Tag: eternity

When we do not love God

HOUSTON, TX - AUGUST 6: A couple embraces as...
HOUSTON, TX - AUGUST 6: A couple embraces as they worship in audience of the non-denominational prayer and fasting event, The Response on August 6, 2011 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Thousands attended the event organized by Gov. Rick Perry in order to pray for God to help save 'a nation in crisis' referring to America. The event garnered an estimated 30,000 participants who came to worship through day. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

In the past few articles I talked about how we have neglected our primary mission field because we have turned our mission field into a comfortable home that we do not want to risk loosing or downgrading.  And I mentioned that instead of spending all of our time on the mission we distract ourselves with games, movies, and entertainment  and just doing things that keep the focus on us.

The answer, though, is not to give away all of your stuff, cancel your cable TV, and spend all of your time at the local food pantry volunteering and never have any fun again.

That is because those issues are not the problem, they are just the symptoms.

It is like when you get sick, running a fever and coughing so much you cannot sleep.  The fever and the coughing are not the problem.  The problem is that you have a virus running through you destroying your body.  The coughing and fever are just the symptoms, the signs that you have a problem.

Likewise, the fact that we spend all of this time focused on ourselves and our wants, focusing on our desires for now instead of the future in eternity, they are just a symptom; a sign that says we have something much deeper wrong.

There are two problems which are related to each other.

  1. We lack an understanding of how much God loves us
  2.  We are not in love with God

according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. – Ephesians 3:16-19

A lot of times we as Christians (or just as humans) find things wrong with our lives and we want to fix them ourselves.  We know we are not tithing enough so we try harder, we know we have too much stuff so we discipline ourselves more and drop the stuff we think is hindering us.  We come up with lists and plans and accountability groups and fasts and all these actions to make us act better.

But the true issue is that we have not fallen in love with God.

I cannot say or do anything to make you fall in love with Jesus just like I cannot make you fall in love with any person.  If you fall in love or not is dependent on you and how much you see and reflect God’s love towards you.

All I can do is make the introduction, but after I introduce you to Jesus – the creator of the universe who was beaten, bled and died because He loves you so much He doesn’t want you to pay the penalty of your own sins against Him – after I make that introduction, you will either fall in love with Him and bow down before Him, or you will just say “meh, that’s cool” and continue on with your life.  The only thing I can do on a continual basis is pray for your heart to change towards Him and keep reminding you that He is there.

And that’s hard for me.  I created Eternal Truth Ministry to share Christ with as many people as I could, and to know that nothing I say can persuade you to follow Christ, that in the end it is still up to you to fall in love with Jesus, is hard.

I say that this issue is the root cause of why we do not care about our mission field here because once you get it, once you see and understand how much God loves you and once you fall in love with Him in return, then you don’t need to be told that you spend too much time on unimportant things.  You do not need to be told this because your love for God will drive you to want to fulfill His mission for you on Earth.

And Then There Were Fewer

Once you realize how much God really loves you, then you will want to share that love with others more than sit in front of the TV watching Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, or American Idol.

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I Missed my chance to say goodbye… Forever

Written by Jon Zenor

This article has been a really tough one to write.  After several days of thinking about this I don’t even know how to begin, so I will just start writing…

On Sunday I got a phone call with some very bad news. My biological father had committed suicide.  This has left me with some very mixed emotions that have been hard to deal with.

My parents divorced when I was 3 or 4, and my mom then married my (step) dad who was in the Navy so we moved a lot, and my dad officially adopted me and I haven’t seen my biological father since then.  It didn’t really bother me at all.  My dad did a good job of raising me and as far as I was concerned my biological father had walked out on me so I had no real connection with him.  Growing up I didn’t hate or love him, wasn’t angry or upset or anything else, I just felt indifference; he was nothing more than a stranger on the street to me.

Two years ago God put it on my heart that I needed to contact him, so I did.  We had a couple of good emails and facebook messages back and forth, ending with him saying he wanted to catch up on what he missed.

One day after another went by and got busy with life, I fully intended to keep in touch with him and wanted to meet him one day.  But I just never got around to sending the emails that were on my mind to send.

