My heart is burdened for you to know the Truth! Burdened because your eternity hangs on it! When you die it will be too late and there will be no second chance! I beg you to just read this note and think on these things and, if you so wish, ask questions! Ask anything because there is an answer for you no matter what your question is! I implore you to consider these things because they are the only eternal truth! The grass withers and flowers fade away but God's word will never fail and never become irrelevant! Friend, eternity is a long, long time. Longer than the human mind can grasp. It's too big for us! Compared to this life, it's like the Himalayan Mountains being compared to the bumps and ridges on an orange peel. Please read. Just consider. Ask questions. Think things through. Ask God to grant faith in these words. There is no greater joy available to you than to know the Truth! Your best day in this life is absolute shit compared to the joys that God offers you in knowing Him. Sorry if my use of that curse offended you but that's literally what the joys of this life are compared to what God offers you.
Truth #1: God is so kind to you. Look at your life. You have breath in your lungs. You have the food that you need to keep on living. And not just ANY food but unless you're living in a third world country, you have access to some REALLY NICE food! You have a roof over your head. You have friends. You live in a country where crime is under control and you can say and think what you want to. Your body continues to function! Do you know how many different processes are at work in your physical body right now? Do you know how many of them are absolutely vital to your continued existence? If one of these faltered even for a second you would die on the spot. Your very existence is a gift from God's hand to yours. You don't earn the function of your organs. You don't earn your ability to work, make money, and buy food. God graciously has granted your body to work and He graciously continues giving your body what it needs to keep going. Do you have any great memories in your life? You didn't earn them. You didn't work hard to get the friends you have. God, in His great kindness, brought them to you. You have all 5 of your senses. You can see and hear and smell and taste and touch! All of these are gifts. God is not under any obligation to do any of these things for you. If God takes them away you have no right to complain because you did nothing to earn them. Your whole life you've been completely dependent on God keeping you that way. He could change anything at any second and you have no right to argue with God that it's wrong of Him to change it. He gave you life and knit you together inside your mother so He has every right to decide when you die. It could be right after reading this note. It could be in 20 minutes. It could be in 20 years. God decides when you die. You have no say in it. James 1:17 says "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." God has been and continues to be VERY kind to you. Not because you've earned it but just because He is kind and gracious.
Truth #2: You haven't responded to God's kindness adequately. You've acted as though you had some right to good things. You've loved the gifts more than the Father who gave them to you. If someone asked you "What makes you a good person?" you would probably reply that you never killed anyone, stole anything, told any BIG lies. You're not a rapist or a dishonest stockbroker or a burglar. You've never sold any drugs or strung out a teenage girl. You've never kidnapped anyone and demanded a ransom. Morally, you're in pretty good shape you think. Do you notice any pattern in these answers? I do. They're all about how you've treated other people. They're all about your relationship to other human beings. Not one of these qualifications has anything to do with God. If God used this standard to evaluate people, we'd all be pretty much okay. Of course, we all have to admit we've failed at one time or another to love other people the way that God requires of us. But the point of all this is that God does NOT use this standard to judge people! Jesus said the greatest commandment (the most important one) is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. (Matthew 22:35-38) Have you done that? God is the most precious, most beautiful, most powerful, fearful, awe-inspiring, radiant, magnificent, perfect, righteous, just, holy, compassionate, loving, kind entity in existence! Have you treated Him as such? Has your entire life been a symphony of worship and praise to Him only? If you want to earn heaven by working, that's what your going to have to do. You can't let one single, solitary moment escape you without giving God the absolute maximum amount of glory and worship you possibly can. And once you DO put forth this amount of work you can't have a single ounce of pride. You must be completely humble to come into God's presence. Pride is a sin that God hates. And even if you were able to live that way from this moment forward you'd still have the problem of your previous life and the moments gone by that you've failed to worship and love Him adequately. All of this to say... you. have. not. loved. God. as. He. deserves.
Truth #3: God hates sin. What is sin? Sin is anything that does NOT magnify the greatness of God. God. is. everything. Romans 11:36 makes it clear. God is the center of everything. If it's not making God look more to be desired and loved and wanted it's wicked in the highest degree. God created you to make Him look great. Now you might think that's vain and self-centered but think about it for a second. If God really is perfect and holy and beautiful and desirable and holy and majestic and all the other superlatives that God is, doesn't that make Him the only one who DESERVES to be made much of? Wouldn't it be unkind of God to keep you from valuing that which is supremely valuable? So God is kind and gracious to hate everything that doesn't make Him look like what He really is! Isaiah 43:7 says that everything was created for God's glory! So if it's not doing its job, it's wicked! God can't stand sin. Sin is disgusting to Him. Picture a 4 or 5 year old splashing around in a pool of blood and pus and vomit and urine and motor oil and other disgusting things, holding a switchblade in his hand and physically threatening any adult who comes along to take him out of it all. He's bleeding everywhere and throwing up but he loves it. That's you when you're not worshipping God with everything in you. Sin. disgusts. God. Loving anything more than you love God is wicked beyond description.
