God is just Too Awesome!

The Lord is so awesome. There is none like Him. For anyone to honestly believe there is no God is just beyond my comprehension.

I was talking to my oldest son last night, who just in the last several months has grown by leaps and bounds in his relationship with the Lord.

He was telling me how he just can't stop praising God and thanking Him for his goodness and mercy. We have had many conversations regarding this topic.

How amazing it is when the Lord God reveals himself to us. How after accepting Jesus as savior, the Lord opens our "spiritual eyes" to see and understand the things going on not only in our own lives, but in the world around us.

I told Jason every time I talk to him or his grandmother I can't help but praise the Lord for the salvation He has brought into their lives. For years I prayed for my parents and my children. There were times when I had doubt about whether my mom especially would accept Jesus. There were things that happened in my life I think she blamed the church for and there was some anger there. But she came to realize the "church" is not what being a Christian is about...It is about a personal relationship with our Creator and His son Jesus Christ.

The change in my son is the most dramatic. He went through a period of drugs and alcohol, which is dangerous, but combined with the fact he has epilepsy made it worse.

The Lord got through to Him in a very dramatic and supernatural way, and over the last six months or so his relationship with the Lord has just been awesome. It is so cool to be able to talk about the Lord with him, and as my husband is fond of saying, "being on the same page" when it comes to understanding spiritual truths.

It is interesting how the Lord works. In every conversation I have had with Jason as well as my mom, we find the Lord has been showing us the same things at the same time, while working with each of us separately. It's as if He is confirming those things each of us are being shown through our relationships with each other as well as the rest of our family.

The spiritual awakening in Jason daily continues to give me hope for my two younger sons, who are both struggling with drugs and needing to be set free from past hurts and a not so rosey childhood.

The main thing I have realized in seeing the relationships my family have with the Lord is this: The key to knowing God, to growing spiritually is to be in the Word of God (the BIBLE) consistently. Knowing that when the Word says to renew our minds with the Word, it means just that. We become new in our thinking and understanding. It cleanses us, encourages us, shows us the nature and love of God. Without it, it won't be long before a new relationship with the Lord will begin to fall away.

Without being in the word the danger of believing false teaching becomes overwhelmingly dangerous, especially to those who are new to being Christians. There are so many biblically incorrect teachings in the world today. And if you don't have a clear understanding of the Bible as a whole it is easy to get caught up in messages that do nothing but "make you feel good" and steering you straight to hell.

The bible talks about in the last days there will be a great falling away of the church. People will want to hear only what makes them feel good, and reject the truth.

2 Timothy 4:2-4
2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

2 Timothy 3
Godlessness in the Last Days
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.
2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth so fits the state of today's world. We have become so full of knowledge, yet have fallen so far from the Truth. There is a large number of churches and preachers who have gotten away from the Bible as being not only the ultimate authority for believers, but teaching it is not relevant for our times. Trying to rewrite it so to speak. Saying it is not a literal book and what God says in it isn't really what God means. Taking the Word and interpreting it to say what they want it to say and not what it truly says.

There has been an outpouring of teachings that are focused on increasing church sizes, approaching preaching of the good news to suit what will make people comfortable and happy, instead of teaching the truth. Unfortunately the Truth is not always a warm fuzzy message. But it is a message of hope and of love and most importantly salvation.

We have become more concerned with having large churches with lots of people filling up the pews, than with the eternal destiny of the lost. Too many churches have begun to look at Christianity from a "business" stand point instead of spiritually. Taking man's ideas on how to increase the number of the people they can get in the door, instead of following the "plan" Jesus clearly gives us in the Word.

It is like Jason and I were talking about last night - there are going to be a lot of people sitting in church thinking they are going to heaven who are going to be terrified come judgment day and finding out they were wrong. All because those called to spread the gospel were more concerned about they might offend someone by telling them they are in danger of spending eternity in hell than speaking the whole truth. The whole truth is:

None of us are good enough, we cannot earn our way to heaven, we cannot continue to live a life that offends God and expect Him to just look the other way and allow us into heaven because our so called good deeds out weigh the bad. Or because "at least I am not as bad as THAT person."

No one is able to honestly say they have lived a life in which they have never broken any of God's laws (the Ten Commandments). The bible says if we break one we are guilty of breaking them all. God is a God of love but He is also a God of justice. To ignore the sin of his creation goes against the very nature of a just God. WE all cry for justice when man's law is broken, why do we assume offenses should be overlooked by the creator of the universe when it comes to His children?

That is why Jesus paid the price for our salvation and it is ONLY through accepting and believing in Him that we can be forgiven! It is ONLY through Christ can we have a relationship with a Holy God, who sees us through the blood of Jesus once we accept Him, once we realize we have offended God and repent of those things He has told us are not acceptable.

Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior does no guarantee you will have a life without trial or problems. In fact Jesus said the opposite is true.."in this life you will have trials and tribulations, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world".

What accepting Jesus does guarantee is eternity in heaven where there will be no more troubles or tears or pain. It also guarantees that no matter what you may go through in this life He is always with us helping us to go through even the worst possible pain knowing in the end what happens here is temporary...and we have an eternity of joy ahead of us.

That is only if you have accepted the gift of His sacrifice, admitting you are a sinner in need of a savior and allowing Him to come into your life. Jesus said, "I AM the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. NO MAN comes to the father but through ME."

By the way, the Truth remains the truth even if a person chooses not to believe it. Think about it...where will you spend eternity? It is a choice well all make, even if you don't think you have made a choice, that too is a choice.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Romans 5:8,9 RSV