Archive for May 2021

You been married ten, twenty, maybe even 40yrs and your spouse dies. You look forward to the day you reunite in heaven so you can continue the marriage forever. If you are married, or have been married at one time or another,. those thoughts cross your mind from time to time. Here’s another question. You were happily married and your spouse dies, so after awhile you marry again and God blesses you to have another happy marriage. Eventually you both die at a good old age. Whose wife, or whose husband will that person be in heaven?  Beloveth,. people from the beginning of time have wondered about these types of questions and people have formed their own opinion about the answers to these kinds of questions.

When God came into this world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that question was asked of Him by some of the religious leaders in His day called the Sadducees, who were seeking to discredit Him. Imagine that for a minute. Here is God in human flesh, the one who created us all individually and man gave us a limited capacity to know certain things, trying to discredit the very God that created him by asking Him the type of questions about marriage that we all at one time or another, have wondered about. Look at it in,…(Matthew 22:23-33)

²³ The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, ²⁴ saying: “Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁵ Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married,.. and having no offspring,. left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ Likewise the second also.., and the third, even to the seventh. ²⁷ Last of all,. the woman died also. ²⁸ Therefore, in the resurrection,.. whose wife of the seven will she be?.. For they all had her.”

 ²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them,.. “You are mistaken,.. not knowing the Scriptures,.. nor the power of God..”  .. ⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry,.. nor are given in marriage,.. but are like angels of God in heaven. ³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ³² I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”  ³³ And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at His teaching..…(Matthew 22:23-33)

The Sadducees, did not believe in the coming resurrection of the dead, like many people today don’t,. and so in there mind,. this whole ideal of a resurrection was ridiculous to them because if there is one, then who’s wife would this woman be who’s been married seven times if there’s a resurrection? The Lord Jesus Christ answer’s the gross error in their thinking by pointing out two very important points.  Look again at how the Lord answers them in the passage we just looked at,. in (Mathew  22:29),   where Jesus tells them this… ²⁹ “Jesus answered and said to them,.. “You are mistaken”,..and then He tells them two reasons why they are mistaken. He says, 1)..“you do not know the Scriptures,..and  2)… nor the power of God..”

Beloveth, whenever you and I get what we believe about God and about heaven from some place other than the Scriptures there’s a very high probability that we are going to be wrong, no matter how much we feel what you believe is right. The only thing that matters is this, “did God say that”  in the Scriptures?  In correcting the two major errors in their thinking, Jesus begins saying this,

³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven….( Matthew 22:30)

Jesus said,. in heaven there will be no marriage. They neither marry or are given in marriage.

The Sadducees’ question therefore was, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her? The Sadducees,. like a great many people today implied that heaven was simply an extension of things on earth men most enjoy, such as marital relationships… (Matthew 22:23)

Heaven,.. Jesus said, is not simply an extension of the pleasures people enjoy on earth. In fact in the eternal state marriage won’t  be necessary. Once individuals have received glorified bodies no longer subject to death, the need for procreation, one of the basic purposes for marriage, will no longer exist. Believers in glorified bodies will be like the angels in that regard, for angels do not reproduce themselves. (He did not say people will become angels.)..He said, they will be as the angels….Look at it again in… (Matthew 22:29)

³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven….( Matthew 22:30)

So then whose wife will she be in the resurrection? According to Jesus Christ,.. nobody’s. That might disappoint some people because they are trying to compare this temporal joy here on earth with the eternal joy that all in heaven will have. There is no comparison because you and I cannot conceive in your mind what God has prepared for those who love Him and come to Him through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is what the Scriptures have said,…

⁹ But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,..Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”…(1 Corinthians 2:9)

Beloveth, this temporal world at it’s very best, will never be better than the eternal world in heaven that God has prepared for those who love Him. In (John 14:1-3) Jesus says this,

​¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you… I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also…. (John 14:1-3)

Think about this for a moment. If God created marriage, wouldn’t you think He could create something far better and much more satisfying to the glorified body than marriage, if He chose to? That is what God has prepared for those who love Him. If man a creation of God can create the beautiful homes and buildings and cities we see in this world, you and I can’t even fathom in our minds on our best day, how awesome of a place God can create for those who believe in Him.

Then the second major error Jesus corrects in the thinking of these religious leaders concerns the resurrection, which they didn’t believe in. Today, even in our generation, there are people who don’t believe they are going to be resurrected one day. They actually think they are going to just cease to exist. This major error in their thinking Jesus said, also came from the fact that,..”they did not know the Scriptures,.. nor the power of God”….(Mathew 22:29)

If they had read and understood the Old Testament Scriptures,.. they would have clearly seen there is a future life and that when a person dies he continues to exist. To the Sadducees the resurrection was ridiculous because they believed death ended man’s existence. But Jesus quoted a statement God had made directly to Moses at the burning bush: “ I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob in.. (Exodus 3:6). Jesus quotes that verse in (Matthew 22:32)..where God said this,..

³² I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living… (Matthew 22:32)

Beloveth, when God spoke these words to Moses at the burning bush,.. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead over four hundred of years ago.  If the Sadducees were correct and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob died and no longer existed anywhere, the words “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” should have been “I was ”the God of Abraham, I was the God of Isaac, and I was the God of Jacob.  The use of the words, “I am,” implied that God is still the God of these patriarchs, because they are alive with God and will be in the resurrection of the righteous…… (Matthew 22:29)

So then no beloveth, there wont be marriage in heaven, but there will be something far beyond our imagination better.  We can believe that,. because God said that.

