THERE IS ONLY ONE GUARANTEE IN LIFE

Death.

Everyone will die. It is guaranteed. Everyone will end up in one of two places- heaven or hell. Once you arrive, it is forever. Eternity. Never Ending. 

No going back. You are guilty. 
We are all guilty. There is only one who can plead your case and that is Jesus. That is why Jesus had to come to earth. He pleads for us to his Father. He died and took all of God's wrath that was meant for us. He is the only way to the Father. He is the only way to enter heaven. Without him, you will not enter heaven, you will enter hell. You cannot get to heaven on your own, but you will get to hell on your own. If you want to depend on yourself, that is fine. But be ready to only have yourself in hell. 

There will be no one to help you once you arrive there. 

• There is no escaping.
• No blaming others.
• No second chances. 
• There are no lawyers to come into a courtroom and plead mercy for you.
• You won't get a second trial. 
• You cannot appeal your sentence. 
• You cannot get out on good behavior. 
• There are no works you can do to earn your way out. 
• Your parents can't plead for you when you get there.
• Your pastor can't help you.
• There is no bail.
• There is no parole.
• There is no mercy.
• There is no grace.
• There are no re-do's.
• No re-test.
• No second time around
• No begging.
• No convincing.
• No two out of three.
• No delays.
• No more time for improvement.
• No more time to get it right.
• No next time.
• No negotiating.
• No social justice "group" in which to hide

A wisp, one breath, a second of time, in an instant. If at first you don’t succeed, try again- NOPE. Can't try again after your final breath. You will instantly be before your maker.  No delays, no thinking about it some more, no working on it to improve or get it right the next time. God will not give in to you like we do with our children on earth. You can't blame others. You can’t make excuses in front of God. None. You can’t speak before him. You will only fall on your face before him as he makes his final judgement on your soul.

You can choose to lose your soul for pleasures on earth if you want. You won't be able to get your soul back if that is what you choose.

Want your best life now? Fine, but your eternity will be your worst life ever.

But..... you can plead now.  Jesus will save you. Ask him to save you. Admit you are a sinner who needs a savior. When you confess your sin, Jesus covers you in His grace.

Don't put it off until it's too late and you are standing before your maker. If Jesus is not your savior, covering your sins, you will be sent to everlasting destruction.

If Jesus is your savior, He stands in the gap between you and the Father. Jesus tells the Father, "she is with me." We enter in with our Savior, with our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Our only hope is in Jesus Christ,

He’s coming soon and will judge the world,

His is the Lord of all Lords

He is the true king

So look to him

Before you lose everything

It will be only you before his throne,

you will stand alone!

Don’t let Satan deceive you and snatch you away,

he whispers lies in your ears; 

He wants your life,

don’t give it to him in your hatred and strife

Once he has you in chains, he will mock you and say -

don’t you wish you had one more day???

Are your past sins causing you to sin?

* Update- over the past year since I have written this blog post, God has been so good to me, finally healing me of my sin and my reliance on self.

I now clearly see that salvation is outside of myself. 

I can go to the cross one time for my sins, empty myself completely, and Jesus removes my sin. It’s gone. I can’t go back to the cross over and over for the same sin because I do not have that sin to repent of anymore (as long as I am not continuing in that sin, of course). It’s gone and replaced with forgiveness. My FLESH cannot forgive. My FLESH accuses me and shames me. But Jesus takes this nasty, sinful flesh and replaces it with His righteousness. My FLESH cannot save me, it is worthless. Once I remove it, give it to Jesus, it is gone. It can't accuse me or make me feel guilty anymore. My salvation is secure in Jesus, not in myself.

Is there a particular sin or sins that you just can't get over? That you can't believe God can forgive? A sin that you won't receive His mercy for? I do and it is causing me to sin.

