You Are Reconciled!

You are reconciled to God!

Reconcile:
1. Restore friendly relations between: “she wanted to be reconciled with her father”.
2. Cause to coexist in harmony; make or show to be compatible.

God is not angry with you.  He loves you unconditionally!  He’s in a good mood and He wants you to know that through your faith you are forgiven of any past and future debts.  You cannot mess up God’s love for you.  Sit in His presence today and feel His love overtake you. Let the love of Christ compel you to live righteously for you have been reconciled!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ… -2 Corinthians 5:17-18

Related articles

• Ambassadors For Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17 – 21) (rmhic.wordpress.com)
• Justification by Faith (trinityspeaks.wordpress.com)
• What Does It Mean, “Have Faith” (briancoatney.com)
• We Have Been Reconciled (Day 7) (christlikeministriesnwa.wordpress.com)

Moving Forward

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ. –Philippians 3:8

The past is gone forever and does not matter anymore. What matters is the future of your life! Your future holds purpose, hope and meaning.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. The blood of Jesus covers all your sins. Yes, ALL your sins! Everything you feel guilty for… you are no longer guilty. Embrace the complexity of your mind with a renewed spirit. Submit yourself to allow a transformation to take place. Turn your eyes to Jesus!

It is the Spirit of God you sense…

Embrace it! Live it! Love it! Emanuel—God is with us!

(Psalm 139:14, Romans 12:2, Matthew 1:23)

-I Want To Believe In God [dot com]

Separated to the Gospel of God

This morning I prayed that the Lord would teach me something new. I felt led by the Spirit to read Romans so I opened up Romans chapter 1. I couldn’t even get past the first verse without the Lord speaking.

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.” (Romans 1:1)

With reading Paul’s epistles I think a lot of us will often skip over or speed read through Paul’s repetitive introductions. He starts every letter very similar and once you have read a couple it’s kind of like, “Yes, we get it you have to introduce yourself now let’s get to the good stuff.” But this time I read it a little slower and the Lord really spoke to me through the first verse. First Paul states he is a bondservant of Jesus. What did he mean by this? Looking up bondservant the first definition I found was: a person bound in service without wages, or a slave. The next definition I found was: devoted to another to the disregard of one’s interest. Bondservants never left their master. They were devoted to them for life. So by Paul saying he was a bondservant to Jesus he was saying he was completely devoted to serving Jesus for the rest of his life.

Next Paul says he was “called to be an apostle.” To understand this line better let’s look at some definitions…

Call: to make a request or demand.

Apostle: one who is sent away (classical Greek meaning).

So breaking it down we have Paul saying he is a life-long devoted servant to Jesus who had made a demand for him to be sent away.

Next he tells us he is “separated to the gospel of God.” The word “separated” is what really stood out to me here. What is he separated from? I would say that he is separated from the world. Jesus said: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19) Jesus was talking about persecution here. We know Paul saw plenty of that but that didn’t stop him. He knew where he was going so he didn’t care. Paul lived his life knowing “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He had truly separated himself from the world and could care less what the world thought of him so long as he was doing the work demanded of him by Jesus Christ.

This realization brought conviction to my life. Have I separated myself from the world? Maybe in some areas but there are plenty of other areas I know the world still has a hold of me.

Here’s my question Christians—do we believe what we say we believe? If so we should be out following the demands of Jesus. We must spread the gospel. It’s a demand not a choice.

“Is a lamp to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:21-23)

Are we sometimes afraid to do what God has asked us to do? Has the Lord put it on your heart to speak to your neighbors about Jesus but you have not out of fear of what they would think? Have you been given perfect opportunities to share the gospel to someone in public but kept quiet out of fear of man? We are to completely separate ourselves from the world and bond ourselves to the gospel of God and become a bondservant of Jesus Christ. There should be nothing in this world that holds us back from God’s call in our lives.

“The fear of man brings a snare but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.” (Prov 29:25)

Believe me by writing this I’m not saying I’m any better. This brings conviction to my life. I must do more! We must do more! This is a call to evangelize. This is a call for revival. Do you know where revival starts? In the hearts of us the believers! If we are on fire for the gospel then the fire will spread! And what keeps a fire burning? Fuel!

“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt 4:4)

The dog you feed more will be the stronger dog. Is your life on fire for God or are you burning out like the rest of the world? I would like to encourage you to live for Jesus and not let the world consume you.

Lord I pray for boldness. I pray that you would set our hearts on fire for your word, that we would have a new revelation and realization of your love and what you did for us Jesus. You died for us Lord and we are often afraid to tell others of what you have done. Shame on us and forgive us Lord. I pray that we would not let the desires and worries of the world hinder your Spirit any longer. Wake us up Lord. Bring together your church in unity. We seek you and await your guidance. Come Lord! Rule your kingdom. You are Lord of all! Praise you Jesus! Amen.

