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Canada
A believer in Christ Jesus for over forty years.

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Will you be happy?

Will you be happy
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”
                                                                                              Isaiah 40:6b
Today as part of a photographic art project I’m doing I went to take pictures in a cemetery. It’s big, holding as many residents as the city where I live. Some grave stones go back to the early eighteen hundreds.
When I was young I lived in England near an Abby. At one time the richest in England. The grave stones in its cemetery  went back to the year 1200.
Cemeteries are places we put our loved ones. It’s the place our loved ones will place us one day. While cremation is an option for many. We still can’t avoid the ultimate statistic 100% of people die.
Our friends and relatives will say some nice words over us and at the very least weep.
The American evangelist Tony Campolo made an interesting statement about death, he said,
“When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?”
                                                                                                                    Tony Campolo
Which begs the question dear reader do you know God?
Do you know where you will spend eternity?
For me this is how you know you will enter heaven.
Jesus said,
1/ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 
                                                          John 3:16,17.
2 “....I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 
    John 14:6
 3/  Paul writing to the Romans said,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23,24.
Sinning is falling short of what God wants for you life. Sin separates us from God.
4/ Isaiah telling us, 
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” 
                                                                                             Isaiah 64:6
 5/ John noting,
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  
If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” 
       1 John 1:9,10.
6/ Paul make it clear salvation is not something we can work for. Paul writing to the Ephesians stating, 
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.” 
                                                                  Ephesians 2:8,9
7/ Ultimately salvation is an act of faith, Hebrews stating,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”
Hebrews 11:6
Faith defined as by the writer of Hebrews as,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” 
                                                                                                              Hebrews 11:1
What do you believe?
Think about it.

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