And now it is too late.

Plague of the “What If”s

Anybody who is affected by the death of someone who committed suicide is plagued with the mental agony of asking “what if” all of the time.  Talking to his wife I heard a few of these questions.  “What if I would have done something different? Why did I not see that he was acting different? What could I have done differently to prevent this?”  Until now I never fully understood the pain caused by such questions.

What would have happened if I had contacted him recently?  How much would it have meant from him to get an email or phone call saying “happy father’s day” from his only (not-adopted) son that he has not seen in 24 years?  Would things have turned out differently if we had made plans to meet so he could meet me and his only grandson?  I can’t help but think that things would have been different… if I had just …. If I had just taken 10 seconds out of my day to send an email saying “Hey, I was thinking about you, how have you been?”

Someone told me even if I had talked to him then I would just be asking what if I had said things differently or talked more often… I guess he is right that the plague just never ends, no matter what you wish you would have said.  But as we are creatures with free will I believe we can affect our futures, and the futures of those we interact with.  Which means what I did in the past could have prevented this altogether.

Eternal Destination Reached

I do not know for sure if my biological father is spending eternity in heaven, or in hell.  But the very thought that he could be in hell right now made hell a little more real to me.

I know this is a very touchy subject, but a very real one that needs to be covered.  Our society, our own human nature, is convinced that almost everyone except the most hardened criminals are going to heaven.  When is the last time you went to a funeral service where they did not talk about the deceased person “being in a better place” or “watching from above” or some other saying which implies that the person is for sure in heaven?

We really want to believe everyone gets to heaven, especially those who have done nice things for us, those who have really touched our lives in some meaningful way, and those we love.  But that is not reality.

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. – Matthew 7:13-14

I cannot say how much I hope my biological father had a relationship with Jesus and is now in heaven worshipping God, but my hopes do not give salvation, only him having a relationship with Christ.

The thought that he could be in hell right now, that the instant after he died he could have waken up in hades, being eternally tormented by hades itself and by the realization that he spent his life rejecting God, the one who created him. Every time we sin we are offending God, we are doing wrong to Him, hurting Him.  Even after we continuously reject God with every aspect of our lives He sent His son to die in our place so that we could be restored and have a relationship with Him.

God did all of this for us and many of us, most of us, do not care one bit. We just keep rejecting God.  Hell will be a rude and painful awakening for way too many people. And it will last for all eternity.

Do you understand how long an eternity is?  Someone who goes to hell today, will still be there in 20 years. When I reach 50 years old that person will still be there, being tortured by the agony of hell and the lake of fire, and tortured even more so by their conscious with the regret that they lived their few short years of life rejecting God and living in sin and just living for themselves.

If my biological father did not have a relationship with God then when my son is 50 years old, he will still be in hell, still be in agony, and it will just be the beginning.

I do not say this to bring shame to his name, or to tear down his character — because as I said I do not know for sure what his relationship was — but I say this because just the thought that he might be in hell brought all of this to my mind and it disturbed me.

I say it as a warning, to all of you.  You do not know how much longer you have to live.  You do not know how much longer those you know will live for.  I wanted to have a conversation with my biological father about his relationship with God.  I thought I had time.  I thought I could send off an email any day I wanted to, so there was no rush to send it off today.

I was wrong. The last possible day for me to contact him came, and passed right by without any warning, and I forever missed a great opportunity to lead a man to Christ.

That is a huge lie that Satan plants in us all.  We think we all have more time when really we are all just a vapor that could fade away at any instant.

James 4 says

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”;  whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:13-14)

Do not delay one more day! Right now, make sure that you have repented and have a relationship with God! Make sure that you are not living the life of a hypocrite, pretending to be a Christian because you go to church every week but in your heart you deny God the throne of your heart.

