How To Get On The Plane

 Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

So, last week I talked about needing to have a belief in God that causes us to get on the plane. After all, sitting in the airport believing the plane you are looking at will take you to England while you are sitting there watching it leave will get you nowhere. We certainly don’t want to be left behind when our spiritual plane leaves for Heaven.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had people tell me they have always been a good person so they will go to Heaven. But, the Bible says we cannot be good enough to get ourselves to Heaven.

That would be because God says we have no goodness in us. All goodness comes from God. Even the word good is a takeoff of the word God. By the save measure, evil is a takeoff of the word devil.

If you think about the unbelievable intelligence it took to create the whole universe and everything in it so that it all works perfectly together, it is mind blowing. Even the most brilliant mind who has ever lived wouldn’t have had a clue where to even start, and they certainly wouldn’t have been able to create anything out of nothing. So that leaves us with God creating it all being the only possible way it happened.

If we could get to Heaven by being a good person, do you really think God would not have been smart enough to realize that. Do you even slightly believe He would have been foolish enough to not realize He didn’t have to leave the glories of Heaven to come down here, be hated by most of the people He had created, and allow them to brutally crucify Him so we could be saved?

If it had been as simple as that He would have just sat on His throne in Heaven and told us to behave, and that would have been that. We would have been on the plane.

So how do we get on the plane?  It is actually very easy when we decide to do it.

We have to understand that sin required a sacrifice of perfect blood. Nothing less could wash away our sin.  The blood of every human being who has ever lived, or will ever live is tainted with sin because Adam and Eve fell to temptation and brought sin into their blood. That dirty blood will continue to pass on from generation to generation unending until Jesus returns and takes us away.

Until Jesus came to earth people had to sacrifice an unblemished lamb. That lamb’s blood symbolized Jesus’ perfect blood that would be shed for our sin. All the lamb’s blood could do was cover our sin until Jesus came to shed His blood to cleanse our sin.

When Jesus died on the cross, He became the perfect sacrifice eliminating the need for lambs being sacrificed from then on. When He rose from the dead He became the ultimate priest, thus eliminating the need for priests. They had been the mediators between people and God to get their sins forgiven. Now Jesus is our only mediator between us and God the Father. After Jesus rose from the dead you never see a priest mentioned in the Bible. From then on people could tell us about our sin and how to be forgiven, but they had no authority to forgive sin. Only Jesus can do that.

The Bible tells us to confess our sin to no man. That does not mean to never admit to any human being that we have committed a sin. It means not to confess our sin to another human thinking they have any authority to forgive that sin. They do not.

The only one we confess our sin to and ask forgiveness is Jesus. He takes those requests to God the Father. God the Father grants every repentance Jesus brings to Him because Jesus sees into our hearts and knows if we are sincere or just trying to bluff our way into Heaven. If a person is not sincere and truly repentant of their sin Jesus will not mediate for them. Therefore, only a true repentance is presented to God and He will always forgive.

True repentance comes from the hearts of people who truly want to turn from their sin and follow Jesus. Anyone who simply wants to escape hell but make no change in their life is only apologizing. The only thing that does is soothe their conscience and give them a false sense of security. They are still on their way to hell. The word repent means to turn around and go the other way. To repent means to apologize for your sin, but then to also turn your life around and follow Jesus.

To become a Christian, or get on the plane, we must understand the salvation Jesus created by dying on the cross and rising again. We must accept that salvation as the only way to forgiveness of our sin. If we are sincere, our sins will be forgiven. However, do not underestimate God. He knows whether or not we are sincere. That repentance must be followed up by us living our life for Him. Will we stumble along the way? Of course. But, it is not about how many times or how hard we fall.

The Bible says if we repent and endure to the end, we will be saved.

So, there you have it. Truly repent and let Jesus take control of you life and guess what. You’re on the plane.

Think about it.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

 

Believing

 

Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

“Believe on the Lord and thou shalt be saved.” That is what the Bible says.

So, why is it so many people believe in God but won’t do anything to serve Him. Yet, they are sure they are Christians and on their way to Heaven. After all, they believe in God. The truth is they are no closer to Heaven than people who don’t believe.

We know God never lies and is never mistaken. The Bible is God’s word given to us by God. So how do we explain the people who believe but are not saved?

Let’s ask ourselves a question. Who believes in God more strongly than any human? That would be Satan and his angels. They once lived in Heaven with God. They saw Him daily and spoke to Him all the time. They had a face-to-face relationship with Him. However, do you believe any one of them is a Christian and on their way to Heaven? Absolutely not. By their rebellion and trying to become God, they have condemned themselves to hell with no way to escape.

