Posts by ONVu75L
Does Getting Baptized mean I’m Going to Heaven?
Many years ago, while working at a job I had at the time, I had a conversation with a coworker, a woman I worked with, and as we talked about our families, she told me about her kids when they were very young. She told me she didn’t want her children to go out of the house until they have been baptized. She had a Catholic background and what I gathered from her comment about baptism to mean was that in the event something should happen to her children she wanted to have some sort of assurance that her children were going to Heaven, and she apparently felt that that’s what being baptized would do for her and her children. This woman’s feeling about baptism represents the way an untold millions of people feel about baptism. They believe being baptized is an act in itself that they can do that gives them some sort of assurance that when they die, they are going to heaven. Now the question that has to asked here is this,.. “Is that what the Scriptures say? Does the mere act of being baptized because you believe God exist, mean that the person baptized is surely going to Heaven? When I say the Scriptures, what I am referring to here is the Bible. It is there, in the Scriptures that the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven according to (Romans 1:16-17).
When you read through the Gospels, ( Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) what you can’t help noticing is that whenever the Lord Jesus Christ was questioned about any matter by the religious leaders of that day, He always referred to the Scriptures when He gave an answered to those who were questioning Him, and because that’s what Jesus Christ did, that’s also where we should look too, because what we really want to know is “what has God said about the matter? People may have many different opinions about baptism, but there’s really only one opinion that really matters and that is what God has said, because when God speaks on any matter,.. and anybody,.. or even everybody else disagrees with Him,. then everybody else, including all the social media world,. is wrong. The Scriptures tell us that in (Romans 3:4), it says,.. “let God be true but every man a liar”….. (Romans 3:4). In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus after His resurrection gives a command to His apostles to baptize people and reminds them why they were to do so to those who believed in Him. In Matthew 28, beginning at v18 it says,….
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”….( Matthew 28:18-20 ).
I want to point out four very import things that Jesus says should be true of those who are ready to be baptized by His apostles. First, Jesus said that those who the apostles were going to baptize should recognize His authority over all as the eternal Son of God. He says ,.. “All authority”.. has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”.… It is extremely important to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ for who He really is,..God the Son, who has “All authority.” Those who the apostles were to baptize had to recognize Jesus’ authority over them as Lord first before being baptized. The Scriptures tell us, in Him we all live and move and breath and have our being as (Acts 17:28) says. Our very next breath comes from Him. The time that you and I will live on this earth has been preappointed by Him long before the world was ever created according to (Acts 17:26). Let that just sink in for a moment. That’s who we are talking about when we talk about Jesus Christ. The One who has “All authority in Heaven and earth.” Colossians, chapter one says this of Jesus Christ,..
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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). Think about the last part of this passage a minute. “All things were created through Him and for Him”.
That means you and I were created through Him,.. and,.. for Him. He determined, as God the time period you and I were going to live here on this earth. So, then the first thing we can see right here in the Scriptures, is that those the apostles were commanded to baptize were those who had come to believe in who Jesus Christ really is,.. the eternal God, who has “All authority” in Heaven and Earth, and because they recognize His authority, they willingly submit to His authority over them as God. The very God to whom every one of us will give account of our lives to one day. Anyone not ready to recognize Jesus’ authority over them is not ready to be baptized. Then there’s a second thing,.. you see here as you look this command Jesus gave to His apostles here in the Scriptures. They were commanded to baptize those who had made a decision to willingly be made one of Jesus’ disciples by following Him. Look at that passage again,..
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”,…
A disciple by definition, is a “follower of his leader,” who in this case,.. is the Lord Jesus Christ. In John’s gospel Jesus says these awesome words of comfort to those who willingly follow Him as His disciples,…
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). Then in John chapter 12, He says this,..
“If anyone serves Me, let him “follow Me;” and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor….(John 12:26)
And so, what we can very clearly see, right here in the Scriptures, is that Jesus said those who the apostles were to baptized were those who recognize His authority over everything that is in Heaven and Earth and that included those who believe in Him. Then they were to baptize those who were willing to become followers of Jesus Christ as His disciples. Then there’s a third thing we can see in this command Jesus gave His disciples to do to those who had willingly become His disciples, and that was to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, meaning the people they baptized had to be willing to “be publicly identified with the Lord Jesus Christ as God the Son,” by being baptized in His name as the second member of the Godhead. Look at it again,…
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;
All three persons of the Godhead were now being declared to have a place of authority over the life of the follower of Jesus Christ. They knew about God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ. They would soon learn about God the Holy Spirit and what it means to follow Jesus Christ which the Holy Spirit of God would teach all those who willingly choose to follow Jesus as His disciples as He tell us in John 16….
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come….( John 16:12-13 ).
