I CAN ONLY IMAGINE!

1 CORINTHIANS 2: 9

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and NO MIND HAS IMAGINED what God has prepared for those who love Him."

First of all there is a large percentage of the population who do not believe there is a heaven. When questioned there are a number of believer's who are uncertain about the concept of heaven. This group of believer's can not articulate nor comprehend what the Word has to say about the eternal resting place promised by the Lord.   Then we have the majority of believer's who are certain that there is an eternal resting place called heaven.  We all tend to focus on our life here on earth and very few are anxious to enter their final rest, at least right now!  We have all at one time or another wondered what heaven will be like.  The One Truth Today only increases our curiosity.  

When it comes to heaven we only have one frame of reference.  This world, filled with sin, death and  disease is all that we know.  This imperfection is to be contrasted with a perfection that we have never known.  This disharmony is to be contrasted with perfect harmony.  This view of that which is always imperfect will be replaced by perfection.  No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and none of our minds has comprehended what God has prepared for us in Heaven.  I CAN ONLY IMAGINE?  Here there is no peace, in heaven there is only peace.  Instead of discord there will only be harmony, and perfect music, can you imagine that?  Nothing will have imperfections and each flower will be perfect, can you imagine that?  What will our mansion be like?  We will have our answer when we are present with the Lord.  One thing we know for sure it will be so much better than this world!

The Lord tells us that it has not even entered our heart what He has prepared and keeps ready for us.  If  you love and revere the Lord and have remained faithful to Him, you will share in this bounty He promises.   God will save you from this world, and death, and give you a new and eternal life in perfection.  No more pain, crying, cancer, sickness or death.  To be absent from our bodies is to be present with the Lord and there we will always be, with Him.  At that time you will no longer have to imagine what paradise is like, you will be in it.  Your eye will see and your ear will hear what heaven has to offer.  Is this promise real to you?  Knowing all this can you hardly wait for that day to come?  Do you comprehend that this is a win and death on earth is not a loss?  If we knew what was awaiting us the answer would be clear.  Until then  I CAN ONLY IMAGINE! 

DID YOU GET "THE MESSAGE"?

1 CORINTHIANS 1: 18

"THE MESSAGE of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction!    We who are being saved know it is the very power of God!"

Have you ever wondered why so many people ridicule Jesus Christ?  Have you ever wondered why so many people think that there is no God or that God is dead?  There are none so blind as those who will not see, they just do not get THE MESSAGE!  The story of the cross is just so much foolishness to those who are lost in sin and headed for death and destruction.  They have believed the lies of the devil, who they also do not believe in.  Even though they are on their way to Hell, they mock God, His Power, and the cross He died on to save them.  More importantly, they are dead at this very moment and they do not even know it.  Unless they get THE MESSAGE  they will never be born again and have eternal life.  

Any rational thinking person who looks up into the night sky and views the universe knows in their heart that there is a God and He is all powerful and mighty.  Only a fool says in his heart there is no God!  Those of us who have heard THE MESSAGE and been saved see things quite differently.  Our salvation is the very manifestation of the power of God.  He saved us from death and gave us eternal life.  JESUS CHRIST SAVES, THAT IS THE MESSAGE.  The beginning of wisdom is the fear and knowledge of God.  If you do not know God you are not wise, in fact you are a fool.  

God destroys the wisdom of the "so called" wise, and He brings to nothing  the understanding of the person that He does not know.  God baffles and renders useless the philosophies and cleverness of the fool!   God destroys the so called discernment of those who profess knowledge but they do not even know God, and they have not heard THE MESSAGE!  Not only does God frustrate the fool, he brings them to nothing.  The end result of not hearing and believing God is that they will be separated from Him for eternity and they will suffer the second death and damnation in Hell.  Because of their rejection of God and disrespect and unbelief they have condemned them selves.  God allows them to set themselves aside.  How about you, are you still a fool that refuses to believe God?  When will you ever get THE MESSAGE?

CALLED BY GOD!

1 CORINTHIANS 1: 2

"To you who have been CALLED BY GOD to be His Holy People.  God made you Holy by means of Jesus Christ, just as He did  for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

Oh how wonderful it is to be CALLED BY GOD!  It is almost impossible to conceive what that truly means.  All that is Holy and eternal now become ours because we called on the name of Jesus Christ and asked for His Salvation.  We confessed with our mouths and believed in our hearts that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead to become our Saviour.  We are now a child of God.  We have become one of the elected, part of the church of God.  We have come from everywhere around the world.  We are now linked together as bricks in a building by the simple fact of our belief and worship of Jesus Christ the Lord God.  God has made us His Holy People.

