Archive for May 2021

 The thought of a coming resurrection from the dead and a day of judgment before God for us is something that we all might think about more often than we even realize. When we do that good deed, whether it’s giving to a good cause, or helping out someone in need by acts of kindness, showing compassion for them and for their situation from the heart, there’s that little something on the inside of us that just feels good about what we just did to help, which at times may lead us to think latter on within our heart that hey,….”God saw what I did, and that’s true, He did. The Bible tells us that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good,.. (Proverbs 15:3). Not only does the Lord watch over everything we do in life, but because He’s God, He sees our thoughts, and knows what motivated us to do everything we do, and say for that matter during our entire lifetime. In (Proverbs 21:2), God’s Word reminds us of that fact,..

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts…. (Proverbs 21:2)

Every once in a while, I find myself thinking back to the time in my life before I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally as my Lord and Savior and what I really thought about my life back then. I remember thinking that if there really was going to be a resurrection from the dead and day of judgment coming, I had a good idea what that day before God would look like for me. I felt that it would be close, because I knew I wasn’t perfect, but my thinking was, I know I’m not a bad person and God knows that too,… so I honestly really felt I would be okay, until I opened up the Bible one day and looked at what God Himself actually said about every one of us ,and that “resurrection form the dead and day of judgment”  that every one of us is heading to. Literally, the confidence I had about what that day would look like for me before God was completely shattered when I saw what God had actually said about what was necessary to be justified before Him on that day and what I felt would make me acceptable before God.  What seemed right to me, in my mind at the time, was not at all right in God’s sight. In fact God Himself declares to us that His thoughts and our thoughts are not the same in (Isaiah 55:8-9), where God says,..

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.. “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).

 It doesn’t end there, but God goes on to say in,…  (Proverbs 14:12),

 “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

 The way I thought about my life at the time seemed right to me,.. and I thought God felt the same way I felt. How could He not feel the way I felt? I mean trying to be the best person I could be and helping somebody out when I could, to me I thought would be like hitting a home run as far as what I thought God’s thoughts toward me were. That is, until I decided one day to look at what God had actually said in the Scriptures, and what I found out is that I was wrong about how I thought God felt about me. If the truth be told, every single one of us has been wrong at one time or another about how we thought another person felt about us, or about how we thought they felt about some issue, either because we don’t know the person personally or if we do happen to know them, we never bothered to ask them how they felt. We simply presumed to know how they felt. There is no doubt millions of people, who like me,.. believe they know how God sees their life and what that coming resurrection day before God will look like for them,.. and they feel that way having never even taken the time to look into the Word of God for themselves, which plainly reveal to us God’s thoughts and what God has said is the only way anyone becomes righteous,.. in His sight. This was a mistake many of the Jews in the nation of Israel made in the early days of church history and God, speaking through the apostle Paul tells us about this in his letter to the Romans,..

Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.  For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God….( Romans 10:1-3).

What this says to us is that you can believe in God and even be zealous for God to the point that you think the things you say and do make you right with God and be totally wrong about how God sees you. I am living proof of that just as those Jews were. Undoubtedly many of them died in their sins without ever really knowing the only way God says anyone can be made righteous in His sight, which God reveals to us in the Scriptures. Paul unashamedly tells those in Rome this truth,..

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;” as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.“…. (Romans 1:16-17).

 Paul says, I want to… be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…(Philippians 3:9)

  Over and over and over again the Lord Jesus Christ, referred to the Scriptures, God’s written words when He wanted to point to God’s thoughts about what is right in the sight of God whenever He spoke on any subject before the crowds that gathered to hear Him speak. As you search the Scriptures you will never hear Jesus say, “This is how I feel about this” or that. He always referred to the Scriptures to bring Heaven’s view to any subject matter He spoke about while He was on this earth. It is with that in mind that I say to you,….you whom God loves, and I say this on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ,.. if you don’t remember anything else I say in this post, I urge you remember this…”you don’t make the mistake that I did of thinking you already know how God will feel about you on that day you are resurrected from the dead to stand before Him without first looking at His thoughts on how He says we become righteous in His sight. God in His great mercy He shown toward me, allowed me to live long enough to come into the knowledge of the truth through the Word of God, before I died,.. and God did that not because of any righteous works which I had done, but He graciously chose to show His mercy towards me..(Titus 3:4-5). He chose to have mercy on me in spite of all I did in His sight before I came to the knowledge of the truth,….His truth,.. and I am eternally grateful to the Lord for His patience and His longsuffering He showed toward me in that He did not allow me to die in my sins. Beloved, God right now is extending that same mercy to you in granting you opportunity to know the only way to peace with Him, while you are still alive. In His longsuffering and great patience He is extending toward you, He is waiting on you, just as He waited on me.  When that day came that I looked for myself at what the Scriptures had to say about that coming day we will be resurrection from the dead to stand before God, there were four things that I saw that really stood out to me. Those four things that God actually said, still impact me to this very day, more than four decades latter,…

