I Want

I Want

I am a Christian.

 And want the world to know,

Jesus said,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, 

and you will find rest for your souls.  

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

                                                        Matthew 11:28-30.

I am a Christian. 

And I want the world to know,

The Christian message in it’s simplest form is this. 

Jesus said,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...”

Matthew5: 43-45

When asked,

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  

This is the first and greatest commandment.  

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

                                                             Matthew 22:37-40.

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to know,

Jesus said,

“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.  

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but to save the world through him.” 

                                                                                           John 3:16,17.

 Jesus also said,

...“I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

                                                            John 14:6

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to know,

 The apostle Paul writing to the Romans said,

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 

                                                                                Romans 3:23,24.

Sinning is falling short of what God wants for you life. Sin separates us from God.

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to know,

The apostle John wrote,

John noting,

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just

 and will forgive us our sins

 and purify us from all unrighteousness.  

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” 

                                                                                                            1 John 1:9,10.

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to know,

The apostle Paul wrote,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this not from yourselves,

 it is the gift of God—  

not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

                                                                  Ephesians 2:8,9

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to know,

Salvation, belief in Jesus Christ, and God,

 is an act of faith. 

The writer of Hebrews saying,

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, 

because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists 

and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”

                                                                                                   Hebrews 11:6.

I am a Christian.

And I want the world to 

think about what I have written

because Jesus said,

“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.  

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, 

but to save the world through him.  

Whoever believes in him is not condemned,

 but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 

because he has not believed in the name 

of God’s one and only Son”. 

John 3:16-18 

Please think about it.

Signs

Signs

"Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  
For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  
Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  
All these are the beginning of birth pains. 
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” 
                   Matthew 24:4-9.
I don’t know when Jesus will return to this earth no one does. Anyone who says they do are deluding themselves.
I see in the media many preachers that are trying to predict when Christ will return.
They look at every minute bit of scripture and say it could be soon. Perhaps they are right perhaps not. I believe that Christ will one day return to this earth. When I haven’t a clue.
I look to the above scripture quote Matthew 24:4-9 and can see these things happening now. Christians all over the world are being persecuted. We Christians are now the most persecuted group in the world.
Christians are being put to death for simply being Christians. At the rate of one every eleven minutes.
There are wars all over the place and there are people trying to deceive the individual Christian into believing wrong things.
Still a look back at history shows this kind of thing has been happening for centuries. It just seems that now in the twenty-first century it is happening globally on an industrial scale.
If we are in the so called end times, I as a Christian have nothing to fear. I know where I will spend eternity. Do you?
Remember just because your parents were Christians, or your going to church each week, going to a Bible study, attending a prayer meeting makes you no more a Christian than standing in a fire station makes you a fire truck.
Still there is a way of knowing where you will spend eternity.
Knowing where you will spend eternity is simple it comes from a choice you make here in this world.
Here is what I believe you must do to have eternal life,
First you must believe by faith there is a God. The writer of Hebrews stating,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 
Hebrews 11:6
Second we must believe Jesus when he said,
“....I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 
                                                                                                                                                John 14:6
Thirdly we must admit we fall far short of what God wants for our life. That we are sinners and that it is only through his grace that we are able to get into heaven.
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” 
                                                            Romans 3:23,24
Finally we must exercise our faith and accept Jesus into our hearts and lives,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                                        Ephesians 2:8,9.
Part of exercising that faith is humbly bowing in pray and saying a prayer like this,
Dear Heavenly Father,
I know I believe in you and your One and Only Son Jesus Christ. 
I admit I am a sinner and fall short of what you want for my life. Please forgive my sins.
Dear Jesus please come into my heart and life today. Make me into the person you want me to be.
Amen.
If you prayed this prayer then I believe if you truly meant it you have eternal life.
Now it is up to you to study the Bible, pray and ask God to direct you to a bible believing Church.
One where you can grow in God’s wisdom and truth.
I always recommend a Baptist church for most places in the world. In North America I also recommend an Assemblies of God church in the United States or a Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Church in Canada.
They are churches I know stand on the word of God.
I even recommend people, even if they don’t know Christ to go to these churches and ask questions of the pastors.
Any good pastor will freely meet with you and answer your questions.
Think about it.

