Over time law enforcement collects what's termed a R.A.P sheet on various criminals. The RAP sheet is a criminal's record of arrests and prosecutions, but what I want to know is how long is your R.A.P. sheet (Record of Authority and Prayer)? Every Christian ought to have a RAP sheet that records our triumphs, our lessons learned, our getting ups, our encouraging others, our turning the other cheek, our taking authority in our lives and the lives of those around us, our restoring our brothers and sisters in a spirit of meekness and humility realizing it could be us, our bearing fruit, our stirring up the gift, our working by day, our loving one another. Every Christian ought to have a RAP sheet so long that tells the complete testimony of how we have overcome.
As we build our file there's all kinds of information about how we've taken on the mind of Christ and how we die to our flesh daily. There's information about how we learn to let go of our hurt and the pain that causes us to hurt others and cause them pain. We learn that we are justified by faith and that we have peace with God because of the blood that was shed by Jesus on Calvary.
Open your file. What does you RAP sheet look like? Is it a couple of pages? Is it clean? I hope my file is full and running over because I've fallen down, but gotten up again and I've made mistakes, but God has encouraged me through the Word that comes from my Bishop and my Pastor. I hope my file is full because God has stretched me past my comfort zone and grown me in ways that I never thought I could grow. He took me higher when I never thought I would have made it. I hope my file is overflowing because I'm learning to humble myself under His mighty hand and serve with a broken heart and a contrite spirit--Blessed are the peacemakers! I thank God and hope my file is overflowing because when I was caught red handed and guilty--He took away all the evidence. He covered me--thank you Jehovah Nissi. I don't know about you, but that's enough for me to shout on right there! I was way down and He reached all the way down and picked me up--my God! What kind of God is this? He loves us in spite of our self destructive behavior and allows us to build a RAP sheet for His glory! Your RAP sheet ought to include prayer--much prayer---fervent prayer--reverent prayer--thankful prayer.
Build your file--don't stop. So what if you've been the messy member. God is the God of change and another chance. Your reputation doesn't have to remain the same and that will go in your file! So what if you've played the harlot--Israel did many times and God redeemed her time and time and time again and called her His--that will go in your file! His love for us is unimaginable. So what if you don't feel that you're worthy; God deemed you so when He sent His son and that's in your file!
I thank God for an out of the box ministry that doesn't do it the way that someone else does it. Go ahead and talk about it because God says the stone that the builders rejected--eventually became the chief corner stone. You see they picked all the pretty stones and the smoothest stones first--they cast that one stone to the side, but in the end when they needed the one stone that could HOLD IT ALL TOGETHER--they had to go back and get it! So talk about that out of the box ministry! It is a gift! Why? Because I was a wretch undone and I needed the message sent to me in a way that I could receive it--not the same old way, but God saw that I needed it in a new way and He thought about me, just like He thinks about each and everyone of us. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Check your record and keep building your file. . .
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