The Holy Spirit of God would guild those who willingly follow Jesus into truth. What an awesome promise the Lord gives here. And so, the apostles were to baptize those who had come to see who Jesus Christ really is, “the Son of God” who has “All authority in Heaven and on Earth,” meaning, over everything and everybody. The apostles were to “baptize those who willingly choose to follow Jesus” and be made His disciple. They were to “baptize those who were willing to be identified with Jesus by being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” realizing Jesus’ position in the Godhead as the Son. Finally, they were to “baptize those willing to be taught and observe all that Jesus commanded them.” Look at again,..
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,.. …”teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”.
They were to baptize those who were willing to be taught and to observe all things that Jesus had commanded His apostles. Teaching those who become followers of Jesus, all that Jesus commanded would take time, and required that those who willing become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ had to be willing to come together in an assembly which we call the church. That is what the church is by definition, “ an assembly of called out ones”. This is what Jesus meant when He said, through the apostle Paul, that the church is “the called of Jesus Christ,” (Romans 1:6).
So then, baptism is for those willing to hear Jesus’ words and have willingly decided to learn what it means to follow Him in their daily lives. Where there’s no willingness to follow Him that person’s baptism is meaningless. Why? ..Because baptism, is an outward testimony of a new inward reality toward Jesus Christ in the heart. It is identifying with Jesus Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It is saying the old you who did not acknowledge Jesus’ authority as God over your life, and who trusted in your own goodness to get into Heaven, that person has died, and now a new person, the new you, has risen up, who acknowledges Jesus’ authority as God over you, who is ready to follow Him and trust Him alone to get into Heaven, not my goodness, not my church attendance, not even religious activity, but Jesus Christ alone and now I am willing to be among others who have like precious faith as a member of His church following Him in the church He wants you to attend so you can learn about Him. The Lord Jesus Christ made Himself an example to His apostles, and all who would believe in Him in the ages to come by being baptized Himself by John the Baptist, Matthew’s gospel tells us in Matthew,..
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him…..(Matthew 3:13-15),
Think about that a minute…. If you are outside as you read this, or near a window look up into the sky for just a minute and think about this. The God that made the clouds and the Sun you are looking at, or the stars and the moon if it’s nighttime where you are at the moment as you are reading this,.. is the God that became a man,.. in human flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ, was being baptized by a man,.. “a man whom He created.” Just pause a minute and think about that a minute…. Jesus made Himself an example for His disciples and us to follow. He said,.. “I came down from Heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.“.(John 6:38). It’s about His will not ours. That’s following His example.
The apostles were very careful about who they baptized as we can see from a story in (Acts chapter 8), that tells the story of an Ethiopia eunuch, a man of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning. Here was a man that believed in God and was even reading a bible as he returned home but didn’t understand what the Scriptures taught about Jesus Christ or the teaching about baptizing that we just looked at and God, in His perfect timing, had Phillip the apostle nearby and sent Phillip over to him to explain to him what he was reading in the book of Isaiah about Jesus. Phillip gets into the chariot with him and begins teaching him.
The Scriptures tell us in Acts chapter 8,…then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him… (Acts 8:35-38).
Phillip wanted to know that this Ethiopian eunuch believed with all his heart, the message of the gospel that Jesus commanded His apostles to preach before he would baptize him. He wanted to know that this Ethiopian eunuch was ready to acknowledge Jesus as his Lord, who has All authority in Heaven and Earth as the Son of God, and that he was ready to be identified with Him. He wanted to know that this Ethiopian eunuch was now willing to walk with Jesus in the newness of life as His disciple, and so he asks him,….
“if you believe with all your heart you may be baptized” ..and the Ethiopian eunuch then replies,. , “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.“ So, he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him… (Acts 8:35-38)..
Phillip most likely had seen people who had been baptized who really had not believed in Jesus as the Son of God with all their heart. People who wanted Heaven to be their eternal home, but didn’t want the Lord of Heaven ruling their life here on earth. People whose profession of faith in Jesus did not result in a newness or changed life toward Jesus Christ as the Scripture says should happen to those who believe from the heart in who Jesus Christ is,..
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”….( Romans 6:4 )
So, does being baptized in itself guarantee that we will go to heaven? Absolutely not. In the gospel of Luke 23:39-43, Jesus tells one of the two criminals who was crucified alongside Him who came to faith in Jesus as his Lord right before he took his last breath and died, “today you will be with Me in paradise.” The man never got baptized but he still went to Heaven. Why? Because it is faith alone in the person of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who this man willingly receiving as his Lord, recognizing His authority as God, and now willing to be identified with Him, and trusting Him alone to get him into Heaven. You see it was not his moral goodness, he didn’t have any,.. nor was it his good deeds, or his feelings or his church attendance, or even his religious activities that saved this criminal, but was seeing himself as a bankrupt sinner willing to trust Jesus Christ alone. It is when a person is willing to be identified with Jesus Christ this in this way, then they are ready to be baptized in Jesus’ name. Anything short of that would just you just getting wet in front of people. As we just saw in the Scriptures that God actually said that. What about you? Are you ready to allow Jesus Christ His rightful place as God in your life? If so, go to the “Encouragement” menu on the Home page and look for the “Prayer tab.” There you will find a prayer you can pray to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and have assurance of eternal life that He gives to those willing to place their trust Him.
