Sermon On the Net

The subject of eternal life has been on my mind for some time, so I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts and some scripture with you. I know we can all agree that the word eternal means forever, but have you ever considered what forever means? I know the Bible says God is, was and always will be. In other words there is no beginning and no end. I believe we must be very careful with our choices when we consider the result of our choice is eternal, forever. The Bible tells us that we have two choices, one is very right and one is very wrong. We are born in sin because of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God and we all now know that the penalty for sin is death, which means separation from God. Whether this separation is temporary or not depends on the choice that we make. One might say that Adam and Eve made one of our choices for us, See Romans 6:23. As we are born with a sin nature because of the fall of Adam and Eve, we are eternally separated from God until the moment we choose to accept His free gift. At that instant we change our course from the road of eternal damnation to the glorious path of eternal salvation. John 3:16.

 

We now understand that we (anyone) can alter the course of our destinies. Each one of us will stand before God at the appointed time and what He sees depends on you and only you. There will be no second chance. Hebrews 9:27 says that it is ' appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment'.

 

I am closing in on my point, which is, if we are born in sin and therefore separated from God for eternity (unless we make the right choice), and then accept His free gift, we will be instantly living in the eternal bliss of salvation. Jesus didn't say, "I will give you eternal life" at some future date. He says you have eternal life, now. What a blessing this is for me and I pray it to be the same for you. Imagine, living in the eternal is living with God in the present and forevermore. WOW!

 

Let us now examine some scripture that my beautiful daughter Kitt researched for me for this letter (daughter-in-law actually, if we ever had a daughter she would be the one). God has indeed blessed Dean and us with a very special person. We love you, Kitt.

 

John 3:16 says we will have everlasting (eternal) when we believe in Jesus.

John 5:24 says believing in Jesus results in eternal life and one doesn't come into judgment but is immediately passed from death unto life.

John 17:3 states, 'Jesus says to the Father that eternal life means we will know the Father and Jesus'. We get to know Him when we accept Him, right?

Romans 6:23…sin separates us from God and accepting Jesus as our Savior is eternal life, now.

1 John 5:11 says that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son.

1 John 5:20…Read this one carefully…this is the true God (now and forever and of course as always) and this is the eternal life.

2^nd Corinthians 5:17 says, "we are a new creation" when we accept Jesus, now not later, but now. In other words we changed from lost in sin to saved in Jesus, now and for eternity. Jesus gives us eternal life the instant we accept Him.

 

Last but not least is John 10:27,28…'those who accept Jesus will know Him and we will follow Him. And He gave us not only eternal life, but the added assurance that we will never perish, thus no one can take what Jesus has given us'. Praise the Lord for His grace and mercy.

Sacrifice or Love

SACRIFICE or LOVE

 

 

Hi Everyone:

 

When Noah built the ark, it was a work of obedience and God smiled upon him. Noah was so grateful he built an altar and offered burnt offerings to the Lord.  It was the practice to offer animals as a sacrifice or offering to the Lord in that time. I could spend much time talking about Noah and his relationship with God, e.g. Noah was the only person on the entire Earth that pleased God. However my point of this letter is, not about Noah but about what God wants from us

 

Many believe that one must perform some form of sacrifice to please God. When Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for us He told the world He was willing to sacrifice Himself for anyone who would believe that He was the Son of God; indeed He is and is the redeemer for anyone who believes. I must admit that I cannot think of a greater sacrifice than for someone to give his life for someone else. Yes indeed, it was the most humiliating sacrifice ever, not ever to be equaled. Today many people in various ways develop a feeling of guilt and the 'need' to do something about it. Some will pray, some will go to 'church', some will confess and others will seek counsel and I'm sure there are numerous other things one might do to relieve their conscience. In some religions when a person commits a sin, it is a requirement to confess the sin and offer some form of sacrifice. Is this what God wants us to do?

 

If you study the life of Noah, you will begin to understand what God wants. You see, Noah was a man that put a smile on the face of God. See Genesis 6:8-9. Psalm 52:16 says,'…thou dost not delight in sacrifice…'  It was obvious that Noah loved God and enjoyed a very close relationship with Him. Hosea 6:6 tells us that God wants our love and not our sacrifices AND that God wants us to know Him. How can we get to know God?

