Singleness of heart to Christ/The importance of a godly environment.

1 Kings 11

1But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:

2Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

4For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Reading in these verses we see how Solomon (the wisest human to ever live) disobeyed God by marrying foreign women (something that was forbidden to Israel, during the dispensation of the Law) in disobeying God, Solomon suffered the very consequences God had warned Israel of. Solomon's heart was turned away from God, and he was led into worshiping false gods.

There is a lesson we can take from this, and apply to our own lives. If one really stops and studies the Word of God, one can see that all the things God commands us not to do..are things that will bring us pain if we do them. For example, premarital sex: unplanned pregnancy, abortions, STD, AIDS, etc. etc. Not drinking alcohol: if one does drink alcohol they can become addicted, and lose their familes, their jobs, their friends, their very life, or take someone elses's life. To love God, and turn away from false gods. To disobey this, means to turn away from the one true God, the only one that can truly help us no matter what the need is, and it means to turn to a non-existent god that cannot help, and is worshiped with doctrines that often bring about more pain, than actual provision. Point being, God tells us these things, not to be mean to us, but to keep us from causing ourselves unnecessary pains.

Thus was the case with Solomon, he was told not to fornicate with foreign women, due to the fact that they would lead him into idolatry. Solomon chose to disobey God, and found God's warning to be true, that he was indeed led away into idolatry. How did it all start though? Solomon's focus, and environment. Most likely, these wives were given to Solomon, by their fathers, other kings which were making treaties with Solomon. Thus, we can conclude that Solomon was so focussed on gaining earthly wealth, and power, that he failed to take into account the command of God which he was disobeying by taking in these foreign wives (also worth noting is that God specifically commands monogomy. Deuteronomy 17:14-17/Matthew 19:4-9) Thus failure to focus on God, with a single-heart (Ephesians:6:5) acted as the seed to his sin.

If this wandering of the heart was the seed, then we know that his environment then became the fertilizer. By allowing his environment to becme contaminated with idolatry, it was only a matter of time before his very mind was too consumed by idolatry. The Bible makes it clear that Solomon was the wisest human to ever live (1 Kings 3:12) yet, by allowing sin into his environment, the same sin entered into him, thus he committed these sins against his God, whom he loved so dear.

Let us learn from Solomon's life that we must never let our heart stray from God, we must stay true to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must obey Him, and we must ensure that not only our heart, but that which we allow to enter our heart, is pleasing to God. Solomon allowed idolatry to enter his heart, because he chose to associate with idolatry. We must choose what to associate with, and know, that whatsoever we choose, it shall enter into us, and change us, for the best, or the worst.

Rember always, I love you, Jesus loves you more, and is willing to Save this day, free of charge, all those that simply come to Him and ask.

The Path of Salvation

T0oday we will discuss the path of salvation as laid out in the book of Romans, chapter ten. With no further delay, we shall begin.

Romans 10

⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

¹¹For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

¹²For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now, let us dissect these verses to see how to properly follow "the Roman road to salvation" or "the Roman road" as it is affectionately referred to.

We'll simply look at all the different aspects of all these verses and keeping in mind the time at which this was written, and the nature of it's writing, to whom it was written, and the Entirety of the Holy Scripture we'll see it all falls into place rather easily.

1. Believe

As various places in the Scripture, namely Mark 9:23, I Corinthians 13:13, Ephesians 2:8-9 and Hebrews 11:6 tell us of the great importance of Faith and belief. That without Faith it is impossible to please God, without Faith it is impossible to be saved, that Faith is one of the principal factors of this life, and that all good things are possible to those with Faith. Therefore, we must believe that God is, and that Jesus Christ is His only begotten Son...the words "only begotten" are of the utmost importance here, for we whom are saved are adopted into the family of God, we are born again as God's children...yet Jesus Christ is still the first and the last, and the Lord.

This we must believe, as well as the fact that we are sinners, a condition that is inherited much the way certain other diseases and conditions are (i.e. diabetes) Thus we have no real choice in the matter, sin from our first breath is already in our nature, much the way eye color, or hair color is, and regardless of what we do that sinful nature will manifest and we will sin.

