Romans Road - Last Stop

Romans 10:9,10
"​if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. "

Well here we are, last stop on Romans Road. We have learned that all have sinned and deserve death but God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die in our place, to be nailed on a cross that was meant for us and that if we call on the name of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven and we can be saved.

So what now? How are you saved?

You confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe (put your trust in) that He died on the cross for your sins and that He was raised from the dead.

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."

I had a conversation last week with someone who asked me if I thought there were any good people in the world. I knew where it was going and the question was followed up with another that asked if I thought that good people that try really hard to be good would get into Heaven because how could a loving God sent them to hell?

Well for starters...

How do we know how good is "good enough?"

Exactly...we don't, but more important, it is not about being good enough. The Bible is very clear that we are incapable of being good enough.
We learned this at the first stop (Romans 3:23-"For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.")

The reason God gave the Law was to expose man's inability to to keep it due to sin and to point us to Jesus because with His sacrifice we are made righteous in the eyes of God.

Matthew 13:43 "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

If certain people can get into Heaven by just being good and "giving it their best shot" then why did Jesus die?

Read what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
"For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that ​if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, ​​that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."

Did you read that? HE DIED FOR ALL. So if He died for all that means that all need a Savior and just being good enough is not possible.

I hope and pray for those reading this that you have followed each step along Romans Road and have decided in your heart to follow Jesus Christ and live out verse 15 from 2 Corinthians 5 "...​​that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."

It is time to live for Christ. The time is short. We need to stop playing church, stop turning a blind eye to sin and start living a life that reflects the love of Christ and a life driven by the Spirit of God not by the flesh of the world.

If you want to change your life and make a decision for Christ, I ask that you pray this prayer and turn from a life of sin and turn to life in Christ.

“Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that I need forgiveness.
I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again so that I can have eternal life with you in Heaven.
Lord, I surrender my life to you. Jesus, please forgive me of my sins and come into my life and into my heart and make me the person that You want me to be.
In Jesus name, Amen.”

If anyone who prayed this prayer needs help getting started in their Christian walk, feel free to contact me and I will pray with you and help you in any way possible.

God bless
Mike

Romans Road - Fourth Stop

Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

This week's stop is for those who think that they have done too much in their life to be forgiven. It is for those who think that God could never forgive them.

Read it again...read it again...read it again...

If you call on the name of the Lord you will be saved. One of my favorite verses is Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us."

If there was a sin that you could not be forgiven for then that means that Jesus' only died for certain sins and that His resurrection and power over death is not as strong as we think.

I guess you know that I am going to show you from scripture that that is just not true ;-)

Colossians 1:13-14
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness band conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

2 Timothy 2:10
"but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel"

Philippians 2:9-11
"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Revelation 1:18
"I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."

Romans 6:8-10
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God."

Now does that sound like Jesus died for only certain sins?
Does that sound like Jesus has no victory over death?
No does that sound like He won't forgive you if you ask?

Last verse then I close...(you may see it again next week)
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."

Call on the Lord and be saved today!

God Bless,
Mike

ROMANS ROAD - THIRD STOP

Romans 5:8
"God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"

Well, so far we have discovered that we are all sinners and that because of that sin, we deserve death and eternal separation from God forever. But instead of getting what we deserve, our wage, God has given us a gift, something we don't deserve and something we didn't ask for.

This week's verse expands on that gift and the feelings and love that are behind it. Notice that I didn't say "were" behind it? The love that God has for us was present 2000 years and is present today. Paul didn't say "demonstrated" as in past tense. The word for "demonstrates" in the original text is in the present tense and means that it is occurring in real time as in God is continuing to demonstrate His love toward us because we still can choose to live for Jesus Christ even after all the bad things we have done.

People will rarely sacrifice themselves for a good person, let alone for a rotten person, but Jesus died for every rotten person and for every rotten sin.

That is how much He loves us!

ROMANS ROAD - SECOND STOP

Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."

Well here we are at our second stop along Romans Road. Last week we learned that we are all sinners and need a savior. No amount of good works could ever be enough to reach God's glorious standard.

So what next? What happens?

This verse tells us what we deserve because of our sin. We deserve death. Not just physical death but a spiritual death - Eternal separation from God forever.

There is a false idea that God "sends" people to hell. That is not true. We are already heading there on our own if we do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The choice is ours.

Do we get off this highway to hell (thank you AC/DC) and take that exit for the eternal rest area that is in Christ Jesus?

The word "wage" in this verse means that we are given something we deserve. If you have a job, you earn a wage or a salary. You are paid for the work you do. You deserve it, therefore you get it. It is the same way with sin. We sin therefore we deserve to die.

That is the bad news...

Romans 6:23b "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus"

Here is the Good News. The good news is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and has paid for them in full.

Notice the difference in words here. "Wage" versus "Gift". We said a wage is something that you earn, right? Well a gift is something that is given to you. You didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You didn't ask for it. It was just given to you by someone who cares about you.

They always say that "it's not the gift but the thought that counts." But in this case, the thought and love that was put in the gift is reflected BY the gift. God loves you so much and cares about you, that He sent Jesus to bear YOUR sin, become sin and die on the cross that YOU should have been nailed to. That is love and that was a free gift. Next week we will talk more about the love of God and what He did for us.

Look at the difference in the words in the two parts of this verse and you will see the two choices you are faced with:

Wage --------------Gift
Sin-------------------Eternal Life
Death---------------Jesus Christ

The choice is yours...

Romans Road - First Stop

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (NKJV)

This is our first out of five stops along our journey down "Romans Road."

