What have you decided?


Many people seem to have made up their minds that Christians are to be hated and scorned. What has happened in our country? I realize that there are some groups which preach hatred toward other faiths and of people who they deem as “unworthy”, but they are not the majority of Christians! Even the people who believe in Islam don’t all carry bombs and rifles and threaten to kill anyone around them, this behavior only comes from the fringes, from splinter groups, from people, who have IMO, gone off the deep end religiously. So, which camp are you in? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you a practicing Christian? Or do you hang on to a few scriptures and base your beliefs and your doctrine on them alone?

It seems that our country has decided by default that we are no longer a Christian nation, just because of the decision handed down on Friday of last week. That one decision doesn’t nullify the Bible or God’s laws, they still stand as the only beacon of Truth for those of us who claim to be Christians. Yes, there are churches and pastors who have radical views about their version of Christianity just as there are radical Imams and other religious leaders out there, but as everyone else says “they don’t represent the whole group”.

The one religion which has always attempted to help others and point the way to a better life here and in eternity is the one that everyone seems to be bashing and trying their best to disassociate themselves from. Other religions have done those things too, I don’t mean to imply that Christianity is the only one, but the religion which brought the Pilgrims to these shores shouldn’t be the one that we are trying so hard to eliminate. So, what have you decided? Are you on the same side as those who hate Christians and want nothing to do with it? Are you a Christian who is saddened by all of this?

I am praying for our country and the world itself. Please let me know where you stand in the comments. I pray that the number of Christian responses will outweigh those with negative comments.

Thank you for your prayers and your comments in advance.

Shifting Christianity


In an article titled “Trends in Christianity”, the author writes “Today the majority of the world’s Christians live in the southern hemisphere, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Christianity in these regions tends to be very conservative and traditional.” At one point in our past, America was the evangelizing arm of Christ. Our country and Great Britain took the leading roles in telling the world about Christ. It seems that we have done a good job of it in the past two hundred years since our Christian base has dwindled and those of other countries have bloomed.

There are other disturbing trends in Christianity as well, like the “new age” type of worship service where the old traditional hymns have been replaced with praise songs and choruses that repeat a phrase over and over again. Then, there is the trend of huge mega-churches where few people know the people with whom they are worshipping because of the size of the congregation numbering into the thousands.

We look around us at all of the problems in the world and our own problems and we can’t see any way to fix them. Jesus said, “Why do  you worry about your clothes or what you will eat? The flowers of the field are more beautiful than anything that Solomon in his riches could wear, and the birds of the field never worry about their food because God feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than the grass or the birds?” Granted, I paraphrased that a bit, but you get the idea. We shift from one belief or doctrine from year to year at times, looking for a church or a preacher who won’t step on our toes too hard, when we should be looking at our own beliefs and our own hearts.

Christians and those who claim to be need to examine themselves more closely and try to divine whether we fit in with Jesus’ disciples or not. Are you a doubter like Thomas or a loud and brash person who speaks before thinking, like Peter did? Is your faith little and weak? Mine is, but if you have a grain of faith THAT IS ALL THAT YOU NEED!!! Our God is AWESOME! He placed the stars in their orbits and the galaxies too, so don’t you think your problems are smaller than the universe? A universe which He spoke into being in less than six days!!

He is bigger than your problems and your emotions and your bank account or your mortgage. God loves you enough to take care of it all, if you will give it and yourself to Him. This is the very heart of the problem though, many people think that when they give their hearts to Jesus all of the fun in life will end. That is a lie from Satan! The fun doesn’t stop, it begins. It’s just the type of fun that you have after becoming a Christian changes. It is fun, to me, to make Satan uncomfortable by getting online and telling people about Jesus. I don’t go out and get drunk or high like I did many years ago, but I do enjoy telling people about my Lord and Savior!

God loves us with an overpowered love that we can’t fathom because we can’t imagine anyone as awesome as God! Our imagination just doesn’t go that far because there is nothing in the universe, let alone here on our little planet, that is as powerful or as awe-inspiring as God is. To put it another way, “It would bust your head wide open to try to imagine God, so don’t!”.