First, and maybe thee most important thing I found out is this,..  “a resurrection day before God for every human being that has ever lived on the face of this earth,.. is certain. I am not going to just die and just cease to exist, or come back as a bird or something else in the next life as some people actually believe. Every single one of us that has ever lived will be resurrected from the dead to appear before the God who created us to be judged by Him. It is a day that is certain,..It is a day that is sure, just as sure as you are right now reading this post. You might ask,..  “How can I be so sure?  Well,..I can be sure because God Himself has sworn it is coming in the Scriptures. He says,..

“Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.  I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow,….(Isaiah 45:22-23)

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

 It was this coming resurrection day that the Lord Jesus Christ had in mind when He warned those who had gathered to hear Him speak, about their hasty words they spoke in the gospel of Matthew,..

 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment…. (Matthew 12:36)

Look, there are times that we hear about things in life that we just simply choose not to believe. There’s that little something on the inside of us that just thinks,..that’s not true, and we may very well be right, or we may be wrong. But even if we are wrong,.. depending on what it is, we may think within ourselves,.. you know what’, it ain’t no big deal, and it very well may not be. Beloved,.. this is one of those things that’s not only a big deal, this is an extremely big deal. So big, that if you are wrong about what you believe about the resurrection of the dead that Jesus warns us is coming, and what’s necessary to be found righteous before God on that day,..and you die in that condition, the consequences of being wrong about that will be eternal separation from God forever and ever in a place of torment called Hell. God loves you and God wants you to know the truth about this even though it might not sit well with some. God loves every single one of us in spite of what we may think of ourselves,.. or what others may think of us, and He does not want any of us to go to that place. The Scriptures tell us that it is not God’s will that any perish, but that all come to repentance. Look at it,..

“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance….(2 Peter 3:8-9)

There is a coming resurrection of the dead and day of judgement before the Lord of all the Earth for every single one of us. It is a day that’s certain,..It is a day that is sure, because it is God,..who the Scriptures say cannot lie, who said it is coming.

Then there’s a second thing that stood out to me as I looked at what Scriptures had to say about that coming resurrection from the dead, and that is this,..It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who will be our judge on that day. It is not God the Father that will judge us,.. it is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge us on that day. Jesus warned the crowd gathered around Him about this very thing.  In (John 5:22-23) He says this,..

“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, (Why?), 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….. (John 5:22-23).

 The apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy, a young pastor encouraging him as he dealt with problems in the church, charged him not to shrink back from declaring God’s message, keeping in mind always who we all will stand before one day. Paul says,….

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom….Preach the Word!!.. (2 Timothy 4:1)

 The Scriptures warn us about our attitudes toward one another in the church and not just in our church, but fellow church members of other churches who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and are a part of God’s family when it says,..

 “But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before “the judgment seat of Christ”…. (Romans 14:10)

The Scriptures tell us plainly who the judge of will be of every one of us when we are resurrected from the dead.  Therefore, since we know it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the question every one of us has to ask ourselves is this,..  “Are the words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in the Scriptures, really worthy of my time and my attention while I am still alive on this earth?  Is it worth my time at all to read them or listen to what He has said?,.. And if I do look, am I willing to trust what He said, rather than my own feelings about what I believe will get me into heaven? Can I see myself willing to submit to Him as God, my Lord, my Savior, my judge and my Creator,.. now,… while I am still alive in this life?  The thought of saying “no” to all this, is the very thing that the Lord Jesus Christ was warning those who were listening to Him speak about,..and His warning was not just to them in that generation, but to all those who would hear His words in the generations to come, including ours. He says in… (John 12:47-48),

And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.… (John 12:47-48)

Beloved, the Scriptures declare plainly that there is a coming a resurrection of the dead for every single of us, it is certain,..it is sure,..and the one who will judge us, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there’s a third thing stood out to me as I look at what the Scriptures had to say about that coming resurrection of the dead, and that is this,..there’s not one, but “two resurrections days” the Lord Jesus Christ talks about in the Scriptures when He taught about the resurrection from the dead. Think about that one for a minute, because so often when we think of the resurrection, we think it as one day and yet the Lord Jesus Christ tells us there are two resurrection days coming. The first one Jesus talked about is the “Resurrection of the just”,  sometimes He called it the “Resurrection of life” and the second one He talked about, is the “Resurrection of the unjust” sometimes He called it the “Resurrection of condemnation”.  Jesus taught the crowds that had gather around Him about both of these resurrection days in, (John 5:26-29), when He said,..

