Life

Today at church, we finished our "One Month to Live" series by talking about living a no-regrets life. "The thiefs purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." John 10:10

Jesus came so that we would have a better life than we ever dreamed possible. Now, this meant that he wanted to add life to our years, not necessarily extend our years of life. The enemy's plan is to steal our passion and kill our dreams. Passion is like a puzzle......all the pieces are needed in order to live passionately. So, how do you restore your passion and have a passion-filled life? What pieces are needed?

L--Love
I--Integrity
F--Forgiveness
E--Enthusiasm

Love is the foundation. Love is selfless; lust is selfish. Love is a choice, an action, and it is unconditional. It's not a feeling. "Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first." Rev 2:4,5 We have to return to what we did when we were first passionate about Him. In order to live passionately, with no regrets, we have to love the Lord with the passion that we had when we first came to know Him.

Integrity is living what we say we believe. It's integrating Him into all areas of our lives.....taking Him out of the box. We have to allow Him to be in every area of our lives - our finances, our recreation, etc. To say we believe and then live another way will frustrate us and rob us of our passion. We have to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

Forgiveness is something that is essential to living a no-regrets life. Unforgiveness will steal our passion. It doesn't hurt the person we refuse to forgive; it damages us and our own life. "Surely resentment destroys the fool, and jealousy kills the simple." Job 5:2

Enthusiasm comes from the words "en theos" which means "God within". If God is within you, you have His enthusiasm and passion in you! You may have squashed it, but it's there! Our Pastor talked today about something that I found to be so true.......he said that in our society, it is acceptable to be passionate about just about everything except for God!! Think about guys who are crazy fanatics about their sports teams. They paint their faces, wear their team shirts, go crazy and proclaim their love for their teams, and no one condemns them for it. But, as soon as we proclaim our love for the Lord, well that's just not acceptable. I had never thought about it that way, but it's so true. As Christians, we should be seen as living passionately for Christ. Lots of church people are passionate about religion, morals, speaking a certain way, but not necessarily about Christ. If we are going to live like Christ, we cannot cast people off because of their sins. Maybe that is why people don't understand what it means to live passionately for Christ, because so many people are more passionate about the "religion" of it, and not their relationship with Him. We are called to minister. Being a representative of Christ means giving people directions to a new life.

So, we have to put these pieces together and live passionately. When we live with passion, we will have no regrets, and that is truly living.