Who Is the One True God?

The one true God is Jesus Christ as testified to in the Scriptures of ancient Israel – that is, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. 

This does not mean that churches are right and mosques are wrong.  Churches, mosques, synagogues, and all other religious gatherings are entirely beside the point.  We have but one Creator and He revealed Himself in a variety of ways through ancient Israel, but most fully through Jesus Christ – He who was raised from the dead and reigns in heaven over all creation forevermore.

You do not need to serve or belong to any religious group.  You owe your allegiance only to your Creator.  He asks you to love Him above all and your neighbor as yourself.  Do this and you may walk in great peace.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

Which Is the True Religion?

There are lots of religions in the world.  In fact, there seems to be a bewildering array of them.  Is there one religion which is true?  And, if so, which one is it?

Consider the words below, and, as you read them, take note of your heart’s response to them.  That is, ask yourself if they carry the ring of truth.  Here they are:

“This is true religion in the sight of God: to provide for widows and orphans in their distress and keep yourself uncorrupted by the world.” 

They come from the first chapter of the epistle of James in the New Testament of the Bible.  Note that these words about true religion speak nothing of creeds, doctrines, groups, ethnicity, or any of those characteristics commonly associated with religions.  It certainly speaks nothing of pastors, priests, bishops, popes, rabbis, imams, or any other religious leadership. 

These words from James are true, and represent the one true religion God desires us all to practice. 

God wants us to improve our behavior toward each other.  That will lead to our having a more fruitful relationship with Him.  For more explanation, see this overview.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

How Do I Repent of My Sins?

If you truly want to repent of your sins – and God wants every one of us to repent of our sins – you should start with what you know is wrong.  Stop doing those things that you know are wrong.  It will not take you long to know what these sins are.  Forsake them!

Then look to Jesus Christ who is the standard of morality to which we must compare ourselves.  Wherever you see discrepancies between your values and His, forsake yours and seek His.  His supreme value is love – that is, the absence of self-seeking.  Therefore, forsake your lusts, your desires, your interests and instead pursue those things that are important to Him.

For more, see We Must Repent!

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

Who Is God?

God is our creator.  We did not get here by ourselves.  Neither did we evolve from lower forms of life.  We were created in the image of God.

Our Creator is near to each of us.  He is never very far away.  Yet we have put up a wall between Him and ourselves by our self-seeking.  We have plunged ourselves into darkness by turning away from Him to live according to our own hopes and desires.  This is our sin.

Yet God is merciful.  He took on human flesh and lived as Jesus of Nazareth.  He was kind to the downhearted and generous with the poor.  He taught the truth about life and healed those who were sick.  For all His kindness, He was rejected and crucified by the people of His time.  Nonetheless, He was raised from the dead after three days and He ascended into glory in heaven. 

This Jesus Christ is God.  There is no other.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

How Can I Relate to God?

You can relate to God person to person. 

God came to earth and lived as one of us.  He knows the ups and downs of being a human.  He lived in the identity of Jesus of Nazareth so that we might have a way of relating to Him more personally.  I am not, by the way, talking about going to church or taking up religion.  I am talking about your relating to God on a personal basis.  This is fundamentally, therefore, a private and not a public issue.  It is certainly not an issue of your joining some group.

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified for our sins and then raised from the dead three days later.  He ascended into heaven and returned to earth as God Almighty.  He is as near to you as your calling on His name.  The ingredient you need to add to make this relationship work is faith. 

Be certain that you do not need faith in order for Him to love you.  It is precisely because He already loved you before you had faith that you can now have faith in Him.  Your faith simply means that you believe that love.  This requires humility on your part.  Do not be haughty.  Humbly receive His love for you.

Talk to God (that is, Jesus Christ) as you would with any person – only with the utmost respect, the utmost affection, and the utmost willingness to obey Him.  If you give time to this relationship, He will make His thoughts known to you and your relationship with Him will grow.  Give Him dedicated time every day and you will become strong in His love.  Forsake your sins and live as morally as you know how.  He will show you more and more of Himself, which will enable you to live more and more morally.  Use His life as the yardstick by which you measure your own.

You relate to God by relating to Jesus Christ.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

Who Is Going to Heaven? Everyone!

Because of Jesus Christ, everyone is going to heaven: Christians, Muslims, Hindus – atheists and agnostics, too.  For more, see Everyone Is Going to Heaven.

