There IS Hope

(This is part 4 of 4 of my series, this wraps it up)

John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

 God gave His Son to save us. He doesn't want us to go to hell, but He can't allow sinful beings into Heaven and still be a just God. So we needed a sacrifice, something had to die for our sins. In the old testament, they used goats and bulls etc etc, but that wasn't enough. God knew this. So, He sent His Son to be the ultimate sacrifice. A sacrifice that wasn't contaminated with sin. And to fulfill scriptures, He had to be a descendant from David, so He was born from the virgin, Mary. So He was fully God, and fully man. He was tempted, like we are, but since He is God, He withstand it, hard to do something you absolutely hate, and God hates sin. We call on the strength of God, through Jesus Christ, to help us through, and sometimes we fall... But, here's the kicker; It doesn't matter if we fall, it's going to happen... The only thing that matters is how we recover from that. Jesus death covered past, present, and future sin, so we are forgiven, so when we fall, we need to repent, allow God to pick us up, and continue walking in His love and in His strength.  All we have to do, is ask Jesus into our hearts, and we will be saved. 

Romans 3:21-31:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

We all have sinned so we all fall short of the glory of God, but we are justified because of His gift that He sent down to be nailed to a cross, Jesus Christ. This way, we who have faith in Jesus, have been justified and God can now justly let us into Heaven. 

Romans 10:9: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

This is what you must do to be saved. Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart.

Acts 2:38: And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 We have to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

You have to go through Jesus, you have to believe in Him to go into Heaven, there's no other ways.

1 John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 He makes us righteous before His eyes. He forgives and calls us His sons and daughters. I mean, this is the biggest blessing He has ever given us, we are adopted into His family, how great is that?!

Galatians 3:26: for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

John 1:12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Got a little ahead of myself didn't I? Seriously though, we are sons of God in Christ Jesus through faith... How cool is that?

Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Sin = Death, Free gift of God = eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord..... Seems like simple math to me.

1 Peter 1:3-8: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

We are born again! The old has died and we are a new creation in Him. We are no longer bound by sin, but we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:8: but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is how much God loves us, he sent His Son to die for us.

I could go on and on about a ton of verses that speak on this, but if I did that, what would there be for you to discover :).  That, and this post would be extremely long.  So I shall end it here. Any questions on the topic or thoughts or if you would like to talk to me, feel free to use the "Contact form" on the right of the page.

Notice about last post

Blogger seems to be glitchy, so if the last post doesn't look quite right, that is why

Adultery

(this is part three of my series,  next part will finish this up) (Special thanks to my friend, Andrew, for his help with this)

Genesis 2: 24:  Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

 "One flesh"... not two, not three, but one flesh. That means that you two become one flesh, one body, so when you commit adultery, not only do you sin to your spouse, not only do you sin to God, but you also sin to yourself.

Exodus 20: 14: “You shall not commit adultery".

 This is a commandment to not commit adultery.

1 Corinthians 6: 12-20:   “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

 I'm not saying this to make anyone feel bad, I'm just saying it's wrong, and why. To non-believers, this is not only directed at you, but to believers as well, for we all struggle with it. 
1 Corinthians 10:13: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  
This is a call out to everyone, this is a sin, and a pretty common one in this present day & age. Look at verse 18 of the verses above: "but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." This states, as I was saying earlier, you don't also sin to your spouse, or to God, but yourself as well.

Matthew 5: 27-28:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

This says that if you even look at a woman with lust, it's the same as adultery. 1) Pornography is looking at a woman with lust. Some people say it's a victimless affair... It's not.  One, it's still cheating on your spouse (or future spouse if your not married yet), two, it's still sin, and three, there's a good chance those "girls" you see in those videos are not doing it by will, but probably being forced to by slave owners. There's about 30 million slaves in the world, that's more than any other time in History. A lot of those slaves, are used for videos like that. So when you are watching a video like that, there's a good chance she is not doing it of her own free will... Think about that next time you open a video like that.
2) Even looking at a female in passing with lust in your heart is adultery. If you see a female and you think she is attractive, nothing wrong with that... It becomes a problem if you let it go beyond that to wanting... that becomes lust.