Do not delay one more day in righting relationships that have been strained, do not wait to share the gospel with those God brings into your life.  Do not wait one more day to repent of those sins you know you are living in.  Start living for God today because you may not have a chance to tomorrow.  If you do not want to repent of your sin today because you do not want to give it up, then my heart breaks for you.  That you would choose to continue rejecting God, why? So you can look at pornographic pictures on the internet?  So you can keep feeding that addiction of alcohol or gambling?  Sin leaves you a broken empty shell.  Sin promises riches and pleasure but leaves you emptiness and worthless junk.

Choosing to live in sin over choosing to live for God is like denying a feast because you want this candy bar that is right here in front of you now.  It smells really good and makes your mouth water, so you say you don’t need a feast, you just have the candy bar.  So you follow the trail of candy bars that lead you farther away from the feast, further from God. Only to wake up with realization one day that what you really have been eating and enjoying is a chocolate covered dog turd.

It is at that point that you realize how nasty sin really is that you want to go dive into an ocean to clean out that nasty taste in your mouth, which you thought just a day before was delicious.

God is offering you something so much better than what sin can offer you, stop choosing your sin over God, put down the chocolate covered dog crap and run to Jesus who will clean you of all the nastiness your sin left on you, and he will happily welcome you into his banquet hall to feast.

Hell is a real place, and it is a sad truth that so many will go there, not because they deserve it more than me or any other person alive, for we, I,  fully deserve hell.  But they go because they refuse to accept the forgiveness Christ offers us when we turn our lives over to Him.

It took this tragic death to make eternity a reality for me, don’t wait for the same thing to happen to you.  Repent, today. Restore those relationships that have bridges burned down, share the gospel with those you can influence in your life.

Nothing else in all of eternity matters.

Avoiding a Lukewarm Life part 1 – Sacrificing it all

Laodicea, a city in Asia which is known for having a lukewarm church because of a letter written to them in Revelation 3.  I wonder if America will go down in history known for being the modern day luekwarm church?

Revelation 3:15-16 says “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

God wants you to be hot, to be on fire for him, if not you are so distasteful to him that he wants to vomit you out of his mouth!  Why would God have such a severe reaction lukewarmness?  Because God is so holy, and so worthy of every bit of worship and praise we can give him, and when we take our eyes off of Jesus just to focus on the things of the world, it is disgusting to God.

Jesus, a treasure worth sacrificing for

Jesus told a parable of a man who found a treasure in a field, and was so excited to get the treasure that he went and sold everything he had so he could buy the field and get the treasure.  (Matthew 13:44)  This, Jesus says, is how we need to seek the kingdom of God.  We need to seek Him so fervantly that we are willing to sacrifice anything to get Him because we know He is worth it.

Imagine you being this person, following a map that is promised to lead to riches.  You get to a clearing in the trees and you see an obscure X on the ground. So you dig, and you find a stock pile of bars of gold worth billions of dollars.  And then you burry the bars of gold, and you go off to live your life. You could buy that plot of land and take ownership over the treasure, but to do that you would have to sell your car, your tv, or even your house.

If any one of us saw a person give up this treasure we would try to knock some common sense into them, say “come on, that treasure is worth so much more than all of your measly possessions combined!”  But this is us!  We are satisfied with knowing Jesus exists and maybe even going to look at the treasure every Sunday, but we refuse to take any action that could give us possesion of this treasure.

A rich man once came go Jesus and asked “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and Jesus responded “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Luke 18:18-23) What did the guy do? “But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”  This guy let his earthly possessions stop him from having eternal life, from having a relationship with Jesus.  And this is disgusting to God! 

But we do the same thing…

Your head fights that idea instantly by saying “but I’m not rich, I live pay check to pay check and sometimes can’t pay my utility bill.”  Don’t be blind to what you do have.  Most of the world lives off of $2 per day.  Your brain is smart and fires back “but the cost of living is so much more here, it is impossible to live off of $2 per day.”  Well yes, it is true that two dollars will get you more in other countries than in the U. S. but think about this.  If you have a roof over your head, a form of transportation (even a public bus), and food on your table every day, you are richer than 80% of the world.  If you make just $50,000 a year you are in the top 99% of the richest people in the world.  We have so many posessions we cannot even name them all, and we think we are poor?  It was after this that Jesus said it is impossible for a rich man to get into heaven.  Billions of people live in slums and have to live off a diet of rice to survive and we consider ourselves “poor” because we can’t afford to go out for a steak dinner this weekend.

