Not Finished Yet - I Am a Work In Progress - Be Patient With Me
"What I Believe about God Is the Most Important Thing about Me" - A.W.Tozer
“Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and everyone else” ~ 1Thessalonians 5:15
But always try to be kind, good, and nice to each other … and everyone else. What do ‘each other’ mean in this passage? Paul talks to church members… so we should first and most be kind to our closest people: to our family members, close friends, church members … AND everyone else.
Often is easier to be kind with strangers, because they don’t hurt you. Those close to you are more likely to hurt you more often. So how do you respond? They are rude, so you are rude. They poke you, you poke them back, they don’t invite you to a family event, next time you’ll “forget” to add them to the guess list, they don’t call for your Birthday, so you don’t call either and the list goes on and on.
Today I went shopping with someone who will visit my relatives and I picked up something to one of the family members. The person looks at me and said: why do you worry to send her anything when she didn’t send you anything when I came to your place.Because, I just don’t want to be like her. How often do we complain about someone’s unfair treatment, but we want to somehow make them feel what we felt. By paying back to those who hurt us, with the same treatment we become just like them, we become the person whom we criticized.
Unfortunately, our human nature wants to pay back the wrongdoing to those who do wrong to us. Why? Because we were hurt and hurt people, hurt people! The only way we can escape this circle is by giving our pain to our Father. When someone hurts me, I go to God and confess that it hurts, I don’t pretend.
In prayer I will tell my Father: “Dad, I been hurt today. It hurts, that they don’t remember me, it hurts that they didn’t send me anything, it hurts that they don’t even want to talk with us, we are family, we suppose to love each other, Dad it hurts. Please take away my pain, I want to forgive them, but on my own I can’t. So help me to forgive them, help me to love them, help me to love them just the way I would of if they would have been nice to me. Thank you Father that you love them, help me to be able to extend your love to them. Amen”
When you give away your pain to God, when you ask him to help you move on…God will come and comfort you and somehow give you a compassion for them and you’ll start loving them even more. Jesus said: “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” ~ Matthew 5:44 Ouch…this is not easy to follow. I honestly believe without God is impossible. When you give God your pain, he will heal your heart and restore the brokenness. You’ll only be able to extend love if you receive it first.
When someone hurts you, go to God first and with his help choose to just return blessing over them, act the way you would of act if they would have been wonderful to you. Trust me, they will be shocked. God did the same with us, when we cared less about him,when we turned our back on him, when we choose to do our ways, when we purposely did what we knew is wrong, God choose to give us his best, God choose to love us with this undeserved amazing love, God over showered us with his blessings, just to get our attention and be in awe of him.
Let’s see what a difference we can make in those around us if we choose to pay back with good for bad.
P.S. I'll let you know how she'll react when she'll receive her gift.
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- God’s Desire
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God desires a personal relationship with us. Understand that God wants to give you a life filed with joy and peace. God wants us to have a life not just to make it through but an abundant and eternal life because he loves you.
"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ~ John 10:10
"We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" ~ Romans 5:1
But to giving you abundant life required the supreme sacrifice:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" ~ John 3:16
What a wonderful gift the Father has given. If God gave His own Son to provide an abundant and everlasting life, why more people don’t have what He has designed for us to receive?
- Our Problem
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We were created in God’s image for an abundant and joyful life with the ability and need to know God and have a personal relationship with Him. But our freedom of choice of disobedience caused a separation and gap between God and us.
"But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" ~ Isaiah 59:2
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." ~ Romans 3:23
People always try to fill that empty void in their lives with "things." They even try good works, morality, and religion. Yet they remain empty, for only God, through His Son, can fill that emptiness.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” ~ Proverbs 14:12
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." ~ Romans 6:23
Our Problem is that sin separated us from God. But
God provided only ONE SOLUTION
- God’s Solution
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God has provided only one solution to sin and separation from Himself.
Jesus Christ, His Son, is the only way to God.
Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sin and rebellion against God and bridged the gap between God and humanity by dying on the cross, shedding His blood, and rising from the dead to justify and reconcile you back to God the Father.
"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." ~ 1Peter 3:18
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." ~ Romans 5:8
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." ~ Ephesians 2:8,9
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" ~ 1Timothy 2:5
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. “~ John 14:6
God so loved us that he gave his only Son to bridge the gap between us and the Father. God has provided the only way, the only solution. You have to take a decision and choose how to respond to God’s provision.
- Our Response
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Your relationship with God can be restored and you can be brought back into his family by trusting in Christ alone who can save your life from destruction. Jesus is the bridge to the Father but you have to choose to trust him, you have to make a step forward him, you have to step out in faith and give your life to God. At the Cross you can exchange your worst for Jesus’ best.
This step happens by asking Jesus Christ to take away your sin and to come into your heart to be your Lord and Savior.
The Bible says...
"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." ~ Romans 10:9"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." ~ John 1:12
"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." ~ Revelation 3:20
Would you like to invite Jesus to be part of your life, to be your Lord and Savior now? You can start a new life with him. It doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, what you did in the past. When you give your life to Jesus you can start all over again. With Jesus you can have a new chance again.
- Receive Christ
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If you too need Jesus to give you a new start, if you realized that Jesus is all you need then here is how you can receive Christ:
Admit your need (I am a sinner).
Be willing to turn from your sins (repent).
Believe that Jesus Christ died for you on the Cross and rose from the grave.
Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive Him as Lord and Savior.)At this moment you can pray the most important prayer of your life by simply saying:
Dear Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God. I believe you died for me on the cross and shed Your blood for my salvation. I believe you rose from the dead and ascended in Heaven. I believe You are coming back again to earth. Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. Forgive my sins. Cleanse me now with Your precious blood. I want to turn from sins. I invite you to come into my heart. I give you my life now. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior. I receive You now as my Savior, my Lord, and my God. I am Yours forever, I belong to You only. I no longer belong to this world, nor to the enemy of my soul. Amen!
If you sincerely prayed this prayer, confessed your sins, and received Jesus Christ into your heart, God has given you the right to become His child.
The Bible gives you this assurance:
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ~ Romans 10:13"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." ~ Ephesians 2:8,9
This is just the beginning of a wonderful new life in Christ. If you have just received Jesus Christ into your life, we want to rejoice with you. Click here to send us your salvation praise report.
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Books I Read
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Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference By Max Lucado |
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The Purpose Driven Life, Softcover By Rick Warren |
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The Hole in Our Gospel - Limited Editon By Richard Stearns |
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The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as if He Doesn't Exist By Craig Groeschel |
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