Love the Lord your God

The bible shows it pretty simple. The way to heaven is to believe in Jesus. But what does that mean? Does that mean anyone that says "I know that there is a god" or "Of course I believe in god" is a Christian?

Well first of all, the good news is, I don't make that choice. I am so thankful not to have to choose who is "worthy" to go to heaven and who is not. But I do read my bible, and I do think that it is pretty obvious about certain topics. Most of these topics that the bible is black and white on are hot button topics, but that is not the point of this blog. My goal in this blog is to hopefully open the eyes of my readers and see that it takes more than "knowing" that there is a god to be accepted into heaven. The bible says that even the demons know that there is a God and shudder (James 2:19).

I don't think that's enough. I think that what God is asking of us when he asks us to believe in Him is to believe in the God that is portrayed in the bible (Jeremiah 29:13). I believe that He wants you to make a decision to follow Him, but not the "Him" that you think you are following, but the true God. The God that is plainly laid out in the bible. The God that plays hard ball when he has too (Matthew 21:12), but is also loving and kind when you are hurting (Psalm 109:21).

God is never changing. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8). He doesn't change for you. The bible is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), and it doesn't change just because you don't agree with something in it. You don't get to pick and choose what you believe in the bible. It's all or nothing.

Now that statement gets people all crazy because they argue "well you eat pork", "you wear clothing of mixed materials" etc. My rebuttal to that (whether you agree or not) is that Jesus Christ came to the Earth to help bridge that gap. The Old Testament is full of rules. Those rules had there place, they were to help the Israelite people. Where I do not think we can fully discredit the Old Testament, I do believe there is ton to learn and grow from it. Jesus' coming and dying fullfilled those rules for us. He stepped and and became the sacraficial lamb so we don't have to keep "doing" to be saved. Now all we have to do to be "saved" is to believe in the Lord (John 3:16).

Now back to my original point. The Lord that you have to believe in, is the Lord that will be saving you. Any other lord, would be your own creation and in essense a "idol". For those who say things such as "I don't believe that a loving God would _______ (fill in the blank)" it confuses me. My God, the God that is protrayed in the Bible, the Christian God, does not want you to hurt. But because of a mistake that Adam and Eve did forever ago, we are given free will. We decide how we live our life. Our decisions dictate how God reacts to us. I believe fully that He doesn't "want" any of us to hurt. But when we mess up. It happens.

For example, you tell your child don't play on the furniture he could get hurt. He continues to do so, until one day he falls and hurts himself. You didn't want him to get hurt, but he failed to live by the rules you set out, so he was hurt.

(Side note: This does not pertain to death, or illness. I believe that God allows people to get sick and/or die for a purpose that I am not smart enough to understand, nor do I want that responsiblity. I know my God is a loving God and choose to trust his judgement).

So if you live a life that is not how God calls you to live, and you are hurt in the process, I would argue that it is not God's doing, but your own. God knows that we will not be sinless, He knows that we will mess up. That is why He sent His son to die for our sins. He doesn't expect perfection. But I strive to live a life that is so thankful for the gift God has given us that I do not want to live any other way than how he has called us to live.

So in conclusion:

Find out who God is

Believe in His salvation

Follow His Word 

Be Eternally Grateful