So why is it some people believe but won’t be saved?

The answer to that would be in the fact that there is more than one way to believe.

In 2005 my sister, Diane, her husband, Harold, and I went to England, Scotland and Wales on vacation. (By the way, I highly recommend that trip. It was wonderful.)

When we were at the airport to leave for Great Britain, there was an airplane on the runway waiting to take us there.

Everyone at the airport believed that airplane would take us to Great Britain, but not everyone got there. So, why didn’t they get there? After all, they believed in the airplane.

The difference is that the three of us not only believed in the airplane, but we were inspired by that belief enough that it caused us to get on board.

You see, you can believe in the airplane going to England, but if it is not a heartfelt belief that moves you to get on the airplane, when it leaves the airport you will still be sitting there.

Believing in God is the same way. If your belief comes from your mind, it is good and it is true. But the reality is it is only head knowledge and it will leave you sitting where you are.

However, if that belief comes from your heart it will change you and your relationship with God. You will get on the plane heading for Heaven and eternal life with God.

One type of belief is head knowledge and the other type is a heartfelt belief that comes with a call to action. That is the belief that will change you into a Christian.

So, search your heart and ask yourself. When my plane lifts off, will I be sitting on the plane or will I be sitting in the airport. That is up to you. Only you can decide.

Think about it.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

Ten Thousand Angels

 

Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

Have you ever thought about the love it took for Jesus to come to the earth and die on the cross for us? Then again, have you ever thought about what it took for God the Father to allow Jesus to come and die for us?

Dying on the cross was not the only sacrifice Jesus made for us. Before the cross He left Heaven where there was no sin and the beauty was beyond belief. He was with the Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention the angels. We don’t know how many angels He created, but it could very well be in the millions or even billions. However many there are, they worship the Father, Son and Holy Spirit constantly.

When He came to earth He left all of that to come to a place filled with sin. The Bible says that God is so holy He can’t even be around sin. Jesus had to take on a mortal body to even be able to tolerate our sin. That alone was an unbelievable sacrifice, even if the cross hadn’t been looming before Him.

He also left a place where each one of His creations loved Him and lived to serve Him. Here most of the beings He had created hated Him to the point that they killed Him in the most vicious way they knew how. They beat Him until He was unrecognizable as a man. They drove a crown of thorns into His head, the pain of which I can’t even imagine. Then they humiliated Him by making Him carry His own cross up the hill, and they stripped Him naked in front of the whole crowd before they killed Him. They also laughed and jeered as He died.

The night before He faced all of this, He was praying in the garden of Gethsemane and asked God if there was any other way, to take this cup from Him. But, because of His love for us and His submission to His Father, He also said “Not My will but Thine be done.” He was sweating drops of blood as He prayed this.

Do you believe the fear of the physical pain He was going to go through was the biggest reason He dreaded what lay ahead? No. Sweating blood is a real phenomenon that is very rare and only happens in times of the most extreme stress. Many people before Him had been crucified but had not sweated drops of blood. So, what would be so stressful as to cause that to happen?

The answer is that He knew when He took all the sin of the world into Himself, His Father would not be able to be with Him, or even look at Him. This would be the only time through all eternity He would be separated from His Father. It was almost more than He could bear. That is why, while on the cross, He cried out, “Father, why hast thou forsaken Me?”

Father God was unable to be with Jesus again until three days later when He rose from the dead victorious over sin.

My sister, Diane, sent me an email today containing an old song from our youth. The name of the song is “Ten Thousand Angels”. Some of the words go like this.

”He could have called ten thousand angels

To destroy the world and set Him free.

He could have called ten thousand angels

But He died alone for you and me.”

Now for a moment, let’s think about the sacrifice Father God made. In a way His sacrifice was almost greater than Jesus’ sacrifice.

Many of you reading this are parents. If your child was trapped in a burning building, would you even hesitate to run into the fire to save them? Of course not. Your love would drive you to risk, or even lose, your life to save your child. You wouldn’t even think about it.

Can you imagine how it hurt Father God to allow His Son to die. Not only did He not save His Son, but He watched Him walk into the fire and didn’t stop Him. I feel certain it would have been easier for Him to go to earth and die for us than to watch His Son do it.

Have you ever stopped to realize that if you were the only person who had ever sinned, They would have gone through all this just for you.

The love the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have for us is beyond imagination. How can anyone possibly reject a love like this.

