How odd is it that we should feel so secure in ourselves when we all KNOW we are SIN filled. For whatever reason, we seem to think that we can rely on our own beliefs (of whatever kind) instead of those that are according to the Lord. Think on this for a moment: If the Lord created everything and everyone, and then add the fact that we KNOW so very little about anything to begin with, why would we think we know what is best? This is idiocy at its most arrogant style!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Here is another thing to remember: We humans were created in God’s “image”…we are by NO means created like HIM! There is a definite difference here and one that we need to clearly understand! It was Lucifer, otherwise known now as Satan that wanted to be “like” the Most High God and he ended up being kicked out of heaven!

Now some will simply say, this is nothing more than symantics. I MUST disagree strongly! One must look at the difference between being created in the “IMAGE of God” and then “being created LIKE God!” We humans are effectively created to be governed by God. We are “saved by grace,” the Lord’s grace. We don’t have any grace of our own. It is given to us by the Lord God Almighty!

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours” (1 Corinthians 3:18-21, emphasis added).

This is another passage in the Bible that firmly places humanity where we belong and that is to be dependent on the Lord in every way, to include the very next breath that we breathe! It is scientifically evident to KNOW that man has never “created” anything. We have simply changed and altered a few things…that were already created by God.

Now it may be easier for us to understand why homosexuality is an abomination unto the Lord. It is Man’s desire to go against the design God intended for every individual. Let me put it this way, ANYTHING that goes against the intention of God…is SIN!

The Lord God never intended for you and me to be filled with anger and hatred and yet here we are in the very midst of it! God never intended for us to be sexually promiscuous, it was HIS intention that we have sex between a husband and a wife, a man and a woman brought together according to God’s law! And yet, look at things today─how this world has perverted itself and brought about diseases like HIV/AIDS, syphilis and gonorrhea.

Again, I am going to say, the reason for all these deadly diseases are because of our SIN! We are here on this planet for only one reason and that is to make the choice of WHOM we wish to follow into eternity─Jesus Christ or Satan. Our life on earth is the very first step of the life we are to live in eternity! This life we live on this planet is very, very, short and the reason is we don’t need alot of time to make that one decision.

For all those who think that this life is what it is all about, you’re in for a BIG surprise and this only shows all your ignorance! Why do you think the Bible states that your intellect is like foolishness to God? It is simply saying, that if you can NOT understand this simple life we are living for what it truly is…then you are indeed a fool! God is NOT trying to play with your feelings or your intellect, but HE definitely puts things here for you to think about─to see where your treasure really is─to where your heart truly is in the grand scheme of things.

God grants salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ to every single person ever born on this planet, throughout all of time. This is the single most important choice of your life and your choice will place you in the situation that you choose, for all eternity! This is the choice YOU must make, fully understanding everything it means─it must be with your entire heart and spirit! There will never be anyone that can stand on the line, or be in the “grey area!” There is no such thing, it is simply one way or the other!

“Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons. But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35, emphasis added).

This is telling you and me that God does not care who is wealthy or has any type of position whatsoever! Wealth or that “position” was given to those recipients by God! God created everything and everyone. Therefore, all things and all persons throughout all of time belong to God! If you walk away from God…YOU walk away from your Creator…YOU walk away from your Creator…you walk away from life!

Have you ever noticed, the wealthy and the famous, the politicians and the mighty are all about themselves, what they think they have done and that theyshould be held high above all others? You must then be able to note how selfish and arrogant these people are! Who do you think came up with the idea “It’s all about ME?” Now take a moment and notice that SIN rears its ugly head everytime we think only of ourselves! That in and of itself…is the “ultimate arrogance!”

Why in the world do you think the Bible continually asks us to be observant of the widow and the fatherless? Is anyone paying any attention to the Word of God? Do you not understand that we must “study to show ourselves approved unto God”? Why is that in the Bible? It is telling us that we MUST understand the verbage, understand the language, the WORDS written in the Bible! These ARE the Words from God’s mouth to our ears!! For what reason do you think we have any WISDOM whatsoever? God wants you to understand why we are here and what we are to do while we are here and then be able to make that one decision!

For by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that NOT of yourselves: it is the gift of God. NOT of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, emphasis added).

This single passage in the Bible, says everything we need to KNOW! There is NOTHING…that YOU CAN DO…to gain the favor of God or to go to heaven other than to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior! ANY WORK or ANYTHING you do is worthless!!

YOU must come to the cross of Jesus Christ. You must ask for HIS forgiveness for your SIN and then you MUST accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior…….there is NO other way!

“Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen ME hath seen the FATHER; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father ?” (John 14:5-9, emphasis added).

Praise the Lord in all things!!

The enthusiastic pastor addresses his congregation:

“How many of us, truly KNOW why we could fail the Lord and end-up in hell, even though we spend so much time doing the Lord’s work, so much time in HIS Word─the Bible? The Answer is simple, like every other part of the Bible, it is found in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Let’s take a closer looker at this verse and find out what it means once and for all.

“For the WAGES of SIN…”  “Wages” means that you are paid for  rendering a service, is that not correct? This then means that something must be performed, a service must be performed, and that would be SIN. So what is SIN? It is anything, which includes the original thought that precedes any form of action, ending in the action of SIN being completed…which is AGAINST the Laws of GOD.

Brothers and Sisters…don’t sit there and think that you are any different than any of the rest of us! We all SIN!! Adam and Eve were the very first humans on this earth and they indeed SINNED against the Lord by eating of the “Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil”. The Lord told them that they could have any fruit they wanted, but of that fruit, they were not to eat! Genesis 2:16-17 says:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

So many think this was the first SIN, but to tell the truth it was not! That old devil─Satan had commited the first SIN when he wanted to set his throne above the throne of GOD. And after he was thrown out of heaven…for this SIN, he went on to destroy the first humans with SIN.

