savior – Eternal Truth Ministry

Jesus does not need you, you need Him

I cannot count the number of times I have heard someone say to me “I would follow God if he would just show up in my room with blinding light telling me to follow him,” or if God would just miraculously give me a million dollars in my bank account or save me from this situation or do any number of extraordinary things. God is capable of doing this, of course, so why doesn’t he?

The answer is simple, God does not need to beg you to come to him, he gives you all of the evidence you need, it is up to you to decide to follow him.

God never begs anybody to follow Him

Have you ever noticed in the Bible how Jesus never, ever, begged people to follow him? Never once did Jesus say “please follow me, pretty please?” Then why do so many people think God caters to us to try and entice us to come to him?

The purpose of parables

After Jesus told the parable of the sower (Matthew 13) the disciples asked him why Jesus told parables (Matthew 13:10). Jesus’ answer was probably a little shocking to the disciples, I know it is shocking to me. Jesus answered and said

Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘ Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’ (Matthew 13:11-15)

Is the Bible telling us that Jesus did not want them to understand? Yes, that is exactly what this is saying. But why? Because the people would not respond correctly. “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15) Jesus had just said in Matthew 13 that people will be judged based on how much knowledge they are given, so Jesus speaks in parables out of compassion, not giving too much information to those who will not respond properly but giving enough to peak the curiosity of those that really want to know God. Jesus only wants those to come to him who will respond properly.

Jesus wants everyone to be saved, right?

Yes, God wants everyone to be saved (2 Timothy 2:3-4) “God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants everyone to come to him in the same way I want my son to follow God and never stray, never get hurt. But I know that my son will stray despite what I want for him, just like God knows not everyone will come to him despite God wanting everyone to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus stands at the door and knocks

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Revelation 3:20)

Jesus knocks on the door for all of us, he does not beat down the door or force his way in. Those that answer the door Jesus dwells with, those who tell Jesus to go away, get a silent door.

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks (John 4:23)

Those who seek

God wants you to seek him, not be lazy and wait for everything to come to you.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:6)

Jesus is a treasure worth sacrificing everything

Today it is so easy to get caught up in what the society thinks. We think God is nothing more than something else we add to our life, an hour or two a week and try to avoid sin and then we are good, we have our ticket stamped ready to go to heaven. But that is not what God wants. God is more valuable than that! God is not a trinket we wear around our neck along with everything else in our life. He is our life.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Jesus, treasured above everyone

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)

What? We are to hate everyone in our life? Jesus has to be number one in your life; your love for him must be so much more than any other relationship that everyone else is put to the side for Jesus, you do not put Jesus to the side to serve your family!

No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

Do you get it yet? Jesus is not someone who begs you to follow him. Jesus is so awesome, so wonderful, you need to come seek Him. Jesus already paid the ultimate price to free you from your bondage in sin, and he created you (John 1:3), what else do you need?

References

Why did Jesus speak in parables?

Happy New Year, 2011 is here!

Welcome to 2011! As the calendar turns to another year it gives many a feeling of being able to start over, a fresh chance to change what we have failed to change in the past year. We at Eternal Truth Ministry are taking advantage of this chance to start on a fresh page. ETM is officially being brought online, although this time with a different purpose.

In the past we have mostly been about a community, with forums and chat rooms being the primary focus of our ministry. Today we are going to start on a new focus, writing articles that share the uncompromised word of God. We are not going to get rid of the community aspect of the ministry, just chaning our primary focus.

Time is short. There is not much time left for the world and the Christian church, God’s primary and only tool to reach the world is asleep. We see a deep need in the church to wake up and get to the job Jesus set us to do, and we are commited to doing everything we can do to fulfill that purpose.

We invite you to join us as we start this wild roller coaster ride, dedicating ourselves to denying ourselves fully and serving God.

How can you get involved?

Join the email list

The quickest way to keep up with the articles we write at ETM is to join our mailling list. (It is safe, we promise not to sell your information or send you spam.) Every article we write will be emailed to you, about 2 or 3 emails a week. To join all you have to do is enter your email address in the subscription box at the top right of our home page.

