Why is it called the GOSPEL if we have to fear the coming Judgment? The GOOD NEWS (Gospel) is about the coming Kingdom of God and our opportunity to participate in it. However, it is a difficult and narrow way to get there. It is a difficult journey that inherently transforms the willing soul to walk that road. Those unwilling, yet religious, will end up on the deceivers path of comfort and pleasure, deceived by the pursuit of wealth and things that will not matter in the end. We have the opportunity to become SONS and DAUGHTERS of God. Do you understand what that means? In contrast, the cross we bear of foregoing this life, in comparison, like Paul said, is a joke... it is no comparison, if we suffer, and the NT says we will, it is for just a little while... and the character of Holiness it produces (Hebrews 12:1-14) will please God from the fruit that it bears, and we will hear well done!. Moreover, because we must purify ourselves of all wickedness, and fearing God aids in that. Once we mature, then all fear of Judgment will be gone. Until then, let us fear and love God, appreciating His providence by our good actions toward Him and others... loving others at every opportunity. Then Christ will say Well done, good and faithful servant. When you did for that guy over there, you did it for me. When you helped that poor widow, you were helping me. 1 John 3:1 See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure. 4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 Everyone who resides in him does not sin; everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous. 8 The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed: to destroy the works of the devil. 9 Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness—the one who does not love his fellow Christian—is not of God. . # King Jesus said in Matthew 7:21 only... only those who do Gods will, what He desires, will ENTER the Kingdom of Heaven. The NT teaches in order to do that, we MUST: 1. Repent and be baptized, washing away our sins..ing out of the Kingdom of this world, the Kingdom of Darkness, and enter the Kingdom of Light. Theres no example of praying a prayer for this to occur in the NT. 2. Continue in obeying all that Jesus and His apostles taught and commanded. 3. This includes purifying ourselves from all of the pleasures of this life that lead to defiling our souls, i.e. all wickedness, all evil speaking against others, become people that pursue peace, love others, respecting others, showing integrity in all things, never lying for any reason, and in general, keeping a clear conscience that will bear witness against us or in our favor on Judgment Day. Loving God and loving others is the fulfillment of the Law of God. The detailed commands in the NT show us how.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 20:36:32 +0000
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