Jonah

Chapel this morning was totally for me. The speaker talked about in the midst of our problems, we forget that others have problems, too. Yeah, I definitely needed that after last week being Hell and a half. It was all brought into perspective, but I also loved her preaching on Jonah, though I got something completely different from it than what she preached. First of all, when God tells Jonah that He wants Jonah to go preach against Ninevah, Jonah ran away. Ninevah was a terrible place, full of sin, even blatantly working against God. Now, why Jonah thought he could run away from God, I'm not sure. So Jonah gets on this boat headed to Tarshish, and he's sleeping underdeck, and a storm kicks up. Jonah wakes up and goes up on deck, and the sailors, who have been shouting to their gods, tell Jonah to shout and pray to his God. The text never says whether or not Jonah cries out, but it does say that they cast lots to see who the calamity fell to, and guess what? The lot fell to Jonah. The sailors knew Jonah was running from the Lord, because he had told them so. Why they even had to cast lots, I'm not exactly sure, but at that point all signs point to Jonah. Here's the part of the story where people may think Jonah is being a great guy and saving the sailors, being sacrificial for their sake. Jonah tells them to throw him overboard.
I have a new spin on this, that I've never heard, but is starting to occur to me the more I read this book. Jonah probably could have cried out to God, repented, and committed in his heart to go to Ninevah, and the storm would have abated. Not Jonah. Jonah is running from God, and he shows no sign of stopping. This time, he figures he'll hide from God in the sea. Maybe he'll even die. Of course, then he would have to face God face-to-face. Jonah must realize this, because he then calls out to God, and God sends a giant fish to swallow him and spit him up on dry land... right outside of Ninevah. Jonah by now knows that he isn't going to get out of what God wants him to do, so he decides to go preach to Ninevah, and he does.
Let me compare this to Abraham going to Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah were like the Ninevah of back in the day. The cities of blatant sin, where they would even have sex with angels. Abraham, like Jonah, is God's prophet, and goes to the city. Jonah, in his situation, has no desire or intentions of going to Ninevah, and would prefer God to just smite the crap out of the city like it never existed. Abraham, on the other hand, willingly goes to Sodom and Gomorrah, and petetions God not to destroy it. He talks God into saying that if there are 10 righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, He will not destroy it. Jonah just wants God to destroy Ninevah. After Jonah preaches to Ninevah, the people do the unthinkable... they repent!!! Jonah hates it. And then God did the unthinkable... He had compassion on them!!! That was exactly what Jonah didn't want. But it's good that God works on His agenda, and not ours.
Jonah then did the unthinkable... he got ticked off at God. He has a little hissy-fit and whines to God "This is exactly what I warned you about. I didn't want to come here, because I knew you would have compassion on them." And then Jonah tells God that because God had compassion on these people, it would be better if Jonah were dead! He storms out of the city and makes himself a little shelter. God, in His goodness, makes a vine grow over Jonah to give him shade, but the next morning God makes a worm chew through the vine. Once again, Jonah gets extremely angry and wishes he was dead. Jonah cares more about the stupid little vine than about the fact that there are 120,000 lost people in that city that God loves.

Kinda reminds me of Christians who get more offended with curse words than the fact that many millions of people die everyday without knowing the name of Jesus.