⁹ But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,..Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared,.. for those who love Him.”…(1 Corinthians 2:9)

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That is a great question, and one that has had people from the beginning of civilization wondering about. You see at times people that commit the most heinous crimes and they live to be 80 plus years old,.. and then you see other people that for the most part seem like such niece people and they die in an accident,.. or of some disease and you are left wondering why? I remember somewhere around eight years of age I sat on a porch with my best friend at the time talking with him,. and my mother called me to come in the house to eat dinner.  So I left my friend there sitting on that porch next door to us alone. While sitting there eating dinner I heard a car racing down the street, followed by a loud bang. When we went to the window to see what had happen a drunk driver had hit the curve, went airborne and landed on top of my 8yr old friend and killed him. I have often thought, why did God spare me that day and allowed me to live on right up to this very day. I have come to the conclusion that the plans of God, and the purposes of God are well beyond anything we as human beings could ever fully conceive with the limited capacity of our human minds. God is busy about working out His plans in each generation on a world level, on a national level, on a local level, on a religious level, on a family level, and yes even on an individual level. Nothing happens in Heaven or on the earth unless God allows it or brings it about, even the day of your birth. Think about that a minute:

I don’t know what time of the day or night it is where you are at this moment. If it’s night time step outside or look through a window and look up at the night sky a moment and think about this as you look at that sky,

Before there was ever a star that you see in that night sky,

Before there was ever a moon that you see in that sky,

Before there was ever a Sun that you see in the sky,

Before there were ever planets out there in space,

Before there were ever mountains that you see,

Before there were ever birds that you see in the sky,

Before there was ever an ocean or lake or anything in them,

God ordained that you would live at this time and in this generation, and..let this one sink in a miniute,..even the family you would be born in. And, God ordained that you would meet the people you have met in your lifetime, and God has even ordained before time began that you would hear these words. None of this is happen chance. An all wise, all knowing God ordained before the world was ordained that you would live in this generation, and that you would live right up to this point in time. That same God has a number on the days each one of us will live to see. The Psalmist David as he thought about all this said,

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them…( Psalms 139:16)

Just a few verses earlier The Psalmist as he thought about the Lord’s perfect knowledge of him says this,

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it…( Psalms 139:6)

There’s another example that the Scriptures show us about God’s purposes for each individual life in Luke, chapter 7. John the Baptist a prophet of the Lord, who lived during the time the Lord Jesus Christ walked on this earth, is in prison, and soon will be killed. Look at what Jesus Christ has to say about John,

²⁸ For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”..(Luke 7:28)

Jesus said there has not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist but this same John is in prison and about to be killed so he’s beginning to wonder if in fact Jesus Christ is the One that the Scriptures promised would come and rule the world. Jesus is not stopping what is going to end up being John the Baptist’s death in prison, and so John has got questions. He sends two of his disciples to Jesus in hope of getting answers.  In Luke, chapter7, and verse 19 it says this,

¹⁹ And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”…(Luke 7:19)

John the Baptist is in his early thirties at this time but it is in the plan and purposes of God for John’s life at this time to end and to bring John home to glory in Heaven. He had fulfilled his God ordained role of preparing the way for our Lord Jesus Christ by pointing proclaiming Him as the Savior of the world and calling men to repent and turn to God through placing their faith in the one that was coming after Him, Jesus Christ. God had a predetermined time for John’s ministry to end for His servant.

What God wants us to understand as we are shock at times by the death of someone, or saddened as we have to endure those difficult times together and individually is this, “God has a purpose and plan for this world that is going to culminate in the return of Jesus Christ and a New Heaven and New Earth”, and everything God is allowing to happen, and at times even causing to happen, even on an individual level, is moving toward that end. Because you and I don’t know the day God has appointed for us to depart from this life, God call’s us to look to Him, to call upon Him for the forgiveness of our sin against Him, that He alone gives through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we,.. just like John the Baptist can live forever with Him in Heaven. There is nothing more important to God, and it is the reason God says this,

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…( Hebrews 3:7-8)

⁶ Seek the LORD while He may be found,..Call upon Him while He is near…(Isaiah 55:6)

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way,..And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,..And He will have mercy on him;  And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon….. (Isaiah 55:7)

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,.Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,..So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts….( Isaiah 55:8-9)

I want to end this post on that thought. It is true that the Scriptures teach that God at times shortens peoples live due to a judgement for their sin. That truth is taught all over the word of God, but even in those cases it is God that has determined that person end. That is what God has said.

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I believe in Jesus Christ. We all have most likely heard people say that. Maybe we’ve even said it our self. There was a time when your heard somebody say that, you knew what it meant. These days we live in today though, when you hear somebody say, I believe in Jesus Christ,you really kind of have to pause a minute to try to understand what they mean by that. Why do I say that? Well,. because believing in Jesus Christ these days can mean one thing to one person, and something totally different to another person, and yet in most cases when somebody says that, they are in some way believing that the fact they are saying they believe in Jesus Christ, will in some way lead them to Heaven when they die.That belief comes from the fact that we have all heard at one time or another statements that Jesus Christ Himself has made in the Bible, either through other people who believe in Him, at church, or funeral, maybe even from a stranger who approached you somewhere. Here’s just a few of those very popular statements the Lord Jesus Christhas spoken:

“ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”….(John 3:16) 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life”…( John 6:47)

The one we hear most often at funerals is this one,

“ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live….( John 11:25)

If you open the Bible to any of the four Gospels, (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John), you would see over and over and over again as you read through the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ making these promises of eternal life to those who “believe in Him”, and so what has to be of the utmost importance then, is this,.. ‘what did Jesus mean when He said,.“believe in Me”. Let me be the first to raise my hand acknowledging that what I thought believing in Jesus Christ meant at one time in my life, is not what I believe it means to me today.In a world where there is so many personal opinions of what that means,.. and in a world where everybody seems to believe you can have your truth and I can have my truth,…the only truth that really matters is what Jesus Christ actually meant when He said, “believe in Me”. Then, if everybody else’ opinion of that means does not agree with what the Lord Jesus Christ said “believing in Him” really means,.. then everybody else is wrong.

All that said, look for a moment at something believing in Him, does not mean. Believing in Jesus does not mean merely believing in facts alone about Him. The fact that He is the Son of God. The fact that He came into this world and died for the sins of the world. The fact that He rose from the dead on and ascended back into heaven. The fact that He said certain things, like love your enemies, and give and shall be given to you. Those are all facts about Jesus Christ are true, and you can pick up any Bible, and verify all those facts. Did you know the Bible tells us that even the demons believe those facts about Jesus Christ? Beloveth, the fact that they believe those facts about Jesus Christ will not be saved from the coming judgement of God
upon them.They are heading for a day of judgement before the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the age,where they are going to be sent to a place of eternal torment, and they know it, and they tremble because of it. Matthew, chapter 8, and verses 28-29, tells us this,

“ When He(Jesus) had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. 29 And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us, before the time?” (Matthew 8:28-29)

They are well aware of who Jesus Christ is, and they know He is going to judge them at the end of the age,and their fear is this,… “Have You come here to torment us, before the time?” Knowing facts about Jesus Christ will not spare these demons, who are fallen angels from the coming judgement of God upon them.

