, without any consequences. WRONG!

There are consequences to everything we do, and it doesn’t affect just the person doing it. IT AFFECTS FRIENDS, FAMILY, CHURCH FAMILY, AND THE LOST WORLD TOO! We do not want to take responsibility for what we do either. We need to remember, Christians, that if a person dies and goes to hell, because we don’t witness to them, when we’ve had opportunity after opportunity, that their blood is on our hands. You say, "Well I just don’t know what to say." Don’t worry, it’s not necessarily what you say, it’s what your actions say. Case and point; years ago I worked at Texas Utilities, and enjoyed my job to some extent. I found myself doing things that God wasn’t pleased with, but I also found myself doing things that taught me as well. One time my crew had to go to an all day school on our day off. Afterwards, we had decided we were all going to stop at the park, eat, play dominoes and just have fun. At this park, there was more alcohol than you could shake a stick at, and probably other things that I didn’t know about. I didn’t partake of the alcohol, I’m a Dr. Pepper man, or at least was, but I had the opportunity to watch these people. I did play dominoes and laughed at the fools who were so drunk they couldn’t stand up. I shouldn’t have laughed at them, because it is really sad. Lots of things happened that night, but one particular thing was shown to me, I believe, by God. I was the only sober one out there and I had stayed out a lot longer than I needed too. It was probably 7 or 8 o’clock and I had a wife and son at home. As I was leaving, a man named James, came up to me and said, "Mute, I want you to know that I respect you very much. I know you claim salvation and I know that there is something very different about you. You didn’t do anything we do and I really feel like God is using you in my life." I was shocked! The man I am talking about, has been saved, and loves the Lord with all his heart now. He doesn’t do the things, he did then, anymore. Why? Because, there was a change! I’m not tooting my own horn, but I allowed Christ to be seen in me, because I did not choose to act like them.

Christ makes a difference. Christians, we have dropped the ball. We allow things to happen in this nation, because we are too weak to stand up against sin. The reason why we are to weak is simple; we put ourselves in situations that cause us to be seen by the world as, ‘just like them.’ We can’t make a stance, because we are no different than anyone else in this world. We talk about salvation, but we don’t walk our salvation. You can’t talk the talk, if you don’t walk your talk.

Preachers need to get back to the basics. We need to call sin exactly what it is; SIN! We need to preach the gospel, which is the power unto salvation. Christians need to allow Christ to be seen through them, so people can see HIM in our lives. We need to quit using other Christians’ downfalls as an excuse for our sins. We cannot justify our sin by another person’s actions or behavior. We need to realize that scripture is being fulfilled daily. The book of 2 Thessalonians tells us, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first ." We must examine our lives, and seek what our walk says about us, concerning Christ.

I know that my life doesn’t always allow Christ to be seen through me, and I’m the only one that can help that. Christ will help me, and I hold to the scripture in Philippians where Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Do you believe that? Christians, I challenge you to make a change in your life. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and when you find HIM, ask HIM to help you to hold on to HIS hand, and not let go. I believe you will find that you can’t do wrong if you allow HIM to lead you and you are willingly to follow.

May God help us to seek HIS ways in our lives and may we always being willing to follow HIM.