Observer-Reporter forum

spike · Professional Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 2030

Nowhere is more riding on that question than when it comes to where we will spend eternity; especially at a time when our culture offers a confusing spiritual buffet to choose from. Many religions are seeking our allegiance in this growing marketplace of spiritual options. And there are countless alternatives to conventional approaches to God; approaches that allow you to develop your own personalized spirituality. Whether your way to God is a traditional religion or a non-traditional spirituality, it's important to ask the only question that really matters: "Will this take me where I want to end up?" Not "Do I like the way this makes me feel?" or "Shouldn't I follow the religion I was raised in?" There are some beautiful roads that don't lead to heaven. There are some spiritual systems that will, like that wrong aircraft, give you a lift but won't get you home.

God's made it very clear in His best-selling book, the Bible, that there's one way to end up in His heaven when you die, and it is not a religion. It's a Person. In 1 Timothy 2:3-5, our word for today from the Word of God, He says: "God our Savior...wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." Why just one man who can be the go-between to get us to God? Because there's only one man who "gave Himself as a ransom for all men."

A ransom is the price you pay to get someone back. The price to get us back was the death of Jesus Christ for the sin that separates us from God. A religion, a personal spirituality can make us feel spiritual, even close to God, but it cannot pay the death penalty that we carry because we've de-throned God in our lives to run it ourselves. It took what Jesus did on the cross to do that. Only the man who died for your sin can remove your sin. If you die with your sin unforgiven, there's no way God can let you into His heaven. Even Christianity, the religion that's about Jesus, can't get you to heaven. It's Jesus! In the powerful words of Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

The only way to get to heaven is to be totally depending on Jesus Christ to get you there. It means abandoning all other hopes of getting to God and to heaven and fully trusting the one way God provided - Jesus, His one and only Son. If you've never reached out to Him and given yourself to Him, you're in grave spiritual danger, no matter how sincere you may be in whatever else you're depending on. You can be totally sincere in your belief that a certain plane will get you where you want to go, but no amount of sincerity can change the fact that it just won't get you home.

When you open your heart and your life to Jesus, you know in your soul that this is finally the real thing because Jesus is there now. I pray that you will tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours." At our website, there's a brief explanation of just how to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can listen to it or you can read it. Just go to YoursForLife.net.

Jesus paid your passage to heaven with His life. That's how much He loves you. Go with Him today, because He is the One who can get you home.

dick · Journeyman Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 3134

Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

No offense to anyone, but the presentation of "starting your personal relationship with Jesus Christ" sounds a little...pedo. I would again like to present Judaism as a more logical alternative. Same god, same religious foundation, same early scripture, but no big brother aspect. Hell, you could walk into a reform synogogue and be like, "I'm an atheist," and they'd be like, "that's nice, we're kind of busy, could be quiet and sit down please?"
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spike · Professional Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 2030

How funny Dick. You really are neato in the way you tickle the funny bone! Laughing

And Cy, um, whatever.

Amphikalein · Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 12:59 pm Post subject:

The longer my walk in this life is, the more i come to think that the question of where i will spend eternity is infinitely less important to me as a Christian than the question of how i spend the life that i'm living in the here and now. If the Kingdom of God is at hand, why fix my sight on an ephemeral vision of the afterlife? Christ can be seen all around me already, if only i have the eyes to see Him.
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"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." ~Martin Luther King Jr.

"May we, in our dealings with all the peoples of the earth, ever speak the truth and serve justice." ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

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spike · Professional Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 2030

Well,my view is that what you say goes without need to say. The one is of the other. So, unless one would need to say that aloud, there is no reason to say that you see? Oh, it doesnt really matter--I understand it. God Bless.

busdriver · Journeyman Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 3497

The Teacher asked young Patrick Murphy: "What do you do at Christmas time?

Patrick addressed the class: "Well Ms. Jones, me and my twelve brothers and sisters go to midnight mass and we sing hymns; then we come home very late and we put mince pies by the back door and hang up our stockings. Then all excited, we go to bed and wait for Father Christmas to come with all our toys.

"Very nice Patrick," she said. "Now Jimmy Brown, what do you do at Christmas?"

Well, Ms. Jones, me and my sister also go to church with Mom and Dad and we sing carols and we get home ever so late. We put cookies and milk by the chimney and we hang up our stockings. We hardly sleep, waiting for Santa Claus to bring our presents.

Realizing there was a Jewish boy in the class and not wanting to leave him out of the discussion, she asked, "Now, Isaac Cohen, what do you do at Christmas?"

Isaac said, "Well, it's the same thing every year.... Dad comes home from the office. We all pile into the Rolls Royce; then we drive to Dad's toy factory. When we get inside, we look at all the empty shelves... And begin to sing: “What A Friend We Have In Jesus.” Then we all go to the Bahamas ."

Amphikalein · Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:01 pm Post subject:

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"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." ~Martin Luther King Jr.

"May we, in our dealings with all the peoples of the earth, ever speak the truth and serve justice." ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Amphy's blog | Proud Member NDA

dick · Journeyman Joined: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 3134

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Its okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings.

Puff. Puff. Give.

spike · Professional Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 2030

Recently it was discovered that some milk producers in China had been diluting cow’s milk and adding the industrial chemical Melamine. This chemical was added because it artificially enhanced protein readings. Several infants died and others became seriously ill. Such adulteration is not new. Other countries have been adding Melamine to animal feed for at least 40 years for the same purpose, resulting in the death of animals.

Another kind of adulteration is when people add to God’s Word, “the pure milk of the Word” as Peter described it (1 Peter 2:2). The word pure means “unadulterated” or “uncontaminated.” The early church had to deal with those who considered circumcision necessary for salvation (Acts 15:1). That idea was rejected because it was not in accordance with the Word of God, which says that salvation is by grace alone. Peter encouraged his brethren in the Lord: “Why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples? . . . We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved” (Acts 15:10-11).

Examine carefully any teaching that asks you to do anything more than what is in God’s Word. Otherwise it can be deadly to your spiritual well-being. — C. P. Hia

The Lord has given man His Word,
His will He has made known;
Let man not try to change that Word
With words that are his own. —D. De Haan

God’s Word needs no additions or subtractions.

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busdriver · Journeyman Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 3497

Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

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busdriver · Journeyman Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 3497

Cylinsier · Master Joined: 29 Sep 2008 Posts: 13229 Location: Oh shi-

That's my buddy, Christ.
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busdriver · Journeyman Joined: 16 Mar 2009 Posts: 3497