I lift the torch of eternal light and life for those of you who are oppressed, tired, poor, imprisoned, homeless, beleaguered, starving, tempest tossed, abandoned, betrayed, hopeless.
I point to Jesus, for those of you who have been poisoned by the venom of sin, enslaved by Satan, blinded by evil's darkness, crippled by hatred's blows, infected by deceptive corruption.
You are invited to flee your hard taskmasters, escape your cruel shackles, be delivered from your looming death, be rescued from your twisted nature.
Christ will take you, just as you are,
He will transform you into a new creation,
He will impart His own nature to you,
He will make you more than a conqueror,
He will purify your polluted life,
He will fill you with Divine love,
He will give you joy unspeakable and full of glory,
He will give you peace with God and the very peace of God.
If you lapse back into sin,
He will love you, accept you, forgive you.
He will renew you and your relationship with Himself when you turn back to Him after failure.
But if all you want is the "feel good," the "fire escape," the "get out of jail free card," the "better safe than sorry," the "just in case," relationship that does not require your unmitigated trust, your total surrender, your radical change of life and love, your undiluted loyalty, then you will not be at home in the kingdom of God, either in this world or the world to come.
In this world God will offer forgiveness if someone comes to Him but then rebels against His Lordship along the way, as long as they repent and turn from their momentary anarchy and put their trust in Him.
He will suffer us to miss the mark, so long as we turn our eyes to Him, believing that He saves us from sin, saves us from our backsliding, saves us from the penalty and the pollution and the power of sin, from all sin, at this present time in this present evil world.
Faith and faithfulness are part of salvation. We are not called to easy believism or cheap grace or sinning religion; we are called to salvation from sin. Those who have this salvation are blood washed, Spirit empowered, Bible believing, sin hating, followers of Christ.
1 John 2:1-6
(1) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
(2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
(3) And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
(4) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(5) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
(6) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Those who do not mean business with God in this world will not enjoy the presence of God in the next world. Jesus is coming back, but He is coming for a pure bride, to live with Him forever.
Ephesians 5:25-27
(25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
(26) That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
(27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Colossians 1:21-23
(21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
(22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
(23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Revelation 22:12-15
(12) And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
(13) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
(14) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
(15) For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
1 John 2:1-6
(1) My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
(2) And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
(3) And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
(4) He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
(5) But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
(6) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Those who do not mean business with God in this world will not enjoy the presence of God in the next world. Jesus is coming back, but He is coming for a pure bride, to live with Him forever.
Ephesians 5:25-27
(25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
(26) That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
(27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Colossians 1:21-23
(21) And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
(22) In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
(23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Revelation 22:12-15
(12) And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
(13) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
(14) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
(15) For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
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