We Can Have Liberty Over Death

As the old saying goes, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

The bad news first, of course:  This might be obvious, but we can’t always be happy.  We won’t always win.  And someday we’re all going to die.  Sort of depressing?  Not at all, when you consider the good news:  We can have lasting joy.  We can have victory in the battles that really matter.  And after we die, we can live forever in a place called Heaven.

Think I’m crazy?  I might be, but God certainly isn’t.  Please carefully read and ponder the following words from the very One who created you:

“These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” – John 15:11

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – I Corinthians 15:55-57

Of course, these verses were written to Christians. So how can we become a part of this? There are many conflicting views out there on how to become a Christian, but the Bible is very clear. If you truly want joy, victory, and eternal life, you must:

1. Realize that you are a sinner, and that your sin—if left untreated—will result in death (“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. For the wages [result] of sin is death…” – Romans 3;23,6:23a).
2. Understand that you can’t treat your own sin problem, no matter how much good you do (“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good deeds] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities [sins], like the wind, have taken us away.” – Isaiah 64:6).
3. Believe that God loves you so much that he gave His only Son Jesus Christ to take the penalty for sin and die in your place, be buried, and ultimately conquer sin and death by rising again (“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life… Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” – John 3:16, I Corinthians 15:3,4).
4. Accept God’s open invitation to salvation and ask Jesus Christ into your heart and life (“And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Revelation 22:17, Romans 10:9,10,13).
5. Rest assuredly in knowing that if you just prayed and truly accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior from sin, you have been adopted into the family of God and you will never lose your salvation (“God sent forth his Son… to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons… And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” – Galatians 4:4,5; John 10:28).

I pray that even today you will find this lasting joy, real victory, and an eternal home in Heaven.  If you have just accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, I would love to hear about it!  You can email me at:  joestewart21@gmail.com

World Cups, Wars, and Winning

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” – Galatians 5:16

The 2014 World Cup is almost over in Brazil.  There have been some really amazing matches played, with dazzling victories, and also rather mortifying losses (Germany vs. Brazil comes to mind).  In life, as in the World Cup, everyone can’t win all the time.  Every conflict since the beginning of time, whether it be a friendly game of soccer or a war between rival nations, has resulted in winners and losers.  In fact, the entire history of humanity is a history of conflict, a story of struggle.  And although the World Cup is a relatively peaceful example of battles between uniformed athletes with painted balls and referees, violent fighting has torn up the globe ever since Cain killed Abel so many thousands of years ago.  But clubs and boards, swords and shields, and guns and bombs have never really been the cause or solution to these wars.  Truth be told, even the “War to end all wars,” otherwise known as World War One, only served to introduce a much more brutal worldwide bloodbath hardly two decades later.  Why then do we as humans fight so much?  Why can’t we just get along?

The answer is simple.  External physical conflict is nothing more than a mirror of internal spiritual struggle.  We cannot seem to find peace with our fellow humans on planet Earth because we cannot seem to find peace between our flesh and our spirit.

Verse 17 of Galatians 5 explains this:  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”  There is a battle raging in every single person’s heart, and the outcome of that war is far more important than any physical fight we can engage in.  Indeed, the battle between the flesh and the spirit is the penultimate human struggle.

So how can we win this battle?  God makes it very simple.  “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”  If we walk in the Spirit, we WON’T be run by the flesh.  Quite literally, if we walk in the Spirit, we win.  So how do we walk in the Spirit?  Each of us who are born again Christians have the Holy Spirit living inside of us.  He will always be there, but we don’t have to let Him run our lives.  The Bible says we can grieve or even quench the Spirit of God (I Thess. 5:19, Eph. 4:30), and we do this by our life choices.  Does the Spirit of God approve of the movie I’m watching?  If not, I’m grieving the Spirit.  He’s not running my life, because I’ve essentially made it clear that a movie is more important to me than His Presence.  The same goes for music and conversation and the internet, anything basically that is in any way contrary to the Holy Spirit of God.

I’m convinced that the primary reason we often struggle to find victory in areas of our lives is because we want to keep living the way we want to live, entertaining ourselves the way we want to be entertained, and still somehow expect the Spirit of God to empower us and give us victory over the “bad stuff.”  According to the Bible, that’s just not the way it works.  God can give victory over alcoholism, for example, and He wants to, but only if we let Him by walking in the Spirit and keeping our lives free from things that would grieve or quench Him.

Your team might not have made it to the World Cup Final, and we’ll probably never see any substantial world-wide peace until God reigns directly during the Millennial Kingdom, but we CAN have victory and peace in our personal lives by intentionally walking in the Spirit.

“If the Holy Spirit can take over the subconscious with our consent and cooperation, then we have almighty Power working at the basis of our lives, then we can do anything we ought to do, go anywhere we ought to go, and be anything we ought to be.” – E. Stanley Jones