Plan of Salvation

In the beginning....God.... These are the very first words written in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. The word, itself, means, the origin or coming into being of something, as defined by Webster's dictionary. Beginnings. Do you ever wonder who was there at the beginning of the earth, the solar systems, galaxies, etc.? God was. He decided to create the earth and all that lives in it, including human beings. He created us to have a relationship with Him; however, due to a bad choice on the part of the first human beings, all of us are born with a nature that is bent toward doing the wrong thing (sin), which, in turn, has created a broken relationship between us and God. If nothing is done to restore this relationship with God, we will go to a place called Hell when we die. Sound scary? Yes, it is, but it doesn't have to be. You see, God saw that man could not possibly mend our relationship with Him without His help, so, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for all mankind's sins, making a way for us to have this relationship with Him. Now, there is just one thing that stands between us and God and that is our freedom of choice. We can say yes to Him and accept His presence in our lives, or we can say no and turn away from Him. He makes it very clear, though, that if we reject Him, our eternal destination will be in Hell where there is great suffering forever and forever. If we accept Him, we will live with Him forever and forever in Heaven, which is a place of great joy, peace and freedom from all evil. Best of all, we will have a wonderful, face-to-face, relationship with God who loves us more than we can even imagine.

Now, I know what some of you may be thinking...it's God's way or no way, right? Well, that's true. I guess when you're the one making the rules, you can make them any way you want them. But think of it this way. Let's say you built a washing machine to wash your clothes in, but it tells you that it doesn't want to wash your clothes and just sits there doing nothing. The washing machine is not fulfilling its purpose, and it's not like you can use it like a toaster or a lawn mower. It has one purpose, and it's not fulfilling it. It's the same thing with us and God, and isn't that the most wonderful thing? God didn't create us to make Him richer, more handsome, have more importance or power or to be a servant to Him). God created us to have friendship with Him. He created us because He wanted to love us, and not just a little, but the Bible talks about lavish, extravagant love. Don't you think God giving His Son's life for ours is a pretty extravagant kind of love? Do you see how very much He loves you? He didn't hold back His own Son to restore a relationship with you. He even turned His back on His relationship with His Son, in order to restore the one He wants with you and He didn't have a guarantee that you would accept! What a risk He took! Do you see how much it cost Him? Would you give your only child so that you could have a relationship with someone else? I highly doubt it, but this is what God did. Therefore, let this love that God has for you, draw you to Him and please don't let this time go by without accepting Him into your life. If this is what you'd like to do, please pray something like this: Dear God, I admit that I have sinned and broke my relationship with You. I ask you to please forgive me, and I thank you that Jesus has paid for my sins. I ask you to come into my life. Thank you. Amen. Welcome to the family of God!  If you already prayed a prayer similar to this one, then, you don't need to pray it again.  Once you are saved, you are saved forever.  We will talk more about that in a later blog.  (Please click on the "Our Foundation" blog)