Right Here! Right Now!

Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”— that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 

If you… What are my OTHER options? Luke 18:18-21 A ruler questioned Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit (to receive an allotted portion… the portion assigned to me *Strong’s Concordance) eternal life?”

If you… But FIRST! – Matthew 8:21 Another disciple said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.”

If you… Not now! – Luke 14:16-24 “A man was giving a big dinner, and  he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’ Another one said, ‘I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

Have I hit upon the “goto” excuse to delay your eternal life choice yet?

Sometimes we make it sound as if the choice is our’s alone to make, that it doesn’t affect anyone but me. That the worst consequence is just a delay. It’s JUST a religion – it’s JUST a mindset – it’s JUST a personal belief.

We want to think that this “spiritual thing” is JUST a phase of life with no REAL STRUGGLE required. Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead… quick and easy peasy!

And… it is QUICK… with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation… Right Here! Right Now!

But easy? Should it be easy? After all, confession is more than speaking a few words, or promising a few things that you may or may not fulfill when the time comes. And believing? Way more than childish declarations tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:14). It is speaking the truth in love, growing up in all aspects into Him (Ephesians 4:15). It is laying aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and putting on the new self, which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

Yes, it will begin “Right Here! Right Now!”

But what really begins is A Wrestling Match like no other, just as in Jacob’s (and now our) life!

Genesis 32:24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak

Not only do we wrestle with ourselves (the laying aside and putting on a new self is a sometimes VERY BLOODY match), we wrestle with all who enter (at their own risk) into our wrestling ring. When we ask God into our ring – Right Here! Right Now! – through our believing and confessing heart, we enter into an eternal wrestling match with…Elohiym (Strong’s Concordance)… the God of Israel! (Genesis 32:28 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”)

Jacob, became, right then and right there, the example of being in, what we call a RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

This is how God does life!

Wrestling (like parent with a child NOT enemies)… When he (God) saw that he had not prevailed against him (Jacob), he (God) touched the socket of his (Jacob’s) thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he (God) wrestled with him (Jacob). 26 Then he (God) said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he (Jacob) said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” (Genesis 32:25)

Obviously this match did not cause Jacob such great fear that he refused to wrestle. Nor did it cause Jacob to hate the One he was wrestling with. In fact, it caused him to know he was in a special place – the place of seeing God FACE TO FACE… (so Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” verse 30)

A real life relationship with the REAL God! (Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping (He was “touched” – no doubt it was real) on his thigh. verse 31)

May I just say… EVERY relationship is a wrestling match! Or should be! For if it isn’t, it is nothing more than empty words and empty promises. A living arrangement that requires very little “like” much less love.

EVERY relationship requires a battle, both within and without, to establish the boundaries of and the land on which the living together will take place. Most of us would like to live ALONE without the necessity of wrestling, however the nature of each individual is a WRESTLER! Alone or with another, WE WILL WRESTLE! We may not call it “wrestling” for that indicates fighting with the possibility of violence, “WE” are BETTER THAN THAT! “WE” are lovers not fighters! “Some” might even declare us better than, more loving than, more caring than, GOD – after all – He ALLOWS bad things to happen – we MAKE LAWS against bad things happening while ignoring the truth that bad things happen when LAWS (especially God’s laws) AREN”T FOLLOWED.

I think we truly despise wrestling for the results, i.e. consequences of the match. We despise the RISK of the MATCH.

There is… wait for it… a winner AND a looser. Someone gets AND someone has to give. Someone rules AND someone serves. We wish to be DECLARED the winner without the risk of loosing.

With God, there is no question of authority… He created – we became the creature.

With God, there is no question of power… He speaks and IT is done.

With God, there is no question of consequences… His word NEVER returns void.

With God, there is no question… He is the way, the truth, the life.

We don’t often dwell on the worst risk of all… We loose!

With God, there is no risk… We Win!

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him

God desires to declare us WINNERS! Might be saved… might not perish… might have not just this “life” but have an ETERNAL abundant LIFE…

All for the price of the other thing we despise but cannot escape – RELATIONSHIP.

For richer, or poorer, in sickness, and in health, till death do us part, we are NEVER alone. Whether we acknowledge another “sharer of our life” or not, we share this land we call earth with billions of other “us”. Whether we wrestle with them or not we are related to each and every one of “us” by being alive on this earth.  When we do wrestle with another “us” it isn’t always fun, or pretty, or successful. Heck! When we wrestle with ourselves it isn’t always fun, or pretty, or even successful (even when we pretend it is).

When we wrestle with God, it is sometimes painful, often times ugly, but successful? ALWAYS!

When you confess with your mouth (HE IS LORD) and believe with your heart (HE IS GOD) you, right here and right now, hand Him the invitation to reside and the power of attorney  over the residence.

Like Jacob, our choice has been made and we should,

• expect and invite wrestling
• stay with the match until we are blessed
• rejoice that we SEE GOD FACE TO FACE and we live to tell about it!

Right Here! Right Now! The wrestling match begins…

For it is God who is at work in (and outside of) us, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 

Spoiler Alert – We win God’s good pleasure when we lose our will to “DO IT MYSELF!”

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.