Modern man does not like to think of God in terms of wrath, anger and judgment. He likes to make God according to his own ideas and give God the characteristics he wants Him to possess. Man tries to remake God to conform to his own wishful thinking, so that he can make himself comfortable in his sins.
This modern god has the attributes of love, mercy and forgiveness, but is without justice. Man doesn’t want to be judged and punished for sin. He “reconstructs” God along the lines of tolerance, all-embracing love and universal goodwill.
In this picture of God, there are no laws that demand absolute obedience and no standards to which man must adhere.
The Psalmist said: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7-8).
The Bible warns that “evil men do not understand justice” (Proverbs 28:5).The Bible declares that God is a God of judgment, wrath and anger. Time after time Jesus warned of judgment: “Every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36).
The author of the Book of Hebrews wrote, “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
Life is passing fast for all of us. It won’t be long until we stand before God to give an account of how we have lived in this life. Are you prepared?
You ask, “What do I have to do to prepare?” The Bible says that you must repent of your sins. Jesus said, “Unless you repent you will … perish” (Luke 13:3). Second, you must receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.
The late Dr Adrian Rogers, preacher/teacher of Love Worth Finding Ministries, wrote this article that I want to share to all Behind Crossroads readers. I hope you will find it inspiring. Be blessed.
“If you believe the Bible, you know that God is a miracle-working God. And God is not limited in any degree nor any respect. He is totally sovereign. So, we can believe in miracles, but don’t put your faith in miracles. Put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand as recorded in John 6. Great multitudes were following Jesus at that time, but why? John 6:2 gives us the answer, “And a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased.” People do that today, do they not? Now I want you to see three things about moving beyond miracles and on to Jesus.
There Is No Problem Too Big For Jesus To Solve
Do you have a problem today? Read John 6:1-14. There was a monumental problem that day – 5,000 hungry people and hardly a bite of food! Jesus said to Philip, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” And Philip answered, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.”
Now why did Jesus ask Philip where they were going to buy bread? Was it because Jesus was seeking advice? No, John says that Jesus knew what He was going to do. Was He trying to learn something about Philip? No, He already knew all about him. Jesus wanted Philip to gain some insight into himself. Philip calculated the cost of feeding the people, but he left Jesus out of the equation. You may have a very serious problem. Take that problem and double it. Now, double it again. Now, I want to ask you a question. Is it too big for God? Of course not. He is the Lord. The first part of Genesis 18:14 says, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Put this down big, plain, and straight. There is no problem too big for Jesus to solve. Do you believe that? I hope you do.
There Is No Person Too Small For Jesus To Use
When Jesus solves problems, He uses people. Who was the person Jesus used in the miracle recorded in John 6? A little lad. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother found someone, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9).
Here was a little lad and a little lunch. Meager in quantity, meager in quality, but the Lord Jesus blessed and fed the multitude with this little lad’s lunch. And Jesus is blessing and feeding you and me today, two thousand years later.
Do you think this little lad went away hungry? When he gave it all to the Lord Jesus, then Jesus gave back to him. You cannot “out-give” God. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
God is not asking you to give what you don’t have, He’s asking you to give what you do have. God specializes in doing extraordinary things with ordinary people. You may be too big for God to use but you’ll never be to small for God to use!
There Is No Hunger Too Deep For Jesus To Satisfy
After Jesus fed the five thousand, He gave the message in the miracle – to go beyond the miracle and on to Himself. Open your Bible and read John 6:22-65.
Jesus said the only reason they wanted Him was because of the bread and the fish. In John 6:27, He gives them a command, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed” (italics mine).
Then said they to Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” (John 6:28). Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:29). This is what it’s all about. That we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Here is the message in the miracle. Jesus. You should seek nothing more, you should settle for nothing less.
You need Jesus – not some creed, code, or cause. You don’t go beyond Jesus. You may go deeper into Jesus, but you’ll never go beyond Jesus. The table is set. Come and dine.”
She’s from Ohio and he’s from Alabama, but together they now call Uganda home. There, they are developing a written language for a remote African tribe. Their efforts are part of a project to translate the Bible into the last remaining languages on earth.
Since 2008, the Schrocks have lived among the Ik people. There are about 10,000 Ik tribe members and they live close to the Kenyan border.
Amber is a nurse. When they arrived in the village, she found a woman with pain in her waist. “We have clinic on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.,” she said. “I’ve been seeing 75 to 100 people a week.”
Terrill is a linguist. “My personal style of language learning is just spending a lot of time surrounded by it,” he explained.
