I love the theology you can find in the children’s songs….
Read your bible, pray everyday, and you’ll grow grow grow!!
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Growing in Christ takes work every day, reading the bible, learning to pray….Little by little, inch by inch, by the yard it’s hard, by the inch it’s a cinch.
We can all grow, grow, grow up!
No church saves, but you want a church that allows the bible to be the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. They will help you grow.
No church saves, but if you go to a place that doesn’t care what the bible says, or lets tradition like the Catholics, doctrines of men, other books such as the book of Mormons, societies like the Watchtower, they will keep you from the truth, which means churches can help keep you damned.
No church is perfect. But my trust isn’t in them. Don’t put off getting to a good, bible preaching church.
Many people who wait for the 11th hour to get right with God, die at 10:30.
The bible says prepare to meet thy God. We are talking about growing, but you have to start somewhere. Birth is a start. If you never were originally saved, you won’t grow. You can’t grow. The bible will continue to be a boring, dry book that you can’t understand.
Someone said, get smart, get saved!
The world knows about preparing for the final exam, getting things in order etc. We need to live prepared if we want to die prepared. Somehow modern Christianity has you pray a prayer and not worry about anything of eternal consequences until you get to heaven. That doesn’t make sense with any other thing this world offers.
Jesus hit the nail on the head when he said, “for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”
The world understands a lot more of Christianity than most Christians do today.
For example, you can’t claim to be a Red Sox fan and wear Yankee paraphernalia.
You can’t claim to be a Grateful Dead fan and not own tie-die.
You know a tree by it’s fruit. Whatever you spend the most time with, whatever has your heart, is what you truly worship. You can claim Jesus with your lips, and deny Him by your lifestyle, and if it wouldn’t fly with anything else this world offers, why will it fly with the LORD OF LORDS?
He says if we are lukewarm, He will spue us out. He says He will say to many “believers/ professors” on Judgment day, “Depart from me for I never knew you.”
It basically will sound the same as if Jesus said, Depart from me for I never grew you.
We have a false Christ if it seems He could care less how we live after salvation. It is not works of righteousness, but if there are no fruits of repentance, WATCH OUT! CHECK OUT YOUR SALVATION!
Choose you this day whom ye will serve;
Which side of the Cross are you on?
There is the unrepentant thief hanging on one side of Jesus. And the thief that believed Jesus and believed Him enough to look to Him.
Folks, the cross is the only place really where the LOVE of GOD is MEETS AND reconciled with the JUSTICE and WRATH of God. Many are counting on the LOVE of God to save them instead of embracing the CROSS and God’s single way of salvation. But it is the LOVE of God that will end up damning them because THE CROSS PROVES HOW MUCH GOD LOVED US….BECAUSE IT ALSO PROVES HOW MUCH HE HATES SIN.
You cannot save yourself. And to ignore the truth because you think you will do better to live in denial, will not save you on the Day of Judgment. You have an appointment and I beg, urge, plead with you to be ready. Only the saved will be ready. And only the saved who are sold-out to Jesus will face HIM unashamed.
The bible asks, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?
It is a rhetorical question, because the obvious answer is YOU CAN’T.
Most people who die, die lost. Wide is the path to destruction. Yes, you never know many times if God was dealing with folks, but if someone lived most of their life either rejecting or neglecting God, it is very unlikely that in their final moments they will suddenly turn to Jesus.
When someone dies and they are likely in hell, to me it seems difficult to speak the truth when someone says, “at least their suffering is over.” or “At least they are in a better place.” Hell is a real place, as harsh as it is. No, if someone died lost, they are not in a better place. No, their suffering is only beginning.
We seem to not want to offend or slander our dead loved ones, but if they died lost, they are begging those still here to realize that hell is real and for those still alive to wake up before it is too late.
There is no reason to suspect that this is merely a parable.
Please read this passage, and ask God to show you the way out.
Luke 16: 19-31 shows a powerful story of saved vs. lost. Before Jesus died on the cross, hell was in the belly of the earth (where it is still today) but those who were believers were in a place separated but visible called Abraham’s bosom. When Jesus “let captivity captive” He went there and basically unlocked the saved only and took them to heaven. Now to be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord, according to the Bible. If you are saved.
The bible says,
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
See that? The dead are not wishing anyone would join them. If they could go back from the dead for 5 seconds, they would get saved because they would have had the heart changed needed to embrace the cure.
If you don’t let God change your heart, and let the Bible anchor your thoughts, you are really a puppet of the god of this world, the devil.
This hasn’t changed in 2000 years. Human beings prove over and over they simply can’t think for themselves and only know how to follow the crowd, whatever it is doing and where ever it is going.
If the crowd says, “Save mother earth!” they repeat it dressed to fit.
If the crowd shouts, “Crucify HIM!” they see who can yell the loudest.
You must see you are going the wrong way before Jesus can begin to change your heart.
If you don’t get heart washed, you will stay brain washed.