Category: About Salvation

Three Truths

On By revkellyandersonIn About SalvationLeave a comment
Listen along!

There are three TRUTHS that all people need to know:

  1. God is real and in control of all things;
  2. God loves every person and desires a personal, ongoing relationship with us;
  3. We can have a loving and intimate relationship with Him through Jesus.

What is it that keeps us from knowing God, from being aware of His presence, and from hearing His voice? The quick answer is that we are physical beings living in a physical, three-dimensional world and God is not limited to our three dimensions. He is beyond our capacity to perceive Him unless He reveals Himself to us. So, don’t worry if you’ve never noticed God before. Hopefully, you will soon.

In case you’re in a hurry, here’s the skinny of the problem:  We have two enemies. One is our sin nature, which when followed leads to self-destruction; the second one is Satan, and he has deceived all mankind into believing that we don’t have a sin nature and that this physical world is all there is because “if there was a God, He wouldn’t let bad things happen to good people.” That’s the lie; the truth is that there are NO good people; we all have chosen to follow our sin nature, and the “bad things” that happen to us are the result of the consequences of our own bad choices. We live our lives without any regard to our Creator and His plans for us. It’s called REBELLION, which is the very definition of sin. We choose to do what we want to do, and that attitude has led us to the dark side of self-destruction and separation from God. The good news is that we all begin in the same boat; the bad news is that eventually that boat will sink with us in it! All who are bent on refusing to obey God and living according to their sin nature are on the road to self-destruction. It’s not God’s doing; it’s OUR doing! But, we can’t help ourselves. We need Someone to save us. Enter Jesus Christ. God loved the world–that’s us–so much that He came to earth in Jesus to save us. How? Well, if you’ve ever watched an epic movie, there is always someone who gives his life so that others can live. That’s what Jesus did. We had a sin debt that was destroying us, so He came and died for us so that we could live free of that debt. The difference in Jesus is that since He is God, He had the power to take up His life again. In other words, He rose from the dead! 

So, if we believe that Jesus is God in human form, that He paid our sin debt, dying in our place and then rose again, we know what we need to know to be saved. But, head knowledge isn’t enough. We must trust in Him. For example, we believe that a chair will hold our weight, but we only trust in the chair when we actually sit in it. Do you believe that Jesus has a plan for your life? Do you believe that He wants to enter your heart (that part of you that is your essence, your consciousness) and lead you, love you, and transform you into the person He has always wanted you to be? That’s what we are saved TO. But, what are we saved from? We are saved from self-destruction in hell, which is where people go who have chosen to remain separated from God and are not prepared spiritually to stand in His presence. When a person trusts Jesus Christ, he is made ready spiritually to be in the presence of God forever! In fact, Jesus comes to live in us until we die, and then we get to see God face to face. We are already either living with God or living separated from God. It’s our choice.

There is a passage that describes our relationship with Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:6-10 says,

 [6] For he raises us from the dead along with Christ…God saves you by his special favor when you trust in Him. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. [9] Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. [10] For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things and become the people he planned for us to be long ago. 

So far, all you have is information, but it’s much more than that! God wants a personal, thriving relationship with you, so let’s wait for Him to call you to Himself. What does that look like? First, you will believe that what you now know about Jesus and His offer of salvation is true. Next, you will see yourself from His perspective as He reveals it to you. That perspective is that He loves and does not want you to be destroyed by your sin and be unprepared to be with Him and enjoy His presence. You will want to cry out to Him and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Then wait. When your heart is fully ready and sincere, He will do all the work. He will give you a new nature, one that is like His, when He comes to live in your heart! You will recognize Him by His peace, His joy, and His overwhelming love. 

The Bible says that God adopts us as His children! Wow! I will ask God my Father to reveal Himself to you and that you will respond to His invitation to be His child. When you do, please let me know. I will rejoice with you!

Created to Reflect God’s Glory

On By revkellyandersonIn About Salvation, For My Polish FriendsLeave a comment

Standing beside the grave and looking at the urn, reflected upon death. The body dies, but the soul continues to live. Has this separation of body and soul always been this way? The answer is no. Death was NOT God’s original design.

What was the purpose of our creation? What did God design us to do?

God’s word, the Bible, tells us that we were created in God’s image to reflect His glory. Let’s consider a prism. Each prism is unique. Each one reflects light differently. It is what makes us individuals.

