Download this page in PDF formatMY FAITH
You’ve probably read what I believe about the involvement of Jesus Christ in my son’s healing on my About Me page. But maybe you don’t know who this Jesus is. If you’re wondering who he is, I’d like to tell you a little bit about who he really is.
Jesus is Lord. He is alive. He has made himself real to me countless times over the decades that I’ve known him. And there is no doubt in my mind that he is who he says he is. He is God’s word that became flesh. He is my Savior and my Lord. I believe in the trinity; God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. NOT 3 Gods.
This short recording attempts to explain who he is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE
It helps me to visualize it like this. Say I got a traffic ticket, and I had to stand before a judge to receive my sentence. It turned out the judge was my dad. He brought me into this world. He had compassion on me and would have liked to just set me free with no fine. But he was a just judge and couldn’t do that or he wouldn’t be just. Someone has to pay. Instead, he put down his gavel, stepped down from his seat, removed his robe and stood next to me in his street clothes. He then proceeded to pay the fine for me.
It would not have mattered if it had been a traffic ticket or if I had committed murder. He would have done it for me. And he did. He saved me from my sin, from hell that I deserve, even though I’m a nice person, and he gave me grace and forgiveness.
HE DID IT FOR YOU TOO!
When Jesus was beaten and died for us, then rose from the grave three days later and visited about 500 people, before he went back to the Father in heaven, he had reconciled everything back to himself that had been lost in the fall of man, through Adam and Eve. Yes, we still die, but we are no longer controlled by our sin. We are now sin’s master, not the other way around. Through the authority given to us through Jesus Christ (Luke 10:19), those who believe who he is and have made him their Lord have dominion over everything on this earth. We are not mastered by Satan. He was defeated at the cross, and he wants us to think we need to fear him. But we don’t, as long as we are washed in the blood of Jesus and have His Holy Spirit in us. It’s not about us; it’s about who Jesus is in us. Satan and his demons fear us, when we know who Jesus Christ is in us and who we are in Christ, and believe that we will be with him in heaven forever, when we die. Who are we Christians? We are sons and daughters of the living God. Satan fears us because he fears Christ in us. Jesus is with his believers at every moment. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:3 And we are his hands, feet and mouth. We can do the things Jesus did, even greater things, because Jesus is in us. It is him doing it. John 14:12. That’s the gospel. Unfortunately, like I used to, many Christians don’t really understand the gospel they claim to believe. And we walk around being hypocrites.
Satan is kind of like a spider. So many people are afraid of spiders. But spiders are actually afraid of us. Yes, they’re dangerous, and we should be careful around them. However, they’ll run, if we go after them. But if we try without Holy Spirit guiding us, or if we’re living in rebellion to God, sinning (doing things we know are wrong), Satan will usually hurt us somehow, someway. Although we need to remember that the battle is already won, and it’s Jesus’ job to get rid of the devil, or go after him. We just speak out the blessings given us in the New Testament, giving them a voice, which is a way of resisting the devil. And he Will flee. When we believe God’s word and believe who we are in Christ, we are defeating the devil, who is already conquered. James 4:7
I spent years quietly mad at God thinking that since I was a Christian, bad things should not be happening to me. Jesus did not promise that. He promised to never leave us. He walks us through the narrow pathway to help us out of the darkness we’re experiencing. But bad things do happen to people. And whenever that bad thing is someone’s wrong they’ve done towards me, as a child of God, I am supposed to forgive that person, and he will work out the feelings later that go along with that forgiveness. If I can’t forgive someone, or God, how can he forgive me? He forgave us, while we were in the middle of living in sin. And we need to be in relationship with God, through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and tell him we’re sorry whenever we do wrong things. Not because he wants us to think about our sin all the time. We apologize to our family members or friends, whenever we’re rude or do something big that offends or hurts them, right? He deserves that even more. And as awesome and powerful as he is, he is sooo sweet!
When we live in sin, even if we call ourselves Christians, we are like estranged children. We are not proudly identifying with God as our Father. We are not in relationship with him and are living away from him doing our own thing. We must be reconciled to him through Jesus’s grace and blood, not taking advantage of it. We have to turn back to God, or we won’t be with him. Yes, he runs after us, but if we don’t turn around, that relationship remains broken.
