I truly loved my mom and dad and with a heavy heart, I had to let them go as each passed away whether I was prepared or not. In this life we live here on this little planet and after seeing and knowing of so many that have gone on, you would think we would be better prepared. Sadly, we are so very shocked feeling so left alone, each and every time. And yet the Word of God—the Bible, tells us of this and as we know, the Word of God is absolute truth.

I believe the problem is this: We never talk about this phenomenon, because the pain is almost unbearable. As the new year  begins, we look forward to truly horrible times in these last days.   (It might be helpful to discuss this some.) And again, we will use the Word of God to confirm some knowledge which we already know. It would appear that the majority are all too willing to “beat about the bush” so to speak, on this truly heart-rending situation.

I would liken it to an infection. A hurt that we never see, but know all too well exists. In many cases the infected area needs to be washed anew, sometimes lanced open, for proper healing. Such is the state of our human bodies, and yet the Spirit may need this therapy as well. It must be noted that there are plenty of axioms to go around and yet most understand that these are simply platitudes—a band-aid if you will. This is how certain falsehoods are initiated, how they become a “thought process” with no value at all.

Many hear at funerals, statements like, “Well, they’ve gone on to a better place.” Are you sure they have? How do you know this? And at times I have heard, “Well, they were such “good” people, you know they are in heaven.” Yet, my friends, is this a truth?

My mother-in law Inge was such a sweet lady that everywhere she would go, someone was always willing to hold a door or help her in some way. I loved my mom Inge and I miss her to this day. When she passed away, there were a few who stated, “She is in heaven because she was such a wonderful and good-hearted person.”

WRONG. If she is in heaven, it’s because she placed Her life in Jesus Christ’s hands and for no other reason! We need to understand a few things here. There is no such a thing as being “good.” And Jesus Christ said so!

Mark 10:17-18: “And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”

So now we see, just how far the word or description of the word “good” really goes and there is none good on this earth and God has stated this. My mother-in-law was a wonderful person and a very caring person to others, she was always here to help any who needed help. Yet, according to Scripture she was never “good.” We must listen to the Word of God and clearly understand this. This applies to every single person that has ever touched the face of this planet.

Romans 3:23-25: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”

Now we clearly see, that we are not the wonderful individuals that we think we are! We NEED the blood of Jesus Christ, from His Cross at Calvary, to cover our sins. As we look around, how many do you see that have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ? I am sure you will agree…NOT too many! In other words, and as the Bible states:

Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it.”

Please take note of that small, three letter word FEW. “FEW…there be that find it.” Wow…is all I can say. Out of all the earth’s population (in all of time), only a FEW will find their way to heaven? Have you truly understood that statement by God? It forces you to ask, “How many are a FEW?” Who are these FEW?

And then finally the question really comes home and you ask, “Am I one of those FEW?” Everyone gets a funeral, everyone dies one day, that is a truth that we all know. So those questions are valid questions and only YOU can answer them.

Is your life centered around Jesus Christ? Have you gone to His Cross and bathed in His blood, to cover your sins? If Your answer is NO, then know that you are NOT prepared to go to heaven, whether that be in the Rapture or your own death. The Lord God Almighty has given you more than enough time to learn this and make your decision. I have not stated this…God said so!

You must ask yourself these questions and you must deal with them at some point in time. There is NO other way to God and heaven! No humans are godly enough to pray you in heaven; they are just like you and me…they NEED Jesus Christ and HIM alone.

If anyone has taught you otherwise, then they have lied to you all thise time. And if you believe them, your sin is on your head and their sin is on their own head as well. If there is nothing else for you to learn, then know God is a JUST God. And it matters little what you think or feel about that, HE is what HE is. HE IS GOD!

Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Hebrews 9:25-26: “Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

You need to understand something here. Jesus Christ died ONCE for all our sins. Jesus Christ is NO LONGER on that Cross, Jesus Christ is risen and waits for you and me. IF you have chosen Jesus Christ to follow, if you have left your old self on HIS Cross, then you as a new creature will be welcomed in heaven.

IF you have NOT chosen to follow Jesus Christ, if you hang on to what you love in this world, then at your death (it will come) you will be ushered into divine judgment and then into hell for eternity.

And it is up to YOU to decide in which direction you want to go. I am reiterating what the Word of God—Bible says on this subject. The choice is now yours to make. So let me ask you one more question…when is your death? When is the Rapture? How do you know…you are going to heaven? Okay, more than one question, the point is, YOU must answer them.

Here it is mid-November and everyone is looking toward Thanksgiving and Christmas. Another year has come and gone and I am sure that many, many, things have changed along the way. Some family members have come along and some have passed away; many have been separated from their loved ones (military wise).

And there has been anxiety and fear, happiness and joy and some sadness. This is the life we all must deal with and yet there is always a silver lining in every situation. It is a comfort when we know the Lord Jesus Christ is standing with us, providing the needed shoulder to both laugh and cry on.