Jesus was crucified because of His love for humanity.  He was raised from the dead to demonstrate His power over death.  Because of Him, you have no need to be afraid of death.  Or of anything else.  Love Him and be not afraid.  He is your Creator…and your Redeemer.

Will someone say that since everyone is going to heaven that we do not need to repent?  On the contrary, that everyone is going to heaven is all the more reason to repent!  Show your gratitude lest you be consumed in your sins here on earth and ashamed when you face Him in heaven.

Hell is the judgment on earth that our sins bring to us.  Flee from its flames and live for righteousness (morality, if you will).   The way to God is through Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is God.  Live for Him!

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

How Patient Is God?

How patient is God?  I don’t know how to quantify something that great.  However, I do have an example for you. 

Consider God’s appearance to us as Jesus Christ.  He had a point to make to the human race: that we should turn from our sin and turn to Him.  Yet to deliver this message, He first spent nine months in a mother’s womb.  Then He spent thirty years growing up, experiencing family and then work life with all the pressures and challenges that we face.  Only then did He begin His ministry of teaching and delivering His message.  At the end of three or so years of having taught throughout His native country, He was tried and executed on false charges.  While on the cross, He expressed forgiveness for those who had rejected Him and His message – all the while waiting and believing that eventually people would believe.  That’s patience!

What should make us want to imitate Him is that the patience He showed then is till bearing fruit now – two thousand years later.  And it will continue bearing abundant fruit for all eternity. 

Thanks be to God for His incalculable patience!

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

Do You Want to Be Saved from Your Sins, or Merely from Their Consequences?

Many people struggle in their relationship with God because they don’t really want to be saved from their sins.  Rather, they want to go on living just as they have been – but with fewer negative outcomes.  That’s like saying you want to continue jumping off cliffs but want to be delivered from crashing at the end. 

God blesses you not by repealing His laws, but by showing you how to live in accordance with them.  That is, He shows us how to get better outputs from life by offering better inputs. 

The mass of humanity simply fails to appreciate the degree to which our sins are the cause of our miseries.  Reduce the sins and you reduce the miseries. 

If you will stop focusing on what you are getting out of life and starting focusing more on what you are putting into it – and I mean what you are putting into it morally – then you will begin to get more out of life.

Jesus is Lord.  Let’s live like it.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

What’s in a Name…if It’s the Lord Jesus Christ?

We don’t often hear the word “lord” applied to people in our culture.  Still, we know what the word means.  What therefore would be the point in calling Jesus Christ your Lord if you are not going to obey Him?  Obeying is the whole point of having a lord, isn’t it?

Is Jesus your Lord?  If so, is this lip service on your part – or do you actually do the things that He says?

Do you know what Jesus wants from you?  Surely, you do!  He wants you to love Him and love others.  You could even say He wants you to love Him by loving others.  Another way to say it is that He wants you to imitate Him.  He left you an example to follow in His steps.  In other words, He practiced what He preaches.  He kept His own commandments.  Therefore, He can either say, “Do as I say,” or “Do as I do,” and either way it will amount to the same thing.

If Jesus is truly your Lord, you will not have to tell other people that you’re submitted to Him.  They will know about it soon enough.

Determine today that you will no longer offer the Lord Jesus Christ pointless lip service.  From now on you will only render the real thing.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.

What’s in a Name…if It’s Jesus Christ?

How much meaning is in the name Jesus Christ?  So much that we’ll need an eternity to unpack it.

Here, however, is a most important fact for you to see: putting these two names together speaks volumes.  Literally.

“Christ” speaks of the Old Testament.  The Hebrew term would be “Messiah” or “the Anointed One.”  Moses and all the prophets who wrote the Old Testament documents prophesied of a great leader who would one day come to deliver God’s people and bring the fullness of His blessing. 

“Jesus” is the carpenter of Nazareth written about in the New Testament documents by His apostles. 

To put these two words together as “Jesus Christ” or, as it’s sometimes rendered, “Christ Jesus,” is to say that the New Testament describes that which the Old Testament promised.  It is to say that “Jesus is the Christ” or “Jesus is the Messiah anticipated by the Old Testament.” 

Behind the name “Jesus Christ” stands these two sets of great documents – unified as one message through Him. 

Through Him, these two testaments become one eternal testament – no more able to be divided than He is able to be divided. 

Indeed, when you utter the name “Jesus Christ” you’ve spoken volumes.

Bible notes on this post.

The purpose of this blog is to praise Jesus Christ for those who want to hear about Him without having to join a church, organization, mailing list, or anything else other than Him.