Eternity is a Long Time

  As we read the Gospel accounts of the Crucifixion, we notice Jesus said more than one thing during His time on the cross. In fact, He made seven statements when you add them together from all of the Gospels. Seven represents completion (e.g. a week is 7 days long) and when Jesus says His seventh statement, He dies. His earthly ministry, in His earthly body, is completed. The seven statements are: 1. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. Luke 23:34 2. Today, you will be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43 3. Behold your son: behold your mother. John 19: 26-27 4. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; Psalm 22                      5. I thirst. John 19: 28 (cf. John 4: 4-26); Psalm 22:15; Psalm 69:21 6. It is finished. John 19:30 7. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23: 46; Psalm 31:5 The exact order is not known as no one Gospel has them all, although “It is...

God is love . We know this not only because the Scriptures explicitly tell us but they also show us. God provided ways to come to Him even when we had turned our backs on Him. Yet the pride people have in themselves or their fear in trusting God cause them to not take advantage of God’s generous mercy. When we do not take advantage of what God offers, then the natural consequences of the condemnation we live with is the result. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden listening to Satan rather than God. Yet God provided for them even as He evicted them from the Garden not only materially but with the  promise of ultimate salvation by one of their posterity . It continued with Cain ignoring God’s desire to be worshiped with a whole heart and becoming jealous of his brother Abel’s close relationship with God. This ultimately lead to Cain’s murder of Abel even after  God encouraged Cain to do what he knew was right . It reached its first wide scale demonstration of Go...

  If you want to talk about the depravity of man (and woman) we can go on for hours, days, weeks. "All have sinned and fallen short of God." “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way." It is amazing how terrible we can be to our fellow human beings. Just when you come across what you think is something unbelievably horrible, you learn of something even worse. If Jesus hadn't died on the cross and rose that third day, we would have no hope at all since humanity cannot save itself.

When a separated husband and wife get back together; when a father and son start speaking to each other after years of silence; when old pals who fought over a long forgotten issue renew their bonds of friendship it is a beautiful thing indeed. It is reconciliation — and it is exactly what Jesus wants with each of you. You have ignored Him, fought Him and insulted Him by doing what is wrong and not doing what is right in your life — and there are no amount of good deeds that you can do to make up for the sins you have committed. Yet Jesus loves you so much that He took all those bad and terrible things that you have done and paid the ultimate price for them. By dying on that cross for you He took your punishment — for the wages of sin is death; eternal death. By whole-hearted faith in the Son of God you can partake in His sacrifice for you and in His triumph of defeating death with His resurrection. You can be reconciled to God and, ultimately, be with Jesus forever. Without that faith...

  You don’t want to be in the second resurrection. “I speak to you eternal truth: Soon the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will arise with life! For the Father has given the Son the power to impart life, even as the Father imparts life. The Father has transferred to the Son the authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man. “So don’t be amazed when I tell you these things, for there is a day coming when all who have ever died will hear my voice calling them back to life, and they will come out of their graves! Those who have done what is good will experience a resurrection to eternal life. And those who have practiced evil will taste the resurrection that brings them to condemnation!” John 5:25-29

We need to keep the main thing the main thing. We need to remember that there are debatable and non-debatable issues in Christianity. What are these non-debatable issues? - Jesus is the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, 100% God, 100% human - Jesus sacrificed Himself to pay the wages for all of our sins by dying on the cross - Jesus rose on the 3rd day and ascended into Heaven shortly thereafter - He is alive and will come again to judge the living and the dead - Jesus created all that was made - We are saved for eternity with God by faith in Jesus and His works, not by our works - The Bible is the word of God All the other issues such as whether a Christian can drink alcohol, eat non-Kosher foods, speak in tongues, whether there is a rapture before the second coming of Jesus, etc, these are all debatable. It is fine to debate them and to have strong opinions, but none of these opinions should get in the way of the non-debatable issues.  If a person has a belief on a de...

It's a heart issue with God. It has ALWAYS been a heart issue. We will meet so many people in Eternity who don't even know what a Bible is but their hearts were in sync with God. There will also be many who knew their Bibles well who will not be present at the first resurrection because their hearts were never soft towards God. “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’ (Matthew 7:21-23) I talk further about how your heart needs to be soft here.

How can man ever accept a personal relationship with God; a relationship that is unique to every individual? Only one way - God has to also be man and show us His love by dying as our substitute. He took our punishment and made it His own in a way everyone can see and feel even through they weren’t there. The empty tomb and the victory over sin is all the more joyous for the pain He went through for us and eternity will be the sweeter.