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Are you certain that death is the end?
We all face two deaths, one physical and one spiritual.
We cannot avoid physical death but we can avoid spiritual death.
Those who feel that you are spiritually dead are wrong, at least
for the present, because your choices remain before you.
Spiritual death comes, in this lifetime and for eternity, when
you decide that you are simply flesh and that you reject the
notion that God exists. Spiritual death accompanies a belief
that you have no spirit and that when you die, you die. You
are spiritually dead if God's Spirit has not embraced, enveloped
and apprehended you. That is a big concept, to be sure, but
His Spirit has either filled your heart, witnessing to your
spirit, or it has not.
For the time being, we are trapped, as it were, in the flesh
but most of us logically aspire to be with God as eternal spiritual
beings. What drives us to seek to discover whether we have a
spiritual side to our being? Well for one reason, death is a
certainty. You say you do not fear death, you have had a lot
of fun and you have enjoyed an abundance of God's blessings.
Still, you sense or you are certain that death is not the end,
it is the beginning.
We want to satisfy our inner desire to be like God, a desire
He has placed upon our hearts. Call it a conscience but it is
much more complex than that (Romans
1:18-22,
Romans 2:14-16,
Hebrews 8:10-11, James 1:21 and Colossians
1:20-23)
but we also have fleshly instincts (sex, pride, selfishness
and so on) that lead us to disobey God's laws.
The spirit of man will live on. The question is, will your spirit
be united with the Spirit of God or be separated from His Spirit
because of your failure to seek a personal relationship with
Him? On the other hand, if you do acknowledge that there is
life after death, are you obedient enough to make it into the
Kingdom of God?
The answer is, no, you are not obedient enough to make it into
the Kingdom of God, nor is anyone else. God's word says that
He will not countenance sin. An uncleansed, sinful person will
not stand in His midst. No man has ever been perfectly obedient.
The Scriptures say that sin is sin and that there is no hierarchy
of sin. If you say that you have only stolen something while
another person killed someone, you are both in the same place
because you have committed a sin for which atonement is required.
This is why arrogance and self-righteousness have no place in
our lives. We all need to be forgiven for huge sins and small
sins. It is very easy to forgive others if you understand what
the forgiveness of Christ has done for you. We are never to
judge another man's sin or his salvation. We can observe his
actions and see if he bears the kind of fruit he espouses but
even then we can not judge the condition of his heart. You can
and you should pray for sinners. The salvation of a sinner is
a joy to observe. The Scriptures say ...there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. (Luke
15: 7)
Why are you telling me these things?
This letter is a personal appeal, not sponsored by or affiliated
with any organization. If you do not believe God exists or you
do not believe that you have a spirit that will continue to
exist after death, this letter will seem to be or is in fact,
irrelevant. Just set it aside. You may, at some point, want
to rethink your position. If you do believe (or are not sure)
God exists and that the spirit of those who have died before
you are with the God that created them, then you should end
up being encouraged and hopefully motivated to develop a closer
personal relationship with God. In either case this letter it
is intended to encourage you. I pray that you will find it worth
reading and where possible, Lord willing, it may change your
life now as well as the eternal destination of your soul.
As to my motivation, God's word says "Go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does
not believe will be condemned." (Mark
16: 15-16). It is the last part of that verse that has
my attention. I can not remain silent if any of His children,
including you, is in danger of being separated from the love
of God and all those that love God, forever. I am not saying
you are in danger. None of us are to judge the condition of
another man's soul, but if you are not sure of your personal
relationship with God, then read on.
Since I have sent out over a million copies of letters like
this I have some experience with initial questions and responses.
Let me clear up a few of them now. I received your mailing address
as part of a zip code directory of addresses which can be purchased
by any person. No one asked me to send this letter to you personally.
Everyone in your area received this letter. The letter has a
non-profit stamp on it because I complied with the U.S. Postal
Services criteria for such status. I am the President of a California
Corporation called The Sola Scriptura Project, a non-profit
organization. I collect no fees, salaries or reimbursements
from anyone. With disclaimers aside, let's get to the issues.
I believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, thus the term
"Sola Scriptura" which means "Only the Scriptures".
I accept, by faith, that it is God's Holy Word. "As
for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven;
He is a shield to all who trust in Him. For who is God, except
the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?" (2 Samuel
22: 31-32) Please focus on the phrase, "The
word of the LORD is proven". Prophecy fulfilled is
one of the most important verifications of the Holy Scriptures
being the word of God.