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Will we see our pets in Heaven?
If you are among the many people who have a pet or have had one in the past you know they can bring a lot of love and joy into your home and in the life of your family. They are God’s blessing to us for a season and when that season is over it can be a painful time in our life and sometimes that grief over their lost can lead us to wonder,..“will I see my pet again in Heaven? Next to seeing God and loved ones in heaven that have passed away, seeing that pet you loved just like another family member, is a thought millions of people have wondered about, and understandably so. That was your buddy or your little girl who wanted nothing more than just to be around you. So, when you are faced with that very painful decision to put them down because of an illness or old age it can be very hard on us to see them slowly exit this life. Only people that have gone through that experience can really know what a difficult time it is to have to get through. My heart goes out to everyone who has gone through that experience and those of you who are presently going through that experience.
Having gone through that two times in my own life, I certainly have thought about that question. Is seeing my pet again something that is possible with God? It is from that standpoint, that I want to address this question. Is this a possibility with God? Does God say anything about the matter in the Scriptures? Over my years of walking with God the Lord has taught me a very important lesson and that is this,..”if God hasn’t spoken on a matter then I can’t honestly speak as if I am speaking for Him on that matter because I don’t know the mind of God or the thoughts of God on the matter. Having said that, I have found that even some of the great preachers of our time, people who truly love God have very different opinions on this subject. Therefore, I want to be clear, right up front before I say anything else. What I am saying here is my own opinion, based on the conclusion I have come to having looked at what the Scriptures tell me about the unlimited power and might of the Almighty God who created us and the incomprehensible love He has for us. God alone has the ultimate answers on this subject. That said, I want to just look at what a few Scriptures have to say about the presence of animals.
The Bible tells us in Genesis, chapter one that in the very beginning of Creation, God created animals. They existed before sin and death ever entered the world through Adam’s sin, (Romans 5:12) says,.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Every one of us came from Adam and Eve and what we all inherited from them once they sinned was a sin nature that causes every one of us by our very nature to want to live life free and independent of the God who created us. Belove that is sin,.. and therefore, every one of us has sinned against God. That is the testimony of God Himself about all of us, in the Scriptures,…
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good, And does not sin…(Ecclesiastes 7:20)
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.…(1 John 1:8,10)
“There is none righteous, no, not one…….( Romans 3:10 )
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…. (Romans 3:23)
However, before we all became sinners through inheriting Adam’s sin nature, the world was in the perfect state God created it to be in. Paradise was here on Earth and animals existed in that perfect world God created, and God,. according to the Scriptures,.. was well pleased with all He done in the six days of Creation as He looked on it all. That is what the Bible tell us in Genesis, chapter one. This was a world in which Adam and Eve could have lived in eternally had they not chosen to sin, and there would have been animals living right along with them. So, we know it was God’s original intention to have animals on earth along with Adam and Eve. Then when Adam and Eve sinned, death entered into the world (Genesis 3),… and even though death entered the world through their sin, it still pleased God to have animals on this earth,.. along with Adam and Eve even though both they would eventually die now because of their sin.
Then we know from Genesis, chapter 6 that God bought a worldwide flood in the days of Noah that left only eight people alive on the whole earth. Imagine that a minute. Only eight people alive on the whole planet. We also know the before God bought that flood on the earth, God had Noah build an Ark and God sent two of every type of animal He had created into the Ark so they would be keep alive with Noah after the flood. It pleased God to still have animals on the earth after the flood along with man. Why? Because that was God’s original design, a design God says was very good, and it continues to be God’s design even as we,..according to the Scriptures, look for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to this earth one day to rule on this earth 1000 years.
That then, leads me to another passage that comes to mind as I think about all this. That is Isaiah 11, where the Scriptures tell us that animals will exist on this earth during the Millennium. The Millennium is that future 1000-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. It will be a time when the savage nature of beast will be taken away. This will be a supernatural act of God upon the animal world and Isaiah tells us that animals will be right there, where God is on this earth on God’s holy mountain,…
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea….( Isaiah 11:6-9)
So then, we saw that animals were on the earth in the garden of Eden at the creation of the world, when the garden of Eden was here on earth before man fell into sin. There were animals preserved by God in Noah’s day to live on this earth after the flood. Obviously, they exist now right alone with man in man’s fallen state, though both die now. Then we also saw in (Isaiah 11:6-9), that animals will exist on the earth during the future 1000-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.