^“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation….. (John 5:26-29)

 Two resurrections days are coming the Lord Jesus Christ said, and please notice, it says it is the Lord Jesus Christ that calls forth the dead from the graves to stand before Him. Look at it again, He says,..

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth…(John 5:28)

The Lord says that these two resurrection days are for two very different groups of people. He says those who have done good appear at “the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil appear at “the resurrection of condemnation.  What’s really interesting about this is when you look a little closer at what (Revelation 20:4-6) has to say about these resurrections, what you see is that there appears to be more than 1,000 years of time between the end of the first resurrection and the beginning of the second resurrection, which is the resurrection of condemnation. Look at it in,…. (Revelation 20:4)

 (v4)….And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 

 Notice in this passage what it says about those who have died. It says those that have died, they died because of their witness to Jesus Christ and for the Word of God.  They are resurrected to live and reign on this earth with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years. Look at the last part of verse #4 again,…

“And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years…..(Revelation 20:4)  

 It is right here on this earth the Scriptures said,.. is where those who reign with Christ will be reigning with Him. We know that to be true because John tells us in  (Revelation 5:9-10), that the 24 elders, who are representative of the church, sang this song in heaven before the throne of God saying,…

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”….(Revelation 5:9-10)

Note the last part of this passage, it says, “And we shall reign on the earth.”  On the earth the Scriptures said. Now looking back again at our previous passages in Revelation 20,.. in (Revelation 20:5),.. it tells us two very important things that you don’t want to miss about those who lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years on this earth.   First, it says that “the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished “ . In other words, nobody else is resurrected after them for at least 1000 years. Then the second thing we are told is that, “this is the first resurrection”.  Look at it right here in,.. (Revelation 20:5),

“But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection”. …(Revelation 20:5)

Those that are resurrected and alive again here on the earth, are in resurrected bodies reigning on this earth with Jesus Christ for 1000yrs. It is their resurrection from the dead the Scripture says is “the first resurrection,.. and what Jesus called “the resurrection of the just”, which would also have included previous to this point, all those of every generation who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tell us that the church,.. those who have repented of their sin against God and place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins will reign with Him…

This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him…..(2 Timothy 2:11-12)

Now when we go back and look closely at our (Revelation 20:6) passage we see, that those who have part in this first resurrection are blessed,..and then we see why they are blessed. Look at it…

“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years…. (Revelation 20:6)

 They are blessed to have part in the first resurrection,.. because “the second death has no power over them”. … And, they are blessed to have part in the first resurrection because,.. “they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years…. (Revelation 20:6)

 The question that comes to mind at this point is this,..”What is the second death? What we know for sure at this point, is that those who have part in the first resurrection will not be hurt by the second death. The second death has no power over them. Tragically, that can’t be said of those who have part in the second resurrection. To this very day whenever I read passages about the second resurrection, which the Lord Jesus Christ called at times, “the resurrection of the unjust” and at other times, the resurrection of condemnation, but here in this passage we are about to read, it is referred to as, “the great white throne judgment”, it has always troubled my spirit when I think about  the souls that will end up there because no one resurrected to appear at this resurrection day, will ever enter Heaven but will go to a place of eternal torment. They will go to a place that was never intended for human beings, created in the image of God. Jesus said, it is a place that was prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). This is why Jesus calls this resurrection, the “resurrection of condemnation”.  The Scriptures tell us in (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.  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. 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. (v14)…Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire….(Revelation 20:11-15)

Beloved, the Scriptures tell us right here in (Revelation 20:14) what the second death is and only those who appear at this resurrection are cast in there. Their names are not in the Book of Life. Those whose names are in the Book of Life were resurrected in the Resurrection of Life, which is the first resurrection which took place more than 1000 years ago at this point. Those appearing at this second resurrection are not blessed. They are there to be judged and given a just penalty by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, which is the second death,.

Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death”.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire….(Revelation 20:14-15)

John tells us here in (Revelation 20:12),….”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.