Beloved, just like knowing facts about Jesus Christ will not save the demons from the coming judgement of God, merely knowing facts about Jesus Christ alone will not save anyone of us from the coming judgement of God, nor does it assure us that we will get into Heaven when we die. The Scriptures also tell us this again in James, chapter 2, and verse 19, “ You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! (James 2:19)

Look for a minute at an example of religious people, who knew facts about Jesus Christ, and notice what the Lord Jesus Christ said to them in Matthew, chapter 7, verse 21-23;

“Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,.. but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day,.. ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name,.. and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’… (Matthew 7:21-23)

Beloveth,.. don’t miss this because this is so important,. Notice, they all called Him Lord. They believed He is, who He says He is, the Savior of the world, the Lord of this Universe, God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. They believed,.. to the place where they prophesied, (or preached) in His name. That’s what Jesus Christ called His followers to do., and notice the last part of verse 22,.. they said,. “in your name,.. we have done.. many wonderful works”. They actually believed the facts about who Jesus Christ is,..but merely believing the facts about who Jesus Christ is, or merely doing what they believed to be good works that they felt,would cause God to be pleased with them was not enough to get them into Heaven. They had their own truth about what it meant to believe in Jesus Christ, and what they believed was not what Jesus Christ said,.. believing in Him,.. really meant, and so Jesus tells them on the day of judgement, “depart from Me”, “I never knew you”. There can’t be a more devastating thing to hear Him say than that. They have died at this point,. and are standing before the Lord to judged by Him, and their own truth about what it meant to believe in Jesus Christ during their life time beloveth,. was wrong,.. and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it now. They are dead.

So, what is it that the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said,“believe in Him? We would do well to let Jesus Christ Himself tell us what He meant when He said, “believe in Me”.

In (John 7:38),.. Jesus spoke to a group of people about what He meant by believing in Him;

^“ He who believes in Me,.. “as the Scripture has said”,..  out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”….. ( John 7:38 )

So then beloveth,.. to believe in Jesus Christ,.. according to Jesus Christ Himself.. is to believe in Him… “as the Scripture has said”.  The eternal life that Jesus Christ gives will flow in the heart and life of those who believe in Him,… “as the Scripture has said”.

The Scripture, Jesus is referring to, is the Bible.., and so the question we all need answered then is this,.. “what has the Scriptures said, believing in Jesus Christ really means?

First, and foremost, the Scriptures said that Jesus Christ is God, the Creator of all things.. and that includes you and me beloveth.  We are His creation. Look at it in (Colossians 1:15-16),

^“He (Jesus Christ),.. is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. (Colossians 1:15-16).

I want to just pause here for a minute and ask,. did you catch that last part?  Look at it again,. “All things were created through Him and for Him”…. (Colossians 1:15-16).

Beloved, if all things were created through Him,and for Him,..then when I think about my own life, to believe in Jesus Christ then, is to believe that He is God, The One from whom I get my very next breath. The One who created each one of us for Himself. It is to believe that our purpose for being here beloveth,. even to this very day,. is not for us, but for Him… Let that just sink in for a minute.

Look again at what the Scripture said about Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and verses 1 thru 3…(John 1:1-3), where it says this,

“In the beginning was the Word,. (Jesus Christ),.. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made….. ( John 1:1-3)

The question that might come to mind here, is how do we know Jesus Christ is the Word that the Scripture is referring to here?  Well, verse 14 of the same chapter one in this Gospel of John says this,

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh,.. and dwelt among us,.. and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth….. John 1:14

Beloveth, that is what is Christmas is all about. The celebration of the birth of Savior of the world, Jesus Christ the Lord.

Pause a minute and think about that,. just for a minute,.. When you look up at the night sky and see all those stars and the moon and find yourself at times amazed at what you see, when you look at that Sun during the daytime and the awesome cloud formations you see at times, and  birds you see fly across the skies.. think about this. It is that God who created all that,.. that came into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. He came into this world,.. a world He created,. in the form of a man. He became one of us… He left eternity,. and came into time.., and dwelt among us.

That is what the Scriptures said about Jesus Christ. John chapter 1, verse 10 says,

^“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him…. John 1:10

So, beloveth, to believe in Jesus Christ is to believe that He is the God of all Creation. It is to believe He as our Creator, He created each of one us for Himself, and for His purposes, and because I believe that is true,.. “I willingly submit myself to His rule over my life to fulfill His purpose for me”. In spite of all we do to take care of ourselves, and we should, the one who determines how long we live on this earth,. is Jesus Christ. Our time here is in His hands.

God loves everyone of us in spite of ourselves, and because He loves us, He will not force His way into our lives. He wants each one of us to willingly choose to receive Him, not just as the Lord, (acknowledging Him only factually), but as my Lord, who I look to for His direction for my life through His word because of who He is, God. When we willing receive Him that way because of who He is, then He receives us into His family as one of His children. Look again at what the Scripture says about those who choose to do so in….(John 1:12),

¹² But as many as received Him,.. to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name…(John 1:12)

Beloved please notice, It is He (Jesus Christ),. not us, who gives the right to become the children of God based on the reception He receives from each one of us individually. If 1000 people in a crowd heard this message, it will only be the ones who receives Him as their personal Lord that He gives the right, to be called the children of God.

The second thing,. “believing in Jesus Christ as the Scriptures has said” would also mean is this,.. It is to believe “He is the very God that I stand before one day, to be judged by Him”.,. I will give an account of the life I lived before the Jesus Christ on judgement day. That is exactly what the Scriptures have said. Look again at.. (John 5:22);

^“ For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him….( John5:22-23)

Think about this a minute,.. it is not God the Father that we all will stand before to be judged by, it is Jesus Christ and so to refuse to honor the Son God while we are alive here on this earth, is to refuse to honor God the Father in heaven. That is what the Scripture is tell us in..(John 5:22-23),

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ warns those at the church in Rome about a coming day of judgment,

“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. ¹¹ For it is written:
“As I live, says the LORD,Every knee shall bow to Me,. And every tongue shall confess to God.”
¹² So then each of us shall give account of himself to God… ( Romans 14:10-12)

Then there’s a third thing that “believing in Jesus Christ as the Scripture has said” means, and that is this;.. It is to realize that He alone,. is the only hope of anyone getting into Heaven. There is no other person, there is no other religion, there are no good deeds no matter how many or how great that can be done, that can get to Heaven. It is only through Jesus Christ. Those are Jesus’ own words.

“ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me…..( John 14:6)

Since I know that He is the one I am going to stand before to judged by Him one day, I want to be at peace with Him while I am still alive. There is no making peace with God after a person dies. The Scriptures tell us the only way to do that is through Jesus Christ.

​^“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…….( Romans 5:1)

Beloveth it pains me to even think about this but to be faithful to the truth of the Word of God that He has entrusted to me I have to say this. There are some people who are willing to believe the facts about Jesus Christ and even do good works in the name of Christ because they sincerely believe that’s what pleases God,.. that will die, and go into eternal torment in Hell because, “they fail to see the need to allow Jesus Christ has rightful place as Lord over their life” and submit to His rule, and,.. “they do not see the need to trust Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for our sins,.. but choose to trust their own deeds they have done instead. Look again at… (Matthew 7:21-23)

 “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’….. (Matthew 7:21-23)

They believe the Lord sees them, as they see themselves, because of all the wonderful works they have done in His name. Their faith is in what they have done.

Beloved, to believe in Jesus Christ, is to believe in Him, “as the Scriptures have said”. It is to believe that He is God, who created me for His purposes and I must willing submit myself to His rule over my life because of who He is,. God. It is to believe that as my Creator, “He is the one I will stand before to give an account of my life to when I am resurrected. To believe in Jesus Christ as the Scripture has said, is to believe “He is the only way to get to the Father in heaven”. There is no other way.

Finally,.. to believe in Jesus Christ,..is to believe that,. “He alone gives eternal life” to all that come to Him and trust Him,… as their only way to get to Heaven. Don’t miss this most important point beloveth,.. “Eternal life has to be given to you”. The only person that can give it to you is Jesus Christ. It cannot be earned by you. That is what the Scriptures teach about Jesus Christ.

“My sheep hear My voice,.. and I know them,… and they follow Me. ²⁸….”And I give them eternal life,.. and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand..(John 10:27-28)

Jesus again tell us that He gives eternal lifeas He prays in.. (John 17:1-3)

​^“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,… ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, ….” that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him…. ³ And this is eternal life,…. that they may know You,…. the only true God,… and Jesus Christ whom You have sent John 17:1-3

Beloveth, God the Father loves us. So great is His love for us that gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins so we can have everlasting with Him in Heaven if we believe in Jesus Christ ,.. as the Scriptures has said.

^“ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life…. (John 3:16)

Believing in Jesus Christ then is not so much as believing the facts about Jesus Christ. It has everything to do with who you see Jesus Christ as beloveth. To you,.. is He your Creator? To you, is He God?  Have you chosen to receive Him as Lord over your life? Is He the one you believe, will be your Judge when you pass from this life?  Do you believe you have to trust Him alone you give you eternal life, or do you trust your good deeds? Do you believe you have to come to Him for eternal life? Do you believe you need Him to forgive you to get into heaven? The answers to these questions will tell you whether you believe in Jesus Christ,. “as the Scriptures has said”.  The Scriptures have spoken on all these questions. But what do you say? It may be that God has spoken to your heart as you read through this post and you want to make that commitment to the Lord in your heart. If so go to the Main Menu under Encouragement-Prayers to see how to pray to invite the Lord Jesus Christ into your life so you can have that assurance of eternal life that He give to those who come to Him.

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If you are like me, you most likely have been to a funeral of a family member, a friend or co-worker. Depending on how close you were to that person, the pain and the grief could be overwhelming.  Thank God that He comforts us through the love ones He has put in our lives. We all need that closeness, that togetherness that God uses to give us the grace to get through those difficult times in our life as we think about never seeing the person again in our lifetime. I have heard people say many times that that person who died is looking down on us from Heaven. There are a whole lot of people that believe that.  So, what about that? Are we going to be able to look down from heaven and see the things going on earth? As much as I would love to believe that is true, I have to ask, did God actually say that?

Well, there is really not a place in Scripture where God actually said that, so i don’t think anybody can say for sure,.. yes they can, or no they can’t. When it comes to God we have to be very careful about saying He said something if we can’t prove it with the Bible. That being said there are a couple examples that I see in the Bible that lend me to believe that at times when God sovereignty chooses to, He can permit someone in Heaven to see events here on earth.

In the book of Mathew, chapter 17, and verses 1-8 says this,

​¹ Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; ² and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. ⁴ Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
⁵ While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” ⁶ And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” ⁸ When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only….. (Matthew 17:1-8)

The Moses and Elijah had been died hundreds of years ago, and yet here they are with Jesus Christ on the mountain, seeing Jesus being transfigured right before their very eyes on earth along with His disciples, Peter, James and John.

So, you see God allowed people in that eternal world, those already in heaven to see an event in this physical world. So, we know God can and has let people in heaven see an event here on earth.

Another one that comes to mind is in ( 1 Samuel 28:12-20 ). God has rejected king Saul who God put in power over His people Israel and because the of the king’s continual disobedience to Him God was not talking to him anymore because of his rebellion. The king went to a person involved in the occult for help, something that the Lord hates.

So God allowed Samuel the prophet of God who had died to come back, not in his physical body, but in a spiritual body like God allowed with Moses and Elijah to pronounce judgement on King Saul and tell him he was going to die the next day. So here again you have someone in that heavenly realm seeing into this physical world, but in both cases they were selected events which God allowed for a specific occasion.

Finally, in the Luke, chapter 15 Jesus tells the story of a man having a hundred sheep in the wilderness and one wanders off and is lost. Because of the concern for that one lost sheep the man leaves the ninety-nine others to find that sheep.

When he finds it, he calls his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him. Then he

says this in verse 7,

“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance..( Luke 15:7)

The idea here could be implied that there may be some in heaven that God sovereignly allows to see an event on earth.  Then if you look at what the Lord goes on to say in verse 10 of the same chapter, where a woman finds her lost coin, He says,

¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

So, without a doubt we know angels can see into this world, but we also know God can allow people in that heavenly realm to see into this earthly realm. We saw that in the two previous examples, but in each of these two previous examples the person has gone to Heaven was allowed by God for specific reasons to see people on earth. Now does everybody that goes to Heaven able to see from heaven to earth and all the stuff that’s happening on earth?  As, much as I would like to believe that, I don’t see anywhere that God said that.

