It seems to be happening more and more today. Fewer people are even claiming to be Christian in today’s society. Today less than fifty percent of Americans even attend church services and likely less than that belong to a church whether they attend services or not. Fifty years ago America was a Christian nation with more than seventy percent claiming to be Christian and also belonging to a church as well. Today that percentage is very different because of the younger generation who don’t want to be identified with any religion at all. This is truly a sad time for our country and those who claim to have no religion at all.
Why do I say it is sad? Because politics and some other “hot” topics have been part of the cause of this. It is also troubling because those of us who are Christians know that choosing to be a non-believer will have terrible eternal consequences. But for many, it seems that the choice has already been made. Life will go on whether you attend church or believe in God or Jesus or whether you choose not to but on the day when God calls the church home…what will you believe then?
At that point, it will be too late to change your mind. But you can still become a believer during the Tribulation although it will be a hard decision to make. Even harder than it is now. Because at some point you will be told if you don’t take the mark or a chip to be able to buy or sell. If you take it you are aligning yourself with the anti-Christ and your soul will be lost because you are on his side. Even if you think you are a Christian and you take the mark, whatever it is, you will lose your soul.
The seven years after the church is taken up will be a terrible time for those on Earth. It will truly be hell on Earth because there will be more demonic activity and there will be judgments coming from God Himself. These are all outlined in the book of Revelation and whether you believe in Jesus or not you should read it and seek Him soon because the world will be much worse during that time than it is today.
The definition of the word “holy” is a life devoted entirely to God or the work of God. Sometimes you read that God is holy and He is, but we are set apart for God’s work when it’s used about us. When we are saved through the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, God’s work is our work! Your life is given to you by God and we are on this Earth to do His work especially for His purpose and He has given each of us the ability and the talent to do this each and every day!
Consider this: you have the answer to eternal life that will save each person from an eternity separated from your Creator and your Savior. Why would you keep that information from someone that needs to know that they are loved beyond measure by the Creator of everything? There are so many people today who have taken their lives because they feel unloved, unwanted, and depressed because they don’t know about the Savior Who gave His life so they could have life into eternity.
Your life can be changed by Jesus with one simple prayer and your belief in Him and His work on the cross for you. A child can understand it, even one that isn’t very old at all. God loves you and He has loved you since the beginning, even before the Earth was created. Why do people continually think that everything came about by accident? You and your eyes and the elephant in Africa and the smallest bird were all created by God. Not one of these came about by some accidental coming together of molecules in some primordial soup.
Eternity is a very long time and it is where we all go after this life is over. Your destination in eternity is determined by your decision about Jesus and whether you have asked Him to come into your heart and bring salvation to your life. When you feel the touch of the Holy Spirit that convicts you that you need Jesus as your Savior, you have to make that decision. Will you accept Jesus as your Savior or will you tell the Holy Spirit that you aren’t ready yet so come back next week or next month.
What if you don’t have a week or a month? If you had a wreck in a car tonight or tomorrow night and you haven’t settled this before you die then you will go to hell. Not because you are a bad person. Not because you forgot to give a tithe to the church last week. You will go to hell because you didn’t ask Jesus into your heart when you felt His touch and you knew that you needed Him as your Savior. A decision to put it off is a refusal of God’s grace and mercy through the blood of Jesus and that decision is the one that will send you to hell.
If you have a chance to tell someone about Jesus and His sacrifice for their life and yours, you have to do it. Even if they won’t accept it or they get mad and walk away, tell them that Jesus loves them and He died so that they could have eternity ahead of them. This life doesn’t last forever. We only have seven decades or maybe eight if we have good health, but just consider how long eternity is and how short our life actually is in comparison.
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The periods at the beginning of those lines is how long our life is in comparison to just a small portion of eternity. Think about it.
Before I became a Christian many years ago I wondered why Jesus came to settle the accounts of humanity? What was the purpose? During the past decade I’ve tried my best to teach and preach from the Bible the whole counsel of God and tell those who would listen about my Savior and Lord even if they were only reading something that was published here. Sounds tedious doesn’t it? Well, not so much. Until last year when this “new” corona virus showed up and scared almost everyone out of the church, things looked pretty good actually. When the lock down began many went into hiding or at least “sheltering in place”.
The church that I had been a pastor of for nine years shut down with no idea when we might start back up again. So, I began a daily post here…sometimes more than once a day and it seemed to be what many people were looking for. I had more visitors and people looking at those posts than I had in previous years. I’m not blowing my own horn but the fact was that people needed to find some encouragement and good news and I suppose some of the words that I was given helped. Mainly because I sought God’s words just as I am still doing today and just like I sought His input for the sermons that I preached.
So truly…what is our purpose and what was the purpose for Jesus’ death and resurrection? The first is easy in a way. My purpose and yours is to accept the calling on our life when we feel the Spirit move our heart to accept Jesus as our Savior. Ignoring that call is a very dangerous thing to do because you might not have time to accept Him if you have a wreck on the way home or even if you had a heart attack tonight. When your time is up…that’s it.
