Today we’ll talk about how many of us are still trying to pay for all the wrongs we have done … kind of like making minimum payments on sin. We’ll also look at the need to be faithful in whatever we do and the importance of being ready for eternity.
It’s so easy to let hypocritical attitudes creep into our hearts and allow ourselves to become religious pretenders. We may look good on the outside, but have hearts full of envy, greed, anger, worry, and self-righteousness. In the process, we lose the joy of our salvation and find ourselves just going through the motions of the Christian life. But there is an even worse danger in being a religious pretender.
Death … it’s the thing many of us fear the most. But there is another death, a second death, that should concern us much more. This second death involves spending eternity in a place where Jesus said the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies. It’s neither purgatorial nor annihilating. And the bad news is that we all deserve this second death and left to ourselves, we have no hope of avoiding it. And while there is good news, it’s not automatic.
Today we hear a lot about tolerance and accepting people as they are. But in light of eternity is tolerance always loving? And what if we try to speak the truth and are told we need to be more like Jesus and just love everyone? Could they be right? Or could that be a misunderstanding of what is truly loving?
Can religion become an addiction? Can it offer an escape from reality? Worse yet, could it give someone a false sense of security concerning their relationship with God? What would a religious addiction look like? And could churches today be full of people suffering from religious addiction?
Also, read about how the Israelites tried to justify living life their own way and then tried to avoid the consequences of doing so. Could we be doing the same thing today?
Do you truly understand what is meant by the gospel? If you died tonight, do you know that you would go to heaven, or do you have doubts about where you will spend eternity? And what can you do if you’re not sure? These are important questions! Please don’t leave your eternity to chance!
Also:
What do believers need to remember as we share the gospel with our friends and family?
Can you imagine waking up one morning and realizing all your Christian friends are gone, disappeared in the rapture? The world is in chaos, and you have been left behind. What if the rapture happened today? Do you know that you will go? How can you be sure?
Have you ever wondered if God has a formula for parenting? Some of us may have thought so and done our best to raise our children “in the discipline and admonition of the Lord,” only to have them wander from the faith or fail to make a genuine commitment to the Lord. This often leaves us confused, discouraged, and wondering if there is something we missed. There’s an important principle to remember in today’s reading from Psalms that may help.
And from our New Testament reading, we’ll see that “Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone”—This truth is central to our faith and must be strongly guarded and taught.
Normally, on Sundays people around the world fill their churches. Most would identify themselves as Christians. Perhaps because they grew up in a Christian home or because they have some general belief in God. But could there be a great danger in that assumption? Could many, even some who attend church every week, be Christians in name only?
When an observer in Jesus’ time asked, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” He warned that the gate is narrow. And when the people of Joshua’s day claimed that they would serve the Lord, he told them not to take that commitment lightly. Are there many today who have failed to heed those warnings? Are there many who base their relationship with God on something besides the true gospel?
That should be a heart-breaking thought for those of us who truly understand the gospel because it is the most incredible GOOD NEWS ever! Today’s post includes a link to a video that could shake your understanding of what the good news of the gospel really is!