Is your life cracked or broken?


 

(This post is my 500th post on this blog! I would’ve never thought that it would grow this big, but God is good and has allowed me to do this. I pray that you are all finding some bit of wisdom and knowledge that He has given me while I have been writing here. This knowledge comes from the Bible and from the wisdom that God has given me. I never would nor could I come up with these ideas or writings without His influence. Thank you for being here with me.)

I know, I have asked this before but it seems that our world and the people in it are more like this than they are whole and happy. We have more shootings and killings over nothing these days than we have ever had in the past fifty years. I know, there were many senseless killings during the time when our country was still divided by race relations but isn’t that what we are seeing today? It seems that there is so many problems with race relations, particularly in the past ten years or so. I thought that we were past this! What happened to the so-called “age of Aquarius” that was supposed to take over when the new millennium began? What became of the racial equality and tolerance that was supposed to be part of our culture when we elected an African-American President?

Our country and the culture that we once enjoyed has become cracked and broken, but there seems to be nobody who has a clue how to fix this mess! Any ideas?

My only idea is that we need to bring God and the Bible back into our cultural world. In the schools, in businesses, in society and especially in our homes! If we don’t repent of our ways, and turn back to God and ask for His forgiveness for all of the atrocities that we have allowed to happen in the past fifty years, then this country and the world itself is headed for a big wake up one day.

I am not going to try to bring this post up to a sermon level, but I do want anyone who reads this to think about what you can do to make this happen. In your church or community or your state even. If we don’t get started, and we should have done this many years ago, then we have gone too far to be able to turn back. Mostly what we can do is to seek God out in His Word and in prayer. We can also try to get others involved in putting the Bible and prayer back into our schools.

Individually, we can pray and seek Him out in the Bible and at church or in home Bible study. God wants to have a relationship with you and me, but He will not force this relationship on us.We have to initiate the contact by seeking Him out and learning more about Him. Occasionally, you will feel a prompting from Him or rather the Holy Spirit and that is Him calling to you. If you have felt it, but have ignored it please seek Him out! He will keep the contact and the prompting going for a while, but at some point He will let you go your own way. Don’t wait until that point. If you can feel even the smallest voice or nudge to come to know Him please do so!

 

God doesn’t like sin, but He loves you


In your life and mine there have been times where we fall, whether we are Christians or not. When you haven’t given your life to Jesus, it doesn’t make much of a ripple in your life when you sin. You don’t really notice it much, unless you have been to church and listened to a sermon or two, but your Father in Heaven does. When you are still lost, your sins are..well, expected. Because you don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit to help you to resist the temptation. The sins which we commit in our lives before Christ are those which are designed to draw you away from God and keep you away from Him if possible. An example of these is found in this passage from the Bible:

sinswhich God hates You see, God hates the sins BUT He loves the sinner. Which is why Jesus spent so much time with tax collectors and publicans and others which the priests deemed as undesirable. It is also why Jesus said that “it is the sick who need a physician”, He was speaking of those who were lost and in need of salvation. The song which is sung in churches, “There is room at the Cross for You”, is one that is meant for all of us who are in need of salvation. There are no steps to reach the cross, the ground is level at the foot of it and all are equal there. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how much resources you may or may not have, God loves all of humanity because we are His creation. Salvation is offered to everyone, but only if you will reach out and take it and repent of your sins.

If you were offered one billion dollars but there were some requirements before you could have it, would you gladly do them? For instance, if you were a pornographic movie producer and you have made some money at it but you are also into drugs and alcohol and all sorts of occult practices and you were offered the one billion dollars with the catch of going into rehabilitation for all of your sins, repenting of those sins and becoming a true Christian person…would you? Some might, but for many in our world today even the allure of that amount of money would not be enough to draw them away from their lifestyle. Some would try to fake it, but that would fail too because the change which comes when you truly give your life to Christ is a visible one and something which can’t be faked.God