The purpose for Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection was simply to be the Spotless Lamb of God to pay for ALL of the sins of mankind once and for all time. Sacrifices don’t have to be made afterward for something that you did on Friday night, Jesus paid the price so all you have to do is believe in Him for your salvation, repent of your sinful life and follow Him daily. Is it easy to follow Jesus? No, it isn’t at all easy but the reward is tremendous! If you have never given your heart to Jesus you will need someone to guide you through the early days because you likely didn’t read and study the Bible before. It will be strange to read and unless someone can help you, it can discourage you in your new life with Jesus.
That is why I have so many different translations of the Bible. Some of them are paraphrased like the Living Bible or the Message. The original translations from Greek and Aramaic to Latin and then to English are the King James Bible and the Gutenberg Bible. Today you also have the Christian Standard Bible, the New International Version, the New King James Bible, and a host of others that I won’t list here. The Living Bible or the Message are the easiest to read and get the ideas which are presented in the text, especially for a new believer. But you need to compare those ideas with the words from another version in order to get all that you can from God’s Word. Ask God to help you understand His Word and He will so don’t give up on reading it.
God inspired His prophets and others to write the words, His Word down so that we would have a complete understanding of His story and Who He is. If He had not done this, we would be clueless about His plan of salvation that began in Genesis and is shown all the way through until the book of Revelation. God doesn’t want anyone to die apart from Him but He gave us the ability to choose to follow His instructions and be redeemed or we can choose to reject His offer of salvation and be condemned…it is up to us.
Why do I say this in the title? Because God would not have sent His Son to redeem you or me or anyone else on Earth if He didn’t think you are important.
God has a plan for each of us. He can bring blessings into your life that you cannot imagine. I don’t mean that He is going to drop millions of dollars into your bank account, He gives you what you need when you need it. Remember, Jesus told the disciples that the hair of your head is numbered and that God even watches over the sparrows of the field and knows when one falls to the ground. If He cares for His creation enough to keep up with sparrows, don’t you think He cares for you even more?
God had a plan for each of us long before we were born, even before the foundation of the world, so that should tell you that you are important to Him. We are important enough for God to come down in the form of His Son in human flesh to redeem the sin nature that began in the Garden of Eden. He wants a relationship with you and He was willing to pay the price for it to come about.
Jesus taught His disciples for three years about the Father and His plans and what we should do with our salvation. Give it away! Others need to know the good news of Christ and the atonement that He paid for with His life and His resurrection that we celebrate this weekend. Jesus said, “I am the way, the Truth and the Life, no one can come to the Father except through Me.”
Even the thief on the cross believed in Jesus and His Kingdom and it was enough to bring salvation to His soul. Remember, no one is guaranteed another day to live. Make sure of your salvation before tonight is over because your eternity depends on it.
Many of us think that we are alone, even when we are in a crowd. Sometimes this feeling gets to be overwhelming and people think of suicide because the loneliness feels like it is crushing them. I’ve felt this way myself although I’ve usually prayed about it and God has given me peace enough to carry on.
Anyway, when you have accepted Jesus as your Savior you are never alone because His Holy Spirit is always there to comfort and guide you through troubled times. He never leaves you once you have truly opened your heart to Him and asked Him to come in and save you from yourself. It is your sins and your own life that is at stake after all. God knew this long before any of us were born. Jesus did all of this because of His love for us.
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, whether you have been taught this or not, it is the Truth of Scripture. God’s Word is true in all aspects, I pray that everyone who reads this will seek Him for their salvation. This age that we have lived in for nearly 2000 years is coming to an end. There is nothing which has to happen before Jesus calls His Bride, the church, to come home except the salvation of those who have been called by the Holy Spirit. If you have felt this in your heart, please seek your Savior soon and accept Him as your Savior.
God loves you and He has paid the price for our sins through the sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb of God. Do not refuse this gift of God because it has been given to each of us. The greatest gift ever given to humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ.
These three are in one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. Many people call it the love chapter and it is used almost exclusively at weddings and sometimes at funerals for the hope that it gives to those who have lost someone dear to them. Paul writes at the end of this chapter that “the greatest of these is love”. Why?
Because it was love that brought Jesus to Earth to be the perfect Lamb of God for our sins. It was love that compelled Him to minister to all of the people who were not allowed in the Temple because of who they were or what sort of occupation they had. He taught them, fed them, healed them, and set them free through belief in Him and in His message. It was love that caused Him to sweat drops of blood in the garden that night before His crucifixion because the flesh of His humanity was not ready for the punishment that was coming.
Many people think that since Jesus was the Son of God, He didn’t feel pain or fear or helplessness but He did. All of those and more were part of His humanity that He was born into. The pain of a skinned knee as a child and the pain from the Roman soldiers scourging were both equally real. The pain from the soldiers whipping Him was far more excruciating because of their ferocity and hatred for the Jewish people that He represented to them. Then, after the scourging, He had to endure the humiliation of carrying His cross to the hill where He would be crucified on it. Jesus, the Son of God, endured this because of His love for you and for me and for every person of the human race past, present at His time on Earth and for all of the future generations to come after which includes us.
