Why did God send Jesus to die?

This is a good question and it is one which many people want to know the answer to. When you look back to the very beginning of the Bible, all three persons of the Trinity are there. The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters of the unformed Earth. What those waters are made of is not told but the Spirit is there. Then God said, “Let there be light!”. Many people, including myself, have wondered where that light came from. Was it the light from the Big bang? Was it the initial spark which started our Sun to shine? Considering that the Sun and the moon were not created yet, I think that the initial light was Jesus and His Shekinah glory, the light which comes from God just as He is. The light which lit up creation before there were stars and galaxies and the Sun and the moon. The glory which made Moses’ face glow after he had been in God’s presence. That was the first Light of the universe.

So, why did God send Jesus to die and pay the penalty for all of mankind’s sins? You need to remember that God doesn’t live in the same “time zone” as we do. He lives outside of time itself because He created time. He can see the beginning from the ending and everything in between. God knew that mankind would try to do things on his own rather than following God’s instruction. He knew that those who came after Adam would be so sinful that He would have to save the most God-fearing family later and destroy all of life on Earth. There is nothing on Earth or in hell which is a surprise to God. He can see and know every person and place and even the thoughts of each of us, so there is nothing which surprises God.

In explaining my title, God sent Jesus to Earth to give us a way to become His righteousness since we could not attain it on our own. Jesus paid the price for ALL OF OUR SINS, but not everyone will accept this because they can’t understand the kind of love and compassion which it would require. If you have ever heard these words in church, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts“. God is not like us at all. He loves us as His creation and as His children because without Him we would not be. It is God Who knit our DNA together in the womb so He knows exactly what our skin color is and how we will react to certain things because it is due to His influence in our creation that we have the personality that we have.

What I’m pointing out here is this: God is intimately involved in our lives and in creation itself. Every day and in every circumstance, whether it is a sparrow which dies or your child gets sick, God knows it and He is there, waiting for us to humble ourselves and turn to Him for strength and healing and wisdom in every area of our lives. Do we do this? Some of us do humble ourselves and turn to Him for strength and prayer in our time of need. Many of us don’t.

So…back to my first question: Why did God send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins? Because He values each one of us far more than we value ourselves. God has always had a hand in forming every life, every person on this planet and He wants them to have the chance of knowing Him as their Savior and the chance to be in Heaven with Him forever. Without Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us, that opportunity would not be possible.

This is where many people draw the line though. They want to have something that they have to do to have salvation and the only thing that each of us has to do is be receptive to the call of the Holy Spirit. When you feel convicted that you truly NEED to be saved and the only way for that to happen is through repentance and accepting Jesus as your Savior. Don’t push the Spirit away. Don’t “white knuckle” the pew so that you won’t go down when you know that you need to. One day, likely sooner than many people think, there is going to be a day when a trumpet blast will be heard all over the world and graves are going to explode with people coming out of them and then those who are alive and have given their lives to Jesus will follow those to be with the Lord forever. Make sure that you are included in that day’s festivities and not left here wondering what just happened!

Rejection, fear, and uncertainty

As human’s we do not like even ONE of these. From our family or our friends and certainly not from God. But why would we worry about feeling these emotions from God? The main reason that we feel these emotions in our relationship with God is actually because of Satan himself. God has never rejected us. Why should we be afraid of God? He isn’t going to strike us dead if we don’t do something, right? Feeling uncertain about your relationship with Him is also a tactic of Satan. Jesus said that all we had to so was to believe in Him and in the Father Who sent Him to save us from our sins…that’s it! Believe in Jesus and God the Father for your salvation. No hoops to jump through. No certain number of people that you have to tell about Jesus. He did all of the work on the cross in order to pay for your sins and nothing that we try to do can add value to our salvation.

Satan is the instigator and has been since before Adam or the Earth was created. He was a consummate liar then and he has gotten better at it over the thousands of years since then. Satan can make us believe a lie about God or Jesus or any part of the salvation which is freely given by God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

We don’t have to listen to those suggestions which Satan places in our head and in our mind, but many times we do listen to them. If you look it up and read about God in the Bible, you will see that He may make some people afraid of Him but He only did it because of their hard hearts. They wouldn’t listen to His instructions, His commandments, so He had to get their attention just as He gets our attention at times. He knows that we are hard-headed and stubborn and sometimes it takes more than reading a few scriptures to make us know that He is serious.

