Tuesday, April 15, 2014

What Difference Does It Make?

What Difference Does It Make?

Page 31

Today Jesus is asking you and me if we understand that there are only two categories of people living around us or with us, in our communities, in our country, and in the world.  Those with whom we rub shoulders in our everyday life.  Do we understand the eternal consequences of being in each category?

Page 32

Now that we have read Jesus’ emphatic teaching in Matthew 13, we are without excuse.  We, too, understand that there are only two classes of people, and with that knowledge comes responsibility.  Responsibility for sharing Jesus with those immediately around us all the way to the throbbing masses in the uttermost parts of the earth.  However, not just responsibility is ours—but so is the almost incomprehensible privilege of having been entrusted by Jesus today with their eternal destiny.

Page 32-33

Jesus told us in John 12:46 why He came to planet earth: I have come as a light into the world, that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness.

And we Christians have been entrusted to bring that Light--Jesus Christ--to those lost in darkness.
It is time for ACTION!

So where do I begin?  It begins with God.  He is the one who has the power to open people’s hearts.   He is the one who will open doors of opportunity for me to share Jesus’ love with my family members.

Then I make a list of my family members and begin praying for them and asking God to open a door of opportunity to talk to each family member.

Yes, this will all take time and an effort, but it is so…. important to begin today.  I do now know what tomorrow will hold.  I do not want to live with regrets that I never told someone I love about Jesus’ love and plan of salvation.

Page 35

Jesus clearly describes hell as a place of fire.

When He explained the parable of the tares, Jesus told us that hell is a place of torment.  He calls hell “the furnace of fire” and says, “In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  (Matthew 13:42

Second Thessalonians 1:8 tells us that hell will be a place of punishment, not reformation, for those who do not accept and obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  Then the very next verse explains that these will be banished “from the presence of the Lord” while paying the price of eternal destruction.  Of all the aspects of hell, this would be the most devastating to me.  Banished from the Lord—from His love, His protection, His comfort.  Banished from all holiness and goodness. 

Hell is forever.

Page 36

Hell, according to Jesus, is where everybody without Him will be—eternally.

Page 43

Is God asking you to help people get ready to die?

Wow, my heart is filled with a passion to share Jesus’ great love with people I love.  I will be praying for every person in my family.  It is urgent.  We never know from one day to the next when anyone we know will die.  How would I feel if I never shared Jesus’ love with them?  How would I feel if I knew they would be in heaven.  Big difference!

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