Originally, we were designed to live forever in perfect bodies. We walked in sweet fellowship with our Creator. Our predecessors’ love and trust were complete in His presence. What changed that? Mankind’s failure to trust God. Our original parents, Adam and Eve, chose to believe that God was holding something back from them, so they chose to believe a lie rather than His truth—and it killed them. It killed us, too. We all believe the lie that God is hiding something from us, something fun and exciting. So, we go looking for whatever that something is, trying all kinds of things that aren’t good for us. Consequently, we can live our entire lives without consulting God for anything. This attitude of arrogance and rebellion is called sin because it leads us to live contrary to how God wants us to live. And here’s the hard part: sin destroys. Living without God leads to the destruction of our lives and ultimately our souls, and it breaks God’s heart!

If we are created to reflect God’s glory, how can we get back to that? We talked about living life without God, so let’s talk about how we can get that relationship back.

God is a perfect gentleman and he would never force on us a relationship with himself. He comes to each of us sometime in our lives and invites us to know him on a personal basis. In fact, he has done everything necessary for us to be reunited in a right relationship with him. That said, our choices of rebellion and refusal to trust him are like taking this prism and dipping it in mud. I mentioned that God had done everything necessary. Here is what he did: he came to earth as Jesus to pay the penalty for our rebellion. He did that on the cross for us. Now, anyone who turns to Jesus for forgiveness and guidance is like this prism (wash prism in water). Now we can reflect the light of God once again!

But it’s better than that. He now puts his light, his person, in us to shine from within us. We can now have a personal, ongoing relationship with the God of the universe through Jesus Christ.

I’ll leave you with these three things:

  1. God loves you and wants to be in your life—in you.
  2. Jesus Christ is the person through whom God works to connect with us. He offers us His peace.
  3. I will be praying that Jesus comes to you sometime over these next few days and asks you to allow Him to wash away your sin; make Him the Lord and light of your life so that you can reflect his glory.

The price has already been paid; the work has already been done. Trust Jesus. He is trustworthy.

I’m Not So Bad…Am I?

On By revkellyandersonIn About Salvation, I'm Not So Bad...Am I?Leave a comment

No, you are not. But, you ARE deceived. We have been sold a bill of goods and God wants to correct our way of thinking about ourselves and about Him.

God wants us to see ourselves as He sees us. In order for us to do that, there are a couple of things we need to get straight:

  1. Jesus is God in the flesh. When we “see” one, we “see” the other. They are different in person, but not in character. In fact, the third Person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. They are Three-In-One, complete in fellowship and one in thought and purpose. Therefore, whatever Jesus says about His Father, and anything Jesus does, represents God the Father perfectly.
  2. God gave us free will–complete free will. We have the ability to choose not to receive His love. Why would anyone refuse the Father’s love? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about.

We are created in the Trinity’s image. There is SO MUCH about us that is in three’s: Body, soul and spirit; mind, will and emotion; intellect, feelings and physical (to name a few). Mankind interacted with the Trinity on all of these levels. But then, man chose to believe a lie, and that lie led to rebellion. The lie came from the enemy (a discussion for another time). Once the deed was done, they no longer saw themselves as loveable.

Let’s stop right here and ask, “What has changed in the relationship?” Nothing except their perception. What did God do? He came looking for them. Were there consequences for their rebellion? Yes, but they were not punishment, only consequences. In fact, we are still living according to those consequences today. Are they God’s fault? No. He didn’t punish us with them; they are a distortion of the good world that God had created for us.

In the perpetuation of the lie, we fear death. Jesus came to reintroduce us to the Father and to experience everything we fear–even death! Being God, He rose from the dead to show us that we need not fear death, consider ourselves separated from God, nor think of ourselves as dung. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God the Father wants us to be reunited with Him. He wants us to change the direction of our lives and to begin to listen to Him. The first thing He wants us to do is to change the way we think about Him and about ourselves. We are His creation and He wants us back!

Consider:

  1. A God who loves you enough to die for you;
  2. A heavenly Father who wants a personal relationship with you;
  3. A Savior who wants to walk with you through life as your personal God and Guide.

It doesn’t get any better than that! So, let me ask again, are you so bad? NO! Jesus thought enough of you to die for you.

“I asked Jesus how much He loved me.” “He replied, ‘I love you this much…’
and He spread out His arms–and died.”

Come to Jesus. He’s waiting for you. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. I promise, He will!