Are your riches getting in the way of you coming to God?  Would you be willing to sell everything you have to follow Jesus?  Instantly your mind races for a reason to hold on to what you have.  You think “God has not asked me to give away my posessions” or “God wants me to enjoy this life and has given me my money to enjoy, not to live in poverty so I can give it all away.”  My question to you is, have you ever asked Him what He wants from you?

But that is legalistic!

The common defense for the church in America when they are told to do something hard.  Throw down the Legalism card as a “get out of conviction free” card.  But is what I am saying  legalistic, or is it Biblical?  Reading the passages above it seems pretty clear that we are to sell everything we have and give to the poor, to get rid of everything that could be standing in the way of you being on fire for God.

There are many places in the Bible where Jesus gives very hard commands that show us that being a Christian involves more than going to church, singing a few songs and hanging around Christians when you play games or spend time on the computer.  “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:26

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:27

In Luke 14 Jesus commands people to consider the cost to following Him before you begin, becasue it is costly.  Does not a builder consider if he can afford to build a tower before he starts? Does a king not consider if he is able to defeat an army before he goes to war?  “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:33)

As Christians we are the salt of the earth, but if we are lukewarm then we lose our flavor and Jesus says that salt that has lost its flavor is not even fit to be thrown in the manuer pile. (Luke 14:34)

Revelation 3:17 God says “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Wretched, miserable, are these words you want God to use when describing you?

Do you get it yet?

Do you understand?  God does not want people sitting around being holy couch potatoes.  God wants people that are so devoted to serving him they are willing to sacrifice everything, money, power, family, even their own life.  These are the people God wants to follow Him!

Notice who had joy and who did not in Jesus’ parables.  The man that sacrificed everything to buy the field with the treasure “in his joy went and sold all he had” while the rich man “became very sorrowful.”  Who has more joy, the one holding on to the things of earth or the one reaching for the treasure?

So I must give away everything?

I’m not saying you have to give away everything, but why not?  What is keeping you from doing it?  Is it because it is an idol?  I know my money has been an idol to me many, many times and I still struggle with this, but I know in the end it is worth whatever sacrifice I give, and more.

What I am trying to say, is that you need to seek God, but not in a casual way, in a way where you are willing to sacrifice everything for Him!  I guarantee the instant you enter into eternity you will wish you had sacrificed more!

So what makes God so great to deserve this kind of all-in sacrifice?  I will answer that in part 2.

Leave a comment below telling us how God has asked you to sacrifice to serve Him!

Spurgeon Gold

I am reading a book right now written by Ray Comfort called “Spurgeon Gold“. The book makes quotes and comments about many of the great sermons that Charles Spurgeon gave. If you like the sayings in this post, PLEASE pick up the book. There are so many things being left out of this post that are absolutely invaluable pieces of wisdom.

Charles Spurgeon says about his ministry “My main business is the saving of souls. This one thing I do.” Ray Comfort states “I hope this publication advances Spurgeon’s main business; that its words will not just delight your taste buds. May they energize you to reach out to the lost. God forbid that they should add fat to the theological obesity of many…Time will take you and me into eternity. If we are trusting in Jesus Christ, we have a moral obligation to reach out to the unsaved while there is still time. This was Spurgeon’s great passion, and I pray that it is yours. This gold is not meant to sit on the shelf of a rich man. If it does, then it becomes worthless. Its real value will be seen in its being spent on the cause of the Kingdom.”

