Open rebuke is better than secret love. Proverbs 27:5 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.27.5.KJV
When I stumble or sin intentionally, tell me what I’m doing that is wrong in God’s eyes so He and I can get it fixed. Don’t go along with me by following my behavior, let me know that I need to make it right with God.
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. James 1:14 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jas.1.14.KJV
If you don’t think it can happen to you, think about what is tempting you and where that idea came from. YOUR own thoughts and desires are amplified by Satan. That’s why we need to have more of God’s Word inside our minds than those tempting thoughts. Stay near God and He will be even closer to you.
This is the message of Christianity. The Son of God came down to Earth, to be born of a virgin and to become the Savior, the Messiah of the world! He wasn’t a conquering King that many were looking for and He was not a copy of other “messiahs” as some had claimed prior to His birth. He was and is the Lamb of God sacrificed to redeem the whole world if they will only believe in Him as their Savior. Knowing about Him or His message is not the same as heartfelt belief in Him.
Knowing about Him and what He did is not the same as being His spiritually and taking His spirit into your life and your heart.
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29
Salvation through belief in Jesus is the only way to Heaven, there is no other. This is the message which was taught about Him and by Him during His ministry and it is the only message which can save your soul from torment in hell. When you repent of your sinful life, which we have all lived at some point, believing in Jesus as your Savior will change your life forever! Not just here on Earth, but your eternal life will be totally different from those who think they know Him or “have an understanding with God”.
Those ideas will send many people to hell thinking that they are deserving of Heaven. While it is true that many good people may do many good deeds in their lifetime with this idea of their righteousness, some of them may even be pastors, but that idea is not salvation. Satan can convince you that it is and many have believed this lie but when they stand in judgment after death they find that their idea and reality are not the same.
God loves each of us and He does want a relationship with us but that relationship only comes through our conviction of our sinful nature and our belief in Jesus as our Savior. No amount of church attendance or even reading the Bible will save your soul, only your belief in Jesus as your Savior can and will do that!
Jesus came to bring salvation to Israel but when they did not believe that He was the Messiah, He knew that salvation had to be taken to the whole world. This is the command which He gave to His disciples and to Saul a little while later. It is also the command which the church should be following today! Take the gospel to the whole world so that others may hear and know Jesus and the freedom which comes through Him.
The love of God was poured out into all the world through Jesus and His message and it is still being told today. I pray that whoever reads this might seek Him out as their Savior because the days are coming when it will be hard if not impossible to find a Bible or a preacher. Plan for your eternity now because tomorrow may be too late.
