pomegranatesandchains

Most people would agree that attributes such as patience, cheerfulness, hope, peacefulness and kindness are universally desirable. God declares in his scriptures that He is the giver of these beautiful characteristics:

“God is the one who makes us patient and cheerful. I pray that he will help you live at peace with each other, as you follow Christ.” (Romans 15:5) What is more beautiful than a fruiting tree bursting with a bountiful harvest of colorful fruit? What is more beautiful than a child of God bursting with the fruit of Holy Spirit?

Here is the key. Following Christ Jesus will allow God to be the one who can deposit these positive attributes into your soul through his Holy Spirit.

So many strive on their own..willfully employing their own power…and then fail in the area of peace, hope and kindness. We are being bombarded with incidents of church and campus shootings and religious clashes in the Middle East. God is the bringer of peace, so conversely, without Him, there will be no peace. Humans are inherently arrogant and sure they can solve all this world’s problems politically, but God warns that without Him, our efforts will be puny and futile.

He also plainly states right before this chapter in Romans “And so, each one of us must give an account to God for what we do.” (Romans 14:12) Well, that’s sobering.” Each of us” includes everyone: rich, poor, humble, obscure…ALL of us. And how will we be judged? What is God’s criterion for a well-lived life? God (through Paul) explains: “God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else? …Christ died and was raised to  life, and now he is at God’s right side, speaking to him for us.” (Romans 8:32,34)

I don’t know about you, but when I pass from this life, through death’s doorway into eternity, I want the only acceptable intercessor, Jesus Christ, standing with me as I give account of my life to God.

Wow! What a promise! 1 Peter 5:10 promises: “But God shows undeserved kindness to everyone. That’s why he had Christ Jesus choose you to share in his eternal glory. You will suffer for a while, but God will make you complete, steady, strong, and firm.”  When Jesus walked this earth, he confirmed that humans, including his followers, would have troubles in this world. Christians are not exempt since we live in a sinful world with the enemy of our souls — a literal, actual devil — looking for ways to shame us, ensnare us and distract us: “…Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack.” (1 Peter 5:8)

As in nature, the weaker are more easy to attack. So what would make you “weak” in the human world…an elderly, weak body?  In the physical sense, “yes.” But God is concerned with the state of our souls. True strength comes from the Lord as stated in the Psalms numerous times. “You (the Lord) are my strong shield, and I trust you completely. You have helped me, and I will celebrate and thank you in song. You give strength to your people, Lord, and you save and protect your chosen ones. Come save us and bless us. Be our shepherd and always carry us in your arms..”  (Psalm 28: 6-9)

When you invite Jesus to come into you and be your Lord and Savior, His Holy Spirit takes up physical residence inside you in a literal sense. The God-sized vacuum placed inside each of us by the Lord when He created us is then filled supernaturally. This gives us completeness and leads to a mind that becomes more and more steady, strong and firm as we follow Jesus and Biblical truth.

King David wrote centuries ago in Psalm 36:1 that “Sinners don’t respect God; sin is all they think about.

Why would any thinking person not choose the God of the universe? He answers in verse 2: “They like themselves too much to hate their own sins or even to see them.”

“They tell deceitful lies, and they don’t have the sense to live right. Those people stay awake, thinking up mischief, and they follow the wrong road, refusing to turn fro sin.” (Ps. 36:3-4), Many centuries later, Peter, who walked personally with Jesus the Messiah, writes also about this path: “They have left he true road and have gone down the wrong path…”  How?             “…by following he example of the prophet Balaam. He…loved what he got from being a crook.” (2 Peter 2:15)

Ironically, people who do not trust and believe are described as arrogant and disrespectful (from God’s point of view — and who else’s point-of-view really matters in the end?)…believing themselves to be “good enough” by their own estimates, or godlike or becoming as God. Adam and Eve were lured away from a perfect relationship with their Creator by the lying serpent Lucifer who had them doubt God and his promises to them. They exchanged the lie about God for the truth and set the rest of us into having to choose whom we would follow.

Choose God today. You will receive His free gift of the Holy Spirit and never be lonely or abandoned. You will be His beloved child…saved by His grace…and not by any method you may have thought up for yourself. Peace of mind about your salvation is free before you take your last breath…but then you will have chosen through procrastination, stubbornness and pride. Be wise and join God’s “team” for eternity.

