Discovering what love is one day at a time
You might be reading this because the title caused some curiosity, or because you agree, or not. You may just be bored and have stumbled upon it. No matter the case, I invite you to continue reading… Often I find myself in conversation with friends that believe quite the opposite of what I do. The bonus of relationship is that in that context, we get to discuss the things we do not see eye to eye on. I love my friends, but that does not mean that I agree with them in all things. I love to have conversations about life, not just what’s going on in our daily lives, but deeper…about what’s going on in our hearts... Lately, many conversations have started out with someone saying something along the lines of…”well, all paths lead to God…right?” It is a good question, but I believe it has a two part answer. Yes…and No… Perhaps as you read this, you find that you do not agree…that is ok, I just ask that you read on, and hear what is on my heart… All paths will eventually lead you to God, for sure… on the Day that we stand before Him in judgment. "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10 This leads us to a very pressing issue. Life. Eternal Life. We all will stand before God one day and be judged, but only those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ will enter heaven… We only have two options that we get to choose from in this lifetime. One choice is eternal life, the other is eternal death. Jesus came so that we may have life and that we may have it more abundantly. (This is for HERE & NOW and after our life here on earth ends.) The God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, says in John 14:6 “I am the Way the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.” All paths lead to God, eventually, but only one of them leads to heaven and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus refers to Himself as the door… “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” The devil, the enemy of our souls, comes only to steal kill and destroy. His desire is that we would perish… eternally. He also desires that we live a life of confusion, not knowing or understanding the inheritance we have in Christ. Thus the lie that all paths lead to God, they do not, unless you want to skip the part about eternal life and just go directly to hell…like the game Monopoly...( Go to Jail…Do not pass Go…do not collect 200 dollars) SATANS LIE..Directs us directly to Hell. When you have believed Satan’s lie, you do not get a pass from God when you die, if you were a good person, practiced religion, or realized your highest self, etc… The Bible is very specific about why this is. All fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:10 says,” There is none righteous, no not one.” None of us can meet the requirement of holiness. But Christ offers FORGIVENESS and SALVATION to ALL. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned”--Ro 5:12 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ro 6:23 Sin separates us from God. PERIOD. Do all paths lead to heaven? Many religions boast that the name they have for God is the same as the God of Heaven, and that He has many names…or even that you can decide what name is best for you to use to visualize God. Unless one of those names is Jesus Christ…then the god you are talking about isn’t the God of heaven. It is true, God does have many names, but Jesus Christ is one of them, and He cannot be excluded. The Godhead is Father, Son & Holy Spirit. None of these names can be taken out of the picture, or it isn’t the God of heaven, the God of the Bible, or the God of this universe. There are no other God’s worshipped with the God of Heaven. He will not give his glory to another. Belief in Christ includes obeying His Word. …Do all paths lead to heaven? No…because if that is the case, then the God of the Bible is cruel. Why would He send His Son to die for our sins if we could have fellowship with Him any other way? Why would He require His sinless and spotless Son to take on the sins of the world, take our blame, be separated from Him, die a brutal death on the cross, and rise again? “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Ro 5:8 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ro 6:23 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, " Ro 1:20 The following is an example a quote taken from Ramakrishna … “A path will do only if it is characterized by sincerity, earnestness, and single-minded devotion. Only then will we find that all paths lead to God. “ SAY WHAT? So basically if I am sincere, earnest and singly minded devoted to God I will reach Him? This leaves all the work up to me. Even if I tried hard...for a half of a day or my whole life, I would still fall short of the glory of God. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Sin is Darkness...Without Christ I am shrouded, covered by my sin…I am the walking dead…sin separates me from life. I cannot visualize sin away…I do not have anything in me to change it, or keep me from it. Once I die, my sin is my death sentence to eternal death…Hell. Sin is death. Certainly…all paths will eventually have me standing before God…for we will all be judged (we will all stand before Him)…but only those who do not forsake Him, only those who receive the gift of eternal life, who do not refuse him, who choose to accept His gift of Salvation by faith will see, know and experience forgiveness and eternal life, and not eternal death. Isn’t it interesting that many of the world’s religions talk about a path to God…yet Jesus Christ isn’t religion, He is all about relationship. He is all about reaching out to us, because, in our sin we cannot reach God, we do not have access to our Holy God. It is through Christ’s sacrifice, His death and resurrection that we have boldness and access to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Why? Because Christ offers us forgiveness for our sins…no other path, no other religious or spiritual practice can give us forgiveness and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness… Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 This is not a new discussion… “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:24 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and Only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting Life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” John 3:16-17 God is the one who reaches out to us, and has since the beginning; Jesus Christ has made a way for us to fellowship with the Father. There is no other way. “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” John 14:1-14:4 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”Ro 10:9-10 “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Ro 10:13 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Ro 5:1 Ro 8:1 "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit..." “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Ro 8:38-39 How amazing is it that Jesus Christ suffered the separation from God when He took our sin past present and future, He became the sin sacrifice. He did for us what we can never do for ourselves. He is the pure and spotless lamb, which took our place. He became sin for us. He is the only one that could & He did. Thanks for hearing me out. This whole path question/eternal life/death/ heaven/hell … we all have to answer it for ourselves. I would love to hear what you believe. AND why you believe the way that you do. Remember it’s ok if you don’t agree with me. I will not force you to think the same way I do, however, I will ask you many questions to understand where you are coming from. The question we all have to answer for ourselves is if we agree with what God says, because ultimately He is our judge. And the truth is…He loves you even if you do not agree with Him. He will let you choose eternal death instead of eternal life. He will not force you to choose heaven, and neither will I.
1 Comment
Jamie
8/8/2017 04:15:31 am
I agree. I haven't found another god that loved me enuff to die for me... so sticking to my Savior!!
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AuthorI have been married to my wonderful husband for 29 years. We have two young men ages 25 and 20.. This blog is somewhat of a journal and attempt for me to remind myself of my purpose and invite others to join me in keeping an eternal perspective as we move through each day. Archives
May 2023
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