If death is a certainty, how can I choose life?
God understands where you are in your thinking at this very
moment and how you got there. In spite of all the good reasons
that you may not have secured a personal relationship with Him,
He still holds an open hand to you. That fact, in itself, is
a miracle. If you have, for your entire life, failed to honor
God and acknowledge Him before men, He still patiently waits
for you. He also knows, this second, what your final response
is going to be. Because God is omniscient, He sees the beginning
and the end of your life. You make the decisions but God knows,
in advance, what you will decide. Some refer to this as predestination
because God knows if you will respond to His call, thus your
final circumstance is known by God. But focus on this statement
by the Apostle John. "You did not
choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should
go and bear fruit..." (John 15:16)
First, God loved you and has called you. Then you choose to
respond or not. As of right now, you have made a choice. The
ramifications of your choice are of eternal significance. Listen
to what God said about the consequences of your choice.
"I call heaven and earth as witnesses
today against you, that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and
your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God,
that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him,
for He is your life and the length of your days..." (Deuteronomy
30:19-20)
The choices you have made, that matter most, are reflected in
your personal answer to these questions. Is there a God? Is
the Bible the Word of God? Is Jesus Christ who He said He was?
Is Satan a "fallen angel", given an earthly kingdom,
that he might challenge the authority of God? Are Satan and
his band of renegade angels a powerful group of evil spirits,
constantly tempting you? Did God create man in His own image?
Does man have a soul, a spiritual side of his being? The choices
to believe or not remain before you, even if you think you have
already decided.
Satan, the ruler of this world, (John
16:11)
was present in the Garden of Eden, tempting man to disobey God.
The fact that Adam and Eve were disobedient was no surprise
to God. It set in motion a series of historical events played
out by both the obedient and the disobedient. The struggle continues
today.
You may not want to hear what I am about to say because you
may feel guilty about being caught up in a modern phenomenon
that defies logic. Why on earth would people use God's name
in vain and speak the name of Jesus as an exclamation mark or
worse. Our culture now says "Oh my G-d" in the most
unholy circumstances, attaching no sense of honor to God in
what they are saying. God's name is Holy, Jesus' name is Holy
and He is your only means of redemption. Your heart should ache
when their names are dishonored, especially by innocent children
who are imitating adults.
Satan, your accuser, wants you to fail
Satan's role in all of this (the evil spirit) is to tempt you
to sin and to be able to accuse you before the Father. I believe
you would agree that sin abounds and seems to be worsening with
time.
Sin, embedded in the very flesh of man, is the tool Satan uses
as he seeks to control man. God hates sin. Our sin actually
grieves Him, according to the Scriptures. He loves righteous,
virtuous, loving behavior. God, who revealed His true nature
and His expectations through Jesus Christ, the Embodiment of
God, has provided that sacrifice is the means by which we are
cleansed of sin. This may be one of the most difficult, yet
significant concepts for any of us to grasp. Atonement for sin
is a requirement of God. You and I can not enter into the presence
of God, our Holy Father, as "sinners". Our sin must
be atoned for in a manner acceptable to God. Only Jesus who
took our sins upon himself can present us holy and blameless
before God. When we pray to the Lord, we do not do so in our
righteousness but instead we do so in the righteousness of Jesus.
Satan does not want man to worship and obey God nor to enter
into eternity as His Saints. Satan's agenda is to have man fail
in his efforts to serve God. The Scriptures teach that God has
given Satan a large range of opportunity to try and bring man
down. Satan would snatch you, this moment, from any further
serious consideration of what I am saying to you. As you can
learn in the first two chapters of the Book
of Job, Satan is permitted by God, to tempt you and
to try to defeat you.
If you accept the possibility that what I have described is
true, also understand that God has made a wonderful provision
for those who may have spent their whole lives being deceived
by Satan. Satan's message basically says, "Come, eat of
the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Surely you shall not die.
For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be
opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Ever since that line worked on Eve, its influence has continued.
Satan's modern message is "Eat, drink and be merry, for
tomorrow you die". If physical death was the "end",
Satan's message would make death an escape from responsibility,
a quiet resting place for eternity, i.e. dust unto dust. But
no, you will find Satan made a fool of you, just as he did Adam
and Eve, and you will have bought into an eternal separation
from God and those who love Him and serve Him. Read Luke
16:19-31.
