Amid all the amusement and theme parks clustered in Orlando, Florida, there's one that is pretty distinctive. It's that Holy Land theme park that attempts to bring some of the scenes and the stories of the Bible to life. Our daughter and son-in-law were there once with two of our grandsons. And the kids, who are pretty up on their Bible stories, really enjoyed walking through those stories and meeting some of the characters (Well, actually, people portraying some of those characters.). The one that impressed our then two-year-old grandson the most was Jesus. A man portraying Jesus stood in the middle of that small crowd and He spoke some of the very stories He told in the Bible. But then came the moment our little guy will not soon forget. Jesus came over and picked Him up, just like Jesus did with the children when He was here. The next day Mom and our little guy were talking about his upcoming third birthday party, and suddenly out of the blue, he said, "I want Jesus at my birthday party."
That's a great idea: Jesus at your birthday party. Talk about a guest of honor! Actually, when it comes to the most important birthday of all, there's no birthday without Jesus. And if there's no birthday, there's no life. Well, eternal life, that is. The most important birthday of all is the day you get born into God's family.
but you're not God's child unless you've been born spiritually into the family of the Heavenly Father.
Jesus Himself put it this way in John 3:3 our word for today from the Word of God. [/b]
"I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
Obviously, Birth One was the day you were born into your parents' family. No birthday, no life. Jesus is talking here about Birth Two-the day you actually begin to belong to God. No birthday, no life. Whatever "born again" is, Jesus said you can't enter God's heaven without it, because heaven is only for family-God's family. Anyone can be in God's family, no matter what their religion or their background, but not everyone is, because they've never been born again.
John 1:12 describes just how a person gets born into God's family:"To all who received Him (that's Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God."
So you see, it's all about what you do with Jesus. Why? Because the only way to be in God's family is to take care of what keeps you from being one of His kids, and that is something called sin. He's an all-holy, totally perfect God. You and I have turned our back on Him-sometimes with a lot of religion in our lives that gives us a sense of being okay. That's false security. We've used our mouth He gave us to hurt people, to lie and to swear. We've used the hands and eyes and ears He gave us to touch and explore what we never should have touched. We've hurt most the people we love the most, we've lusted, we've boasted and we've been selfish. All that sin has to be paid for, but Jesus died as our substitute paying for it.
He's the only One who could forgive your sin, because He's the only One who died for your sin and then rose again to prove that He can. He's the only One who can get you into heaven. But you need a birthday-a definite beginning with Him. If you don't have that, you have no chance of being God's child.
You may have had a baptism day, a confirmation day, a lot of church days, but you've missed your spiritual birthday. Which only comes the day you, as it says, "believe in" Jesus; which means welcoming Him into your life with total trust in Him as your only hope. Have you ever done that? If you've done that, you know you have. If you don't know, you probably haven't. But you can get that done this very day. Just tell Him,
"Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me; I am Yours.I take you now as my Savior and Lord. Come into my heart and save me from my sin debt and write my name down in your book. I am yours."
My friend, if you have never asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart and life and be your Savior, I invite you to do that today. Get it taken care of and live a life KNOWING that you will be spending eternity with the ONE, the ONLY ONE who died for YOU so that you could forever have your sin debt paid for in full and be cleansed from your sin. Do not put it off. You DO NOT KNOW if this may be your last minute, hour, day, week, on this earth. WHERE will you spend eternity? The moment your body dies your Spirit , which is eternal, goes to some place. It will either immediately be in GOD's LOVING presence or you will arrive in a BURNING, awful place called Hell. You will be tormented forever here. This place was prepared for Satan and his Angels that rebelled against GOD in Heaven and were cast out down to this earth. They will be there also.
What YOU CHOOSE TO DO with JESUS CHRIST makes the difference of where you will spend the next ten thousand times ten thousand years... Please call on HIM to save you TODAY, this minute before you never have another opportunity . Once you die, it is TOO late. There are no second chances. Trust HIM. HE DIED FOR YOU ALREADY. HE PAID YOUR SIN DEBT ALREADY. HE IS WAITING for YOU to CALL ON HIM to SAVE YOU. Call on Jesus TODAY.
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