The greatest of the three is the true Love of God. Because if it hadn’t been, Jesus would not have been sent to redeem us and He wouldn’t have gone through all of the things which He allowed to happen and be done to Him if it had not been for the vast love of God poured out on humanity through the blood of Jesus. We are still loved and God still calls many to repentance with the offer of salvation. Some hear His call and listen but choose not to respond to it because of ignorance and pride. Some hear it and do respond but they don’t last because of family or the enticements of the world. Some do embrace the promise and the call and take it in completely and these are the ones that Jesus came to save and welcome into His home one day.
I pray if you don’t know your Savior yet, seek Him out. He came to pay the way for you and if you have ever felt even a little bit of God’s call in your heart, please make the decision to accept it and seek to follow Him today. It doesn’t cost you anything but the eternal reward will be more than you or I can imagine.
When Jesus looked for followers, before He called His disciples, He knew He needed men who would follow Him every day during His ministry. He knew that He would find them because His Father had sent Him to Israel to teach, preach and touch the lost children of Israel. The only way that this ministry would last and make a real difference in the world would be men who would have faith in Him and His ministry but also men who would walk their faith in and around Israel so others would see that what they believed about Him was true.
This is what James talks about when he wrote “faith without works is dead“, not because you have to have works to be saved but because your faith should be a working, walking faith. One that gets your Spirit moving in God’s direction and in His will. I used to wonder how could Jesus sleep in a boat which was being tossed by the waves in a storm but as I’ve grown in my faith and in my walk with Him I realized that His ministry covered many hundreds of miles. Not every day naturally but all of it was by foot! He and His disciples were bone tired by the end of each day, regardless of the miracles they saw or the healings that He performed. Jesus was the Son of God but He was also the Son of Man, human in all of its respects except that He didn’t have our sinful nature.
So He was tired every day what does that mean to me? It means that we are supposed to be tired from telling others about Him. We should walk with Him each and every day because He said that we would do “greater things than these” if we did. Does your faith in Jesus walk with you each day regardless of the circumstances? It should. If you are a born-again Christian your faith should take you through each day and each trial in your life, regardless of the circumstances or problems that you may face. While it is true that there will be some days that are better than others, for a Christian there is no way of avoiding the bad and the good days. All of them go together and He will see you through each of them.
God loved each of us even before He created the universe and our planet and He had determined at that time that He would come down and save us from our own sinfulness one day. He did it as the Son Who gave Himself as a ransom for many. Make sure that your life in Christ reflects the gratitude of one who has been saved from the fire of hell and eternal separation from God so that others will want to have your hope and your Savior as well.
In everyday life many of us get distracted because there is so much information out in front of our eyes. We have smart phones and tablets and laptops and TV’s and all of them can truly have almost the same “shows” on them. As distracting as that is…what can you do with the information that you find there? For most information on these media devices the answer would be exactly that…information and very little else. It isn’t very useful and most of the information found is just that and not much more. Some people may find some usefulness in it but most of it just takes up time or clicks or may be used for “posting” on Facebook or Instagram.
So what good is all of this information? Not much more than a time wasting exercise to be truthful about it. Most of our media platforms could be classified as such too. Before all of you who love your media, wherever it comes from, get upset about this part of my post this is simply my opinion and we are all entitled to have one whether you agree with mine or not.
Moving on from there. Our lives could be so much more rewarding and useful if we would seek to place our lives and our pursuits in the hands of Jesus. His Kingdom is coming to Earth one day in the not-so-distant future and if you aren’t ready for it then you need to be getting ready soon…like today! Not one of us has a guarantee on whether we will be alive tomorrow so the actual day of salvation should be today and if not then why? God loves each of us and He has a plan for us. Whether we choose to get onboard His wagon or ship is our choice but think of this for a moment: when the group of believers is taken from this Earth it will be even harder to declare your heart belongs to Jesus. Not long after that event, Christians will not be very popular and it will be dangerous to associate with others who believe the way you want to.
Eventually you will have to choose. Take the chip/mark in order to be able to buy or sell anything or refuse it and be killed because of your decision to not take the mark. One decision will condemn your soul to hell and the other, if you have given your heart to Jesus, will take you to Heaven. Read the book of Revelation, it details most of what I’ve written and it tells in detail how most of those seven years will play out because God told John to write them down nearly two thousand years ago. This is going to come to pass whether you believe it or believe the Bible or not so regardless of your belief it will happen.
God has made a way of salvation through the blood of Jesus who paid the price for all of our sins on the cross. Belief in His atoning work on the cross is one of the first steps toward salvation. The first is realizing that you need to be saved which is when God’s Spirit touches your heart and convicts you of it. At that time please don’t turn away from His touch. He loves you and wants the best for you. All you need to do is accept it and act on it by asking Jesus to come into your life and cleanse your heart, giving you a new heart which can hear all of the wisdom that God has in store for you.
I pray that everyone who reads this will give their heart to Jesus because if you don’t…eternity is a very long time to be separated from your family and God Himself.
