Have you personally considered yahushua (Jesus)?
Why put off until tomorrow what could prove to be an eternal blunder? scripture says, “it is appointed to man once to die and then comes the judgment.”1 The real kicker here is that we do not know the day or hour of our appointed time. Time appears to be one of the most abused commodities on planet earth. We casually take for granted our time on earth and often fail to understand the true essenceand value of the fleeting seconds.
I am in my late fifties and a couple of years ago I saw two men younger than I suddenly take Ill and die within a couple of days. Neither had any reason to believe that their appointed time was a few days away from their last breath. Were they prepared to meet eternity? if I had to evaluate the situation from my personal knowledge of them, I would say, “no.” Are we prepared to enter eternity? Most people’s answer seems to be, “I hope so” and this answer just proves how bankrupt our eternal spiritual bank account really is.
Eternity will not be like this life, because it will last forever. someone once described eternity as going to the beach with a glass of water. Hold up the glass of water and say, “this is my life”, then look at the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, or Atlantic and say, “that is eternity”! sadly, most of us invest all of our efforts and talents in the glass of water while totally ignoring the body of water in front of us. In all candor, it should be the opposite.
Most of our commitment of time and money is spent on building our fortunes, homes, and retirement nest egg-things that are guaranteed to pass away. The O’Keefe family has been in the funeral business for six generations. When I was much younger and working at the funeral home, I remember a case where a man had worked all his life up north, retired, moved to the gulf Coast and built himself a lovely retirement home on a beautiful golf course, and the day he was to move into his new home he died. It didn’t seem fair, but that didn’t matter, he was still dead. We just don’t know when we will cross the bridge into our eternal home.
So, if not now, I ask, when will we give an active and serious consideration to the part of our existence that will last forever? Again I ask, have you personally considered YAHUSHUA, the one we call Jesus?
There is no greater value on this earth than the soul of a human, because it is eternal. Your soul iS eternal! It will either reside with God for all eternity or be totally separated from God for all eternity. In this hustle, bustle, fast-paced world we live in, the condition of our soul is usually far from our most serious concern, and this is a tremendous error. Everyone is just one breath this side of eternity. As scripture says in Hebrews 2:1, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard…How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?”
YAHUSHUA (Jesus) said, “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.” 2All of creation is based on law and the strength of the lawgiver who is God. From the design of a small atom to the release of an atomic explosion when that same atom is split, god’s laws are fixed, and He will not transgress His own law. When Adam and Eve rebelled against god in the garden, they concluded for all mankind a nature of sin and rebellion. As with the splitting of the atom, so one sin of rebellion caused an explosion of death and corruption in the entire earth. In their rebellion, they separated themselves umbilically from their Father and Creator, Almighty God. However, they did not separate themselves or us from the love that God has for us.
We are the workmanship of His hands; we are His children. Consider the lengths a parent will go to in order to save their child from worldy dangers. God loves His children infinitely more than we could ever imagine, so He set out to redeem us from death and destruction. He had set down one rule in the garden, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.’”3
Adam and eve chose not to abide by God’s rule, and it cost them their lives. God being who He is, had to abide by His Word, especially since it was by His Word that all things were created. God, the essence of Law, had to abide by the same law in order to redeem and save His children from destruction. Some scriptures to emphasize the rule of law are as follows:
“The soul that sins shall die,”4
“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin.”5
“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,”6
“There are none righteous, no not one.”7
The just demands of the law had to be met. A sacrifice had to be offered; blood had to be shed; the offering had to be without blemish.
YAHUSHUA (Jesus) was/is the Lamb of God (the sacrificial Lamb). He was without spot or blemish. Scripture says, “None could convince Him of sin.”8 even to this day, none have been able to convince Him of any sin! He fulfilled all the just demands of the law. He shed His blood on the Cross. He was our substitution; He took upon Himself our sins and death, and interceded for us even while on the cross.
“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”9We are part of them, the ones whose sins He died to cleanse! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (you and me) should believe on Him should not die, but have everlasting life.”10
YAHUSHUA paid a debt He did not owe; He paid a debt we could not pay, and became life’s greatest expression of God’s love for each and every one of us. But YAHUSHUA said, “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!! 11
Simply put, you can be a member of every church on earth, but if you are not Born Again, it will profit you nothing. You can be baptized in every conceivable manner, but if you are not Born Again, it matters not. You may fulfill every ritual imaginable, but if you are not Born Again, it will not give you a ticket entry into Heaven. It is and was our sin(s) that separated us from God. It was YAHUSHUA that paid the price for that sin through the sin offering and the shedding of His blood on the cross at Calvary, and it is to Him that we make our appeal for the salvation He freely offers us. There is no other way. YAHUSHUA said, “I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life, no man comes to the Father, but by me.”12 He also said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”13
Some may say, “Well, I believe in YAHUSHUA (Jesus),” and the scripture answers him by saying, “You believe there is one God, you do well, the devils believe also and they tremble.”14 Where is our fear and trembling? Our “belief” must transcend a mental knowledge or belief into the realm of a debtor meeting with his judge, jury, and executioner. It is our sins that convict us and consign us to everlasting torment in Hell, separated from God. Therefore, we need to humbly and fearfully come before God and ask Him to forgive us, because our eternal life is in His hands and nothing will ever change that fact! When we begin to seek God and His mercy on a personal level, we set in motion the power of God to save us.