So sit back and enjoy some of these pure pieces of spiritual gold that will hopefully encourage you to have a heart for those around us that are lost and for serving our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

To try to win a soul to Christ by keeping that soul in ignorance of any truth, is contrary to the mind of the Spirit; and to endeavor to save men by mere claptrap, or excitement, or oratorical display, is as foolish as to hope to hold an angel with bird-line, or to lure a star with music. The best attraction is the gopsel in its purity. The weapon with which the Lord conquers men is the truth as it is in Jesus. The gospel will be found equal to every emergency; an arrow can peirce the hardest heart, a balm which will heal the deadliest would. Preach it, and preach nothing else. Rely implicitly upon the old, old gospel. You need no other nets when you fish for men; those your Master has given you are strong enough for the great fishes, and have meshes fine enough to hold the little ones. Spread those nets and no others, and you need not fear the fullfillment of His Word, “I will make you fishers of men.”

The Reason Sinners Live

Read the Ten Commandments, pause at each one, and confess that you have broken it in either thought or word or deed. Remember that by a glance, we may commit adultery; by a thought, we may be guildy of murder; by a desire, we may steal. Sin is any want of conformity to perfect holiness, and that want of conformity is justly chargeable upon every one of us. Yet the Lord does not, under the gospel dispensation, deal with us according to Law. He does not now sit on the throne of judgment, but He looks down upon us from the throne of grace. … Instead of destroying offending man from off the face of the earth, the Lord comes near to us in loving condescension, and pleads with us by His Spirit, saying, “You have sinned, but my Son has died. In Him, I am prepared to deal with you in a way of pure mercy and unmingled grace.”

O sinner, the fact that you are alive proves that God is not dealing with you according to strict justice, but in patienct forbearance; every moment you live is another instance of omnipotent long-suffering. It is the sacrifice of Christ that arrests the axe of justice, which else must execute you.

A Plea to the Lost

Remember, last of all, that the Law, which is so sharp and terrible to men when it only deals with them for their good, will, if you and I die withouth being brought to Christ, be much more terrible to us in eternity, when it deals with us in justice for our punishment. … He will be at once the Lawgiver, the Judge, and the Savior; and you that have despised Him as the Savior will have to appear before Him as your judge. No such judge as He, His justice will be clear and undiluted now that His mercy has been scorned. Oil is soft, but set it on fire, and see how it burns! … If you turn the Lamb of Zion into the Lion of the tribe of Judah, beware, for He will tear you in pieces, and there shall be none to deliver. Rejected love will change its hand. The pierced hand was outstretched with invitations of mercy, but if these be rejected – O sirs, I am telling you solemn truth, and hear it, I pray you, ere I send you away – if from that hand that was pierced you will not take the perfect salvation, which He is prepared to give to all who confess their guilt, you will have to receive from the selfsame hand that blows of that iron rod, which shall break you into pieces as a potter’s vessel. Fly now, and kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish from the way while His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him! Amen.

**Ray Comfort: “It is amazing that we hesitate to talk about the wrath of God, for fear of making sinners feel fearful. The fear they fell this side of the grave will be nothing compared to the fear that they feel when they stand before Almighty God.” **

Hatred of Goodness

For which of his good works, for which of his generous words, for which of his holy deeds will they fasten His hands to the wood, and His feet to the tree? With unreasonable hatred, with senseless curelty, they only answer to the question of Pilate, “Why, what evil has he done?” “Let Him be crucified! Let Him be crucified!” The true reason for their hate, no doubt, lay in the natural hatred of all men to perfect goodness. Man feels that the presence of goodness is a silent witness against his own sin, and therefore he longs to get rid of it. To be too holy in the judgment of men is a great crime, for it rebukes their sin. If the holy man has not the power of words, yet his life is one loud witness-bearing for God against the sins of his creatures.

A plea to the Unsaved

There are some of you standing in these aisles and sitting in these pews, who I feel in my soul will never have another invitation, and if this be rejected today, I feel a solemn motion in my soul-I think it is of the Holy Ghost- that you will never hear another faithful sermon, but you shall go down to Hell impenitent, unsaved, except you trust in Jesus now. I speak not as a man, but I speak as God’s ambassador to your souls, and I command you, in God’s name, trust Jesus, trust now. At your peril, reject the voice that speaks from Heaven, for “he that believeth not shall be damned.” How shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation? When it comes right home to you, when it thrusts itself in your way, oh, if you will neglect it, how can you escape? With tears, I would invite you, and, if I could, would compel you to come in. Why will you not? O souls, if you will be damned, if you make up your mind that no mercy shall ever woo you, and no warnings shall ever move you, then, sirs, what chains of vengeance must you feel that slight these bonds of love. You have deserved the deepest Hell, for you slight the joys above. God save you. He will save you, if you trust in Jesus. God help you to trust Him even now, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Finding the Right Church

