The Real Deal

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The excitement my friends had when their team recently won the football championship was through the roof. I can’t believe how everything else in their lives seem to fade to black, and the only thing that mattered that day was the game. Some of them were having relationship drama with their girlfriends, others have been complaining about how much they dislike their jobs, and a few of them are dealing with issues much more severe, but the game though, that took center-stage. I’ll watch a game or two every now and again, but a sports fanatic I’m not. Still, I can’t be mad about it for those that are. It’s good to enjoy life and have things that we’re passionate about. The problem is when we are more enthusiastic over those things than we are about the real deal in life, which is our relationship with God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Everyday should be a celebration of thankfulness for what God has done for us through our powerful Redeemer. Romans 8:15(NLT) tells us, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”” As born-again believers, we have been rescued from the pit of hell by Jesus Christ. Hell is where we would have made our home if God had not sent His Son to save us. We desperately needed God’s help because of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

They bowed to the devil in disobedience. They knew all about the goodness of God. They knew His goodness better than any of us living today. They had perfect minds and perfect bodies. They were intelligent and strong, and communed with Holy Spirit all the time. Imagine the extraordinary conversations they must have had. The knowledge that Holy Spirit shared with them was no doubt mind-blowing. Yet, with all the wonderful fellowship with Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit, and with all that they knew about Him and His Kingdom, they doubted God’s Word, and allowed the devil to trick them out of their holiness.

Think of the worse place that you can conjure up in your mind. Multiply this exponentially by fire and evil, and you still would not come close to the horror of hell. God has saved us from this terrible fate, and given us the gift of eternal life through Christ. If that isn’t something to celebrate, nothing is.

God has made us His sons and daughters, and given us the greatest trophy that could ever be given; the prize of living our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit! This is what we should be celebrating. The world has promoted and propped up different things to celebrate and worship, but God has given us the truth and realness of His Son and love. Our attention should be in what God has done and continues to do through Jesus Christ, and not on the world.

We must wake up and recognize that the trick of the enemy is to steal our focus and to divert attention towards what is going on in the world instead of having our eyes focused on God. The Apostle Paul said in 2Corinthians 4:18 (NIV), “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” We can’t ever afford to forget this extremely important truth. Some of us view fame, celebrity, fortune, fashion, and wealth as the real deal in life, but these things are not real. They are only temporary things, and they often keep us from spending quality time with God and building our relationship with Him.

Luke 2:7 tells us that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was born in a manger because there was room for him at the inn. We’re talking about the Savior of the entire world. There were no diamonds, rubies, and pearls. There was no colosseum with crowds standing on their feet, cheering and celebrating his birth. He didn’t have fancy linens made of silk and fine material. Even the messenger, John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare the way for Christ, he did not preach in a big mega building. He preached in the wilderness. He wore clothes made of camel hair, and ate locust and honey for nourishment; no filet mignon or fine dining for them, and this was all by God’s divine design. You and I don’t get to decide what is precious and valuable by God’s standard. He decides that. And He desires us to recognize that humility, honor, integrity, obedience, love, faith, and sacrifice are prized before His throne.

God is showing us the real deal through His Word. He tells us in Romans 12:2 not to be conformed to this world’s standards, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We should be hungering for the real deal, which is the righteousness that God made available through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus taught and lived with real authority because he walked in the Spirit of God. This is how Heavenly Father wants us to live, so that we can live with power and walk with Christ authority through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The world cannot give us this kind of power; it can only come from God through Christ.

We must always be aware that the things that take place in the spiritual world are more real than those in our human world. We are spiritual beings in Christ, and we have to spend quality time fellowshipping with God as part of our daily life. Mark 1:35(NLT) tells us, “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” If Jesus Christ made prayer a priority, surely, we must as well. We must recognize that only what we do for God will last, because honoring our relationship with Him through the Spirit of Christ is the real deal. ■

4TheChristianMan

Christian encouragement and inspiration for men

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