Beloved in those books that are opened at this resurrection will be Jesus’ words that those appearing at this judgment had opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity to hear and believe during their lifetime, but they rejected them. We saw earlier where Jesus gave a warning about this judgment day in (John 12:47-48)…

And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.… (John 12:47-48)

In those books will be their refusal to believe in Jesus Christ as God who came into this world and dwelt among us, His creation, so that He could die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins because He loves us and wanted us to spend all eternity with Him in that heavenly city, He prepared for us. They refused to believe in spite of inner witness to the truth God gave them in their hearts that Jesus Christ is His Son and chose instead to trust in their own feelings about what would make them righteous in the sight of God. Others simply did not want anybody including Jesus Christ, to reign over their lives simply choosing to believe we just all end up in a better place without anything whatsoever to base that on in the Word of God. In those books will be the words of people God spoke to them through in their lifetime, be it coworkers, friends, neighbors, preachers, relatives, even strangers God sent across their paths during their lifetimes.  Make no mistake about this one fact. Those people have been sent into your life and my life by God Himself to call you to believe on His Son Jesus Christ whether you realized it or not because God does not want you to end up at this resurrection of condemnation.    

  Look for a minute at the warning the apostle Paul’s uses to appeal to those in the church at Corinth where he sees himself and those with him as God’s messengers to those in the church there when he says this,…

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him…. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

Then this same apostle Paul, gave this testimony after he had been arrested and brought before the Roman authorities and given a chance to speak for himself about the charges the Jews had bought against him for preaching about Jesus and the resurrection. He says this,..

I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men…(Acts 24:15-16).

Beloved, the Scriptures have told us there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust,.. and it is the Lord Jesus Christ that will call forth everyone that has ever lived on this earth from the graves to be judged by Him.

Then finally, the fourth thing I learned as I looked at what the Scriptures had to say about the resurrection of the dead and day of judgment,.. and that is this, “there is one way, and only one way, to be declared righteous before God and have the full assurance that you go to Heaven and escape the wrath that will come on those who are cast into the lake of fire at the resurrection of the unjust on the day they stand before the God,.. and that is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Some people would call this being narrow minded,.. and what they may not realize is that is exactly what Jesus Christ said it was. Look at it in Matthew 7,…

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it… (Matthew 7:13-14)

Notice Jesus does not mince words,..He says the way to eternal life, is a narrow way. Look again at what He says here in John 14,…

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)

 Every true believer in Jesus Christ will bear witness to the words of Christ. You see that in the words of His apostle Peter that he spoke in the book of Acts where he says,…

“Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” ….(Acts 4:12)

This is one truth you simply can’t afford to be wrong about. This is one truth where there can be no compromises at all about. There are not many ways to God as some would have you believe. There is no other faith or leader in any other faith on the face of the whole earth that has ever lived, that you can go through or believe in, to get to heaven. It is faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is not a religion, or religious deeds that get you to heaven,.. it is knowing a person, Jesus Christ personally,..as the Lord over your life. This is what eternal life is Jesus said.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…….. (John 17:3)

Eternal life does not come from knowing or following any other person,.. and this one my shock some,.. but there is no amount of good deeds that can be done, no matter how many or how great they are in the sight of man, or how much praise you may receive for those good works from people, that can cause God to look from heaven and say, “look at that, you are forgiven because of all that I have seen you do”. As we saw earlier, God sees good works, but He does not bring people to heaven because of those works. God’s heavenly call is to whosoever is willing to hear, no matter who they are. It does not matter with God what your status in life is, rich or poor, educated or no education at all, celebrity or an unknown person, extremely successful or of those who feel they have failed miserably in life.  God is not a respecter of persons the Scriptures says, (Acts 10:34). There’s only one deed that you can do that will win God’s approval that will assure you a place in heaven and that is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord as your Lord and  your Savior. Jesus does not want to be believed on as the Lord,.. He wants to be,.. your Lord.  Jesus was ask by some who came to hear Him one day,.. “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.“… (John 6:28-29)

In these days we live in today, believing in Jesus Christ means different things to different people, and so let me urge you to read the post titled, “What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ” in this website so that you when you say you believe, you can compare what that means to you with what God said it actually means. Always compare your feelings and your thoughts with what God actually said by looking at the Scriptures. That’s the example Jesus Christ set for us and that’s the example He wants us to follow. The Lord Jesus Christ said those alive even now and do not believe in Him are condemned even while they live. Look at it in John 3,… These are Jesus’ words,..

