spiritwarfare

Submission and Obedience

IT'S NOT GOD'S FAULT YOU'RE LOST!

You live your life according to your own preferences. Your priorities center on providing for yourself, your family and taking care of life's necessities as well as you can. You want as much profit from your job, your earnings, as possible. At the end of the day, you have little or no time to consider your future, much less your destiny. But, sir, ma'am, Jesus said this:

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Matthew 16:26.

Have you given any thought at all to where you will spend eternity? Do you ever think about heaven and hell? Do you ever consider God and His power?

You say you don't believe there is a hell. You think it's a swear word...or the place where the devil lives, if there is a devil. You don't believe God exists, either. You don't believe the Creation story about how the world came into existence, or that one day all injustices will be made right.

Just because you think a fact isn't true doesn't make it untrue. Perhaps you are a victim of the day in which we live. Evolution has replaced God's story of how He created the earth and everything that is on it. Therefore, God has no such ability or authority to do it, so it's OK for you to disregard moral values and societal mores. Live and let live; tolerate life-styles utterly unimagined 50 years ago. Your byword is "freedom" to do and to be whatever you want.

Before you stop reading this, please consider finishing the article. Give it that much latitude, then reach your conclusions.

In the Bible's New Testament, it says:

"There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man." John 1:9.

This was written about Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God in human flesh. God says He, Jesus, gives an awareness of His existence to every person born on the planet. Therefore, when your conscience bothers you, it is God trying to get your attention, whether or not you acknowledge Him.

Another passage in the Bible says,

"...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13.

Jesus further said:

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him..." John 6:44.

The three passages just quoted emphasize the fact that you cannot decide WHEN to come to Jesus and receive Him as your Lord and Savior. You need a divine calling, a heavenly urging that comes only and exclusively from God Himself at His willing, not yours.

How many times in the past have you felt a tug on your heart? When did you sense that the accident you almost had, the illness you survived though it was very serious, the miraculous payment of a debt you feared you could not meet was God pulling you toward Himself?

What did you do with that priceless call from God? Did you squelch it, push it down into your subconsciousness, intentionally busy yourself with a project, or go to sleep to avoid thinking? Do you realize that each time you refuse to listen to God's voice calling, you are pushing yourself farther and farther out of range of His voice until someday you won't hear Him at all? Please remember one thing: You cannot come to Jesus unless the Father calls you. When you no longer hear His voice, it may be too late!

The day will come, if it hasn't already, when you will not hear His voice in any dimension. You will have so grieved the loving God who wants to rescue you from damnation that He will have received your message that you don't want to be bothered and to leave you alone.

My own great grandfather was just 12 years old when God spoke to his heart. Gramps said, "If you don't bother me again, I won't bother you," to God. God honored that word and never spoke to him again.

When he was in his late eighties and on his death bed, my saintly great grandmother cared for him day in and out. Now in his old age, Gramps knew he was close to eternity, and he wasn't ready! My great grandmother led him to Jesus and he died a saved man.

My father was very close to Gramps, who was his grandfather. All his life, Dad refused to give his heart to Jesus because Gramps had done it, too. Years after Gramps had passed to heaven, I heard from a third cousin the story of how Gramps was born again before he died. Immediately I contacted my family and told them the story. In a short while Dad attended a men's evangelistic meeting and gave his heart to Jesus, also. He died of a heart attack weeks later.

How kind of God to give my Gramps and my dad one more opportunity to hear His voice. They made it to heaven. What about you? Whose fault is it that you're not born again? Jesus gave us that answer:

"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." John 3:19-20.

If you wind up in hell some day, you will have only yourself to blame. Following exposure of all your sins before Jesus' tribunal at the end of time (Revelation 20:11-15), you will suffer for all eternity eaten by regrets in the lake of fire that never stops burning.

God is a gentleman. He forces no one to believe in Him. He wants to be loved, but love must be voluntary to be love. The verse above makes it plain that you are the reason you are not yet born again. God tries to bring every person to saving faith in Jesus and His atoning death and resurrection for their sins and condemnation, but you're the one who must come to Him.

Thank you for reading this. While there still is time, say "Yes" to God and humble yourself before Him in repentance. He will save your soul and put your feet on the road to heaven. The ball is in your court. Ask Him to help you NOW!

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Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®
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