Faith

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I believe that we need to give our hearts to Christ in order to have eternal life, and I believe we need not to fall back into the ways of the world. I mean we should desire what God has to offer right? So why do we have those days when we slip into that dry spell, when we are more interested what is happening in the world, than what is happening to our hearts? Christ died for us, and we must remember that every time we are tempted to do anything that goes against our faith. I mean it can be as simple as watching a program we know is not right, or something as serious as getting involved to deeply in a relationship before we are married.

The fact is we live in a world that says if it feels good it must be right, but that of course is not the case. Sometimes the most destructive things “feel good” in the time, but we end up paying the price in the end, and if that price is loosing your soul is it really worth it?

I can not understand how one can claim to be happy serving a life separated from God. I see misery in that, because in the end you face an eternity separated from his Shakina glory. The thought just makes me shutter to think about. It is so easy to remedy though, all we have to do is open up our hearts and cry out to the Lord. We have to believe that Christ shed his blood to cover our sins, and there is no sin to big or to small for him to cover.

In John Chapter Three verses three through twenty one Christ explains it like this

3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.[a]" 4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You[c] must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." 9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[d] 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.[e] 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[f] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.[g] 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."[h]

It is not that difficult to open our hearts to God, I did it at the age of eighteen, but I have known little children, children I work with at church who understand the importance of giving there hearts to the Lord, so why is it so many adults get wrapped in the whole trying to earn salvation thing? Or believing that we just don’t go anywhere after we die, we just become dust in the ground.

Less than a year after I gave my heart to the Lord I started going to a small community college, and made a friend who was older than myself, but he gave me a lot of spiritual insight. He was a Veteran of Dessert Storm, and had decided to go back to school, but one day while he was driving me home the subject of faith was brought up. He was a Christian himself, which made me feel even more comfortable with him. When I asked how I responded to someone who refused to believe in God, or who worshipped the creation and not the creator he told me to tell the other person this:

If you spend your life worshipping the tree, and I worship the creator of the tree who do you think will enter the kingdom of Heaven? I worshipped the hands that created the tree, but you worshipped the creation, and even if you are right, which everything tells me you are not, then what damage have I done? But if I am right and you continue to worship the tree when I am worshipping the creator where will you be? You will spend an eternity separated from God, where I spend an eternity bathed in his glory.

I had only been a Christian for a few months, but to this day I understand what he was saying, and I try to explain it to others in a similar way, but I also try to point out the joys in serving the Lord, and the fact is I am a lot happier now that I have given my heart to the Lord, than when I was before I gave my heart to the Lord.

I stand in the grasp of faith, and I am grateful for that, because I am much happier now that I am serving the Lord, have been for over ten years now, and pray that I will continue to serve him for all of eternity.

To Be Continued

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