My past sins are killing me. Maybe that is a little dramatic, but they are causing me to stop growing in my Christian life. They are crippling me. I am at a standstill. I am blinded by the enemy of this world. I am in UNBELIEF (it might be better worded as "doubting", but am using unbelief for now). It is a SIN to doubt God's Word!!!! I am not believing what God's Word has told me. How can this be? How can I be a Christian and not believe His Word? How can I be doubting??
This is why- I am still in misery for past sins. I lay down my sins at the cross and later I go back and pick them up and lay them back on myself. I do it over and over again. I feel like I can't stop it. I dwell on particular sins and it makes me miserable. Aren't I supposed to have joy in Christ? I can't. I am not believing that God has dealt with my sins and it is robbing me of my joy. It is causing the opposite affect- spiritual depression. I am wasting time looking back on something that I cannot change. I always think... IF ONLY I could go back..... but that is foolish thinking. It is these thoughts that the devil has me dwelling on. He loves that I am stuck in a crippled, crying wad of myself. I am preoccupied in myself- (yes, a sin) and that is causing me to NOT be preoccupied with Christ!! The more we are focused on Christ, the less and less we focus on ourselves. I have been doing all of it backwards, stuck in a rut of self-pity, shame and guilt, instead of joy and grace!

I think I know doctrine. I love theology, which is simply the study of God's Word. I even have a t-shirt that says "Theology Matters." And all of this time I was kidding myself if I am ignorant of basic doctrine!!! If I can't get the basics down, how am I going to grow in knowledge and wisdom? I am an doubting Christian... well if I can call it that for now. Oh, don't get me wrong, I THINK I have the basics down- short version- God made the earth and heavens, humans rebelled, He sent His perfect son to earth to take our punishment, if we believe in Jesus, we are saved from our sins. We are cleansed- made righteous with Jesus. We are FORGIVEN of our sins..... Jesus made ONE SACRIFICE for past and future sins....that is where my problem comes in. I think I believe this, why wouldn't I? I never questioned it before...but I have learned that it is a mockery to God to keep asking for forgiveness for the same sin or sins over and over and over again.
I am not saying we shouldn't pray and ask for forgiveness- sin keeps us from God. What I am saying is, once it is forgiven, it is forgiven. Period. Finished. We think we have "BIG" sins that aren't as forgivable as "small" sins- NOPE, that is a lie. There is no qualification against sins. If you break one part of the law, you have broken it all.
"For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws," James 2:10

YES, we still ask for forgiveness because sin blocks us from reaching God (and God commands us to repent). God welcomes us before him. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16.
Our sins are washed away and our prayers are heard.
Read this quote from Samuel Lee and think about it- "Sin is a thick cloud that hides the face of God, so our prayers cannot enter." That is an astounding quote to me. It gives us a visual look of how sin blocks out God. I have prayed many times when I haven't repented in weeks or even months!
How many prayers are going up and being blocked by sin. How many people who are unbelievers throw up prayers to God when they need it- those prayers aren't even heard. "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him." John 9:31.


We should never look at our past sins except in a way that causes us to praise God and magnify his grace!!! Rejoice in his grace!! He has blotted out my sins and remembers them no more!! MY SINS!!!! And I don't deserve it! Oh, thank you Jesus, thank you!!!
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more," Isaiah 43:25

These truths have finally freed me! I give much credit to Martin Lloyd Jones sermons on spiritual depression. It is as if he looked me in the face and said STOP THIS. I don't need to ask for forgiveness again and again for the same sin- that is mocking God.. that is unbelief in His truths of forgiveness and grace. I repent of my unbelief. I must renew my mind every time the devil tries to take me back to my rut. I will not go back. I will replay God's truth's over and over in my head, just like I used to play my sins over and over. I have to take back my mind!!!! God has given us HIS WORD. It is right there in front of me- for studying, believing, knowing, memorizing. Any time you doubt, open His Word. I have learned that it is easy for someone to say "I believe in Jesus", but if you don't know Him through His word, you are likely to fall back in unbelief and doubt.
I am forgiven and healed!