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

The one and only way to peace with God and be justified before Him is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,…

“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses”……( Acts 13:38-39)

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

 Beloved, let me end all this by saying this, and I say this in all honesty, and I say this from my heart. The impact of knowing the truth about all these things about the resurrection has had a lasting effect on my life for more than four decades now because I know these are the words of God. It has impacted my prayers, on how I pray and who I pray for, as well as the persistency of my prayers, even the day-by-day decisions about things I will and won’t do as I live in this world. Why,…because my aim in life now as I live in this world, in this little window of time God has given me,.. is to please Him. It is to fulfill the very purpose He intended for my life when he ordained that I live in this generation. It is to take the message of salvation to this generation as He has called me to do. When I stand before Him in that “first resurrection, my heart’s desire is to hear the Lord say to me, “well done good and faithful servant”.  And I want to hear Him say that not just to me,.. but to all the people God blessed me to know and love during the time He has given me on this earth as well you,..yes you, who God has given the grace to read this post in its entirety. This is my prayer and it will continue to be my prayer right up to the time I finish my appointed time here and go on to my heavenly home with my Lord. Yes,..there is a coming resurrection of the dead for every one of us Jesus said. God actually said that.

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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 its 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 the way. 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 I saw where 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 I looked at what God says in Revelation 2:26, and also verse 29;

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

“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 and i was starting to realize just how wrong i was in my thinking. 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;

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

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)

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,

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

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)

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 came to 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,

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)

Every one of us came from Adam and Eve and because they took on 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 the Prayers page under the Encouragement menu on the home page. I also talk about it 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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That’s a question the most of us never even stop and give much thought to until we are confronted with some kind of crisis, either medical, physical (old age), an accident of some kind, or some kind of threating situation, either in our own life or somebody else’s life. It is during those times that we think about the people in our life we are going be leaving behind, and where we going to end up at that final moment, when we close our eyes for the very last time and take our last breath. I can remember a time before I became a Christian that I would find myself wondering when I would see people on my job who just seem so confident, they were going to make it into heaven when they die and I would often wonder in the back of my mind, how can they be so sure of themselves? Did God actually say a person can know for sure they are going to Heaven, or was that something they were just feeling about themselves based on the good being more than the bad in their life, and what they felt in their heart God thought about them?  Can a person really know for sure?  That’s what I would think about at times. Here’s an even deeper question I had to ask myself at those times? Do I even really want to know?  If you find yourself wanting to know the answer to those kinds of questions beloveth,.. it’s because God is at work in your heart.

Most of us, at one time or another have wanted to work for a particular company or get into a particular school or college, and one thing we could never do is presume we know what the qualifications are for getting into those places without doing some background work by checking to find out from them what’s necessary to get in. We gather information from those sources about what’s necessary because we want to be sure we know what we are talking about, or that what we are thinking to be true is actually true. That way we not basing what we believe on what we feel, but on what we know. What we end up finding out is there is some sort of requirements or some sort of process that you have go through, whether that is interviews, resumes, or testing for certain qualifications, among other things. What we also end up finding out is that everybody, without exception, has to go through that process. If you simply showed up at company or at that college on the first day of class without ever going through the process to get in, thinking they are going to let you in solely on the basis of what you felt was necessary to get in, you would be setting yourself up for a very disappointing day. They simply are not going to change their rules for you simply because you were wrong about what was necessary to get in, especially since you had every opportunity to find out what was necessary but you simply chose to trust what you felt in your heart what they were going to think of you, rather than check their policies and procedures so you would know for sure what the requirements are.

Beloveth, this is what people think they can do with God. Without ever listening to God’s thoughts about how to get into Heaven, without ever looking at what God has said in the Scriptures about what He says is necessary to get into Heaven, people presume they know, not based on what God has actually said about getting in, but based solely, on what they personally feel, God will accept. Let me be first in raise my hand here and admit that I personally made that mistake, right up to the age of 22. I want to pause here for a minute to say this,..”there is not a bigger mistake you could ever make in your entire life,. that would be bigger than that mistake,” if that is what you are doing. So, Iet me right now plead with you, on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.., “don’t make that mistake”.  Yes, you can be sure you are going to Heaven when you pass from this life, if you are basing what you believe, on what God has actually said.  God honors His word. God is under no obligation whatsoever to honor what we feel is right or what we feel is necessary to get into Heaven,.. unless what we believe is what He has actually said. I had to come to grips with that one day, .and here’s what i discovered God actually said. There is one way,. and only one way,.. to get to Heaven and that is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what the Lord says to someone in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, and verse 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)

 So, that blows away any ideal whatsoever that there are many ways to get to God, or that there are many religions that lead to God in Heaven like we hear today. No, absolutely no,. the Lord Jesus Christ said,.. that’s not true… There’s one way to get into Heaven and only one way,.. and that is through Jesus Christ… “No one comes to the Father except through Me”…..( John 14:6).

