God’s Love... enables our living.

What is God's greatest desire for humanity? He desires to have a close intimate relationship with us. He has gone to great lengths to make that possible (John 3:16). God wants you to spend time with Him and intimately communicate with Him, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to trust and follow Him, all to give your life meaning, purpose and joy. He wants all of humanity to have an intimate relationship and friendship with Him... based on Love. His kind of love. God, in His being and essence is “LOVE”.

His kind of love is very different from what is normal and natural for humans to feel and express. We think of “love” as intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" stems from a physical attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. Therein lies the problem with the capacities of human love. “When they make us feel good”... says that conditions apply. Instinctively, humans love conditionally. In other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them back. How many times have you heard or said, "I love you because you are cute" or "I love you because you take good care of me" or "I love you because you are fun to be with"?

Our love is not only conditional, it is also mercurial. We love based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is extremely high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" means they can part at the “death of their love” for one another.

If you read the previous article, What does it mean to REALLY Love God, as He expects to be LOVED... you can better understand how God expects to be loved by us. But even knowing what His expectations are, can anyone really comprehend the magnitude of "unconditional" love? It seems the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. We continue to love our children through good times and bad, and we don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. We make a choice to love our children even when we consider them unlovable... our love doesn't stop when we don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, but as we shall see, God's love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is still hard for us to comprehend.

"What does it mean that God IS love?"
The Bible describes the essence, character and nature of the kind of love that God has and expects from Christians. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). This is how Paul describes God's love. So, if these attributes define God’s love, and God is love (1 John 4:8), then this is what God is like. God and Love can be easily interchanged to express the same meaning... as demonstrated in the following summation of LOVE'S character.

Love (God) does not force itself (Himself) on anyone. Those who come to Him do so in response to His love. Love (God) shows kindness to all. Love (Jesus) went about doing good to everyone without partiality. Love (Jesus) did not covet what others had, living a humble life without complaining. Love (Jesus) did not brag about who He was in the flesh, although He could have overpowered anyone He ever came in contact with. Love (God) does not demand obedience. God did not demand obedience from His Son, but rather, Jesus willingly obeyed His Father in heaven. “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). Love (Jesus) was and is always looking out for the interests of others.

God’s Love is very different from human love. God's love is unconditional, therefore it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good. He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son, who also willingly died for us, to restore the basis for that relationship.

The greatest expression of God's love is communicated to us in John 3:16: “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.” Romans 5:8 proclaims the same message: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We can see from these verses that it is God's greatest desire that we join Him in a relationship that is grounded in His love. He has made that possible by paying the price for our sins. He loves us because He chose to as an act of His will. Love (God) forgives. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

From all that Scripture reveals about the person of God, we must conclude that Love is the ultimate attribute of God. Love is a core aspect of God’s character, His Person. God’s love in no way conflicts with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or even His wrath. In fact we must conclude that all of God’s attributes are in perfect harmony.... will all of His character attributes emanating from His love. Everything God does is loving, just as everything He does is just and right. God is the perfect example of true love.

Understanding His love and the expectations He has for us to demonstrate the same kind of love in our life relationships is simply overwhelming. How can frail sin-prone humans ever hope to master the love of God and show it in our relationships? We can... we all can.

Here’s the amazingly thing, if you want to love Him... He will make it possible for you to do so. God has given those who receive His Son Jesus as their personal Savior the ability to love as He does, through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1, 23-24).

If you are “in step with the Spirit”, then you have the enabling power to love God as He expects to be loved. You have a passionate desire to share the gospel with anyone seeking to know the living God. You have the strength to love your Christian brothers and sisters through conflicts and to seek their needs and interests before yours. You can even love those who simply care nothing about God... just as He did on the Cross.

In God’s grace... all things are possible!

What does it mean to REALLY Love God, as He expects to be LOVED?

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Someone very close recently asked me what it means to really love God?

I gave my standard pat answer... and frankly it wasn’t a good enough. Not even close. The standard answer most of us probably give to that question doesn’t begin to explain its profound importance to the life of a Christian. Even the verses in the Bible that explain to us how we are to love God are harder to comprehend than most of us think they are. We read the words, we hear them recounted many times in sermons, but do we really understand the depth and implications of these profound words?

“YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” Matthew 22:37

What does it mean to love God? Jesus said that loving God was the greatest command of all (Matt. 22:37,38). No doubt most people, who believe in God, will affirm that they love Him. Many people regularly express their love for God in worship services. While this is certainly good, is it enough?

