Imagine a man who never felt pain. He never felt the sting of disappointment or the grief of an ended relationship. He never felt a twinge of anxiety or a stressful moment or even the struggle to make a living. No pain. No physical pain, no mental pain, no emotional pain. Could such a man have even the faintest idea of what life is all about? Could such a man even say that he had lived?
We all learn from pain. Love involves pain. Learning to love means walking through greater or lessor degrees of pain. There's separation anxiety and misunderstanding and disappointment and the grief of love lost. It's all part of the path of love that leads to the exhilaration, joy and beauty of love fulfilled. Christianity gives the answer to the age old question of why there is pain.
Every picture is shades of light and dark. Without the dark the canvas would be nothing but white and would not communicate anything at all.
God created a world full of joy and pain. God created ..... I hesitate to use the word "created" ...... He "allowed" pain. God allowed His beautiful creation to fall into sin and pain. Pain and death entered the world when the first man sinned and rebelled against God.
God allowed pain because without it we would never fully understand pain's opposite. Without pain we would never understand love, joy and peace. Without pain we could not know God fully.
When pain has finished teaching us its many lessons there is an end of pain. The Bible speaks of the end of pain. The Bible teaches that we can turn to God and receive forgiveness and in the afterlife enter into His joy beyond the reach of pain. On the other hand we can hang on to our rejection of God and turn away from Him. We have a choice.
God respects us enough to give us a choice. He doesn't force His love upon us. If we choose to reject God we enter a place of separation from God in the afterlife. It is a place that is separate from God's joy and love.
God made the way back to Himself through Jesus Christ His Son. Jesus died for our sins. Jesus took God's wrath -- the pain -- upon Himself so that we do not have to be punished for our sins. Jesus redeemed us. Jesus paid the penalty that we would have had to pay.
We can now turn to God and ask for forgiveness of our sins on the basis of Jesus' death and resurrection on our behalf. When we have learned the lessons that pain has taught us in our brief earthly lives then we are ready to enjoy God's love in greater depth than we ever dreamed possible. In heaven the joy lasts forever! "Enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matthew 25:21).
The Bible is scientifically accurate! Find the evidence at www.icr.org.
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said "Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)
- Believe that God created you and loves you and sent the Messiah (Messiah is Hebrew for Christ) to redeem you.
- Believe that Jesus the Messiah came in fulfillment of over 300 Bible prophecies to die for you to take upon Himself the penalty for your sins. (Isaiah 53:5-6, John 6:29, Romans 4:5, First Peter 3:18)
- Turn from sin and call on the name of Jesus to receive forgiveness. (Romans 10:13)
- Receive Jesus as Savior and experience the new birth. (John 1:12, Acts 2:38)
- Follow Him as Lord. (John 14:21)
"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13)
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
"Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen."
If you prayed that prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!
Bill Nugent, Overcomer Ministries of West Harrison, New York, USA
(C) 2010 William P. Nugent, permission granted to email or republish if credit given
Read Bill Nugent's award winning Christian book, Lawful or Legalistic: How New Testament Believers Must Understand Old Testament Laws. For more information and to order click here.
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DEFENDING THE FAITH
APOLOGETIC ARTICLES
Bill Nugent currently writes a series of articles called "Defending the Faith" which, as the title suggests, defend the Christian faith from the many attacks leveled against it in our postmodern world.
The articles deal with such topics as evolution, UFOs, cults, modern/postmodern philosophy, liberal theology and popular culture. At the end of each article is an invitation to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. These articles are sent out over the Internet to several opt-in email lists. People who receive these articles are encouraged to resend them to their own lists and in this way reach their own unsaved relatives and friends with the Gospel.
All Defending the Faith articles are © 2009 William P. Nugent, permission is granted to email or republish if credit given.
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