Tag: You are important to God

God’s sacrifice


God first asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son to prove his obedience to Him. Abraham went with his son, Isaac, to the mountain and built an altar and laid the wood on it and bound his son. He even drew the knife and was about to kill his son because God had asked him to. Then God said through an angel, “Abraham, do not harm your son!”. Why did God ask this of Abraham? To test him for sure and see if he would hold nothing back from God if God asked for it and he passed the test. So God gave a ram in place of his son, which was caught in the bushes, so that he and Isaac could worship God and then come home again. Abraham had told his servants when they set out toward the mountain that they would go and worship and then they would come again.

Abraham had faith that since God had promised that through Isaac his descendants would be inumerable, even if he sacrificed Isaac on the altar God would raise him again so that His promise would be fulfilled. In the same way, many thousands of years later, God gave His only Son up as a sacrifice for all of our sins and then raised Him up on the third day to be our Savior and Lord. I know you are probably thinking that since Jesus was God’s Son He couldn’t die anyway. But you’d be wrong. Jesus was born just as much a human being as you or I.

He got tired. He was tempted in every way like we are. He was afraid of the torture and the pain that He would experience during the crucifixion and the scourging which lead up to it. Just as any of us would be. He was so stressed about it until He was sweating drops of blood prior to His arrest. Doctors today have confirmed that it is possible to do this in highly stressful times.

Jesus came into the world for this purpose and yet He gave His life for you and me and many others just so we could be a part of His family! Isn’t that a wonderful gift? I know there are many who think that being a Christian takes all of the fun out of life but it doesn’t. You just have fun telling others about your Savior and what He has done for you. Should we forget all of our old stomping grounds and friends? No, but we should tell them about Jesus and His influence on our life. You can’t beat them over the head with a Bible but you can tell them how your life has changed after He came in and freed you from your slavery to sin.

I know that many of you will say, “I’m not a slave to sin!”. Well, how many times have you read the Bible lately? Can you tell me what all ten commandments are? Are you still drinking and smoking even after you’ve been redeemed by His blood? If you can’t answer any of these questions with the answer of “Yes!” or “No, I don’t drink and smoke anymore.” Then what kind of change really happened when you were “saved”? If you aren’t at least trying to change your life and your lifestyle so that you can walk with Jesus on a daily walk like His disciples did, then you may not be saved at all.

Seek Him out today and learn more about His offer of salvation by reading John’s gospel and then read Romans. Don’t stop searching for your Savior because He came here for you!

Chosen…


According to the Bible, we were chosen long ago by God Himself. Why? Because He knows who will accept and hear His call on their lives. Of course, there are some who may take a little more time than others to make that decision but God still knows the outcome. That doesn’t mean that you are chosen to be a Christian and the person next to you is not, it just means that God knows which of you will act on His touch first! In many ways that could mean that you will have an influence in your neighbor’s life and their choice to give their lives to Jesus. God loves each of us but since He sees the end and the beginning of all things, He knows which of us will turn to Him in repentance and which ones will not.

Does that mean that some people will not be given a chance to become Christians? No! Each person in the world is given the chance but not everyone will accept it. Some will accept it and then decide that being a Christian is not really what they want or the way they want to live. The people who do this were not really intent on being a Christians, they were just trying it out. Trying out Christianity is not the way to go. God loves you and if you feel His touch and His call on your life and your heart don’t turn away from Him!

You can go to church and read the Bible all that you want but the only way that any that either of them will have an effect in your life is when God touches your heart and opens your eyes spiritually to the condition that you are in. You might say to me, “What do you mean the condition I am in?”; when you are outside of the will and purpose of God none of His wisdom or the teachings of God’s Word make sense to you! God’s Wisdom is foolish to anyone and everyone who lives outside of God’s will and living by unbelief in Him.

The wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s sight. So are we chosen to be useful to God and in His Kingdom? He knows that each of us can be useful for His Kingdom and He knows when you will turn to Him in repentance. Those who do not repent, who will not repent are also known to Him as well and those people break God’s heart. He doesn’t wish to see anyone in hell because of their stubbornness but that is the reason that many will be in hell. Because of stubbornness and pride, they will turn away from Him thinking that they are good enough to gain entrance into heaven.

We are unable to be good enough to gain entrance into heaven without Jesus in our hearts and learning more about God through His Word and living by His wisdom and not our own. If humanity could attain eternal life on our own, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross and be raised again to give us the hope of heaven. God knew this was true and that we are unable to be righteous and sinless in our own strength without His Spirit and His Strength to aid you in becoming more like Jesus.