That is a powerful passage that should serve as a wake up call.
Your spirit will live on, either joyfully blessed or forever
burdened. And what gain did sin provide? What is the long term
reward? Sin is always deadly in retrospect. When we serve evil
we are fully aware of our guilt before God. If you choose to
persist in sin, your prayer should be that there is no eternal
Father and that you are only flesh, not spirit and flesh.
The Scriptures teach that God provided a final, excruciatingly
painful sacrifice to allow the sins of man to be forgiven. He
sent His only Son into the world, born of a virgin, to live
a sinless life, to proclaim the Word, to suffer at the will
of some of His own people because they rejected His claim of
being "equal to God", and to die a humiliating death
on the cross. Thus Jesus became the means by which believers
are reconciled to God. There is no need for further sacrifice.
Christ has taken on the sins of the world and because of His
resurrection and His promised return, those who worship God
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, will spend eternity with
Him.
The Messiah came that you might be reunited with God. You were
His child at birth, innocent and unaccountable, and He desires
that you be His child now. Your innocence, as an adult, can
not be "achieved". It is a gift from God. When we
acknowledge our sin to Him, and ask for cleansing and turn from
the sin that separated us from God in the first place, we return,
as an innocent child, to His eternal care and love. We were
born God's children, even if we have not been serving Him. God
is like any loving father, waiting for his child to return.
One of Satan's roles is to prevent us from understanding that
message, or better yet, if we do understand it, to have us become
"religious". Satan would have us believe that ritual,
ceremony, good deeds, obeying the laws of man and God, will
reconcile us with God. These are certainly appropriate behaviors
but it is possible to do these things and still not experience
a heartfelt, personal relationship with Jesus. Many well intentioned
people strive for righteousness, to be like Jesus, but find
they are impotent in the face of stress. They give in, getting
caught up in lying, drunkenness, pornography, drugs, infidelity,
jealousy and self worship and as a result they feel very unsaintly
and very unworthy.
Heaven, a reward for high achievers?
Neither good deeds nor merit badges can help us earn salvation.
If our "works" could deliver us into a personal relationship
with the Holy Father, then Jesus Christ would have never needed
to go the cross. We could have "earned" grace. Grace
is defined as receiving unmerited favor from God. We do not
deserve His forgiveness and the power of His Presence in our
lives. Sin, in spite of our good deeds, deserves punishment
but we have received grace because of what Christ did on the
cross.
Christ would not have needed to go to the cross if man could
"redeem himself" and know that God exists. If you
have "proof", and a means of reconciliation, you do
not need faith. The crucifixion of Jesus was a major turning
point in the history of man (B.C./A.D.). If one fails to grasp
what God did for those who believe on Him, at the cross, one
fails to understand atonement and forgiveness.
Since we are all sinners, admittedly I am sure, and since God
will not and can not countenance sin (look upon or be in the
presence of sin), God provided a solution. His sinless Son went
to the cross on our behalf and now we can stand in the presence
of God completely forgiven. If you are still suffering from
guilt, which makes you feel unworthy, you are carrying a burden
you need not carry. The Scriptures say:
"The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive
with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt
with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to
our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as the
east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us." (Psalms 103:8-12)
To be forgiven, one need only ask. The act of confessing your
sins and having them erased forever seems far too simple, yet
the world is full of guilt-ridden persons who in their heart
of hearts know that their sin has separated them from God.
God's Word, the enduring light: The Truth
The Word of God is our only reliable guideline in trying
to understand God's will for our lives. It is an absolute treasure
of inspiration, wit, instruction and advice. We dedicate our
lives to certain principles, disciplines and activities. Do
they include time with God's Word? What evidence will we offer
when we are asked whether our lives demonstrated that we love
God with all our heart, mind and soul? If you want to get to
know God, read His Word! A Bible on a shelf, unstudied, may
as well not exist.
No man, aside from Jesus, who existed from the beginning and
will exist to the end (I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end), has ever seen God. We who believe God exists do
so on the basis of "evidence". We see in all that
was created, God's complex and perfect plan. The beauty and
power of what was created is in God's hands and He controls
all forces of nature. Man often gets angry at God's allowing
tragedy to occur. The Scriptures teach that which was created
with the potential for perfection, was desecrated by sinful
man. God's Eden will be restored and Satan, at that time, and
in that place, will be restrained.