I also see Satan like this: He knows his eternal punishment is going to happen. There’s no getting out of it. He’s kind of like someone getting thrown into a pool. The one getting pushed in will take everyone around them in with them. Satan and his fallen angels hate us all, especially those who are truly God’s children. He wants to hurt us and hurt God. He tempts us in ways that aren’t even recognizable as bad at times. He wants us to think we can say we believe in Jesus, go on living in our sin making excuses saying, “Well, God understands me and my situation” and still be saved. To believe in Jesus actually means to “trust in, rely on, adhere to” him. We need to not only declare him as our Savior, saving us from hell, but also saving us from the control of sin, and make him our Lord. Living for him is not a drag. And believe me, it is Not boring.
God invites us into a relationship with him through his son, Jesus Christ, throughout our lives. It’s up to us to accept his gift of salvation through his grace. We can turn our noses up at his offer, but if we do, we have really said that we will take the punishment for our own sins. He came to save us from our sins.
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we instantaneously receive eternity in our hearts. We are instantly changed, and our God is no longer the devil, whether or not we knew he was.
I believe every word of the bible is true. The bible explains that there is no way we can earn our way to heaven or even deserve to talk to God Almighty. It’s a privilege that no amount of religion can earn for us. The only way we can be with our Creator is by accepting what Jesus already did on the cross. He is like our bridge. He is perfect and the only one worthy of forgiving us for our sins. He took all the sin of all people upon himself, once and for all. Then God poured all of his wrath (punishment) onto Jesus, who never sinned. But if we don’t repent AND make him Lord of our lives, we won’t be able to be in a relationship with God, our Father who will never leave us.
We have been given grace, which is something we don’t deserve. And if we accept that gift, we won’t be given eternal separation/punishment from God, which we do deserve.
It’s not about spending our lives working hard to earn God’s favor. The Holy Spirit helps us to live a life of gratitude for what the Lord did for us. We then ask God to help us moment by moment to glorify him with our thoughts, words and actions. The fun doesn’t stop when you give your life to Christ. Life is then just beginning. It gets interesting. The problems don’t cease, they change. And you no longer live in guilt and under the control of your sin (the things we do that are not pleasing to God).
God is a just judge. He’s a good judge. His judgments are coming upon this earth. His judgments are actually so full of mercy and grace. He blesses us, and when we don’t recognize that it’s him that blesses us, and we live in sin, then he slowly begins giving us over to the evil things we want and have been living for. He knows exactly what we need to get us to truly call out to him from the depths of our heart. It’s out of his great mercy that he allows bad things to happen, which are sometimes the result of our own wrong, but sometimes not. Yet he wants us to call out to him, before it’s too late for us. We have this one life, One chance to come into a relationship with God, before we die. But if we don’t choose him, that means we choose another god. We can’t go live with God in eternity, if we don’t even try getting to know who he really is….which we’ll never completely figure him out, of course. He doesn’t send people to hell, they choose to not live for him, and the only other place he will send these sinners is hell. Hell was not originally made for people. We were made in God’s image. We came from his heart. Hell was made for Satan and his demons.
What about your faith? Will you accept his invitation to be in relationship with him? That’s the only way he will invite you into his home in heaven and the only way he’ll make his home in you here on earth.
Once you commit your life to Jesus by speaking out asking him to forgive you for your sins, repenting of them, meaning turning from them with his help, and asking him to be Lord of your life, and once you commit to live for him, he doesn’t spend the rest of your days hovering over you telling you everything you’re doing wrong. He wouldn’t have died for you taking your punishment, making you clean enough to enter the presence of God, then turn around and condemn you for the rest of your days. Instead, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to guide you, correct you, help you, encourage you, show you his love, show you what you should and should not be doing, in order to represent him as the Holy God he is, spend your life purifying you, and so much more! And if your heart is wanting to live for him, he whispers his corrections ever so gently. But you must live for him. And when you, as a believer, renew your mind to his truths, and you learn to hear his voice that is talking to you all day and all night, you’ll see he speaks countless words of absolute LOVE.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
God is offering you a relationship with him, but the only way to have a relationship with him is by accepting his grace through believing that he sent his Son Jesus Christ who took the punishment for your sins by dying a sinner’s death, and you’ll need to turn from your sinful ways and follow his ways. He will help you with that. You can’t do it on your own. We would fail every time.
