rob12870's Blog

Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."



I've never been the type of person who believed that a person could lose their salvation, but at the same time I believe their are a lot of people walking around claiming to be Christians who are not. These are the people who seem to think that all they have to do is say they're a Christian and in the end it will all be just fine. They claim to be believers, but don't talk about God when your around them, don't try to tell them the importance of reading God's word either because they got no time for that. No they're belief is nothing more then something they conjured up in hopes of everything working out in the end. They have no clue that the bible says that even the demons believe in God and tremble. Why do they tremble? because they know their final destination. That destination is eternal !#$ation for not only them but for all who choose to go it their own way. These same people have no clue that the bible says in Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' It's sad because just like the people in this verse their are many walking around thinking they are doing God's work. They think that because they give to the poor or go to church or well... just try to be good that they are doing things God's way and don't get me wrong here God does want us to do these things, He really does. The problem is that none of this stuff guarantees a free ticket into heaven. Jesus himself is going to tell a lot of these people plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' So what does it take to get into Heaven then? Well Jesus made it pretty clear when He said only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Wow now there's a shocker, in order to get into heaven we have to forget about what we think it takes to get in and do what God says it takes to get in. So how do we find out what God wants us to do I mean it's not like we can see him or touch him or just call him up on the phone. So where do we get the answer? Well the answer is found in His book the Bible. The bible teaches us exactly what a person needs to do to have eternal life. The answer is so simple that it is almost shocking. John 3:16 "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. Did you get that...God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son Jesus to die on a cross for us. Why did he have to die? Because God's books says that we are all sinners and that the punishment for that sin is death. We all deserve death or separation from God in Hell. But God intervened on our behalf. He sent his Son to take our place. Jesus carried all our sin to the cross and allowed himself to be put to death so that we could have a relationship with God. It was our sin that separated us from God and it was Jesus who reunited us with God. All we have to do to have eternal life is stop believing that it is something we have to work for and believe that it is something that God has already done for us. Want more proof check out some of these verses Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. This verse makes it pretty clear that obeying the 10 commandments doesn't get you in. Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faithâand this not from yourselves, it is the gift of Godâ 9not by works, so that no one can boast. This verse makes it more than clear that God gives salvation based on faith not by doing good works. And finally Romans 10:8-13 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentileâthe same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."So if you really long for or want to know for sure that you have eternal life then stop trying to do it your own way and start by doing what God has required. Believe and receive the free gift of eternal life. Call out to him now and tell him that your a sinner, tell him that you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and ask him to forgive you of that sin and send his Holy Spirit into your life to help you live for him. He will do it.11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.



God Bless,

Rob

Proverbs 24:16 for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.



When I was a kid I loved climbing trees and the higher the better. It seemed like there was no tree in the area that I couldn't get into. I can remember days when me and my friends would just look for a good tree to climb and just hang around all day. Not only were we good climbers but we were confident, daring climbers as well. We would do all sorts of tricks in trees like jumping from one branch to another or swinging from branch to branch. Most people would have thought we were crazy because of some of the risks we were willing to take in trees. I can remember one time when I was climbing a tree at the playground not far from my house. I was sitting in this one spot for some time when I decided I wanted to be somewhere else in the tree. I got up to move and when I reached out for a branch to grab hold of the next thing I heard was a loud snap. Unfortunately the branch I was going to be using to support me as I moved from one place to the next was dead and it snapped as quickly as I touched it. In about 1 second, or before I even had a chance to yell for my mommy I began my fast decent down the side of the tree landing solidly on my butt. The whole thing happened so fast that when I hit the ground I was in a state of shock. I couldn't believe I was alive and secondly I couldn't believe I had fallen. I never fell out of a tree before so this was all new to me. Not only was my butt soar but my pride was shattered by the sound of two of my friends laughing at me while I sat there wallowing in my pain. Isn't it funny how sin can be the same way. I mean sometimes we just get so comfortable with everything going on in life that we begin to get confident or daring. We may even try things we shouldn't because we think we can quit any time or a little won't hurt nothing. Sin convinces us that we will feel like were on top of the world if we give into it and yet leaves us in a pit of dispare after we've gone through with it. Our pride keeps us from seeing that what were doing is hurting something and that something is our relationship with God. Our relationship to God should mean everything to us and because it means everything to us we should be doing everything we can to keep sin out of our lives. We need to be reading God's word, praying God's word, Studying God's word and living God's word. I saw a quote the other day from a girl on a missions trip. She was asked what she did on her trip. She said "well in the morning we read God's word and in the afternoon we lived God's word" Man that just says it all. We need to be living God's word each and every day. Because when were in God's word and were living God's word what were really doing is His will and not our own and that alone should give us enough strength to get through today. We don't need to think about or worry about tomorrow because all we have right now is today.



Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.



Dear Lord give us the strength to get through today, and help us to please you all along the way.



God Bless,Rob

Daniel 6:3-4 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.



It's funny how most of us have at least one skeleton in our closet. Almost all of us have that one thing we did in the past that no matter what we want no one to find out about. Whats really sad is that the more popular you become the better your chances of something from your past leaking out. Take politicians for example, every election year the media likes to play in the mud. They like to go digging for bones that people buried a long time ago just so they can ruin the reputation of the people running for office. Sure they will say they were doing it for the public because the people have a right to know but we all know it's about ratings and who they want in office. The sad truth is that there are those people out there who actually care about what others did 20 years ago. Like some how a decision that was made so long ago only means your incapable of making one today. Yeah it sure is a sad time we live in, it almost seems like the days of second chances are over in America. Daniel had the same problem back in his day. Here was a man that did his best to have no skeletons in his closet. He did his best in office and served with integrity and honor. He lived his life in such a way that when the people around him became jealous of him and wanted him kicked out of office they could find no wrong in him no matter how hard they looked. It makes me wonder how much these people tried to dig into his private life. Did they go snooping around his home? did they question his neighbors and his friends? did they spy on him? We can only imagine how far they went but I would be willing to bet that if Daniel had been around today along with these men who wanted him out of office they would have done there best to flood the news papers with dirt on Daniel. You know as Christians we need to be very careful of the decisions and the choices we make each and everyday. We don't know where we will be in twenty or so years from now and who knows maybe by then we will have people trying to dig through our trash. The choices you make today can and sometimes will effect your life in the future. Do your best to protect your integrity today and you will have no regrets in the future.



They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent.



To keep the skeletons out of your closet

you have to guard the door.



God Bless,

Rob

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!


Every Thursday morning I have the privilege of driving through lovely Manheim, PA on my way home from work. It's always an adventure. Why? because that's the day that the trash man goes through town YEAH!!!. It seems like no matter how hard I try I always run into him. Nice guy that he is. I mean lets face it, who else would want to come to your house and take your junk off your hands all the while tying up rush hour traffic while he does it. Lets take this past Thursday for example. I'm sitting behind the trash man, again! on my way home from work waiting for him to fill his truck with all the goodies people put out for him when I notice this huge pile of junk sitting along the sidewalk. I mean this pile was huge. It was the kind of pile you would see only if you got in your car and drove to the dump yourself. (alright maybe it wasn't that huge but it was huge none the less.) Anyways I'm sitting there thinking wow who on earth could possibly have so much junk? Where could it all have come from? Obviously someone had to of had a house cleaning party. Their house has to look like a brand new house. And then this verse hit me again, it's that same verse that has hit me so many times this year Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! I started thinking about my spiritual house and weather or not I needed to have a house cleaning party. I mean I try to keep my house pretty clean (my spiritual house that is) but what about the trash in or lives that we don't even know or think is trash? Could it be possible that I might have some junk hidden away in one of the closets of my house that I don't even know is there or maybe I do know it's there but I've kept it hidden away because I'm not ready to give it up. This is one of the reasons why we need to take the time to get alone with God and just meditate. Ask him to show us the junk in our lives that isn't always easy to see. We need to filter our lives through the word of God and ask God to help us to love the things He loves, and to help us to hate the things He hates. Now some of you might be thinking that's pretty tough I don't know if I can do that or maybe your afraid that God just might point out something that you really, really love. If that's the case ask Him to change the way you feel about that particular thing don't just say nah forget it that's to hard. Ask God to change your way of thinking get in his word and be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Get so close to God that the junk in this life no longer matters. Because in the end it's really not going to matter.

Jesus wants your junk he's pulling the truck up. What are you prepared to throw out? He's not going to take it unless your willing to give it.




You won't look totally new till you totally get rid of the old.

Rob