And as humans want. . .
Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt. They have done abominable works; there is none who does good.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Romans 1:3-6 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ:
Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith. “
Romans 18-20 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Romans 3:10-12 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Galatians 3:7-9 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed,” So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.
Galatians 3:22-24 But the Scripture has confined all under the sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Hebrews 3:12 See to it brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
We all are sinners and I think until we find Jesus, many of us don’t even realize how sinful we are.
Those who are close to me who are not saved, all believe they are good, kind, loving, and generous people. And they are. But they are not saved, they do not recognize Jesus, although, they will occasionally shrug to admit they kind of believe in God. Obviously, not in the trinity. And do not seem to recognize that God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.
And knowing them all as well as I do, I know they are good, loving people. But they do not believe in Jesus, many see no reason to, no matter what I try to share, and some do not believe there is anything except dust after death. That to me is just sad and empty. To hear one, he just kind of smirks, nods, and “I don’t believe that. I think we just turn back to dust. There is nothing else.” Well, actually, yes, there is. There is HELL for eternity. And you are a good, loving person, kind, generous person, and this is so empty, frustrating, and hopeless to me. Well, hopeless if I depended only on people changing years of set minds, with the apparent knowledge ‘there is no God.’ And at this point, these people are insistent on what they believe. Always seems to be hopeless and empty.
But perhaps that will change if they ever get ill and then are facing a diagnosis that could bring about death–severe cardiac issue, a cancer issue or something else that threatens that bit of arrogance.
This person also does not believe he will live very long. Yes, there was disease in many of the males, but with one, it was a matter of the medication needed to keep him alive and able to work for several years that lessened his life time. It was not the disease he battled, but the medications. And so much has changed since the 1950’s when this was the only drug available to keep the ancestor relatively healthy and able to work. But he was given an approximate age of death of about 40 years. So because of this, and the fact that one other male ancestor had cardiac disease and died at the age of 74 years while the other suffered from asthma and when having a severe attack was unable to reach the hospital in time to deal with his closed airways so he died at 65 years of age.
I will continue to speak with these folks, even to say and reassure them this is not a set of rules, and a bunch of things we need to give up. I have a relationship, not a set of rules to follow, things to avoid. That is not the way things are. We. as we get closer into knowing Him as the one true God. On acceptance, and heartfelt turning to Him, repenting of my many sins, then I am granted the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit just nudges us to recognize what is sin or harmful to us, and nudges us to eventually and willingly avoid it. For me, it was smoking–at one time, I was a heavy smoker. When I pushed them away, it was a struggle for a while, but I prayed through some of the worst urges, and did silly things to help decrease the longing. Many slow deep breaths that I would hold for a long as I could, brushing my teeth, feigning having a cigarette and doing the actions of a current smoker.
But there is nothing that is demanded to be given up. It is a relationship, and the more you learn about God and read the bible, the more you want to live like Jesus. You don’t want to hold grudges, be impatient and frustrated. You want to show kindness, gentleness, patience and love to others. You just want to not take in or do anything that is showing God disrespect. He does not ASK you to give anything up. but the word does say that we should all treat our bodies as a temple. Afterall, the Holy Spirit lives within us. I was a smoker–at least a pack a day, and if on vacation, I could smoke two packs. I was choosing to inhale poisons into my body, and allowing the smoke to be near my children and family. That was showing no care for my family, let alone thinking I was respecting my body as a temple. I was selfishly sucking on cigarettes that held nothing positive, harming myself and any around me with the second hand smoke.
I still work on my mouth. Without thinking sometimes, I hear vile things coming out of it–occasional cursing, but sometimes gossip, impatience–which is not kindness or gentleness–and I hate to hear any of that. I pray often that the Holy Spirit will take control of my mouth and there will be nothing that comes out that is not positive and caring.
So, the Bible gives out direction, shows us what God does not like, and as we grow closer to a relationship with Him, we choose to give up many of the things that are negative in our lives. It is a choice, not a control. We want to please God–recognizing how much He has done for us, recognizing that He paved a way for us to reach heaven and eternity with Him before Adam and Eve sinned the first sin. He was always going to send His Son, Jesus, to be the atonement for OUR sins. Each and everyone of us sins–but we have a way to ask and seek forgiveness, and have the assurance that when we die we will NOT be spending eternity in HELL, but with the trinity in heaven.
It is not a sacrifice to want a relationship, and with the relationship, we choose to give things us when we realize they are harmful to us, when we are not living with the best of intentions. So God, I thank you for the gift of your Son, and for the Holy
Spirit living within me, guiding me, teaching me and encouraging me to be better. Lord, thank you for already having the design to save us and offer the freedom from sins. You have always been so good and loving to me and ‘mybellaviews.’
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