We collectively are now the church of God.  We are assemblies consecrated and purified and made Holy by the Lord.  We are the chosen saints because we have chosen the Lord as our Saviour.  In every place all over the world we have called on the name of Jesus Christ to worship Him and give Him honor and glory.  We will have no other God before Him.  We trust and are assured by His Word that He is our Father and that we will join Him in Heaven.  God keeps His promises that are contained in His Word and spoken by His prophets and we can be assured because we have been CALLED BY GOD!

If someone is reading this One Truth Today and feels left out, much like an orphan that has no family, there is a hope and a future for you.  You do not have to be separated from your Father and your family.  By accepting Jesus Christ into your life you will obtain a New Father and a whole new family.  If you are alone, or afraid and angry about your life here on earth, remember that you are just passing through and your true home will be eternal.  If you want to be in heaven with the Lord then you have to chose to accept the free gift of Salvation and accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart.  It does not matter where you are or what you have done, it only matters that you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ will save you.  He was raised from the dead to give you new life, if you accept it.  If you do this you will also be CALLED BY GOD! 

FAILURE TO PLAN!

PROVERBS 20: 18

"Plans succeed through good counsel;  do not go to war without wise advice."

Most people do not plan to fail, they fail to plan!  How about yourself, do you have a good life plan?  Most of us do not have to plan for a war, but without wise advice and good counsel we could make many unnecessary mistakes during our life.  Those who do take us to a war had better be wise enough to seek many counselors.  The One Truth Today is that before committing to a major event in your life, you should not go it alone, you need good counsel and sound advice if you hope to succeed.  Before anything of consequence in our lives we need to seek the Lord and His will.  We need to seek wise advice and good counsel from Godly parents, brothers or sisters, or trusted confidants.  It is also good advice to put anything major in your life in writing.  A plan is drawn up to build a house and a plan should be drawn up to build a life!

The beginning of wisdom is the "fear of God".  We are told in the Word to always seek the Lord first in anything and everything we do.  God wants to be a part of our lives and in fact He is very interested in us.  God wants us to seek His will for our lives and then conform to it.  We need to pray that our life decisions will be in His Will.   Remember, we are not to say we will go here or there, or do this or that, because we do not know what a day will bring forth.  Instead we are cautioned to say, we will do this or that or go here or there, God Willing!  So we must always include God in the equation or it would be a FAILURE TO PLAN!

When seeking guidance and advice from others you should consider the source.  It may be that professionals in medicine or architecture, for example,  may not be believer's and may give sound and reasonable advice.  It is important that in personal live changing decisions that we seek good counsel and wise advice from those who are wise and good.  Only those that fear God can give this kind of good advice based on the wisdom of the Word.  If someone is the opposite of you in belief and they do not think as you do, they can not give appropriate advice.  If  they leave God out of the equation they will come to the wrong answer or result.  The best advice is from God and His Prophets and His Word.  The second best advice if from Godly believer's of like mind.   The biggest mistake is a FAILURE TO PLAN!

ONE VOICE!

ROMANS 15: 5-6

"May God, who gives patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting the followers of Jesus Christ.  Then all of you can join together with ONE VOICE, giving praise and glory to God."

Do you think that there is unity in the Christian church?  Do you think that all Christians speak with one voice?  Do you think we should live in harmony with each other and give praise and glory to God in ONE VOICE?  The One Truth Today lets us know how God feels about the issue! We must have the patience and courage to live in complete harmony with other Christians.  After all each of us have one common goal on earth, to give praise and glory to Jesus Christ and to worship Him.  Individually it is not an impossible task, we are doing it now.  The trick is to join together as one body, in unison and with singleness of purpose.  It begins with each of us.  Pray that the Lord gives all believer's the patience and courage to live in harmony with one another.  Pray that we join in one voice to give glory and praise to Jesus Christ, the Lord God!  

We need to be steadfast in our desire to live in mutual harmony, having full sympathy for one another.  We must be of one accord in worshiping Jesus Christ.  God is the one who can give us the power of patience and endurance by His encouragement.  First we each must have our heart right with God, then together we may unite our hearts and speak with one voice.  Many have reached this point of spiritual maturity and can unite and become one minded.  Many attempts have been made to unify all Christians and their doctrines, but rather than dogma we should focus on the person of Jesus Christ.  This scripture invites us all to love God and become as one and join together and speak with ONE VOICE!