For some of us it will take a bit more than reading a scripture to realize what is being said to us. Many times it may take a sickness or a death in the family to really get our attention, but God will use that to His advantage. God loves each of us but He also knows exactly how much it will take to get our attention and to keep it focused on Him. Some people will blame Him and they will move away from Him but that isn’t a surprise to God. He knows exactly who will hear Him and follow Him and who will not. Regardless of our intention to follow Him or not, God still loves us. That is just His nature.

Lonely in a crowd

There was an article which was asking the question “Why have teenage suicides gone up 76 percent in the past decade?”. One reason is information overload. This is the first generation which has had constant access to the Internet on a device which they can carry in their pocket. Am I blaming the smartphone for this? Yes, actually I am. It is not wholly to blame of course. Parents who use electronic babysitters to calm their children also are part of the problem. So why are teens feeling so left out and lonely? Because they don’t engage and talk to each other anymore.

Have you ever watched a group or even a family in a restaurant lately? Most of the time they aren’t talking to each other. They are all looking at their phones or texting or scrolling through Instagram or Facebook. Technology is to blame for the lack of interaction in our society because it is like a drug. And we start children on this “drug” sometimes before they can even talk! People don’t feel a connection to their family or their friends because of the detached nature of the relationship. You can’t hear uncertainty or fear in a text, there is no way to relate to an emoticon speaking to you.

All of this technology was supposed to help us not enslave us to it to the point of not being able to spell our words and our emotions. Young people use text abbreviations such as BRB rather than spelling the words and they use them in writing papers in English class and wonder why their grade is not higher? English teachers are having to attempt to undo the damage caused by more than a decade of message-speak. Will they ever be able to undo it? Not likely.

God did not intend for us to be slaves to technology but we are in today’s world. In many countries where there isn’t a rampant embrace of technology, Christian faith and Christianity in general is growing. Because of God’s written Word. People are reading it and praising Him because of Who He is and what He has done for them. Technology can help in this of course, but when we depend on technology more than we depend on God, we have become idol worshipers. Even when we make “our god” statements we have made God in our image and reduced Him to a little “g”. Still an idol because He said in the giving of the Ten Commandments, that we should not make a graven image to represent Him or any other created thing to worship.

The Ten Commandments Exodus 20:1-17

(Deuteronomy 5:6-21)

1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (This is the first commandment)

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

13 Thou shalt not kill.

14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

15 Thou shalt not steal.

16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

When we turn back to reading the Bible and learning from it, in church or in our homes, then our nation and the world will become the people that God intended for us to be. Pray for your children, teach them from God’s Word, learn from it while you teach them and help them to know that God loves them and has loved them since before they were born. Seek Him while there is time in this life because when this life is over, there are no second chances.

God really loves you!

I found this on my Facebook page and I thought that more people should read this today so they will know that God loves each one of them.

The boy put his winter clothes on for the cold and told his father:

“Ok dad I’m ready”

His Dad, the pastor, said: “Ready for what?”

“Dad, it’s time to go outside and distribute our flyers.”

Dad replied: “Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s drizzling.”

The child looked surprised at his father and said: “But dad, people need to know about God even on rainy days.”

Dad replied, “Son, I’m not going outside in this weather.”

With despair, the child said: “Dad, can I go alone? Please!”

His father waited for a moment and then said: “Son, you can go. Here’s the flyers, be careful.”

“Thank you dad!”

And with this, the son went out into the rain. The 11-Year-old walked all the streets of the village, handing out the flyers to the people he saw.

After 2 hours walking in the rain and in the cold and with his last flyer in his hand, he stopped in a corner to see if he saw someone to give the flyer too, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned to the first house he saw, walked to the front door, touched the bell several times and waited, but no one came out.

Finally the boy turned to leave, but something stopped him. The child turned back to the door and began to touch the bell and pound the door strongly with his knuckles. He kept waiting. Finally the door was opened gently.

A lady came out with a very sad look and gently asked:

“What can I do for you, son?
With radiant eyes and a bright smile the child said:

“Lady, I’m sorry if I upset you, but I just want to tell you that God really loves you and that I came to give you my last flyer, which talks about God and His great love

The boy then gave her the flyer.

She just said, “Thank you, son, God bless you!”

Well, next Sunday morning, the pastor was in the pulpit and when the service began he asked:

“Someone has a testimony or something they want to share?”

