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What?!  We’re almost halfway through 2009?  As the days and weeks slip by, I keep asking myself, “What in the world am I doing with my life?!”

Am I alone here? 

As a Biblical Christian, the ultimate purpose of my life is to have a daily, intimate relationship with Christ.  Without a vibrant relationship with Him, life grows wearisome.  Who cares how many Christian things I do if the spiritual heart that beats within me is chilled and weak? As W. Ian Thomas asked, “How much can you do without Christ?  Nothing . . . It is astonishing, however, how busy we can be doing nothing!” Only Jesus Christ can infuse the life.  The ‘secret’ to happy Christian living is not merely a relationship with Christ but one that’s real.  There’s a phrase I used to hear around a lot: “Keep it real!” That’s what I want to do with my relationship with my Savior.  Keep it real.

An old friend of mine struggled with this.  His outlook was so rules-oriented that it was impossible for him to have a real, intimate relationship with God.  To him, God became a set of rules rather than the personal being that He is.  Now don’t get me wrong–God has standards, and they are good and right, but He is relational.  He is a Being, a personal one Who desires to know us.  He desires that so much that He sacrificed everything to bring us close to Him!  God wants us to know and love Him personally more than He wants us to set up Christian hoops to jump through.  If we know and love Him, we will naturally obey Him.

As we know Him more, however, we realize how vast the separation is between God’s nature and ours.  A holy God without sin knows my deepest thoughts, my hidden dreams, my inner man.  What a frightening thought, were it not for His love and mercy!  I can be honest with God.  I can go to Him boldly and yet humbly.  He knows the real me.  He knows the truth.  He knows Burnie Lund.

Where do you go to be starkly honest?  Who can you tell about the depths of your soul?  Go to Christ!    Who cares about putting up a front with God?  After all, Hebrews 4:13 reminds us that “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” He holds our very life in His hands: “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:25b).  Why not be real?

June 2009.  Wow.  Where are you with Christ today?  Is your relationship alive and vibrant?  Why?  Why not?!

Keep it real.

Sincerely,

Burnie Lund, Assistant Pastor

Tags: baptist, burnie, canyon, crbc, it, keep, lund, real, ridge

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 12:11 am and is filed under Pastor's Perspective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.