Predestination v. Free Will

For centuries, the doctrine of free will versus pre-destination has haunted the church. Who actually chooses who gets to go to heaven? Is it us? Or is it God who chooses for us? Arminians claim that Adam and Eve were the only two people in history who really had free will. Calvinists say that not even Adam and Eve had free will. In both lines of thinking, though, nobody from Adam and Eve on had or has free will. We can do nothing in and of ourselves to get to heaven. The image is of a God in heaven that sits there and picks at will whom He will give eternal life to, and others He condemns to Hell, and there is nothing we can do about it. Many people who don’t buy into this side of the coin believe we all have free will. We choose God, and we come to him at our will, not His. And there is scripture to back up both arguments.
Romans 9:15 says that “For He (God) says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’” In John 15:16, Jesus tells us that “You did not choose me, but I have chosen you.” In Genesis 18:19, God says this about Abraham: “For I have chosen him.” Did the 12 disciples choose Jesus? No, but Jesus chose the twelve. Even God’s people were chosen “from the beginning” (2 Thess. 2:13), and “before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). In all of these verses, we see that God has pre-destined us. Matthew 11:27 has Jesus telling us that nobody can come to God unless he, the Son, chooses to reveal him (God). There are many other verses that also talk directly about the fact that we are pre-destined. There is no question, according to scripture, that God has pre-destined us.
There is also no question, according to scripture, that God leaves the choice in our hands. Look at Deuteronomy 30:11-19 tells us clearly that it is up to us. Verse 19 says, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life…” (emphasis mine). James 4:4 tells that “…Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (emphasis mine). Isaiah 56:4 says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose what pleases me…” (emphasis mine). I can quote scripture all day, but the point is clear. The choice is up to us.
According to Romans 9, God chose Isaac over Ishmael, and He chose Jacob over Esau, all before they were even born. Verse 18 says that “Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and He hardens who He wants to harden.” These verses seem to scream “predestination!,” and yet, that is in contradiction to all the verses where God, Jesus, Paul, and Peter all tell us to choose! So, how do we reconcile these differences in scripture? If the answer is pre-destination, that is, God chooses who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell, and there is nothing we can do about it, this can greatly affect our view of a “loving” and “just” God. How can God blame us, then, for our wrongdoings, if He is the one in complete control? Yet, Romans 9:20 answers this when Paul chastises us: “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?”
There are numerous arguments for pre-destination. Nobody is perfect, and we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For this, God sent His son to die for us. He sent His son to die for all men. The word “all,” though, can mean 2 different things: “all” without exception, or “all” without distinction. If Christ died for “all” without distinction, then certainly we can back up pre-destination. It means that Christ died for all races, all genders, and all social classes. God can still chooses to pre-destine people from each group for Heaven and Hell. Yet, how does fit into the picture of a just God?
Picture this, if you will: a judge has before him 100 proven convicts. They are all, 100% of them, guilty. If this judge were just and righteous, he would sentence them all to death. So he does. Just then, a man walks in the courtroom screaming. “WAIT!,” he says. He offers to pay the penalty for these convicts. The judge looks around, and accepts, but he still makes 50 of the convicts take the death penalty. Even though the man paid the penalty for all the men, the judge still sentences 50 of them to death. That is not justice. If the penalty was death, they all must pay. If someone comes in and offers to pay the penalty for all the men, the only just thing to do is to offer this choice to all the convicts: “Do you want to live or die?”
Pre-destination also does not fit into the picture of a loving God. The scriptures tell us that “He is willing that none should perish.” God is love, and you cannot deny that. It is written all over the scriptures. Justice is one aspect of God. Mercy is one aspect of God. Love, though, is what God is. He may have numerous names and countless facets and aspects, but at the center of God’s being, who God is, is love. A God who is love and exudes love and teaches love more than anything would not, in His loving nature, condemn anyone to Hell without first giving them a choice. God’s primary motive is not to separate us into Heaven and Hell. God’s primary motive, even for creating us, was to have a relationship with Him. If you want to have a relationship with somebody, you do not send him or her away without offering the relationship. I can, by the way, compare us to God in this aspect, because we are created in God’s image, not just physically, but spiritually. As you get to know God’s character more and more, and as He speaks to you, you will know that this cannot possibly be what scripture is referring to when it talks about “pre-destination.” Pre-destination is not the pre-destination of souls. So what is it?