 

The first thing is to recognize the fact that we are not an accident, that we just didn't accidentally pop up from the ground or arrive in a space ship. We are God's creation. He created us for His personal enjoyment. He smiles when we do what is right in His eyes. Psalm 147:11 speaks of His pleasure in those that love and honor Him. Even our faith in Him pleases Him. In reading Psalm 69:30 David says he will praise the Lord and give his thanks for his blessings. The Bible has many, many references to the fact that God wants love and not sacrifices. If we accept this, then we can move on to what pleases Him.

 

I believe the best demonstration of our love for God is to accept what He is offering us, to believe in what He says in His Word; that the Son of God (Jesus Christ) sacrificed Himself for us and has presented to us a gift. If we accept this gift, then, and only then, will we begin to show our love for Him. This acceptance should be the beginning of an eternal journey of praise and thanksgiving. One day soon I will write a letter on the fact that we are living in Eternity at this very moment.

 

One last point about God's desire for love and not sacrifice is clearly shown to us at the time of His crucifixion. In the Gospel of John 19:30, "When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, 'it is finished'. And He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit." What was finished was the work that He came on this earth to do which was to die on the cross. This 'death' was necessary for our salvation; Romans 6:23 says "For the wage of sin is 'death', but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Please remember we do not have to sacrifice or atone for our sins any longer, it was finished on the cross.

 

Let us all praise and love Him forever, Amen.

Life Without A Future

LIFE WITHOUT A FUTURE?

 

The most traumatic and depressing thought could very well be that our lives will terminate without a future, in which we will simply cease to exist. I believe this will not be the way it will end for anyone. The evidence that is available pretty much assures us that we do have a future and will exist forever; the question remaining is where?

 

I don't believe God created us to just live and die. Think about that for a while, why would He do that? So many people, unfortunately, believe in exactly that, i.e., we live and we die. God gave us life; He continues to nurture us and waits for us, for He is a just and patient God. He promised us many mansions in Heaven and all we have to do to assure our residency there is to ask Him. Jesus said in Mark 9:23, "If you can believe, all things are possible." These words are so precious and are ours to treasure if only we believe in Him.

 

Life without a future beyond would indeed be sad. Personally I look forward to my future. I don't live each day wanting to die because living on this earth is only part of the reason for my existence. The other part is to enjoy what God has given me. And fools are we if we don't. Be as the eagle as he soars high above the problems and concerns of his world. Let's lift ourselves up and out to life everlasting and the beginning.

 

Many question events that occur in life, such as death, sickness, disease, misery, stress and natural disasters and many in ignorance, blame God. Why do people starve to death if we have a loving God? Why is it that the world has experienced peace only 10% of the time since creation? Why are people being tortured and murdered today? Why?

 

Let's stop and meditate for a moment and think about life and its perplexing problems. Perhaps we can arrive at a reasonable answer. What was there before Adam and Eve? God, of course. God has always existed in Heaven with His Angels. I believe that it was and still is a very happy and desirable place to be. One day a high ranking angel called Lucifer, apparently became disillusioned with his Heavenly bliss and decided, along with his band of angels, to revolt against God. Of course he could not accomplish his goal and God cast him and his angels from Heaven and he eventually settled upon the earth with great power. He became the prince of the power of the air to rule the earth. Lucifer influences the peoples of this world and always has. We do have demons on this earth and Satan is the ruler.

 

Following this episode, God created Adam and Eve to live on the earth and to enjoy its fruits forever in the Garden of Eden; Heaven on earth, if you will. It was God's intention then, as it is now, for His creation to enjoy their lives forever.

 

However, along came Satan in the Garden and he influenced Adam and Eve to disobey God's one command to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Satan is the father of evil and has the power to influence, not to destroy, but to infect people with his disobedient personality. At that moment in time, the whole of God's plan changed (or did it?) and sin entered the world. Satan (evil) was first and sin with all of its consequences followed. The consequences of sin are all the things that we question today and blame God. No, God did not cause any bad thing to happen, we did it all to ourselves as we continue to do it today. Do you think that anyone would have acted any different then Adam and Eve given similar circumstances? I think not, just look at the history of mankind and events of the day. Satan is alive and well and is doing his job. He cannot kill us but he does have the power to influence us and destroy our testimony. There is a book called 'Satan is Alive and Well', I would suggest you read it if you have any doubts of what I am writing.

 

Sin is not just doing something wrong, no; sin is the wedge between us and God and Satan is constantly trying to drive it deeper and deeper until he succeeds in total separation from God unless we accept His free gift of Jesus. This is why the Bible says the wage of sin is death; separation from God, but the gift of God is our ticket to get back into His graces and be one with Him. The gift of God of course is acceptance of His Son, Jesus because He paid the cost of sin on the cross.