If you wait for a perfect church, you must wait until you get to Heaven; and even if you could find a perfect assembly on earth, I am sure they would not admit you to their fellowship, for you are not perfect yourself. Find out those people who are nearest to the Scriptures, who hold the truth in doctrine and in ordinance, and are most like the apostolic church, and then cast in your lot with them, and you will be blessed in the deed.

Prayer for the Unsaved

If you really desire that men should be saved, pray for them. It is an empty wish, a mere formality, if you do not turn it into prayer. … Oh, for more prayer! Let us cry to God in secret, and in the family, and in all our assemblies, that God would save the sons of men.

The Necessity of Preaching

Suppose that we do not preach the gospel and warn the wickend man, so that he turns not from his iniquity. What then? Hear this voice: “He shall perish, but his blood will I require at thine hand.” What will my Lord say to me if I am unfaithful to you? “Where is the blood of those people who gathered at Newington Butts? Where is the blood of that crowd that came together to hear you speak, and you did not preach the gopsel to them?” Oh, it where better for me that I had never been born than that I should not preach the gospel! “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel” of Christ, for men perish where there is not the Word of God!

Genuine Conversion

If we labor for souls, we must not be content unless souls are really saved, for the apostle says, “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.” Well, does not that satisfy you, Paul? They are zealous for God. They are red-hot. “No,” says he, “not unless it is in the right way. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” We feel very thankful when we see tears stream down the cheek, but you know, people cry at the theatre, and there is not much in it. Pray God it may not end in a shower of tears; but that the heart may bleed as well as the eyes weep. It may happen that we have induced our hearers to give up some outward sins. So far, so good. But it is written, “You must be born again;” and if this vital change is not experienced, all outward reformation will land them short of Heaven.

The Crucifixion

Cowardice! cowardice! cowardice, craven, base lies at your door, O humanity! The Christ who was like a sheep-harmless and defenseless- was treated as if He had been one of the wild beasts of the forest. Who could have had the heart to smite Him who gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to those who plucked off the hair? O humanity! If I stand at the bar to impeach you, I scarce know where to commence the indictment, and, having commenced it, I know not where to close it. How fallen, dishonored, infamous are you, O humanity! Low, depraved, heinous, indeed, have you become that you could put the Messiah Himself to death, and crucify the Lord of Glory.

False Converts

Who was it that added Judas, and Ananias and Sapphire, and Simon Magus, and Demas to the church? Who was it that stole forth by night and spread tares among the wheat? That evil spirit is not dead, he is still busy enough in this department, and continually adds to the church each as are not saved. His are the mixed multitude that infest the camp of Israel, and are the first to fall a lusting; his the Achane who bring a curse upon the tribes; his are those of whom Jude says, “Certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.” These adulterate the church, and by so doing, they weaken and defile it, and bring it much grief and dishonor.

The Purpose of the Law

The business of the Law is first to teach us our obligations to God. Let us ask ourselves if we have ever heard the Law teaching us in that way. Brethren, read the Law of Ten Commandments, and study each separate precept, and you will find that in those ten short precepts you have all the moral virtues, the frull compass of your accountability to God, and of your relationship to your fellowmen. It is a wonderful condensation of morals. The essence of all just decrees and statustes lies there. Perfection is there photographed, and holiness mapped out. No one has ever been able to add to it without creating an excrescence, not a word could be taken from it without causing a serious omission. It is the perfect Law of God, and tells us exactly what we ought to be; if we are in any degree deficient, we are to that extent guilty before God. Now, when the Law comes to a man’s conscience, it reveals to him the divine standard of right -holds it up before him – makes him look at it – and apprises him that the Commandments do not merely refer to acts and deeds, but with equal force to the words and thoughts from whence they proceed.

