Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/php.3.13-14.KJV
In the Bible, our Creator is the embodiment of Life itself. Not only because He created it but because He sustains it as well. God and Jesus both, along with the Holy Spirit, sustain all of Creation. The life which is on Earth or anywhere else in the universe is also sustained by them and by their power over life. Every life on Earth, human, animals, insect and even bacteria, is sustained by God’s power. Satan is the oposite of life and is a liar if he claims otherwise.
No matter how much Satan tells you that he can bring your wife or son or daughter back to you…don’t believe it because it is a total LIE! He can’t give life and he can’t resurrect a life that is already gone. Only our Creator can do that and bringing someone back from the grave hasn’t been done since Jesus’ time. But that time may come again soon.
Our Creator has done many miraculous things and will continue to do many more. Your life in Christ is one because you are a new creature in Christ. When you gave up your old life and began to live a new life through the power of Jesus’ name and claimed Him as your Savior, then you became a new person. As you walk in His Word and pray daily for His strength to keep you on the pathway following Him, you will become more like Him and less like your old self.
That is what is meant by becoming sanctified in Christ. Because the more that you learn from the Bible and from prayer and by resisting the temptation to return to your old life, then you will begin to reflect the life and likeness of Jesus. Of course, we can never become fully like Him in this life but others will notice a difference in our life that is reflecting His attitudes and His teachings more than what the world will accept. That is why the world doesn’t like Christians, because they look at us and see what they should be like. Knowing that if they were more like Jesus they wouldn’t be living in sin the way they are.
He gives us the power to be more like Him because if He didn’t, we couldn’t live our life reflecting His ways and not our own. We can’t be real Christians without Him or without His Spirit changing us from the sinner that we once were into the person that Jesus knows we can be. I ask that any of you who haven’t given your life to Jesus, please consider seeking Him out and doing so before your life ends. There are no second lives to live and no second chances after this one is through.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Hebrews 12:14 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/heb.12.14.KJV
God is unchanging in His ways and the “church” in America today seems to be telling people that He does. Saying it will not make it so. We, meaning all who claim to be Christians, should read our Bibles more carefully and take what is said in them as being the Truth. Since it was His Holy Spirit which prompted the men who wrote each book, the Word is His Word and considering that God can’t lie then every word is Truth.
I will not get into the debate over sexual orientation or other lifestyles here, but God’s position is clear in His Word. There is no solution for a couple other than a man and a woman since God’s intention, in the beginning, was for them to “be fruitful and multiply”. This is the natural order of all living things, human or otherwise. God loves His entire Creation and the salvation of mankind is only by belief in Jesus Christ and accepting Him as your Lord and Savior.
Any other pathway which other philosophies espouse is a false path and doesn’t lead to Heaven at all. Is it possible to gain entrance into Heaven without Jesus? No! Works of ours do not qualify any of us because when they are done without Jesus in our hearts they are meaningless in God’s sight. Living and working in this world without Jesus is possible but gaining entry to Heaven is not. If you die without Jesus then you will be judged by Him and sent to hell for the decision which you chose to make about your salvation and your own righteousness!
Your sins will be part of your judgment without Jesus to cover them but they won’t be the only reason you spend eternity in hell. A sentence to hell is because of your decision to go through life without Jesus in your heart and as a guide in your life.
God loves you and me so much that He wants us to come to know His Son. Which of us will decide to follow Him is known by God, yet the decision to know and believe in Jesus for our salvation is our individual decision to make. So, what will your decision be? Will you believe in Jesus the Christ as your Savior and Lord in the simple way that the thief on the cross did? He didn’t have any way of being baptized or any time to do any works for Jesus except to believe in Him because of what he knew of Him, yet Jesus told him that “this day you will be with Me in Paradise“.
If that thief could come to Him in his humble faith and believe unto salvation then why can’t more people give their lives to Him in service until He comes or they come to the end of their lives? In today’s world, there are so many who are against Christianity because Christians believe in the inerrant Word of God and what it contains…the Truth of Salvation and Wisdom from God! Religion doesn’t save you, a denomination doesn’t grant you entrance into Heaven, no amount of works or money given to the church will gain you entrance either. The only way to eternity with Jesus in Heaven is through belief in Him for your salvation and repentance of your sins which have kept you from Him prior to your conviction by the Holy Spirit when you realized that you truly need Him!
