RUN TO AND FOR JESUS

When we were children we ran lots and lots, as youth we may have joined others in races. To many youths it is nothing to run a mile without stopping. As we get older we run less. I'm happy to say that I can still run well at seventy-two years old. I'm still the same height which I was in my twenties and about the same weight, so it makes running easier. For most of my life I have been running for Jesus and have sought to have Him run my life for me. I don't doubt that He has done a good job with/for me. "Jesus is lord." He keeps me running well. In the Bible the Apostles John and Peter ran to the tomb of Jesus (John 20).

They ran in enthusiasm and urgency. John got there first and courteously waited upon Peter. Both received the same blessed sight of an empty tomb. Jesus had been resurrected as promised by Himself and the Holy Scripture. The Lord's life race had been won as He gave His all in the service of His and our heavenly Father for our atonement and redemption from sin.

Your life can be described as a race when you are a Christian. The Apostle Paul wrote the Christian's life race ( 2 Tim. 3:6 also read Acts 9) and how it needs to be run in full force and without any besetting weights or easy sins.

When he had finished his life for Christ he wrote that he had finished and had kept the Faith which had been given to him on the road to Damascus with papers of persecution for Christians. He looked to receive a victor's crown of righteousness. He cherished that wonderful crown without which no man or woman can see God.

Are you running in the spiritual race of life for and with Christ Jesus? YOU MUST FIRST RECEIVE THE LORD'S BANNER/BADGE OF PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD. THEN RUN YOUR RACE IN HIM AGAINST SATAN YOUR ENEMY AND FOE IN THE WORLD. SEE ROMANS 10:9, 10, 13.

JESUS WILL SAVE BELIEVERS

The rejection of Jesus Christ is the greatest sin of all. There are many sins committed by people, and these sins in the end are judged by God (Yahweh/Jehovah) to bring both spiritual and physical death. The marks/stains of sin rest upon the sinner causing greater and greater bondage of habit and addiction/enslavement. Sinners, thereby, need to hear of freedom from sin's bondage. Non-Christians who continue to reject the Gospel of Christ will be given over to their scheduled judgement by God the Father in Christ. Religion, therefore, cannot save the rejectors of Christ Jesus.

There are many seriously religious people who even commit martrydom in the name of their religion thinking this will result in winning favor with their god. A true Christian, on the other hand, makes his own life a living sacrifice in service to Jehovah God in Christ. That's why we sacrificially give and reach out to others, near and far.

In the Gospels, Jesus, himself, was constantly reaching out to all who came to Him as He went to them, both Jew and non-Jew. If they came to Him, He gave to them, regardless of who they were. He only asked that they believe upon Him as He gave Himself to them in meeting their need.

In John 6:35-40, Jesus told those who had come to hear Him: "...all that the Father gives (didosin Gk from Didomi meaning to give, bestow, present) Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out," vs.37 NKJV). Jesus spoke this in the present, active tense, meaning that the Father was doing this giving at that very time.

In this passage we see God the Father directing the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ, by giving people, who were seeking God through Christ, everlasting life, including resurrected life in the last day.

The words for everlasting life in this passage are: "zoen" from "zao" life with vitality, life, living existence, spiritual life, and "aionion" from "aionios" meaning eternal or everlasting. The overall tense of time here is present and continuing forever.

From this we understand that the individual who trusts/believes upon Jesus Christ comes to possess eternal, abundant life, now, in Christ Jesus, and physical death does not stop eternal life. Eternal life is not dependent upon a personal sacrifice by the sinner, but upon the sinless death of Christ on the cross. There Christ Jesus paid our sin debt. In II Cor. 5:11ff, the scripture teaches us of Christ Jesus who paid our sin debt.

Therefore, all people today, those born into Muslim homes, Hindu homes, Jewish homes, whatever the circumstance of their birth, can come to Jesus Christ and find forgiveness and redemption for their individual sins and new life, eternally abundant.

This is our message for the whole world of people, everywhere. Come to Jesus Christ just as you are and find forgiveness, peace, love, joy and the fullness of God's Holy Spirit in your being every moment of your earthly life and throughout eternity.

I pray for the Muslim, the Jew, the Hindu and all others, that they would hear and believe the Gospel truth of Jesus Christ this day.

WHY?

One of the first things we say in life as a child is "why." Why can't I do? Why can't I go? Why is my belly aching? Our asking questions for answers begins early in life and continues until death. We usually begin with questions about our personal needs or surroundings. Later as we mature we have all sorts of questions which we may ask. We learn not to be afraid to ask questions.

Some major questions in the Bible are these. "Where are you Adam?" That was God/Elohim calling to Adam, who had sinned and was hiding himself with Eve from God. Remember the question of Pilate to the Jews who had brought Jesus to him: "...What must I do with Jesus...?"

Another important and famous question was asked of the Apostle Paul and his companion Silas in the Philippian jail by the jail keeper, who had been at the point of suicide with his own sword: "...What must I do to be saved?" See Acts 16:25ff.

The critical answer to the jailer's question was: "...believe ("pisteus" Gk. from "Pisteuo" and finally "peitho" meaning to persuade, to be convinced, to assent, listen to , obey, trust, rely on) upon the LORD JESUS CHRIST and you shall be saved and your house."

The Gospel message, which the Apostle Paul was commissioned to preach by the Lord Jesus Christ, is needed by everyone in the world, Jew and Gentile of the nations. People must hear the message in its simplicity. It speaks to our hearts for our hearts to receive on an individual basis. I can't believe upon Christ Jesus for someone else. They must believe upon Him in their own hearts, so then everyone in the house of the leader/seeker can be saved by hearing the Word of God and trusting their lives to Jesus Christ for each one and all to be saved.

Without Jesus there is no hope of salvation from sin's death/doom into eternal life with Christ Jesus in the resurrected life. That new life from Christ Jesus and God the Father begins immediately upon believing upon Him as our personal Savior and Lord. Peace, joy, love, and the full fruitful presence of the Holy Spirit in our heart, burst into our inner being when we utter the words to Him from our heart: "Lord Jesus save me."

Each one, every person, needs that peace, love and joy now in his/her heart. It will come to us when we ask Jesus Christ to be our own personal Savior and Lord.