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Matthew 22:32-33
(32) I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. (33) And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Romans 6:11-13
(11) Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.(12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.(13) Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the second verse above, Saint Matthew records Jesus’ words and mentions, “And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.” This is posted on the World Wide Web, and a multitude shall read it. We are sure, according to the Bible, that many will be astonished at this doctrine, though it is not of man, but is the Living Word of God.
Let me ask in this plain manner, do you feel like you’re missing something…there is something more and greater out there but you just can’t get it? That is exactly how I felt. I was deep in sin and searching for something…but I didn’t know what it was. My life was a mess, I was ashamed of things I had done, and I was miserable. Something was seriously wrong…but I couldn’t figure it out how to get out of it and why I felt so alone, hopeless and my life had no purpose. I went to college, still empty. I was going to church and had a close knit croup of Christian friends, still lost. I got married, still alone. It wasn’t until I had a relationship with Jesus…a personal relationship.
You know, you have your best friend and you call upon them everyday and they respond….you ask for advice and they guide you. It is like that with Jesus! I never knew I could have that….but once I found it, I knew that is what I was searching for…and there is fulfillment and peace now. I never knew how much I needed peace, until I found it and realized what I was missing my whole life. To be able to call upon the ear of the Almighty Creator of the Universe…and have Him listen patiently and hear me….wow! That’s huge! And I prayed a lot before…and wondered, why are my prayers not being answered? Did you know that the Bible says that God cannot hear the prayers of a sinner? Look in your Bible, in John 9:31 “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.” God didn’t hear me…but He did see my heart and that I was searching for Him…and through the course of my life, He allowed me to fall upon many altars, seeking Him, until the day He showed me where to find Him. I have moved around a lot…and in all places, I went to many different churches, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, American Baptist, I think one was Pentecostal, surely Episcopalian, Methodist, and many others that I didn’t even know the denomination….but I truly in my heart wanted to know where God was and find the meaning of life.
One day, at, of course, a new church, He finally spoke to me….I sat down on the very last pew in the back of the church, and I heard the words clear as anything I’ve ever heard, “Go to my church”. The name of the church reflects that so purely, “Church of God”…God’s church, which we’ve found is the only one mentioned in the Bible. But when thinking back on the words Jesus spoke to me, it reminds me of the time Saul was on his way to kill the Christians and God blinded him. Acts 9:3-6(3) And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:(4) And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?(5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.(6) And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
When ‘Saul’ heard the voice, he immediately knew who it was and said, “Who art thou, Lord?” And though Saul’s intentions were to do what he thought was right by what he had been taught his whole life, when he heard the voice of God, you put aside all your own reasoning and thinking and ideas and all that you have been previously taught…because it is Almighty God’s voice, calling you specifically to tell you His plan…from His mind. Like Saul, when God spoke those words to me, I didn’t see anything else…I just sat in awe, God had spoken to me. Out of His busy schedule, He took time out to tell me He wanted me to do something for Him…to ‘Go to His church’. He called me out. He chose to share with me and invited me to have a personal relationship with Him. I’ll grant you, I didn’t go back to that church for a year. I continued to go every Sunday morning to two separate churches; as soon as one was finished, we drove across town to another one, and went to Wednesday night services at another church, too. And had the occasional Bible study in between.
See, my dear reader, though I was searching, sometimes when we find God, it still takes time. Because serving God means giving it ALL up for Him…He says to serve Him first with our whole heart, “Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” A god is anything that we serve…or devote our attention, thought, desires and time to. I was still my god. My own way, the pleasures I enjoyed in sin, the life I was trying to build for my family….I didn’t want to forsake it…and so I spent time searching for easier ways to have God…and have my way…and serve God the way I wanted to. But you see, that’s not how it works. “Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” We cannot have our own way and God’s way. And after God had spoken to me, my way made me even emptier than before…because I knew what He wanted me to do, and I wasn’t being obedient to it. I was living for myself, and not for Him.
My husband and I were on about to walk out the door to start our Sunday ritual of rushing to two different services, when he looked at me with a look of exhaustion and said, “Let’s go back to that church”. We’ve been to mannnny churches at this point, and he never named the one he was referring to, but my heart already knew. I took a deep breath because I knew, if I go back to this church, I am going to fully submit to whatever God shows me to do and I am letting go of my own way. I stood there for a brief moment, as my life flashed before my eyes, and said, “You know, I never told you (because I didn’t even share it with him until this moment), but when we were at that church, God spoke to me…He said, ‘Go to my church’”. My husband stood there in complete amazement and shock, his jaw dropped lower than I had ever known was possible, “When I went to that church, God spoke to me and said, ‘Go to my church’!” God told him the same thing! I’ll tell you that serving God is real…because I worked with my husband, side by side, day by day, month after month, and live with him 24/7…and for over a year, we never shared this with one another. (My husband and I are talkers…so this is not in character for us..as you can see by my lengthy posting!). Giving your life completely over to God is what life is truly about…to die to self, and be resurrected in Jesus Christ. I’ll tell you, God is real…which means the devil is, too. And all that time, the devil kept us from speaking a word about it…as we went through this weekly ritual of bussing ourselves from church to church….we never spoke a word of it. When we finally did, that was the moment that we began to commit our lives to His will, and give up our own.
So went to the Church of God’s Worship Service that Sunday and a brother from the congregation offered to have a Bible Study with us in our home that following Monday, and we agreed. He directed us through the Bible and spoke of Adam and Eve and how the meaning of the word ‘sin’ is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as a “separation from God”. That’s what sin means….to be apart from Him. That’s the opposite of what we wanted, we didn’t want to be further away from Jesus, we wanted to be closer. Over and over again, the Bible tells us that sin is death…and God is eternal life.
This Easter, we will be celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins, that we could be resurrected and have eternal life, if we choose to give our lives to Him. “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” (Romans 6:10) Jesus Christ cannot be put back on the Cross as a sacrifice for sins…that means, if we sin, there is no more sacrifice for us. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. “ (Romans 6:21-23) God has shown us that it is His Divine Will, and was His purpose for dying on the cross and being resurrected on the third day, that His people would live a life free from sin and prove His testimony and gospel true.
We cannot do anything, but that God would give unto us to do. There is no power or strength in us to live above anything, which is why we must go to Jesus Christ, asking Him to sanctify us, to dwell within us and keep us from temptation. This is getting quite long, and I will write more, or leave a comment if you have a question, or visit us at: www.ChurchofGodCarmichal.org for more studies. Feel free also to click on the blogs listed, for your convenience, to learn more about life, death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
We can have a heavenly hope and the reward of eternal life with Jesus Christ…if we die to sin and live daily in Christ.
