Your Greatest Opportunity

I depend on the biblical testimony of Jesus for what follows (I don't see myself as really classified with any particular "following"). The "Gospel truth" is that any human can have "the good life" on earth no matter who you are, what you've done (good or bad), where you are located, or what your circumstances are in life. My bottom line as of mid-2016...and some history to follow...is that the greatest present and future status for a human is to be FULLY SAVED.

Friends & web surfers: speaking for myself as one changed by coming to real belief in the specific Jesus of Nazareth, all I can say is that "I was BLIND and now I see" (John 9:25) (see Lee Strobel)!  You may not have known it, but the stage is set and the hugely powerful means to do so are freely available to all people. But, you have to hear (read) about it...someone must "tell" (the reason I have offered this website). How does that begin?...usually by "seeing" (you stumble upon a person doing things in a way that you admire & find out that he/she is a Christian). "Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words" ( attributed to St. Francis of Assisi [AD1181-1226]). And God chooses you.

Though I offer supporting evidence that has counted as proof to millions for about 2000 years, PROOF IS NOT THE ISSUE!! Your willingness to seek the truth and willingness to believe it is the issue...WILLINGNESS is THE issue. And you then must want to believe. As a noted philosopher has said, "To believe [in anything] is to want to believe." A person cannot investigate Jesus to any extent without realizing that His promise emphasizes relationships & is AGAINST exclusiveness & self-centeredness and stands as a testimony of God's grace, love, and desire for intimacy with His creation. Jesus modeled personal attention to our neighbor and did not recommend defaulting to the forced extraction of the means to better relationships and the delegation of that effort toward right relationships to others. The example of Jesus was & is a personal example!

Jesus did not actually come to found a church, or a religion, or to lead followers to tie themselves into bickering factions over doctrinal and/or theological issues. Jesus came to save by promoting the love & grace of God so that people would join in The Way of Jesus. Heaven for eternity is there (was paid for) for all. If you are intrigued, here is the deal in a short list:

• beginning: Original "man/men" (Adam & Eve) were good & not affected by evil spirits...but they turned from God (the Fall of mankind)...thereafter, "man" was doomed to be fundamentally, innately flawed toward "bad"...subject to evil spirits & evil beckonings...all headed for eternal & awful separation from God...Hell. Mankind was lost (not saved...not safe & secure) & in need of being redeemed & ransomed from consequences of his primarily-fallen state.
  
  
• God: There is only one true God (Almighty God...YHWH), and He loves you but cannot be in the presence of the unclean & undeserving sinner.
   
  There is a real God (whether YOU deny it or not) whose kingdom has come on earth amongst humans; & you are invited to join, secretly or publicly.
   
  God made you (and all things) & sustains you (and them) minute by minute, whether you believe/like it or not.
   
  God gave you brains & abilities, expects you to use them, and can help you. 
    
• The "Fall":
  
  Mankind had an Adam-&-Eve "falling out" with God many thousands of years ago & became "fallen", thereafter (1) inheriting the fallen "human nature" & (2) being subject to Satan's influence. Mankind is, thereby, NOT innately "good". Yet, Jesus eternally loves each and every human and is able to rescue each one if the let Him into their lives!
  
  In saying the following (and knowing that ALL are sinners), I say it as one struggling and do NOT say it in a judgemental way. Being "fallen", ALL mankind is readily subject to (attracted to) the negative, atypical, flagrant (even imperceptible) influences attractive to the human condition of "fallenness". Fallenness is the state of being subject to the easy enticement of sins (things that take you astray of the God-given life God designed you for). Satan (being ruler of "the world") & supernatural evil spirits harvest most easily amongst those (1) who neither know about "fallenness" or (2) those who spiritually know but do not resist. This is the classical good vs. evil battle portrayed in a secular world view.
    
• And ALL sin, even the slightest (even if you just "think" it), is an offense against the perfect God...God condemns all sin. 
  
  
• On their own account, God can't have sinners & sinning with Him. 
  
