Genuine

There are times when it is hard to tell if something is genuine, when my daughter was a child she looked at a leather belt that said genuine leather and asked "where's genuine?"

Oft times we can get away without using the genuine article sometimes something that is compatible will do and probably be much cheaper and with something’s it doesn't matter. I recently purchased a Samsung laser printer and bought toner that was compatible, once the toner ran out and I replaced it the printer just wouldn't print right, there was no way it would accept these toners so I ordered Samsung toners and it worked fine.

It maybe doesn't matter so much with things but what about faith, religion, Christianity etc.? Does it matter what church I go to, what religion I belong to, don’t all have the same God it’s just different roads to heaven? I mean surely as long as I go to church and do good things and work hard to be good myself that’s all that really matters?

I would like to quote you something quite startling from the Bible that Jesus Himself said Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!

-->

So not everyone who thinks they are going to heaven are!!

How then can anyone get to heaven?

There is only one way, and that is through the Lord Jesus it has nothing to do with church attendance, it has nothing to do with how many committees you are on, it has nothing to do with good works, it has nothing to do with confessing to priests etc. etc. It has everything to do with God’s grace, if you want to be a genuine Christian. 

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. 

Redemption is a gift from God and when we repent, believe then our sins are forgiven and we walk in God’s light, we are new creatures in Him which will produce good fruit, we will want then to please and serve Him.

There is only one genuine religion, there is only one genuine God, there is only one genuine way to be saved from sin, guilt, shame and the wrath to come and the only way to find out is by reading the word of God, the Holy Bible prayerfully asking for understanding and guidance from God the Holy Spirit.

Those that enter the kingdom of heaven will be those who do the will of the Father, 

Matthew 7:21  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven, 

Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 

so, this is the will of the Father that we repent, how?

Acts 2 :38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

There are a lot of counterfeits and they are not compatible, only one way.....JESUS.

Food for Thought

I have been fungi hunting this week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Friday as I walked through Coppice wood I came across this

now I have no knowledge of fungi so I had not a clue what it was going to turn into and not being able to contain my curiosity I returned Saturday and found this.

I had no choice but to go back on Sunday despite the fact that it was raining and to my horror I found this,

I guess I knew it would be eaten as I had seen it covered with flies the day before I just didn't realise how quick it would be.

Coming home I thought about Jonah and how he had sat under the shade of a plant that the Lord had provided as he waited for God to destroy Nineveh (Even though they had repented and God had been merciful to them as far as Jonah was concerned they should get their just deserts) Jonah was more concerned about the death of the plant than he was about the souls of the people in Nineveh.

Yesterday I saw the warning signs I knew this plant would not survive, God was concerned for the souls of Nineveh and He is still concerned about lost souls today and we shouldn't be sitting in judgement waiting for them to get their just deserts we should be warning them of their coming destruction if they do not seek God's mercy.

Another thing that struck me about this plant was how healthy it had looked, it was growing tall and strong. All through our Christian walk we have to be aware of dangers and pitfalls and not just assume that we're alright it can't happen to me because I pray everyday and read my bible and I'm always at church for every meeting. We cannot earn God's salvation and mercy it is given freely to us by His grace and we must continue to walk with Him and follow Him and not set off at our own pace with disregard to His warning and teachings.

It isn't long before our spiritual life starts to get eaten away when we let pride, grumblings, gossip etc in to our lives. The poor fungi could do nothing to stop itself being eaten, but we can do something about our spiritual life being eaten away by things ungodly. We must rely on God and stay close to Jesus daily, God cares about us all and we should show the same care by warning others when we see something wrong. God has promised we will be blessed when we help a brother over sin, or a fall.

Mature Christians should also be aware of those who are young in the faith and prone to being misled, there are so many false teachings about just waiting to lure the young inexperienced Christian, we who are rooted and grounded deep in God should help and encourage the young in their study of the scriptures and in their spiritual growth, we wouldn't leave a baby and toddler in the natural to it's own devices and expect it to bring itself up, so we should not just leave a baby in Christ to bring themselves to spiritual maturity but prayerfully seek the guiding of the Holy Spirit to help them.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 6:11