We should look for opportunities to join with other followers of Jesus Christ and praise and glorify Him.  In the upper room in Jerusalem, I will never forget singing with groups from all over the world.  We all knew the same praise songs and together we made a heavenly choir. We united our hearts and our voices and became one body.  We united and any divisions became secondary to the purpose for our whole lives.  Our purpose on earth is to Worship and Glorify God.  If it is possible to do this in one instance, it is possible to do this repeatedly and often. Make a promise to be a uniter and not a divider.  Pray to God that He will give us ONE VOICE!

LIVING PROOF!

MATTHEW 3: 8

"PROVE by the way that you live that you have repented of your sins and

turned to God!"

How can you be sure that you have repented of your sins and turned to God?  How can others be sure that you have become a child of God?  How do believer's determine if others have truly repented and turned to the Lord?  The One Truth Today tells us that we can prove that we have repented of our sins by the way we live.  That is the LIVING PROOF that we can apply to ourselves and others.  How we live must be consistent with repentance, turning away from sin and toward God.  We will bear good fruit and righteousness instead of separation and sin. Have you become a new person with a new heart?  Are you on the straight and narrow path?

Sometimes it can be very confusing when we see a supposed believer turn their back on God.  We call them backslidden.  The real question is whether they ever really repented of their sin and opened their heart to God.  For we know that once you have tasted the sweetness of Jesus Christ, where could you go!  Once you have been saved from death and given new life how could you like a dog return to your vomit?  It may be that many celebrities have put on a great show for Jesus, but they have never repented themselves.  They never turned to God to be saved themselves.  What they and others have proved by turning away from God is that they are still lost and separated from Jesus Christ and they have no Salvation!  There lives in the end are LIVING PROOF!

Your life is the real story of what you believe.  What you say and how you act is the true proof of what you believe.  The evidence is in your life.  There may be an inner self that can conflict with your outer expressions, but you prove what you truly believe by the way you live.  The Pharisees and Sadducee's were warned by God that they would not escape the wrath and indignation of God unless they had repented of their sins and turned to the Lord for Salvation.

No one can escape from judgement and you could never fool or mock God.  You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can never fool God.  The real you will be revealed and If you have truly repented of your sins and turned to God, your life will be LIVING PROOF! 

ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD!

ROMANS 13: 1

"Everyone must submit to governing authorities.  For ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD.  Those in positions of authority have been placed there by God!"

Some people say they will leave the country if a certain person is elected President.  Many are very unhappy when their party is not in power, and their opposition is in control.  It is true that the power to tax is the power to destroy.  Many rebel at the idea of someone they do not agree with enforcing taxes they do not believe in.  Sometimes we are in a small minority within a larger political context.  It may bother you that you do not get the respect and power and authority of the majority.  It is especially irritating when the most amoral and least intellectual of the opposition rise to positions of authority and then abuse it.  Why does this happen so often?  What should we do as believer's.

The One Truth Today has the answer to your question.  We need to assimilate and learn from the Word.  Although men may think that they are powerful and that they are in control of their destiny and fortune in life, they are not.  The correct answer is that those who are in authority and control of your government have been placed there by the Lord.  What is more, everyone must submit to their governing authorities, because it comes from God.  Yes that man you despise and disagree with has been placed there by God.  ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD, not just a little or the ones you agree with.  So if and when you rebel against authority you are really rebelling against God.  We as believer's all have a duty to be loyal and supportive of their civil and governing authorities.  Yes I know we could do a better job, but, God does not agree and He has a reason for their position.  It may be we have collectively turned our back on God.  If a country turns its back on God there will be consequences to all of us.  

There is no authority unless it is by God's permission.  He sanctions all those who have authority over you and they are placed there by God's appointment.  Remember when Julius Caesar Augustus call for a census of all Roman Citizens?  He thought he was a god and and that he controlled the world.  In reality God placed him in that position so that his order would put in motion the arrival of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem.  The birth of Jesus was ordained for a specific time and place and had been foretold by the prophets.  Who was in control, Caesar or God?  He as a human never understood that he had been placed in a position of authority by God and in the end even he had to submit to the real governing authority of Jesus Christ the Lord God.  You along with everyone else must submit to the Lord for ALL AUTHORITY COMES FROM GOD~