In the last book of the Bible, which is Jesus Christ’s revelation for His church of what is to come, He makes this astounding salvation offer: “I am Jesus! And I am the one who sent my angel to tell all of you these things for the churches… If you are thirsty, come! If you want life-giving water, come and take it. It’s free! (Rev. 22:16-17) Sadly, free things are not always the most valued. There is a perception that expensive rewards and earthly riches are the best. God gracefully offers to “bless all who have washed their robes (become acceptable through Christ’s atonement at the cross). They will each have the right to eat fruit from the tree that gives life, and they can enter the gates of the city.” (Rev. 22: 14)

There is a guarded entrance to Heaven. Your access pass will be faith in God’s only son.

Interestingly, the book of Revelation is the only one that offers a reward available just for reading it! “God will bless everyone who reads this prophecy to others, and he will bless everyone who hears an obeys it. The time is almost here.” (Rev. 1:3) Incredible, right? Of course, God’s version of “almost here” is not ours. The redeemed church has been waiting for Christ’s return for nearly 2,000 years. God speaks from the mind of eternity — forever — so a couple of thousand years do seem soon for everyone to hear and respond to the wonderful gift of salvation for all time through God’s son. “…Jesus was the first to conquer death, and he is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood he set us free from our sins.” (Revelation 1:5)  Come join me in heaven and tell me you read this blog. We’ll have eternity to get to know each other!

The ancient book of Psalms, written as songs, were for the Jewish people to use as praise and in times of trouble. As God inspires all scripture, they also have a prophetic and modern usage all down through time and to our present day. Psalm 49 exhorts people not to depend on wealth. This blog’s title is actually a verse: “You cannot buy back your life or pay off God!” (Psalm 49:7) The psalmist says in verses 3-4 that he will explain a “mystery”, which are “words of wisdom.”

When a person dies, all their accumulated wealth and possessions stay behind for others to divide and inherit. Verse 6 describes a person that lives to make money, “They trust in their riches and brag about all of their wealth.” Here are sober words for us all to contemplate: “It costs far too much to buy back your life. You can never pay God enough to stay alive forever and safe from death.” (Ps. 49:8-9) There are words of celebration for believers which follow though: “But God will rescue me from the power of death.” (Ps. 49:15)

Not making a decision to follow God’s free gift of salvation through his beloved only son, Jesus Christ, is actually making a decision to continue on after death in a place without God. Saying, “No thank you” to the Almighty will follow you into eternity — long after possessions and property are long forgotten. Say “yes” to God’s free bridge to salvation today — a day when you are still alive — don’t wait until tomorrow.

Mankind worships power and influence. Men and women spend their lives seeking to be powerful, influential and control capital means (wealth) to show themselves their lives mattered. But God is described in the Biblical book of Nehemiah, by a grateful group of Jewish believers who had returned from captivity in Babylon to rebuild the walls and gates around their sacred capitol of Jerusalem as “Our God, you are powerful, fearsome, and faithful, always true to your word.” (Nehemiah 9:32) Here God is rightfully referenced as the source of power.

He is also faithful, meaning He hears our prayers, cries for mercy and requests for deliverance from the many sins in which we find ourselves trapped. Unfortunately, a country at peace which has been blessed with plenty tends to forget that God is the one who provided those same blessings in the first place: “But when they were at peace, they would turn against you…” (Neh. 9: 28)  What is the result of people’s forgetfulness? “…You would hand then over to their enemies…(same verse). Is that it? Are people then doomed to live with the results of their sin and forgetfulness? No. The verse then concludes, “Then they would beg for help, and because you are merciful, you rescued them over and over again. You warned them to turn back and discover true life by obeying your laws.” (Neh. 9:28-29)

What about fearsome? Hearing that God will return soon as a righteous judge is not very popular preaching these days from American pulpits. A gospel of peace and prosperity with gentle messages are being preached instead of telling the people truthfully that they are mired in sin without God’s forgiveness through his son, Jesus Christ. Modern prophets chosen to speak his Word in truth are arising in America today. A prophet cannot choose themselves…they must be chosen by God…or they would be speaking their own invented words. In Nehemiah’s day, it was the same: “For years, you were patient, and your Spirit warned them with messages spoken by your prophets. Still they refused to listen…” (Neh. 28:30) Reckoning will come. Everyone will stand before God and give account for how they chose to spend their time on earth. Choose wisely this day, week, month and year whom you will serve.

