Beginning From the End

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and promotes faith. It discusses the importance of accepting God's word as truth and the power of perfect love to cast out fear. It also talks about the consequences of not following God's guidelines and the need for repentance. Jesus' sacrifice paid the price for sin, and through Him, we can enter a new era of righteousness and fellowship with God. It addresses the question of what happens to those who never knew God and emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and choosing Jesus. The process of salvation is explained, and the importance of reading and following the Word is emphasized. The devotion ends with a reminder of God's love and the value He places on each individual. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org 1 Samuel 4.20 About the time of her death, the woman who stood by her said to her, Don't be afraid, for you have given birth to a son. But she didn't answer, neither did she regard it. The end of an era. That's what this birth was heralding. The woman was the wife of Phinehas, a son of the priest Eli. She was far along in her pregnancy, ready to give birth at any time. Then the news started coming in. The Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines, taken from Israel. Her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law were all dead. The trauma of it was so great, she went into labor. Her labor did not go well. She gave birth, but was dying. She did have a son, an important thing, since it meant the family line was continuing. But she named him Ichabod, which means, The glory has departed from Israel. In fact, her last words were, The glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured. The priests of God had not been behaving as they should. Her husband and his brother, the favored sons of Eli the high priest, They were ignoring God and doing whatever they felt like. They were being immoral. They weren't taking advantage of their position, doing things that God had declared abomination. And God wasn't happy. And Eli hadn't done anything to reign them in. He was too busy eating and being slothful. He'd said a few things to them, but not enforced what he said, empty words. They weren't leading the nation of Israel. And the nation of Israel, consequently, were kind of doing their own thing. God wasn't happy, and God lowered the boom. Every time I read something like this in the Old Testament, I am so very, very, very thankful for God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice, which paid the price for sin. How often do we not do what the Lord tells us? How often do we agree with the world and not with the Word? Living by our stomachs and not by our spirits. Not with the moral guidelines laid down by Yahweh, Lord God. How often do we side with our feelings and the importance of our own thoughts? But God is merciful. God is gracious. The Holy Spirit speaks to us constantly. And if we listen, if we seek the Lord and the Word, if we realize our error and truly repent of it, we will be forgiven. No lower boom, but a spirit broken before the Lord, humbled and repentant, willing to deal with the consequences of our actions and to take steps not to do it again. This is possible because Jesus paid for sin. Sin equals punishment. That's why Jesus came and died for us. He paid the price. Jesus' sacrifice equals no punishment for us. Sin's price needed paying. Jesus paid it. That is the most beautiful thing ever done, ever, anywhere. We can almost read 1 Samuel 4.20 as, Don't be afraid for the Father has born a son. Jesus is God's firstborn son, born to die, born for us. Our era doesn't have to end. Instead, we can step into His era, the eternal era without judgment, born into Jesus and sons and daughters of the Father. That sounds nice, doesn't it? We can't get there without Jesus. He's the only way. Now, you think that's wrong? Well, He said it was so. Jesus said to Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14.6 Do not believe anything or anyone else. This is it, the only way, the only path. He's God, and He can save that. He can choose that. Jesus died for us. He ended the era of sin. This is the only relationship with anything that's called a God where He is doing the stuff, and we are not required to do it. That's what makes Him different. And going through this, it's what makes Him the living God, the one deity that will interact with you at this level, that will fellowship with you at this level. Jesus died for you. He ended the era of sin. Accept that. Enter the new era of righteousness, without fear, without judgment, full of fellowship, because Jesus paid the price. He took on the judgment. But what about the thousands of people who died before He came? The ones who never even heard of Yahweh, God of the Jews, much less Jesus. What about the people in North America and in Brazil and in islands all over the world? Is that a God of love? I hear this a lot. It's another excuse not to believe, right? Well, Romans 4.15 says, For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. And Romans 5.13 says, For until the law, sin was in the world, sin is not charged when there is no law. Now, what's that? That is a just God. That is an honest God. That is a God of love. If there was no way for a person to know God, know of God or know how God wanted them to behave, they didn't have their sins counted against them. Now, how does that work? I have no idea. But Jesus died to pay the price of sin. All sin. Past, present, and future. All sin. Period. Jesus is the only way into heaven, but the only people going to hell are those who choose to be there. So it's a bit of a mystery how it works for these people that didn't know. But the Lord God knows what He's doing, and He is more merciful than we ever could be. What we need to focus on is what we know. Our walk. Our responsibility. There is an age that we all come to where we know good from evil, and it's different for all of us. Spiritually, there's