So then, when I think about all that, and particularly what God did at the creation of the world,.. what that leads me to understand about the God who created us on that sixth day of Creation is this,.. when God envisioned what a perfect world would look like from His view,..it was a world that has man, made in the image of God in it, and animals existing in it along with man. I say that because that’s is what God did in the beginning when He created this world,.. and when God finished with all He created in those six days, the Bible says God looked upon all He created, and God said it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Since I know that’s how God felt as He looked at all He created, it just seems reasonable then for me to believe that animals will also exist in some form when God, according to His promise, creates a New Heaven and a New Earth…(2 Peter 3:13).
The last book in the bible, Revelation, chapter 5, verses 11-13,.. the apostle John tell us of this heavenly scene God showed him,.. in which there are living creatures, no doubt in angelic form,…
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature, which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” …..(Revelation 5:11-13)
I point to this passage to say this,..We are talking about the Most High God here, who can cause every living creature He created to praise Him. Let me say this so there’s no misunderstand of what I am saying here. I am not saying, when a pet dies,… that pet goes to heaven. I can’t point to anything specifically in the Scriptures to clearly support something like that anymore than anybody else can. So far as I can see, when they die, they simply cease to exist. Neither when I refer to a pet, am I referring to any and everything people have chosen to call a pet that God never intended to be a pet. However, what I am ever mindful of about God is this,.. unless God says something is impossible, or God makes one of those “there will be no more” statements that God makes about things in the book of Revelation and other places in prophetic Old Testament books, I without any doubt whatsoever,.. believe something like seeing a pet again, is possible with God,.. if our Almighty Creator God chooses to make that happen,… to give fullness of joy to those who have become His children through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, whom God loves immensely and eternally. I believe God is Almighty and because I believe that, I believe God is able,.. and it is from that perspective, that I am writing all this. When I talk about God I am not merely talking about a God I know,. only as Savior and Lord,.. but also as the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exist in Heaven and on the Earth. I am talking about a God who power is so great that He simply spoke, and they were created. The Psalmist speaking about the awesome power of God in Psalm 33 says this,
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast… (Psalms 33:6-9)
Anybody that can do all that by just speaking as far as I concerned, there is nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing that is too hard for Him that He wills to do. Listen to what the Lord ask Jeremiah His prophet…
Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? ….(Jeremiah 32:26-27)
What God wanted Jeremiah to know here is He is not just the Lord, but that He is God Almighty who can do exceeding and abundantly above all you can ask or think. Neither Jeremiah’s mind, nor your mind, or my mind, can conceive the depths of His great power. This very same God who spoke at Creation and formed animals out of the dust of the ground,.. is the same God that is able to speak again and cause a pet to live again if He so chooses to do so. What we are talking about here is really a small thing with God. The life in them came from God and the life in them returns to God who gave it…and if God chooses to do so,.. He can simply speak and cause that pet to live again. And so here’s my own answer to the question God asked Jeremiah that we just looked at,.. “Lord, there is not anything too hard for you. You are God Almighty, who calls those things which are not,. as though they are…(Romans 4:17).
The angel Gabriel, was sent by God to tell the virgin Mary that she was going to have a baby without ever knowing a man, for “with God nothing shall be impossible” the angel Gabriel said in (Luke 1:37). John the Baptist gave a startling statement to some religious leaders of his day when he said to them that, “God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.. (Matthew 3:9). John the Baptist believed that God didn’t even have to use the dust to create man like He did in the beginning to create people. He believed that “God is able”. Even the devil, who is a fallen angel understands that God is able to do the impossible. We know that because he says to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”..(Matthew 4:3). He called on Jesus to do that because he knew Jesus, being God in human flesh, is able. As the children of Israel journey through the dessert wilderness on their way to the promise land, the Scriptures tell us in (Exodus 17:1-7) that God bought water out of a solid rock for them to drink in the wilderness. So, here ‘s the Most High God, who can take a rock and bring water from it, or as John the Baptist said, raise up children unto Abraham from it, or even turn it into bread as the devil tried to get Jesus to do. Belove, we at times focus so much on God as Savior and Lord,.. that we lose sight of the fact that He is also the Most High God of all Creation and Sustainer of all things, who can do anything He chooses to do, with anything He created,.. unless He Himself has specifically said He would not do it, and He doesn’t need any raw materials to do those things.
So then, the idea that a pet can’t live again, not even by a gracious act of the Almighty God, that’s a foreign idea to me as I look at the greatness of God and reflect on His unlimited power. I most certainly believe that God would make something like that happen for the love and fullness of joy of His children, who ask Him. I would never say what God won’t do for His children, if God hasn’t said it. I simply don’t see anywhere in the Scriptures,.. that God said He can’t make that happen. Just as we love our children and give good things to them, God loves His children and as their God, He is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all they can ask or think…(Ephesians 3:20).
