for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven,whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)
Jesus made for us an eternity with Him and our part is to be obedient to God’s word. Obedience does not equate perfection. Obedience equates paying attention to and following after. Lawlessness equates to sin and if we live in sin continually without repentance then we are not of God according to 1 John. If we live for Him, we will be with Him for eternity. Living for Him isn’t simply calling ourself a Christian or saying that we believe in Jesus. The demons believe in Jesus, that does not mean they are saved. We can be assured in our salvation by what John writes under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He says that we will know we have eternal life if we love God, keep His commandments and love the brethren.
There is a wrath coming from God upon this earth and Jesus delivered us from that wrath and we can now live fear free, knowing that we will judge angels with Him instead of being damned with those who rebelled against Him without repenting. When we decided to follow Jesus, we were delivered from so much and brought into His family. We are now royalty, a holy nation and a peculiar people. We are the salt of the earth.
Share Jesus with whomever you can and be an example of Jesus so those who don’t know Him, would want to. Eternity is a long time to be in torment, and life and eternity are all about choices. God says,” I set before you today life and death, blessing and a curse, choose you this day life that you may live long and be well.” Choose Jesus out of love and you will be saved from wrath.
The message of tough love is not very easy to hear, but truth many times is offensive and opposite of what is pleasant to us. In order for the truth to set us free, we first need to know the truth. The truth is that we need to walk in obedience to the King. Obedience is an expression of love and trust. We obey not because we have to, we obey because we want to. That is the difference of heart between law and love.
TMMC-The Teaching Ministry of Michael Cannatello
