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.
We listen to sermons and carols and hymns during Christmastime but do we really hear their message? God sent His Son, Jesus, as a baby long ago to be our Savior. But how many people really believe this? Is it just a good story to tell at church or in your home? Is it just a tradition that has been passed down in your family? Does it mean more to you than just a manger scene on the mantel or on a bookshelf?
God’s word is the truth and in it, we read that He sent His Son to be the Savior of us all. His birth was foretold many hundreds of years before He came. The prophets told of the virgin who would bear the Messiah, Immanuel, God with us. They also foretold of the city He would be born in and that He would lie in a manger. Jesus had to come because God had foretold this way back in Genesis that “the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent”. He is our Savior and our King.
The angels told the shepherds on the night that He came. Later, the wise men from the East would come bearing gifts for the “King of Kings”. This is the real reason that we celebrate His birth at Christmas, even if He wasn’t born in December. Why do I say that? Because the shepherds were in the field with the sheep and in December it is much too cold for them to be out in the open all night. Jesus was likely born during the Feast of Tabernacles between September and October.
Why would He come during this time? To “tabernacle” with His people as God with us, Immanuel. He had a job to do when He grew up but He had to come and be “with us” to experience being part of humanity and to know our weaknesses even though He didn’t have our nature, our propensity to sin. He came at the time that was prophesied that He would come and in the way that the Messiah was supposed to come into the world.
Jesus or Yeshua (Joshua) means this: Etymologically, the name “Jesus” or “Joshua” derives from Hebrew roots meaning “the Lord is salvation.
He fulfilled so many prophecies that referred to His birth and His coming so that there would be no question about Who He was and yet He was not recognized by the Jewish leaders of the day. Why? Was it because of their “self-righteous” attitude? Possibly. They knew that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David, but since He was raised in Nazareth near Gallilee and they seemed to be prejudiced toward people in that region. “How could the Messiah be from that town?”.
Much of their attitude toward the Messiah was because they were expecting a warrior-King to save Israel from the Roman empire. That is not the reason He came at that time.
God sent Jesus to take the sins of mankind on Himself and pay the price for all of them. We have to accept this atonement that was performed for us to be saved. Saved from what? Eternal death. If I’m dead, it won’t matter. No, all of us have an immortal soul that lives on into eternity and we have a body that can feel pain and suffering. If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior, you will be cast away from God’s Presence forever. You will be cast into the lake of fire just as the demons and Satan will be. Because you rejected the gift of God through Jesus that gives you an eternity with Him. The very Author of Life itself offers each of us eternity in heaven if we will believe in Jesus for our salvation. Please, don’t turn this gift down. You don’t have to do anything except repent and believe in Jesus for it. Don’t wait because you may not have another chance to do this.
Many expect God to make everything complete and whole and without trouble when they become Christian. Why? Even Jesus told His disciples that they would have trouble in the world so we should expect it. That is not to say that everything will always go wrong for those who believe in Him but since we have moved from darkness into the Light of Christ, Satan will try to tarnish our witness if he can. That is why Jesus said that we are to take up our cross daily. What does that mean? It means putting your old life and its lusts and habits on the cross every day and then living for Jesus that day. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day until it becomes a habitual way of life for you.
Life is not easy before you become a Christian and it won’t get any easier afterward. While it is true that Satan may not have noticed you before you became a Christian, he will now. Especially if you are trying to live your life according to His teachings.
Don’t forget this Christmas season why we really celebrate at this time. The Savior, the Lamb of God who came to be our Savior and Lord.
The Living Message of Christ 