 In another passage in the same book (John 17: 1-2),..says the same thing and it also shows us why no one can get to the Father in Heaven except through Him.  Here, Jesus Christ is praying to God the Father as He prepared to give His life for the sins of the world,.. and He says this,

^“ 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, as You have given Him authority over all flesh,” that He should give eternal life”,. to as many as You have given Him…(John 17:1-2)

 Beloveth, what God wants everyone of us to see here is that,.. the “eternal life”.. we all want with God in Heaven,. is something that’s given,.. and one who gives it,. is the Lord Jesus Christ”. There is no other person of any other religion,..that can give you eternal life. There is no deed you might do that can earn it for you. Eternal life,. is given beloveth.  It is absolutely crucial, that everyone of us sees that the only one who can give eternal life to us,.. is Jesus Christ.   He has been given authority, over all flesh. That means all of us. Now if you are like me, I had another question here,. because I am looking at what Jesus prayed in that prayer to God the Father that we just read in (John 17:2), where He said,

“as You have given Him authority over all flesh,.” that He should give eternal life”,. to as many as You have given Him”. 

So, in my mind,.. right about now,.. I am thinking, well then who are those that God the Father has given to Jesus Christ His Son because it’s those people that Jesus said He gives eternal life to. That has to be everybody’s question that wants Heaven to be there home when they die.  Beloveth,.. Jesus Christ answers that question for us in…in (John 6:37), He says,

^“ All that the Father gives Me,. will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)

 There it is…  Did you see that beloved?  “All those that God the Father gives to His Son Jesus Christ,. will come to Him”,.. and those who come to Jesus Christ.., are the ones that He gives eternal life to.  Some may come early in life,. some in midlife,. some later in life, and some at the very end of their life. Whenever it is that they come to Him, Jesus wants them to know this, “and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)

I want to pause here for a minute and look at one passage, because what I want you to see is this,. “to hear what Jesus Christ says,… is to hear what the Father in heaven Himself has said”. That is what he Scriptures tell us in Hebrews, chapter 11, and verses 1-2,.. it says this;

 “God., after He spoke long ago to the fathers,.. in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,   in these last days has spoken to us,.. in His Son,.. whom He appointed heir of all things,…. through whom also He made the world….(Hebrews 1:1-2)

 God, the Scriptures said,. has spoken to us,.” in His Son”,..the Lord Jesus Christ,. And because it is God that has spoken to us,. in His Son,. to not listen to His Son beloveth,.. is to not listen to God the Father Himself.

Let me go back a minute and just share with you something else I wondered about that Jesus said in that.. (John 6:37) passage that we looked at, and that is this, “how does God get people to come to Jesus Christ?  I ask that because of what Jesus says here in ..(John:6:37)

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me,.. I will by no means cast out…(John 6:37)

Jesus answers that question in several passages. First, in (John 6:44) Jesus says something that startled those who heard it when He said this,..

No one can come to Me,.. unless the Father who sent Me,. “draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day ….(John 6:44)

 Let me pause here just for a minute before I go on,. and think about this.  Jesus said God the Father draws people to Him. Now the next question is,  ‘How does the Father draw people to Jesus Christ”?  God answers the question in in the next verse  ..(John 6:45),

It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard,.. and learned from the Father,.. comes to Me….( John 6:45)

 Here Jesus said those that come to Him have been taught by God,..” And they shall all be taught by God”.  And He doesn’t stop there, but He goes on to say this,..

Therefore everyone who has heard,.. and learned from the Father,.. comes to Me….( John 6:45)

 Now, when I stop a minute and think about all this that Jesus Christ said, when I put it all together, this is what Jesus Christ is saying,..He said He gives eternal life.. to those who come to Him,..and those who come to Him,.they come to Him,.. because they have been drawn to Him by God the Father, .and the Father draws then to Him by what they have heard and learned from the Father…..” And they shall all be taught by God”… is what Jesus said.

 So, now my final question is this,  “what does God the Father teach people that draws them to Jesus Christ so Jesus can give them eternal life”?

