GOD LOVES YOU, REALLY

The Bible says God has no delight in the death of the sinner. “For
I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign
Lord. Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:32 NIV). He demonstrates that
fact in at least four different ways.

• First, He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for sin, “For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16 NIV).

• Second, He put His word into writing, the Bible, and instructed Christians
to take the message to the entire world, so that they may be saved,
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then, can they
call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One
of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:13-15 NIV).

• Thirdly, He has delayed His return to allow more time for people to get saved,
“The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV).

• And lastly, He is elated every time a sinner repents.
“There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10 NIV).

The synonyms for ‘rejoicing’ include: Joy, elation, delight,
satisfaction, jubilation and exultation. Will God, the Creator of
the universe, be rejoicing? It must be a big deal when a sinner
repents. I can just imagine the angels cheering as He; the Creator
claps, and takes to the dance floor.

Justice is one of God’s attributes, and that compels Him to
judge sin. Loving us does not interfere with His nature. Parents
sometimes say to their children who keep disobeying, “Don’t make
me.” I believe in the same way, God really doesn’t want to have to
judge or punish us, but we leave Him no choice, when we refuse to
respond to his love. His joy is in seeing sinners come to repentance
not in seeing them die in their sins. If you have not believed in
Jesus, the Son of God, for your salvation, don’t wait any longer.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone.

Repentance is not possible after death, so repent today, while you are able to,
and call on Jesus to save you. Don’t make Him send you to hell. Honestly,
He doesn’t want to, but He will if you “make” Him. He will not compromise
His nature to accommodate your stubbornness and disbelief. Call on Jesus today!

GOD

                                          

Most people worship a deity they call God, and some like to believe
it is the same God everybody worships, regardless of how. I say it’s
not the same God. How can I tell?

• My God is a triune God, consisting of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man
in our image, in our likeness’’ (Genesis 1:26 NIV).
“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily
form” (Colossians 2:9 NIV).
If you can’t say this about your God, then you have a different one.

• My God became flesh and dwelt among men, in the
person of Jesus Christ. “The word became flesh and made
his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory
of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth” (John 1:14 NIV).
Is this true of your God?

• My God hates sin, loves the sinner, and so made provision
for sin by dying in the person of Jesus Christ (see John 3:16).
Is this true of your God?

• My God died in the person of Jesus and was buried, but
did not see decay. He rose again on the third day (see Acts 2:31-32).
Is this true of your God?

• My God ascended into heaven forty days after his
resurrection (see Acts 1:3, 9-11).
Can you say that about your God?

• My God is offering salvation to all who will believe in
Jesus, because He said of Him, “This is my Son, whom
I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him” Matthew 17:5 NIV).
The Son, Jesus, said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6 NIV).
If your God is not offering salvation, he definitely is not
the God I know.

• My God is coming back to earth in the near future,
and every eye shall see Him. Acts 1:11 Is yours coming
back?
• My God promises life after death. “For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord” (Romans 6:23 NIV). How about yours?

If any of these truths are not true of your God, then we are not
worshiping the same God. That makes me very concerned about
you, because there is only one God. You might just be trying to
do the best you can, and hoping that in the end, it would turn out
that you’ve been worshiping the One and only true God. That is
a dangerous position to take. Don’t wait to die to discover that
the God you worshiped did not really exist. If your intentions are
to worship the One and only God, the Creator of the universe,
then the only way to Him is through Jesus Christ. Trying to get
to God any other way will not get you there. Why? Because the
Bible says, “God our Savior wants all men to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth; “For there is one God and
one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
who gave Himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Timothy 2:4-6 NIV).

I understand that you might be finding it difficult to admit you’ve
been wrong and you’ve been misled, but it is better to be wrong
now than later. Admit it now, and come to God through Jesus
Christ. Put your faith in Jesus, today! He will save you and give you
the assurance of salvation to put your mind to rest, “I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God (Jesus) so
that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13 NIV).

Don’t let pride stop you!

WHEN GOD REMOVES HIS HAND

Sometimes things just don’t go right, no matter what we do. No
amount of prayers, personal or corporate, offered to God seem to
make any difference. In fact,  most often, situations get worse or
remain unchanged.

We know God is touched by our pain, even though sometimes
it seems He is on vacation, asleep or too busy with more important
issues. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15 NIV). The devil on the other hand starts
the trouble and looks for more ways to make it as unbearable as
possible. He is determined to destroy us and our relationship
with God.

The promises of God are such that one will think life should
be smooth sailing for us. But not so! Instead, quite often, we run
into unbelievable problems. I believe we run into problems when
God removes His hand of protection and provision, making us
vulnerable. Why would God do something like that, knowing the
devil is out there like a roaring lion, waiting for the opportunity to
pounce on us? (see 1 Peter 5:8).

There are at least two reasons:
• One, God is confi dent we can handle it, and wants to
prove to the devil that we will go all the way with Him
no matter what. Scary thought indeed! Remember Job? He was
content to be a Godly man. He was not out to prove
anything to anyone, but God was. God started that whole
conversation with the devil about Job’s integrity. Couldn’t
He have left it alone? All of a sudden, Job’s world came
crushing down, for no apparent reason. To make matters
worse, the miserable comforters (ignorant friends) who
went to supposedly sympathize with him only judged and
criticized him, adding insult to injury.

• Two, it could be, there is sin in the camp! Remember
Achan? With God’s help the walls of Jericho had
collapsed, meaning a big victory for the Israelites.
Ai, being a smaller city than Jericho was going to be
undoubtedly a piece of cake for the Israelites to conquer,
but to their surprise, they were literally chased out of
town in disgrace. Why? Achan had sinned (see Joshua 7). All
of a sudden, they no longer had Gods protection. In
Isaiah 5, God likened the Israelites to a vineyard He had
lovingly cared for, that yielded bad fruit. His response to
that situation was, “I will take away its hedge, and it will
be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be
trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor
cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will
command the clouds not to rain on it” (Isaiah 5:5-6 NIV).

I believe the only time the devil can touch us is when God
removes His hand of protection. (Giving him permission) If God
is out to prove something, we’ll just have to go along with His
program, trusting Him to sustain us through the experience. On
the other hand, if it’s because of sin in the camp, let’s repent so we
can be restored.