 

When God created Adam and Eve He didn't create robots, or people without a will to make their own choices. No, because He is a loving God He gave us the freedom to live our lives the way we want to and the right to choose how we live and our very own destiny. Because of Satan's influence many people have and continue to choose the road to sin and its consequences. When we read of disasters happening around the world let's not be hasty and say it was an act of God or try to blame Him. If anyone is to blame, I believe it's safe to say Satan is the cause because Satan is the creator of sin and sin causes all those things some blame God for. Let's not forget the earth is under a Curse since the time of Adam, thanks to Satan. God is love and He loves all. Love does not cause problems, love eliminates them. In conclusion of this point I would hope you agree with me we should not blame God for adversity. Let's lay the claim to its rightful owners, mankind.

 

There is a further point I would like to address which is the reason God allows Satan to do what he does. God does have a plan for him, a plan that he and all his followers, past and present will participate in eventually. In God's own time and plan Satan will be bound in chains and cast into Hell for eternity. It is at that time that Satan will realize what it was that he gave up when he decided in his attempt to overthrow God. It will be too late for him and for anyone who chose not to follow God.

 

Those of you who accepted the free gift of God will forever be united with Him as you are now and will live to enjoy the bliss of Heaven and the new earth where there will be no sin or any of those things that sin encompasses. It will be as God originally planned.

 

Anyone reading this article has the opportunity to be free from the dominion of Satan and its consequences, consequences that he cannot avoid. He made his choice long ago and you need to make your choice before it's too late. Please remember that each person is born with the sin of Adam and Eve, therefore, unless you choose to claim the free gift of God you will not spend eternity with Him. Quite the contrary, you will spend eternity in your current state, separated from God. The Bible states that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no not one.

 

If you will pray this simple prayer right now you will be assured of the future of your life will be with God in Heaven; Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner separated from you and I confess my sins to you and ask you to forgive me and come into my heart. I believe you died for me on the cross and I accept your invitation of life eternal. Amen

7 LIFE WITHOUT A FUTURE

 

Glory to God

 

In the book, Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren does an outstanding job of 'The Reason For Everything.' I was so impressed by his approach that I felt compelled to 'borrow' a page from his book for this topic, which is actually putting into action his point number five.

 

The reason we are here and everything on the earth is really for the glory of God. Revelation 7:8 states 'You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power: for you created everything.' In all the universe there are only two of God's creations that fail to bring glory to Him: fallen angels (demons) and us (people).

 

How can we bring glory to God? Jesus told the Father, "I brought glory to you on earth by doing everything you told me to do." Therefore, as Jesus honored the father, we can also honor Him. There are actually five ways we can honor God in the very same way He honored the Father.

 

We can honor God by worshipping Him, not by duty or guilt, but out of love and appreciation.. Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The next verse tells us not to be conformed to this world, but rather be conformed to the things of God. The bottom line is that we are to "use our whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God," Romans 6:13.

 

We can honor God by loving other believers. There are three wonderful verses of scripture that Rick Warren touches on: "Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life," 1 John 3:14, "Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified," Romans 15:7, and finally as Jesus said, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." I would encourage you all to read 1^st Corinthians 13, a great description of love.

 

We can honor God by developing Christ-like characteristics. When we become part of God's family He wants us to mature spiritually. The more we mature as spiritual Christians, the more honoring it is to God. The Bible says, "As the spirit of God works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more," 2^nd Corinthians 3:18. The Bible also tells us that we should always be filled with the fruit of  the Holy Spirit because that is pleasing to God, Philippians 1:11.

 

We can honor God by serving others. God has blessed each one of us with certain gifts and it would certainly be honoring to God to use our gifts in the service of others. 1^st Peter 4:10 tells that …' God has given gifts to each of you from His great variety of Spiritual gifts…manage them well…this will bring glory to God.'

We can bring glory to God by telling others about Him, just as Jesus did. This has to be viewed as one of life's greatest privileges. Once we know the truth, He expects us to share. Perhaps the most effective method of telling others is to live the first four points of this message; however we must always be ready to tell others with love and respect. A point to ponder is where we would be if someone didn't vocalize the way of salvation to us. The Bible says, "As God's grace brings more and more people to Christ…God will receive more and more glory.

 

AND THIS IS THE REASON WE ARE HERE, PRAISE THE LORD.