I am reading through the Bible with several others this year. This morning’s reading talked about the Israelites’ children who did not see the things that happened in Egypt. It made me think about two individuals who are experiencing the dementia of their father. He does not know who they are. I began praying for them both that YHWH would comfort them as only he can. Some things are worse then death, and this family is going through that.

Life here and now is broken because of the sinful nature. Everything can be traced to the sin of Adam and Eve when they were enticed by Satan to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God’s act through Jesus Christ two-thousand years ago corrected that lapse in judgement, and all who put their faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus have their debt paid for past, present and future sins. Because of that reality we strive as believers not to sin because of our new status as Christ followers. We continue to sin because Satan has not been bound from roaming this earth

We must never underestimate the power of evil because it far exceeds our power to endure. God’s power is head and shoulders above the power of Satan, yet God does not force us to follow him. Satan will not hesitate to use force when it can sabotage a life. He’s made evil good and he’s made good evil. He has leveraged the sinful desires of mankind to influence weaker minds to make sinful choices. Temptation is inevitable, so long Satan roams this earth and any other earths that might be out there, but mankind’s choice to yield to those temptations does not have to end with a yes. We’ve been given the same power that was at work in the sinless Jesus to refuse the yield to temptation, and there are countless human beings who are successful everyday in doing that.

We must never give up hope even in the darkest nights of the soul. We celebrated Easter last weekend because we believe in the resurrection. God has conquered death. We continue to die, but our hope is in the fact that “these momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” That same passage in 2 Corinthians 4 goes on to say, “…so we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” It’s easy to get caught up in the seen, but we must be intentional about focusing on the unseen. Church attendance, small group attendance, prayer, Bible verse memorization and striving to live sinless lives are all part of this walk with Christ, but they don’t just happen by accident. God has given us a plethora of ways to connect with him, but he also practices the following philosophy.

Nothing is won by force what can only be won by submission.

I have no idea who said that, but the first time I came across it I put it to memory. It’s not Scripture, but I think it’s got Jesus all over it.

I hope whatever you are experiencing right now that you will come to know my LORD. I think most of you who read this blog are Christ followers, but if you aren’t please find a local church who takes a high view of Scripture, serves the community around you and around the world, and who does not compromise the message of the Bible because they are afraid of what the government can do to them.

When we stand before the LORD on Judgement Day we will be responsible for what we did with the Gospel solely based upon our own choices. If we reject Jesus, Jesus will reject us. It truly is that simple. We aren’t perfect, and sometimes life will overwhelm us to the point that Satan will convince us all hope is lost. That’s the biggest lie he feeds those who are at rock bottom. There’s not such thing as rock bottom to God because when the followers of Jesus though that Jesus was gone forever reality was forever was only the beginning.