Do You Have Valid ID?

You know you are from New Mexico if: 

   1.     You have shook out our bed sheets or shoes to check for scorpions.

   2.     You understand the waitress when she asks, “Red, Green, or Christmas?”
   3.     You know what a horny toad is.

   4.     Christmas decorations include red chilies, half-a-ton of sand and 200 paper bags.

   5.     You or your car has been attacked by a life-size tumbleweed.
   6.     Out-of-state salesmen want to charge you extra for international shipping.

   7.     A sunset stops you dead in your tracks.

   8.     You have used a snow sled to slide down a sand dune.

   9.     You understand the importance of “Hatch.”

  10.  You need a passport to travel to neighboring states…

I would like to settle on number 10 – Thanks to the Real ID Act, as of January 2013, New Mexico residents will be required to have a passport in order to fly within the US. Why, you ask?

Well, we are one of two states, Washington being the other, which gives drivers licenses to illegal aliens… Yup. We have handed out nearly 100,000 of them in the last ten years alone.

However, this now makes law-abiding citizen’s drivers licenses obsolete. The state along with our Governor has been battling this for some time.

NM residents must produce a passport in order to gain admittance into airports, labs and local military bases. (Because a birth certificate – proof of citizenship- is required to get a passport.)

I took my passport with me to Pennsylvania. I left it there while coming home for the holidays knowing that my family wasn’t going to be traveling… and low and behold! My host family has to mail it back to me just so I can return in January!

Passports are not cheap, nor are they easy to obtain. We have shot ourselves in the foot and all residents will now be paying the price.  

Do you have proof of citizenship? A birth certificate? Not of the state you are from, but of Heaven. What proves your residency as a Kingdom dweller?

Do a self-check. Is your ID valid, or could someone call it in to question? Imagine the many at airports this January who will be denied access to a flight because the TSA agent can not accept their photo ID… now multiply that frustration and fear times a thousand. What would it be like for the King of the Heavens to deny your ID? I cringe at the thought.

Matthew 7:22-23 says, “On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”

Don’t lose heart! I love this verse – it motivates me to live a life of genuine Christianity. I hope it does the same for you. How then can you prove the authenticity of your eternal ID?

Back up a few verses to Matthew 7:16, it says, “You will recognize true believers by their fruit.” John 15:8 says that when you bear much fruit, you prove you are His disciple.

I want to bear much fruit! Cultivated from our lives should be a ripe harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) Christ should be able to taste of our fruit – others should experience it every day.

Along with you, I am a work in progress – not all fruits are currently ripe in my life, some may be a bit bitter and others kind of mushy, but I am working on it!

I desire that my Heavenly ID be authentic – genuine – tested and proved. Many, like those in my state, have received an ID that is no longer recognized by the nation. The amazing thing is, God is always ready and willing to give an ID to those who call upon His name with a sincere heart.

Don’t drive around with a fake. Get the real deal – your life fruits will show it. So, when you approach the King of Kings with your ID, he will run to embrace you as he already recognizes you as the grower of some of his favorite fruits!  

Love and blessings from The Land of Enchantment!