Cast thy burden upon the Lord , and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalms 55:22 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.55.22.KJV
One of the misunderstood commands of our Lord was when He restored Peter to his place before He ascended to the Father. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep” and He said it not once or twice but three times. Granted, Jesus didn’t use the same wording for each time that He asked Peter to do this, but the meaning is the same. He asked him to be a shepherd to His flock and to tend to His lambs and feed His sheep.
This is what all pastors and just regular Christians are supposed to do because we have a responsibility to those who are just becoming Christians, like children or lambs in a flock. We are also supposed to help feed those who are still learning about God’s Word and what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Being a Christian is not as easy as some try to make it seem. There are always obstacles, temptations, and darts which are flung at us each and every day from the enemy. But in Jesus Christ, we do have the power to resist them and to conquer them especially if we are grounded in His Word and know it well enough to use it as a weapon against Satan and his followers. We can’t do this on our own!
Even Jesus used Scripture to fend off Satan when He had finished His fast of forty days, so don’t think you won’t need to know it because you will. Feeding His sheep includes feeding our own souls so that our walk with Him is more productive. God loves us and wants the best for us, but His best for us doesn’t mean that we will become rich in money. We will be rich in blessings and in His Kingdom.
Have faith in Jesus and believe in Him for your salvation because He is the only way to have salvation in this life and in eternity as well. Don’t believe the lie that you can accept Him as your Savior and then go back to living your life on your terms and doing whatever you want to do. That is not how salvation works. The change which happens in your heart should translate into a new lifestyle and one which honors Him and glorifies Him! Going back to your old life and your old lifestyle after you have “given” your heart to Him proves only that you didn’t give anything to Jesus.
If you actually did give your heart to Him and then turned away from Him and being a Christian in your daily walk with Him, you are trampling His blood and His sacrifice under your feet like it doesn’t mean anything to you at all! All that you have is insurance against going to hell, but no works which would point anyone else in the direction of Jesus. That is a sad and unfruitful way of saying that you are a Christian when nobody can see it in your life.
Think about it and make sure that your life with Him is true and honest and one which will draw even a child to come to know Him.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/eph.3.20-21.KJV
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:24 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/mrk.11.24.KJV
In this life, we have two decisions which have an eternal impact on our future. Both of these decisions have to do with Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Lord and Savior or our rejection of Him. He came to this Earth in the form of the Rock which gave the Israelites water in the wilderness and as the Angel of the Lord. He was also the Pillar of Fire/Smoke which protected the Israelites from the Egyptian army and went with them on their journey through the wilderness. Jesus, the Living Word, the Lamb of God, Counselor and Prince of Peace…He was all of these and our Savior when He took our sins on Himself and paid the price which we could not pay.
So, what is your decision about Him today? Is He your Savior and Lord or will He be your Judge when you stand before Him one day? Think carefully about this decision because when this life is over, you can’t change your mind then. You must choose.
Jesus arose from the tomb after three days and spent the next 50 days teaching His disciples what they needed to know to take His message away from Jerusalem. He may not have been with them every day of that time, but according to the holidays He was around in different places.
So many times we read the Bible, at least those of us who do read it, and we find one gospel which states just the facts like Mark. Then we read John’s gospel and he focused on the miracles and parables which Jesus taught with. John also made sure that we knew that we needed Jesus and we needed to believe in Him as our Savior. The job which Jesus had to do was to pay for all of our sins so we could be granted salvation through our faith and belief in Him as our Savior.
He tried to bring this knowledge to the Jewish leaders and people but they wouldn’t listen. They considered their own righteousness to be enough without Him or His message. Many of us today consider our “righteousness” will be enough to grant us entry into Heaven because we attend church and occasionally read our Bibles. But the outward appearance of being righteous does nothing for our heart or our soul. As Jesus said to them, “You are like whitewashed tombs“.
The only righteousness which counts is what is imputed to us through the surrender of our life to Him and by living daily by His grace and power. We don’t have the ability to be righteous enough without Him in our heart or our life. Make sure of your salvation before it is too late and you stand before Him just as you are right now.
