RELIGION

   All around the world one of the basic issues of life is religion.  It is popular, often demanding and  a great part of culture.  It seems that somewhere on this planet just about everything is worshipped by someone.  From trees to mountains to animals to the dead  to self.  There is something inside us, a space reserved to worship and call upon.  Almost all the worlds religions  worship something or someone who is dead but influences the lives of its participants through fear, hope, ignorance or cultural demands.  There is one exception however.
   There is one God who lives and is real and has the power all the religions are seeking.  In the first verse of the Bible He is introduced by the name Elohim.  That is the Hebrew name given when He created the heaven and the earth.  The Jews found Him to be faithful and unchanging.  They found Him to be all powerful and forgiving.  Another of His names is Jehovah which is commonly used today.  Jehovah is love and created man  from the dust of the earth and made him a living creature to represent God on the earth by giving him dominion.
   Man failed God and in the course of time God sent His only Son, Jesus to free him from sin and restore him to relationship that man originally had at the beginning.  That meant to deal with the sinfulness of man and cleanse him from it.  Otherwise man would perish because man could not live in the presence of God as a sinful creature because God is holy.
   Jesus paid the price for man’s sin at Calvary by dying on the cross.  For three days it looked like it was over and man would perish in his sin.  However on the third day Jesus arose from the dead and overcame death, hell and the grave.  Man could be reborn and live.
   God, being just gave man a powerful tool to determine his future.  God gave man the ability to choose.  The world (not the earth) was evil and full of temptations to lure man into its grasp.  God’s ways were much different.  Man was designed to live eternally but to do so had to accept God’s way of life and walk away from sin.  The choice was his.  If he would repent of his sin and accept Jesus as his Savior he could live.  Otherwise at the end of his life on earth he would suffer the punishment by being confined to hell for all eternity.  Although man has a body and soul he is a spirit and his spirit will spend eternity somewhere.  Man’s choice.  Heaven or hell.  Eternal joy or eternal damnation was set before Him.  Choose wisely.  God will honor the choice you make.

Maranatha!