Have you ever seen a person several times without actually knowing their name? Maybe you see them around your place of business or your church or your neighborhood. Maybe you've had conversations with them and you've seen them so many times that it's now too embarrassing to ask them their name. I know I've had that experience. It becomes too awkward to ask someone you "know" what their name is. Now I try to address the situation early on so it won't be so awkward later. I'd rather be embarrassed in the beginning than keep going through the motions of pretending I know someone better than I really do.

 

Well sadly something similar happens in the Kingdom of God also. Recently a friend shared that a woman asked him why God didn't answer her prayers. My friend told her that God answers the prayers of the righteous, and he asked her if she had ever asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior (for we are made righteous through faith in Christ). The woman had been in church all her life. She'd grown up Catholic, and later went to a Baptist church. She'd served in the church, she'd raised her children in the church, but she'd never actually asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. So my friend led her to the Lord right then and there and she hasn't been the same since.

 

There are many people that actively go to church but don't know Jesus as Lord. Some think they know him when what they really know is 'church.' Yet some realize they don't know HIM but are too embarrassed to admit it. It might indeed seem scandalous for the deacon of 20 years to accept the altar call for salvation but this is far more serious than not knowing someone's name. This is about living an abundant purposeful life on earth and it's about eternity. God's Beloved if you haven't made Jesus your Lord it's as simple as asking. Realize you have sinned and ask Him to forgive you. Ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and He will, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Romans 10:13]. Don't keep going through the motions and don't assume the people in your life, even in your church don't need salvation. There is an expression that preaching to the choir is unnecessary but the truth is there may be people in the choir who not only need preaching but salvation.