Why am I STILL up?

I guess you could say that my sleeping patterns have been alittle altered lately for some reason, as have my eating patterns for this reason or that. Some of my favorite sayings as of late have been "well, man does not live by bread alone" and "well, man does not live by sleep alone." And one of JT Turner's favorite's "sleep is optional". I mean how necessary are these things really? Don't lose me here, I know they are very important and vital to our life and health but as with most other things in our culture we have been over-indulged. So I can't sleep, I read. Here's some quotes from what I have been reading tonight....(yes long, I know. Skip it if you have better things to do, I would).

Chapter Entitled: Real Salvation by Wayne Jacobsen
"Two simple steps to fill that hunger.
First, repent. Everything about the way we live outside of
Christ is centered in our own desires, feelings, and needs.

It recognizes that sin is an attitude before it’s ever an act; and that God wants to
free us from sin, not to ruin our fun, but to save us from ruin.

Be careful not to confuse repentance with regret. Regret is sorrow
over the consequences of sin. I’ve met many people who are
sorry they are going to jail, getting divorced, or running out of
money. They regret the decision that contributed to their pain
and want help. But if that help is anything less than surrender to
Jesus, then it isn’t repentance—
no matter how much they weep.
Bob was a confused young man. Nineteen years old, hooked
on drugs, and wanted for theft, he showed up on the doorstep
of one of the couples in our fellowship with his 17-year-old girlfriend.
They were in despair and wanted help. Different ones in
our fellowship spent time with them, and they eventually
said
they wanted to follow Jesus.
And they started to—until they found out how much he wanted
to change them. Fearful that the changes God was making in
them might change their relationship to each other, Bob backed
off. Days later he tried to commit suicide. No matter how deep
the pit, and how much we despair of being in it, regret is not
the same as repentance. Regret is self-centered even in its sorrow,
and cannot bring itself to submit to anything other than the
whims of flesh, no matter how much more pain it brings.
Repentance is proved not in the moment of anguish but in the
actions that follow it."

“Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” "The
Ethiopian’s words to Philip underline the depth of this conviction
about baptism. This is not to say that the water holds any
magic; it doesn’t. It is obedience to Christ’s word, not the water,
that makes the difference. Being baptized because of peer pressure
or formality is lifeless. Baptism is only real to the degree that
it reflects the truth about our heart for God.
Baptism’s importance cannot be discounted. Those who try to
do so only prove otherwise by their refusal to do it. I’ve nursed
along many new believers only to find them unwilling to follow
Jesus if it means they must be baptized. Their problem with baptism
may be no bigger than the embarrassment that comes from
being wet in front of a group of people, but if they won’t follow
Jesus that far, they usually won’t go much further either. Though
I’ve met people with a vibrant faith who had not been baptized,
their omission was due to ignorance, not refusal. Upon learning
what Scripture taught about baptism, they willingly complied.
But what’s most important about these two steps in Peter’s
instructions is what follows them. When people repent and are
baptized with sincere hearts, two things happen immediately:
The first is forgiveness of sins, what Hebrews calls a “cleansed
conscience.” The mind and spirit are liberated from failure and
guilt. It is as if we have never sinned and are free to enter God’s
presence with confidence. The fellowship severed by our sinfulness
is restored.
The second result is what Peter termed receiving the gift of the
Holy Spirit. The reality of God’s presence floods our being in the
person of the Holy Spirit. He comes to be our guide, teaching
us how to know God better and how to follow his will. He also
brings us power—to walk in his strength and to love as we have
been loved.
These two benefits take all the abstraction and ritual out of the
conversion experience. The evidence of salvation is in the freedom
of forgiveness and in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That’s
how we can tell when conversion is genuine—because that person
becomes alive with God’s presence.
This is what salvation is for, and if you’ve never experienced
intimacy with God, this is where you can begin. Find someone
whom you know is alive in God and ask them to walk through
these steps with you. Open your heart to God and know it is
done when his power and presence floods your being.

From a book by Wayne Jacobsen. You can go to www.lifestream.org to read more of his stuff and download two of his books free. Great site for growth!!

Maybe I can sleep now.....