Sickness, disease, and not knowing Christ

What do these three have in common? Well, for one thing they are all nearly the same thing. A sickness, whether it is a cold or the flu, is also a disease. But, there are diseases which are not so benign in their workings and their outcomes, such as certain cancers and air-borne viruses like the Hanta virus and Ebola virus (although this one is not considered to be air-borne). These are true diseases which cause death if not treated very aggressively and of course there are others which cause a number of conditions which are life threatening and we could go on and on with this.

The point that I am trying to make is that sickness and disease are physical attackers and they do attack the physical body. Living a life on your own, without Christ is a spiritual “disease” because we were created in God’s image to have a relationship with Him and when that relationship is missing, it is like a piece of us is missing! We always feel as if there is something missing and it is, because we have a place which the Spirit is supposed to inhabit within us and when that part of us is not whole, then we aren’t whole.

When we are sick in one way or another, we don’t feel right because there is something that isn’t right. It is the same way that I felt before I truly came to know Jesus as my Savior, something just wasn’t quite right in my life and I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly. When the command of God was ignored in the Garden, and Adam and Eve made a shocking mistake, that rebellious spirit has stayed with mankind all down through history. It doesn’t matter if you are a Pope or the first baseman at Wrigley field, we all have this part of us which isn’t quite right until we hear the voice of God, that little tug on our hearts which tells us to get up in a service and make it right.

If you have ever felt that, then you know what I mean. Yes, we are spiritual and we have a spirit living within us, but until we accept Jesus as our Savior there is still a part…a small piece which is missing or at least not complete. We can’t make this complete and we don’t have the power to just “come to Christ” when we feel like its time, God has to call you to “prick your heart” as some have said.

It is not just a decision that we can decide on like putting your shirt on or your shoes. The Spirit speaks to your spirit and when they are in agreement, then you feel it strongly enough to either ask Jesus into your life or you refuse Him. This is when you are truly walking on thin ice so to speak, because God may only call you once before you are left to your own life. This is where many people think that they have it together enough and they don’t need God in their life and they couldn’t be more wrong, but they will keep trying on their own until they can’t or until they come to the end of their life one day, in a car wreck or something that they have no control over at all…then what?

At that point, you will meet the God that you turned away from, except this time He is seeing you as you are and not with the blood of Jesus covering your sins. He will be your judge and show you where you went wrong and when you heard or read about His grace and His provision for you and you said that you didn’t have time for it. You said that you didn’t want to live that way, you wanted to live your way. You rebelled against the God Who created you and Who loved you and wanted the best for you, but you didn’t want Him. At this point, there isn’t anywhere you can go except into hell at the White Throne judgement, you will be punished until then but it won’t be nearly as bad as after the final judgement.

Live your life with Jesus in it and with Him every day because with Him, life will be eternal and in Heaven with Him, not in hell with all of the rebels and the demons and Satan himself. Because that is who hell was created for, demons, principalities and powers of darkness and Satan…not for humans although there will be many of them there too. Choose Life.

Do you know that you are loved?

“For God so loved the world (everyone in the world past, present and future), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.” John 3:16

How much more should we love and honour God’s gift to us? God loves each of us even when we are sinners and we don’t deserve anything that He has blessed us with. This is not a fairy tale and it is not an imaginative story, it is the Truth of the Living God. He carried the children of Israel through the wilderness on their way out of Egypt. He made the way through the Red Sea so that all of them could escape from Pharaoh’s army and from their bondage in slavery. God made a way for the people to destroy the city of Jericho, not by their own power but by His. He took the blocks down that were holding up the wall around it, all they did was walk around the city for a week until God told them to blow the trumpets and the wall came crashing down. He loved them enough that their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out during the entire forty years of their journey through the desert.

Today, it seems that many churches are trying to “water down” the gospel, to make it more tasty to those who are fighting against its message. Making it more palatable, like putting four ounces of cream and sugar in a cup of coffee which only holds six or eight ounces. At this point, it isn’t much as coffee goes and the same is true of a message or the preaching from a church which has watered down the words taken from God’s Word! When you take out the words and the meaning from God’s Word, you are preaching another gospel, one which is not approved of by God but by men. Yes, many churches are doing exactly that today because they want new members to give their tithes, and offerings to the church.