Beloved there are at least four things that those who come to Jesus Christ have learned from God the Father, and God teaches them, “in the order that each individual person needs to learn them.  First, and most importantly, is that this Jesus Christ that you have been hearing about from people God has sovereignly bought into your life, is Lord of the entire Universe. God grants the ability to see,.. what you otherwise would never be able to see, “Jesus Christ is Lord” and the Savior of the world. Look at what the Scriptures said in …..(2 Corinthians 4:6)

“For it is the God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness,.. who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ..( 2 Corinthians 4:6)

Just as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness when He created the world, God commands light to shine in the darkness of the hearts of people to show them who Jesus Christ is,..the Lord of the entire Universe,. the God of Creation, and the Savior of the world, so they will come to Jesus Christ for eternal life.

In Matthew, chapter 16, where Jesus ask His disciples who do people believed He really is? Then after listening to their answers,..He follows that question up with another question, directed at His disciples about who they themselves say He is in verse 15-17,

^“ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,.. but My Father who is in heaven….. (Matthew 16:15-17)

 Then there’s a second thing that those who come to Jesus Christ have learned from God the Father and that is this,  “every single one of us is a sinner in the sight of God”, Those the Father have drawn to His Son have realized that in their heart and will willingly confess that before God.

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

God said He looks from heaven upon every human being on the face of the earth in every generation, and God wrote about what God He saw in the Scriptures,

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

 We don’t have to look any further than God’s first commandment to see that everyone of us is a guilty sinner. “You shall have no other god before Me” the Lord says. The god we all have that we all put before God in our lives, is ourselves, and every one of us, regardless of who we have broken that first commandment.  Beloved, it is God the Father that convicts us of the eternal consequences of that great sin so they will come to Jesus Christ.

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

 Then there’s a third thing that God the Father has taught those who come to His Son Jesus Christ and that is this,. “their own righteousness before God is as filthy rags before Him”, and will not get them into heaven, because they do not have a day by day, minute by minute, thought by thought, completely perfect life lived under His rule to present before God. Nobody, except for Jesus Christ has ever had that type of life before God. Therefore God, works in the heart by His Spirit to convict those who come to Jesus Christ of their sinful condition, of the own righteousness that falls desperately short of His righteousness. They then begin to realize in their heart that there’s nothing can do to change that themselves and look to God for mercy.

“But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags….( Isaiah 64:6)

^“ As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;..   (Romans 3:10)

 God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Creator of the entire universe. God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus Christ that they are a sinner in His sight in spite of what they have thought about themselves in their hearts. God the Father has taught those who come to Jesus Christ that their own righteousness before Him is as filthy rags because nobody has a perfectly lived life under His rule to present before Him as His Son Jesus Christ has. God the Father teaches us them do not trust your own righteousness. It is not sufficient to get into heaven. God working in their heart warns them of that fact by His Spirit. Jesus talks about God’s Spirit working in the hearts people in the world.

^“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin,.. and of righteousness,.. and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged……( John 16:7-11)

Then there’s a fourth thing the Father teaches those that He draws to Jesus Christ and that is this,” “there is a day of judgment coming for every one of us”.  A day in which each one of us, both believers in Jesus Christ and those who chose not to trust Jesus Christ as their lord during their lifetime will be resurrected from the dead to give account of themselves to God. Jesus refers to that day in the passage we just read as the last work of the Spirit of God in the heart of men.  This is what Jesus is referring to in the last past of this verse in (John 16:8).

And when He (the Holy Spirit of God), has come, He will convict the world of sin,.. and of righteousness,.. and of judgment:

Every one of us will appear before the Lord Jesus Christ one day to be judged by Him.

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

That coming resurrection is also referred to by the apostle Paul  in,..  (Acts 24:15-16). He says,

^“I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men……(Acts 24:15-16)

These two resurrections are at least a thousand years apart from each other. I will talk more about them in future blog post. Beloved,.. because God so loves us, in His mercy He put’s the fear of that coming judgement in the hearts of those who come to Jesus Christ and God teaches them of the reality of that coming resurrection day judgement, to draw them to the only one that can forgive us of our sin against a Holy God,.. while we are still here alive on earth, the Lord Jesus Christ.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins…”(Mark 2:5-10)

 ^“ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”…..( Acts 4:12)

Therefore the Father convict us of the need to go to His Son, whom He sent into this world to be a sacrifice for our sins on that cross, so you and I can live eternally with Him in that heavenly city with all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ while they lived on this earth. Here’s what the Lord Jesus Christ says to every one of them that come to Him who have been drawn to Him by God the Father,

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.  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 6:37-40)

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

 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are one.”…(John 10:27-30)

I understand now why those people I used to work with before I became a Christian, were so confident that they were going to heaven when they die and it’s the reason, I am confident today that I am going to Heaven when I died. My faith in Jesus Christ is not based what on what I feel, or things I did, but on who Jesus Christ is in my life, Lord, and what He has done in giving His life on that cross for me.