Imagine looking down from Heaven and seeing and reacting to the events going on earth. Would Heaven really be Heaven, a place of no more sorrow and pain if we could see everything going on, on the earth?  What did God say about Heaven,

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” …..(Revelation 21:3-4)

Beloveth, this is what everyone can look forward to,. who is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to get them into heaven and are willing to allow Him to be Lord in their life by following Him. That beloveth, is not man’s opinion. God actually said that.

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That is a question a lot of people have wondered about and some have answered the question themselves, rather than looking to God for the answer. Think about that for a minute. We all have heard that God loves us, so it stands to reason that if God loves us, He would want us to be happy. The the things I do to be happy, it would seem that God would be alright with that right, as long as I am not hurting nobody, and after all God loves us and wants my happiness, right? Beloveth, it is true that God loves us. In fact, His love for us is so deep, it is so great, that our human minds cannot comprehend the depths of His love in its fullness. I am reminded of something God on the sixth day of Creation. God said,

⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;.. Genesis 1:26

Of all the creatures God created, He chose only to make only one in His image, mankind. The crown of the Creation of God was man, and so even though you read where God said after each of the previous five days of Creation that what He had created was good, it was only after man was created on the sixth day of Creation that God said what He created,.. was indeed very good.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day….( Genesis 1:31)

Here was man created in God’ image, who had God’ character. A chip off the old block as we use to say. Now God had created a human being who could love as God loves, and reason like God reasons, and fellowship with God like God wanted. Here was man who wanted to walk with God and one who understood who his Creator was as no other creature on the earth could. Here was a human being who could show mercy and do justly and speak truth and show compassion. Here was one who was made righteous in character because God is righteous. Like God they were created to live eternally with God. Here was one who could create things because God gave man that ability. Even to this day we see man creating things unimaginable years ago whether its cars, space ships, beautiful houses and buildings to whole cities. That ability to create came from God. More important than that ability to create though is the God like character that God created us in. God is holy. Throughout the Scriptures you will see God reminding man of that.

Then God says this to both Adam and Eve, in Genesis, chapter 1, verses 27-28,

²⁷ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”…( Genesis 1:27-28)

Think about that a minute. God told them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”. God’s original intention for man was to fill the earth so that, don’t miss this,..everywhere God looked across the face of the whole earth, ..God would see an image of Himself because as we have seen,.. man was created in the image of God. That image of God in man got distorted and corrupted by Adam and Eve’s sin. When God created them, God gave them a free will because He wanted them to have the ability to choose to obey Him. When they chose to disobey God as Genesis chapter 3 tells us, they became infected with a deadly disease called sin. Once sin entered into their lives now, they were destined to die, and because God is a righteous God, He had to render a just judgement to them. What made Adam and Eve’s sin so deadly was it is passed along through them to everyone who has ever lived on this earth, with the exception of Jesus Christ. What Adam and Eve passed along to us is a sin nature. It is a desire to be independent from God and do what I want without God interfering till we need Him. It is a desire to have God conform to my way of thinking and living rather than me seeking God and desiring Him and His thoughts and ways. This sin nature so corrupted the God like character in all mankind that God had this to say about us all as He look from Heaven at us all,

² God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.³ Every one of them has turned aside; They have together become corrupt;..There is none who does good,..No, not one..( Psalms 53:2-3)

Now you have man capable of stealing, lying, murder, deception, pride, arrogance, rebellion against anything God has to say about how he lives. What you have now is a complete distortion of the man who God created in His image. That’s what you see when you turn on the news every night and you wonder how could he, or she do something like that?  Man,. who God created in His image,. has become so arrogant that he questions in his heart whether or not he is a sinner as God clearly said we all are. God’s desire beloveth is that you and I be restored to that original image of Himself so that you and I can live eternally with Him. It is that,. that God is working His personal plan out in your life and my life to bring about. God’s plan to do that involves people He puts in your life. It involves circumstances He allows to come about in your life, good and bad. It may involve dreams, decisions He suffers you to make right and wrong ones. All these things are designed to lead you to understand that you and I and everybody else are a distorted image of Him, which means we are all sinners. Listen, if you are successful in life that’s great, nothing wrong with that. If you are blessed to have achieved things in life that is awesome. God has nothing against success, or the happiness that comes with that if it’s done justly, but you can be happy and die and be eternally lost forever. That’s why your happiness is not God’s priority. God’s priority is that you become again like He originally designed you and I to be holy,..like Himself. God and only God, can do that in you I,.. and God does that through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is through believing in His Son Jesus Christ that God does that. See my post, “What does it really mean to believe in Jesus Christ” to get God’s view of what that really means, because it doesn’t mean the same thing to everybody. It is critically important to believe in Jesus Christ the way God said believe in Him. If you have not yet seen a need to turn to Jesus Christ you can know this for sure,. Everything God is doing is designed to help you see that need. He says, “today is the acceptable day”. When God says, “today” He is talking about the day you realize in your heart, God is speaking to me today through His word, or this circumstance. I call you beloveth because God calls you beloved, because He loves you. Tomorrow beloveth, is not promised to any of us.

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Did God say that somewhere? That was a question that was on my mind as a young man in my late teens and very early twenty’s. You might be wondering the same thing now as you are reading this and hey, you have every right to wonder about that. It makes it sound like everybody is heading for some type of trouble at the end of their life doesn’t it? So, if this is just the opinion of some church people that you may run across that’s one thing but if this is something God actually said then the answer to that question becomes really important because one day you, me,. and everybody else living today is going to pass from this life into eternity somewhere, and so the only way to approach that final day of our life with peace and confident assurance is to know whether or not God actually said that. Do people really need to be saved, and from what, or is that just a bunch of religious talk? Let’s look at what God actually said it in the Bible.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 3, and verses 16-18, Jesus Christ makes this amazing statement about God’s love for all people of this world,His heart’s desire for us,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him,..might be saved...( John 3:16-17)

So then, there is something you and I need to be saved from according to Jesus Christ. Jesus also tells us that everybody who believes in Him will not perish, but everyone who does not believe in Him is condemned, and they will perish. Look at verse 18 of this same chapter,

¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already,..(why),.. because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…( John 3:16-18).

Beloveth, there are three types of death that are talked about in the Bible.  I want for the moment to talk about two of them in this blog post.  The first is physical death, which is separation of the soul, spirit from the physical body at death.

^“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also..(James 2:26)

Then the second one, “eternal death”, which is separation from God forever in a place of torment called the Lake of fire,…(Revelation 20:11-15).