  
• To "get right", whether you think it is "fair" or not, we sin-filled humans owe a "fallen person's" ransom debt to God.
   
• ***Humans don't know that the sin debt to be redeemed from God's original eternal condemnation of us was previously (already) paid for all humans who have ever lived, are alive today, or who ever will live on earth in the future! It was paid by the blood of the biblically promised Messiah, Jesus. All are forgiven. The redemption of mankind has already happened!
   
  
• You are on your way to Heaven & NOTHING can prevent you from reaching that destination! But Hell could be in the picture.
   
  
• The Jews were a divinely ordained part of that plan of redemption & should not feel guilty & should not be criticized for urging the Romans to crucify Jesus. God made it play out through the Jews to whom He first came & chose to be the ethnic family for His Son,Jesus.
   
  
• That redemption payment covered all past, present, and future sins...now there is no unpardonable sin!
   
  
• Church-ritual water baptism of any type is the church body's official "setting aside" the one baptized as a follower of Jesus.
   
  
• God could have simply bestowed salvation from above onto mankind. So, why did He send Jesus?
    
  
  • to have Jesus live & forever record the example of the grace & love of Jesus as God's witness of the "how to" for righteous relational living on earth, being "other-centered" rather than self-centered.
  • to show that a price (of unblemished innocent blood of the perfect Jesus) was actually paid.
  • to prove it with the Resurrection of Jesus from mortal death.
  • The truth of the redemption and of life after death was proven by the resurrection of Jesus and His appearing for many days some 14 times to the apostles & among at least 500 witnesses. Furthermore, can anyone who can remember a good mother possibly believe that Mary watched silently as they put Jesus on that cross? If His fact of being the Son of God were a fabricated lie, she would have had to be killed in order for her to remain silent over such a lie!!!
  • to set a means for humans to get the indwelling supernatural power of divinity (Holy Spirit) while on earth (a person can't get this without the spiritual baptism of personally accepting Jesus as your savior, whether at the time of water baptism or at a later "confirmation"). And, this triggers the next step...
  • to make a divine & perfectly dependable friend (Jesus) constantly available to even the most outcast (but they also can't get this without the spiritual baptism of accepting Jesus as your savior).
  • and for that divine friend, Jesus, to "cloak" the believer in the righteousness of Christ.
  • through the Great Commission and any other means God chooses, Jesus comes to a person exactly as that person is, even at the person's stinking, dirty worst.
  
  
• There is eternal existence after earthly death.
   
  
• God has an earthly purpose for every human created.
   
  
• Therefore, your life on earth is meant to "count" & potentially counts greatly in God's plans.
   
  
• Jesus paid, by His crucifixion blood, the redemption price & is the Savior and available to all...but He is not your Santa Claus or a geni in a bottle.
   
  
• But He is ALSO the answer to the hurt & disappointment during this "fallen" life on earth.
   
  
• While God has forgiven humans, Jesus is the real way to your being enabled to truly & deeply forgive yourself & others & be divinely cleaned up (sanctified) & TRANSFORMED to live life on earth in a state of joy.
   
  
• There is a guaranteed way to FIND your purpose; and,
   
  
• a guaranteed way to do your purpose...to do "good works"
   
  
• and for "work" to be fulfilling & joyful.
   
  
• That is, there is a guaranteed way to be fulfilled & filled with joy, optimism, & positivity in life.
   
  
• And, there is a guaranteed way to have peace & gratitude in the ups & downs of life in a fallen world.
   
  
• This supernatural God of the universe actually desires to have a personal & intimate relationship with you (each human)...even indwelling in you as the Holy Spirit & being a friend who sticks closer to you than a brother (as Jesus).
   
  
• And God wants to do (& can do) all the above for you and/or see that you are enabled to do some of it yourself.
   
  
• God left a supernatural Teacher & power source (the divine Holy Spirit) for you who can reside at all times in you...indwell you.
   
  
• this teacher can lead you into a great & thankful attitude, no matter your personal circumstances!
   