Eventually there will be a New Jerusalem, perfect in every way.
This world, (our testing ground and Satan's domain) and everything
in it will be destroyed. Heaven will be a place of joy and peace
for God's children, only, not for Satan or Satan's allies. It
was not God's will that man would fail to abstain from sin,
but God did and does give us a choice. Sin leads to judgment,
sometimes by God directly and sometimes by the laws of nature
or the laws of man. Man has choices and some of them lead to
bad consequences, even when innocent yet unaccountable people
are involved. One does not want to ever be in the position of
harming a child or someone whose mental state is as a child.
God loves the children and would have us exhibit the faith that
a child exhibits in those they trust.
God went so far as to point toward very specific prophetic events,
which did occur, in His effort to help us with our faith. But
what is faith? The Scriptures say "Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In other words,
faith is a product of observing God's wonderful manifestations
of Himself and His plan, then "believing" and acting
on that belief.
God wants to reconcile you to Himself. He created you in His
own image. He loves you. He knew you before you were in your
mother's womb. "For You formed my
inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise
You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; …Your eyes
saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they
all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there
were none of them." (Psalms
139:13-16). Abortion, in the light of the Scriptures,
is not a good policy; forgivable, to be sure, but not consistent
with what you just read. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in
this matter.
God's expectations (requirements) of His children
If you do not know the definitions of the following words,
please study and understand them: Omnipotence,
Omnipresence and Omniscience. No god is as our God.
Simply said, God is all powerful, always present and knows all
things. He is in control. He sees you now, He is present with
you now and He knows all things, including the choices you will
ultimately make. God gave you volition, the right to choose.
You are not a puppet but volition is fraught with risks. It
makes you accountable for your choices and it makes the shepherds
who lead us very accountable for the counsel given.
God has two key commandments which are imbedded in the 10 Commandments.
Jesus said …, "'You shall love
the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the
Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)
If you love God, you should, in all humility and contrition,
decide to repent (to turn away from your sins), be baptized,
be obedient and to seek His will for your life. In the Scriptures,
He asked us to recognize and acknowledge who Jesus was, why
He came and what action we are to take. The action required
is basically incredible. If we accept Jesus Christ as the propitiation
(stand in) for our sins, confess our sins and turn away from
those sins, God will cleanse us, draw us near to Him in this
life and promise us eternal life.
We honor Christ, our sins are forgiven and we are "in the
kingdom". What price did we pay? Confession, a changed
life and a decision to worship Him and to honor and obey His
Word; what price did God pay? Even yet I can not stand to see
one of my children suffer. I would always rather suffer in their
place. God sent His Son to save us, while we were yet sinners.
The passion endured by Jesus was for you and me. "For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life". (John 3:16)
Life is extremely short if you measure it against eternity.
The span of our life can not be mathematically compared to eternity.
One is finite (has a point at which it ends), the other is infinite
(has no end point). Life is a very short test (since you are
reading this, the test isn't over), but if we fail the test,
we are eternally separated from God. The Scriptures teach that
when we accept Christ we become a "new
creation, behold old things pass away and all things become
new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Accepting Christ means
discarding the dominance of the "flesh" in our life.
We can not do that easily. Understand this; when you decide
to cling to Jesus, Satan will have lost control of a soul, your
soul! He then attacks with "seven
other spirits more wicked than him and they enter and dwell
there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first"
(Luke 11:26). Do not vow to love God and then go back
to serving Satan. It takes spiritual strength, the power and
presence of Christ in you, to deal with sin. Is there some powerful
sin that won't let go of you? God will, by the presence of the
Holy Spirit, empower you to resist and to defeat that sin. Pray
unceasingly for deliverance from sin and take steps to avoid
sin.
Do you recall the story of Noah and how God brought the flood
to destroy all but the righteous few? How sinful could the people
in Noah's time have been? Do you think they had invented more
ways to sin than we have in these days? I doubt it. In our time,
sin abounds. Measure it any way you want, but God could not
be happy with what is going on. I doubt that an hour goes by
in which ideas, words, publications, and broadcasts do not bring
sin into our homes. An unfiltered Internet connection is one
of Satan's most potent new weapons. Take personal and political
steps to stop the uninvited solicitation and advocacy of sin.
Your children and many of you are tempted by Satan, daily. Flee
from such material and commit yourself to taking steps to escape
from its influence.
