Monday, May 21, 2018

MY LETTER TO THE WORLD

1 Corinthians 1:21-22 New Living Translation
“Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.”
            Dear World: It’s become pretty apparent that you want to come up with your own plan of salvation, which can be completely understood and acceptable to you. The Gospel message is too far out, too mysterious, too otherworldly. You can’t possibly grasp the message in all its simplicity. You must have to dosomething to earn it. There must be something spectacular that needs to take place. In reality what  must be done is to lay your own life down and take second stage to an unseen deity. It boggles the mind. So what if this unseen deity isn’t real? Apparently you have to be able to experience it with your senses for it to be real. The fact is that either there is a God or there is not. To believe or not believe is a choice each individual must make. To not make a choice is to make one. By avoiding the topic you have made a choice. But are you willing to stake your own personal afterlife on it? There are two ways this can go. You will die and be either buried or cremated and that will be your last conscious thought forever. Or your spirit will be resurrected on the last day to face God’s judgment. It’s either or, one way or the other. Man thinks there has to be other options. There simply has to be. To be placed in the same category as rapists and murderers just because you reject the reality of Jesus Christ and his blood bought forgiveness from all sin simply isn’t fair. You reason that you’ve been a good person for the most part; however, God’s response to that is, “You were good by who’s standard, your own? No one is good except God.” The world has a myriad of questions, but faith isn’t based on facts or even answers to questions, because once answered there is always another question. As with God’s conversation with Job, God says to us, “Now I will speak and you will listen.” Why? Because we simply do not know … anything. The information we have amassed is useless in the face of eternity.  So to you I say, let down your guard and accept the possibility that there truly is a God and that he loves you more than you could ever imagine. His desire is that you willingly serve him so you can enter into a peaceful existence that will last throughout eternity. Just do it. You will try anything else to find something, but you don’t even know what that ‘thing’ is. You just want to be happy, at peace. You are either willing to release control and submit to a God who knows you better than you know yourself or you aren’t. Let go. For once in your life trust something that makes no logical, human sense. One word from God can change your scenery forever. He means you no harm, only good. It starts with a simple step taken, an acceptance that you might be wrong about this whole God thing. Won’t you consider receiving Christ into your heart and life today? A choice must be made one way or the other. You will have to live with your choices, make them good, sound choices not based on what you know but what you are willing to believe and place your faith and hope in the future in. Do as you must, but know that this decision will have eternal ramifications. May God’s perfect will for your life be done. rlkeller 

Sunday, May 20, 2018

If it makes you happy ...

"If it makes you happy how can it be bad?"
That is a line from a song whose name escapes me. I feel like this might be the general attitude of most unbelievers. I think unbelievers feel that accepting Christian beliefs means all fun leaves the room. I suppose it depends on what you think is fun. God doesn't force you to stop doing the things you are doing, you do that yourself as the Holy Spirit begins to open your eyes to what is truly valuable and worth you spending your time on. You can live as you choose, but never forget that  consequences follow each and every choice we make in life. Christians have no business telling anyone what they should be doing or not doing with their life. Our job as believers in Christ is to show people Christ thru our lives. Live it instead of talk about it. Show them the love of God. He will show those outside the faith what will really make them happy. We have to allow the non-believers the right to exercise their free will. God gave us all a free will so when people surrender their lives to Christ they do it willingly and not because they feel they must. Many things we think are fun end up not being very good for us at all. If you don't yet know Christ in a personal way, why? If you do, BE Christ to those you encounter each day. The how to regarding that task is found by reading the Bible a little each day. God loves you and only has blessings and not cursings in store for you.
rlkeller