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,.. how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! …..(Matthew 7:11)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?…..( Romans 8:32)
Friend, God longs for you to live eternally with Him in that glorious heaven city He has prepared for you when your time is up here on this earth. It is there that you will be able to talk with God for all eternity about those things that went on in your life that you didn’t understand while you were here on this earth. The only way God says you can be sure that will happen when you breath your last breath is for you to receive His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. God may have already spoken to you in the past about your eternal destiny and this appeal to you right now may be God one more time confirming that it is truly Him speaking to you in your heart. If so, I want to urge you to the “Encouragement” tab on the “Home” page and look for the “Prayers page” to see how you can pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your life and know for sure that Heaven will be your eternal home as one of His children. Then you will know personally what the God who loves you will do for you.
Is Going to Church Really Necessary?
Think about that for a minute. That’s a thought that most of us at one time or another may have had in our lifetime if we believe that God exist. I certainly have had those thoughts at times in the past. I can worship God anywhere. God can hear me no matter where I am, and He sees what I do. God sees that I am trying to do right by Him and treat people right and help people out when I can. I felt like I can get together with a few people at my house, show them lovingkindness and be worshipping God because God is love, or even just be sitting in my backyard by myself and be worshipping God. It’s not really necessary to be in a church building with a group of people to worship God. That’s their opinion. God is everywhere so I can worship Him wherever I am. This is how I once thought about being in a church and to be perfectly honest, I felt like, I don’t really want to be going up in there anyway until I get myself right. I don’t want to be like some of those people up in there anyway. This is the way I felt about church right up to the time I heard God called unto me from heaven through His word,. and I heard His heavenly call to believe on His Son Jesus Christ, and to listen to Him. One thing I have learned over the years as I have grown in my faith, is that very few people have ever heard the audible voice of God coming from heaven itself. I am not making any claim at all to be one of them, but I can talk about three of those people that the Bible itself tells us who did hear God speak from heaven in an audible voice. They were Peter, James and John, Jesus’ disciples. They were in the mountain with Jesus when a cloud overshadowed then and a voice came out of the cloud, and this is what they heard God the Father speak concerning His Son Jesus Christ,
“While Peter was talking to Jesus,…. a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son… Hear Him!” …(Luke 9:34-35)
That experience of hearing God’s voice from heaven out of those clouds had a lasting impact on those disciples. They never forgot about it. Peter wrote about his experiences after Jesus was resurrected from the dead and had ascended back into heaven where He is now seated on His throne as God. Peter, speaking about that experience with boldness in one of his letters in the Bible, in Second Peter, chapter one, and verses 16-17 he says this,
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” ..And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain…(2 Peter 1:16-18)
Beloveth, this was a Heavenly call from God the Father to those disciples who had come to believe in His Son Jesus Christ as their Lord, to listen to what Jesus Christ His Son has to say to them, on whatever subject Jesus Christ speaks to them on. This call to them from heaven is also a call to us today who have also believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. To refuse to hear the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the living God,.. is to refuse to listen to God Himself. God said, … “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”… God said that here in.…(Luke 9:34-35)
God, the Scriptures said has spoken to us in His Son Jesus Christ. Because it’s God that has spoken in His Son, my opinion and your opinion and everybody’s else opinion has to take a back seat to God’s on whatever subject God speaks on, less we be found sitting in judgement of the wisdom of the very God who created us. Look at it again in the letter to the Hebrews, chapter one and verse one…
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds…..( Hebrews 1:1-2)
Jesus Christ Himself told His disciples that the words He spoke were not His, but God the Father was speaking through Him in ..(John 12:49-50)
“For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.” (John 12:49-50)
Beloveth, God has spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ, in regard to the question about whether it is necessary to go to church or not. Jesus talking directly to Peter, one of His disciples says this to him,..
“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it……(Matthew 16:18)
Stop for a minute and think about this for a minute. We have just saw that God has spoken to us, in His Son Jesus Christ and God has told us to listen to His Son, and what His Son Jesus Christ has just told us is this,.. He is building His church. So, this building of His church is God’s work not man’s. Jesus makes it very clear who’s church it is. He says,.. “I will build My church”.
The word Jesus uses here for, “church” means, `an assembly of called out ones’. So, when we talk about the church, we a talking about an assembly of people that have been called out by Jesus Christ. Two questions came to mind for me at this point. What are these people being called out from? And, how is Jesus Christ, calling them? Jesus answers the first question in John, chapter 15, and verse19 where He says this to His disciples…
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but, … I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you….(John 15:19).
The church then, is made up of people that God, through His Son Jesus Christ,.. has called out from this world,.. to be become part of an assembly of people who have made a personal decision to listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. People who have believe who He is, the Lord, their Creator, and have made a personal choice just as Jesus’ disciples did, to follow Him. That’s what Jesus Christ is building and so before I answer the second question I had to stop and ask myself a question about what I just learned. Jesus said,” I will build My church”, an assembly of called out people. God through Jesus Christ is calling people to an assembly, and so when I decide that I can believe in Jesus Christ and don’t need to go to a church, (His assembly), and tell others that same thing, then I am working against the very thing that the Lord Jesus Christ said He was building, His church, this assembly of people called out from this world unto Him. I would be working against the very God who created me. I would be working against the very God who gives me my next breath, and pause for a minute and think about this,..I am working against the very God that I am going to stand before and be judged by when I pass from this life. Beloveth, when I thought that way and if I influenced others to think that way, I was speaking and working against God Himself, even though I didn’t realize it. This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples in Matthew, chapter 12, and verse 30…
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. …(Matthew 12:30).
