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"Two Sides"Are you prepared to be a Warrior for Christ? I hope so. The devil is attempting to recruit new soldiers everyday. In 1 Peter 5:8 we are reminded that the devil walks among us like a roaring lion seeking to devour any he can. There are no sidelines when it comes to your eternal soul. Jesus was very clear about this when He assigned the great commission to His disciples after He had risen. In Mark 16: 15-16, He tells them to go out and preach the gospel to the world and those who believe and are baptized will be saved; but those who do not believe will be condemned. There are many messages out there about the power of goodness, the benefits of a law abiding and moral life. And while a moral life is proper and good it still falls short of salvation! Don’t be fooled by the tricks of the devil. You are either saved or you are not. There is no other option. Take your place in the kingdom of heaven; recognize that you are a loved creation of God. Accept the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for you. Declare Jesus your Savior; declare Him your Lord and Master. Step into the love and light of our Father God or spend eternity in darkness. The world is being blanketed in darkness and it is up to each and every one of us to do something about it. We were all born into darkness and sin but we are born again as a child of light. Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians 5:8. When you accept the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us by dying on the cross, we understand that Jesus went to hell so you don’t have to. That is not a fable parents tell their kids to make them behave. That is not a metaphor or allegory meant to instruct. Jesus went to Hell for each one of you reading this letter. He died so that you and your parents, siblings, sons, and daughters can be saved. His death redeemed us of our sins and gave us the opportunity to spend eternity in the kingdom of heaven. The water baptism that we experience during our rebirth is the outward manifestation of our spirit and soul being washed clean. It prepares us for the baptism of the Holy Spirit where our inner spirit connects with the Holy Spirit of the Lord. Our inner spirit is one part of a greater whole, connected to the Holy Spirit of God and the spirit that resides in all other Christians. We are each one piece of the puzzle. Each individual piece just as important and treasured as the next. Some pieces may seem more important than others through our limited viewpoint but in reality we are all beautiful creations of God. Each person as important as the man beside them. Every Christian connected to every other one, connected to the Lord Jesus Christ and Father God Himself through the Holy Spirit. Each person filled with the breath of God and loved by God equally. Each one of us co-heirs with Jesus to the kingdom of heaven. God took the time to shape each of our souls individually. He gave each one of us unique gifts and talents. He knows every aspect of our being and loves us completely. He created us in love to prosper and advance the kingdom of heaven. It is easy in this world to feel overwhelmed, lonely, and afraid. To think that there is no one out there that cares about you, or understands you. The world seems like such a large place when you see it through the eyes of one person, how could you not feel lost. But that is very far from the truth. Even when we don’t recognize God, He is still walking beside us. Even when we don’t love God, He love us. He is always there with His arms open ready to forgive and forget. God cries to see us in pain, lost and afraid. He wants to lend us support and strength but He gave us free will so we must come to Him. He is waiting. It does not matter whether you have drifted away from God throughout your life or if you never knew Him to begin with, it doesn’t matter if you have lived a good moral life or one of sin. God loves each and every one of us. He longs for us to come to Him. God wants to reconcile His relationship with His wayward creations so badly that He sent His Son to earth to die for our sins. God loved us so much He was willing to allow His child to sacrifice His life for us. Each lash of the scourge, each stab of the thorn, every drop of blood spilled was done for us. Jesus’ pain and death sealed the covenant allowing us back into God’s loving embrace. So what is our part of this covenant? What do we need to do to become saved? Merely believe; proceed forward in life with faith. Accept Jesus as your Savior. Recognize that He died specifically for you. That’s right. He sacrificed His life for you today, just as He made that sacrifice for the Jews and Gentiles of his time. Jesus is the living word of God and as such, He is the beginning and the end. Time is immaterial. Realize with your mind and believe in your heart that God is a living God. Have the true unshakable faith and moral conviction that God is as relevant and powerful today as ever. He never left us, we are the ones that turned away from Him. But He is waiting in every breath we take and every beat of our heart. Quit allowing your soul to be distracted by the world around you. Don’t let rationality dissuade you from the true path; don’t let the devil convince you that you are alone, that God is dead. Proclaim loudly, by the blood and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan get back! I will not listen, I will not stray; I will not forsake my Creator and my Savior. I want my inner spirit to be guided by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God along a righteous path to a more holy life. There is always hope. God is as merciful as He is powerful. Do not allow fear of the