We live in a society that wants us to tell them that there are multiple
ways to believe in God, and that many roads will lead to Heaven. Yet as we look through scripture, the Old and
New Testament continually points to Christ as the road to eternal life. We are reminded of that once again in the conversation
that Martha is having with Christ in John chapter 11. Christ tells Martha; “I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and
believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”(25-26) Notice He did yet tell her that He is going to
go to the tomb and rise her brother from the dead. What encouraging words for all of us who have
accepted Christ into our lives. We no
longer have to fear death, that doesn’t mean we are going to go out try some
death defying feat. But it does mean
that we know when the time comes what is on the other side of death. This is also comforting news to all of us who
have lost loved ones that had accepted Christ into their lives before death; we
understand that we are going to see to them again.
It is easy to want to believe that all that is required to
enter into heaven is a simple belief in Christ, that all one has to do is say a
prayer get up and go on living their life.
Never having to change a thing about how they live. But we have to understand that there’s so
much more than that. When we truly accept
Christ it is a life changing event, Peter talks about this in the first chapter
of 1st Peter, in verses 13- 15 he tells us; “ So think clearly and
exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to
you at the return of Jesus Christ. Obey God because you are his children. Don’t
slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do,
just as God—who chose you to be his children—is holy. For he himself has said,
“You must be holy because I am holy.” We
are no longer to live for ourselves, our lives are to revolve around God. The word holy means to set apart, to be dedicated
to God. We who accepts the love of
Christ are to allow God to transform us in into a person who is no longer
concerned with how the world views us but with how God views us.
But why should we come to God and give our lives to Him does
He really care about us. The answer is yes He loves us more then we can ever understand. Notice that when Christ goes to the tomb
before He instructs them to remove the stone, we read that “He wept.” He just didn’t walk over and show no emotions
for the loss of Martha and Mary’s brother, no He wept he mourned with
them. God is not just sitting up in heaven
looking down at us not caring about us, He cares deeply and wants to see us
come to Him and love Him as He loves us.
This also means that as we come to know God we are to become like God,
His Holy Spirit enters into us and we read and study His word, pray to Him,
then we too begin to care about people.
We begin to understand that the world and universe, is not about what we
desire in this life, but what God desires for us. God loves us so much that He sent His own son
to come and die on a cross. He didn’t
give it a second thought, Christ did not give it a second thought, They willing
gave us life through the cross. Are we
going to willing give our lives to God to change and mold us into who He wants
us to be?
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