Beloved,. You might be wondering right now in your heart thinking, do I really know if I died today, that I am going to Heaven? If you were told by your doctor, you probably won’t make it through the night because there’s nothing else, they can do for you, do you know when you close your eyes for the last time that you will go into the presence of God? You don’t have to wonder about that beloved. You can be sure about it when you place all your faith to get there in the one God the Father sent into the world to get you there,..the Lord Jesus Christ. When you are willing to come to the Lord Jesus Christ because you know what you are, a sinner in the sight of God who does not have a perfect life to present to God,.and you are willing to ask the Lord to forgive you, and  willingly allowed Him His rightful place as Lord in your life. If that is indeed what you want, go to the “Encouragement” menu and look in the “Prayers page for the “Prayer to receive Jesus Christ. Beloved it is those who are willing receive Him that God gives this word of assurance to,

 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God….(1 John 5:11-13)

 Beloved, yes you can know for sure you are going to heaven, but only if what you believe is based on what God, has actually said.

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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 right? 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 said on the sixth day of Creation. God said,

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 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’s 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, spaceships, 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,

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,

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 sends 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 lead 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 circumstances, or through people God has caused to cross your life’s path. I call you beloved, because God calls you beloved, because He loves you. Tomorrow beloveth, is not promised to any of us.

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Does God hear everybody’s prayers?

That’s certainly a question we all at one time or another wonder about and want to know with 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 the Lord Jesus Christ always refers to when He answers any questions when it concerns things about God, the Scriptures have much 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 who Jesus Christ really is. They believed Jesus Christ was a sinner, rather than God in human flesh among them.. 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 hear everybody’s prayer. Now as God, He sees and hears everything that goes on in heavens above 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 Him to sit as Lord over it. The people whose prayer God hears the blind man said are those who worship Him and do His will. Beloved, the Scriptures tell us this same truth over and over again throughout 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.
I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue. 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.
Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!  …(Psalms 66:16-20)

The Psalmist here is calling all those who fear God to come and hear what God has done in his life when he earnestly prayed to God from his heart. God answered his prayer and he’s full of such joy that he just wants to tell it to those he knows will be blessed by it. Those who fear God. I have a blog post titled, ” Does God Expect Me to Live in Fear of Him” that explains what God means when He says we are to fear Him. In (2 Chronicles 7:14), God tell us this,..

^“ 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, God will not hear my prayers. In fact if it gets to that point God says this,

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

^“if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him,(why?),..because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 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)

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, because what we can plainly see is that God is moved by the relationship we have with His Son and our willingness to obey Him. 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.  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)

So then it is believing on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and loving one another as He gave us commandment that gives us assurance that God will answer our prayers. I have written a Blog Post titled, “What Does it Mean to Believe in Jesus Christ’ that lays out according to the Scriptures, what that really means because it believing in Jesus Christ  does not mean the same thing do everybody. Then God tells us one final thing about prayer to God if we are to expect God to answer our prayers. What we ask beloved, “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. 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 hear everybody’s prayer? Absolutely not, and even for those who love God, sometimes God says no, and when He does that’s what’s best for that situation. Then sometimes He says yes, but He answers the prayer in His time, not on our timetable. He is perfect in all His ways and in all His dealings with us.  The one prayer God will always answer that opens the door to heaven right into the very throne room of God for you 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 every one of us.  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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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 Christ has 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 will 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 and 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 spare them 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. 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.  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?’ 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, as they stand before Him,.. “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 be judged by Him, and their own truth about what it meant to believe in Jesus Christ during their lifetime 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”. Look at it,

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 Scriptures, 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. He was in the beginning with God. 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 of 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 every one 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 we have come to believe in our heart who He really is, then we willingly confess that, and 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),

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 will stand before one day, to be judged by Him”.,. I will give an account of the life I lived before the Lord 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, 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 of 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 you into 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 be 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 be at peace with God 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. 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?’   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 us for His purposes, and you and I must willing submit ourselves to His rule over our 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 on the judgement day for me. 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. ….”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 tells us that He gives eternal life as 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…. 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 life 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 to 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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