We can not live by physical possessions and earthly treasures
alone. As satisfying and enjoyable as physical and material
blessings are, there is a spiritual side to man that craves
and requires a special nourishment of its own. When we try
to live our lives based on physical needs and desires alone,
the results are an unsatisfying and empty existence.
This is our ministry. It has one intent. To offer
hope to a world that is hopeless without Christ, and to be a
blessing to those in need of and desiring a special touch from
God. That will be through helps such as writings, words of encouragement,
spiritual and ministry resources, sermons, and prayer.
"What
time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Ps.
56:3
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For Jesus the Messiah is (the one referred to in
the Scriptures when they speak of ) a 'stone discarded
by the builders which became the capstone of the arch.'
There is salvation in no one else! Under all heaven there
is no other name for men to call upon to save them."
Acts 4:11-12 The Living Bible
Jesus answered, "I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me. John
14:6-7 NIV
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No matter what you may believe, there is one fact which cannot
be disputed. You cannot be saved, that is, you can not be rescued
from the penalty of death, you can not be found acceptable of
God, unless you come to God through Jesus. There is no other
way to get to Heaven. There is no amount of goodness on your
part, nor is there any amount of religious practice or belief
apart from Jesus that will be enough to get you into Heaven.
We've all heard the feel good Cliché "Jesus
Loves you." The truth is, He does. So if He does, why
would you still insist on going to Hell?
Are You
A Good Person?
Good Enough To Go To Heaven?
Take
a Quick GOOD Test to Find Out
No matter how good you are,
you can't reach God
No matter how bad you are,
or have been, God can reach you
All non-Christian religions espouse the idea that
man must reach out to find his god. Man must prove worthy and
acceptable before whatever god he believes in will look upon
him with favor. Man tries, even going to extreme measures in
his attempt to reach his god. He creates elaborate plans and
schemes called religions. He sacrifices, and tries to reach
his god by right living. All of his attempts fall short, however,
and man is left with a sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction.
He never really knows what his condition is spiritually and
he certainly never knows where he stands with his god.
Christianity is the reverse of that. The initiative
was not from man to God. God reached out to mankind. In the
very beginning, God and man had enjoyed fellowship and man was
in a right relationship spiritually with God. That had all been
ruined when sin entered into the world. Now the communication
and fellowship between God and man was broken and man no longer
enjoyed God's favor. Man would still reach out in an effort
to know God, of course. That need is built into man. Don't believe
that? Every society in every period of history has sought to
worship something. Religions are formed for the sole purpose
of trying to reach and gain favor with whatever a particular
group of people understands their god to be.
God knew that man's attempt to reach Him would
be futile. God is holy and man could never approach that holiness
no matter how hard he tried. Man could never be good enough.
If man could not reach God, then it was up to God to reach out
to man. God became approachable by sending His only begotten
Son to earth as a man. His purpose on earth? To reveal the knowledge
of Himself to mankind and show the love of God to man and to
pay the price which was required to allow man the way to once
again return to God's favor. Romans 5:8 says:
| But God commendeth
his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. (NIV) |
Why would God do that? What was His vested interest? The answer
is simple though in our human reasoning it may make little sense.
The fact is, God loves us. Loves us with a pure, a total (without
reservation) and an unselfish love. He loved us before the beginning
of human history. That's a concept which is hard to grasp! But,
it is true. He went quite out of His way, so to speak to address
that love towards mankind. I am trying to keep this message
simple right now, to address the main point of God's plan for
mankind and His work to rescue mankind from the penelty of death.
After all, we were sinners and and destined to die spiritually
without Him. There was no way we were going to gain Heaven after
this life. He paid that dreadful debt for our sakes.
| "For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life." John 3:16-17
NIV |
Now THAT is some love! That means whoever.
Anybody. No restrictions on who. Simply anyone who believes.
Period. And, that's where Christianity departs in similarity
from all other religions. In all other religions, you have to
work for the favor of your god. Jesus himself spoke those
words above, and he said simply "believe."
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"I tell you the truth,
whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has
eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed
over from death to life." John
5:24 NIV
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 6:23 NIV
For since death came through a man, the resurrection
of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all
die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 1
Cor 15:21-22 NIV
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Do you want to achieve what mankind from the beginning
of the world has tried to gain? That is a relationship with
God. Have you been searching to fill that hunger which is built
into all people? You may have tried many things in this world
to fill that sense of emptiness. You may even have felt that
you have been good enough, but deep down inside, you have known
better. That is, if you have been totally honest with yourself.
Have you made a mess of your life and now you are realizing
that only God can fix it for you? Look at the words of this
simple prayer. Can you say those to God and really mean what
you say?
"Jesus, thank You
for coming to earth and dying for my sins. You died so that
I would not have to spend eternity lost without You. I recognize
my need for You. I recognize that I am a sinner and no matter
how good I may be, on my own, I am not good enough to gain Heaven
after my life here on earth is over. I recognize that I have
done things my own way and they have not been enough. I have
even in many ways made a mess of my life. I am sorry for my
wrong doings. I need and want to change. I open the door of
my life and receive You as my Savior and my Lord. Thank You
for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control
of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."