Once you believe that Jesus did this for you, you are immediately his child adopted into his family. Then go have a Christian baptize you in water. It doesn’t have to be in front of a big church. You don’t have to sign your life away to have someone do it. Someone can even do it in your bathtub, if you need. But it is to be a public declaration. But one person is fine. You are dying with Christ, dying to self, as you go down completely in the water. Then you raise up out of the water back into Life with Jesus who raised from the dead. Your spirit is alive and no longer dead, like you were. If you don’t have someone to baptize you unto Jesus, you can do it yourself. And pray to God for unclean spirits to leave you and tell them to leave in Jesus’ name (Yeshua Hamashiach is his true name). Then invite Holy Spirit to come in and guide you. God’s truths will be written on your heart. So awesome! Then get out there and let his love for you overflow onto others and love on people. You’ll find Holy Spirit will guide you constantly in countless fun ways and in some ways that Really stretch you. Learn to listen to him. He talks, even when it’s noisy. Ask him questions constantly, to teach you. He’s the best teacher. But make sure that whatever you hear lines up with the word of God.
As Jesus to show you who he is, and he will! I guarantee it. He is the Word of God, the Light of God, the exact representation of God, the Love of God….
When you are a child of God, you have become a new creation. The old man is dead and gone. You are completely new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 So anytime you are tempted to return to your old ways, resist it. Say, “That’s not me anymore. That’s the old me.” The devil is not in you; those temptations and voices are coming from the outside of you, not in you.
If you would like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior right now, you can pray something like this. It doesn’t have to be these words:
God, I’m sorry for all the bad things I’ve done my whole life. Please forgive me. I believe you sent your Son, who is your representation, who is really you, and came to earth and put skin on and lived a perfect life, without sinning, even though you were tempted by the devil, just like we are. I believe you were born of a virgin by your miraculous hand. I believe you died for the whole world, so that I could know Father God, so that I would be saved from the control of my sin and saved from eternal punishment of hell for sinning against an eternal God. I believe Jesus rose from the dead, like you said he would throughout all of the Old Testament bible leading up to his earthly arrival. I believe he went back to heaven and still lives today and is here with me, through your Holy Sprit.
I have three kids, one is grown and a sweetheart and the other two are still small and a blast. I’ve spent many years watching God do his thing in my life and the lives of my children. It’s not an emotional decision I’ve made. He’s proven his presence in my life and in this world countless times. He is worth calling on!
In case you’re having trouble believing that Jesus really did exist and that he is who he says he is, there’s a book called More Than A Carpenter by Josh McDowell. It also comes in an audio form. He was an atheist in college who scoffed at the thought of Jesus. So he set out to prove his Christian friends to be ignorant and found not only proof of the existence of Jesus, but he accepted him as his Lord and Savior.
There are a couple more audio books I recommend. One is Heaven Is For Real by Todd Burpo. It’s the story of an almost four year old boy, Colton, who came close to dying, and he spent some time in heaven during surgery. The book is Not like the movie. The movie is Not accurate to the true account. 🙂 Over several months he began telling of things and people he saw, including Jesus and angels. He knew things that he could not have possibly known, freaking his parents out, such as meeting his older sister that his parents miscarried before he was born. Check out the websites out there of Colton’s interviews and about the artist mentioned in the book, Akiane Kramarik. CNN’s report on Akiane is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49wut32Cguw. After listening to or reading the book, you’ll see why there is a connection between Colton and Akiane. (Now the book has been made into a movie.)
The other audio book I recommend is 23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese. Here is a website on one of his talks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjjBRfvKXa4
This site is slightly more detailed. It takes breaks, but it has 8 parts to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho9iA2pJ9SM&feature=BFa&list=PL474B6454F2C0E037&index=1
My intent is not to heighten your emotions or scare you. I just want you to know that God loves you, he sees you and hears your pleas, and he wants a relationship with you. He’s calling you. Won’t you call out to him?
If you do call out to him, I recommend asking God to lead you to a bible believing church, whether a small house church or one in a building. Get involved in a small group there, so you can be around other Christians who can answer questions for you and walk alongside you. And please get a bible and read it daily. Also, pray often. Just talk to God about whatever’s on your mind.
May we all be amazed with our creator in this way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpVsF4W8V2Y
