Open Registration

Ever notice lately, if you're surfing around on the internet and you find a website or blog you really like, you're almost always asked to register?  Do you think twice about putting your personal information there? Your physical address, your date of birth, and more?  Along with that annoying step of "confirming your email" several times over. If you think about it, it's crazy what we'll do just so we can snag a coupon code or be added to a mailing list.  Do you do that? No? Maybe it's just me.  I spend a lot of time on the Net and I rarely think about what I'm doing. I do think I have been way too trustworthy of the cyberspace in this 15" box of techy wires sitting in my lap. 


"But you have come right up into Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the gathering of countless happy angels; and to the church, composed of all those registered in heaven; and to God who is Judge of all; and to the spirits of the redeemed in heaven, already made perfect." Hebrews 12: 22 - 23 (TLB) 

I heard this verse the other day and I immediately hid it in my heart so I could go look it up again and study it. It brought me such comfort and yet was thought-provoking as well.  In this chapter of Hebrews, the author is encouraging the followers of Jesus, to stay the path, to stay strong in the face of adversity, and to realize the payoff is the beautiful gift of eternal life.  The entire chapter is so encouraging.  

If we can easily give virtual strangers, websites, and social media our sensitive information, why does it sometimes feel so difficult to give our entire lives to Jesus, the only one who can put our names in the most important database of all--The Register of Eternal Life?!!! 

Maybe it's because we tend to focus on the tangible, the logical. Maybe it's because our brains don't handle faith well, and it requires we reach deep in our souls to try to understand the magnitude of eternal life.  Maybe it's because we don't feel worthy of having our names registered in the Book of Life. 





Be encouraged, my friends! To have our names registered in heaven, we only have to simplify things---to stop making absolutely everything so painstakingly hard, and instead become like a child. Children believe something is truth just because they are told by the ones they trust (us) that what is being said is truth





And sweet Jesus asks us to do the same. He says that if we truly trust Him, we will believe with the faith of a child.  That's it.  We must see ourselves as the sinners we are, believe in our hearts there is only one Jesus who became our representative so God would accept us again, and do the best we can to live a life that mimics His. Then BOOM! There in the Register of Heaven, will be our names.  

Stop striving. Be still and know. Whisper a prayer, super-short or super-long, and know that you are heard. No emails, no passwords to create, no hard-to-read captchas to type to prove you're not a robot.  And most importantly, no unsubscribing from the list.  It is there permanently


You can relax, knowing you don't have to be perfect to stay on the list.  Your name, your soul, your life are all engraved on His hands and in His heart, and the gates of hell can not prevail or erase it.   Yeah, Team Jesus! 




On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16: 18




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Comments

  1. Ok, dang it, I've tried to post here SO many times, and do it wrong every time. This is AWESOME and I love love love it! Those of us who follow our Jesus, believe in His love for us, and crave the presence of our Father & His Holy Spirit need this 'food' more now than ever before. This dark world is made a measure lighter by Blogs like yours, and by people like you. I love you!

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