That is all good, but the message being taught and preached by those who water down the gospel is a message which Jesus said to flee from because it is not the True Gospel! It is a false gospel taught by false teachers and it needs to stop! Why? Because the path that we as preachers are supposed to be leading people on is one that is narrow, not broad! A gospel that has been sweetened up and made pretty and acceptable is not the gospel of salvation but of damnation and it will lead many people to hell! The church today in many ways sounds much like the church in Revelation from Laodicea which Jesus said that He would spew from His mouth because they were a lukewarm church. They had gone astray from Him and from the gospel and they were neither hot and on fire for Him nor were they distant and cold. The city and the church there was wealthy from material goods but spiritually they were poor and naked.

A watered down gospel is a lukewarm gospel and it will cause the church to be like that church and being that way is a terrible thing. Why? Because you are putting yourself and your congregation on the side with Satan because of what is being taught. Making Christian “church” more easy and palatable to many is not the way to go. Ignoring the words of the Bible that are against lifestyles which are offensive to God, such as homosexuality or belonging to a cult are not the way to salvation. Yes, God loves all people regardless of their sins but He still hates the sin itself. Because of this, an unrepentant person (one who will not part ways with their sins), will not be able to be saved and enter into Heaven. When your heart is broken spiritually and you feel God calling you to Himself, answer this call on your life. Don’t turn away because sometimes, the call to be saved is only given once and if you turn away from it you may not get another chance to change your life for the better.

I don’t want to mislead anyone, Christianity is not a “prosperity cult”, you will not prosper so much that you are wealthy beyond belief if you turn to Jesus. The wealth that you gain with Christ is the kind that is stored in eternity for you, not here on Earth for people to see and steal. Eternal life is also misunderstood. We will all have eternity to enjoy our choices, although enjoy is not the right word for those who reject Jesus. Eternity in hell is reserved for those who have sided with Satan and it doesn’t matter if Satan himself has promised you that you won’t be in a “lake of fire” for eternity, because that is his destination and all of those who have rejected Jesus and the grace of God will be there too.

Seek out the wisdom found in God’s Word, pray about what you read and that it will illuminate your heart and open your eyes. Give God a chance to show you Who He is, ask Him to come into your life and help you to walk with Him daily, because it is a wonderful journey in the right company.

Hell, what is that?

Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But, many people don’t believe that it exists. God speaks about it and Jesus speaks about this place, so it must exist somewhere. Why do people think that they will be having fun by going there though? I don’t understand that at all!

Even Milton wrote something quite unusual to me: “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven”; since when does anyone think that they will be “reigning” in hell? There is nothing to reign over! Heat that is eternal, sulphur that burns and those in hell have bodies which will not die, they will just feel pain! The pain of rejection and loss of Heaven and opportunities to be with loved ones will also be there.

Your life will continue although it will not be like many people think that it will. I have worked with many people who think that they will be living it up with all of their friends while eternity rolls on, when in fact it will be nothing like that at all.

God has given each of us a grace period in a way. One that allows us to come to our own conclusion about our eternal destination but there are so many that reject this gift and think that they have a better and more fun-filled way of getting to Heaven on their own. There is a problem with that though, because nothing that we do on our own is good enough to get us to Heaven. Jesus did everything that is necessary for our salvation and all that we have to do is believe in His sacrifice for us and accept it as the wonderful gift that it is!

No amount of work or money will add to what He has already done because nothing from our point of view and our strength is worthy of recognition by God. Jesus’ sacrifice and the blood that He shed for us, all of us, is enough and it doesn’t need anything added to it. Look at it like this:

If you had committed a truly heinous crime, one that deserved the death penalty and you were convicted of it. What could you do about it? Once you are convicted, unless there has been a terrible mistake, there really is nothing that you can do to reverse the situation. All that you can do is wait for your execution date. Then, one hour before your execution, a man comes to the judge and asks to be put in your place so that you can go free. Unbelievably, the judge agrees and you are set free and he is executed in your place. Did you deserve to be set free? Do you deserve the gift that you were given…life in the place of death?

This is exactly what Jesus did for each person on Earth. None of us, not even one person, deserves the life that is provided, the eternal pardon that has been given, but that doesn’t keep each of us from reaching out and taking it if we want it. So, what is keeping you from taking the gift that has been given? What part of your life here is so important, so wonderful that you would rather choose it over the future that you have in Christ? We have no idea how life will be in Heaven, but it will be far better than what we could have here, even if we had everything that we could possibly want it will pale in comparison to what is waiting for us.

Give it some thought, read the Bible with an open mind, pray about your future with Jesus. Don’t throw away the chance that you have been given freely and without cost to you.