Finding Hope in God

I would like to share with you some of my story. I grew up in a dysfunctional environment. Actually, calling it dysfunctional is putting it mildly. My parents divorced when I was five years old and soon after, my mother remarried. That man, who became my step father, also became my perpetrator. At the age of eleven he decided I was old enough to receive an education in sex and became my abuser. I was one of the lucky ones, the ones who were believed when they finally told. When I did tell my mother, she immediately left my step father. I spent the next few years drowning myself in drugs and boys as my mother walked around having a nervous breakdown. I tried very hard to bury the abuse but it just seemed to ooze out in other ways. I was hurt, abandoned and broken.

At the age of 16 I began to date someone seriously. I was crazy about him. I had always known that his parents were "religious" but didn't really know much else about them. I had only met them once or twice in the two years we dated. I didn't know this then, but he had grown up in a Christian home. Right before we broke up he decided to share something with me. He told me that if I truly believed that Christ died on the cross for me that I could go to heaven. That's it, that's all he told me. But it gave me hope, a hope I had never been given before. I remember that night, talking to God and saying "I do believe, I do believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, please help me"

Something changed in me that night. It really was like I was blind and I could finally see. I remember walking outside the next morning and the sky was so blue and beautiful. It looked totally different, like I was really seeing it for the first time. I began to hunger to know who God was. I found a bible in my sister’s bookshelf and began to read it. I was drinking in every word and the words came alive on the page. It was my only connection to God. I knew no one that was a Christian.

Several months later my roommate came home from work talking about her boss at the gas station she worked at. He was telling her all about Christ and she began to share with me. I knew I had to talk to him. He was the most dynamic man and he LOVED God. He led me to a church and eventually I even became a part of his family. His mother gave me a place to live, his sister became my best friend and he became one of the ministers at my church. I had a loving Christian family for the first time in my life.

I would like to say that this was the end and I happily served God the rest of my life but I didn't. After about two years, God began to ask things of me that I wasn't willing to do. Mainly he wanted me to trust him and obey. There are many reasons that I won't go into but I couldn't allow myself to trust completely and I fell away. I stayed away and lived in sin for eighteen years. It wasn't until life became so unbearable that I finally let Him take over and have my whole life.

In spite of my rebellion, he greeted me with open arms. He began to heal my past and bless my future. I don't deserve the love and acceptance he has given me but I am grateful for it anyway. It has been in my surrender to Him and my trust in Him that I have found what I always needed. I found someone to really love me unconditionally, flaws and all. I found true acceptance. I didn’t have to change to come to Him, He would change me. I found a hope for the future, one that I could count on to be filled with joy.

In the last six years, He has restored me. I am no longer haunted by the things of my past. He has changed me and made me worthy to be called a child of God. I am becoming who He intended me to be. If you allow Him, He will also do that for you.

The Weight Of A Cross

Matthew 16:24 - Then Jesus said to His disciples. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."

Do we really know what this means? Do we really know what Jesus did for us when He carried that cross? Do we fully understand the sacrifice the Father made by sending His son?

God the Father knew when He created us that we would fall from grace. He knew that He would have to send His own son to die on a cross to save us. Even though He knew all this He still created us. Having us was that important to Him. Imagine being a parent and having to send your own child to His death.

Jesus was involved from the beginning of creation also. He knew what He would eventually have to pay for our sin. He knew before we were created that He would have to endure unbearable circumstances to save us. We were worth that much to Him.

The Holy Spirit also knew what the price would be before creation. He knew that He would be sent to live in us and we would continually grieve Him. He too deemed us worth it.

God knew how it would be and yet here we are. But do we really understand the sacrifice that was made on the cross. The pain endured by Jesus Christ to pay for our sins. God came to this earth in human form and lived a sinless life only to be crucified on a cross. Death by crucifixion, the most painful, cruel and humiliating form of punishment ever devised by man. Only slaves and criminals were hung on a cross. Romans were exempt from such a death.

But there is more, the people He created chanted and called for His death. They told Pilate to free the criminal Barabbas instead an innocent man. Jesus was tortured and beaten, almost to the point of death. The implement used to scourge Him tore out big hunks of flesh so he was covered in His own blood. He was brutalized over and over, stripe after stripe. Then He was turned over to the soldiers to be crucified.

Wait, that wasn't enough. It wasn't enough that this innocent man, the savior of the world was barely able to walk from the beating. Or that He was covered with blood that dripped in pools on the ground. No, first He must be mocked and humiliated. Mocked for the claim He had made of being King of Kings. So they stripped Him down, put a scarlet robe on Him and twisted a crown of thorns. The crown was placed on His head so the thorns dug deeply into His skin. A reed was put in His right hand to represent the scepter of a King. They knelt before Him sneering and laughing, saying "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat on Him, in His humiliation. Then took the reed and stuck it into His side. In His weakened state, He was then made to carry His own cross that He would die on.

