John 3:16 New International Version
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
This is one of the most quoted verses in the bible. It is also one of the most significant as a doorway into the Kingdom of heaven. The verse that should follow is...
Romans 10:9 (NCV)
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved.
The Lord offers salvation through His Son and we receive this ultimate gift. It is the most simple thing we’ll ever do. Jesus understood His creation as God the Father and then as God the Son.
Hebrews 4:15 (NIV)
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
There are two doorways into eternity. One leads to heaven and one
leads to hell. We open the one door by accepting what Jesus did so
that we could live for eternity in heaven with Him or we can opt for the
other door which leads to eternity, but a punishment that never ends. It is
called hell. God does not choose for us...we choose for ourselves
where we will spend eternity.
Jesus left heaven because God wanted an eternal relationship with us.
John 6:38 (ESV)
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
When Jesus died on the cross He did what no one else could ever do. God
instructed us to rule the earth, care for the land and the animals and to be
good stewards of His world, but Adam gave it all away to satan when he
sinned. He lost our position on earth, but Jesus, who is called the
last Adam came and through His sacrifice, gave us back that position.
Jesus came to give us a way out and destroy the bondage of spiritual death.
He came as a man, humble and obedient to God. Philippians 2:6
(NIV) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be used to his own advantage;
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are saying, thank you
for replacing my pathway to hell for His pathway to heaven.
Isaiah 53:5 (ERV)
But he was being punished for what we did. He was crushed because of our guilt. He took the punishment we deserved, and this brought us peace. We were healed because of his pain.
We are still commanded to care for and protect His world and the animals
on it. They are entrusted to us and in the authority and power through
Christ that we receive, we can change the world.
God bless
Marni
Go on to: John 3:30 He Must Increase
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The
purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate,
and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through
Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord
require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your
God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or
crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the
standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for
the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not
Christian.