Eternal Consequences

“Eternal Consequences” –-R. Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”  2 Peter 3: 9.

ENCOURAGING WORD

We start out with this extremely important verse form Paul the Apostle in Romans 6: 23; “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  It is my prayer that this verse really speaks to you. A true believer will repent of their sins, but those who are rebellious are in serious trouble! Eternal death (separation from God forever) awaits all who choose not to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christ, Himself, says in Matthew 25:41-46; “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Too many people will not open the pages of the Bible, instead they will trust someone or some religion for their salvation. I feel it is necessary for me to share verses like the one above because you will most likely not hear any teaching on the topic of eternal salvation in your local church. We are being deceived by a watered-down version of the scriptures. Here is what the Bible says will happen in the end times, 2 Timothy 4:3-4; “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” This is what is happening to our society with the mega churches of today and also sadly, even the denominational church are doing the same. God called me out of a denominational church and brought me into a relationship with Him. I learned so much more in the last twenty-five years of walking with Christ than I did in the first forty years of listening to the false teaching of the church that I was a part of. Personally, I can tell you with complete honesty that I was on my way to hell because I was not learning the truth. My fear is that so many people that I love are headed in the same direction because they trust in the religion that they have been a part of for their whole life.

What will happen to those who do not turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and continue to live in their sinful ways? Every sin is an offense to God, and God cannot be in the presence of sin. That is why if you choose to keep committing the same sins without repentance, you will not feel His presence in your life. The Holy Spirit will not speak to you if you refuse to repent. Here we read a very comforting verse for those that have received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, John 5:24; “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” How can anyone read this verse and then just explain it away as if it has no meaning? We also read this Bible verse that is very seldom taught in any churches unless it is a church that teaches through the Bible, Book by Book, Chapter by Chapter and Verse by Verse. Hebrews 9:27; “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: There are actually those that teach that once you die, you still have another chance to enter into heaven. If you are a part of one of those churches, get out, you are being lied to. It is very clear in the verse above, you die, then you go immediately to hades to await the “White Throne Judgement” or you go to heaven to be forever with Jesus Christ. I do not care what you are being taught or what you believe, truth is truth and Gods word will not return void. John 5:24; “Truly, truly, I (Jesus) say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” When you pass away as a believer, you will be immediately with the Lord, Jesus Christ for all eternity, why would you reject this truth? 1 John 5:13; “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The verse above is one of the most comforting verses in the scriptures, notice, it says “that you may know that you have eternal life,” not think you have eternal life, but know!

I remember a while back when I was conversing with a person who attended a denominational church, but as soon as I told this person that I knew that I was going to heaven when I died, her reply was this, “How can you be so bold to make a statement like that,” well, the Word of God above gives me that boldness. If you do not know for certain that you will go to heaven when you pass from this life to the next, you need to give Jesus Christ your life, receive the Holy Spirit into your heart and become born-again and know for certain that you will be saved from an eternity in what the Bible refers to as “The Lake of Burning Fire.”

Now, with all this being said, I need to make you aware of the days in which we live. All of us, unless you are hiding out in a basement or some place without any knowledge of what is going on in this world, you have to know that something does not seem quite right. If you are a born-again Christian, you need to know that things are falling perfectly into place as to what the scriptures say about the soon return of Jesus Christ. True Christians that have been watching the signs as we are required to do, are excited about the days in which we live because we know that we will be soon be with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Once again, you may ask, how can you be so certain, and once again I can tell you with total confidence that the Bible tells us so. We read in Luke 21: 25-27; “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. These three verses are just a few Bible verses that give us this kind of sign of His soon return. I could write a book, as many already have, about all the signs that are converging all at once makes it very obvious that God is getting ready to judge America as well as the rest of the world. When exactly, no one knows for sure, but I can tell you without hesitation, it is sooner than you may think. Here is a verse that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees who were the religious of the religious of His days, Matthew 16:3; “And in the morning, [It will be] foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O [ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not [discern] the signs of the times? God is saying the same thing to our religious leaders and they are not listening either nor are they sharing this message with those that trust in them to do so. For those of you that have not heard this saying, here it is, “Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in the morning sailor take warning.” If you have not had the chance to check this out, do it someday. When you see a bright red sunset, you can know for certain that the next day will be rather pleasant. If you see a red sky in the morning that is a sign of unpleasant weather. This is what Jesus was referring to when He was in a battle of wits with those that should have known better. He was telling them that they should have seen all the signs of the soon coming of their Messiah, but they were not watching the signs and therefore, missed the most important time of their lives. Their long-awaited Messiah finally came and because they were not aware of the days in which they lived, they missed it and the consequences were fatal. Their consequences lasted about two thousand years, our consequences for rejecting Jesus Christ will last for all eternity.

ACTION POINT:

I urge you, if you have not accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, to wait no longer. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Sin has many consequences; but none more important that where you will spend eternity. Sin is always destructive, but repentance is always constructive. Please, give your life over to Christ today! He can take everything you are and make you into someone you never thought you could be. I am living proof! He absolutely loves you and is waiting for you to come to Him. God bless you!

From our Chaplin—R. Fritz

Eternal Consequences

We all will have consequences for our actions as well as our inactions. If you think that you will be able to say to God that nobody told you the truth or I did not decide on choosing Jesus Christ. That untruth will not go very far. Matthew 5:37 says and this is Jesus speaking “But let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” This is what people do not understand. A yes or no is required if you choose or do not choose Jesus. There is no sitting on the fence on anything. I can say that the times that I did not want to take a position on something, somebody forced me to take a stand. In other words, if it is not “yes,” its automatically a “no.” Your time at the White Throne judgement will not go well. God will just play back that audio or video tape showing your answer or non-answer. We need to go into our words next and Matthew 12:36-37 says and this is Jesus speaking “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Our words and actions or inactions are going to be judged. Satin knows what it is going to take for you to speak out something ungodly or for you to disobey God. Satin knows how to push your buttons and manipulate you. We need to remember who our master is, God or Satin and who we are servants to. Romans 6:16 says Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Here is another choice Satin, sin unto death or God, obedience unto righteousness. People do not understand that if we do not obey God, we are obeying Satin. Its right or wrong, there is no gray area. We are constantly making decisions, yes or no, we just do not know we are. We are trying to win this battle with sin in the flesh. We are not going to overcome it that way. Jesus came to set us free from sin. His death gave us that opportunity with the Comforter coming when Jesus died. John 14:26 says and this is Jesus speaking “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”  The Holy Ghost came to set people free from sin once and for all if it is indwelled in us. With the Holy Ghost, we now have the ability to overcome Satin and the spirits that are affecting us. We must believe and trust the Holy Ghost. This is our spirit now. We need to let the Holy Ghost and your spirit becoming one. John 3:30 says “He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is something I say to myself. I say, “more of Jesus, less of me.” It is myself wanting the Holy Ghost to reveal all of Jesus in my spirit. That might be deep for people, but that should be our goal, to change and our spirit and Holy Spirit being one. This is another time when you make a decision that will definitely change your life. The Holy Spirit will give you answers to your questions before they come out of your mouth. The Lord’s people will receive what they need to overcome Satin. Ephesians 1:17 says “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of his inheritance in the saints,” This is what I am talking about giving us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing God and your understanding enlightened. These are gifts given to those that are his elect (born again). These benefits are given to those that obey his word. It all goes back to the decision of being “Born Again.” To get to where you need to be, we need to trust God and believe his word. It requires having a relationship with the Lord and obeying his word. If we choose to do it our way, there will be eternal consequences. It is an easy decision whether to choose Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Study his word or study with a group to understand the benefits of being with Jesus Christ.