He carried a cross that is said to have weighed between 75 to 125 pounds. No wonder he fell by the weight of it. His cross was not a light one to carry. It was also burdened with the sins of all of us. On that cross were the sins of the entire world; past, future and present. Then in His last moments on this earth as the sins of the world were laid on Him, He was alone. Not even His Father could look on Him. What a heavy weight to bare. One that you or I could never carry.

Because of that cross He carried, our penalty of death was defeated. When He rose again on the third day and defeated death we were freed from the penalty our sin carried with it.

Thankfully we are not called to carry the cross that Jesus was made to bare. We are only called to deny ourselves, pick up OUR cross and FOLLOW Him.

We must deny ourselves; put aside our own desires, abstain from what our flesh would want. Then pick up our cross, which is the message of what Christ did. We are to be steward of the message of Christ as we follow where He leads.

In John 7:38 Jesus says - "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

As we deny ourselves and abide in His spirit, the living water of Christ will flow out of us. It is that living water of Christ that changes the lives of others.

Lets talk Truth

Do you ever get tired of hearing this?.....

You believe one way and I believe another so lets just all get along. The tolerance speech, lets just all get along. It’s the tolerance that is destroying our nation. I bet Satan roars with laughter. He knows the truth, that there is only one way to God. That's why he laughs. We are so quick to buy into it and all he needs us to do is to be off the truth by a fraction. Which a large percentage of the world is. Although God would like to see all His creation come to the saving grace of the cross of Jesus Christ, a lot will not.

Matthew 7:14 says "narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

Few who find it..... Could some of this be our fault? I mean those of us that understand the truth. Are we doing everything we can to let people know the truth about Jesus Christ? Are we accepting the "tolerance speech", letting them "believe what they want" while we silently watch them go to hell?

The truth is the truth. You can try and slice it or dice it any way you like but it does not change that it is still the truth. Truth in the Webster dictionary is defined as the quality or state of being true, reality, fact. So a fact is a fact, just because we don't like it, does not mean we get to change it. Like the bible, it’s either all true or none of it is true. You can't pick and choose what you want from it. But guess what, it’s all true.

People get so upset when you mention the name of Jesus. "Leave us alone, we have our religion", they say. "We have our books and our prayers". To them I say, the thing you are worshipping is wrong and it will not save you from the pit of hell. I care, please listen to me. I don't say this for my sake, I say it for yours.

There is only one way to heaven, not many. That way is through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In all other religions you have to perform certain things, prayers, etc and if you do enough, then HOPEFULLY you will make it to heaven. You can never "do good enough" your way in to heaven. We are never going to be good enough, God is holy, sinless. We would have to go our whole life without committing even one sin just to stand in His sight. That's just not possible for us to do. This is why we needed a savior. To take the penalty for sin, which is death and make a way to God. That happened when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, then rose again on the third day. He defeated the penalty of death for us.

The gift of salvation He offers is free; you do not have to work for it. You need only to receive it.

This my friend, is the unchangeable truth.

So What Exactly is a Christian?

Last time I heard, 85% of Americans claim to be Christians. Supposedly we are a "Christian Nation" If this is so, then why are we so flexible when it comes to sin. If it feels good, do it.

Here's the truth, a large portion of people that claim to be Christians have no clue what it truly means.

So today's post will give you a lesson on what it means to call yourself a Christian.

If you ask someone "Are you a good person?" Chances are they will say yes. Go ahead, try it some time, I dare you... You know why? Because the majority of people in America think that if you're a good person, believe in God and are sorry for the things you do wrong, you get to go to heaven. That God is like a Grandpa that only sees the good in us; after all he loves us, right. WRONG! God does love us but everyone does not get to go to heaven.

Matt 7:13-14 says this "enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

So the gate to heaven is narrow, not wide. You can't get to heaven because you are a good person. It must be through Jesus Christ.

So here goes....

God did create each of us and He does love us. That is exactly why he sent His son to die for us. He is a holy God and can not look upon sin. That means if we have committed just one sin; told a lie, stole a pencil, had a lustful thought, God can not even look on us. He wants to have a relationship with us and be with us but because of His holiness it is impossible if we have ANY sin. So He made for us to get to Him, by sending His son Jesus to the earth to become flesh and blood. Jesus paid the penalty on the cross for us and made a bridge to God for us.

If you don't believe me, go find a bible and look up these verses:

Romans 3:23 - All have sinned
Romans 6:23 - The wages of sin is death
John 3:3 - You must be born again
John 14:6 - I am the way
Romans 10: 9-11 - If you confess... you will be saved
2 Corinthians 5:15 - Those that live should no longer live for themselves
Revelation 3:20 - I stand at the door and knock

or check out the site below and see if you are good enough to get to heaven without Jesus.

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/goodperson.shtml

Any questions? Please leave a comment.