| Did you ever get out of fellowship with God ? After you confessed Christ
as your personal Savior, did you ever leave His fellowship and go the way of the world? In
the Gospel of Luke the fifteenth chapter, the eleventh verse, we find the story of the
prodigal son. This young man had the love of a father, the security of his father's
home,but Satan the devil, wouldn't let him be content, so we find him leaving his father's
home and JOURNEYING INTO A FAR COUNTRY, AND THERE WASTED HIS SUBSTANCE WITH RIOTOUS
LIVING. I know from personal experience this can happen because it happened to me. For ten years I was out of fellowship with God. Don't get me wrong, I am not bragging. I am ashamed of this period of my life. During this time I started doing a number of things I thought it was smart to do. Anything, to build up myself in the eyes of others. I even got to the place, where I didn't pray, that is, unless I wanted something. For one who had accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I really backslid. As I think back on this time, even though I was out of fellowship with God, I still had the knowledge of salvation. I knew I had at one time accepted Christ, and once saved, always saved. I felt that if I had died during this time I would have gone to Heaven. You must remember, we fail God: He never fails us. I, like the son in the story Jesus told, sitting in the pig pen of this world, came to my senses one day, and the Lord Jesus took me back into fellowship. I, was told by a mature Christian a long time ago, that if I wanted proof of anything from God, just to ask Him for Scripture concerning it and He would give it. I asked God to prove to me that He had taken me back and my Bible opened to Luke 15: 11-24, and my eyes fell on the verse which says, "AND HE AROSE , AND CAME TO HIS FATHER. BUT WHEN HE WAS YET A GREAT WAY OFF, HIS FATHER SAW HIM, AND HAD COMPASSION, AND RAN, AND FELL ON HIS NECK, AND KISSED HIM." Here I had the picture of my Heavenly Father, seeing me, knowing I had repented, and was sorry for the hurt I had caused Him, welcoming me back as His lost child. There are five things mentioned in verses 22 and 23 that were given to the son that we as Christians have offered to us. (1) THE ROBE, to us this is the robe of His Righteousness achieved by the death of Christ for us. (2) THE RING, a ring throughout the Bible is the symbol of eternal things, so it signifies eternal life; (3) THE SHOES, the shoes in Christian life represents service, so we as children of God must be about our Father's business; (4) KILLING OF THE FATTED CALF; God caused the calf to be killed, the sacrifice to be made, so that we might have a WAY back to Him; (5) BE MERRY, this is the joy of living, the peace and joy that are ours as children of God, especially as obedient children of God. These things I have written, are true, for they have happened to me. If you, my friend, are in a backslidden condition and have lost your peace and joy, and fellowship with the Lord Jesus, you too can come back into fellowship with Christ. In I John 1:9, we read, "IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO FORGIVE US OUR SINS, AND TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." This verse not only applies to the saved people who have backslidden, but to the unsaved; those who have never known the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Remember the Lord Jesus is coming again, (PERHAPS TODAY) so please get into fellowship with Him today,right now. The Bible says "NOW IS THE ACCEPTED TIME. NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION." The love of God is a wonderful thing. In John 3:16, the Bible says,"FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH,BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE." Have you put your name in the place of whosoever? DO IT TODAY! by- J.R. Jones, Jr. |