A prayer as simple as that from a heart that really
means it is all it takes. Questions?
Not so quick! Now,
what are you going to do? Just go about business as usual? Did
you really mean what you said in that short prayer? "Oh
no," you say. "Here we go with the "do and don't"
rules!" Not at all! If you meant what you said when
you asked Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, you have to know
what that means.
If you are really serious about becoming a Christian,
things in your life are going to change. That does NOT
mean you are going to adopt a whole new set of rules and regulations.
True, some would have you believe that, but it is not true.
The fact is, your life is going to change and as a result of
that change, you will do things differently. You will "see"
things differently. That matter of "sin" is going
to be addressed. I am not going to give you list of things you
can no longer do, nor will a give you a list of things you now
have to do. What changes in your life is between you and God.
You know what has been wrong in your life. I do not. Even if
I knew you personally, that would not matter. When you accept
Christ as your Lord - that's right, now he is Lord and that
means "master" or "boss", you have indicated
that you are going to follow His direction in your life.
Don't be discouraged when you find that living
the Christian life is not necessarily easy. You will not become
an instant saint. For that matter, you never will become all
that you want to be, or the kind of Christian you would like
to be. It is a growing process filled with mistakes, stumbles
and other mishaps. Some things may be easy for you to change.
Others may be hard.
If it is so hard, how can you do it? You don't!
You let Jesus do it. We can't be good on our own. If we could,
there would be no reason to pray the prayer we just did.
Though I won't give you a list of things to do
and things not to do (beware of those who will do so), there
are three important things for you to do.
1. Develop a prayer life. What I mean by
that, is just as you learn to develop a personal relationship
with a new friend or spouse, for example by conversing with
them, spend time speaking with God as well. That's all prayer
is; speaking with God. It may seem awkward at first but as your
relationship with Him grows and matures, so will your prayers.
You would not pass the day without speaking with your close
loved ones, would you? Treat God the same way.
2. Read the Bible. His way of speaking
to us is very much through His written Word. You may think of
the Bible as a roadmap, or as a manual for living. Just as you
will study the owner's manual for a new appliance or automobile,
in order to learn how it operates and how to use it effectively,
read the Bible to learn more about Him and how He would have
you live.
One of the biggest objections to reading the Bible
is that it seems too hard to understand. Well, it is a new thing
to most people. It seems full of strange and even archaic terms
and language. It is very thick page wise and the idea of reading
such a lengthy work seems daunting to all but the most avid
reader. Besides, it's probably boring reading. Right?
Not at all! It can be very interesting reading.
It's broken down into manageable portions of book, chapter and
verse. Read a little at a time. Start with the New Testament
books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are called The
Gospels (the word "gospel" simply means "good
news") and they tell the story of the life and ministry
of Jesus on earth. Read the Book of Acts. It is in the New Testament
as well and is the book immediately following the Gospel books.
This book tells the story of the founding of the early church
and those who took the message Jesus had given them, and began
to spread it to the known world. These people did not have it
easy, but their faith was strong and their commitment to the
cause of Christ inspiring. It will give you a good insight into
the foundations of Christianity. Also in the New Testament are
the letters some of the early ministers and evangelists wrote
to the various churches formed in different parts of the world.
These are letters of encouragement, instruction, and even correction.
The messages in these letters apply very much to our lives as
Christians even today.
Don't forget the Old Testament. This is the front
part of the Bible. Here you will read the history of God's work
with mankind, and these stories are full of adventure, intrigue,
tragedies, hopes and disappointments. They tell of successes
and failures and you will see that these people were real and
very much like us in many ways. God's plan of salvation (bringing
man back to Himself) is woven all through the Bible with its
beginnings back as far as the first book of the Bible, Genesis.
By all means, get a version of the Bible you can
read. If you are comfortable reading and can understand the
English of Shakespeare, the King James Version is beautiful
reading. Don't let anybody tell you that this version is the
only one to read. Unfortunately, too many people who insist
that the KJV is the only valid version of the Bible, are not
literate enough to really read it. If you can't understand the
works of Shakespeare, you really are going to miss the subtle
language meanings in the King James Bible. If you have trouble
reading your Bible, chances are you will not read it. There
are a number of very good and very accurate (translation wise)
versions in today's English. At any book store selling Bibles,
you will be able to compare versions for readability.
3. Find a Bible believing and preaching
church to attend. There is a common thought that you can be
a Christian and not go to church. That is true, but if you elect
not to, you're missing out on a great deal. For one, the opportunity
to worship God side by side with other believers. Good, Bible
based preaching and teaching will help you grow in your knowledge
of God and the Christian life. Sure, you can get that to a degree
on Christian radio and TV, but you will miss out on the fellowship,
and most importantly, the association and friendship of fellow
Christians who will help you along on your new found Christian
path.
Again, if you have questions about anything you have read here,
or you simply want someone to talk to about your relationship
with God, or for someone to pray with you, contact
me. We'll even make contact by phone if you wish. I
will be happy to talk with you and pray with you.
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