Think about it.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Janice Austin Bates

Oh Look

 

Disclaimer: Obviously I am not an actual angel. However, I feel like God speaks to my heart and I would love to share it with you. Please enjoy.

 

When I was in high school I felt like the youth from our church were the only Christians in our school. I now know that there were actually quite a few Christians but I guess we were shy and none of us talked about it, so I didn’t realize. My sister Diane, and my girlfriends Debbie and Donna were just about it as far as I knew.

We went to school with a nice girl named Lynn. She had grown up in a Jewish family, so she didn’t really know anything about Christianity. Although her family was Jewish, they didn’t really practice the Jewish religion.

We invited Lynn to come to church one time and she did. However, when she saw us praying it was different from anything she had ever seen, and it scared her. She never came back.

Over the years, our lives had taken very different paths and we were pretty spread out.

I worked in a jewelry store in Stockton, which is in central California. Debbie lived in the bay area which was about two hours away. I had no idea where Lynn lived.

One day I was shocked when Lynn and her mother walked into the store. It turned out that Lynn and the rest of her family all lived in Stockton also. Lynn and her mother began coming into the store to see me about once a week.

One day when they came in they told me Lynn had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Each week they would come in and tell me how she was doing with the cancer. Then her mother told me Lynn had married her boyfriend and moved to Placerville CA about two hours up in the mountains.

Lynn’s mom kept telling me that Lynn was doing great and the cancer was dormant. Then one day her mom came in and told me if I wanted to see Lynn I had better go right away because she was in the Placerville hospital and the doctors had given her one week to live.

I was startled and upset, so when I got home that evening I called Debbie and told her. We knew we had to talk to Lynn about Jesus before she died. I was off the next day so we decided to meet in Sacramento, leave one of the cars and travel on to Placerville together.

After a lot of prayer, we started on our journey the next day.

When we arrived at the hospital they gave us her room number. When we got to that room and started to walk in, we didn’t see Lynn. There was a little old lady about 90 years old, but Lynn was in her 40s. we turned to leave but heard a voice say, “Well, Hi”. We recognized Lynn’s voice and were shocked to realize what the cancer had done to her.

We sat down and started visiting with her, but after just a few minutes, someone walked in with her lunch. Since we had not eaten, we told her that while she had her lunch we would go have lunch also and would be back in a little while. Lynn agreed and we left.

When we came back about thirty minutes later, Lynn was   asleep, her husband was gone, and her mother and stepfather were sitting there. We joined them and they told us Lynn had been given a big dose of morphine because she was in a lot of pain.

By five pm Lynn was still asleep and we had to leave to get back home to our families. On the ride home we were quite upset that we hadn’t had a chance to talk to her about Jesus. I had to work the next day, but Debbie said she could come back.

The next day when Debbie arrived it was again just Lynn and her husband. She had to sit propped up all the time because the cancer put too much pressure on her brain if she laid down.

After visiting with Lynn for a while, Debbie asked Lynn if she would like to hear about Jesus. Lynn agreed. Debbie told her all about Jesus and the plan of salvation and asked Lynn if she would like to pray and become a Christian. Lynn said, “Oh, yes”.

They prayed together and Lynn’s whole countenance changed. Debbie said it was obvious that she had really given her heart to the Lord. It was also obvious she was in a lot of pain.

Debbie told Lynn she believed that Lynn was hanging on and trying not to die because she knew it was going to hurt her husband. She said if that was the case, she thought it would be okay with him if she let go and passed on. Lynn asked her husband if that would be okay, and he told her it would.

Debbie left and went back home.

The next day she got a call from Lynn’s husband who told her that about 1:00am he was sitting beside Lynn and talking to her. He said all of a sudden Lynn raised her had and pointed up to the corner by the ceiling. She said, Oh, look”. He looked up in the corner where she was pointing but saw nothing. When he turned back to Lynn, she had died.

We were never in contact with her husband again. We had no idea how to reach him.

Ever since that happened, I have believed that when a Christian dies, they don’t just drift out of their body and float to heaven. I believe Jesus comes personally and takes them by the hand, invites them to come with Him, and escorts them to heaven.

What a day that will be.

Think about it.

If you enjoy my blog but are not currently receiving my email notifications, you can send your first and last name, and your email address to austinlass1948@gmail.com and I will notify you each time I post something new. I promise I will never give your information out to anyone or use it for anything other than my notifications to you. Please share my blog with your friends and family to help me spread the words from my heart with others. Also, if you have any family or friends who you believe might enjoy my blog posts and live in another country, I would especially love to have you share it with them. I am trying to reach more countries around the world. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Janice Austin Bates