All of our sorrow and all of our joy would be for nothing if it didn?t go to Eternity. You know that we are Christians. This does not mean that we just go to a social place once a week or follow a strict set of rules. Being a Christian means that we follow Christ. We seek for Him to highlight our imperfections (sin) and then we allow Him to change us. Being a Christian also means that we allow God to use us as His vessel to work through us to touch the lives of others. We pray that the transparency of our struggle and the joy of our sons will touch you in a way that makes you pause and consider your own relationship with God.
Perhaps some of you are also believers, but you have strayed from God. Or, maybe you have come to a saving faith, but not yet submitted to God as Lord over your life. We urge you to turn away from your sin, confess your inadequacies to the Lord, and ask Him to change you. When life seems peachy, you are still missing out on His glory. And, of course, when life turns sour, you will need an intimate relationship with the Lord to be carried through. We highly recommend a little book called How On Earth Can I Be Spiritual by Dr. Sumner Wemp. You can find used copies on amazon, buy a new one from sumnerwemp.com, or contact us and we will be happy to send you one.
Some of you are not yet believers, and we pray desperately for this to be the beginning of a whole new eternity for you. The bottom line is that there is a God. One God. The God of the Bible. He created you for one purpose: to have a loving relationship with Him. He created you with free will so that you can CHOOSE to love him. Sadly, all of us fall short of this and choose to be less than perfect. There is not one among us who is without sin.
Think for a moment about any of the ten commandments. Take the commandment about not stealing. Be completely truthful here. Have you ever stolen anything Even the smallest little thing Or how about bearing false witness against our neighbor Ever tell a fib against a childhood friend This means you have broken the law. You are a sinner according to God?s standards. As such, you are imperfect and cannot be in the presence of a perfect God. (And who would want a God that is NOT perfect!!) You cannot be in His presence now to relate to Him, nor can you be in His presence in eternity. Sadly, eternity is the final deal and all of us who are imperfect will spend an eternity apart from God in Hell. That is a rather undesirable place to spend forever.
But God is all-knowing and all-loving. He knew that we would be an imperfect people. And, He made a way for us to relate to Him even in the face of sin. That way is Jesus Christ. God came to the earth, took on a human form, lived a perfect life, and was crucified for the purpose of taking on all sin past, present, and future and obliterating it. He paid the ransom for the sin with His (temporary) death. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, thus proving He really is God.
To take away the blockade sin causes in relating to God, you must only ask the Lord to let His payment count for you. Tell Him sincerely in your heart that you understand you are imperfect, that He is perfect and paid the price, and will He please forgive you personally and make you into a new creature who can relate to Him. That?s it. There is absolutely no work for you to do, no payment for you to make you couldn?t give enough of it anyway. The only requirement for God?s grace and love is that you want it and you ask Him for it. He gives it not on the basis of who you are or what you?ve done, but on the basis of who He is and what He has done.
Your eternity will be totally different, as will your life, if you make this move. You will still be a sinner until death, but you will get to relate intimately to a Father who loves you until He finally perfects you at death. It is a difficult moment to see the truth of who we are, but oh, how the rewards of having a loving God reside in your heart trump all of that moment forever and ever.
While this is a simple sharing of a very simple message, we realize many of you have some specific hang-ups on buying into this idea of God. We urge you to pray the same prayer we did in college: ?God, if you are real, show me. Show me who you are and why you matter. That was the beginning of the end for both of us! We can also recommend many books for you to look at. Immediately, we would point you to The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. And, if the potential cost is your eternity, isn?t it worth checking out a book or two?
Please, please consider our lives, Isaac?s life, Samuel?s life, and then your own. What do you want it to be about What will you let it count for?
Prayerful that you can dance with our family in Heaven,
Nam & Katie
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