What is Life All About?

As a church family member for nearly 18 years, I along with my brothers and sisters in Christ, watched a boy grow up. When I was 28 years old, I embarked on being a Sparks Awana leader for the first time, and I had the privilege of ministering to Rudy Acosta when he was only six. On March 19, 2011, the Lord took the boy we remembered, and the man who served our country with courage and honor home to be with Him. He was killed in action in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. As I think and pray for his family, and reflect on the sweet face I remember so vividly, I'm reminded why we are here, and that our life is only a vapor.

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:14

Question: What is life all about?

Answer: Our life is to glorify God.

The Gospel ~ Good News



God The Glorious Creator

All of creation was made to glorify God (Genesis 1:1, Psalm 104:31, Psalm 72:19, Psalm 19:1) and we are made to do the same. We are made in His image to bring glory to Him. (Genesis 1:27) Glorifying God is why we exist.

Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made." Isaiah 43:7

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him; Worship the LORD in holy array. 1 Chronicles 16:28-29

We glorify God when we love and obey Him.

And He (Jesus) said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. Matthew 22:37-38

Man has failed to glorify God because man only loves himself and is constantly disobedient.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 2 Timothy 3:2-4

We sin and fail to glorify God in our actions.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;...Isaiah 53:6a 

Instead of loving and obeying God, man has followed the ways of this sinful world, Satan, and his own lusts.

in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:2-3 (emphasis added)

Think of ways we all have failed to glorify God: Lying, stealing, gossiping, cheating, adultery, murder, etc. Even going through the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20 will show our failures. If you ever broken one, you've broken them all.

Man has miserably failed to love and obey god to bring Him the glory He deserves. That is what Romans 3:23 means when it says,

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

God The Glorious Judge

God is glorified by calling all man to judgement. (Hebrews 9:27, Revelation 20:11-12) God is glorified by His proper punishment of sinners.

The Son of Man (Jesus) will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:41-42

In glorifying God for His punishment of sinners, the people already in Heaven cry,

O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, Revelation 15:3e

God The Glorious Savior

God's glorious saving love through creation and through judgement:

It is wonderful beyond compare that He has chosen to glorify Himself by saving hopeless, lost sinners!

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

God's glorious love was demonstrated when He punished and killed His Son Jesus in our place.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
 
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32
 
But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering... Isaiah 53:10

...Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12

Jesus, God's Son, took our wrath and punishment through His death on the cross. Than God raised Him from the dead and He lives forever. His resurrection proves that 100% of the punishment for sin was paid.

He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:25

IF WE REPENT OF SIN AND HAVE FAITH IN CHRIST, WE ARE SAVED.

A change of heart to turn from loving yourself and sin and begin to love and obey God is called REPENTANCE.

A new confidence in Christ to forgive all your sin and to be your new Lord (Master) is called FAITH

Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:15 (emphasis added)

Repentance and Faith are essential for salvation.

...how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20:20-21

Repent and Believe Today!

Behold, now is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION"-- 2 Corinthians 6:2b

• Do you feel deeply sorry and regretful for your sin and failure to glorify God?
• Do you truly believe Jesus died in your place, has taken your punishment, and will forgive you?
• Do you truly desire to begin obeying Him as the Lord (Master) of your life?

If God has changed your heart, and you now believe these things to be true, then express your faith to God.

*The Great Answer to the Great Question by Anchored in Truth Ministries
  

Modesty and the Gospel

He's Right!

Paul Washer raises 10 Indictments to the modern church in America. Entire sermon can be viewed here.

Paul Washer is an itinerant preacher and director of Heartcry Missionary Society.

The Loneliness of the Christian By A.W. Tozer

"Most of the World’s GREAT SOULS have been lonely. Loneliness seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.

Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Moses all walked a path quite apart from their contemporaries even though many people surrounded them.

The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other, but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness.

Jesus died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of the tomb, even though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to what they saw.

The cheerful denial of loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God without the support and encouragement afforded him by society. The sense of companionship that mistakenly attributes to the presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in company. Though a vast crowd surrounds a man, his cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart. Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross. No one is a friend to the man with a cross. “They all forsook Him and fled.”

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, and his absorption in his love for Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone.

The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles with religious persons in regular activities of the church, but true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find.

The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his Saviour glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see Jesus promoted and himself neglected. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude what he could not have learned in the crowd-that Christ is All in All.

Two things remain to be said about the man that is in this state of loneliness. First, he is not a haughty man, he is not holier-than-thou, and he is not an austere saint. He is likely to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself for his loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his grief to God alone.

The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days contemplating the heavens. The opposite is true. His loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is detached from the world he is all the more able to help it.

The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful “adjustment” to an unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim character and become an essential part of the very moral order against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them (modern Christians) and accepts them for what they are. This is the saddest thing that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are they saints."

I am a perverse and unruly patient!

“I, John Newton, have long labored under a multitude of grievous disorders:

a fever of ungoverned passions,

a cancer of pride,

a frenzy of wild imaginations,

a severe lethargy, and

a deadly stroke!

In this deplorable situation, I suffered many things from many physicians, spent every penny I had—yet only grew worse and worse!
In this condition, Jesus, the Physician of souls, found me when I sought Him not. He undertook my recovery freely, without money and without price—these are His terms with all His patients! My fever is now abated, my senses are restored, my faculties are enlivened! In a word, I am a new man! And from His ability, His promise, and the experience of what He has already done—I have the fullest assurance that He will infallibly and perfectly heal me—and that I shall live forever as a monument of His power and grace!”

Petty Wars Over Abstruse Points and Unimportant Questions

Be careful to devote yourself to good works. Avoid foolish questions. Titus 3:8-9
Our days are few, and are far better spent in devoting ourselves to good works, than in disputing over matters which are, at best, of minor importance. Incessant discussion of subjects of no practical value, do a world of mischief. Our churches suffer much from petty wars over abstruse points and unimportant questions. After everything has been said that can be said--neither party is any the wiser! Therefore, the discussion no more promotes knowledge, than love! It is foolish to sow in so barren a field.

Questions upon . . .

points wherein Scripture is silent;

mysteries which belong to God alone;

prophecies of doubtful interpretation;

modes of observing mere human ceremonies --are all foolish!

Wise men will avoid them! Our business is neither to ask nor answer foolish questions--but to avoid them altogether! If we observe the apostle's precept to be careful to devote ourselves to good works--we shall find ourselves far too much occupied with profitable business--to take much interest in unworthy, contentious, and needless strivings! There are, however, some questions which are the reverse of foolish--which we must not avoid--but fairly and honestly answer, such as these:

Am I growing in grace and Christ-likeness?

Does my life adorn the doctrine of my Savior?

What more can I do for Jesus?

Such inquiries as these, urgently demand our attention! If we have been at all given to arguing and disputing, let us now turn to a service so much more profitable. Let us endeavor to lead others, both by our precept and example, to "avoid foolish questions." ~ Charles Spurgeon

The Miracle of Life

This video was featured at my church and it's absolutely beautiful! My prayer for any woman who finds themselves pregnant with an unwanted pregnancy, that they would explore all of their options and at least talk to a compassionate counselor at a local pregnancy center.