He cares about your life, your impact in someone else’s life and you in particular because you are a part of His Creation. You are not a number or some nameless person to God! If He knows when a sparrow dies and falls to the ground, don’t you think He knows about your pain and suffering too? There is no power in the universe which can come between you and God except yourself. You are the deciding vote whether you will give your life to Jesus and truly become a child of God or if you will just stay lost and on the side of Satan. There truly is no grey area in the spiritual realm, you are either a Christian who is working for God and eternity or you are lounging around in Satan’s camp hoping that your side wins. If you have ever read God’s Word you will know that Satan has lost every time he went against God and he will lose again in the end.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

We are only human


In today’s society, it seems that when you are a pastor of a church you are held to an almost god-like standard. One which penalizes you and calls for your resignation when you fail or when you fall like everyone else does. It’s like walking a tightrope, one misstep and you will fall to your death unless there is a forgiving net to catch you. I have felt the stares of people, watching me because they know that I pastor a church. It doesn’t matter if it is a small church or a huge church, the standard is the same. Just because we are preachers, proclaiming the gospel of Christ and His forgiveness, we are not perfect! Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, so God has forgiven us, but when you see us sin and fall from that pedestal the forgiveness doesn’t seem to follow.

People, humanity has a very long memory when it comes to its teachers and preachers. Nobody is forgiven it seems, when the sin is made public. It is more akin to being tarred and feathered in the public square and then having that picture put up on Facebook or Instagram where it will never go away. On the other hand, if you are a politician or a lawyer or maybe a football star your sins will be overlooked and forgotten in a few hours or days.

Why are we held to such a high standard? Because we are telling you about the love and the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ and that you can have it for the asking. It isn’t a magic formula or a potion that you have to buy, it has been paid for through the blood of Jesus. All that you have to do is believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins, just like the thief on the cross. He couldn’t get baptised and there was no way that he could tell others about Jesus, but he could believe and he did! Jesus told him that “today, you will be with me in Paradise”, if that isn’t an affirmation of being saved I don’t know of one!

The apostles and all believers were given a command to go and tell the world about the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Telling is what preachers do and it is up to you whether you believe the good news and ask Jesus into your heart or not. Do we fall sometimes? Of course. Do we say things that we shouldn’t? Yes, we are human. The difference is…we are forgiven. All that we have to do is to repent and ask forgiveness for the slip or the fall that we got into. You can too! Grace, love, hope, peace and forgiveness are all offered to you from God through Jesus. It is your responsibility to ask for forgiveness and repent of your sins, not just lip service but real honest repentance!

Why do I say it that way? Because, that is what I did for many years. I would go down and feel sorry for my sins and pray and even get baptised. Then, I would attempt to read and understand the Bible for a while, but I would eventually follow a friend to a bar and get drunk, or take a girl home for a night and I would be back in my same rut again. Some call it back-sliding, but I don’t think I was true to the repentance that I professed so it wasn’t real. I was just going through the motions, doing all of the things to “look good” when I was still just as lost as I was before.

Think about it and seek God in His Word, then pray and ask Him to show you what you need to do to truly become a child of God and a Christian.

The way to Life


This is the most important question of your life. Your joy or your sorrow for all eternity depends upon your answer. The question is: Are you saved? It is not a question of how good you are, nor if you are a church member, but are you saved? Are you sure you will go to Heaven when you die?

God says that in order to go to Heaven, you must be born again. In John 3:7, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Ye must be born again.”

In the Bible, God gives us the plan of how to be born again which means to be saved. His plan is simple! This is the plan and the way, all that you need to do is believe!

First you must realize you are a sinner. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Because you are a sinner, you are condemned to death. “For the wages [payment] of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This includes eternal separation from God in Hell.

“ . . . it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

But God loved you and me so much, He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to bear your sin and die in your place. “ . . . He hath made Him [Jesus, Who knew no sin] to be sin for us . . . that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus had to shed His blood and die. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). “ . . . without shedding of blood is no remission [pardon]” (Hebrews 9:22).