This world or the world system that the Lord Jesus Christ said he is calling people out of is a way of living life that is independent of God. It is a way of living life without any regard for what God has said on matters unless what God has said will make me happy and fulfilled and benefits what I want out of life. It is a way of living that does not want God having authority over my life while I am living because of what that might mean but wants to be received into heaven at the end of life. It is a way of thinking that believes it’s me and the good that I do in life that God will look at to determine if I get into heaven, rather than trust the sacrifice Jesus Christ has told us He made for every one of us on that cross to pay the penalty for our sins against God. Finally, this world system that Jesus Christ is calling people out of is a way of living life based on what each individual feels personally is right or wrong rather than looking at what God Himself has clearly said about matters in the Scriptures. This is what Jesus Christ is calling people out of, and into an assembly,… called the church, -His church.
Having understood that God is building His church, and that this assembly of called out people is His work, and that He has called them out of this world to Himself, my second question I had then is, how is He calling them. When Jesus Christ was on this earth, He called His disciples personally. We can see that in several passages,..
And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him. When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets. And immediately,.. He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and went after Him…..( Mark 1:16-20)
Jesus Christ has ascended back into heaven, but He is still building His church by calling those He wants to be a part of His church, through people who have already believed in Him, and are obeying His call to them to take the message of the gospel that God has given them, to those God is calling out to, from heaven. It is a heavenly call that God, by His Spirit, begins in the heart. This is what the apostle Paul told the church in his letter to the church in Thessalonica.
“But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which,… He called you by our gospel,. for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ….(2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)
God called those who made up the church of the Thessalonians through the message they heard preached. Beloveth, God loves us all so much more than we could ever comprehend with these human minds we have and that is why I call you beloved as I write, because that’s what you are to God, and I want properly relay God’s heart toward you.
What I had realized about myself as I looked back on the time, I was questioning whether I need to go to church or not is this, I felt that way because of my unwillingness to listen to Jesus Christ. I didn’t want Jesus to reign over my life at that time because of what that might mean to me at the time, and it is only when God began to do a work in my heart that that feeling started to change. The sense of the need to go to a church in our hearts, has been put there by God Himself. Make no mistake about it. It is a Heavenly call, and God at times uses people in divinely appointed times, and places, and even the circumstances of our lives to make that Heavenly call to you and me, although we might not realize it is God calling out to us. This is what the apostle Paul is telling those in the church in Corinth,..
“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…….(2 Corinthians 5:20).
It may be a coworker, it may be a friend, it may be a neighbor, it make be a radio program, it may be a preacher at a funeral or in a church service, it may be a relative or it may be a stranger who God causes to cross your path in your life, or it may be difficult times in our lives that God brings about in order to get us to pause for a minute from the business of the everyday cares of life to stop and think about our eternal destiny. Whatever it is, or whoever it is God decides to use to call us, each one of us have to decide how we are going to answer that heavenly call from Him. Jesus says,
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me…( Revelation 3:20)
I want to in closing, speak to the question I once had about whether I can just get a group of people together at my house and call that a church because I am showing them love because God is love, by saying this,..a group of people together at home is not necessarily a church in the sense of what Jesus Christ calls His church that He is building. Why do I say that? Well, because this church that the Lord Jesus Christ said He is building has an order to it that God Himself has setup as it pleased Him.
“But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased… (1 Corinthians 12:18)
Yes, indeed there have been many churches that have started in homes. Most of the churches that you read about in the Bible were started in homes, but here’s the difference I learned. They were in their foundational stage. Their goal which each one pursued, was to set their church up according to the pattern God has set up in the word of God. It is God that has determined who will be a pastor or teacher, or any other leader in His church. You can’t just gather a group together pick a leader and call that a church. God chooses each member’s place in His church as it pleased Him. God gave these gifted people to the church to equip each church member for the work of the ministry He has prepare them for so that each individual member working together as a whole, will accomplish God’s purposes and be built up and edified, until that church looks like Jesus Christ in the character of its members individually and as a church body.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; (Ephesians 4:11-13)
Beloved this is what God is building in calling unto us from Heaven, to be a part of. Now can I worship God at home? Yes I can, and I should. Personal time alone with the Lord is something we all need once we have made that personal decision to receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. If I have really believed He is the one who will determine what my eternal destiny will look like based on what I have decided His place is going to be in my life, then I must allow Him His rightful place as God over my life by submitting to His rule. He wants to hear you and I acknowledge Him as Lord. He is a merciful God who is ready to forgive us when we ready to ask Him. There is no other way to know for sure that Heaven will be your home when you die. If you have not yet done that but in your heart, you sense a need to have peace in your heart about where you will be if you were to die today, then I urge you to go to the “Prayers” page under the “Encouragement” menu to see how to invite Jesus Christ into your life.
