The Future is Created by my Decisions

James 1:22 (KJV)
²² But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 

Destiny is your experience created by your decisions. 

Right now was your future a year ago… 10 years ago… 30 years ago. My decisions created my present which was my future - my destiny. I can talk about my future and my hopes and aspirations, but it will remain a pipe-dream if I don’t make decisions to create it. My future will always remain there and fleeting if I never make a decision to make it a reality. Vision should not remain a vision the whole life - it's a destination to be reached, a goal to be experienced. My wife Laci once said “You won’t see an ending without first seeing the vision, & without taking action, the experience will be dead.”

What will my future be like?

Look at the decisions I am making today and I will be able to know what it will be like. Life is not a lottery or one big chance or the result of a big bang theory of creation or evolution. Goals are nothing without action. For ten years a young man would tell his pastor “This is the year I'm going to bible school" and after those ten years never went. Why? Because he never applied action to the dream, vision, or the goal. God's visions require his ability and power to be fulfilled but demands my decisions and application of his Word to be accomplished. If this year is going to be different, then changes must be made that are different than 2015 to make 2016 different. 

God's development program is not an exercise bike - peddling but never going anywhere. God is about development but he is equally about getting somewhere. He will develop you to go somewhere not to show off and merely feel good about yourself. The purpose of his exercise program is more than personal benefit but to be equipped to touch others for his glory. 

Many times we wait on a miracle while God is waiting on us to make a decision. Many people are waiting on revival to just happen but are unwilling to make decisions to create it. A person who understands decision-making will succeed quicker than a person who is waiting on a miracle. The bible is a book about decisions. A book that promises life through the decisions it prescribes for us. To live it means to do it!
  
- Reuben Egolf 

 

Comforting News

Hebrews 11:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

Hebrews 13:14 (KJV)
¹⁴ For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. 

Today, many are accusing those who believe in a rapture as escapists who are turning a blind eye to the present needs of humanity. That somehow, if you believe this concept of a rapture that you instantly become a spiritual recluse who is selfishly looking for an escape, with no feelings for the lost who remain. 

However, the opposite is true. The rapture – the unannounced soon coming husband in the air for his bride – actually will quicken the heart to be motivated to win the lost. 

Looking at the two verse above tells us that both the patriarchs and the early church were intense in their focus on Heaven and reaching its shores. This unrepressed desire was the motivator in living out the plan of God for their lives and in the early church, it was what propelled them forward in their winning of souls.  

2 Corinthians 4:18 (KJV)
¹⁸ While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 

Paul is explaining what kept him going during times of hardship, persecutions, and afflictions. It was the spiritual sight that concentrated on the hereafter. This unbroken focus fueled his will to keep going in spite of the trials of this temporal life. 

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)
¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
¹⁸  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The famous scripture on the rapture concludes with Paul saying that the knowledge of such an event provides a comfort to those who are being persecuted. The Thessalonians were persecuted for their faith, however, knowing that a better tomorrow was approaching would be something to comfort them. 

If you are going through something today that is a hardship and you are a believer… I’ve got good news, it won’t last forever. Jesus is coming and where he is taking us there is no more

• pain
• death
• sickness
• hardship

It will be worth it all!!!!! 

Colossians 3:4 (KJV)
⁴ When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 (KJV)
¹⁰ And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. 

Reuben Egolf 

Give Your All and Live Free

Romans 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

What makes something worth dying for? What makes a person willing to expend their life for someone or a cause?

We may love our job, but would we die for it? We may love giving to a charity, but would we die for it? Most people would not die for their job or for their favorite charity or many other things for that matter. Then where does it cross over into a passion so deep that we would literally die for something instead of sacrificing principles and saving ourselves?

John 10:11
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

17-18
Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus was willing to die for the people of this world. Evidently he saw the worth of mankind as more than his personal convenience. The Lord was convinced that the cause of salvation was worth everything he would be called upon to endure and even death when required.

Paul had a similar view when it came to dying for something and/or someone.

Philippians 1:21-24 (KJV)
²¹ For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
²² But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
²³ For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
²⁴ Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

Notice he says that if he remains alive it is beneficial for Christ but if he chose to die it would be gain to himself. Paul was willing to die for what he believed in and ultimately he did just that. He was equally willing to live inconvenienced if it meant the Philippians would receive benefit.

This really comes from being so persuaded that the person and cause is of such worth, that dying for it/them is a contribution and not personal loss. It’s something bigger than yourself, and you are a part, not the whole. In other words, the person or cause doesn’t exist exclusively for you, but you exist for the person and/or cause.

Luke 9:23-24 (KJV)
²³ And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
²⁴ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

Jesus requires us to pick up our cross and follow him on a daily basis. This means we must believe this is a cause worth dying for. I have to believe it’s bigger than me and I’m a part of something larger than myself. When I lay my life down, I have not lost, I have  gained. 
 
The cross is synonymous with self-denial. Why is it so important to deny myself? If we don’t deny ourselves, there will be a day we deny Jesus.

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Self-denial is a call to inconvenience. Christ did not call us to a life of convenience but to his bidding for assistance in the completion of his plan. That plan may include hardship and everything contrary to a world-defined successful life. Their definition of success which includes financial windfalls, positions of popularity, and perpetual comfort may not be what is experienced by a Christian. 

What does picking up your cross mean?

It means removing ourselves from the throne of our lives and installing Jesus as first place and absolute ruler in our hearts. 

What actually is your cross?  

When God’s command crosses your will, there is your cross.  A cross is what you would rather not do. It's being with people you do not want to be with, giving or spending money you do not want to spend, interruptions or a rebuke you do not want to respond to. 

In other words, I must be willing to die to anything deemed important in my life that keeps me from God, and I must be willing to do anything God asks of me.


We often speak of and trivialize "our cross" as the need to put up with an in-law, a leaky roof or sputtering car, but it is much more than that.  It is living in this world as a Christian when others around you are not.  It is denying yourself in order to serve God.  Your cross is whatever it is that attempts to stand in the way of you following Jesus, remaining true to God, and pursuing his truth.

What is self-denial? . . . To deny self is to say no to every wish that comes out of the personal life. To deny self is radical.  It goes down to the roots of things. A man may practice self-denial all his life and never deny himself. A man may practice self-denial in this and that respect, and all the while his self–centeredness is strengthened. Jesus did not say exercise self-denial in externalities. He said deny self, have done with choosing, wishing, planning, arranging for self.  Choose no more, will no more, except to will that God shall will...I deny self when I hand over the keys of the citadel to the king and say, Enter and reign in every chamber of the being, in all possibilities of the soul (G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1954) Volume I, pp. 43-44).

 If you want to determine for yourself what things in life are worth dying for then simply consider your ideology and the weight of the values you hold contrasted with the consequences and implications of death.

-Reuben Egolf