I believe in my heart it is a good thing that we have Thanksgiving. We need to be thankful every day for all of the blessings the Lord gives us, whether one is saved to Jesus Christ or not. The Bible is evidence to this fact in many areas, so I chose the Scripture that, sticks closest to my heart:

Matthew 5:45: “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

I am a simple man and I love the same passages of Scripture that my parents loved. Thus my choice of what the passage above is saying; that the Lord God shows HIS love to everyone without regard to their connection to HIM or not. How great a love is it when HE loves everyone enough to bless everyone and does so all the time; think in terms of your next breath of air, it’s always there. In the Lords heart, He is saying, “I created you and I love you, let me bless you and show you how much!”

I don’t care who you are or what you believe, you can’t lay any blame of HIM for loving you as much as HE does and then proves it. That is the best way of telling us to be “Christ-like.” That we should not only love those who are in our families, but to love our enemies as well, to do good to those who despise us and to pray for those who despitefully use us. Again I am going to say, the Lord God shows us how we should live every day by what HE does every day

Matthew 7:11-12: “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

Showing us this perfect example of love to others, is what we should be every day of every year we live. I cannot denounce the idea enough of “Live and let live.” Simply put, that does not fit the bill for anyone. It is the equivalent of saying, “You do your thing and stay out of mine!” How does that work for the betterment of all? It doesn’t, because it negates our responsibility for reaching everyone for Jesus Christ.

Or maybe you do not understand the “Great Commission” in God’s Word. It literally tells us that we are a society of people, not singular individuals, that truly matter. It is true, that the Lord wants a one-on-one relationship with each of us, but more than just that—HE wants us to become HIS family as a group, as nations of people, bound together in real love for one another.

Or maybe you do not see that heaven is one place with a great many people in it, all praising the Lord God for HIS love for us. This is the truest reason for Thanksgiving, an effort for all to give HIM praise and thanksgiving for all HE does.

At Christmas, we stop and remember that Jesus Christ is God, that gave up HIS celestial existence in heaven to come here to earth and be born as a human being. Everyone likes to run around singing Christmas songs, yet how many of them are about Jesus Christ’s birth? The idea to use “Merry X-mas or Happy Holidays” is a strike against the Lord for obvious reasons. It is an attempt to denigrate the existence of the Lord God Almighty. That is rebellion against God, it is blasphemy in the use of HIS precious and Almighty Name. That is SIN.

This is a time to clearly understand that Jesus Christ came to redeem and reclaim us. He was born to die. I know many people who have told me the same about their grandfathers or whomever, dying in battles around the world. I am a combat soldier of the past and I know for a fact that NO ONE enters a battle with the idea of dying. Soldiers enter into battle, hoping and praying they don’t die, they want to live to see another Christmas with their loved ones. I have been in that situation and I know this to be a fact.

We need to understand something here. And I will lay this out with Scripture as well. Jesus Christ is God. That being the case, God chose to become a human being for the sole purpose of redeeming you and me from OUR sin—with His blood that HE shed on that Roman Cross at Calvary. God chose this for HIMSELF, it was HIS sacrifice for you and me, because HE is a just and righteous God who will NOT allow Sin in HIS presence in heaven.

If HE had not come, we (as in all of us) would NEVER see heaven and that would then be against the very reason HE created you and me in the first place. Here are the Scripture that bear these statements out:

John 14:8-9: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

Hebrews 9:26: “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Proverbs 6:16: “These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him.”

Titus 2:13-14: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We see the Scriptures above that prove how God feels about your sin and mine, and what we must do to be saved from an eternal life of destruction. Here is a passage of Scripture that I love to read and know in my heart, because it represents everything about Jesus Christ, who IS GOD:

John 3:16-21: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

As you see we are never without sin but the great news is that we have a way out, so to speak. Coming to Jesus Christ, because He sacrificed HIS life on that Cross at Calvary, is the only way to the Father. Our sin must be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is NO other way around it—that is the reason for the birth of Jesus Christ, the reason He was to die for you and for me.

In my heart, there is no reason to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ if we are NOT willing to know and accept the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. You cannot have one without realizing the necessity for the other, and you can change them up any way you want and it still comes out the same. Without sin being covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, there will be NO forgiveness of sin and your eternal destination will end up being the lake of fire

Maybe now, you can realize that the indifference in “Merry X-mas or Happy Holidays” is squarely a blasphemy to the Lord God Almighty, which is sin and that needs the blood of Jesus Christ. Removing the word “Christ” from any of this, is to remove Jesus Christ from your life and that means eternal death. If there is one passage of Scripture to show this, in my mind and heart it would be;

Luke 12:29-31: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

As we venture into Thanksgiving, let us all be truly thankful to the Lord God for all HE has blessed us with and be content with what we have. As Christmas comes near, we need to know the entire reason for HIS birth, that it is a celebration of HIS birth before HIS chosen death on the Cross of Calvary for you and me. Celebrate these special holidays with a true heart of thankfulness and gratitude for HIS unending love for us.