The other night while I was reading my devotional, these Bible verses had popped into my head, these were the exact opposite of what my devotional reading was supposed to be that night, but that's okay, because God always works in mysterious ways. He sometimes redirects what you actually want to say, it is called "divine intervention." But once again, that's okay, because I really don't mind, I appreciate when that happens to me. It's like, "wow, so that's what you want me to say." Anyway, here are the Bible verses that have popped into my head the other night: "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son. that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. 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. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgement also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." ~John 5: 21-30.
I can imagine that your all asking yourselves, "what the heck does all this mean? I'm so confused." I've been there and done that, so I know how you all feel. In a minute, I'm going to explain to you all what these verses mean; "Because of his unity with God, Jesus lives as God wanted him to live. because of our identification with Jesus, we must honor him and live as he wants us to live. The question "what would Jesus do?" may help us make the right choices. "Everlasting life-living forever with God-begins when you accept Jesus Christ as Savior. At that moment, new life begins in you. It is a completed transaction. You still face physical death, but when Christ returns again, your body will be resurrected to live forever. In saying that the dead would hear his voice, Jesus was talking about the spiritually dead who hear, understand, and accept him. Those who accept God's Word will have eternal life. He was also talking about the physically dead. He raised several dead people while he was on earth, and at his Second Coming all the "dead in Christ" will rise to meet him. God is the source and Creator of life, for there is no life apart from God, here or hereafter. The life in us is a gift from him. Because Jesus is eternally existent with God, the Creator, he too is "the life" through whom we may live eternally. The old testament mentioned three signs of the coming Messiah. All power and dominion are give to him as the Son of man. The lame and sick are healed. The dead are raised to life. Those who have rebelled against Christ will be resurrected too, but to hear God's judgement against them and to be sentenced to eternity apart from him. There are those who wish to live well on earth, ignore God, and see death as final rest. Jesus does not allow unbelieving people to see death as the end of it all. There is a judgement to face."
I hope that me explaining what the above verses meant, helped you guys understand a little bit more what I am trying to tell you about judgement day. None of us know when the final judgement is going to happen, but I can tell you that it is soon, probably a lot sooner than we all think. So, we need to be prepared, he will come like a thief in the night, so be alert, and start changing your ways immediately! I know that I'd rather spend eternal life with the Lord, than with Satan and all his demons in eternal damnation, what would you all rather do? Go to hell where you'll all suffer eternally, or go to Heaven where there is no longer any suffering and pain. If you think that right now is terrible, it gets a lot worse when your in Hell. It's hot, full of fire, and snakes are eating away at you. In heaven, it gets a whole lot better, your with Jesus and your praising him, and your always happy, there's nothing eating away at you. I can just imagine that heaven is like a big party, how cool is that?!? It will be amazing beyond belief! So, what are you all waiting for, heaven or hell? The choice is yours, because I've already made mine. Honestly, I can't even describe to you how amazing heaven is, I'm speechless. In time, Jesus will show us what heaven is really like. I don't know about you guys, but I'm always wondering what heaven is like, I try to picture what it's like, but I just can't. It's just beyond words, and completely unbelievable. When you get to heaven, you'll be thinking to yourself, "wow, what an ugly world we used to live in, look at this place, it's amazing! Why did we wait so long to come to Jesus in the first place, because I really had no idea how amazing this place is!" Know what I mean? I bet that some of you do, and some of you don't. I think that I might have a basic idea of what it will be like up there, but I could also be very wrong. We really don't know what it's like until we get there. Like my dad always says, "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it?" I agree with him, because he's absolutely right!
We should be living our lives to the fullest down here on earth, because that's the way that Jesus wants us to live, because before you know it, it'll be taken away just as quickly. The lord gives, but he can also take away, so don't be greedy and be as joyful and as happy as possible. If someone or something that takes away all of this joy that you have, get rid of it, or them. We have to forgive our enemies, but just because we forgive our enemies doesn't mean that we have to keep them in our lives. The Lord knows and we know that we deserve much better than this. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and of great value to the Lord and our Savior. He uses us to show others, that this life down here is only temporary, and that we don't need to live like we are currently living. It hurts him to see what we're going through and how we treat others, we need to start treating others like they are our family and love them unconditionally, just as as God loves us. So, we need to change the way that we treat ourselves and others, because it hurts not only you, but others around you as well. We are supposed to be God's light, and we need to shine it upon others, not shut the light out. Do you understand where I'm coming from? I sure hope so, because I know that the Lord does.
I've had more than my fair share of hurts, as I'm sure that you all have as well. You need to stop it, it won't get you anywhere, it'll just make things much worse. I'm sick and tired of seeing so many of us hurt, it's horrible, it just sucks. It needs to stop immediately! It's up to us to stop it, so stop, and pray. The Lord is always there and listening to you, just talk to him, let it all out on him, he will take care of it, because he loves us that much. He was the one who took all of our punishments upon himself on that cross, the debt has been paid, it is finished, Amen!?! I say Amen, and may God bless us all! To conclude this blog entry today, I just want to share with you all, what my thoughts were on the above Bible verses, I hope it helped and I hope that it touched some, if not all of your lives today, just as my life has been touched by the Lord, and by all of the people who are currently in my life. You all mean a great deal to me, I hope that you all feel the same about me, if not, then hey it's okay, I'm just here to honor the Lord, and show love to those who matter the most to me. Happy Mother's Day, to all of those who are out there! God bless!
~Emily