^“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. ¹³ The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire…( Revelation 20:11-15)

This is what Jesus Christ came into this world to save us from, beloveth. It was His love for us that caused Him to take off the glory He had with God the Father in eternity, a place of everlasting joy, and love and peace, a place where He was worshiped day and night before the throne of God and the angels of God,.. and come down into time, to become a little baby first, then grow into man, so that as man, He could live a perfect life before a perfect God, and be a perfect sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, so that those who choose to believe in Him, would not be condemned to go to that eternal place of  punishment called the Lake of fire.

Everyone is a imperfect sinner who will face the judgement of God one day.Everyone of us apart from faith in Jesus Christ is a condemned sinner, heading for that place of eternal punishment if we have not placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those words are not just Jesus’ words,… they are the very words of God the Father.

¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned;  but he who does not believe is condemned already,..(why),..   because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…( John 3:16-18).

Beloveth, there is a coming day of judgement, and because God is just, He must punish sin. God takes no pleasure in punishing people for sin because He loves us so and wants to show mercy to us and therefore has made only one way to escape the condemnation every one of us rightfully deserves, and that is through faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. That is what God has said through His Son, Jesus Christ.

 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. ⁵⁰ And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak..(John 12:49-50)

Notice what Jesus Christ said here? He said God the Father, the one who gives you and I our next breath, the one who has determined that you and I were going to live in this generation, and the number of days that you and I are going to live on this earth,… God the Father, is speaking in His Son,. Jesus Christ.  Jesus said God the Father,. gave Him a command, “what I should say and what I should speak”,.

¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.., but that the world, through Him, might be saved.(John 3:16-17)

One of the sad commentary’s about that verse is the last three words’ “might be saved”. Not everybody will choose to be saved, inspire of all the warnings coming directly from God.

So, it is  God who determined that the world needs to be saved. God actually said that.

Finally I want to just mention a question John the Baptist ask while he was baptizing people in a river, when he looked up and saw some of the religious leaders of his day coming to his baptismal service.

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? …. (Matthew 3:7)

Beloveth, you and I have been warned by God Himself, speaking in His Son, Jesus Christ. The question we all have to ask is this, “will we heed the warnings of God”?

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If you have lived long enough, you have heard somebody at one time or another say of someone who died, they in a better place now. Usually, it helps to think of that someone in a better place as we deal with the grief and sorrow at the thought of never seeing them again in this life, and never being able to talk to them again.  Those are the types of  thought’s that comes to mind. It is part of the grief process that many of us go through, but is that what God Himself actually said?   Do we all just go to a better place?  Let’s look at it.

In the Old Testament book of (2 Samuel 12: 21-23), that’s chapter 12 and verse 21-23, it tells of King David’s grief after God took the child that was born to him because of King David’s sins. This is a man who God Himself said,. was a man after God’s heart.  Although he sinned greatly against the Lord, and the Lord forgave him when he confessed his sin to God, God still took the child. The child born to him died. Then king David’s servants had a question for him after his child died,

¹ Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” ²² And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ ²³ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him,.. but he shall not return to me.” ( 2 Samuel 12:21-23 )

There is much more that God did to His servant King David because of his sin but what I want to point out here is that king David had a on going relationship with God before this great sin. He and God talked to each other through prayer, through private time alone in God’s word, and worship in the Lord’s house, and when God saw his brokenness and sorrow over what he had done, God forgave him. It was on the basis of this relationship with God that the king expected to see his child again,. in that better place… which we call heaven. As you read through many of the Scripture passages in the various blog post in this website, the one common thing you will see is that the people who end up in heaven, do so because they have some sort of relationship with God.

Let’s look at another example of this in the New Testament book of Matthew chapter 17 and verse #1-5 it says this;

​¹ Now after six days,.. Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,.. led them up on a high mountain by themselves; ² and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. ⁴ Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”⁵ While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased… Hear Him!” ⁶ And when the disciples heard it,.. they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” ⁸ When they had lifted up their eyes,.. they saw no one but Jesus only….( Matthew 17:1-8 )

Moses lived somewhere around 1400 to 1500 BC. He had been dead nearly 1400 years but there he was appearing with Jesus Christ on the mountain. Elijah lived somewhere around 900 to 800 BC and had died nearly 800 years ago. So they died some 500 plus years apart from Each other,. but here they both are,.. appearing with Jesus Christ on the mountain,.. because when they both died,… they went to that better place. They see each other and no doubt,. know each other,.. but more importantly,.. they both had a close relationship with God during their lifetimes.  Elijah was one of God’s major prophets in the Old Testament days and Moses, God gave the Ten Commandments through Moses. God spoke highly of Moses to His people,

⁶ Then He,. ( God ) said,..“Hear now My words: ..If there is a prophet among you,.I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision;..I speak to him in a dream…⁷ Not so with My servant Moses;..He is faithful in all My house…⁸ I speak with him face to face,..( Numbers 12:6-8)  

Beloveth,.. what we can clearly see in the case of Moses and Elijah the prophet and a whole multitude of others when we read through the entire eleventh chapter of Hebrews in the New Testament letters,.. is that the people who go to that better place when they die,.. are people who had a relationship with God while they lived their lives here on earth.

The Scriptures tell us of a person who we know for sure, did not go to that better place. We can be 100% sure of that because it is Jesus Christ Himself,. that tells us that this man didn’t go there,.. although there may have been many at his funeral that got up and said he did.  Luke 16:19-31, tells the story of a beggar name Lazarus and the rich man. It is that rich man that Jesus refers to here.  Both men eventually die and Lazarus the beggar ends up in that better place with Abraham. The Scriptures tell us,.. “that those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham”,( Galatians 3:9 ). So, this beggar, although he was poor, he had become a man of faith in the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ at some point in his life.

Not so with the rich man,.. who although he was a very successful man financially doing his lifetime,.. nothing is said of him having any type of relationship with God during his life. We are told Lazarus dies first then the rich man dies. Look at it in…(Luke 16:22-24)

 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom..The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame…( Luke 16:22-24)

Until Jesus Christ returns to take those who have believed in him to that better place He has prepared for them, there are going to be people, who like this rich man are going to live their whole life apart from God, with no relationship with God whatsoever other than acknowledging that He does exist. Although we know where the Scriptures said they will end up when they die, and we believe that, none of us can be 100% sure about where each individual person is who departs from this life who as far as we know did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  I say that because we just don’t know what went on in their heart as they exited this life. We know what the bible says about a person who dies apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ, but what we don’t know because we are not God is what went on in their heart as they exited this life. One of the two thieves that was crucified with Jesus Christ became a believer as he exited this life and went into eternity to be with the Lord, and think about this a minute. He went into heaven to be with Jesus Christ in spite of what believers and unbelievers alike thought about him or knew about how he had lived his whole life.

