right move, wrong motive

many people give their lives and hearts to Jesus Christ looking to be free from pain, from hard times, from all the trouble in their lives. they think of God as a magician - that they can pray and ask for help and -poof!- God gives you what you want.

and while yes, it is true, that Jesus Christ gives you peace, comfort, blessings, and will neither leave you nor forsake you once you become His child, once you commit your life to Him, that is the wrong motive for giving your heart to Him. the reason i say this is the wrong motive is simply this: if you give your heart to Christ, looking for an escape from trouble, from the pain in your life, or looking for blessings, you will be highly likely to fall AWAY from Christ the very minute that trouble finds you again - and it will find you. see, Jesus promises to be our comfort in times of storm, to be our protector, to never leave us, but He never promised that our journey with Him will always be an easy one. even as a follower of Christ, we will have rocky times, times when we hurt, times when others hurt us, times when we cry, times when we feel uncertain, times when we feel pain. the joy lies in knowing that Jesus is right there walking with us, catching our tears in the palm of His hand, holding us, and working in us and through us. that's where we find peace and can have joy regardless of what happens in our lives.

so what, then, is the RIGHT motive for surrendering your life and heart to Jesus? simply put it's this: so that you shall LIVE and not die! the Bible teaches us that we are ALL sinners and all have fallen short of the glory of God. there is none righteous, no not one. the only righteous, sinless one to have ever walked the earth was Jesus.

take a look at the 10 Commandments. have you ever broken even one of them? have you ever lied? have you ever stolen anything, even something small? have you ever put anything else in your life above God and treated that thing or person like they are your everything, more so than God? have you ever committed adultery? even if you're not married, Jesus teaches that even if you lust with your eyes after another person, you have already committed adultery with that person in your heart (Matthew 5:28) . have you ever fornicated (had sex before marriage)? have you ever murdered anyone? the Bible also teaches that if you even hate another person in your heart, you have committed murder in your heart (1 John 3:15). therefore, if you have ever done any of these things (and more that i haven't even mentioned), you are condemned to spend eternity in Hell. the Bible teaches that no fornicator, no liar, no idolator, no murderer will enter into the kingdom of Heaven (Ephesians 5 - the whole chapter is important!)

there will come a time when we ALL will have to face God, one on one, face to face, on the day of judgment. if you have ever done any one of these things (and we ALL have, every single person on this earth, including myself) , and more, you are guilty of sin and will not enter into heaven, but instead will be cast into Hell for eternity. God is a righteous God, and Heaven is a holy place. no sin will enter into Heaven. God is loving and merciful, but He is also just, and will justly punish sin according to His word.

so how then, can ANYONE enter Heaven, since we've all done these terrible things before, at least once? the good news is that Jesus Christ died to cleanse us of these very sins. God Himself became a Man named Jesus, came to the earth and died on the cross for you, your family, your friends, and me, and every person on this earth. He took the punishment that we deserve. He died so that we don't have to. He took our place, even though He was blameless, innocent, guilty of NO sin. Jesus was entirely holy, yet took on all the sins of the world so that we may be saved.

so if you confess your sins, each and every one of them, honestly and sincerely to the Lord, and turn away from those sins, stop doing the things He tells us not to do, going to places you shouldn't go, hanging out with people you shouldn't hang out with, and tell Him that you recognize that you have sinned against Him and therefore deserve to die, but that you are now putting all your trust in Him, that you love Him, and ask for His forgiveness, you will be saved! and if you truly mean these things with all your heart, God will forgive you, cleanse you of your sin, and will not see you as the person you were before, but will see you as a totally new creature in Him. all your sins of the past will be forgiven and wiped away, all because of the blood of Jesus that He shed on the cross.

in addition to giving your life to Jesus so that your soul can live and be spared from Hell, give your heard to Jesus because He first gave His heart to YOU! Jesus loves us all - even those on the earth we see as "unlovable," Jesus loves them too. since you were born, He has been wanting you, wanting to be apart of your life. He doesn't NEED you, but He does want you to be close to Him. He created you and everything about you. He deserves to have all of you - because it all belongs to Him anyway. He is standing there waiting with His arms stretched wide, waiting to welcome you. you just have to make the choice to walk to Him.

i encourage you, if you're reading this (which, if you ARE reading this, i truly believe God has led you to this page, that you didn't just "stumble" across it), to ask yourself: if you were to die today, where would your soul go? none of us knows what day or hour will be our last one on earth. the young and the old die every minute of every day. in addition to that, none of us knows what day or hour Jesus will return. you don't want to wait until that day to try to ask for forgiveness - it will be too late then. i encourage you with my whole heart to seek after God. God promises in His Word to be faithful to forgive when we sincerely repent to Him. NO SIN is too great for God, meaning, it doesn't matter what bad things you have done, even if they are unspeakable and no one else knows how horrible your sins have been, God knows, and He will forgive you!! again, it doesn't matter what you have done, even things you are too ashamed to admit to anyone else, confess them to God and HE WILL forgive you! He also promises that by FAITH we are saved - so you can't earn salvation by doing "good deeds" on earth. we must have faith, total faith, in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, turn away from our sins, and make God the center of our lives. only then are we assured salvation.

visit this awesome website if you want to learn more: www.wayofthemaster.com. or feel free to contact me! with the help of God, i will lovingly and truthfully share anything with you that i can. our days are numbered and we cannot afford to put matters of our soul off for another day.

God's peace and grace to you all!