In our zeal to promote Christianity, we believers sometimes have a tendency to focus on the physical rather than the spiritual.  Because it seems impossible to persuade men in this 21st century to attain unto God’s realm by faith, we offer an unofficial alternative.  As if we had authority to do so, we foolishly opt to convince them that in exchange for a simple prayer or some momentous mental assent to the gospel, God will join them in their own realm, making life a bed of ease.  Truth of the matter is, becoming a born again Christian could bring new trials and hardships into your life.  The salvation that God offers to mankind, does not obligate Him to run interference so that you can fulfill your self-gratifying ambitions.  It is important that you understand, when you accept God’s gift of forgiveness by faith in Jesus Christ, you do not become God’s prize—He becomes yours.

  God’s salvation is a new paternal relationship with Himself through faith, in which He adopts you into His spiritual family.  He commutes your sentence of condemnation, delivering you from the penalty, power, and eventually the presence of sin.  He offers a new perspective, allowing you to see everything as it really is rather than how it might appear in the limited understanding of your finite mind.  He offers peace in situations that are terrifying.  He offers joy that is unaffected by the circumstances of life or the absence of the “material treasures” that are the prize of the earthbound.  He offers purpose that reaps eternal rewards.  He offers power to step out of spiritual darkness and enter into eternal Life and Light.  He offers full time access to Himself through prayer.  He promises to place His Spirit in your heart to teach, guide and seal you until the day you stand in His presence.  He offers a future change of address from eternal Hell to eternal bliss, to be enjoyed in His very presence.  Jesus said it best, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).”

  Coming to God requires surrender and dependance upon Him.  Salvation is not something that you can hold in your hand; it is a possession of the heart.  A spiritual, eternal treasure to be enjoyed right now!

  Generally, when something exciting and positive happens to an individual, they want to talk about it.  The same can be said of unpleasant happenings that try the patience or exhaust one’s stamina.  In either case, what an individual has to say about personal experience and perception is determined almost entirely by his world view.  One’s world view is defined by how he answers three questions: Where did I come from?  Why am I here?  Where am I going?

  Because there are many world views, there are many ways to answer these questions. Perhaps most answers are founded on some form of Humanism which places man in the center of the universe, the captain of his own fate, in a world that is entirely natural, physical and material—to the neglect or denial of the spiritual realm.  These mortals believe that their purpose in life is to serve themselves and those they choose to care about, until their existence is snuffed out, their bodies are buried or burned, and their memory is erased by the second or third generation of grandchildren.

  The problem with these various world views is that they ignore the obvious.  Only a fool could live in the midst of all of the evidence of God’s eternal existence and omnipotent (unlimited) power, and conclude that there is no God, or that He has abandoned the work that only He can order and maintain.

  The Bible tells us that our Creator God desires a relationship with us, but because He is holy and we are sinful, something had to be done about our sin.  His love for you and me made Him sacrifice His own Son, Jesus, to pay the price for our redemption. (see John 3:16).  To those of us who have accepted, this blood bought forgiveness by faith, the Psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so… (Psalm 107:2)”  For those who claim to be religious, even  Christian, but don’t want to talk about their relationship with God, something is wrong; something is missing.  Please take another look!

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. (Psalm 63:1–2)”

  My father died about eight years ago at age 80.  He had suffered for years with numerous ailments, and nobody expected him to live even 70 years.  He was a jolly man who loved life perhaps more than anyone that I have ever known.  Though the joys of seeing his smile and hearing his voice are gone now, there is a part of him that lives on in me and my siblings—and many others who knew him well.  My dad had a bold faith in God and the promises of His Word.  He is in part the reason that I began to trust in God at a very early age.  It was by far His greatest contribution to who and what I am.  Oh how I praise God for my Dad’s Christian faith.

  There is a song that we sing in our church that is all about my Dad’s faith.  As you read the lyrics to the first verse, remember, it is not about a man, but a man’s faith.

Faith of our fathers, living still
In spite of dungeon, fire and sword,
O how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene’er we hear that glorious word!
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death!

    This faith of our fathers was not faith in themselves; it was not faith in their country; it was not faith in their church, or their families.  This faith of our fathers was an invincible faith in their omnipotent, omniscient, omni-present God.  Of this faith, the Word of God says:  “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)”  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)”  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)”  God has so much to offer us as individuals, families, and as a nation, but all must be received by faith!  When we start to believe, we will start to live

  Those who have learned that dependence upon God is a fact of life rather than a sign of weakness, will generally take more seriously the matter of keeping themselves blessable.

  God is holy and cannot tolerate sin.  He is just and cannot ignore or overlook it—sin is therefore a natural barrier between the sinner and the blessings that God desires to confer upon His people.  By faith in the sufficiency of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, one can tear down that wall and be reconciled to God, making themselves eligible for God’s richest blessing.  At that point keeping one’s self blessable is a matter of daily confessing and forsaking any besetting sin—which God is faithful and just to forgive. (1John 1:9)

  One of the many major themes in the scripture is that God blesses the obedient and curses (punishes) the disobedient.  To etch this truth into their minds, a rather elaborate exercise was prescribed for God’s people, Israel, in Deuteronomy 27-28.  Moses told them, “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. (Deuteronomy 28:2),” and then he informed them of twelve general types of blessing that could be theirs if they would simply obey.  Next, he told them, “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: (Deuteronomy 28:15),” and then, a list of nineteen types of curses that would befall them if they disobeyed the Lord.

  God would cease to be God if He acted in a way that is contrary to His nature.  He cannot tolerate sin and cannot overlook it.  Whether it be a nation, a business, a church, a family or an individual, to enjoy the blessings of God we must be blessable, as prescribed in His Word.  Sadly, our global society has denied its dependence upon God and laid aside His moral absolutes and divine instruction.  We have spurned the grace of God and it appears that, in spite of the hardship and misery that it engenders, man is bent on sinning.