What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?
Actually, it means NOT having it all as far as the world is concerned. Is it possible? Yes! Just determine what you really NEED and take away those things that don’t fit that view. The world may not like your version of “having it all” but if it brings you joy, that’s their problem.
In today’s society, people would rather not have any consequences for their sinful actions regardless of the “size” of their sin. Whether it was stealing a paper clip from work or murdering someone. A sin is a sin in the eyes of God regardless of the weight of it in our eyes. The smallest sin, such as the paper clip, could go unnoticed by your job or anyone who works there. But, when you consider the Ten Commandments, even in the minutest detail, all of us have sinned and we continue to do so in one way or another every day.
We feel slighted by someone and we wish or just think that bad things should happen to them. Isn’t that a sin? Every day on the highway, many of us think things about other drivers that are really sins if we compare our thoughts to the Ten Commandments. Thoughts and words, spoken or not, have a way of becoming sinful actions if they are acted on. If you haven’t given your heart to Jesus and asked Him to come in and change your heart from the inside out, I am asking you to consider it…please?
Not one of us knows whether we will wake up tomorrow or not. If you do, thank God for another day to seek Him out to become your Savior, after all, it was God Who gave you today and may give you tomorrow as His gift to you. Please don’t waste your life following the crowd and the rest of the world. Give your heart to Jesus and follow Him so your eternity won’t be an eternity of punishment for a decision that you made or chose not to make.
The cross of Jesus Christ is more than a symbol, although it became an international symbol in time. It was an instrument of torture and death in the Roman Empire because it was a horrible way to die. A person could hang on a cross for up to two or three days before they would die, suffering from fluid build-up around their heart and all of the pain that it caused being hung by their arms for many hours. If their feet were nailed to the cross, they had to push up on that nail just to take a breath. It was cruel punishment but also a deterrent to other criminals because it was the punishment they would get if they did the same crime.
Dying on a cross was a spectacle because it took time for those punished in this way to die. It wasn’t quick like hanging or the guillotine although they were used later as execution became a way to deter crime. So, why did Jesus have to die in this way? Because it was foretold that He would. That is what Psalm 22 describes in detail yet crucifixion wasn’t being used at the time that David wrote it. God uses many things and people in their way and in His time to accomplish His purposes.
Jesus paid the price for our sins, all of humanity’s sins, even though many will not believe in Him for their salvation. The debt has been paid but unless you acknowledge it and believe in the One who paid for it for your salvation…you will not be saved from an eternity in hell. What a terrible thing to refuse the offer of your sin debt being paid for entirely and then spend eternity in hell because of that refusal. It is your choice that sends you to hell not God or Jesus. Even if you’ve been “basically good” all of your life but you never got around to accepting Jesus as your Savior, it is up to you to refuse to accept Him which will send you to hell.
Hitler is in hell, not because of his war against the Jewish people, but because he refused to accept God or Jesus as his Savior. Although I would think that his treatment of the Jewish people is making his punishment much worse than it would’ve been. God loves all of humanity and He calls many who may accept Jesus as their Savior. Even some of those who have been called may not answer that call to become a disciple of Jesus. Some will put the decision off until later and some will refuse it entirely. God knows who will accept His offer and who will not.
John 3:16,17 says: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
We always have a choice…choose Life and the better side of it through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Living Message of Christ 