The scripture for today, August 1 (8/1), is Romans 8:1 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
There are a lot of religious groups out there in the world who control their people with fear. If you don’t do such and such, it proves you aren’t spiritual enough. If you do such and such one second before you die, you’re going to hell.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the congregations in Galatia (today’s Turkey) and warned them with tears:
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel ~ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached [past tense] to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again:
If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? ” (Galatians 1:6-10).
Are you sure you are IN Christ Jesus? Do your church leaders dance around scriptures they wish weren’t in the Bible and tell you they don’t really mean what they say? What do they do with Romans 6:3-4? How do they handle Acts 2:38 so it doesn’t say what it says? How about I Peter 3:21 and Acts 22:16? Do you do what these scriptures say and for those reasons or what is popular? Do your friends speak for God or do you let God speak for himself? Our friends will be judged by God like everyone else. Listen. Do you hear? That is God speaking to you.
Oh, to be sure we are indeed IN Christ Jesus. This is our longing. Our hope. Our reason for being.
.
#SavedFromHell, #CondemnedToHell, #friends, #scriptures, #Bible, #opinions, #Savior, #honesty, #truth, #honoring, #dishonoring, #certainty, #assurance, #hope, #reason
“Here he [Jesus] is speaking publicly [in the temple], and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
“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. Many 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?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ “
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”
“Keep my commands and you will live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, ‘You are my sister,’ and call understanding your kinsman.”
“We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
“But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
“All by itself, the soil produces grain ~ first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.”
“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”