I want to write a post for those of you who are new Christians – have recently accepted Jesus as your Savior, made Him Lord OVER your life. Are now part of God’s Called Remnant. If you were like me, had never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, astonished by the amount of love God sacrificed for you – He left the glories of Heaven to come down in the earth clothed in humanity to walk alongside us. Born of the virgin Mary, impregnated by Holy Spirit. Fully God, fully Man, lived a sinless life and offered His life as the sacrificial Lamb taking on the sins of the world to redeem those who have chosen to accept His gift of salvation to a right relationship to Father God by dying on the cross for forgiveness of our sins. He defeated death by His resurrection and is even RIGHT NOW seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on OUR behalf. If you are like I was as a baby Christian, you are probably SO excited and full of love for a God Who has held NOTHING back to show you how VERY much He loves you! You are more than likely bursting at the seams to share the love of God with others who have never heard the extent of God’s love and may be being met with distain, hostility, disgust, ridicule or maybe even being persecuted for your faith. I was surprised by the reaction I received both from loved ones and from friends. Instead of them being excited and glad as I was, I was labelled a “Jesus freak,” I was ostracized by those I loved most, and it hurt! I was rejected for my faith. I was made fun of and scoffed at. But here is the thing, although it hurt me, I didn’t allow it to dissuade me from growing in Christ. There is a part deep inside of you that was made and hungers to be in fellowship with God. People try to quench that hole with other things – social status, intellect, money, sex, drugs, alcohol (just to name a few), but the honest truth is that NOTHING can quench that emptiness but God. And I’m not talking about “religion” there is a difference between allowing yourself to have a “personal relationship” with the God Who loves you through the One Who gave His sinless life to provide redemption for that to be able to occur. You CANNOT enter into a relationship with God (for He is holy) ANY OTHER WAY except through our Sacrificial Lamb, Jesus. It is the blood of Jesus that takes away the sins of the world. John 14:6 tells us:
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Romans 10:9 tells us:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
I Timothy 2:5 tells us:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Acts 4:12 says:
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
There is a classic book that was made into a movie entitled, “Pilgrim’s Progress” and it talks about the journey that “Pilgrim” had in choosing to accept Jesus as his Savior, made Him Lord over his life, and the spiritual journey Pilgrim went through having to leave family and friends who scoffed at his decision to follow Christ. It is an excellent movie and can be found for free on YouTube. The book is also an amazing book (and one of my favorites) to read. I will post the link to the movie below, I don’t know if you are in another country than the U.S. if you will be able to access it, but if you can, it is certainly worth the watch. (Click on link below)
Pilgrim’s Progress – The Movie
Don’t allow ANYONE to extinguish the flame of Holy Spirit inside of you and make you feel bad or turn from your faith. Instead, press in harder, determine to live for the Lord because YOU know that what you were lacking all of your life prior to your faith was Him! Matthew 5:6 says it all:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Jesus says in John 4:14:
“But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
As you read those scriptures above, I am quite sure that your spirit is testifying to the truth of those words! There will be MANY that you love and wish would experience and know the love of Christ, but just like you – they have free-will. The ability to accept or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have a common enemy, satan (and yes, I refuse to capitalize his name) that has blinded the mind and hearts of people, and he knows the absolute BEST way to wound you is the rejection or persecution that you experience through those who you love most… I KNOW how painful it is, for I have experienced it for 36 years! But let me attest to the fact that INTERCESSORY PRAYER and living out your walk before them works!
THE CONTINUOUS PRAYERS OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN (OR WOMAN) AVAILITH MUCH!
What do you do with the hurt from the ostracization or criticism or even downright hatred for you and your faith in Christ?
FORGIVE THEM AND BRING THEM BEFORE THE FATHER! LOVE THEM EVEN WHEN THEY HURT YOU!
INTERCEDE FOR THEM IN PRAYER AND BELIEVE! REMEMBER, AS MUCH AS YOU LOVE THEM GOD LOVES THEM MORE!
Most of all, talk to God about how you are feeling. Believe me, know one knows better what it feels like to be rejected then Jesus! He knows it hurts! There is nothing that we experience that God doesn’t know firsthand! Remember, God IS our Father! Can you imagine how much rejection from accepting His gift of salvation has been????? Talk to Him and express your deepest most thoughts and desires. I prayed for my earthly father for 15 years before through a deathbed confession, he accepted Jesus as his Savior, made Him LORD over his life. Up until someone’s LAST breath God gives His creation the ability to be redeemed. The same happened 21 years later with my mom and also with my Aunt. While I rejoice in the fact that they are ALL pain-free and in Heaven with God, I WISH they had accepted Him in the fullness of their lives (and not at the end) to experience life in a fullness you can only experience when you have accepted God’s gift of redemption and experience the love and growth spiritually in Christ. But through the persecution and mocking of my faith through my pain at being ostracized, I showed them love and determined to continue on in my walk with Christ. And I believe they saw the difference in me. When NOTHING else mattered of life, they asked me and questioned me with open hearts about my faith, about what it meant to “have a personal relationship” with the God Who loved us enough to leave the comforts of Heaven, cloth Himself with human flesh (Jesus) and come down to dwell where we are, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life taking on ALL the sins of humanity and die a horrific death on the cross for forgiveness of our sins. Rose from the cross, defeating sin and death, redeeming those who accept His gift of salvation to a right relationship with Father God and in doing so, providing for us eternal life.
The older I get and the more years I see behind me than in front, I appreciate Jesus’ gift more and more. I also have reached a point 36 (almost 37 years) in my having accepted Christ as my Savior, allowed Him to be Lord OVER my life where I realize it was the MOST important decision I ever made. And Holy Spirit is and has been my Teacher, my Comforter and my Friend throughout my walk. I attest to you:
GOD I REAL! AND HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH!
The hardest lesson I have learned is that I can’t give my faith away, as hard as I have tried in the past. Everyone has a choice and whatever choice they make, God gives them. If you choose to live a life without God, refusing His Son’s precious gift of salvation, God will give you what you want. You will live an earthly life without Him and because you have decided you don’t want God in your life, have said:
“No thank You God, I’ll pass.”
He WILL oblige you! To refuse to have Him in your earthly life means that you will NOT have him in your eternal life. Your eternal life will be WITHOUT God (Who IS love), will be WITHOUT peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), WITHOUT ANY of the things you enjoy. Eternal life WITHOUT God is pure darkness. But it will NOT be because that is what God wants, it will be what YOU chose. It is NOT God’s choice for you; it will be YOUR choice for you.
We can’t “save” anyone. We can live out our faith (and whether they recognize it or not they WILL see a difference in you), we can continue (even though it is painful) show love to them in the way Jesus would want us to love, and we can (if we can’t do anything else) give them over to God. Ultimately, what they decide is between them and God. It was a tremendously loving God Who created us with free-will (the ability to choose to love Him or not to – even though it pains Him at the later). Intercede, don’t let anyone extinguish the light of Holy Spirit within you, determine to go forward in your walk with Christ no matter what. There is NOTHING more satisfying than having a personal relationship with the God Who loves you more than ANYONE ever will. It is definitely worth it! No greater love is there than God for you, I know – God IS great and loving Him trumps ANYTHING we experience because of it. And that my dear reader is the absolute truth! 🙂
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