**Note from Ray Comfort: “It is a Perfect Law (see Psalm 19:7) of a perfect God that demands moral perfection. That is what we are commanded to warn every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

I think that’s enough for now, take these words to heart and pick up this book “Spurgeon Gold” by Ray Comfort.

May God bless you as you seek to save the lost!

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Getting Into Heaven

Everyone has a standard for who they will allow into their house. This standard is usually the same for most people, someone can come into your house as long as they are a respectable person, who you know has not done anything seriously wrong. Many people also apply that same standard to getting into heaven.

But since heaven is God’s house, shouldn’t we find out His standards for entry?

We assume that anyone who lives a good life, not cheating on their spouse or not commiting murder, should be allowed into heaven. We think this way because it is the standard that we apply to ourselves. So God uses our standards too….Right?

Well, let’s think about it this way: if God is perfect, heaven is also perfect because that is where He dwells and in heaven we are in the presence of the perfect God. God’s standards are also perfect, including His standard of who He allows into heaven. What is God’s perfect standards to get into the perfect presence of God?

Perfection.

You see, to us who are good, being good is a good enough standard for who we hang out with. We base our standards on ourselves. God also bases his standards of who He hangs out with on Himself, and He says “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

That puts a real damper on things. I bet you are thinking to yourself, “Wait a minute, are you telling me that God expects me to be absolutely perfect, and if I am not, I cannot get into heaven?”

It is not the easiest or most joyful thing to believe, but yes, that is what the perfect God of the universe expects from us.

Wait, don’t go yet, there is one more thing that I have not mentioned yet. God, being perfect and everything, knows that there is no way for us to reach His standards. So, being the merciful God that He is, He made a way out for us.

Sin has a price, and that price is pretty steep. The price is death, but not just physical death; a spiritual death, too. So when we sin, we are to pay that with our lives, but if we do, then we cannot spend eternity with God, for to be spiritually dead means to be absent from God. So how is it that anyone could make it into heaven?

In order for us to go to heaven without paying that price, someone else has to do it. Not just anyone. I could die to save you, but my death would not even pay for all of my sins, that would still leave you with your own debt to pay.

The only way for someone else to pay your debt is for that person to not have any debt of their own.

This is where Jesus comes in.

God knows that no man can meet the perfect standard that He expects, but that only a man can pay the price. For God to pull this off, He would have to come down and be a man himself.

Jesus came by birth from a virgin, so He was not born fully from Man, if He would have been then He could not be perfect, but He was still a man. He went through everything that you and I had to go through, from poopy diapers and potty training all the way to adulthood and even His own death.

Jesus maintained His perfection so that when He died, it was your sin and mine that He payed for. His resurrrection from the dead was proof that death could not hold Him.

Now, when you stand before God waiting to be let into Heaven, will you need to still pay for your sins, or will Jesus stand up and say, “No Father, I paid for this man’s sin already, and He accepted my gift.”

The price has already been paid, and the gift has been given. The only thing left is for you to accept that gift.

“Yet now God in His gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.

For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us.

We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificng His life for us.

God was being entirely fair and just when He did not punish those who sinned in former times. And He is entirely fair and just in this present time when He declares sinners to be right in His sight because they believe in Jesus.”
-Romans 3:24-26

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to my Father except through Me.”
-John 14:6

“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
-Romans 10:9

You have everything that you need to accept this gift, just confess it openly before Jesus right now and your debt will be paid.

Got Jesus?

Belief in Jesus Christ as your savior and developing a personal relationship with Him is the ONLY way to get into heaven. In John 14:6, Jesus states, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” God is “the Father” talked about in this passage. The Bible is clear that the only way to get into heaven is through an active belief in God’s son, Jesus Christ.

