Psalm 96:7-10
There will be a day when all the nations of the earth recognize the Lord. Philippians 2:10-11 states:
“Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.2.9-11.NLT
Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Best to do that on this side of heaven so you get to actually experience heaven.
The message of salvation is indeed Good News but most don’t realize how desperately they need what Jesus offers. There is no other way to get to heaven. When Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man gets to heaven but through Me,” He wasn’t kidding. Religion sold us a bad bag of goods by letting us think we could get to heaven based on our own merits. Religion doesn’t save us. Jesus does!
This is such a difficult concept for those who have been trained by religion as in some respects, they must forget what they think they know and accept the One who truly knows. Understand, satan doesn’t care who you worship so long as it is not Jesus because he knows that as long as you don’t connect with Jesus, by default, you are his. ?
Consider the Apostle Paul. Having been trained in the strictest sect of Judaism, it was after his encounter with Jesus that he penned Philippians 3:7-9:
“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”
Philippians 3:7-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.3.7-9.NLT
Most people think that being good is enough. I was one of those people measuring my worth by a false set of arbitrary, self-imposed standards and when a friend ask me where I would go if I died that day, my response was that I thought I would make it to heaven. His response? Ephesians 2:8-9:
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.8-9.NLT
That Scripture saved my life for it helped me realize that my eternal destiny was not contingent on my actions but rather on my standing with the King of kings and the Lord of lords - Jesus. Salvation is a gift bestowed on those who accept Jesus as their Lord. It cannot be earned for we cannot be good enough to satisfy the demands of God’s holiness. There is only One who qualified and that very One paid the price for our salvation by dying on the cross for our sins.
As Colossians 2:13-14 states:
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.2.13-14.NLT
We must understand the message for ourselves first and then we must share this Good News with others. As I said before, most people don’t recognize their need for Jesus because they have not encountered the truth of His word. It was God’s word shared to me by a friend that spoke to my heart and opened my eyes. May we be such a friend for someone else.
In the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.18-21.NLT
My prayer is that for those who might be reading this post, that these Scriptures would come alive in your heart and help you determine where you stand with the King. As Paul states, “ We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!””
“Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:9-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.2.9-11.NLT
Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Best to do that on this side of heaven so you get to actually experience heaven.
The message of salvation is indeed Good News but most don’t realize how desperately they need what Jesus offers. There is no other way to get to heaven. When Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man gets to heaven but through Me,” He wasn’t kidding. Religion sold us a bad bag of goods by letting us think we could get to heaven based on our own merits. Religion doesn’t save us. Jesus does!
This is such a difficult concept for those who have been trained by religion as in some respects, they must forget what they think they know and accept the One who truly knows. Understand, satan doesn’t care who you worship so long as it is not Jesus because he knows that as long as you don’t connect with Jesus, by default, you are his. ?
Consider the Apostle Paul. Having been trained in the strictest sect of Judaism, it was after his encounter with Jesus that he penned Philippians 3:7-9:
“I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.”
Philippians 3:7-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.3.7-9.NLT
Most people think that being good is enough. I was one of those people measuring my worth by a false set of arbitrary, self-imposed standards and when a friend ask me where I would go if I died that day, my response was that I thought I would make it to heaven. His response? Ephesians 2:8-9:
“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.8-9.NLT
That Scripture saved my life for it helped me realize that my eternal destiny was not contingent on my actions but rather on my standing with the King of kings and the Lord of lords - Jesus. Salvation is a gift bestowed on those who accept Jesus as their Lord. It cannot be earned for we cannot be good enough to satisfy the demands of God’s holiness. There is only One who qualified and that very One paid the price for our salvation by dying on the cross for our sins.
As Colossians 2:13-14 states:
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.2.13-14.NLT
We must understand the message for ourselves first and then we must share this Good News with others. As I said before, most people don’t recognize their need for Jesus because they have not encountered the truth of His word. It was God’s word shared to me by a friend that spoke to my heart and opened my eyes. May we be such a friend for someone else.
In the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.18-21.NLT
My prayer is that for those who might be reading this post, that these Scriptures would come alive in your heart and help you determine where you stand with the King. As Paul states, “ We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!””
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