“ . . . God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Although we cannot understand how, God said my sins and your sins were laid upon Jesus and He died in our place. He became our substitute. It is true. God cannot lie.

“God . . . commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). This repentance is a change of mind that agrees with God that one is a sinner, and also agrees with what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

In Acts 16:30-31, the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas: “ . . . ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved . . . .’ ”

Simply believe on Him as the one who bore your sin, died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected. His resurrection powerfully assures that the believer can claim everlasting life when Jesus is received as Savior.

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

Whosoever includes you. Shall be saved means not maybe, nor can, but shall be saved.

Surely, you realize you are a sinner. Right now, wherever you are, lift your heart to God in prayer.

In Luke 18:13, the sinner prayed: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Just pray: “Oh God, I know I am a sinner. I believe Jesus was my substitute when He died on the Cross. I believe His shed blood, death, burial, and resurrection were for me. I now receive Him as my Savior. I thank You for the forgiveness of my sins, the gift of salvation and everlasting life, because of Your merciful grace. Amen.”

How much does it take?


We ask this many times in our lives, if you aren’t wealthy to the point of not asking the price that is. “How much is that?”, is usually how we look at all sorts of things from cell phone contracts and phones to Internet service and food from the grocery store. Most of us have to look at the price of things and decide if it is worth the price and whether we want to or can pay the price for it. Looking at our economic situation in this country it is easy to see that our government has no problem with skipping over this question, they just print more money and keep going. What a wonderful world they live in!

People don’t have that luxury because if we try to print money we will be put in jail, but they do it legally. I am not going to get off on this tangent today, but the world does exactly what it wishes and nobody seems to be watching or paying attention. We are all too interested in our Facebook friends and their lives or the cute picture of a baby or a kitten to care about what is happening all around us. So-called “reality” shows have taken over the TV and cable industry and people are being paid for ridiculous shows which chronicle their lives in order to cash in on this trend.

What for? Is it educational? Most of it is not, but all of this was foretold in the Bible. Not specifically, but that we who live in the “latter days” will be lovers of self and money, running here and there and we have many people and industries which are taking advantage of our intelligence by genetically modifying our food and all sorts of things. The Bible puts it as “knowledge will increase”, but knowledge without wisdom to guide it is not really smart at all. Living in this time is intoxicating at times because of the advances in medicine and technology, but it is also dangerous.

I don’t mean that we are in danger every day from something like wars, although some people are very much in danger from this, but much of the GMO food that we have been eating for years is very likely responsible for our health conditions. Especially those so-called “new” conditions which doctors seem to have trouble pinning down the cause of, but of course it isn’t the fault of our government approved food. Yes, our knowledge of genetics and technology has increased a lot over the past thirty years or so BUT did we gain the wisdom of how to use and when to use it to benefit the most from it? Are we using this knowledge to help as many people as possible to live healthy lives or have we pushed the envelope in order to make more money?

In the “real” world of business, I believe that we have done the latter. Cancer research has stagnated so that the treatments only treat symptoms and not the cause. Chemical companies, whether they produce medicines or herbicides, have not fully tested the outcome of the ingredients that they push out to consumers because it would cost too much to do that. They would rather do limited testing, get it stamped as being safe under certain conditions but with all sorts of legal jargon warning of possible side effects and then push it out so that they can reap the cash off of it before the lawsuits start coming in.

Wisdom comes from the fear and admonition of God and we have not exercised that kind of wisdom in a long time! We have stepped away from God and the Bible. We have allowed the schools to push out any reading of it or study of it in the sense that we will offend someone or that we might be seen as promoting a “state religion”. Then the schools and teachers wonder why we have such delinquent behavior in our schools and so many in the prison system. Come on! The Ivy League schools like Princeton and Yale and Harvard were begun as theological schools to teach ministers, it was only recently that they became so focused upon “higher learning” within the past 150 years or so.

