And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:8-11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.2.8-11.KJV
Where will you spend eternity? Some people think that once they die they won’t know anything from that point on. They believe that they will just “go to sleep forever” and not know anything about anything. That is an awful idea, that your life means absolutely nothing. God did not create us to live that way. We have a spirit inside us that will live forever. We are flesh because that is how God designed us. Your spiritual man or woman will live forever because God made us that way. We do not go to sleep forever, your spirit will live on in a body that God gives us when we enter eternity. If you have given your heart to Jesus and accepted Him as your Savior, your eternity will be with Him in Heaven in your eternal body.
But…if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus your eternal body and spirit will spend that eternity outside in the darkness away from God. You will be in hell with Satan and his demons because you refused to accept Jesus and the grace of God for your forgiveness of all of your sins. God offers atonement through the blood of Jesus that was shed for you. Jesus is the Creator and He is the Author of Life itself. Everything that is living, even those things that we haven’t discovered yet, was created by God.
God loves you but doesn’t like the sins that we all walk in every day. He made a way for you to have eternal life. A life that is rich and productive with Him in Heaven. You will live for eternity in hell but it will be a painful and dismal life because you will pay the price for not accepting salvation through Jesus Christ. Eternity was our destination before sin came into the world. Life with God is far different from an eternity without Him. I pray that you will seek Him out as your Savior because He loves you. He came to die for you because He loved you and me long before we were born.
Not one person can keep even the Ten Commandments. With Jesus as your Savior, you can try to keep them but even with Him in your heart you and I can’t keep all of them. A thought or a word will come through during the day or night that will break at least one of the commandments. When you break one you have broken all of them. But God has provided a way, through your belief in Jesus as your Savior, to be saved from an eternity in hell. Don’t wait another day to give your heart to Him because tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us.
There is only one way to have an eternity with God and that is through accepting Jesus as your Savior. Won’t you make sure of your eternal home today?
He has chased you so why not chase after Him? You might wonder, “When has God chased after me?”. Everyone that the Lord calls to be His has been “chased” by Him because until we give our lives to Him we are all living outside His influence and we are not seeking Him at all. That’s not to say that He can’t have an influence on our lives because He can. That is how the Holy Spirit gets our attention to know that we need salvation in the first place. When God decides to call you to be His, He will do it in no uncertain terms. You will know that it is Him but it is still your decision to accept His call on your life.
Some people think that they can hear His call and choose not to answer it and while that is true, God’s call rarely goes unanswered. At some point you will open your heart and let Him in. Truly, we should be chasing after Him because He has our best life waiting for us. It may not be according to the “world’s” standards with fame or fortune in this life but consider your eternal life ahead of you in Heaven. Living in His Presence in a city with streets paved with gold? Come on? There is nothing on Earth that could compare to that!
Then consider that all of your aches and pains will be gone and you will live forever in a glorified body created just for you to give glory to God! Just the absence of pain and living with Him is enough for me even if I’m living in a cardboard box in an alley in Heaven!
God sent His Son to pay for all of humanity’s sins and He did. Whether we accept His offer of salvation or not is up to us but consider the alternative. If you don’t accept His offer, you will be cast “into outer darkness” with Satan and his demons in the lake of fire…forever. No water, no way to escape and the Presence of God will be out of reach for you. Would anyone seriously want to live forever like that? I wouldn’t. While there is time, give your heart to Jesus and seek to serve Him with all of your heart while you can because the age of grace is soon coming to an end.
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy that was given over five hundred years before His birth. God had this planned since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden or even before then. Don’t turn away from His call.
This is a concept that is not easy to accept yet He has chosen each of us. All we should do is accept it and walk with Him every day, so why is it so hard to do this? Your life and mine are bound up in Jesus because He has called us to be His. All we need to do is pray and walk in His strength every day.
I know it sounds easy but it’s not. It has taken me more than ten years to get to this point in my life. I read and study God’s word every day and it still isn’t easy. Learning His ways and following in His footsteps takes more than just going to church once or twice a week. It’s something that we must depend on Him for every day. Can you decide to become a believer in Jesus? Yes, that part is easy when you feel His touch in your heart because the prayer is easy: Jesus, I know I’m a sinner and I’ve messed up in my life. I need your presence in my heart and in my life to save me from an eternity away from Your presence. Come into my heart and cleanse me of all of my faults and failures. Help me to become the person that you need me to be. In Your holy name, I ask this, Amen.
This part is easy but the next steps are necessary too. You should seek out a real Bible-believing church with a good teacher in the pulpit. If you don’t have a Bible get one and begin reading the book of John and the book of Romans. Later you can read the whole Bible to learn about God and the ways He dealt with His people, the nation of Israel. He loved them and He loves you and me but He doesn’t like our sins. If you have prayed that prayer sincerely then your sins are forgiven and your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Studying the Bible is the most rewarding part of being a Christian because you are reading about God and you are reading about His love for all of humanity.
I pray that many of you who read this will seek Him as your Savior if you don’t already know Him. Learn about Him and His love for us and tell others when you feel led to do so because people need to know. The Age of the Church is coming to an end so please tell someone that God loves them.
The Living Message of Christ 