sins you have committed keep you from the glory of God. As wicked as we can be as humans, and believe me I know from experience how wicked that is, God forgives. When we come to Him through Jesus with a repentant heart and sorrowful spirit He forgives us our trespasses and forgets our transgressions. We are able to proceed with a clean slate and pure spirit. Blessed be the grace of God! God created each of us in His image with love. And it is with love that He accepts us, failings and all. We are His children, children of light and armor bearers of the One True God. God does love and desires all His creations to join Him in the kingdom of heaven. But do not be deceived by those out there spreading a false message. The only path to God is through His son Jesus Christ. God sealed the new covenant with humankind with the sacrifice and blood of Jesus and it is only through Him that we are reconciled with our Father. We do not earn our way into heaven with our deeds. We must believe in our hearts and proclaim with our mouths that Jesus is our Savior and Lord. We must understand the sacrifice Jesus made for us. The depth of love that sacrifice embodies. No greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for another. This is the love that Jesus had for each of us. Jesus allowed Himself to be humiliated, tortured, and cruelly murdered for you. So that when your mortal life ended you would not have to spend eternity in hell. No, He went for us. He paid our price with His blood. So we find redemption through our acceptance and belief that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Our faith carries us through to the glory and grace of Father God. Our eternal spirit reconciled with our Creator, as it should be. But I want to challenge each of you, no not challenge, I wish to beseech each and every one of you. Please do not stop with accepting the gift Jesus has given you. Good works may not get us into heaven, but we were created for good works. Ephesians 2:8-10, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We were created in God’s image with unique gifts, not to waste them selfishly but to use them to help our fellow man. As Titus 3:8 says, those who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works for that is profitable to man. So be a warrior for God, doing good and fighting the devil at every opportunity. In 1Peter 2:15, Peter tells us that in doing good we put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Battling Satan is not just the things of storybook legend and myth. Each time you help your fellow man you are defeating the devil. Each time you give freely with an open and generous heart you are advancing the kingdom of heaven. Each time you forgive someone who has hurt you, you take a step down the path of righteousness. Every good deed will light a candle in the dark. Please, I beg of each of you, be a true child of light. We were given free will and we have the ability to save the world or destroy it. Why does bad happen in the world? Because we let it. Why are there starving children who are homeless? Because we are not doing anything about it. Why is the news full of tragedy? Because we accept it. I refuse to believe that there are so few true believers out there that we cannot change the world for the better. My spirit cries out in pain and confusion every time I see someone hurt or killed while fighting for a sale item at the store. That’s right, I say it is called Black Friday because it is a day that our rational mind falls victim to the wiles of the devil. It is a day of spiritual darkness when man is pitted against man for things that don’t last and wont matter in eternity. Look around you next year and you will see that it is truly a black day; a day of pain and misery, a day when so many step off the path of righteousness to wallow in the darkness. A black day when man places money and things above their fellow man. Jesus warns of this in Matthew 6:19-21 and Matthew 6:24. You cannot serve God and mammom at the same time. Jesus weeps when we step over a fallen brother to get to something that satisfies our material greed, something we may want but don’t actually need. When we place material things above God’s creations, we insult the Creator and the devil laughs. Ask yourself, is that sale item worth the pain and possible life of a fellow human being? You need to know that the devil rejoices when we stray from God’s path. Satan wishes for us to be distracted by the things of this world so that we lose sight of the fact that our mortal bodies are temporary and it is our eternal souls that we should be safeguarding. In 1 John 2:15-17 we are warned to not love the world or the things in it for it is all transitory. We must remember to stay focused on the word of God. Your faith is your shield and the word is your sword in the battle against the Adversary as it says in Ephesians 6:16-17. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in your daily life. Trust the grace of God for your salvation. Stand fast in your faith. Remember that you do not stand alone. In 2 Thessalonians 3:3 it speaks of how the Lord is faithful and will establish us and guard us from the evil one. In Isaiah 41:10 He tells us how He holds us in His righteous right hand as He stands besides us and strengthens us. When you place your faith in the Lord you need not fear anything. Read the bible daily for guidance, comfort, and strength. Allow the very word of God to be your roadmap to a righteous and holy life. Remember there are only two sides. You can stand with God in the light of the kingdom of heaven or spend eternity in darkness. Make y May God have mercy on our souls. Love, Pastor Drew
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