Who doesn’t want to know the whole truth? Self-help books make their fortunes by promising to tell you the “whole truth” about how to bring balance and wholeness into your life, but from where does their version of the truth come?

The Apostle Paul outlines truth in just a few sentences in his letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 2:4-6):

“God wants everyone to be saved and to know the whole truth, which is, There is only one God, and Christ Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God. Jesus was truly human, and he gave himself to rescue all of us. God showed us this at the right time.”

The whole Bible, from Genesis through Revelation has this theme. God, along with Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit, created us. (That’s why the Genesis 1:27 uses the pronoun “We.” — God said, “Now we will make humans, and they will be like us.”)

Our inherently sinful nature soon takes over and we are in need of a savior to create a bridge between our sin and God’s holy righteousness. Holy Spirit places exact predictions about Jesus coming (born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, to the line of King David, etc.) in the Old Testament. Jesus is born right on God’s schedule in 2 b.c. His fulfillment of all predictions, sinless life, and myriad of miracles prove he is God’s only given son, as recorded in the New Testament by eyewitness followers and Paul. Revelation, the last book of the Bible, tells us that Jesus will return at the close of the age of grace for all those believers who have been reconciled to God through his gracious offer of a full, free pardon from sin to all who believe in the son he provided — “the perfect lamb of God who takes away the sins of the earth.”

And that is the whole truth.

How can humankind determine who is the wisest…whom should we follow? Can one person know everything about science, religion and technology? No? Then we would have to chose a council of wise people…but which one of us is capable of truly judging their wisdom so that we will follow them no matter what…they practice inerrancy and perfection right? Job, one of the Old Testament’s first biographical scriptures asks this same exact question and then gives us the answer to be followed throughout the ages in Job 28: 12-17 then Job 28:23-28:

“But where is wisdom found? No human knows the way.

Nor can it be discovered in the deepest sea. It is worth much more than silver or pure gold or precious stones.

Nothing is its equal — not gold or costly glass.”

So as human thought changes on what is true, right, worthy and lawful, God does not change. His wisdom is eternal and worthy:

“God is the only one who knows the way to wisdom, because he sees everything beneath the heavens.

When God divided out the wind and the water, and when he decided the path for rain and lightning, he also determined the truth and defined wisdom.

God told us, ‘Wisdom means that you respect me, the Lord, and turn from sin.’ “

So….everyone is capable of wisdom when it means respecting the Lord (following his Word given for our instruction) and leaving sin far behind which is known as repentance — actually turning from your own path and selfish desires and following God’s more perfect path for your life.

Paul, a highly educated Jewish man, chosen by God even after his persecution of emerging believers in Jesus as the awaited Messiah, had this to say to the highly educated Athenians of his day who worshipped many Greek idols, as we today put many idols before God. He answers the question, “Why follow God’s son to salvation?” in just a few sentences still so relevant to highly sophisticated people of 2015:

“This God made the world and everything in it.

He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in temples built by human hands.

He doesn’t need help from anyone.

He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people.

From one person Go made all nations who live on earth, and he decided when and where every nation would be.

God has done all this so that we will look for him and reach out and find him.

He isn’t far from any of us, and he gives us the power to live, to move, and to be who we are.

‘We are his children…’

Since we are God’s children, we must not think that he is like an idol made out of gold or silver or stone.

He isn’t like anything that humans have thought up and made.

In the past, God forgave all this because people did not know what they were doing.

But now, he says that everyone everywhere must turn to him.

He has set a day when he will judge the world’s people with fairness.

And he has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for him.

God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from the dead.” (Acts 17:24-31)

These most learned men’s reaction in the next verse was how arrogant, self-sufficient people of today continue to respond to the good news of free salvation, they 1) laughed and 2) delayed thinking about their decision by saying, “We will hear you talk about this some other time.” — which becomes their decision of “no” I don’t need a savior, thank you anyway God.

Choose to believe Paul’s words today. Ask God to reveal the truth of his words to you while there is still time. At the end of human time, God’s word says he will send two witnesses to preach salvation to an unbelieving world. What if Paul was one of them — to reach the Gentiles (those not of Jewish faith) along with an Old Testament saint such as Elijah or Moses to preach that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah to the Jewish people? Would you rather believe his words now, or when they would be repeated then, preceded by, “It is written…”