Now in the case of this rich man however, in this Luke 16:22:24 passage, we know for sure where this man ended up because Jesus plainly tells us where this rich man went when he died.

So,..we can see that to key to getting to that better place is having a relationship with God.

It has always been that way. Jesus Christ tells a man that there is only one way to God the

Father in heaven, and that is through Him. Look at it in…(John 14:6)

⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…. ‘No one comes to the Father except through Me”……( John 14:6)

Now everybody doesn’t have to be a great leader like Moses, or a major prophet like Elijah, but everybody has to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Think for a moment about what Jesus said here in (John 10:27-28)

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27-28

When we develop a relationship with anyone, we know we eventually know their voice when we hear it. That’s what happens when we believe in Jesus Christ.

I talk more about that in the Blog Post titled, “what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ”.

Beloveth, I want to leave you with this thought. If someone came to you expecting to live permanently in your house with you, simply because they know some facts about you, who you don’t know,..would you allow him in? Common sense says no. I don’t know you. That would be our thought, along with some other thoughts. This is the response Jesus said He also would have to those wanting to enter heaven who,.. He does not know.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’….( Matthew 7:21-23)

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When you hear somebody say, I fear the Lord what comes to mind far as you are concerned? Are you thinking God is looking down from Heaven and is ready to get you for the first thing you do wrong? If you are like me, at one time or another you have been driving along a street or highway and looked into your reviewer mirror after hearing a siren and saw the police or highway patrol car behind you flashing lights come on and suddenly your blood pressure shot up and fear began to grip you because you are thinking, “he’s after me”, only to find out after you pull over, he just kept going. It wasn’t really you that he was after and you are relieved. Is that the way God expect us to fear Him”? In general no, that is not what God meant when He said fear the Lord.  That is taking it to level of terror and although there is a point that God may allow the fear of Him to get to that point for His sovereign purposes He is working out in a person’s life, in general when the Scripture talks about fear the Lord, God has something else in view.

If you have a son or daughter that you have raised, one of the first things you teach them is who’s in charge in your house. It’s mom and dad. It is your position as their parent that you want them to respect and reverence. Life is going to be a whole lot easier for them if the listen to you but if they refuse to honor your position as the parent, there life could get pretty difficult because they will come under your discipline. To fear the Lord is to reverence or respect His position as God. It is to respect His position as the Creator of this entire Universe and everything in it. It is to respect His right to say what is right and what is wrong on this earth that He has created. It is to respect His right to say what will and won’t go on His planet, the earth and not rebel against it because I don’t like it. We are told over and over and over again in the Scriptures to fear the Lord,

8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him……(Psalms 33:8)

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD….( Deuteronomy 10:12)

⁶ “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him….. (Deuteronomy 8:6)

²⁷ The fear of the LORD prolongs days,
But the years of the wicked will be shortened……(Proverbs 10:27)

¹⁰ “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding……(Proverbs 9:10)

¹⁴ The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant……(Psalms 25:14)

Beloveth, God expects you and I to fear Him, to have that reverential fear of Him that recognizes He alone is God, and as the God who created all things, He has every right rule over all His creation in the manner He chooses to. We as man, whom He has created may rebel against that in the same way we rebelled against our parents when they set the rules of the house we grew up in, but we didn’t determine the discipline we got for rebelling against those house rules, our parents did. We don’t determine the discipline for rebelling against the Lord in His universe, He does. It paid for us to know what mom and dad said if we wanted to stay out of trouble. In the same way it pays to know what God has said if we want to be at peace with Him. We have peace with Him the Scriptures said through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. The promises of the blessings of God is not to everybody. It is for those who fear Him.

¹⁹ Oh, how great is Your goodness,..Which You have laid up for those who fear You,
Which You have prepared for those who trust in You…In the presence of the sons of men!
(Psalms 31:19)

¹¹ You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD;..He is their help and their shield..(Psalms 115:11)

¹⁷ But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,..And His righteousness to children’s children,…(Psalms 103:17)

The fear of the Lord then, is to live your life in the presence of the Lord. It is to live daily with the knowledge that God sees every thought I have and every deed I do, and to understand that God knows why I did everything I did, and said. It is to live with such a reverence for Him that I am not going to just do anything I feel like doing because of that reverence of Him as God my Creator, who I am going to give an account to one day for all I have and have not done while inside this body He has given me to live in while I am on this earth.., His earth. It is to acknowledge that the only way anyone can be forgiven before Him is the way He has said, not what I feel and that is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who God the Father has committed all judgment to.

The apostle John said he heard a voice from heaven as he was shown things God said were going to happen in the end times, as God brings this world as we know it to an end. He tells us what he heard,

⁵ Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”….(Revelation 19:5)

So, did God say you and I are to fear Him?  Yes, He did. God actually said that..

Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
Who delights greatly in His commandments….( Psalms 112:1 )

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If you were like me as a 20yr old black man going up in the inner city there was so much I wanted to do to experience life to it’s fullest now that I had finally moved out my parent’s house and was on my own, and I fully intended on doing some of those things when I could afford it. After getting a job that I wanted and i started working there, my supervisor and later on another guy working there told me I was a sinner in God’s sight. I thought, wait a minute, I know I am not a that bad of a person. I try to do what is right, I am not a thief, I haven’t robbed anybody. I am just out here trying to live my life and enjoy it, and so my feeling was, if you want to get that involved with all that church stuff and miss out on life,. that’s you. I am alright with God I felt and God was alright with me. Maybe latter on in my life I would do something like they were doing, but not now. Me and God was alright I thought, and I based that on strictly what I felt. At this point in my life, I wanted nothing to do with the Bible. I didn’t care what they told me said God said. God was going to see what I had done in my life and I know He will see enough to let me in when my time came I thought.

