Unbelievers
Psalm 14:1-2 The fool has said in his heart, :There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
Psalm 53:1-3 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
Proverbs 24:20 for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 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”
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 12:37-40 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, :He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 2:14 “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them, because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the the kingdom of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world (SATAN) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God
Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Hebrews 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Revelations 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murders, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
I have many close friends and family in my life who have not committed to God, to Jesus, who are probably unaware of the Holy Spirit. This hurts my heart. But, God hears my prayers, He does not want any to perish, and if we believe He tries to answer our prayers. The only big negative to my prayer for wanting those wonderful people in my life to be saved, yet the LORD has given all the gift of ‘free choice.’ So although I expect them to be saved–and maybe not within my lifetime–I do expect it. And if I pass without seeing them saved–and rejoicing with that knowledge before my death–I will leave their souls in God’s hands. Certainly, my confidence is staying with the facts that God wants no one to perish, that He enjoys answering my prayers and they are answered if I ask in gratefulness and with belief that what I believe what I pray for will be answered. So barring their stubbornness and insistence that there is “nothing else when you die; there is no God.”
Those kind of comments make me completely sad. They seemed so determined to put up walls against the Truth. I believe much of their reticence is because many of these people have known me for years, and maybe don’t recognize how deep my relationship is. They don’t understand the relationship–it seems they feel like all God is a name with a nebulous cloud with no power, so caring, no seeking to have a relationship with those He created. One of my prayers is to have other people tell of their experience and relationship, so they can hear from others, not from someone they have seen going to church, reading the bible and devotionals and talking to them about my relationship with God. It makes me sad.
Unbelievers are separated from God and subject to his wrath (because we are all sinners–and the ONLY way to be saved is to believe in Jesus Christ, seek Him and confess your sins and repent. Jesus is the pure unblemished sacrifice for ALL of OUR sins. God demanded an unblemished, pure sacrifice. These rules and laws came down from Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. God laid out His expectations and Laws, but he demanded a blood sacrifice so humans could realize an innocent life was being abolished because of their sin. The larger holidays–Atonement Day, Passover all demanded a pure, unblemished lamb or goat kid. But some of the sacrifices were large oxen; I cannot imagine the horror of seeing these animals sacrificed with a knife across the throat. Animals smell blood, fear the smell like instinctually knowing they could be killed. All these animals would have resisted, which I am sure affected the hearts of many Israelis. But to hold the resistance of an ox–which outweighs any human, is fearful and is going to fight with every fiber of muscle they possess. Must have been a horrible, sickening sight, sounds of resistance and fear, and smell; blood, death, and waste stinks. But that laid the initial ground that God wanted pure, unblemished animals offered him for sacrifices. But all those animal sacrifices, although they may have had people clutching their hearts in sorrow, but they were symbolic and were meant to show the people how much their sins cost. The death of an innocent animal is painful to any who have a heart and an ounce of empathy. So throughout the Old Testament the animal sacrifices hopefully helped the people keep in mind the original Laws God passed to Moses. But there was always the prophetic messages that there would be a real Messiah coming to save and govern the people. I think many people tried to improve their behavior–but that is not totally possible. We do get angry, we do complain at times, and we commit other sins, without meaning to. But there are still sins that were committed, and again animals needed to be sacrificed as atonement.
But Jesus came, the true Son of God, who is the final sacrificial means to forgiveness. And He, being fully God, the Son of a human woman, willingly died for any who believe in Him and truly repent of their sins. He wants a relationship with us–not being so distant, so unreachable. He wants us to realize He is there, He will help. He has given us the Holy Spirit, who also helps to guide our footsteps to become more patient, kind, gentle, tolerant, and self controlled. But believing in Him, seeking Him and the path God wants for us is reassuring. If you believe in Him, the relief, the gratefulness, the mercy is so humbling and causes one to be thankful. I wish and pray that my unbelieving friends and family will come to know Him. All are unable to please God without belief and faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus was Sacrifice for all our sins IF we believe in Him, repent of our sins, and with the help of the Holy Spirit try to grow and become more Christ-like.
Father, you know each of us, created us, and know my heartfelt prayers so that those who do not believe, will come to KNOW Him and recognize they had missed a wonderful relationship. Lord, thank You, You have so richly blessed me and ‘mybellaviews.’
Comments