The oldest book in the Bible, Job, contains one of the oldest dilemmas man faces.
Job 25:4 How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
So what do we do? Do we live in hopelessness or turn over a new leaf? No. We must be justified before God.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Romans 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is extended to all, but only avails for those who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a gift we receive by faith.
When my husband put on his "going-some-place" shirt, our English Bulldog knew the sign. He ran with excitement to the door.
Signs of prophecy tell us that Christ could return any day for His saints. We should look up and be excited.
1 Thessalonians 4:16 For The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet The Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with The Lord.
That's why we sing "I'll Fly Away" at my church. Wow! Can you imagine that trip?
Will you be with the saints? Trust Him today as your personal Savior.
People can tell who and what we are by how we act. God wants us to grow and learn about Him. He wants us to produce spiritual fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
But we can't produce the fruit on our own. God does it through us.
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
The branch can't say, "Look what I've done," because the vine (Christ) flows inside the core of the brench (born-again believers).
We are not robots. We have emotions and fears, and God has to work through that. Sometimes He has to prune sin from our lives.
The more we submit our life to Christ, the more fruit we bear.
If our prayers are common and mundane, perhaps we are out of practice. Prayer should be our first immediate response to every need. Our Savior prayed "fervently".
Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared.
Do you sense the fervency, the intensity in this verse? It's no wonder that after hearing Jesus pray, His disciples asked, "Lord teach us to pray."
When we pray, do we realize who we are speaking to? This sacred God created heaven and earth, parted the Red Sea, and shut the Lions' mouth. This God was the fourth man in the fire, protecting the three Hebrew children. This God sent his beloved Son to redeem us. Worship Him in prayer.
You must believe in Jesus if you want to go to heaven. Did you know, according to God's Word, hell is real?
Christ didn't want anybody to go to hell. That is why He came to the world to pay your sin debt. People go to hell by choice. They choose not to believe in Jesus.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness: but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentence.
John 3:16,17 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Have you repented of your sins and believed on Jesus?
God is always speaking. If we listen, He will speak with a still, small voice. If we are too occupied to listen, others measures are necessary.
C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a dead world."
While on a trip to Damascus to threaten and slaughter the disciples of Jesus, God got Mr. Saul's attention in a big way. His audible voice enhanced by a bright light from heaven temporarily blinded him. The men with him were speechless.
Acts 9:4-6 And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" And The Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the prinks."
What a dramatic encounter! "Lord, what do you want me to do?" God changed his name to Paul. My, my; what a way to call the greatest missionary-church planter, Bible writer, and martyr.
"Lord, what will you have me to do?"
