• Sunday Life Groups at 9:00 am; Sunday Worship Service at 10:30 am

        Say, “Yes”

        150 150 Journey Church

        God loves you. God, the Creator of the oceans and lands of our planet, outer space and everything in all of them, loves you. The One who made you loves you.

         This same Creator God is also the Judge. Before Him we each will stand and give account. And He knows all about you, knows that you cannot stand before His awesome holiness. He knows that there are many bad things on your record; in fact, He knows full well that you and I are guilty of the worst of all sins—living as an atheist. Now, I did not say proclaiming yourself to be an atheist, but living like one—acting as though there were no God. God said, “You shall have no other gods before Me.” But, tragically, we do, we each do that … we put many substitutes in His place, most especially my desires, but also my resources and my abilities. And because we live me-centered, we end up hating, taking, hurting, coveting, defaming God. We live as though there were no Creator or Judge of all the earth. He knows that better than we do, and yet, amazingly, He loves us anyway, He loves you.

         God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. The birth of the Messiah Child, Jesus, is the love of God made plain … visible, touchable, undeniable. This Holy Child, the only One who never lived as an atheist, the only One who ever lived fully, perfectly for God, came to take care of sins. God sent His Son Jesus as the best lawyer ever, the One who could get the worst offender off the hook before God the Judge. Not through clever argumentation or finding just the right loopholes, but by taking our guilty verdict and paying our sentence … eternal death … Himself.

         Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

         God loves you. The season which begins with the Christmas celebration of Jesus’ birth and culminates with Holy Week’s remembrance of Jesus’ death on Good Friday and Resurrection on Easter Sunday is the proof that God does indeed love you.

         Ahh … but this can only be grasped by faith. What you see, of your own life and of the world around you, may seem to contradict this idea that God loves you, may seem to say that He does not love you. You feel pain, you see pain. But right now, in your heart of hearts, you hear God saying that His love for you in Jesus is true and real, and that this is for you. Yes, and when you agree with His voice that your record is bad and you do believe Jesus, the Lord, died for your sins, a door is opened for you to the very heart of God. You begin a new journey in life with Jesus as your personal Friend and God as your loving Father. In their good company you find strength for the pain of life, and you have God’s promise of being welcomed one day into Paradise.

         Say “Yes” to Him. Receive the love of God through Jesus, and join the band of the faithful who joyfully adore the Christ Child.

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