Jesus warned about people who honored Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him (Matt. 15.8). Such people would speak of love, but they did not really have it. So, what is love? How do we know whether or not we genuinely love God?

1 John 3:17 says: "But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" In my relation to other human beings, if I am not willing to help them - if I don't do for them what they need to have me do - then I don't love them, no matter how much I may say that I do.

This is also true in our service to God. The next verse says: "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Loving God is not just a matter of what we say, but of what we do. It is an everyday way of life.

1 John 5:3 says: "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments..." Do you love God? Your actions answer the question. No one really loves God unless he is diligently studying God's will and obeying it. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments" -- John 14:15. And again, "...this is love, that we walk after his commandments" -- 2 John 6.

When you take the time to digest these God-given words, you begin to see just how desperately short many of us are in meeting these Godly expectations for loving Him, our brothers in Christ and our fellow man.

Many professing Christians have an emotionally based love for God. A love that is more admiration than a sacrificial love deeply centered in the heart. God wants more than lip-service from true believers. In order to accomplish God’s will in our lives, to experience the active engagement of the Holy Spirit working within us, we must learn the true meaning behind “agape” love and separate ourselves from worldly values, philosophies and aspirations.

It is easy to talk about what a great love we have for the Lord, while thinking of Him as a distant cosmic being who simply died for our sins, or as a disengaged benevolent friend who doesn't much care how we live.  Such a love is shallow, non-reciprocal and bears little or no personal responsibility. It’s a love based on our perceptions of God being the “giver”, while we the beneficiaries of His love are the “takers”.

This is one of the reasons why so many Christians see God as a divine being who loves and relentlessly pursues man as if He can’t live without us. Seeing and knowing God as He really is can be a difficult truth to handle. His love is balanced: He is a God who, though infinitely loving and forgiving, is also righteous, just and holy, and will not tolerate our sin. He is a God who is continuously unfolding and executing His will for humanity. He expects each one of us to fit into His will and fulfill many and varied roles within His purpose. He expects us never to turn aside to the right or to the left... to do our own thing. He expects us to relentlessly pursue Him, to follow Him, to be absorbed in Him and to live our lives in this world consumed by His will and purpose. He rightly expects us to love Him in such a way that we are empowered to live in this world but be no part of it. No small challenge for anyone who calls themselves a Christian.

Loving God means making a commitment to place Him above our own wants and desires. When you make a decision to bind yourself to God by the blood of Jesus Christ, you are saying to God... “I love you, and want to devote my life to you... teach me to love you deeply and my fellow man unconditionally...”. Only with total submission and commitment can we ever expect to be empowered to fulfill His will on earth, growing in Christlikeness, becoming one with Him. That is loving God.

Christians who believe they are working hard for the Lord’s Kingdom must continuously monitor what flows from their hearts. The questions we must ask ourselves can be overwhelming and not easily considered. For example... do we love the Lord wholeheartedly, or do we save room in our hearts for our own desires, our own pleasures, and the passing things of this world?Do we love Him with all our strength, devoting every minute of the day and every ounce of our strength to doing His will here on earth, or  do we save strength for accomplishing our own self-will and our own selfish ambitions? 

Do we love the Lord with all the thoughts of our minds?  Our minds control our actions, and we cannot love the Lord with all our strength when we do not love Him with all our mind.  We also cannot love Him with all the mind when our mind is thinking about our own interests, or when it’s running wild and thinking distracting thoughts.  If we love the Lord with all our minds, we will be constantly "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (including all that we let our minds exalt or dwell on when we should be seeking to know God's present will) and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."  (2 Corinthians 10:5)

None of us can immediately become perfect at loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and mind, and strength. It may take us a lifetime to fully measure up to God’s expectations.   But unless we are constantly striving to have this kind of consistently whole hearted, active love for God, then we prove ourselves liars and hypocrites when we say that we love Him.  To be unable to “hit the goal” is one thing, but not to try hard is quite another... especially in God’s eyes.

If we love the Lord with all our strength, we will delight in continually doing His will, and we will eagerly devote all our time and strength to being His hands and His feet here on earth.  But in order to love God, and to serve Him with all our strength, we must also love His will.   