Truth #4: One day, you're going to stand before God to have your life set up against the divine standard. God is a just judge. Maybe you're saying "Oh but I think God is loving and kind and He wouldn't sentence me to any real punishment. You've already emphasized how loving and kind God is and now you're contradicting yourself by saying He's going to punish sinners with hell." Picture this... you're married and you've got 3 children and a dog. You live in a nice house and have a couple good cars. One night you come home and a horrible sight meets your eyes. Your front door has been broken down. You come inside and your spouse is lying facedown in a pool of their own blood. You come in further and find two of your children have been violently attacked and sexually abused. Their throats have been cut. You fall to your knees, overwhelmed at what you're seeing but you hear some soft noises coming from another room. You walk in just in time to see your last child being murdered. You manage to subdue the attacker but your child is dead. A year later you're standing in the courtroom as the only eyewitness to this crime. You watch as the judge calls the defendant to her bench and you listen with horror as she says, "Don't worry. I'm a kind, gracious, loving, compassionate judge. I don't believe in giving punishment. Just pay this small fine and I'll let you go. I will acquit you." The very quality you're relying on to keep you from punishment (i.e. God's goodness) is the VERY quality that will condemn you. The fact of the matter is that if you haven't lived every second in humble adoration, worship, and love of God, you're going to stand condemned. Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Maybe you'll face that judge in 10 years. Maybe in 20 years. Maybe after you finish reading this note. Remember, you have no guarantee of tomorrow. Death could come literally any second. But you will face the righteous Judge of all the earth. He knows all things. He sees all things. He hears all things. He has seen every thought that passed through your mind. Nothing is hidden from Him to whom you must give an account.
Truth #5: God loves you and has made a way for you to be found not guilty at the judgement. God has every right to simply cast you into hell. You have no grounds for a defense. You have no argument that will persuade God to acquit you. You are guilty before Him. BUT, as I said earlier, He is kind. He offers forgiveness to ANYONE who wants it. There is no sin so great that He cannot forgive it and grant you an acquittal at the judgement. Jesus Christ. God came into human history about 2,000 years ago in the form of a man named Jesus Christ. Jesus loved His Father with everything in Him the 30 odd years of His earthly life. Never once did He waver. He never slackened in His service to the Father. He did not break a single commandment at any time during His entire life. Not one deviation. Not one sin. Not one moment of pride. He raged against sin His entire life but He loved people at the same time. He lived the perfect life. After about 3 years of ministry, though, He was crucified. Who crucified Him? Some people say it was the Jews. Some say it was the Romans. Some say you and I crucified Him because He took sin on Himself and was punished for all of those who would have faith in His subsitutionary death. But, ultimately, Isaiah 53 makes it clear that GOD was the One who killed Him. Because He wanted to make a way back in for sinners. God couldn't ignore sin because He was just. But He COULD transfer sin and punish another in our place if they freely offered themselves as Jesus did. Jesus died for all who would believe and put their faith in Him. If you want forgiveness today, it's yours. Freely granted. No strings attached. No monkey business. You want mercy? You want to walk into death without any fear or apprehension or worry about what comes after? Just grab on to Jesus!
Truth #6: All you have to do is believe. Put your sin on the table. Be upfront and honest with God. If you don't remember every little thing you've said or thought or done, don't worry about it. You're not trying to earn God's forgiveness by recalling everything. Just fling yourself entirely on His mercy. Then believe. "And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Acts 2:21). If you don't believe, for God's sake don't just give up! If you don't believe, pray for belief! Ask questions! Labor in prayer! Beg God to grant you belief! EVERYTHING hangs on it! Don't rest! Don't slacken your grip! Don't take it easy! Press your whole being into your pursuit of real faith!
If this note speaks to you, PLEASE don't hesitate to contact me. Post a comment. Send a message. Call me. Email me. I want to show you the love of Christ and that's a large part of why I've written this note. I'm here for you if you're ever discouraged or convicted or afraid! Sometimes you have a long process to work through before you come to real faith and I want to be there for you if you're working through a lot. Know that I'm praying for you. May God bless you richly with eyes to see the greatness and the beauty of Jesus Christ!
Your Friend,
Wes
Thanks, Wes:)! I really appreciated your illustrations here.
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