“You gotta live every day like it’s your last because one day you’ll be right.”

- Frank Sinatra

Imagine that you have lived a long, satisfying life.  You have experienced everything the world has to offer.  You have laughed and cried; you have seen babies born and close friends die.  Now imagine attending one last funeral.  You look into the casket, and the face on the body looks just like you, and the body is wearing your favorite clothes!  Your life no longer seems so long and satisfying.  You are dead; what will happen to you now?

We are too complex to be created by chance.  Man has never created a species, and did not create human beings.  God did, and as our creator, He is our Father.  We cannot comprehend how much He loves us – the length, depth, and height of His love for us is far too large for our minds.   Like earthly parents, He expects us to be obedient.   He rewards us when we obey and punishes us when we do not. 

Children do not understand everything parents do, and God’s ways are a mystery to us.  Some closely examine His creations with science; others perform religious experiments; all trying to find Him, not accepting that His mysteries will only be revealed in the end. “All night long I search for you; in the morning I earnestly seek for God.   For only when you come to judge the earth will people learn what is right.” (Isaiah 26:9)

“’(8) My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the Lord. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  (9) For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Because we don’t understand Him completely, we live as if He does not exist, not understanding that “ [the Lord’s] kindness to the wicked does not make them do good.” (Isaiah 26:10). We think because we see evil people prospering, and because bad things sometimes happen to good people, God is either not real or does not care about us.  We don’t realize that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45).

“But all sinners will be completely destroyed, for they refuse to come to the Lord.” (Isaiah 1:27).  Sin is anything that falls short of God’s standard. We are all sinners, even church-goers.  Just as light and darkness do not mix, neither does God and sin.  God hates sin, and sin is a barrier to His relationship with His children.  God loves us, but He hates our sin.

If you are living a life full of sin, you are living a life without God.

If you are living a life without God, when you die, you will spend eternity without God. 

Have you ever heard of the second death?  “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” (Revelations 21:8)

But there is hope. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23).  You see, God made a special plan that allows us to spend eternity with Him, even though we are sinners.  He decided to send His Only Son to Earth in the form of a man.  His Son would perform miracles like healing the sick and raising the dead to prove that He was the Son of God.  His Son would predict His own death and His return from the dead.  No one would understand His prediction, until He was crucified, and rose from the grave after three days, appearing to His followers.  God arranged it so that believers would be saved from destruction and would spend eternity in Heaven with a God who loves them.

Jesus Christ carried out God’s plan, and believing in Him right now guarantees you eternal life.  By no other name can you be saved.  This salvation cannot be earned or purchased.  It is a free gift.   “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8). 

Jesus already paid the price on the cross.  “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.” (John 3:16).  That’s what all of the music on DCGospel.com is about.  It’s about worshiping God and celebrating our salvation through Jesus Christ!

Will you please your Father in Heaven by accepting the free gift of salvation right now?  Once you do, all of the angels in Heaven will celebrate!  Pray this prayer with faith in Jesus in your heart right now:

“My Father in Heaven, I have lived a life of sin.  But I believe in my heart that, through Jesus Christ, my sins can be forgiven.  I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son, and that He died on the cross and rose from the dead so that I can have eternal life.  Please forgive me for my sins – I am truly sorry for any and all of my thoughts, words, and deeds that were not pleasing and acceptable to you.

Heavenly Father, I accept your gift of salvation.  Please come into my heart right now as my personal Lord and Savior.  I need you with every breath I take.  I need your help to rid my life of sin.  I thank you for your blessings.  I welcome the opportunity to spend eternity with you, and I give you my life.

I pray this prayer in the matchless name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

AMEN.”

Congratulations! Your soul is saved!  Now what?

Sin in our lives is like weeds in a garden.  If you tend to the weeds, plucking them up before they overrun your vegetables, you will produce an excellent harvest.  If you do not, the weeds with choke out your plants, and your life won’t produce anything.  You life will be like a patch of weeds, not pleasing to God or to anyone else.

The difference between Christians and unbelievers is that Christians are on a quest to keep their gardens free of weeds.  Christians recognize and accept that God has assigned them to be the gardener of their lives.  They read their Bibles to get gardening tips.  They attend church regularly to collaborate with other gardeners.  They pray to God to ask protection from life’s evil bugs.  They worship God by presenting to Him a portion of the produce from their garden.  They experience the joy and peace that God gives those who tend to their gardens.

There are many creative ways and styles to make a garden, and there are many different types of Christian churches with different styles of worship.  Now that you have prayed the sinner’s prayer and have accepted Jesus in your heart, find a Bible-based church that fits you.  You need to learn to tend to your own garden.  You need to develop and maintain your own relationship with God.  Reduce the sin in your life, sinning less tomorrow than you did today.  Learn to make better choices.  Take deliberate actions to grow stronger in your faith. Neither the church nor anyone else can do this for you.  Find a church that helps new believers grow in their faith, one that teaches the Bible, and provides the support you need to pull the weeds of sin out of your life on a daily basis.   

As a new believer, you need to learn to live a life that is pleasing to God.  This means that you please God with the words you choose.  Learn to please God with the places you choose to go and the places you choose to avoid.  Please God with the type of people that you associate with.  Please God with your choice of movies, TV shows, music, and literature that you allow into your mind.  Please God with the way you take care of your body.  Please God with your giving.  Please God with how you treat others.  Please God with your study habits.  Please God with your work ethic.  Please God with your faith in Him, for Hebrews  11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”  It is very difficult to do all of these things all the time, which is why you need a good church that will provide encouragement and will teach you the Biblical principles you need to live a life that pleases God. 

God is ready and willing to assist you with whatever you need to live a life that is pleasing to Him.  1 John 5:13-15 says, “(13) I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. (14) And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.  (15) And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.”  Ask God to help you along your spiritual journey.  Then, after you have completed your work here on Earth, He will welcome you into Heaven saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (See Matthew 25:14-30)

So go now, and work hard at living a life that is pleasing to God!

“(20) Now may the God of peace— who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—(21) may he equip you with all you need for doing his will.  May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him.  All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.” (Hebrews 13:20-21).