How much does it take, really, for us to learn that we can’t live our lives in a vacuum or look at life-like it was a test tube? We are and were created to be dependent upon God’s wisdom and knowledge and fellowship with Him in our lives. We are not created to be “self-gods” because we can’t be! Romans 8:28 states this: 28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church: 2 Corinthians 5:17: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We are new in Christ because the Spirit renews you from the inside out when you become a Christian. Life without Him can be fun for a moment or a day, but your life here is but a speck compared to eternity. Consider this: if you were to die tonight or even today, where would your eternity be spent? Many people think that they would enjoy hell, but the rich man told Abraham that he was in torment and that he needed just one drop of cool water. How long would you think the so-called “party” will last in torment and heat for an eternity?

If you aren’t sure of your salvation today, then you need to seek Him out and make sure of your decision while you can.

So many who need Him, so little time!


I know, I am trying to scare people into accepting Christ…right? NO! But I am trying to make you realize that regardless of how young you are or how long you may have lived without Jesus, your life does have an expiration date. It is known only to God, but we all have one. Mine may be in the morning or next week, yours…? Why am I starting off like this?

Because in the past few weeks, if you have been following my blog here, two teens in our community were killed in a wreck. Did they know the Lord? Yes! Both of them did and they are enjoying eternity and their life in Heaven right now! I know, the families are still hurting and they will be for a long time, but they do have the assurance that those girls are in their homes with Jesus.

God sent Jesus to provide all of us with salvation, if we will accept it. That is like a rich man who might give you one million dollars, but you have to accept it with some limitations. You can only use it to help people in ways that make a difference, like helping with their medical bills or building someone a better home to live in. You can use it for yourself, but only for things that you NEED. It can’t be used for buying a sports car or a mansion. If you can accept those limitations, then you can have it. If you can’t or won’t, then it will be offered to someone else.

Salvation is the best gift that we can be given. Why is it so good? Because you are being saved from an eternity away from God’s love and in the torment that was reserved for Satan and his demons. Salvation also gives you eternal life, which everyone seems to be chasing on Earth, yet we can’t get it in this life. We all have an eternal soul, but unless it is rejuvenated by Jesus and the Holy Spirit it will spend eternity with Satan and it is not going to be a party!

The Life that we get from the Holy Spirit is a gift from God for our belief in Jesus and His atonement for our sins. We can’t do anything to get it, purchase it or work for it because anything that is done in our own strength during this life is left here when we die. No tickets that we buy, no amount of gold or silver that we own, absolutely nothing that we acquire during this life will go with us when we die. The only part of me or you which goes to the judgement after we die is our soul. If you are a believing Christian when you die, all of your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. If you are not, then you will be judged according to what you did and the words that you said during this life…ALL of them!

Seek Him while you have the chance and the time to make the commitment to live your days for Him by reading the Bible, prayer and learning about Him. Even if you only have a week left to live from some illness or if you may live for fifty more years, do it while you can. Because if  you were to have an accident on the highway tomorrow and get killed, you will be standing in front of God then and there won’t be a second chance.

Rainbows, Light and Love


In the late sixties it seemed that everyone was into rainbows and “free love” was everywhere. It was all just noise to me that I heard on the radio or on the news, I wasn’t old enough to participate. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t conjure up some imaginative thoughts though. I was about eight or so at the time, didn’t really like girls too much, but there were some that I thought were sorta cute.

Anyway, the rainbows were being used on flags and on the TV, I don’t remember exactly for what but I remember seeing them on there a lot. You have to realize, 1968 has been a while back and parts of my memory don’t work perfectly like they used to. The entire country was caught up in the Viet Nam war and the astronauts going to the moon, as well as a couple of people being shot. To a young mind at the time, it was just news and not very important.

What else was happening? My parents got divorced or were in the process of doing so, I really don’t remember much about it. I think my mind blocked a lot of it out. Dad dropped us off at my grandfather’s house when I was five and I rarely saw him from that point on.

My point in bringing up my childhood? Mainly it is about what you may remember and what you don’t. I can remember going to church with my parents when I was three and going to work with my Dad about the same time, once. But, again, why am I bringing this up for you to read? So that some of you will know that I am just as normal, just as messed up from my past as the rest of us. My life has not been perfect, never was and never really came close to it.