Gently, in the back row of the church, an older lady stood up. When she started talking, a radiant and glorious look sprouted from her eyes:

“Nobody in this church knows me. I have never been here, even last Sunday I was not Christian.

My husband died a while ago leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday was a particularly cold and rainy day, and it was also in my heart; that on that day I came to the end of the road, since I had no hope and didn’t want to live anymore.

Then I took a chair and a rope and went up to the attic of my house. I tied and one end of the rope to the rafters of the roof; then I climbed onto the chair and put the other end of the rope around my neck.

I then stood on the chair, so alone and heartbroken, I was about to throw myself off the chair, when suddenly I heard the loud sound of the door being knocked.

So I thought: “I’ll wait for a minute and whoever it is will go”

I waited and waited, but the door knocking was getting louder and louder every time. It got so loud that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

So I wondered, who could it be?
No one ever comes close to my door or come to visit me!
I released the rope from my neck and went to the door, while the bell was still ringing and the door was still being knocked on.

When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe what my eyes saw, in front of my door was the most radiant and angelic child I’ve ever seen.
He’s smile, ohhh, I can never describe it! The words that came out of his mouth made my heart, dead so long ago, come back to life, when he said with the VOICE OF CHERUB: “Lady, I just want to tell you that God really loves you”

“When the little angel disappeared between the cold and the rain, I closed my door and read every word of the flyer.
Then I went to the attic to remove the chair and rope.

I didn’t need them anymore. As you see. Now I am a happy daughter of the King.
As the direction of the boy, when he left, was to this church, I came personally say thank you to that little angel of God who came just in time and, in fact, to rescue my life from an eternity in hell. And replaced it with an eternity in God’s presence. “

Everyone cried in the church.

The Pastor came down from the pulpit to the first bench of the front, where the little angel was sitting; he took his son in his arms and cried uncontrollably.

How foolish are we?

God’s Word says in Psalms 14:1: The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.

The wisdom of God is foolish to a man who has not given his heart to the Lord. This is a paraphrase of this scripture which the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 2:14 – But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. There is no man who can understand God’s wisdom from His Word without the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart. So why do some men in our world today seem to think that they have God and His wisdom all figured out? Mankind cannot understand God’s Word without Him and there are so many who either don’t want to know Him as their Savior or they are following a religion which has blinded them to the actual Truth which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Life is hard enough without living it foolishly and without Jesus Christ as your Savior is a very foolish way to live. Why is this true? Because we do not have a promise of a certain number of years that we will live. We don’t even have a promise of waking up in the morning. So, what will it take to get away from the foolishness of our sinful lives and turn toward God, toward Jesus, and save our eternal soul?

Are we actually foolish enough to believe that we are good enough to get into Heaven without Jesus? I hope not. Because the Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in God’s sight. We are not righteous unless we are forgiven under the blood of Jesus and that is our covering because He purchased our soul with His blood and unless you truly believe in Him and His sacrifice for you, then you have no place in Heaven. Is it hard for us to give our heart to Him? Sometimes it is, but when God convicts you of your sins and you realize that you truly need Jesus as your Savior, it is then that you find that it is simple…believe that He did this for you.

Even if you or I were the only people that Jesus could die for and save…He would’ve done it anyway. God loves us enough that if there were only one person that would been saved because of His sacrifice, He would have come to Earth and gave His life for us even if that “us” was only one person. God’s love is hard for us to comprehend and it is likely that we will never truly understand it, even when we are in His Presence but He did it for all of us.

I pray that we will not be foolish in thinking that we can gain entry into Heaven on our own. The only door to eternity in Heaven is by Jesus Christ and belief in Him alone. Amen

The Word will accomplish it’s purpose!

Your life, if you are a Christian, belongs to God. His Word will accomplish those things which He desires. It is His purpose which will be done and which should be your purpose because you have given your heart to Him. Live as a disciple and a witness of God because of the great love that He has shown toward you and in your life. If you aren’t sure about His love for you, consider that it is God Who allowed you to wake up this morning. It is by His purpose that you walk and breathe and do the things which you are able to do. God knew you before the world was formed and He has already made a way for your life to be useful in His hands.

