A better question might be “Will you be living forever?”. Immortality here in the flesh is not possible and frankly I wouldn’t want to. My aches and pains are bad enough at the age I am now, which is 57. I could not imagine living to be 150 or 250 unless Jesus cured me of all of them. In Genesis when Adam and Eve were created they were created with perfect DNA and therefore could have lived forever IF they hadn’t disobeyed God. Even outside the garden of Eden they lived to a ripe old age. Adam lived to be 930 years of age, so to many people today that would be immortal since it is almost 1,000 years!
Jesus said that if we believe in Him for our salvation we will never die. Our physical body on Earth will die but our spiritual body, which we live into eternity with, will not experience the “second death” of being in hell and it will live into eternity in Heaven with God and all of the believers who are there. There are passages in the Bible which tell us that we will know our loved ones and be known as we were on Earth but with a deeper understanding given to us by God Himself. Your body and mine will be recognizable by our family and friends regardless of our race or our age. So immortality is possible but only through Jesus and His redeeming grace for us.
Those who have rejected Jesus in this life still have an immortal body in hell but they will experience the eternal punishment of being in a place where the Life of God and His love for us is not present, even if you have refused Him in this life. In my opinion, immortality is only worth it if you can enjoy it. I pray that all who read this will seek Jesus for their salvation before that day when they meet Him as judge rather than being welcomed by Him to your eternal home.
How many of us have considered the fact of the Scripture which says that “God searches the hearts of man”? What does that mean to us in the 21st century?
Many people seem to look at Christians and think that we are backward and that we follow a “god” in blind faith but that is not true. We have faith in God, the God of Creation, and we have the faith which says that we believe His Word and His Works on this Earth. It is not a faith that is blind, and although you can’t see God you can see the works of His hands all around you. Does He know you and me? Yes, He does! He formed us in our mother’s womb to be the people who we are. We were born to parents who could nurture us in the ways and knowledge of Him.
While it is true that some of us didn’t have parents who would do this, God knows our hearts and He will bring us into His service when it is time. For some of us, it will take a little while longer than others, but eventually, we will learn that we are special to God and our talents were given to us for a reason. Our abilities and our faith in Him will bring us to the point of being useful for His Kingdom. It took three years for the disciples of Jesus to learn enough about the Kingdom which He was teaching them about so that they could go out and tell others about His love for them. But the Holy Spirit, which Jesus sent to them after He ascended to the Father, worked through them and the church grew substantially during the first few years and continued to grow from that point on.
Is the church still growing today? Yes, it is although in some countries it is slipping a bit like it is in America. We have become complacent and apathetic in our pursuit of Jesus and the culture that we are living in now doesn’t think that God’s Word and His message are relevant today. Why is that? Mainly because we have been silent on the issues and outside the church. We haven’t been taking the whole Truth of God with us into the world. We come to church and get our fill of His wisdom on Sunday and then we leave the church building and our faith until the next time we meet.
Jesus told His disciples to be “fishers of men” but it seems that the church today has lost the meaning of that command. Making disciples of those we come into contact with is our mandate from God. God knows your heart and your sins whether you have confessed them or not. Make sure of your salvation in this life so you will have Life eternal with Him in the next one.
In the book of Jonah, the prophet tries his best to run from God’s calling to take a message to Nineveh. Not because he doesn’t want to take the message, although that was part of it, but because he wants God’s judgment to fall on them rather than a revival coming to their country. He knows that God is merciful and He will forgive them if they turn from their sins and seek Him because of the warning that God told him to bring to the people of Nineveh.
Jonah 1:1-4 says:
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
The Great Storm (Jeremiah 6:10-21; Jeremiah 25:15-33; Acts 27:13-26; Romans 1:18-32)
4 Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart.
Wickedness or sin is lawlessness or transgressing the Law of God and it cannot be hidden or covered up, but we try to do this every day.
Proverbs 28: 13 says: 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
God is willing to forgive our sins regardless of their “size” because all sin is abhorrent to God and Jesus paid the price for our sins to cover them and forgive us of their consequences. We look at our sins and think that that “little white lie” isn’t so bad. Not nearly as bad as the man who has murdered someone at least. But in the eyes of God, even though murder is a more grievous sin, any sin weighs the same because it is a transgression of God’s laws. When you break one of His laws it is the same as breaking them all.
Any sin in your life that has not been confessed and forgiven puts a door or a barrier between you and God until it is confessed and forgiven. God warned Cain before he slew his brother that “sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you, but you must rule over it”. Genesis 4:7
God will judge our unacknowledged sins (Romans 2:16), “God will judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ”. I know it sounds like a harsh comparison for mankind to be judged according to the sinless Son of God but we, as Christians, are supposed to walk in His ways and seek to live a holy life. In our humanity and by our own strength we can’t do this but by reading God’s Word daily and carefully taking each thought into captivity we can be effective witnesses for Him.
Hiding sins, whether they are “small sins” or “Big sins”, isn’t possible because God knows your heart and your mind. Even if you haven’t given your heart and life to Him, when you stand before Him to be judged, every word and thought will be brought out into the open. That is a scary thing to consider since we rarely have complete control over our thoughts and many times we say things which we should’ve thought about first (but we don’t) and we end up with our foot in our mouth. In God’s economy and under His Laws, every sin weighs the same. We consider some as small and some as big but to Him they are all spots and blemishes on your record and they hinder you from enjoying life as He wants you to.
In every place that you go, if you are a Christian, you take your faith and your beliefs with you. So make sure that you take Jesus with you every day and everywhere you go.
God loves each of us so much that He gave us this world to live in. Even though sometimes it is hard to live in, He loves you and He gives you the strength to make a difference. Take your faith with you no matter what someone says about your faith because Jesus knows your heart and He will give you the words that you need at the time.
Everything that we have has been given to us by God. The air we breathe, the clothes we wear, our job, our family and our health are all gifts that we have because God deemed us worthy to have those gifts. We should go out into the world with our faith in Jesus and let others know about His love for them and to tell them that Jesus died for their sins so that they could have eternal life through belief in His sacrifice for them.