Follow us on Twitter

Are you a member of Twitter? Follow @EternalTruthMin on twitter to receive notifications of each article published, and new topics on the forum. We also tweet a random article from the past every few days.

Join the prayer team

The easiest and absolute best way to get involved is to join our prayer team. The prayer team is dedicated to pray for ETM every day, since without the Lord leading us we would not be doing anything except by the power of man, which is useless. The prayer team also prays for prayer requests that people send in.

To join the prayer team all you have to do is Follow the directions on the prayer team page. Instructions on sending a message to the prayer team will be added to that page soon.

Join the forum

The ETM forum community has always been a great way to have Christian fellowship online. Feel free to join our forum community and get involved in the conversations we have there.

Join our Facebook group

ETM has a Facebook group where we share prayer requests and share words of encouragement to the members of the group.

Have a happy New Year!

As you ring in the new year, take tonight to dedicate your life to Jesus, shed off all forms of sin and selfishness, and focus on God. Make it a commitment to read the Bible every day and to spend time in prayer. If you can take a couple of hours to watch a football game, or play video games, can’t you take the time to spend with your savior?!?

Showing Reverance to God

“I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel;
For He is the living God and enduring forever,
And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed,
And His dominion will be forever.”

Daniel 6:26

Many people today take the name of the Lord and treat it like trash or a joke. Think about who we are talking about here; the all powerful Creator of the Universe, our Judge and Savior, the one who has the power to destroy the entire solar system in a single breath or kill an individual by only thinking about it. The Almighty Counselor, who deserves more respect than anything we can possibly give.

I have been to a few people’s pages on myspace this week, some who call themselves “God”, or “the black Jesus”, or many other names trying to make themselves look like God. Most of these people do it for a joke, just to have some fun, and who knows why others do it. This is the Lord, God of the Universe that they are making to appear as a fool.

Every person will one day give awe and respect to the Lord, Phillipians 2:9 states “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” But those who voluntarily give the glory to Him now will be much better off.

To be a Christian is to be “Christ-like”. How Christ-like are you being in your day to day life? Are you giving God the honor and glory that He deserves?

Do you respect and fear God enough to show that respect? Do you tell others to respect Him when they are around you or do you just let it slide? Would you tell someone to stop disrespecting your spouse or family if people talked about them the way they talk about God?

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe;

Hebrews 12:28

O LORD God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty LORD? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.

Psalm 80:6-8

And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and marvelous are Your works,
O Lord God, the Almighty;
Righteous and true are Your ways,
King of the nations!
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy;
For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU,
FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.”

Revelation 15:3-4

When we see all the mighty works that God has done and see the power that He alone has, how can we not show awe to Him? If you love the Lord, then you need to obey His commands, Jesus said that. How can we love and show awe for God when we don’t even try to follow what He says?

In our daily lives we need to have our lives right with God, making sure that we are DAILY carrying our cross and that we do our best to follow His commands on a day by day, minute by minute basis.

If you don’t try to follow God’s commands, then you are disrespecting God and you are destroying the image of God that people will see in you. People will look at you who call yourselves Christians and use you for an example of what a Christian should be. What do they see? Do they see a reflection of Christ or someone who only wears the name for the benefits but doesn’t care to be an ambassador for the Kingdom of Heaven?

If you are living that kind of lifestyle, then are you sharing it with others? We are told to spread the gospel among the nations, meaning to everyone you associate with; do you do that? A line from a popular and powerful Casting Crowns song states “Jesus paid too high a price for us to pick and choose who should come”. How many people around you are going to spend an eternity in hell and you are just letting it happen because you don’t want to tell them about Christ for whatever reason? What is holding you back? Fear of their rejection or their weird looks at you?

Do you have such an awe and respect for God to obey His commands and share Him with others? Who do you fear more, those around you or the Almighty God of the Universe?