God pre-destined those who chose Him to be holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:4). He also pre-destined those who chose Him to be adopted as sons and daughters (Eph. 1:5). Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also pre-destined to be conformed to the likeness of His son.” Note the word “foreknew.” Paul does not say “chose,” because that is a different, and wrong, term. In John 15:19, Jesus tells us that he chose us, yes, but he chose us “out of the world.” This isn’t being chosen to be saved or damned; rather, he is telling us that we no longer belong to the world. This is why the world hates us. 1 Peter 1:1-2 talks about us, the believers, being chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God.” What does this passage tell us we are pre-destined for? We are pre-destined “for obedience to Jesus Christ.” According to John 15:16, Jesus Christ himself chose us, “to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” According to Matthew 22:14, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” Notice that the invitation went out to everyone: “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you can find.” (Matt. 22:9) The invitation went out to all people. Yet, Christ only chooses those who accept the invitation.
What does all of this mean in light of Romans 9? To begin with, God chose Jacob over Esau. This fell both to the individuals, and to the nations that would spring out of them. God made this decision before the twins were even born. When you take a look at Malachi 1:2-3, which Paul was quoting, the emphasis is on the nations born out of these 2. As with the twins, the nation born from Esau was not chosen to be channels of God’s revelation as the nation born from Jacob was. This is what was meant by God hating Esau, much like we are told to hate our mother, father, brother, sister, and our own life. It does not literally mean “hate,” only in comparison to how He treated Jacob and his nation. The election spoken of in these verses, 9:10-13, was not salvation or damnation; it was speaking of the roles God had chosen for the individuals and the nations. In verse 15, Paul reminds us of God’s word to Moses, about how He will have mercy and compassion on whomever He chooses. God said this to Moses after the sin of the golden calf. The nation of Israel certainly did not deserve the mercy of God, though God was telling Moses that He could pour out wrath or mercy as He chose, because Israel had chosen their sin and their god.
Now we get to Pharaoh. God says the “I raised you up for this very purpose.” This does not mean that God made Pharaoh a hard and stubborn man. The man who was Pharaoh would have been hard-hearted and stubborn whether he was in a settlement far away, if he was somebody’s servant, or whether he was Pharaoh. God did not choose for him to be heart-hearted; rather, God chose a hard-hearted man (he knew do to foreknowledge) to be Pharaoh, at that place, at that time. God knew He would need someone like that in that place, for when Moses got there, so God could show His power. God did not pre-destine Pharaoh’s response, nor his salvation v. condemnation. He pre-destined the man’s lot in life.
The next verse, verse 18, tells us that God has mercy on whom He wants, and hardens whom He wants. Yet, in the context of what Paul is telling us, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart only after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart. This is a mirror image of what Paul speaks to us in Romans 1. This has something to do with the wrath of God spoken on in Romans 1:18-31. Wickedness is not the cause of God’s wrath, but the consequence of it. Three times Paul shows this to us, in verse 24 (Therefore, God gave them over… to sexual impurity), in verse 26 (Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts), and verse 28 (Furthermore… he gave them over to a depraved mind). God’s wrath is due to thanklessness, as shown in Romans 1:21, and the consequence of this wrath is that God abandon’s you to your sin. This is what happens to Pharaoh, in a way. Pharaoh was turned over to his sin, and after he hardened his own heart (Exodus 7:13, 7:14, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32, and 9:7), then and only then did God harden Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 9:12). Even after this, though, Pharaoh was able to harden his own heart once again, in Exodus 9:34 and 35). Nowhere in scripture will you see God hardening a man or woman who was otherwise willing to seek after Him. God only hardens those who are too far gone and don’t have a chance anyway.
Romans 9:19 is directed at the man or woman who makes the objection rather than making an intelligent analysis of the man’s counter-argument. Romans 9:20-23 has to do with lumps of clay formed into pottery, and their usage. God is the potter, and we are the clay. Verses 22 and 23 show us that some vessels are prepared for destruction while others are prepared for glory. If we are already biased towards pre-destination, these verses are extremely easy to interpret – God has prepared the vessels for either glory or destruction. Yet, the verses may imply something completely different: that the vessels, us, have prepared themselves for destruction. One version states “those who are the objects of His judgement and are fit only for destruction.” What this means is that at one time, these vessels were fit for better, but in whatever they did, they made themselves fit only for destruction. This may have involved his or her own sinful acts and rebellious nature. It could include an environment that made sin enticing. There are a number of factors, but the fact of the matter is that the vessel, which was otherwise useful, is now fit only for destruction.
Taking Romans 9 at face value can be difficult. Yet, when you dig deeper, take it in the context of the Bible, and take into account the fact that God is love, it can make sense. Paul is not saying that God chooses to send some people to Hell. What he is saying is summed up in verse 16: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” We have no right to demand anything from God, including salvation. Luckily, God freely chooses to have mercy and offer us life, and it is now in our hands to accept or deny. A good illustration of this is a birthday or Christmas present. You have done nothing to deserve it. Yet it is being offered to you. It is now in your hands to open it or ignore it.