Later, after their divorce, when I became a teen I rebelled a lot. I didn’t get put into jail, but I drank alcohol before I was old enough to do so. I wrecked cars and put myself in the hospital because I was drunk. I smoked marijuana although I didn’t get into anything any worse than that. Now, I am ashamed of my past, but it is a past that doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary today. Actually, it seems pretty tame compared to what you see and hear on the news.

The Light which I reference in the title is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. At the time that I was speaking of there was a song out by the name of “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and a play too I believe. The funny thing is, they were actually making fun of Him and of those who believe in Him. I never understood that and still don’t. Jesus is the answer for many of the world’s problems today, individually and collectively but many people don’t see it that way.

God loves you and me. He loved me when I was being rebellious, though He didn’t like what I was doing at the time. He kept me in His love and protection though because He had something for me to do later. He has something for you to do as well. I don’t know what it is and you won’t find out what it is unless you ask Him into your life so that you can work for Him. It doesn’t matter how much longer you have in your life, even if you only have a week or a month, God will use your testimony to touch someone else. He will also welcome you into Heaven when you arrive.

Christianity, the step-child


So many truths to be spoken of and told to those who will listen and yet many will still not hear them. The job, the command which our Lord gave to us in His words: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation..” (Mark 16:15) It has been nearly two millennia since He ascended to His place at the right hand of God, and there are still those who will not accept the gospel as the Truth. Why is this?

Mainly, because of the atrocities of the church, in ages past, which persecuted people horribly for believing a doctrine different from that which it taught or they followed a different religion entirely. This is my opinion of course, not the real reason. The actual reason is that Satan and his legions have been perverting the gospel in ways through the reasoning of man over the centuries. Changing it subtly, a little at a time, so that the change wouldn’t be evident immediately. Also, because he wants to cause people to think that they are serving God, when in fact they are serving him and worshipping him.

How else could we have so many doctrines and beliefs in our world today. Many of them professing to be “the true church”, serving God in ways that would not be acceptable if Jesus were here. Changing scripture ever so slightly in words or by paraphrase so that the meaning is close to the gospel, but not quite. Counterfeit gospels like counterfeit money sound good and look good to the eye and to the ear, but they are worthless.

How can we, as Christians, show others the Truth of the gospel? One way would be by living it ourselves, another would be by telling others about Jesus and His love for them. While it is true that some will not want to listen or accept Jesus as their Savior, they need to be told. Because without hearing the gospel and its Truth, how will they know?

Why do I call Christianity a step-child? Because that is how it is treated by the world today. There are older religions in the world, but none make the claims of Christianity. There are newer religions in the world today, but many of them are only made up or based upon the imaginings or “visions” of one man. The difference between Christianity and all of the other religions is permission and accountability.

Christianity sets rules and boundaries which morally make sense and whether you are a Christian or not, those boundaries are known. The Truths which go along with them are known, whether you are a believer or not. These are known as the Ten Commandments and they are accepted as moral laws whether you are a believer or not. The problem which most have with them is that they tell you what you should do or not and they convict you of the things that you have done wrong.

This is what many people can’t stand. It is the conviction and the “rules” in Christianity. These rules are not so restrictive as to tell you what to wear or what to eat or who to marry or not, but they do show each of us that we are sinners regardless of how “righteous and holy” we think we may be! Without the grace extended to us from God through Jesus’ sacrifice, our holiness means nothing! When you accept Jesus as your Savior, then your life will be very different from what it was before. When, like Saul, you meet Him then your life and your heart changes and you are a new person. No longer caught up in this world and its problems and heartaches, even though there may be some afterward.

Jesus didn’t promise His followers that life would be without trouble. Satan doesn’t care about you or your life unless you decide to follow Jesus and tell others about Him. Then, you and those you love have a target on you and he will be after you from that point on. God’s angels will protect you and keep you safe, but if you let your guard down and allow him to get into your life somehow…even by accident, then he will cause you pain enough to turn you from God if he can.