It is something that our parents told us growing up, sometimes we listened and sometimes we didn’t. Most of the time we learned the hard way which one was the right one. I personally learned the hard way and I paid for it. I pray that if you are reading this post you will take a look around at some of the other posts and give your heart to Jesus while there is time.
“Our Father”. Do you truly comprehend the significance of those words? God is, collectively, our Father since He is the Creator. But…have those two words ever sunk into your consciousness enough to truly register their meaning? Consider this: Adam was God’s son and the father of humanity, and Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior but He told His disciples to pray to God as their Father too. God is the Creator of everything and everyone so He is our Father. He knows each of us better than our parents do because He knows who we are at the atomic level. He placed our conscience and our personality within us. He knows our desires and our capabilities better than we do.
Why? Because we become adopted sons and daughters in God’s family when we accept Jesus as our Savior. We have His blood covering our sins. We are God’s children. So when you pray to God, Our Father, you are literally praying to the only Person in the universe that loves you as much as He loves Jesus.
Let that sink in for a minute.
You are loved by God! So much that He gave His Son to pay the penalty for your sins. Jesus died and rose again to be your Savior and to pay the penalty for every person on Earth. It is your responsibility to accept this gift through faith in Him and live your life to attain your maturity in Christ. Walking with Him every day, not just on holidays and on Sunday mornings. It takes discipline to wake up and tell Him “Thank you for today”. It takes perseverance to read and study His Word for thirty minutes every day. It takes prayer, asking Him to give you His wisdom from His Word, and the understanding to know how to apply it.
The life of a Christian or a saint, as they are referred to by Paul, is not an easy one. The devil is going to target you so he can trip you up and cause your witness to be stained in some way so that others won’t follow you to be more like Jesus. The only way for any of us to stand on those days of trial is to study and apply the wisdom that we gain from God’s Word. We won’t know it or be able to apply it if we don’t read it…daily. As you read and study the Bible, you learn more about God’s character too. Before I studied the Bible, I thought God was some Judge who kept tabs on me to make sure I was living like I should. He does this but He doesn’t pop you every time you make a mistake. God knows us well enough that our faults and our mistakes are tactfully shown to us by the Holy Spirit so that we will ask forgiveness as soon as we realize what we did.
We are living in the last days of the age of Grace. Don’t turn away from the call of God in your life. Seek Him out in the Bible. Learn about Him and His nature. Follow Him every day and keep His Word in your mind and your heart for your own protection and for your salvation too.
Abundant Life! For those who have accepted the call of the Holy Spirit on your life and in your heart, this life is not where it ends. It is this life that is a sort of “practice session” of what is to come. Live your life where after you give your heart to Jesus as if your last day could be tomorrow. Tell others about Him and what He has done for you. Read God’s Word and learn more about the love of God because He chose you before the world was created. The life of a Christian is not a stagnant one and it is not to be lived one Sunday morning service at a time. It is an every-day life in His Word and learning more about Him. Is that too radical for you? Is it dangerous to other people? No, but it is the way we are supposed to live.
Being radical about your life in Jesus and your eternity with Him is not the same as the radical and fanatical people we have heard about and seen on the news. Their religion is one of hate, not love. Are Christians dangerous? No but some people will compare those of us who actually live our life as Christians to the wars and the terrible things that were done hundreds of years ago in the name of the Church and in the name of Jesus. He wouldn’t have allowed those things to happen if He had been here. That wasn’t done by the church that Jesus and His disciples started. By the second century the “church” had changed and it only got worse in many respects.
Christianity is a relationship with God the Father and Jesus His Son. It is not a religion at all. From the time that God called Abraham (Abram) it was a relationship and it was supposed to stay that way. Study God’s Word and learn from Him what you should do. Don’t live according to “doctrine” or “discipline”, live through faith in Jesus and belief in Him (like the thief did).
God has provided us, the human race, with His grace and He planned this even before He created our world. He has known which of us would accept Jesus since then, even though His grace and our atonement was paid for by Jesus on the cross two-thousand years ago. Jesus paid the price for all of us even though He knew there would be many who would not accept Him as their Savior.
You can know God and His purpose for your life better if you read His Word. The more you know Him and His Word the better you will be able to stand against the devil until Jesus comes.
For your eternity, believe in Jesus. That’s what should be important to you and me. Why? Because our lives are very short compared to the time we will spend with Jesus. That’s something that many people don’t think about but you should.
We worry about retirement and vacations but when it comes to our eternal home most people just don’t think about it. Even comparing a life of one hundred years doesn’t compare to ten thousand years, let alone eternity. For us…we can’t imagine that amount of time. Even thinking about time out to a thousand years from now is hard for us to do.
God loves all of humanity but it’s our sins that He won’t tolerate. He is Holy and the two can’t go together. It’s like trying to mix oil and water, they don’t mix. It’s hard to comprehend how much God loves us and some people think that He doesn’t, but love always leaves a mark. Something is always changed when love is in the picture, real True Love. In most cases, true love changes us for the better. Sometimes the pain we see around us and all of the suffering that happens all over the world, is hard to justify. But we’re not supposed to justify what is good or bad in the world, that is God’s job.
Share the love of God with those you know and with those you don’t because the time is growing short. We don’t know the day or the hour but with everything that is happening in the world, we are on the edge of the book of Revelation. Read Matthew 24 and compare it to the news happening every day and you will see what I mean.
God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son to bring us salvation. All that we have to do is believe in Him and what He did for us. It sounds too simple but if you can just give your heart to Him and believe in Him, repent of your sinful ways, then you will have eternity to be thankful and to thank Him for it. Our righteousness is nothing compared to His holiness but He loves you more than you can imagine. It is your sinful lifestyle that He can’t stand.
God is LOVE and it is that love that saves us from our sinful lives IF we will believe in Him and in the sacrifice made for us by His Son, Jesus. The Bible describes God as being clothed in light. Heaven is described as being lit by Him and by light that pervades everything in Heaven where there are no shadows.
Many will miss out on going to Heaven by just 18 inches, the distance between your head and your heart. Knowing about Jesus isn’t good enough. Knowing about God or even knowing and memorizing Bible passages will not save your soul. The priests in Jesus’ day had memorized most of the Old Testament but they still didn’t recognize Jesus as their Messiah.
In this life many of us worry about retirement when we should be more concerned about our eternal home. Your life and mine only amount to about seventy or eighty years if we are in good health. Some of us may reach our 100th birthday if we have good genetics and good health. But consider how long one million years is…and that is just a small part of eternity.
Make sure of your eternal home because it will be so wonderful in God’s home!
The Living Message of Christ 