Leading a Life of Holiness

STOP SINNING! Jesus tells is in Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" Another version says, "But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Still another version tells us, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." How about this version? "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." The Amplified Bible puts it like this: "You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect." What is the point of all of this? Well, no matter which version you read this verse in, the message is still the same. In fact, I love how "The Message" puts it. "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."
We are commanded to be perfect. It is as simple as that. We are also called to live holy. 1 Peter 1:16 tells is "Be holy, for I am holy." This is not a new standard. Peter quotes this from Leviticus 11:44,45; 19:2; and 20:7. He is just reminding us that we are still called to live holy. Holy means set apart. Different from the world. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
"You know, I'm only human." That is the biggest cop-out in the history of the church. Let me tell you this: You are not only human. You are the temple of the almighty God, and His Kingdom, and neither God nor His Kingdom can stand sin. Who else was human? Ananias and Sapphira. They were "only human." But they were struck dead on the spot because of one sin. God exacted his penalty right then and there. What was their deadly sin? Lying. It's not like they murdered or raped someone, or stole anything. All they did was lie. But in God's eyes, sin is sin. It is not a joke, nor is it something to be taken lightly.
Jesus gave us an example for something to strive for. He lived an entire life without sin. Here is another huge cop-out: "But Jesus was God." Jesus may have been God, but he was also 100% man. Jesus had every opportunity to sin. So do we. Jesus did not sin. We do. But, he gave us an example: it is possible to be sinless. No, we cannot do it in our own power. Yes, we do desperately need God's help. But would Jesus give us a command that we couldn't follow? NO! And he commanded us to be perfect, and holy. They're like the commands to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," "Love your neighbor as yourself," and "Go and make disciples." They are all attainable, and more than that, God expects us to follow them.
You are human. You more than likely are going to screw up and sin. That does not mean you use your humanness as an excuse to sin. If you sin, you repent, apologize to whomever you may have sinned against, and go and sin no more. Quit making excuses. Love Jesus.

A Life Full of God

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) Despite the popularity of this verse, Christ did not come to make you happy. Having life to the full does not mean the American dream. It is not a nice house, 2 cars in the garage, 2.7 kids, a barbeque, and a flag in your front yard. It has been said that "the safest place for you to be is in the center of God's will for your life." That is either misconstrued or misinterpreted. The safest place for your soul is the center of God's will for your life. This is not a physical statement. Look at Paul in the New Testament. If anyone was in the center of God's will for their life, it was Paul. And yes, Paul did have life to the full. look at 2 Corinthians 11. This is what Paul tells us of his life.
"I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches." That is certainly a full life. But it wasn't good. If you have seen The Passion, you saw Jesus get whipped with the cat-o-nine-tails. He got whipped over and over and got raw and bloody. Paul was whipped like that... 5 times. They say that 40 lashes can kill a man, hence the "40 lashes minus one." He was on the edge of death. Same with stoning. Stoning usually killed men. Paul should know, he ordered Stephen to be stoned. Paul was stoned once, and he lived. Despite all of this, he can still tell us in Phillipians 4:11 "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."
Are you understanding this? Paul looked death in the face time and time again, and yet he says he learned to be content, whatever the circmstances. This is a life to the full, as Jesus told us about in John 10:10. I'm not saying that you're going to go through these kinds of trials and tribulations. But you might. Luke 21:17 says that "All men will hate you because of me." Jesus was hated and persecuted. Do you think you're better than Jesus? Jesus came to give us life, and give it to the full, but not in the way that churches teach us. Our lives should be full of God. So full of God, in fact, that it pours out of our mouths, feet, and fingertips. And people are going to be offended. Christianity is offensive. People call it small-minded. It is. So is Math. 2+2=4. There is only one correct answer for that question. If you don't believe it, if you don't agree with it, it makes no difference. It's still a fact. It's still the truth. Truth hinges neither on belief, nor knowledge. Truth just is. And the truth is, your life is not meant to be spectacular. It's meant to be a life lived for Christ. And when you die and get to heaven, hopefully you'll hear "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Grace of the Law