-I Want To Believe In God [dot com]

Back To The Basics: The Simple Meaning of Life

Today the Lord has put it on my heart to go back to the basics. We as humans love to make everything so complex but life does not have to be so confusing. Life really is what you make of it. I wouldn’t doubt that you’ve heard this message before but today I ask you to try and listen with fresh ears and an open heart.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

I’m sure you would agree with me that there is something wrong with humanity. There is an evil that corrupts man. I’m sure you would also agree with me that we have something called a conscience which lets us know in our hearts what is morally right and wrong. I believe our conscience is a gift from God and through our sense of right and wrong we can also sense an ultimate good. This ultimate good is God and He instills in us a longing to find Him and search for Him. C.S. Lewis and others have argued that if there is no such thing as a spiritual side to us then why do we have a spiritual longing? If life were meaningless then why do we have something inside of us that tells us otherwise and leaves us searching for the answers?

God has given us the answer. He has revealed Himself to us through His word—the Bible. God sacrificed His son Jesus so that you and I could be saved. This was the only possible way we could be made right with God who is everything good. Every man has his sins upon him but by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ crucified we can be forgiven and reconciled with God. Because of God’s love for you and I He was willingly and brutally murdered on the cross so that our salvation could be justified. Jesus was then resurrected from the dead to show that He is all powerful and that He is God and not even death has control over Him. God out of His amazing love offers us salvation for free because He has already paid the price but people constantly reject this gift. Why? I think it’s because people over complicate it and make God into something that He is not.

Often I’ve heard people reject the idea of the gospel because they say: “What about little Joey on a deserted island out in the middle of the ocean that has never heard the news of Jesus?” I say don’t let a made up stranger that has not heard the good news keep you from accepting it. The Bible mentions many times that God’s judgments are just. From knowing this you don’t have to worry about little Joey. Situations like that are rightfully left in God’s hands.

I don’t think the problem lies in that people have not heard the Gospel but perhaps it’s the opposite. They have heard the Gospel so many times and rejected it so many times it’s lost its meaning and significance. There are bumper stickers, billboards and signs everywhere that say “Jesus loves you” but people see these and put no thought into the meaning behind it. I think many people have a completely distorted view of Jesus and Christianity. Much of this distorted view can be blamed on the church itself and the commercialization of Christianity. I urge you to not let other people give you your perspective of Jesus. Don’t believe the view you’ve come to have by watching hypocritical, judgmental Christians. Forget about any distorted, commercialized or religious view you may have of Jesus. Today I challenge you to find out for yourself who Jesus is. Pick up the Bible and read one of the 4 Gospel books (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Pay extra close attention to the words of Jesus in red. Get to know the real Jesus and find out the true meaning behind all the signs declaring “Jesus loves you.” Albert Einstein—though never a confessed Christian—is quoted saying “No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.” The only problem with Einstein is he was too analytical. He tried to intellectually understand God and break the system down into something like an equation. We will never fully understand God so please get this notion out of your head. Einstein and so many others take God’s simple system and make it too complex to understand by analyzing it. They then end up rejecting it because of their own misunderstanding of God. Let me try to put this into human perspective. Could an ant ever understand the way a human thinks and operates? The message of the Gospel is simple; it is man that makes it complex. Jesus loves you and wants nothing more but to wrap you in His arms and comfort you. He desperately wants to help you and bring peace to your life but you refuse to even acknowledge Him.

Today you have heard the Gospel. Today you are faced with a choice. Jesus said “He who is not with me is against me.” There’s no such thing as a half Christian. There’s no middle ground—though you may have made one up in your head to comfort you in your decision of rejecting Jesus. Please don’t say “I’m not ready.” What are you waiting to be ready for? Are you planning to wait until you’re on your deathbed and then you’ll try to reconcile with God? That’s no way to live your life. There’s peace and love waiting for you right now. Galations 5:22 says “The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Who doesn’t want these things? I know there are people reading this that in your heart you feel this is the right decision to make but you’ve been fighting it. Perhaps you’ve been fighting it for years. Jesus through the Holy Spirit is speaking to you now. I urge you to go with your heart on this one. Maybe you’ve followed your heart before with other decisions and were left disappointed. Let me give you some very important advice: do not blame God for man’s shortcomings. He is always faithful and His promises hold true. Do not let your pain caused from corrupt humanity rob you of Gods greatest gift of salvation. If you say “this sounds great but I have too many doubts of God’s existence.” Don’t worry about your doubts, take a step of faith and allow God to deal with them. Through faith He will reveal Himself to you in a personal way, but if you don’t give Him a chance you might miss out on the most important opportunity of your life. Jesus said you cannot put new wine into old wineskins because the old skins will burst. I urge you today to shed your skin and try on something new. Try living life with Jesus on your side.