No one usually goes to a doctor until they admit they are sick, right?
(Okay, check ups don't count for this illustration)

Well, the first step of salvation is admitting they you are a sinner. This verse in Romans tells us that we have all sinned: you, me, your sweet little grandmother, Mother Teresa, the Pope, etc. ALL have sinned and fall short of God's glorious standard.

Since man's fall in the garden we are all S-I-N positive with no cure expect the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. We can all run around telling our self that we are all good people and that God wouldn't send a good person to hell, blah, blah, blah...

The hard truth is that it doesn't matter what we think or what we believe in, we do not measure up to God's standard. Before Jesus' death on the cross, God instituted the sacrificial system as a covering for the sins of the people. All of this was designed to foreshadow the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ for not just the sins of Israel, but for the whole world.

We may look real good when we compare ourselves to other people or criminals on TV, but how good would you look standing next to Jesus?

I will tell you. Every little thing you ever did that was wrong would stand out like a gigantic oil stain compared to the pureness and sanctity of Christ.

And you thought the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 looked bad...

So on this stop along Romans Road, we need to realize that no matter how hard we try, we will never measure up to God's standard.

Next time we will talk about what we get for our sinful ways versus the gift that Christ gave us...

In Christ,

ARE YOU A CHILD OF GOD?

John 1:12-13
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

I know this is a repeat verse from last year but it is something that is really on my heart to share...

I hear people say all the time that "We are all God's children" and "God loves all his kids." I usually hear this as a defense for some behavior or a lifestyle that is considered sin by the Bible.

The thing that we have to realize is that "Yes" we are all God's created beings and "Yes" He does love each and every one of us, BUT (here it comes) He does not and will not condone sin. Just because it seems right to someone or "feels right" does not make it right. If it did, we would never prosecute child molesters, rapists, thieves, muggers, etc. All these people either feel right doing what they do or they are just doing something they like.

This verse is very clear as to who is actually "God's Children." We have to believe in His name (Jesus Christ) and receive Him as our Lord and Savior. Now you can't say that you have done that and still continue living in sin. It does not work that way.

Jesus spoke repeatedly about "bearing fruit" as being evidence of salvation and a relationship with Him and as written in 1 John 1:5-7 "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. "

We cannot love Jesus and love sin. We cannot walk with Christ and walk in sin.
Are we perfect? No. But there is a difference in "sinning" and "living in sin" deliberately. It is a matter of the heart. If you have Christ in you, you will not want to sin or to live outside of His will or against his Word.

The reason I am writing this is because there are people out there and people I care about that think they are going to heaven just because they said a prayer or they simply believe in God. Even Satan and his demons believe in God! (James 2:19)

So many people think that as long as they "have faith in faith" they are okay. By that I mean as long as we believe in something, we will be alright. If you actually think about that, you will realize it is absurd. If three people believe in three different gods and they all die, will they all go to each of their gods? Of course not! That is ridiculous.

If I make up a god and carve an image out of wood and pray to it and make offerings to it, will it provide my salvation? Will it cleanse me of my sin? Will it grant me eternity? I think you understand the answer.

God gives us this example in Habakkuk 2:16
"What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it,
The molded image, a teacher of lies,
That the maker of its mold should trust in it,
To make mute idols?
Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’
To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
Yet in it there is no breath at all. "

Remember this:
Psalm 96:5 "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens."

Isaiah also tells us of the day when mankind will cast down there made up "feel good" gods and will face the living and true God.

Isaiah 2:20-21
"In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver
And his idols of gold,
Which they made, each for himself to worship,
To the moles and bats,
To go into the clefts of the rocks,
And into the crags of the rugged rocks,
From the terror of the Lord
And the glory of His majesty,
When He arises to shake the earth mightily. "

Isaiah also repeats this in chapter 31 verse 7. Trust me, if God repeated himself to Isaiah, IT IS IMPORTANT!!!

My point is this...no matter what may feel right, no matter if we think we are born a certain way or we blame it on our parents or bad genes or whatever, remember Jesus said that no one will see Heaven unless they are BORN AGAIN. Not born of the flesh, but born of the Spirit of God that comes through salvation. (John 3)

There are so many of you that I know are not following the Lord and I care about each and every one of and that is my sole purpose for posting this. I am not here to bash anyone, judge anyone personally, ridicule or be hateful to anyone. If you are offended by anything I have said, understand that it is not my words that offend, it is the Lord's. I am just sharing them.

I will be posting a post each week that explains how everyone is a sinner and needs Jesus and how to come to salvation. It is called the "Romans Road" because each verse comes out of the Book of Romans written by Paul the Apostle.

It is my hope and desire that the Holy Spirit will touch those that read this and lead them to repentance so you can enter into a loving relationship with the Creator of the universe and secure your eternal destination in Heaven.
Amen.

God Bless,

BE A BLESSED PARENT

Proverbs 23:24
"The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him." (NKJV)

The majority of Proverbs 23 pertains to the importance of child discipline and the benefits of raising a godly child. The other night at dinner I was reading from Proverbs to the family and by God's divine hand, we ended up in Proverbs 23 and, needless to say, we spent some time reading these words of wisdom and explaining them to the kids.

We talked about how much of a blessing it is as a parent to witness your child do something that makes you proud. I am not talking about scoring a touchdown or winning a spelling bee. Those are definitely things to be proud of but as parents we should be striving to teach our kids to show compassion for others and to look for ways to help people.

That is what makes me proud as a dad. Sure, if my son scores the winning touchdown, I am going to be excited and will be the first on yelling, "That's MY son!" but I would rather see my son or daughter go out of their to help someone in need and then say to the Lord quietly, "That's YOUR child."

This what we need to be teaching our kids.

Be blessed.