All that you need to do is realize that and seek Him for your salvation. Your life is not your own, it belongs to God and it is His to do with as He will. Some of you who read this will deny that God has a place in your life, but He has the power to stop your heart in the next sixty seconds if He chose to. I’m not trying to scare you by saying that, it is just the simple truth. God wove your DNA together and He knows exactly what you are capable of accomplishing in your life and for Him. If you have felt the call of God on your life at any time in the past or even now…don’t push Him away. Lean into Him and ask for His strength and His forgiveness of your sins. Ask Him to take the old you and mold him or her into the person that He knows you can be.

You might say, “But…that might hurt!”. Change in any form hurts sometimes, but it is needed at times to. When you exercise by running or lifting weights your muscles get sore for a time because you’ve pushed them to do something that they weren’t or hadn’t done before. When you begin serving God, you will have to change and His Spirit will change you gradually or drastically, depending on how much change is needed. It may hurt because some of your family and friends won’t understand where this new person came from. They may not recognize the person that you care becoming, but God knows who you are and He can and will change you into the instrument that He needs you to be.

Jesus brought a message that God loves us and He wants us to be His children every day of our lives. He told those who would listen about this and some received it with gladness. Others thought His message was foolish but Jesus kept telling those who would listen that He was bringing the Kingdom of God to them. Some heard Him and believed but others thought He was crazy. The fruit that we are supposed to produce is peace and love and joy through Jesus Christ our Lord! Not this message you hear about today which says “I can do all things myself and I don’t need God!”.

When you hear someone say that they don’t need God, ask them if they can make a flower bloom? They will probably laugh at your question but if they think that they don’t need God then they are declaring that they are like God. They are delusional in this of course. Ask them if they can change their hair from gray to whatever color they had in their youth? Ask them if they can make themselves taller? If they can’t accomplish these things, then they need God badly in their life. Nobody can do these things except God but some of the “new age” religions are telling people that they can do these things.

God lit the stars and He can put them out. He brought the life to this world in the form of trees and animals and fish and birds just with His Word. Can you do that? Of course not. God loves you and He knows you, even if you don’t know Him yet. One day we will all bow before Him and I hope that you will know Him and that He will know you as well because those that He doesn’t know will be taken to a place of torment because they had the chance to give their life to Him but they chose not to.

You are special in God’s eyes

Did you know that? He knew each of us before we were even born. He knows how many hairs are on your head (and how many have fallen out). He knows the color of your eyes and how much sleep you got last night. God knows you better than your own parents do because He formed you in the womb and knit together the molecules of your DNA. He knows everything that you have done and what you will do, even before you do.

To give you a bit of an idea just how much God values the soul which resides in each of us, think about what Jesus said to His disciples: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26 When Jesus said this, the context of His statement is that if you had all of the wealth in the world but you don’t have salvation through Him to save your soul from hell then you have nothing. Think of it…God values your soul more than ALL of the wealth in the world! Trillions of dollars, I have no idea how much it would be, would not be enough to equal the value of your soul.

God sent His Son to pay the debt for our sins, everybody’s sins, just to make it possible for us to enter into eternity with Him. Isn’t that an awesome and humbling thought? The Creator came to Earth in a human body so He could pay for all of humanity’s sins, past, present and future just because He loves each of us more than His life. Yes, God does value each of us that much. It is hard to understand from our perspective and we may never really understand it, even when we are in heaven.

If you have never given your heart to Jesus and asked Him to come into your life and change it so you can be a follower of His, then I ask you to truly consider it. If you have felt His touch in your life or your heart please don’t turn away from Him. This life is all that we have in which to make an eternal decision so don’t throw away eternity for the few years you have here and the life that you have lived without Him.

Do you imagine God in your image?

There is a quip or a saying which is attributed to Voltaire and it may hold true in our culture today. It goes like this: “God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.” Since we must do this at least some in our lives, I wonder how God feels about the exchange? When we make God in our image or as much like us as possible it tends to degrade Him into a brat and a whiner like we are. Think about all of the complaints which the Israelites lobbied against Moses and God when they were in the wilderness. It is no wonder that God almost wiped them out and wanted to start over with Moses. But Moses pleaded with God on their behalf and they were spared, at least the majority of the group was. Some were killed or buried when the ground swallowed them after the golden calf incident.

For heaven’s sake, they created an idol to be their “god” less than a week after God gained their freedom for them after 430 years with all of the plagues and miracles which He wrought to get Pharaoh to let them leave. He purified the waters to give them to drink, He brought water from a rock in the desert twice to take care of their thirst and their livestock. When they asked for meat instead of manna, He blew in quail in such numbers that they had more than enough to eat.