Man needs Absolutes

Man needs absolutes

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
                                                                       Genesis 1:1
The Bible makes no assumptions about God. It does not leave the subject of God’s existence up for debate. From the very first verse it states, “in the beginning God created...”
    That one line says it all.
    1/ There is a God above all things.
    2/ A God that created all things.
    In the new testament the gospel of John essentially reiterates the statement of Genesis 1:1 when it states,
    “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” 
                        John 1:1-3.
The gospel of John however goes one step further stating that “He (Jesus)  was with God in the beginning.”
    John makes it clear “Through Him(Jesus) all things were made.”
Jesus is God incarnate. He came to show man how much he loved him. He demonstrated in very real terms His love for his created.
Man needs God. He may not realize it but he does.
The Greeks like every other civilization that has ever existed recognized there was more to life than just the physical. They worshipped many god’s, even erecting a temple “to an unknown god”. It was this temple to an unknown god that the apostle Paul picked up on while speaking to the Stoics and Epicureans at the Areopagus.
    Paul said,
    “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 
                                             Acts 17:24-27
A favourite quote of mine is from Abba Hillel Silver who wrote,
    “Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society.  Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
Man needs absolutes in his life. Without absolute values in life our society will slip rapidly into anarchy. There is no such thing as one set of moral values for one person and a completely different set of values for someone else.
God has given men an absolute value system it starts with love. Deuteronomy states,
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deuteronomy 6:5
    Jesus states,
“ ...‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. 
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
                                         Matthew 22:37-40
Ultimately if we put God first in our lives and love as he loved the world would be a far better place.
 All morality ultimately comes down to love. God himself showed that love to us. He gave us a moral code that distilled to it’s simplest form is the ten commandments.
Within the Decalogue we are told by God how He expects us to live with respect to Himself and our fellow man.
God however did not stop there to quote Paul,
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” 
Romans 5:8 
    Jesus was sent by God to demonstrate His love.
    God realized that mankind was and still is slipping away from the absolute value system He has given us.
Simply put we are sinning and sin separates us from God.
In sending Jesus, God is pointing out to anyone who will listen the way back to fellowship with Him.
Someone has said “we, all mankind, are sailing on a ship to eternity. What we do on board that ship will decide where we spend that eternity.”
The decision is ours. God has given us a free will and a choice. Either accept Him and the salvation Jesus Christ offers or reject Him.
It’s that cut and dry. The decision dear reader is up to you.
Where will you spend eternity?
       Think about it?

Something Important

Something Important

“What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?  
For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” 
                                                      Matthew 16:26,27.

There is only one reason a true Christian presents the gospel to the world and that is because we believe that we have the single most important message all mankind needs to know.
There are many out there that deny there is a God. There are many that say there are many roads to heaven. If these views are true then the Christian has little to fear because he or she is most certainly on one of those roads.
However if the words of Jesus are true when he said,
   “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John 14:6.
         Then there are a lot of people who need to rethink what they believe.
I know people who want all the toys this life has to offer and there is nothing wrong with that, if it’s in proper perspective.
Things, our toys, our possessions and even our desire to excel in life shouldn’t take us away from the important things in life, our family, friends and above all God.
 I truly believe that one day all men will stand before God and see He is real. I believe that we all will be held to account for our lives.
That God will reward us according to our works, and what we believe.
I believe the words of Jesus who said,
“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.  
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” 
                                                                                                                    John 3:16-18
Ultimately however it comes down to an act of faith. Do you believe who Jesus is or not.
C. S. Lewis pointed out,
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
                                                    C. S. Lewis
Think about it.