There came a day when I began wondering about all I heard them say about everybody (including me), being a sinner. That led me to open up the Bible one day and read it. I saw in the very last book in the Bible, which is “Revelation”, in chapter one, verse #3 it says,

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near…. Revelation 1:3

It was at this point that I first began to see that maybe I am not alright with God as I thought I was because I wasn’t a person that really reads the Bible, I wasn’t a person that was trying to hear what it said, and I wasn’t a person that was trying to keep those things that was written in it. I was living by what I felt it said, not what it actually said. Then it kept saying things like this,.. “He that has an ear to hear”… and then God made a promise to that person who wants to hear and you see it over and over again:

 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’(Revelation 2:7).

Then look at what God says in Revelation 2:26, and also verse 29;

²⁶ “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations

²⁹ “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” ’( Revelation 2:29)

One thing I became convinced of through reading all this was this,“God was not making any promises to me because I wasn’t trying to hear Him at this point. God’s promises,. according to these passages,. is to those who overcome and keep His works until the end,. as it says right hear in verse #26, and to those who have ears to hear Him. What I felt made me right before God up to this point in my life,. was wrong. I was wrong because I never actually looked at what God actually said in the Bible.  When I finally did, I hear are just a few things I learned;

²⁰ For there is not a just man on earth who does good, And does not sin…( Ecclesiastes 7:20)

¹⁰ As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God…( Romans 3:10-11)

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23

In the book of First John, (1 John 1:8),… this is not the Gospel of John, that a different book, it says this,

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.,,( 1 John 1:8)

⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness….(1 John 1:9)

¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us…(1 John 1:10)

If you live in this world long enough somebody is going to lie on you. Somebody is going to say you did something that’s just not true. Somebody is going to say, you said something that you did not say, and it may make you so angry that you might want to get back at them even though you may not do so. God said we all are sinners. We all have sin. Nobody is without sin in His sight, and if we say or think otherwise we make Him a liar,..and I am sure not going to say,. God is a liar. Therefore because I realized that I am a sinner and one day I would stand before God to be judged by Him,.I knew I needed His forgiveness for my sins like everybody else . Forgiveness for sin against God can only be given while we are still alive. Once we die,.. it’s too late. I think about what Lord Jesus Christ said to a group of people that didn’t believe He was Christ, the promised one that the Scriptures said hundreds of years before would come into this world. In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, and verse 24, Jesus says this to those who did not believe who He was,

²⁴ Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He,  you will die in your sins.”…(John 8:24)

Everyone of us came from Adam and Eve and because they inherited a sin nature when they sinned against God everybody that descended from them takes on that same sinful nature. It is that sin nature that causes us to want to be independent from God, doing our own thing, our own way, and be our own God. That is what we inherited from Adam and Eve.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way…(Isaiah 53:6)

So, is everybody a sinner in God’s sight?  Yes,.. God actually said that. However when we realize that in our hearts and come to the Lord Jesus Christ and truly confess that confess that that before Him, then He will forgive us. We then become a redeemed sinner, which is what a saint is.I talk about how to confess our sins before God and know He has forgiven you in another one of my Blog Post titled, “Can I know for sure I am going to Heaven when I die”?

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Does God hear everybody’s prayers?

That’s certainly a question we all want to know and want some assurance of soon as possible depending on what’s going on in our life at the time. The company you work for is getting ready to cut 500 jobs and you find out your job is among the ones to be cut. You don’t have much saved up and so you began to pray to God for help because you don’t know what you are going to do, and so you pray and ask God to help you. Does God hear that prayer? Here’s another situation. You just applied for a job that pays $100,000 a year. There are 20 other candidates you are competing with, and so you pray to God for that job. Does God answer that prayer? What has God actually said about prayers that He will hear?

Beloved, as I read through the word of God because that is always what Jesus refers to when He answers any questions when it concerns things about God.The Scriptures have a lot to say about prayers God will hear and prayers God will not hear.  In the Gospel of John, chapter 9, tells the story of a blind man who had his sight restored by Jesus Christ. He had been blind from birth and everybody knew it and so this was such an amazing miracle that had been done for him by the Lord that he is being questioned by the Jewish rulers as to how he had received his sight because they did not believe in Jesus Christ. They believed Jesus Christ was a sinner, rather than God.. and so the blind man, in defense of Jesus, makes this bold statement before these Jewish leaders who were questioning him,

^“Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him….( John 9:31)

What we can learn from this blind man who had his sight restored by Jesus Christ is this,.”God does not heard everybody’s prayer. Now as God, He sees and hears everything that goes on in heavens and everywhere on the earth, so it is not that God didn’t physically hear the prayer of the person who will not honor Him as God,. but God is not moved to act on behave of those whose heart has no place in it for God and Lord over it.The people whose prayer God hears are those who worship Him and do His will. Beloved, the Scriptures tell us this same truth all over the Bible. Look at it in a few more places,

^“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him….(2 Chronicles 16:9)

^“Come and hear, all you who fear God,And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
¹⁷ I cried to Him with my mouth,And He was extolled with my tongue.¹⁸ If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.¹⁹ But certainly God has heard me;He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
²⁰ Blessed be God,Who has not turned away my prayer,Nor His mercy from me!  …(Psalms 66:16-20)

^“ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

….( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

What we can see here also is that even if I profess to be a Christian, and harden my heart and just refuse to act in ways I know in my heart God would have me to act and don’t live according to God’s will, He will not hear my prayers,

“One who turns away his ear from hearing the law,Even his prayer is an abomination..(Proverbs 28:9

^“If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear…..( Psalms 66:18)

^“if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. ²² And whatever we ask we receive from Him,(why?),..because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³And this is His commandment:   … that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment……(1 John 3:20-23)

Beloved can you see right out of the Scripture, how you can know God will hear your prayers? Pause just a minute and think about what God says in the last part of that passage. This is how we can know God hears my prayer,..

“because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³ And this is His commandment:   … that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment……( 1 John 3:20-23)

Then God tells us one final thing about prayer to God if we are to expect God to answer our prayers. What we ask has to be according to His will.

^“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him,.. that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him…..(1 John 5:14-15)

God has a purpose for every individual life and God will permit certain things to happen good and bad in order to fulfill His sovereign will and purposes in each one of our lives, but does He open to hear everybody’s prayer? Absolutely not. The one prayer God will always answer that opens the door to heaven right into the very throne room of the eternal God for us is the prayer to ask His Son Jesus Christ into your life and trust Him alone to get you into heaven.That’s God’s will for us all.  God actually said that,.

^“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”…( John 6:40 ).

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