Most Christians today may not think in these terms... that it is possible to love God's will.  It is quite possible, and in fact quite easy.  We cannot separate the “will of God” from the “character and personality” of God. God is LOVE... and all that He does is centered in that supreme attribute. That’s why He can say to us... “if you love me, then you will keep my commandments.” However... it is impossible for us to love God's will and the “things of this world” simultaneously. Both seek to be our masters and God and the things of this world ruled by Satan, are on a collision course that leads to eternal destruction. Don’t forget... God wins!

We must choose - will we love and serve God or will we continue to love the world and our own self-centeredness?  To love God with all our hearts is to love every aspect of His character and to wholeheartedly and actively embrace all that He is and all that He stands for.   If our answer is yes, then we will delight in letting Him use us as much as possible to do the deeds of that love, even if it costs us hardship. 

Do we love God's justice and His holiness? If so, then we will be in full agreement with His abhorrence of all sin and selfishness. We will accept in the light of His love and grace the fact that He must judge every person... including us... according to our deeds... how we lived our lives in His grace.  Do we love the fact that God is merciful and compassionate towards all people? If so, then we will delight in showing others His mercy and compassion, by being continually merciful and compassionate towards the righteous and sinners alike... the deserving and the undeserving... just as He is.

God is truth.  If we love God with a whole heart, we will love the truth even when it convicts or condemns us.  We will constantly ask Him to reveal the ways in which we are deceiving ourselves, and we will constantly seek the whole truth and will be totally open to it whether it appeals to us or not.
  
To love the Lord with all our soul is to love Him, and all that He is, from the very core of our being, and to be so devoted to Him that all our desires, all our affections, all our earthly ties, and even our love for our own life, are nothing in comparison to our love for Him.  It is to be so devoted to Him that we would sooner lose all we hold dear... comfort, health, reputation, friendships, and even our very lives... than refrain from doing any part of His will. 

This is what it means to love God. This is how we demonstrate genuine love toward God and our neighbor so that, ultimately, the world might be saved.

How important is God in your life?

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Ask almost anyone that question and you can expect to hear an exclamatory answer from the other person... "Oh yes, He's very important! Very important indeed! The most important person in my life!" But press the person to think about their answer a little deeper, and you might hear an uncomfortable silence.

When we truly consider the level of importance of God in our lives, the answer is a little more complicated than some of us would care to admit. God is important enough to have proclaimed him the one, true God. But do our everyday actions make that same declaration? When they don't, they betray the reality that God has perhaps slipped a bit in importance. We often turn to God in our most desperate moments—in times of uncertainty, and profound sadness. But ask yourself.... do you involve Him in the brighter moments of your life—in times of certainty, when things are going good for you and your family?

If you haven't been willing to seek Him and His will in both good and bad times, doesn't that indicate His importance to you is a bit more situational and circumstantial that it should be?

I think a little sober reflection now and then is something from which all believers can benefit. Nothing in our lives is more important than our relationship with God. Personal reflection on our relationship with Him may not be easy nor comfortable, but it is necessary for every Christian.

To really understand our relationship with God, we need to understand how He thinks and sees Himself. That inturn reveals His expectations for anyone who seeks to know him and be in relationship with Him. The prophet Isaiah reveals a significant aspect of God’s character that is critical to an enduring relationship with God. Here’s what Isaiah reveals... “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” Isaiah 48:9-11

Perhaps more than any other Biblical text, this one calls attention to the supremacy of God... the God-centeredness of God Himself. Only the Creator of all things could make such a profound self-centered statement. He is declaring why He has chosen to have mercy on the people of Israel in their rebellion and distress. He did it for His glory.

Clearly, we would not want to minimize or marginalize Him in our lives or place Him second in any aspect of our lives. He doesn’t like that. God is the most important being in the universe and He does not like being taken for granted. In fact He will not tolerate being ignored and marginalized in the lives of people who claim Him as their God.

We dare not assume that God will accept that we care about Him and then live our lives inconsistent with what we say. God wants to be glorified in the way we live our lives... in our actions, attitudes and what we speak in words from our hearts. You cannot say... “ Oh, I love God... that goes without saying.” Those would be hollow words to Gods ears, because you are not declaring Him to be the preeminent one in your life. If your life doesn’t match your words... then all of you, your words and actions... go right past Him without significance.

It is possible to take important things for granted—like the oxygen we breath. We don’t give it a second thought. But nothing is honored by being taken for granted. It is no tribute to the importance of anything in our hearts when we say, “Oh, we assume that.” To be assumed may make a person feel indispensable, but it does not make a person feel treasured.