  
• Except for some exception that God Himself could make, the Holy Spirit comes into a person for residence & to make that human "complete" only by way of that person's belief in Jesus (spiritual baptism).
   
  
• That is, it takes two to live the life that God wants for each human...this great Christian life: (1) a person plus (2) the Holy Spirit. And, the Holy Spirit does not indwell unless there is spiritual baptism by way of a person accepting Jesus (or unless God causes it some other way) as who He is.
   
  
• It seems that there is division in the understanding of Christianity because scripture seems unclear as to which "eternity" or "eternal" or "everlasting" it is referring (and individuals are left to "struggle it out" or just follow the teaching of whomever they chose to follow). Eternity began with The Beginning and goes on for infinity &, for YOU, includes the years of both (1) your earthly life & (2) the here-after life. That is,
   
  
• ETERNAL SALVATION has two personal components just as do each human's "life":
  1. Earthly segment of eternity: the time of a person's life on earth (from conception to mortal death) where there is both satanic influence and divine influence. Belief brings the Holy Spirit into the believer as an indwelling divine power source.
  2. Afterlife segment of eternity: the endless future time of "life" after a person's earthly mortal death & only under divine influence & association in Heaven. There is no longer any dual influence (Satan is out of the picture). There is strong but subtle & controversial evidence that Jesus died to obtain this segment for ALL, nonexclusively...presence with God in the afterlife. BUT, the believer keeps the Holy Spirit within even in the afterlife. I believe that this gives the enormous advantage and eternal joy of perfect communion with God! Other humans are not absent from God but lack perfect communion.
     
• Jesus died (and ONLY Jesus could qualify) to secure eternal afterlife with God for ALL humans...eternal salvation (the afterlife part).
   
  
• And Jesus died so that power to live His teaching could come to humans for the earthly segment of eternal life. Through Jesus ONLY, a human can get the personal, divine, lifelong (eternal = "for a long time") mentorship of God through the internal indwelling of the Holy Spirit...eternal salvation (the earthly part). You just have to believe in Jesus! Then the Holy Spirit comes in ("spiritual baptism") to indwell & "save" you in this earthly period of eternity. The Spirit instills you with the seeds of (1) joy, no matter your circumstances,  (2) one or more "spiritual gifts", and (3) sets you on the road to your own personal ministry in the Gospel toothers. Those who believe in God through other religions lack this divine indwelling, though their worship and concern for their fellow man is likely respected and loved by God.
   
  
• as Sarah Young demonstrates so masterfully in the short daily devotions in her book "Jesus Calling...", Jesus is willing to be the close Friend & Helper of those who will (1) believe in Him, (2) and, thereby, contain the indwelling Spirit, and (3) thereafter just ask for His help as often as one wants to (I began this book in May 2009)!...this brings a person into a "fifth dimension" of life.
   
  
• Part of the modern-day evidence of the truth of the above is that Christianity is the ONLY religion in the world that can be openly discriminated against & defiled without public outcry by non-Christians!
   
   
• No other religion, world view, or life view offers anything like The Truth of the above!!!
  

Someone has said that the USA is a "wish-ridden society"; but, for great numbers of USA society members, it is a "hope-poor, negative-attitude society". That deficit of hope is not the fault of our country. It is the result of people deciding to forsake involvement in THE divine relationship: the relationship that counts the most is the one with Jesus...for the above reasons. Jesus brings hope, good will, & power. It is hope that leads to willingness to set goals and take risk and make huge and sustained effort. It is Jesus who can bring about the internal residing of the Holy Spirit in a believer. It is Jesus who can bring about right relationships & righteous living & a grateful heart. Believe and be "born again" with the indwelling of the Holy spirit and marvel at the wonder of communing at ANY time with the Creator of the universe while sitting in the comfort of your home!

Here is that guaranteed way in a little more written detail: [click here].
Also, I believe in a "first truth". 

[posted: 27 February 2005; latest adjustment 4 September 2016]