So, what you think of church and Christianity in general? Ask God to reveal the truth to you. I think there are three main reasons people don’t think they can believe that God is for them. One is because some Christians are a poor representation of Christ and who He is, and they wind up turning people away from Christ. If I ever did that to someone, I am very sorry! I ask you to please not look to fallible people for answers, because we are all sinful, but Please, please look to Jesus for answers. How sad it is to see the recent Mel Gibson story! He needs to bring his addictions to Jesus and have them healed. We are all broken, sinful people, and yet, for some amazing reason, God still works through us! (A little side story: Jim Cindiezel (spelling I am not sure about on this one) who played Jesus on the film The Passion was interviewed by Robert Schuller, founder and senior pastor of the famous Crystal Cathedral in California. When Mel was auditioning actors, Jim said, “You know, Mel, My initials are JC and I am 33 years old, the same age Jesus was when he died.” Mel said, “Wow, man, you’re freakin’ me out! I guess the part is yours!”)
Another reason is they think they are good enough and they have done enough good things to get to heaven. The thing is, the Bible says in Romans 8:23, “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.” “and the wages of sin is death.” If we only committed one sin a day, that would be 365 sins a year and in about 50 years that’s about 20,000 sins. Considering that I was born a sinner I know I have done a lot more than that. I am so glad that I was forgiven and have the assurance of heaven! There is no way that I could ever do enough good deeds to cancel out all of my sins.
Another reason people don’t think they can become Christians is that they don’t think they have committed too many sins and can never win God’s favour. Have you ever heard of Ted Bundy or David Berkowitz ? Ted grew up in a Christian family and saw a picture of a naked girl when he was 13 years old and this started him on a path of rape and murderous destruction, landing him eventually on Death Row, due to an addiction to pornography. He came back to his Christian roots and one of his last requests was to speak with James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. (Check out the website at www.focusonthefamily.org)
That is a huge Christian organization that deals with all sorts of issues regarding families based on the Bible and its teachings. By the way did you know we were created to be part of God’s family and to glorify God? When we accept Christ and become part of God’s family, we are never alone.
Anyways, Ted spoke about how Christ rescued him from his life of destruction and God’s grace on his life. (Have you heard the acronym for grace? It is: G-God’s R-riches A-at C-Christ’s E-expense) He spoke about the dangers of pornography and how it hurts people and families, and that 100% of the murderers on death row were addicted to pornography.
David Berkowitz was also known as the ‘Son of Sam’ a nickname for Satan. He was very big into witchcraft and Satanism when he was arrested for his crimes, he was also a murdering rapist. He came to know Christ in prison. Information about him is on the website:
David Berkowitz-http://www.adherents.com/people/pb/David_Berkowitz.html
I had also heard that, Jeffrey Dahlmer, who liked to cook people and eat them, also accepted Jesus in prison. I did not find any information about him, though.
Did you know you were a masterpiece? . A couple of years ago I was at the “Women of faith: Contagious Joy” conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
One of the speakers had this encouraging message, which is explained in Ephesians 2:10: For we are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Isn’t this amazing? You were thought of even before time began and plans were made for your life! God put you on this earth for a reason, you are no accident, and you are very precious to him. Jesus knows you better than you know yourself, he know all of your innermost secrets and dreams and struggles. He loves you so much more than we can ever comprehend, and he is always ready and willing to help out in any way that he can. I pray you will search for Him, because when you do, he will be there. It says in the Bible that Jesus is knocking at the door to our hearts and that if we are willing, he will come in. He is a gentleman, he will never force his way into our lives.
Any ways, the bottom line is this: Jesus has the ultimate claim:
Although Jesus made many claims the ultimate claims that He made centred around His death and resurrection. If these claims are not true, then Jesus is reduced to an impostor, liar or lunatic. But, if they are true, then He is the Son of God who has provided a saving sacrifice for our sins and has been raised from the dead. After being raised, He has received authority from the Father over heaven and earth. Everything rests on these claims that He would die for our sins and be raised from the dead on the third day.
First, we present the facts as given to us by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John claims to be an eyewitness of Jesus' death and also, along with Matthew, of His resurrection. On the accounts of these men we turn for the plainly but powerfully written records of what happened to Jesus. We also have the words of the Old Testament Prophets, who predicted all that would happen.
People have tried to come up with theories that would explain away the things that are written, even though these theories are not supported by any external proofs.
The 4 gospel chapters all talk about Jesus death and resurrection which have also been proven to be historically accurate.
God created heaven for us to enjoy our time together with him as a family when we die. He created hell for Satan and his demons, and does not want us to go there. So please don’t.
You can turn your life over to Jesus right now by praying this prayer: Lord, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Saviour. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!"
Love from Laureen