When we acknowledge our sin and ask God to forgive us, He will give us a witness within our spirit, and we will have finally experienced the essence of being Born Again. We cannot be accidentally saved. We must have a meeting with the only One that can save us, and our debt must be personally settled. God has provided the directions for us, but we must believe His Word. Scripture says, “That if you will confess with your mouth the LORD YAHUSHUA (Jesus), and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”15 The key commands are confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart. God is waiting on each of us to come to Him so that He can begin developing a relationship with us where He can demonstrate His love towards us. Ask God to forgive you of your sins, then ask YAHUSHUA (Jesus) to come into your heart and give you new life and the ability to live for Him on a daily basis. Thank Him for His mercy towards you, and to give witness, go tell someone what you did. Confess with your mouth the LORD YAHUSHUA (Jesus). This is a serious thing that each of us must embrace with our heart.
YAHUSHUA said, “Father, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto the babes. Even so, it seemed good in your sight.”16 He said, “Unless you become as a little child you cannot enter into this realm.”17 Children are much more transparent than we adults. A child has a difficult time hiding his heart, while adults have a difficult time finding their hearts. We may have to work hard in order to discover our heart that we might bare it before God in a serious desire to be Born Again. We cannot be Born Again with a head knowledge or mental desire to become a Christian.
The next important thing to understand is that we cannot get “good enough” to come to YAHUSHUA. We just come like we are, right now. This is an individual thing, only between you and God; come just the way you are. God loves you enough to accept you the way you are right now, and He loves you enough not to leave you that way. He wants to take an active part in your daily life. He changes you on the inside, confirming to you that you are indeed forgiven. He desires to establish a true love relationship with you, and not to condemn you. Actually you are already condemned; it is YAHUSHUA that now wants to pardon you and receive you. He said, “I will separate your sins from you as far as the East is from the West;…I will cast them into the depths.”18
There is not a preacher, rabbi, or priest that can get you into Heaven. As a matter of fact, every man, woman, rabbi or priest must come through the same door of salvation (YAHUSHUA) as you, and acknowledge his/her debt, and reach the same settlement of forgiveness. God is no respecter of persons, and no one has a “corner” on God. And once settlement is reached (salvation), He wants to open up to you the great love that He has for you. It never ends; it reaches all the way to Heaven for all eternity. Just think how much we all desire to be loved and to have someone to love and devote ourselves to. Well, YAHUSHUA (Jesus) is the full expression of that love. He transcends our meager attempts and failures to express and receive love, and as a Father He takes us, His children, by the hand and walks with us from this day forth.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”19
Consider the things I say: sometimes people do not come to God because of misconceptions they possess about God or because someone who represented himself as a servant of God did something to offend or harm them. Jesus said, “it is impossible but that offences will come: but woe to him, through whom they come! it would be better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”20
Think for a moment just how foolish it would be to spend an eternity in Hell because of our refusal to forgive the person who hurt us. God knows all that transpires, and He has more than enough grace to demonstrate His love toward us regardless of the offense we may have suffered at someone’s hands. Remember what Jesus said while hanging on the cross? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”21 it is time for us to forgive those that have hurt us and finally embrace YAHUSHUA (Jesus) and start reading the Bible daily. We need to know the Truth in order to be set free from false beliefs and closely held traditions that have nothing to do with our salvation.
“And You Will Seek Me, And Find Me, When You Search For Me With All Your Heart.”22
As a last note, we leave you with one of the most valuable nuggets that we have received. Every day read the Bible, talk to God, keep a journal of what you feel God is showing you, and confess Bible verses that encourage you to be like yahushua (Jesus). One of the most powerful daily confessions is ephesians 1:16-23. Speak these verses over yourself and your family-and personalize them. “Pray that the God of our LORD Yahushua (Jesus) will give unto you a spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him (YAHUSHUA), that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened, that we would know the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints (that’s you), and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to you who believe….”23Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path.”24
Therefore, I offer to each reader my favorite verse where God was speaking through Jeremiah His prophet saying, “Call Upon Me And I Will Answer You, And Show You Great And Mighty Things You Do Not Know.”25 God bless you, and may you always be ready to help someone in need.