In the same way, God does not like being taken for granted. Too many Christians take God for granted. Just think about our American culture—secular and religious. It seems that God is so pervasively neglected and so stunningly absent and so consistently assumed by those who know he exists and disregarded by those who don’t, that it is almost impossible for this generation to realize that something is appallingly and unspeakably wrong.

Remember, honoring and glorifying God with your life starts with you. There’s no mystery as to how... He has provided many Biblical examples that explain how to honor and glorify Him.

We should live our lives in awe of Him... because He upholds the universe by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) and controls the affairs of men and nations with conscious purpose and plan. “He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes kings” (Daniel 2:21). “He does according to His will among the inhabitants of earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, ‘What have you done?”’ (Daniel 4:35).

God is an important because He knows all things—all motives, all causes, all designs, all effects, all structures, all secrets, all possibilities. “I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my pleasure.”’ (Isaiah 46:9-10).

God is important for everyone because he is the only path to eternal life and the only source of everlasting joy. “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence; with eternal pleasure forever more” (Psalm 16:11). He alone stands at the center of human history and is the measure of all truth and all beauty and all goodness, and in His saving grace hangs the destiny of every human being (John 14:6).

God makes known His displeasure with being taken for granted by telling us again and again that His goal in all that He does is to be honored and praised and glorified and loved and treasured and trusted and sung and declared and confessed and enjoyed. Whew! Maybe that’s too much for some people to deal with. He tells us that no Christian should take Him for granted, but do everything—even the simplest, most basic things—to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:31). That should come with a “no matter what it takes” attitude on our part.

God cannot be removed from our living experience. Not if we expect to please Him. It’s not about religion. It’s not even about Christianity! It’s His reality we much come to terms with. God made the world and everything in it. He owns the earth and everyone on it. He is the primary being of all beings in the universe. He is guiding the history of every people and nation to their appointed destinies. Everything, without exception, has to do with God. Everything gets its existence, purpose and meaning from God.

If God is truly important to you, then walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk. Okay... He is important in my life. But how do I really sustain my relationship with Him? How deep must my relationship with Him be... to please Him?

Good questions... and we’ll discuss what it takes to really build a lasting and satisfying relationship with the Living God in next week’s article. Hint... it requires LOVE.

It’s God's Way... or the big wide highway!

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"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6
 
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

"Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways." Psalm 128:1

"And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own  eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Proverbs 3:5-7

"...present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.... And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."  Romans 12:1-2

"For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:16-17

Just a few of the many poignant verses in the Bible that reveal the attitude and character of a righteous, just, merciful and jealous God. He is the God who has been working His plan of salvation... to recover mankind from the ravages of sin since that infamous day in Eden, when the first man and woman decided they knew better than God how to run their lives. Since then mankind has been in a state of decay and decline.

Increasingly, society today is adhering to man-made humanistic philosophies, with the central teaching being that no one person or group can be 100% correct about God.  Thus, the Biblical claim that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to Heaven is adamantly rejected by those who raise secular humanism and moral relativism as the defining philosophies for humanity. 

Many unsaved sinners today, refuses to trust God, Christ and Christianity.  Instead, they lean upon their own finite, corrupt and carnal understanding.  Since the fall of Adam, there has been a battle between God's Word and man's stubborn sinful will.  No matter how successful the philosophies of men seem or how alluring they may be, we should not be lulled into apathy —God's Word, His plan, His methods, His requirements, His judgment... will prevail.  Everything will be done according to God's way. There is no negotiated compromise with God, only consequences for willful disobedience.

These are dire times. Many people ignore the Bible, viewing It as merely a religious book written by men thousands of years ago. It is considered irrelevant in today’s humanistic world. it’s divine authorship is continuously challenged.  Yet, even a brief look at how the Bible came into human existence is incontrovertible proof of It's divine origin.  God divinely inspired 40 different men over 1,500 years, spanning 4000 years of history, to pen the 66 books of the Bible.  There is no humanly possible way that such an accomplishment could have taken place, to produce a perfectly harmonized Book of prophecy.  2 Timothy 3:16 states... “All scripture is inspired by God….” In 2 Peter 1:20-21, Peter admonishes us... “know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, … but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” In fact, an astonishing 668 Biblical prophecies have been fulfilled and none have ever been proven to be false. The Bible is historically, archeologically and scientifically correct.  No other holy book of any man-made religion comes close to the Bible in the amount of evidence supporting its divine inspiration and authorship. Only a fool would deny that the Bible is God's inspired Word. 