"A forgiven soul is a healed soul" Samuel Lee

UPDATE! MORE OF GOD'S GOODNESS..

ok, so this post is about my regrets and how I wish I could go back and do them over and I’m reminded that there’s no going back. I’m not gonna live my life thinking of the past and thinking about something that I cannot change . God promises that my election and salvation cannot be changed. GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. He’s got me in his hands. Jesus says you can’t go back, but you’re still in my arms and that can’t change. He says I will never be snatched out of his hand, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand." John 10:28

Now this also got me thinking about spreading the gospel (which I am currently failing at). Just like we regret things and can’t go back in this life, imagine being in Hell and spending every single second of eternity thinking and wishing that you could just go back for a second. But there is no going back, there are no second chances. That’s why we must be diligent in spreading the gospel now! Even though now in this human life we can’t go back, we still have the hope and love of Jesus that leads to everlasting life. But as soon as one gets to Hell, there is no hope! Take this short life you have right now (life is a wisp!) and RUN to Jesus (or RUN to others and tell them the good news). Beg Him now to save you! He will! Admit how wretched and wicked you are and confess your sins. Jesus will take those dirty sins and replace them with His righteousness. If you are reading this right now, you still have time. Don't wait another minute because when you take your last breath, there is no more time- it will be finished and your destination will be one of two places- Heaven or Hell. 

If God is good and all powerful, why is there evil and suffering?

If you listen to most unbelievers, their main opposition to Christianity is evil and suffering. They claim our God won't stop it, so He can't be good. Critics say, how can God be good and allow such evil?
The suffering and horrific evils of this world are difficult to understand. If there is an all-powerful God, why doesn't he just stop it? How can He know that his creations are being abused by others that were also created by Him? The children that are in sex trafficking and are raped day in and day out, the children that are starving to death with no food, the children that are dying because they don't have the medicine needed to cure them (many times they die from diseases that are preventable), the people that are suffering in utter pain with cancer and other diseases, the families who lose loved ones everyday to death and children are left without parents, wives without husbands, parents without their children.
The evil in this world is unstoppable. It can never be erradicated. We are evil. All of us.
Many can talk about world peace and everyone has their ideas on how to achieve it.
But there will never be peace on this earth. This earth is corrupt. Why do we seek so much from a corrupt world anyway? Ever think about that? Why are we digging for gold in a barren, dead earth that is doomed for destruction?

Ever notice how millions of humans say they are "good people." I used to say "I am a good person", how can God reject me? We fail to realize that NO one is good, not one! If you think you are saved because you are "good", you are badly mistaken.
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one," Romans 3:10

How can WE HUMANS claim to be good and allow such evil? We sit back in our so called goodness and just watch and complain (believers and unbelievers alike). Why don't we act? We sure expect God to act. Maybe we need to look at ourselves. God hasn't left us empty handed on this earth. Look what he has provided- food, water, sunlight, ability to love, resources for shelter, and on and on.
We take and take and don't think we need to give! Maybe we should suffer to eliminate others in their suffering? What would suffering look like to most Americans- less eating out, buying new cars and SUV's, going on vacations, living in smaller homes, not spending millions on church buildings.....

God could ask us the same question- why is their such suffering? Is there not ways that you could stop it? Is your greed more important than ending suffering?
God's people (everyone) are so full of themselves. We want to blame God for everything. Where is our responsibility? Has God not given us resources to use for good? Why are we so quick to blame others instead of looking at ourselves and asking what are we doing?

Look at the world as a whole and really think about it. Has God not provided many resources that we don't use! That we could use to end and prevent evil? Maybe we need to stop accusing God for the evil we create. Maybe we need to stop saying- God, this is all your fault because you aren't ending it. God you allow this (which He does, but that is besides the point for now).
We are so self righteous!!

Most people in my world don't want to die. They want to live forever - death is scary. Why are our lives so short? Why are we a mist and then gone? Why are we like a dying flower in the field? I used to think this way until I realized-
It is a MERCY that God allows us to have short lives on this earth.
Who would want to live hundreds or thousands of years on this earth amongst the pain? I wouldn't. If you were someone who was abused daily and knew it could go on for hundreds of years, it would be the worst news possible. Our cry is PLEASE JESUS, COME NOW!

Remember what God has not taken from us as we live in this world- his loving kindness, the truth that we will never be separated from him (no one can take us out of his grasp), His grace will never end, nor shall his mercy. The Holy Spirit is always with us and will not abandon us.

In due time, God delivers his children out of trouble. "A tree, which in the winter seems dead, revives in the spring. The sun emerges after a storm" - Thomas Watson

We are immortal (we have a beginning) souls that God is gifting eternity in glory and perfection for those who believe in Him.

The truth is God will END EVIL. He already has. Evil has been defeated.