If you’re thinking this makes sense and you want to give God a chance then the next step is simple. You don’t have to go out and make a public announcement. The Bible says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9 NKJV). It’s just between you and Jesus from where you are at right now. You can ask Jesus into your life and we do that by prayer. I’ve written out an example of a prayer you could use below. If you feel this is the right decision for you then follow along and speak to Jesus.

Lord I realize I am a flawed human being and with that a sinner. We all are. With this realization I ask you Jesus to forgive me and help me. Walk with me through my life. I give my life to you so that you can bring life back to mine. Fill me with your Holy Spirit Father God and teach me to be a true disciple of Christ. From this day forward I will follow you. Amen.

If you have just said that prayer then know that God has written your name down in the book of life! All of heaven is rejoicing over your decision! The next step would be reading one of the Gospel books in the Bible and getting to know Jesus better. Build a relationship through prayer. He will guide you from there.

Thank you Lord for your word and thank you for the peace you have brought to my life! I pray for anyone reading this that you would speak to their hearts and draw them near to you so that they might experience the same undeserved grace you have shed so mercifully on me.

-I Want To Believe In God [dot com]

Why Even Try To Understand God?

The Bible tells us all who call upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior shall be saved. Why is this so hard for people to do? Why do people constantly reject the gospel and Jesus? Why don’t people just give God a chance? I think it comes down to two separate main issues—unbelief and misunderstanding.

I get the fact that people misunderstand God. This is expected for us to misunderstand God. What I don’t think people are realizing is the fact that it is impossible for us to ever fully understand God. People think that we should be able to intellectually explain God but this is not possible. Often when people say they doubt God I think rather than doubting God’s existence they are actually doubting their intellectual understanding of God. We say how can there be a God if there is evil in the world? Where was God in this evil event? I say: who are we to try and understand God? In human comparison we would be but a pebble to God or a measly ant. How could we even think we have the capacity or mind power to understand a God that has created the entire universe? And of course there would be no perspective of good and evil if evil did not exist. We would not know of good if there were no such thing as bad. We have a moral law inside all of us that has always been there that says we ought to look out for others above ourselves but we instinctively want to watch out for ourselves. We have a moral law that says we ought to behave a certain way but we never completely follow it. Where does this law come from? Why do we say you should not be selfish? This morality would not come from survival instinct because unless it was directly benefiting us or our family, by instinct we would not care what happened to anyone else. But yet we do care. I think it comes from a law giver, from an ultimate good that is God. Where is God when evil strikes? I say God is in the victims and he is in the ones who have compassion to act and to risk their lives to stop it. God is in the compassion of people because he gives us the gift of compassion. God places people in the paths of evil to help our brothers in pain.

We cannot expect God to be constantly disrupting life by divinely stopping the actions that are consequences of people’s decisions and outcomes of the situations they have put themselves in. We would agree that yes sometimes God will reach down and stop an event from happening but more often than not God let’s life take its course. Evil does exist in this world and because of that there is consequences and bad things do sometimes happen to good people.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

In other words don’t hang on to some bad intellectual understanding of God that can never be fully accurate because of our finite minds in comparison to God. Christians always talk about finding true peace by surrendering ourselves fully to God. This is very hard because it’s our human nature to try and figure things out and to always be right. But the fact is that we will never fully understand God and we are not meant to. We are meant to trust Him and to have faith.

“Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10)

It is in the stillness that we can find peace; when we finally accept the fact that we will never know everything. This is where we find God. Acceptance of the fact that there is much we do not know and never will is the first step to wisdom. This is where I think the intellectual man can be led to the conclusion that God does exist.

Jesus said “I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)

I struggle with fully surrendering to God (as most Christians I think do) because I am wired to try and figure everything out, but one thing I do know is there is a fulfillment in Christ that I have never experienced in any other way. There is a great peace and joy that comes with knowing Jesus and it all starts with God’s love.

Now on to the next excuse I mentioned for refusal to surrender which would be unbelief. Ask yourself is there any chance that God might exist? If you say “no” then you have more faith than I do in your religion of atheism, and I do not think someone that sincerely answered no to that question would have read this blog up to this point. So let’s say that you do agree with most of the population of the earth that there is a chance of God’s existence. If there is a chance then don’t you think it would be of your best interest to give this God a chance? You could be missing the most important opportunity of your life. I am very thankful for my salvation in Christ and knowing that I have a place to spend eternity where there is no evil and only ultimate good! Please give God a chance.

“For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Psalm 95: 7-8)

-I Want To Believe In God [dot com]