a time where we know the truth of Jesus, and we either believe it or not. If you have heard and believe, you have been redeemed and should help get the message to others. If you've heard and rejected it, well, we can only hope you're listening because God never stops whispering. He never stops bringing people across your path. He never stops the message from being proclaimed. God wants you into heaven more than you could ever want to get there because He loves you more than you can possibly imagine. But He is a God who has wrath toward sin. That is the response of righteousness to sin. It is wrath. If you do not choose Jesus, then you will be on the side that is going to get hit with wrath because He will hit any and everything that has sin. That is the judgment of this world. You don't have to be part of it. Humans rejected God. God never rejected humanity. He was there counseling Cain, warning him of what he was doing. He was there with Noah, encouraging him to have less wine. He was there with David, telling him to get off the roof and go to work. He's with us today, encouraging us in many ways. God meets us where we are with all that we will accept from Him, but He doesn't stop there. He tells us to seek His Word so that we can be renewed in our minds, retrained, so that we will accept more from Him, and then more, that He can show us Himself in ever larger ways, deeper ways. He wants fellowship with us. He wants to protect us. It's what He's always done. It's what He always will do. We can trust in the consistency of the Lord. God was merciful and had a plan. Jesus was the plan. Volunteer. His sacrifice paid for sin. His resurrection removed death's sting. No sin, no death. All that's left is love and peace. His love, His peace. Enjoy them. Enjoy them. Choose them. Choose Christ, now and forever. God doesn't care so much about specific doctrinal wording. He cares very much about the heart and what's in it. The process is simple. Believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and paid the price. Believe in your heart that the Father resurrected Jesus to life. Confess out loud with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord God, the Savior, the Anointed One of God, and the Lord of your life. Do that and you will be saved. And then we get baptized to symbolize our journey of being resurrected into Jesus. Now remember, you were not born a sinner. You were born spiritually dead. Without any spiritual guidance, you chose to sin. You gave yourself over to it piece by piece, by choice, in ignorance. God can give you an eternal living spirit. The Holy Spirit can provide you guidance and knowledge. You can give yourself to the Lord completely and let the Word start sanctifying you day by day by day until you're standing before the Father, smiling, worshiping, and ready to fellowship face to face. Sin kept you from this peace. Jesus is holding it out to you today. Accept Jesus and start your discipleship. Start the journey of truly knowing Him. Pray, Lord Jesus, I have heard your word. Create in me a new beginning. I declare that you are my Lord, you are my Savior, you are my King. I declare that the power of sin, Satan, hell, and the grave is broken over my life. From now and forever, I declare that I am a child of God in the name of Jesus. Now that you have made a decision, take up your cross and follow Him. Take up the Word and read it. See what it has to say to you. Turn to it instead of turning to your habits of thought. The Holy Spirit is in you, speaking to you now out of your peace. Listen. These are the first steps into the greatest adventure there will ever be, a disciple of Jesus. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Psalm 63. God grips us. The tight and encompassing hug of a loved one is nothing compared to the grip God has on us. We are His lovers, His friends, His bride, His body, His sons and daughters, all rolled into one. He dances with us, rejoices in us. He teaches and corrects us. He doesn't leave us on our own, floundering a left field. What parent does that? He feeds us, cleans us, clothes us, cares for us. He instructs us. He asks for obedience. He sanctifies us. He opens the door to the kingdom and lays before it all the mystery, majesty, and wonder that He has. We must step through. We must use the word to bring it into our lives. But we can't do it from arrogance or greed. Humble and broken before the Lord. That's how we have to be. Knowing we can't rely on what we think or what we feel. Knowing that we need the guidance of the Lord. The wisdom of the Father. Knowing there will be things that need to be cut out. Things that we need to walk away from. That our constant God will help us as we step further and further down His path. We can rely on Him to care for us in trouble. Care for us in need. We can trust what the Bible says. We can take it as truth. As written. Verbatim. There is so much we need to understand. And He is there for that journey. Ever present. Never leaving. Never forsaking. Our God. With a grip like that. How can we fear? He won't drop us. Leave us. Lose us. Hurt us. Or forget us. Ever. Ever. He has us. Amen. As we close. Remember. That you. Have. Birth. You are precious. And valuable. Declare this. Today. God loves that I. Now you. Fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love. And no end to the things about you. That He loves. Each and every day. Pick one. And remember. God. Loves. You. Just because you're you. First John four. Nine to ten. Tells us. By this. God's love. Was revealed in us. That God. Has sent his only born son. Into the world. That we. Might live through him. And this is love. Not that we loved God. But that he. Loved. Us. And sent his son. As the atoning sacrifice. For our sins. His perfect love. Turned away God's wrath. Because of sin. And it casts out our fear too. See verses eighteen and nineteen. We love. Because he. First loved us. He just loved us. Can't get enough of us. And that. Is. Wonderful. See you next time.