Welcome to God’s Word to You
God’s Word to You today is found in the Bible
Yesterday a dear friend was taken to Heaven. His name is Rick Johnson. He leaves behind his wife, Carol and his children, grandchildren and many many others who love him.
Those who know him will understand this statement shared by Dawn on Facebook and by many others in similar fashion. It is part of his legacy. It was the statement “Overwhelmed. Heaven just got hunky-dory.”
A legacy like his is a testimony of God and how good He is to save us. A legacy like Rick’s is one of loving people. I will be thrilled to see him again one day and be with Him.
Today I feel lead to share how we can know we will see our loved ones and brothers and sisters who have gone before us. I want to share why Jesus died on the cross.
See, God is holy and pure. He created the heavens and the earth. He created them and He created us. He made us to be like Him in that we have the ability to live, work, have free will and to love. But in our free will we had the ability to live and honor God and be with Him because we had no sin. Yet we also had the ability to sin which separates us from God.
Remember I told you God is holy and pure? That means no sin or evil or whatever you wish to call it can be in His presence. So when we decided to sin we became separated from Him. Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:26 says “the wages of sin is death”.
That simply means that no one born on this earth is without sin, which means we can’t be in God’s presence, and because we have sin in our lives our payment, what we deserve, is to be separated from God for eternity. People can have different names for this including Hell, Hades or whatever but the point is when you die and leave this earth because of sin you will not be with God.
But God didn’t mean for things to be this way. So unlike any other of the gods or religions the world has made where man seeks to gain access to a god thru learning, working or whatever, God came to us to offer His salvation.
He came to earth as Jesus the Christ, 100 % God, 100 % man. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His begotten Son that those who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” which is a life in Heaven with Him after leaving this earth.
He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, before He was crucified He told His disciples He would be betrayed, beaten and crucified to death and on the third day would rise. And He did. After He was resurrected He was with over 500 people and spoke to, walked with and ate with them. And Romans 5:8 says ” 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.“
We couldn’t and can’t save ourselves so Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. It is a like we shop for food or eat a at a restaurant and after making a huge bill suddenly realize we forgot our wallet or it was stolen or for whatever reason we don’t have enough money and face jail and a stranger who doesn’t know us comes up and pays our bill so we can go free.
Which is what Ephesians 2:8-9 “8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.“ means. It isn’t our being good that gets us to Heaven as all other religions point to, it is His love, His grace, His coming for us instead of trying to lead us to Him by tremendous tasks . It is His mercy in our lostness that says I love you enough to save you but you just have to come to me.
And the world will try and let you know that there are a multitude of ways to Him but He lets us know that is false. In John 14:6 Jesus tells us “6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“” and that means you can believe in Buddha, any of the numberless Hindu gods, the “universe” or even peanut butter all you wish but the truth is Him.
The challenge is having faith He is who He is. The part we have is acknowledging that belief. It isn’t being good to be saved it is being His. It is a life and an eternity commitment to be His not ourselves. It isn’t just a prayer it is abiding in Him. It is like being married. You can get married and still fool around be selfish and do what you want and thus make the marriage just a piece of paper.
That is not what He wants. He loves us first and wants us to love Him. Romans 10:9-13 says “9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11 As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”“
In the Book of Revelation 3:20 Jesus says “20 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.“
That is His invitation to be saved. It is one we have to hear or read to know. We can’t just try to find and seek and live a certain way to know Him. He gave us the way. And In John 3:18 the alternative to believing and being saved is simple, “18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.“ In Romans 8:38-39 it says “38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“ so we know if we become His we will have total assurance that we are saved and will be saved forever. Our life isn’t about trying to be holy it is about living holy as He has made us in our salvation.
We aren’t perfect and won’t be while we are still in the flesh but we have the choice whether to believe and accept the relationship or not. We have the choice to believe and live our our salvation by loving others even when they are unlovable and doing it not in our own power but by His power that lives in us once we are His .
Our choice is to be saved or not. It is a free gift. It is the most precious gift we will ever be offered and the most important decision we can ever make.
The question is will we decide to believe or not. We know what He wants. I know what Rick believes. I know we who believe will be hunky-dory and see Rick again someday.
me n’ God love ya
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I’d love to know how God is working in your lives and get to know you. Please feel encouraged to send any comments and thoughts.
Email me at Chuck.Acts420@gmail.com
in His service,
Chuck
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