Finally, God says to us, do not follow the example of those who choose not to church, or those who don’t make going to church to serve the purposes of God, a priority in their lives. In the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, and verse 25, the Scriptures, which are God’s words to us in print, God says this,..
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching…..( Hebrews 10:24-25)
Is it necessary to go to church? Yes it is,… God actually said that.
God Says Yes, Your Life is Worth Living
One of the most painful things to hear about in the times we live in today, having almost come through a worldwide pandemic that pretty much shut down society as we have known it,.is that there are some precious souls that unfortunately have privately thought about this question,..’is my life worth continuing”.. and for their very own personal and very private reasons never feel comfortable sharing their thoughts that have led them to think about that question with anyone. The isolation that the pandemic bought about, the stress on families and marriage relationships, the loss of love ones, the lack of social activity, the sense of a loss of self-worth, all contribute to stress, anxiety, depression and sense of hopelessness. It may very well be that you are dealing with one or more of these particular things in your own life, and the sheer weight of them just seems unbearable, mentally and emotionally, and you just want out and the only way you see getting out is to end it all. When those types of thoughts run through our minds to be honest, most people really do not feel comfortable telling anybody around you about them. They are the kinds of thoughts can overwhelm our thought life, affecting not only the way we see ourselves now, but how we see any hope for our future,.. even at times wondering within ourselves privately, if this rough time I’m in will ever end, or do I really want to deal with any of this anymore? That then then leads to that question within our heart that our heavenly Father is so concerned about as He looks on the thoughts of our heart, and that question …”is this, is my life worth living on like this?
Belove If this is you, because every one of us has been uniquely created individually, there really is only one other person in the entire universe that knows exactly how you feel, and that is God who created you. What God wants you to know, as He looks at your heart right now and sees you trying to carry that heavy emotional weight that just seems unbearable and has you wondering if it will ever end is this,..God loves you and His concern for your wellbeing is so great, so much greater than you may realize right now, in spite of anything you may feel about yourself,.. and despite what anybody else might think about you. The God that who created you, has such a deep abiding love for you and I that as He looked from Heaven, down through the ages of time as we know it, on what our heart’s greatest need would be, even before we were ever born, He planned to send His Son into this world in the person of Jesus Christ the Lord, so that everyone of us could know the everlasting peace and joy that comes from knowing Him personally, through faith in Jesus Christ his son. God wants you and I to know the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding, that He alone gives,.. now,.. while you are yet living in this life, in spite of your outward circumstances, a peace which God alone gives to those who are willing to call upon Him. It is that God, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them that says to you and I right in the mist of the darkest of valleys in life we may find may ourselves in, with His outstretched arms toward us in His love for us that says,..”yes”,.. your life is worth living”. Belove, it is not by mere chance that you were born in this generation. God has a plan, and purpose for you being here at this time. Listen to what God says about you, me, and everything else He created,…
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 1:16)
There are times when we all read things that just make us just have to stop and reflect a minute in amazement, thinking about what we just read. We stop because we just want to process what we just read and let it sink in. For me, this is one of those things. If all things were created by Him. and for Him,(the Him referring to Jesus Christ), them your life and my life has a God given purpose for being here on earth at this point in history. It is said that the word, “history”, broken up into two words, is His-story. You and I are a part of His- story for this generation. Think about that for a minute. God, in His wisdom chose to have you live in this present generation for His purposes. He didn’t plan for you to live a thousand years ago,..not a hundred years ago, not even a hundred years from now,.. but now, in this time and in this generation, and in this country.
How easy it is to lose sight of that fact as we go through the good times and troubling times in our life. God’s word tells us that some of His greatest servants felt like they just wanted their life to end. Elijah, the prophet of God fell into a hopeless emotional state after being pursued by those seeking to capture him and just wanted his life to end, (1 Kings 19). Jonah, who God saved out of the belly of a great fish for the very purpose of sending him to Nineveh to call the Ninevites to repent and turn to God, wanted to die rather than seeing the Ninevites repent and be spared by God, (Jonah 4:3). Things got so bad emotionally in the life of Jeremiah another prophet of God, that he cursed the day of his birth (Jeremiah 20:14-18), and so did Job the Bible tell us in (Job 3:1-16). What interesting about the life of each of these people is that God used each one of these low points in their lives, and continues to do so even now,.. thousands of years later, to teach us about the great patience He has with us, ..the love He has for us, the great mercy He shows toward people we may think don’t deserve mercy, as well as His faithfulness to us all, in spite of our faults or what we or anybody else may feel about us. Think about this a minute. It is because they endured by God’s grace and did not end their lives, people from every generation after them have been encouraged as we have learned these truths about how the God who loves us deals with us’… through the darkest times they went through in their lives. It probably never even entered their minds at the time that God would use their life to teach many generations to come,.. but God intended to do all that He did with each of their lives,..even before the world was ever created. The Lord sees everything from the beginning of our appointed time here on earth to the very end of our time here and everything in between, before we were ever born. Think about that a minute.