Taking a moment to look at why we need to be saved. It is not that God wants to send us to hell, and is simply looking for reasons to make our lives hard...quite on the contrary. In the beginning humans were never meant to know pain, hunger, sickness, or death. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, all of those things hitched a ride on sin's back straight into their, and our lives. Throughout the Bible you will find examples of just how alien it is to God's nature to judge others. In the story of Jonah...most know of the whale, sure, but fewer know of the whole circumstance, that the city Ninevah was living in a very wicked way, and doing bad things (including wrongfully dealing with Israel) and as such were placing themselves in a position that God would be required to judge them, yet to avoid this, God commanded His servant Jonah to go preach to them, that they might learn. Eventually Jonah complies...(though in his anger, he wanted to see Ninevah be judged for what they had done) and the city repented and thus were not punished. (not counting later events that might involve them.) Or one can look at the Crucifixion itself for an example, that to keep from bringing punishment upon us, God gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice, and as Isaiah 53 says, He was pleased to do so..for our sake. Now, that still doesn't answer the question "Why doesn't God just let us in Heaven, and not worry about punishing any of us?" or "Why does God let us sin, He could stop us if He really wanted to, couldn't He?" Both of which are fine questions. The answer for the first being, as Amos 3:3 says two can't enjoy one-another's company if they are in arguement. To better clarify, think of a time you've been visiting with a friend, and the two of you ended up argueing about something..until you both reconciled it was a very awkward, uncomfortable, and unhappy visit, wasn't it? Likewise God promises us a Heaven of peace, and rest for the weary, I could have no more rest in heaven, than I have here if I knew I'd have to lock my doors, and look over my shoulder, in case of murderers, or rapists, or thieves. Thus, God requires us all to be reconciled with him, to be "saved" that we can then have our souls washed, and preserved clean from all sins, so that once our souls leave these bodies, they will be completely seperated from any, and all sin, which is a perfect state of being, and that way those in heaven can have peace, because all souls are equally clean, and free of sin, and thus no one there has any desire, or for that matter capacity to commit the heinous acts we see here in this life. Think of it, if you will, like a party, and the dress code is pure clean robes. Our souls are the robes, and our bodies are full of dirt, thus the soul inhabiting the body becomes dirty aswell..no longer clean. Therefore God has offerered us the blood of His Son to clean and seal our souls..that they are clean, and pure, and never again to get dirty...regardless of the "dirt" in our flesh. This doesn't mean all that are saved become sinless..no, we still fall short, and make mistakes, and sin...it simply means our souls are no longer stained by those mistakes, and that we no longer have a desire to do those things. That our desire to live a good life..outweighs our flesh's desire to do bad things. So, concluding this point, we must believe that we are guilty of sin, and that Jesus is the only begotten Son of the living God, and that He will save us if we ask.

2. Confession.

What are we to confess? As 1John 1:9 and 2:1 tells us, as well as the above verses, we are to confess two things: That we have sinned and need forgiveness; and that Jesus Christ is Lord, and the only begotten Son of God that died for our sins, and rose again that we too could live.

3. EVERYONE can be saved. The only way you are no longer eligible to be saved is if you are in hell...otherwise, you very much can be Saved, and Christ very much wants to save you. (That is just a note keeping in mind some whom would teach you that you are "too bad" to be saved) Also, as John 3 tells us that we are born again as the children of God upon salvation. While Luke 15 tells of the prodigal son, who was welcomed back warmly. Also keeping in mind Ephesians 2. We know that we are not saved by works, we are saved by grace, we are made children of God, and thus nothing we can do would ever merit losing our salvation. Since our works didn't save us, why would our works condemn us? We are condemned to hell for only one sin, that is denying God when He says be saved. Just the way the son was welcomed back warmly, just the way that a true child cannot lose it's biological heritage...likewise we cannot lose our salvation.

So to summarize: We must believe that we are guilty of sin (the size of the sin is of no importance, just the way that a 300$ shirt can be ruined by one ink blotch as easily as it can by two ink blotches. likewise the soul is made guilty by the theft of a candy bar, just as much as it is made guilty by murdering someone [even though one is obviously worse than the other..both are still sins]) . We must also believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and that He will save all whom ask. We then simply confess that we are sinners, and that Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and ask forgivenss, and for our soul to be saved.

And, there you have it. The path of salvation, according to the Gospel of Christ.

-And remember, Jesus loves us all :)