So what does this have to do with you and I, in the here and now? We carry this same SIN in each and every person that is born, it is in our children and it will be in their children as well. There is only one person ever born on this planet,that never SINNED and that is Jesus Christ! What many don’t understand is that this SIN separates us from God, because God is a JUST GOD and HE will NOT tolerate any SIN! I’m going to say that again…GOD WILL NOTTOLERATE ANY SIN!!”

(Boom!!! on the podium!)

“Now…that means we must find a way to rid ourselves of SIN, before we die or before Jesus Christ comes in the Rapture! We must rid ourselves of our past SIN, our Present SIN and even our Future SIN. All of it must be taken care of in some way before that point in time! IF we don’t, we will definitely spend eternity in hell.”

(BOOM!!! On the podium!)

“AND that means all of us!! I don’t care if you THINK your too good a person to go to hell, if there is even one sin in you, you will join the rest of us!!”

(WHAM!! He hits the podium!!)

“IF you sin once, you are just as guilty before God as the one that has commited all the sins there are!”

The pastor wipes the sweat from his face, clears his throat, sips some water and continues on, despite the rising Sunday morning heat.

“I hope each of you understand we are all guilty of SIN, that it separates us from God, we are then UNACCEPTABLE to be in GODs presence! And if we are unacceptable in Gods presence, then where are we?? That’s right!! In hell…I mean for eternity!! Going back to Romans 6:23, we see that there IS a way out though and that is the “gift of God” to us─Jesus Christ! And Jesus Christ ISGod!!

Now listen closely, here! God chose to come to this planet and to be born as a human, a position a little lower than the angels! Do you get that?! God CHOSE to come here…as a HUMAN!! HE didn’t have to, HE CHOSE to come! And why would God choose to do that?? Because HE loves us!!”

(Boom!! on the podium!)

“Because HE created us to be HIS people and HE would be our GOD! So he knew that there was only one way to rid us of our SIN! The service…or the act of commiting SIN bears a cost that would have us in hell for eternity! GOD…came here as Jesus Christ, and HE knew the only way to “PAY” the price for our SIN, was to die on a cruel Roman cross, to shed HIS blood there! And that is exactly what HE did!!”

(BOOM!! on the podium!)

“Can I get an Amen?”

And the congregation responded with quick “Amens” from their seats, crowded together inside the tent church building. The pastor, as he was prone to do many times before─paced the podium area clearing his throat, drinking water and wiping beads of sweat from his face.

“God…did not come here to make you rich and wealthy, HE did not come here to make YOU better than anyone else, no matter what you may think! HE came here to PAY THE PRICE FOR SIN! And then HE did something no one else has ever done in all of time, HE arose the third day, HE was resurrected from the dead! And now…HE is in heaven…waiting on us! What is HE waiting for?! Come on now!! That’s right…for you and me…to turn to HIM and ask HIM to forgive us of our SIN!!”

(Boom!! Another smack on the podium!)

“IF there is NO asking for forgiveness…there is NO heaven for us…that leaves only hell!! The Bible is simple on this…it is either HEAVEN or it is HELL!! It is one or the other and YOU…my brothers and sisters…must choose for yourself!!

Brothers and sisters…we are all in the same boat here. We are all tarnished by SIN! If we come to Jesus Christ…at HIS cross on Calvary…if we ask HIM to forgive us of our SIN…He has said HE will forgive us!! HE said HE would cleanse us…and make us NEW again. Now…what did HE mean by that last statement, make us NEW?? Any ideas?? Anyone??

It means WE must leave our old self, the one that used to sin all the time, CRUCIFIED to the cross of Jesus Christ!! That HIS blood would create a “new” person!! It has nothing to do with you doing anything!! Even if you are “born again” to Jesus Christ you will still sin, but now you can come to HIM at any time and ask for HIS forgiveness and be cleansed. Now you belong to HIM…you live a different life…one that follows HIS perfect will in each of you. No matter what happens, no matter who does what, NO ONE can take you from HIS hands!!”

(WHAM!! He hits the podium!)

“Brothers and sisters…do you understand this? God wants to give you life, not death, HE wants you to live in heaven not die in hell. HE wants you to love HIM and let HIM love you. HE wants to give you everything!! Why do you think HE created us in the first place?! Everything in this life points to these few small facts that GOD has chosen to create!

IF you are standing here, then you are NOT standing out there!! IF it is hot, then it is not cold!! You are always in one place or the other and never at the same two places at the same time! That is simple life, it is the same thing with the life we live and the laws that govern it, it is that way because GOD created it to be that way!

If you listen to the “unsaved” person you will hear it in their blasphemous rhetoric that they fail to understand who put this life together the way it is! I don’t care about what you think!! It is far more important to KNOW who GOD is! NO GOD, NO LIFE!!!”

(WHAM!! on the podium!)

“Now that…you can take to the bank and get cash money on the barrel-head, fer!! Let’s understand this!! Understand it right here and right now! NO God…NO life!! NO life…only death!! And let me emphasize it right here and now….DEATH is going to HELL!! IF there is NO God in your life, then all you have is death and you and death are going to go to hell!!!

And that…my brothers and sisters….is for eternity!!! That eternity….is forever and ever and ever and far, far beyond that….it never ends!! How SAD!! God gives you a choice…and you choose HELL??! It is so simple, it has alwas been so simple…YOU DECIDE for yourself…heaven or hell!! That is what this life is all about…that ONE DECISION…70-80 years or the Rapture… is enough time to choose. After that…we step into eternity and we do so WITH GOD…OR WE DO SO WITHOUT GOD!! It truly is life or death!!”

Praise the Lord always!!