June 21 2019 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I got a ton of response from the last couple of posts. I wanted to share one of them below and follow it with my comments about this lady’s situation.
“I agree whole heartedly that we all must believe and receive salvation. I know there are so many hurt people in this world. And for whatever reason they turn away from God when it is indeed people who have hurt them. I hear so many people, including some family in my life that condemn friends, acquaintances and people they don’t even know to hell based on maybe a bad choice or a bad day or really for whatever reason. But I think it is important to know we all sin. We try sometimes and just fail. But I believe OUR FATHER knows our heart and forgives us. So many people preach at people. I think this pushes people away from church and God. They speak as though there are so many rules that I think people give up trying – feeling there is no way they could ever measure up. It breaks my heart to think of the pure hopelessness people feel. We all just want to be accepted and LOVED. I think just reaching out to people and doing whatever we can to show them God’s Love is why we are here
I fall short every day, in one way or another, but I ask God to forgive me and I try harder. I’ve lost someone very close to me. He believed with all his heart in God. He accepted Jesus and for years walked a very good walk. But one day he got involved with drugs. He died of an overdose I have been told he could not possibly be in heaven present with our Lord. My heart cries when I hear this because I know he loved God. I know how ashamed he was of his decision to take drugs and how he struggled so to stay off of drugs. I ask God to watch after him I miss him every day.
I guess my question is am I right to believe that once we accept the Lord as our savior and believe he died for us and of course continue to believe in God Our Father that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven? I believe there is both good and bad in everyone. And as we walk along our journey and throughout our life we hopefully get stronger and closer to God, so we want to do our best. We may stumble but as long as we get up, brush ourselves off, and try again aren’t we doing all we can do?”
Ugh . . . Stuff like this makes me mad and sad. These church hypocrites turn so many people against the church it is nauseating. Whether someone gets a divorce, has problems with drugs or alcohol, or some other sin failure, pious men and women condemn them to hell. Nothing could be further from the truth and these self-made judges are just as guilty of sin as those whom they condemn. Romans 3:23 . . . “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.”
The Bible is clear that this man’s sins committed both before and after accepting Christ as his Savior are forgiven provided he believed in Jesus Christ and received redemption. If it were not so no one could reach heaven because we all, (including the most ardent and faithful believers in Christ) continue to sin in one way or another and no one can reach perfection until we enter heaven. I told this lady, “Rest easy my friend in Christ, based upon what you have told me he is in heaven forever.”
Dr. David Jeremiah wrote: “There is no distinction among those who are saved, or among those who are lost; all fall short. Bishop Hanley Moule said: “The harlot, the liar, the murderer, are short of it, but so are you. Perhaps they stand at the bottom of a mine, and you on the crest of an Alp; but you are as little able to touch the stars as they. Grace came through the love of God. It is a gift unsought, unmerited, and unlimited that overrules whatever a person has done, no matter the depth of the sin or the darkness of the heart. Grace is the determining factor and not deeds done in the flesh.”
Jesus warned us about sin in Matt. 26:21 by telling His disciples: “Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” The beloved Apostle Paul lamented his failure to live the perfect life Romans 7:15 – I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate.
Followers of Jesus are merely forgiven and are far from perfect. Don’t listen to self-righteous hypocrites who utter non-biblical false doctrine. We don’t have a license to sin, but after we receive Christ as our Savior, when we do sin, in spite of our best efforts to withstand the temptation, it doesn’t mean that God’s grace is diminished. On the contrary it is enhanced when we confess those sins and ask for forgiveness and strength not to sin again.
Once we become true believers and followers of Christ NOTHING can ever separate us from Jesus. Believe it!
Romans 8:38
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!