Will there be another great judgment? The Scriptures say "yes".
The world will fall into such sinful disarray, that only a "remnant"
will be pleasing to God. When God sent Jesus to us, it was to
reconcile ourselves to Him. Jesus was not only the solution
to our need for forgiveness, but through Him the Father provided
the gift of the Holy Spirit. When Christ was crucified, He said
that unless I go to heaven to be with the Father, the Holy Spirit,
the Helper, the Counselor, the Comforter, could not come.
The Holy Spirit, God's love and power in you
We can not, of our own power, overcome the influence of sin,
by adhering to God's law. That is where the Holy Spirit is the
only answer. Our battle is against an evil spirit, a powerful,
deceptive force that can even appear to be "for good".
The Scriptures say, "For false christs
and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders
to deceive, if possible, even the elect". (Matthew
24:24) If you do not study the Bible I do not
know how you will be able to identify false teachers and leaders
who will guide you into bad decisions and alliances.
I am convinced that many today suffer failure in their effort
to "do the right thing", not because they do not understand
how to define righteous behavior, but because they do not understand
the gift of the Holy Spirit. To believe in God and to believe
in Jesus is good. But the Scriptures teach that the devil also
knows whom God and Jesus is, and trembles. A relationship with
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is not an "intellectual
assent". It is more than saying "yes, I believe God
exists". It is the acceptance of a new heart and a new
start. It is that moment in which you are born again and the
Holy Spirit and your spirit are made as one, united as intended
by God, forever. When that happens, The Spirit of God and our
spirit become intertwined. We are no longer captives of the
flesh, our physical nature.
If we are in Christ, these are the characteristics our new nature
should reveal: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians
5:22). Read those over carefully. Which of us would
not want those words to characterize our nature and the quality
of our daily experiences? Try listing the opposite characteristics
and you will see what I mean, i.e. angry, depressed, anxious,
impatient, unkind, without faith, lacking in self-control, etc.
Telling people about your faith helps you sustain your commitment.
You will find that every moment of every day allows you to experience
God's presence. The Scriptures say that His thoughts toward
you exceed number (Psalms 40:5). Not a hair falls
from your head of which He is unaware (Matthew
10:30).
You will learn that your thoughts and actions can be "as
unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:23).
He knows your thoughts and observes your actions. You never
are doing a good or bad deed privately. If you claim Jesus as
your Savior, His desire is to empower you to be His good and
faithful servant.
We are not able to intellectualize our way into an understanding
of God's word. The wisdom and discernment we can gain from the
Scriptures is beyond the reach of any that are not earnestly
seeking a relationship with Him. In I
Corinthians 1:18 it says, "For
the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God".
A pastor I know once said that man is about 12 inches from being
saved, the distance from his head to his heart. God wants you
to know Him and to respond to His call but He knows, even this
moment if you will love Him in return for the love He has shown
you. No one is forced to respond. God gave man volition, the
power to choose.
A stern but loving warning
If you want to serve Christ, you will be "out of step"
with the deteriorating standards of this world. If you are actively
serving Christ, Satan is after your soul. You and I, in our
own flesh, can not conquer sin. We are taught in I
Corinthians 10:13, that "No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man:
but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond
what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the
way of escape, that you may be able to bear it". This world is Satan's playground. We are "in" it but
do not have to be "of" it. We can, through the power
of the Holy Spirit, endure any temptation (always from the devil,
never from God) and come out the other side, victorious. God
allows us to be tested, but God does not "tempt" His
children.
I believe that the most dangerous religious sects are those
whose claims include a great deal of truth. One of Satan's best
tools is a very attractive religion that almost has it right.
That usually means they have added to or subtracted from the
Holy Scriptures, some key elements of truth. Listen to what
God's Word says: Deuteronomy 4:2 "You
shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything
from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your
God which I command you." Do not cling to a group
that claims new, additional truth has been revealed to them,
especially if it supersedes or conflicts with Scripture. God's
Holy Word is the whole truth.
What is so terrific about Christianity is that what you are
asked to do makes sense. Don't sin, love God, love your neighbor,
obey, out of love, all of the commandments and when you stumble,
and we will, ask for forgiveness and renewed strength. There
are, according to Scriptures, two judgments. First the judgment
based upon our acceptance of Christ, which places us in the
kingdom and second the judgment of believers.