Every human being since Adam and Eve has been born with sin. We cannot get into heaven by our own merit. There is no amount of good deeds we can do in order to “buy” our way into heaven. The only person who can cleanse us of our sins before God’s sight is Jesus. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people made animal sacrifices to cover over their sins and to appear temporarily clean before God. But the blood of an animal was only temporary. A perfect sacrifice was required to completely cleanse us of all our sin. This perfect sacrifice came from heaven in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God who came from heaven and was born as a human in order to share in our sufferings and to fully understand what we go through in our struggles. Jesus was fully God and fully human. Since He was fully God, He could not sin, but since He was fully man, He was also able to experience the temptation to sin. He knows and understands our struggles, but He was able to overcome them so that all humans who have ever lived and ever shall live can also be cleansed and overcome sin so we can enter into God’s presence unashamed. Hebrews 4:15-16 states, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are? yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

The first step in accepting Christ as Lord and Savior of your life is to realize that you are sinful and to acknowledge that as a sinful person you are going to hell (which is a place of eternal separation from the fellowship of God) if you do not repent of your sins. Unlike what the media portrays, hell is not a place of partying with Satan and his demons. The Bible clearly says hell is a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” which signifies utter anguish and despair, for all eternity. We as humans cannot be completely separated from our Creator and be well off. Neither can any of God’s creation. Since Satan is also God’s creation, and hell is a place of utter separation from God, Satan and all his demons will also be in complete torment for all eternity. In order to escape such a horrible existence, we must come before God in prayer and confess that we know we are sinful. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The death spoken of here is not a physical death, since all humans die a physical death, but it is a spiritual death in which we will be eternally separated from God. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

The second step in accepting Jesus into your heart is to acknowledge that Christ died on the cross for you and to make a commitment to follow Him for the rest of your life. Romans 10:9 states, “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Also, Jesus says in John 12:26 “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” So you see, it is not just a recognition of what Christ did for us, it is also a commitment to follow Jesus Christ and His teachings through God’s Word, the Bible, for the rest of your life.

If you wish to make this commitment today, here’s a basic prayer you can pray. Feel free to say these words and just end with talking with God about anything you want to talk about. He loves us and wants to hear us talk to him. If you are angry, do not be afraid to tell that to God and tell Him why. He already knows our thoughts and our hearts, but wants us to communicate those thoughts in fellowship with Him. Please pray this prayer:

“Lord, I realize that I am a sinner and I always have been. I know that I will go to hell if I do not believe in you. I believe that you came to this earth, to die for me so that I may appear sinless before the Father and have eternal life. Please forgive me of my sins. I want to follow you and your commands for the rest of my life. Thank you for your sacrifice. Amen”

If you prayed this prayer sincerely in your heart, you are now a new creation and a brother or sister of Jesus Christ in God’s eyes.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ” Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Hosea 1:10b “They will be called ‘sons of the living God.'”

Welcome to God’s family!

Jesus’s anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane

While Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was in anguish to the point of even asking the Father if there was any other way it could be done. In a sermon I was listening to from my pastor, he brought up something interesting about this. He said that Jesus wasn’t in anguish over the fact that he knew how much physical and emotional pain he was going to have to go through, it was because he knew he was going to (for the first time in eternity) have his fellowship with the Father severed. Knowing that, was almost too much for him to endure. Even though he knew that severing of fellowship from God was going to be brief, it was a pain he could not fathom and did not want to have to experience if there were any other way to save all mankind. Jesus’ biggest fear was evident when the first recorded statement of his from the cross was “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Out of all the pain and torture he went through physically, God turning His face from Jesus was the only thing that made him cry out.

This passage also shows that our sins sever our fellowship with God. If we have unrepented sins in our lives, each of those severs our relationship with God more and more. That’s why repentance of each individual sin the Holy Spirit convicts you of is so important. Repenting of those sins breaks down those walls our sins have placed before God and God’s glory can fully shine through in our lives. It’s important to repent of each individual sin, not just say “God can you forgive my sins”…He wants us to admit each one as it is brought to our consciousness. The severing of fellowship with God that sin brings was never so clear as it was on the cross. As the sins of the world came upon Jesus, God turned His face away, severing fellowship with His son, causing Jesus to cry out in anguish.

Let us be conscious of a severed fellowship with God and repent of those roadblocks in our lives which prevent us from growing in our relationship with Christ!