If I could find the words to speak, you would be on your knees trembling before the living God. Fire goes before Him and burns up all His enemies. He is surrounded by clouds, shrouded in darkness, his lightning lights up the entire world. Mountains melt like wax before him (Psalm 97). The very voice of the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon (Psalm 29). The angre of the Lord makes the very foundations of the Earth shake (Psalm 18). The Lord struck 2 people dead "simply" for lack of reverance (Leviticus 10). They came to the altar of the Lord without reverance, and God killed them. In Acts, the New Testament, God struck 2 people dead "just" for lying.
You deserve to go to Hell. There is no blaming Adam and original sin. You made your own decisions. Sin is not allowed to get into Heaven. The moment you blatantly committed your first sin, you fell under the judgment of Romans 6:23a. You now have a room reserved for you in the place of eternal punishment and torment. If you have committed only one single solitary sin, you will have to face God on judgment day. In a court case, you only need 1 convincing piece of evidence to convict a person. Now imagine you are facing God's judgment in Heaven. Only one sin is needed to send you to Hell. In walks Satan. He holds a note card in his hand. He hands it to God, and God silently reads it. You can tell He is unhappy. "Is this all?" He asks your accuser. "No," replied Satan. "I could bring them in," he says, "but it would really be more effective for you to come into the room where they are all kept." "Very well," says God, and they walk out. You follow them into a room filled to the ceiling with shelves full of boxes full of index cards. You can see a smirk on Satan's face as he tells God, "Don't like that particular sin, Lord?" he sneers. "There are plenty to choose from." How many sins could you have committed in your life? How many times did you lust... lie... cheat... steal... what does this card say? "Stole a nickle from his roommate on..." But it was only a nickle! Still stealing, though. What's this... approaching God with irreverence? But you were tired! Wow, God takes this sin thing seriously.
And now the face of God turns towards you, and you finally understand what John Wesley meant when he said "It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of a living God." The voice that shattered the cedars of Lebanon is now directed at you. As He speaks, your soul trembles and your spirit is broken. "Time and time again you sinned against me, knowingly! Over and over you made excuses for yourself. You have no excuses! You knew what I commanded, and yet you blatently disobeyed me! I asked you to love others as you love yourself, and instead you seeked vengence and revenge and all your selfish desires! The penalty for your sin is death, eternal death. You will thirst and not drink. You will hunger and not eat. You will seek light, but it will ever be dark." There is nothing you can say. There is nothing you can do. You have come to the end of the line, and you are now only getting what you deserve. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Satan, giddy with glee, for he knows he has won you. Satan mouths the words you longed to hear from God: "Well done, my good and faithful servant." God is about to pour out His wrath on your soul.
Just then, in that moment, a voice cries out from behind you. "WAIT!" Everything stops, and you see a man come into the room. "Father," he says, "You cannot sentence this child like this. He is justified." Satan steps forward. "What are you talking about? Look at this room. It is bursting at the seams with his sins!" No," replies Jesus. "It isn't. Look again. Flip over any of these cards and check the name of who they belong to." The smile fades from Satan's face as he walks over to a box. He opens it, flips a card over. "No..." you hear him whisper. He flips over another card, throws it on the floor. Another, and another, and finally he begins dumping the boxes of cards all over the floor. On his hands and knees, he frantically searches. Louder and louder you hear him cry. "No. No! NO!!!!!"Every card on the floor and in the boxes bears the name of Jesus.
This is the God you serve. Terribly just, yet lovingly merciful. He is not a joke. He is not a "homeboy." He is still King, still Lord. You owe Him you life, your heart, your soul. Start living like it.

