Your Choice, Your Move

Your Choice, Your Move
by David Brenneman

“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.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”  John 3:16-21. 

In this time in human history there's yet still people who claim that God sends people to Hell.  Some think they are His Agents to send people there.  In no way is this the case by Jesus's own words. 

People reject the free gift of salvation available only through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and send themselves to Hell.

Those who walk through Heavens gates are able to do so only on the basis of what Jesus did on that cross. 

As Alistair Begg said once in a sermon, if anyone ever says anything in the 1st person about why they should be allowed into Heaven then it's the wrong answer.  Because I believed...because I did this...or I did that.  It's only on the basis of what Jesus did that anyone is saved. 

Jesus did all the work, it was He who said:  "it is Finished!".

Those who are in various places of medical care sometimes do see the beginnings of the effects of the consequences of salvation in Christ or of those who rejected it.  Sometimes people have cried out, just prior to death, that they are burning.  Others are in such peace that they say what they see of being welcomed into Heaven then they pass on from this world.

You, my Dear Reader, are the one who decides your eternal destination.  Jesus's finished work on the cross brought you choice.  Before the cross all who died without what the Old Testament wrote of summarily went to either Hell or Paradise.  Separated by a chasm that nobody could cross.  People deemed righteous separated from those who were not.

When Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, He entered Paradise.  The thief on the cross standing there with Him, a fulfillment of a promise made and kept that he would be with Him in Paradise.  The first of those saved by grace...God's unmeritted favor. 

We live in that age where we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ for His Bride the Church of God.  No particular denomination.  But the true Church made up of people who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.  Those who made Him the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their lives. 

It's very easy to look at your life as either a slow motion train wreck, a model of worldly success or anything in-between.  Truth is that encompasses all of all humanity on Earth.  That's where we find ourselves.  Jesus will come to wherever we are in order to save us.  He has been doing this for several thousand years now.  There is a time set by the Father’s own authority that the Church is deemed complete.  That is when Jesus will return.  There's no warning of when.

The overwhelming majority of people believe that there's no way someone like God could love someone like them.  The real truth is all of your life, sins and all, was future to the cross.  Every second of every single minute. 

It's for you to ask Jesus to be the forgiver of your sins and the leader of your life.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Read this: "But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;  for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:8-13.

No your life isn't too screwed up for Jesus to do anything about it.  If He can create this world, can hold it all together all the time.  Can provide you with all you need to be alive, He can handle the various complexities of your life.

Jesus kept His promise to die for the sins of mankind.  Kept it in rising from the dead.  Kept it in everything He’s doing and has done.  He will keep His promises to you. 

Life might not look like what you expect after coming to Christ for salvation, but you can expect Him to do more than you can ask or think in your life.

Only you decide whether or not Heaven is for you or that Hell is where you'll end up next.  It's not anyone but the person themselves.

Jesus knocks at the door of hearts all the time...asking to come in.  But until those people open up and bid Him to enter...outside He will stay.

No amount of good anyone can do will be equal to what Jesus had to endure on the cross to save the world.  The bar is higher than anyone can achieve.  Jesus says that many will claim to have done a great many things for Him but had never received His free gift of salvation.  He will tell them to go away to their judgment because He never knew them. 

The choice is still yours to make my Dear Reader.  Yours.  After you breathe your last you can't change it nor can anyone change it for you.

Jesus isn't willing that any should perish but that all might be saved.  He said that too. 

Choose life in Christ. 

All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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