Just because Jesus is willing to continually forgive us, don't
think there is no judgment of continual sin. Jesus asks us to
"repent", which means to turn from our sin. We are
not to continue doing that which Jesus went to the cross to
cleanse us of. Think about it. Are we asking Him to go to the
cross, again and again, for our sins? Not a logical request.
Jesus wants to strengthen us, to give us the gift of the Holy
Spirit and to help us deal with temptation, a circumstance that
will not go away in this life.
As to the position that Jesus Christ is the only way to God,
the Scriptures leave no alternative. "…there
is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved." (Acts 4:12) Christ said, "I
am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father,
except through Me" (John 14:6). That may seem harsh
to those who seek to know God by other means, however, that
is what the Scriptures say. It has been said that you can think
that Jesus was a lunatic, a liar or the Lord. He did not offer
the option of being considered "only" a good guy,
a righteous man, a teacher, and a prophet. As of this moment,
you have made a choice. The ramifications of your choice are
of eternal significance. There is no way except for the shed
blood of Jesus, covering your sins and mine, to enter into the
presence of God.
Apprehending eternity: Finish well!
I pray that you consider the following commitment. We all make
time for those things in life that are important to us. In Jesus'
life, he frequently separated Himself from the people to spend
time with God. We have the gift of the Scriptures, something
of pivotal importance. Please consider reading the Bible, at
least a few minutes, every day. Read in a quiet place of peace
if possible. What could be more important than spending time
with God? We faithfully listen to a lot of other communications
and many of them are a complete waste of our time.
God wants you to listen to His Word and to talk to Him, bringing
all of your needs, the needs of your family and friends and
your desires to Him. The answers may not always be yes but they
will always fit perfectly into His plan for your life. Learn
to be patient and to wait upon the Lord. He knows your needs
and His Spirit intervenes for you in ways that you do not even
perceive (Romans :26).
If you start reading, for instance, in the Gospel of John or
in the Psalms for 5 minutes each day, I can promise you it will
go well beyond 5 minutes. The Holy Scriptures is a great treasure.
The Scriptures say: Your word I have hidden
in my heart, that I might not sin against You (Psalms 119:11).
Some of the Psalms are the most beautiful words ever written
and the wisdom of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is unmatched. Go
to a Bible, highlight key verses, look up parallel references
and join a fellowship support group. Pray that God will direct
you to a Bible centered church. Although Christianity is a very
personal thing, it flourishes when it is shared. Let the love
of God and the Light within you, shine before men. Let the joy
of your salvation be evident to all. Be an encourager, a witness
and an ambassador for Christ. The Great Commission that Christ
called us to is to "Go into all the
world and preach the gospel." (Mark 16:15)
Perfection in Christ eludes us all. We strive, we endeavor to
serve, we seek His will for our lives and we commit our resources
and our family to His care, but the Christian walk is a journey,
full of challenges. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul.
"Not that I have already attained, or
am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of
that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren,
I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward
to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians
3:12-14)
I meet many people who think that their history of sin has indelibly
"tattooed" them, that they are beyond God's reach
and God's love. If that is you, you are a perfect example of
why Jesus went to the Cross. God promises to forgive murderers,
terrorists, sodomists, homosexuals, pornographers, child molesters,
liars and thieves, cheaters, prideful persons and on and on.
The Scriptures tell us that God hates the sin but loves the
sinner. Jesus came to pay the price for such sins and to reconcile
all who will repent, not a select few, but all.
Listen and understand:
"Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him,
saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."
But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you
not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds;
but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus,
"Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."
And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today
you will be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:39-40)
Jesus just taught you a key principle; finish well! None of
us deserve to have a lifetime of sin wiped away, but that is
the offer. While you are finishing well, listen to some wonderful
promises of Jesus: "I have come that
they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly".
(John 10:10) "Peace I leave
with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do
I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid." (John 14:27) The Apostle Paul said: "I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal 2:20)
Additional resources and encouragement
I authored an End Times web site, "Jew#1", www.jewnumberone.com, that should help you better understand the connection between Judaism and Christianity. Go to www.solascriptura.com for a link to Family Bible Studies (Christian Core Values lessons), Daily Devotion sign ups and a link to the Gospel Global Vision. Feedback opportunities exist on all links.
I pray that God will richly bless you and your family, forever.
Bruce Caldwell
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