The Ik have always had an oral culture. But thanks to Terrill and his team, the tribe will soon have something they’ve never had before — a written language.
The husband and wife work for Wycliffe Bible Translators, the world’s largest Bible translation organization.
Several years ago, Wycliffe launched a project to reach an estimated 200 million people around the world with a Bible written in their own language.
I am very delighted to feature here at christianlifetoday.net an email contribution from Randall Gibbons, a like-minded blogger, who runs a non-profit organization called Partnership Russia, Inc. that is involved in outreach activities in Russia. You can find out more information about his ministry at http://www.partnershiprussia.com/ or his blog at http://rcgibbons.com/partnershiprussia/internationalchristianblog/. Be blessed!
Who Will Go?
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Matthew 28:19-20 (King James Version)
————————– Who will go, and where should we go?
The scripture above is referred to as “The Great Commission”, and it was given to the disciples by Jesus on His first appearance to them after rising from the grave. Jesus was giving them the command to go and spread His message of salvation to all the nations of the world. Jesus also reassured them that He would be with them in spirit and with the rest of the world, through all generations, until the end of the world.
This “Great Commission” is accepted as the commission for all generations of Christians that were to come after the disciples, even until this present day. Just as the disciples did, we are go and spread the Salvation message of God to the entire world. If we are a born-again Christian, then this commission is given directly to us via God’s Word, the Bible.
So what does it mean to go? Plain and simple, it means go and tell the message, anywhere and everywhere. Go to your neighbor, to your family, to your in-laws, to your co-workers, to your friends, and even to strangers that you happen to come into contact with. Tell each one of them the saving message of God’s grace. You see, God has given each of us an area of responsibility, you might say, by placing us in the position we are in. We all have people around us who could be influenced by something you might say to them. We meet people all the time during our daily routines, and these are the people that God has placed in our area of responsibility.
Missions is a word that Christians are familiar with, that is often associated with “The Great Commission”. Missions are activities that are outreach programs, sponsored by various organizations, to help spread the message of God. Usually the missions activities that we are familiar with are the ones that our local church sponsors. Many times, however, these are limited to foreign missions activities via missionaries. As a result, when we think of missions, the first thing that comes to our minds is foreign missionaries, but what we must understand is that this is just a very small piece of the plan.
The act of telling someone about Jesus, and/or His Plan of Salvation, is a mission activity. I was once speaking in a small church on this subject, and I asked the congregation what they thought “missions” were, and as expected, almost all of them that answered spoke about foreign missions. They were surprised when I told them that the mission field was right outside of the churches front door. The same applies to us, except for us, since we are probably not in a church building right now, we are sitting in the mission field.
Yes, some of us actually are called by God specifically to go to a foreign mission field, and if we are called, then it is our responsibility to do so, and we will be held accountable for what we do or do not do. Most of us though, are already in the place where God wants us to do His work. God wants us to start with our families, then expand to our friends, then to our acquaintances, then to everyone else that we come into contact with. Our area of responsibility is the world that we exist in every day of our lives, and you know what? You are going to be held accountable for this mission field too!
You are the missionary in your mission field. You are the one who has been given “The Great Commission” to go and teach everyone in your area of responsibility.
So the answer to the opening question is this!
Who will go, and where should they go?
You should go, and you are already where God has placed you, so all you have to do is start telling everyone the good news. If you think you might be called to go to another place or another country, then by all means, pray about it and seek advice from your Pastor and other Godly people in your life, but regardless, you still have a responsibility to those your come into contact with.
Pray and ask God to give you direction and to open doors and opportunities for you to speak to someone about Him. He will bring them into your path. Ask God for the words to say if you are not sure. Just open your mouth and let God speak through you. That’s all there is to it!
“The greatest news that mortal ear has ever heard is the news that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead as He promised! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the chief proof of the Christian faith. It is the truth that lies at the very foundation of the Gospel. Other doctrines of the Christian faith may be important, but the resurrection is essential. Without a belief in the resurrection there can be no personal salvation. The Bible says, “If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved” (Cf. Romans 10:9).
In the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have the answer to the great question of the ages: “If mortals die, can they live again?” The Bible teaches that because Christ lives, we also shall live. The greatest truth that you can ever hear is that Jesus Christ died but rose again, and that you, too, will die but can rise again into newness of life.
The Bible teaches the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not a spiritual resurrection, as some would have us believe. Jesus’ very body was raised by God from the dead, and someday we will see Him.”