Raw Christianity

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you won't let others enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and you won't go in yourselves. Yes, how terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn him into twice the son of hell as you yourselves are." And again, later in that same chapter. "In saying that, you are accusing yourselves of being the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead. Finish what they started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?" (Matthew 23:13-15, 31-33)
My word. If these words were said today, people would take high offense. This is not what people want to hear. But these words came from the mouth of Jesus. They were pointed straight at the hearts of the religious leaders of that period. These religious leaders led a life according to the law of Moses, but they lacked the one thing that would get them into heaven: a relationship with the living God. Read Matthew 21:12:
"Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves"
Jesus was not your typical preacher. He exuded power and authority. He was real and raw. He told it like it was. He didn't beat around the bush or have seeker-sensitive or seeker-friendly messages. I hope you don't think Jesus was soft. Don't think that Jesus came to bring peace on Earth and good will towards men. No, in Jesus own words,
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man's enemies will be the members of his own household."
This is not your momma's Christianity. This is real. This is raw. When you get down and dirty, into the nitty-gritty of what our walk with Christ should look like, people get uncomfortable. When you speak the truth and tell it like it is, people will get offended. They don't want to hear what you have to say. And that is okay. It isn't your job to convince anyone of anything. It's your job to present the truth, and then pray that the Holy Spirit will work on them. And it is your job to present the truth. You will not argue anybody into the kingdom. It doesn't work like that.
But if someone who wears the nametag "Christian" is blatantly sinning, it's your job to call them on it and hold them accountable. That is what Jesus was doing in the above verses. Now, you don't have to call anyone a "brood of vipers," and it isn't your job to condemn them to Hell. But if you're reading this, and you call yourself a Christian, I'm calling you out. Start living by Biblical principles(So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. Luke 17:3). You want encouragement?
That will come later.

The Narrow Gate

"The door to heaven is narrow. Work hard to get in, because many will try to enter, but when the head of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. Then you will stand outside knocking and pleading, `Lord, open the door for us!' But he will reply, `I do not know you.' You will say, `But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' And he will reply, `I tell you, I don't know you. Go away, all you who do evil.'
"And there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets within the Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out. Then people will come from all over the world to take their places in the Kingdom of God. And note this: Some who are despised now will be greatly honored then; and some who are greatly honored now will be despised then."(Luke 13:24-30)
Matthew 7:21-23 talks about those who did miracles in Jesus' name. We believe Christianity is widespread and growing? Well, the gate is narrow. It isn't enough to prophesy and do miracles in Jesus name. It isn't enough to "eat and drink" with Him. The gate is narrow.
To God, love is the most important aspect, as laid out in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. And Jesus tells us in John 14:21 who it is that truly loves the Lord: "He who has my commandments and keeps them." Again, in John 15:14: "You are my friends if you do whatever I command you." So love is obedience. But according to the 3 passages I brought up originally, obedience is not necessarily love. It's like a child grudgingly obeying his parents, not because he wants to, but because he knows he is supposed to.
This is the truth of the matter: You can sit in the presence of God, get filled, go out and preach, teach, prophesy and do miracles, all in the name of Jesus, and still miss heaven. You can be used by God in miraculous ways and shape history, and still miss heaven. God can use people He doesn't know. But if God does not know you, and if you don't know God, you're not making it to heaven. Many people are going to miss it, and not by much.
So how do you live so you won't miss the mark? What can you do to find your way through the narrow gate? That is what I will be discussing from here on out - raw Christianity. Having an intimate relationship with Christ. Stay with me. You may learn something.