Obey God or Be Eternally Damned
You have no choice, no other option, no other way, in the matter of salvation if you want to firmly claim God’s eternal blessing for your life—you MUST come to God the Father through Jesus Christ the Son.  We read in 1 John 2:23, “No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.”   Again, in 1 John 5:12 we read, “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”  Either you come as a guilty hell-deserving sinner to the cross of Jesus Christ to be saved, or else you will face everlasting destruction when you die.  God's warning... not mine. We are sternly warned in 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9... “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”  Could the Bible be any clearer? 

Yet, most people today have believed the lie of Satan that it doesn't matter what you believe, just so long as you're sincere.  The road to everlasting destruction will be wide and spacious, able to accommodate the throngs of sincere people unwilling to see and hear the truth of God as revealed in Christ and His inspired Word the Bible. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Either you're going to OBEY God and find the narrow path or you are going to careen aimlessly through your life down “the wide road” captivated by the philosophies of men, and find yourself endings abruptly in the Lake of Fire for all eternity.   It's your choice.  Are you willing to gamble with your soul's eternal destiny?  It's God's Way or a highway bound for Hell.

Make no mistake... the Bible, the source of ALL truth, is intolerant.  It does not offer compromises. God said what He meant for mankind to know and understand, and He means what He has said.  If you don't accept and believe on Jesus Christ, trusting upon His precious blood to wash away your sins, then you have NO future when you leave this earthly life.  There is ONLY one way to Heaven—Jesus Christ! 

It doesn’t matter what you say, think or feel—how nice a person you are, how sincere, loving and caring you may be. If you do not repent of your sins, turn your life towards God, submit to baptism for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38) and live your life in submission and obedience to Him, you have no hope.  Salvation is not found in any religion... but rather, in a Person —The Lord Jesus Christ. 

Would you rather live your life as if the Bible is true, and die to find out It isn't... or live your life as if It isn't, and die to find out it is? Think about it.

We are RIGHT... Aren’t we?

About Christianity I mean.
People will mostly say yes, but also feel that tolerance and acceptance of other religions must surely be acceptable. There must be more than one way to God... since so many ways exist!

The message of today, especially among younger people, is that you are being intolerant if you actually think that a particular view might be true and that all other views are wrong. The viewpoint that all pathways to God should be equally acceptable is widely held by people today. No one wants to offend anothers religion or give the impression of condeming anothers beliefs. While I can certainly understand the concept of tolerance and inclusion, I don’t think this point of view can be true. Boldly stated... Christianity is the one truth path to God.

There is no other way, no other path, no other plan of salvation. It’s God, Jesus Christ and their inspired communication to humanity –– the Holy Bible.

How can we know Christianity is true and we are not deceived?
There are a lot of competing belief systems in the world. How do we know that as Christians we are believing what is true and not being masterfully deceived? The answer is three-fold.

First, Christianity is only as true as the person of Jesus. He fulfilled prophecy, claimed to be God in flesh, performed many miracles, died, and physically rose from the dead. Christianity is about Jesus, his claims, and his deeds. It is based on him and it is only as true as he is true. Second, Christianity is consistent with reason, facts, and aligns with evidence of God's inspiration in the Bible. Third, all other religious systems are either unverifiable or irrational in their teachings and emanate from flawed human experience.

The person of Jesus
For the Christian, the ultimate expression of truth is found in the person of Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the father but through me..." (John 14:6). Jesus, who claimed to be divine, performed many miracles, and rose from the dead said that he alone was the truth. He was either right or wrong.

There is no in between. If Jesus is wrong, then Christianity is a wrong. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we should abandon our faith because he would be no different than anyone else. If Jesus is not God in flesh, then we should denounce him as a madman because you can't claim to be God and be sane -- unless the claim is true. Therefore, if what Jesus said about himself is true, then Christianity is true.

You see, Christianity is only as true as Jesus is true. If it can be shown that Jesus lied, failed to perform miracles, was not God in flesh, and did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is false and we are indeed deceived.

Reason, Logic and History
There is nothing within the scope of Christian teaching that denies reason. The doctrine of the Trinity may be a mystery, but it is not illogical. The incarnation may be paradoxical in that the person of Jesus is both divine and human, but it is not impossible. The resurrection of Christ may be enigmatic, but it does not defy logic -- unless you deny the miraculous to begin with. Christianity is reasonable; that is, it does not violate logic. It may contain mysteries and paradoxes, but there is nothing within its body of teaching that contradicts reason.