I am very thankful that God is not like us in any way. Oh, He is kind and compassionate and He has far more patience than any human could possibly have. But, if God were like we imagine Him to be I don’t think the world and the rule of mankind would’ve lasted as long as it has. God loves each of us far more than we can understand or imagine and He has done it since before our ancestors were born, all the way back to the beginning of His Creation and before that even.

Using your imagination to think up a “supreme being” that you can live with and worship is a very dangerous thing to do. For one, you are a practical idol worshiper when you do that. Because “your god” fits your ideas and your way of thinking just so you can feel comfortable when you pray and worship him. Your imaginary god is NOT the God of the Bible nor is he the God of Creation. Your god is someone that you created in your own mind. Your god will not get you into Heaven but he will pave a very slippery slope into hell just fine.

The second of the ten commandments says: “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below”. This is not a suggestion, it is a commandment from Almighty God. I pray that all of you who read this will seek out the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus for your salvation. There are no second chances after death so you had better make up your mind while you can.

Happy New Year!

This year is one which will see a lot of things happen. Many of those will be ignored or not even reported in the news media but they will be important nonetheless. God is working and will be working behind the scenes while we go about our lives.

You may be wondering why I started this year in this way. The reason is that God has spoken to me and He has given me this mission. Just as all the previous years when I began this endeavor. This is my witness to all who might read this. Not bragging or trying to bring attention to myself but to get your attention focused on the Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the only way to gain entrance into heaven. There is no other way except by believing in Him and giving your heart to Him as your Savior and Lord.

Will we see the works of God this year? Some will see them and some will just reject them as natural phenomena in the world. Do not mock God’s working in this world because one day every knee will bow before Him and declare that He is Lord.

God loves each of us even though He doesn’t agree with the way many of us live. Humble yourself before Him and ask for His forgiveness of your foolish behavior. Seek to know Him as your Savior and follow hard on His steps until the day when He calls us home. For some that may be sooner than they know, but all will come to know Him as Lord and King one day. I pray that this year will be filled with miracles which can’t be explained away except by the power of God. Seek Him while there is time and learn of His goodness and mercy. Give your heart to Him because He loved you before the foundation of the world and He sent Jesus to pay for our sins because of that love.

In Jesus’ name I pray that all of you will come to know Him as your Savior this year.

What should you do for next year?

We aren’t there yet but it isn’t far off. Many people make resolutions to lose weight or get out of debt but the problem with either of those is that most have gone into more debt for Christmas just a week ago and losing weight is something that most of us just don’t have the time nor the energy to devote to it. Can it be done? Sure, but if you don’t get serious about it and keep your eye on the prize of losing X-amount of weight, just like a smoker who hasn’t really decided to quit but they try…and they fail. Not because it can’t be done but because they weren’t truly determined to do it! Losing weight and getting out of debt are the same, unless you are focused on the end goal and keep your focus tight on it until it happens…it won’t happen.

Why do I sound as if I’m picking on those of us who make these resolutions? Because I’ve done it myself and failed miserably every time. Now, I’m going to ask you about your life spiritually. Where are you in your life with believing in Jesus as your Savior? If you have already decided that this person who wrote this is nuts and I’m not going any further in this post, then be on your way. But if you are interested in the possibility of an eternity that many of us have heard about but maybe we were afraid if we went to “that church” and even got saved, people would talk about us. What’s wrong with that?

If they are asking you about what you experienced and how you feel about your salvation, then tell them! That is exactly what Jesus said to His disciples when He was about to “go to the Father”. Tell every person about the good news, starting in Judea and then go to the whole world. That is why I’m using this medium to tell others. Because I don’t have the resources to go into all of the world! The world on the Internet can find my witness here and that is the best I can do. God will use the words which He gives me to write here to touch those who are truly in need of His saving grace.

Please consider seeking out Jesus as your Savior this year. Not one of us is guaranteed to even be alive tomorrow let alone this time next year. Be sure of your eternity and your destination in it because while you are here and alive you can change your destination. Once your life is over, the decision has been made and there is no second chance after death. You will face either a welcome or a judgement by Jesus, there is no area of “if”. You are either saved or you are not and it is cut and dried, black or white and no gray areas at all.