The God that created us eagerly wants a personal relationship with each one of us. God, wants that relationship in spite of how our pass has caused us to feel about ourselves. God wants you and I to walk in His uniquely individual plan for us. Think about this a minute, “Do you know that there has never, in all the Creation of God, ever been anyone ever created exactly like you?,..And there will never be anyone created after you, exactly like you? Do you know that God, before He ever made the first star, before He ever made the Moon and the Sun, God ordained that you would live in this generation? That you would be born into the family you are in, and that you would meet the people you have met and those you will eventually meet doing your lifetime? Now If that doesn’t have you in awe of Him, think about this one,..God even knew you would be reading this blog post on this day,..and at this very moment,..before He ever said “Let there be Light” at the Creation of the world. You were in the mind of God long before you ever existed. Listen to what the Psalmist says of his own thoughts as he thinks about God’s thoughts toward him… ( Psalm 139:17-18),
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You… (Psalms 139:17-18)
In the previous verses he thanks God and praises God as he realizes the unique individual he really is,.. who has been created by an Almighty God,. and for God’s purposes,….
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You,When I was made in secret, ….(Psalms 139:13-15)
Then the Psalmist, having understood the awesome power of God and the foreknowledge of the God who created him says this,
“ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them….. (Psalms 139:16)
He says, God you saw me even before I was formed in my mother’s womb, and you ordained the number of my days, when as yet there was none of them. My days that you ordained for me Lord God, the Psalmist says, you already had them written in your book before I was ever formed in my mother’s womb. Belove, God has a purpose for your life which is precious to God. Notice what God said to the prophet Jeremiah, who God spoke to when he was just a youth,..
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb,.. I knew you; Before you were born,.. I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”….(Jeremiah 1:4-5)
It is this same God, that formed Jeremiah in his mother’s womb and raised him up to be a prophet for Him,..is the same God that also had a purpose in mind for your life when He formed you in your mother’s womb. The very reason you are still alive on this earth today is because God loves you and has a purpose for your life that He still wants you to walk in. It may be that you feel you have messed up and thinking God cannot use my life because of the mess I have made of it,..but what we saw about God from the lives of those mentioned earlier is that God has great patience with us and loves us, in spite of all our flaws and pass bad pass decisions we have made. God delights to show mercy to those who are willing to call upon Him.
Belove if this a dark season in your life right now that seems to have no end, know this for sure,..God wants to bring you out of that night season by calling you to look to the Light of this world, His Son,.. the Lord Jesus Christ.
God sees the weight of the emotional burden and despair you are carrying right now, and God is very much concerned about you, and because the Lord does not want you to harm yourself, when those thoughts of harming yourself are continually on your mind,..know this for sure ,..It is God’s is will for you to seek the help of a professional because God sees the depths of that sense of hopelessness you are feeling as nobody else may understand, and just as God brought those you read about earlier through their valleys, God also wants to bring you through yours. Your life is precious in the sight of God, and yes, God even works through professional therapist so don’t ever, ever hesitate to seek the help of a professional if you feel the need to. That knowledge and wisdom to deal with man’s emotional and intellectual state has been given by our gracious God. The Lord works through people to address the emotional, the intellectual, the spiritual, as well as the physical, and social needs of people. Also, in addition to a therapist, what you will most likely find out is that God will have godly people somewhere in your life’s path, to encourage you and pray for you. It may be a coworker, a neighbor, a relative or even someone you just sat next to on a flight. Even the therapist you eventually decide to go to could end up being that person. Whoever it ends up being just know this, it is no accident or coincidence that they are in your life at this time. They are there by God’s design for God’s purposes toward you.
Finally, belove God Himself wants to be to you, a friend that sticks closer to you than a brother. Think about that one a minute. Take that thought with you the rest of the day. The next time you are out at night, look up at the moon and stars, and those fascinating cloud formations, think about this. The God that created that moon and those stars and ordained those cloud formations you are looking at wants to be your friend. If you have never made a decision to come to God through His Son Jesus Christ trusting Him alone, not your good deeds to get you into heaven, by allowing Him His rightful place as Lord over your life, then God Himself is inviting you to do so today, by going to the “Prayers” page under “Encouragement” menu tab of this website and praying “the prayer to invite Jesus Christ His Son into your life”. Your life is worth living because of His love for you and His desire for you to live in the purposes He has for your life. God actually said that.
Will there Really be a Coming Resurrection from the Dead for Everyone?
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.