There is nothing within Christian teaching that denies the facts of history. History and archaeology confirm the Bible. We have many non biblical accounts of New Testament events and people confirmed in the historical record. Josephus a Jewish historian who lived during the period of the rise of the first century church mentioned John the Baptist and Herod as well as Jesus and James in his work the Antiquities of the Jews. There are even Roman historians, such as Tacitus and Thallus mentions who write of the events of the life of Jesus.

Archaeological discoveries also confirm the Biblical record. Various cities mentioned in the Old and New Testament have been discovered. Cities such as Bethel, Capernaum, Dan, Ephesus, Gezer, Hazor, Jericho, Nineveh, to name a few. The existance of the Hittites have been verified, as have the stables of Solomon. The point is, there is nothing in archaeology that contradicts Biblical truth. It agrees with and is consistent with archaeology and history.

Other religions are unverifiable or irrational
There are other beliefs systems that claim to be valid, but they cannot be verified historically, and their teachings are irrational and illogical.

Where would you go to find a belief system truly comparable to Christianity? Mormonism clearly contradicts the Bible. It teaches that God was a man on another planet, married to a goddess wife. It is a religion of “pride” teaching that its adherents can become gods. The book of Mormon cannot point to any historical evidence to validate such claims. Therefore, Mormonism can't be true.

Islam teaches that the Quran is the absolute truth revealed from their god Allah. It further states, and this is critical, that if one fact in the Quran is incorrect, then Islam is not true. The Quran boldly says “it’s all or nothing” about it’s own teachings. With that statement in mind, consider what The Institute of Islamic Information and Education says.... "Muhammad is the very last Prophet of God to mankind. He is the final Messenger of God. His message was and is still to the Christians, the Jews and the rest of mankind. He was sent to those religious people to inform them about the true mission of Jesus, Moses, David, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham." No matter how intellectual, civilized, or scientific Islam is made to appear, it is still a religion which embodies "another gospel... which is no gospel at all..." (Gal. 1:6-7). The Lord declares any other gospel and those who preach it... eternally condemned. (Gal. 1:8). Islam teaches that Muhammad is the summation and the culmination of all the prophets and messengers that came before him. He purified the previous messages from adulteration and completed the Message of God for all humanity. He was entrusted with the power of explaining, interpreting and living the teachings of the Quran. Where can you find any historical fact to support such claims? You can’t. Since these claims cannot be proven by history, reason or logic they are not true. Islam is a false and deceptive religion.

Atheism, Reincarnation religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism and the New Age Movement also cannot be validated by history, reason or logic. They offer subjective, unverifiable human experience as the underlying framework for their theological foundations. Even though the components that comprise these belief systems are little more than illogical absurdities, millions, in fact billions of people are held captive by these religions of deception.

These simplified and brief analyses of various systems demonstrate that their claims must be verifiable in some way (archaeology, ancient documents concurrent with verifiable history, etc.) and rational. When a theological system cannot be verified using either normal historical examination or internal logical consistency, how can it be assumed to be true? It can't.

Where else would we go?
Jesus had a discussion with his disciples about this very question. Recorded in John chapter 6... He first speaks about “he being the bread of life” and then affirms that no one can come to him unless it was granted by the father (John 6:65). It was at this time when many of his disciples abandoned him. Jesus then said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" That was a “dividing” moment among the followers of Jesus. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

Peter's answer is extrememly important... then and now. If you are contemplating leaving Christianity, where will you go? What better offer can anyone make that would be of greater truth than the words of Jesus? Where else would you go? To Islam and learn to kill everyone who doesn’t accept your religion? To Mormonism, to answer the call of pride in order to become a god? To Atheism which offers nothing except moral relativity and inconsistencies? To Reincarnation religion with its seemingly endless cycle of incarnations and suffering? What is better than Jesus? Where do we go? To whom should we go if we abandoned Christianity?

If anyone has anything better to offer than the claims, the deeds, and the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ, then perhaps we would have an option. However, no one else has anything better to offer than Jesus. No one else has fulfilled prophecies, claimed to be God in the flesh, performed miracles, raised people from the dead, died, and physically rose from the dead himself, and promised to return for his people at the second coming. ALL verified and validated as true. Therefore we are compelled by logic, reason and the evidences of history to continue to believe in Jesus, his teachings, and the truth that Christianity represents.

Christianity is true and we are not deceived. All other religious systems are either unverifiable or irrational... thereby disqualified as being true.