Jesus forgives...

We don't have to have a HUGE faith. Even if our faith is small, God sees it. We can't make our faith better. What we can do is align our hearts with the heart of Jesus. And as time goes on, as we study the BIBLE and pray and seek God's will, our faith is made stronger because of JESUS! It says so right here:

Ephesians 2:8-10

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Here is the deal, I have been letting the judgement of other people hinder my writing. 

Hinder me from telling the truth. 

Hinder me from being honest and open about what I believe and what I feel. 

I want to share with the world. 

I have been nervous because my beliefs differ from those of family members and friends. And I haven't wanted to rock the boat. But over the past two weeks, I have discovered that the people with differeing views and different religions don't shy away from telling me that I am wrong. So why should I stop writing what I think is the right thing? 

BUT I have been convicted of my thinking. 

Isn't the point to share the love of Jesus despite what others say or how they view me?

Yes! That is the point. 

To stand for Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, even when people get mad because your beliefs are different than theirs. 

I must press on. I must press forward. 

I MUST. 

There are no two ways about it! 

I have been worried about offending others with my writing but I see now that they don't care  about what I write.

 And frankly, caring what others think is silly. It really is. Because the people I was worried about offending, they don't care what my beliefs are, they are going to insist I accept theirs and insist that I keep an open mind.
Even when I refuse to. 
They may even tell me that being close minded won't let me move forward in my life. BUT I disagree. Wholeheartedly, I disagree. I have had a very closed mind for nearly 5 years now and I have moved forward a great deal!  

I do not want to keep an open mind when it comes to my faith.

There is one word of God. 

ONE

 My view is, there is only one God. One true God. One Savior who is not our brother, He is the son of God, He is the great I am. Their is one Holy Spirit and these three entities are THREE IN ONE! 

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

When we refer to God as our Father, it is figurative. He is the father of all in a spiritual sense. Not physically. We have earthly fathers that share the same genetics as us. That is completely different than having a Father in Heaven that loves us and sent His only SON to die for the sins of the world. 

I have been doing a lot of research about many different religions over the last several years. And I have come to one conclusion. Only true Christianity, Bible believing Christianity, offers forgiveness without having to DO anything to earn that forgiveness. 

There are no ceremonies. 

No sacred rituals. 

No need for secrets of any kind. 

NOTHING. 

It is about LOVE.
 In all of the other religions. ALL of them. LOVE is the missing factor. This is the factor that Jesus insisted must guide our lives as HIS followers. 

If you believe in Jesus and what He did on the cross, then that is IT! 
Your belief saves you. Your small. Human sized belief is all you need. 

God sees your belief and He washes you white as snow. 

Because God's GRACE covers us when we fail or mess up.

Clean as a whistle. 

Cleaner than that. 

Everything from your past is made new. 

We are made new. 

All other religions, forgiveness and restitution relies on your works. How good you are. How often you attend church. What special clothes you wear. How much money you give to the church. Where you get married. 

It isn't right and it isn't the way God intended it to be. 

He made it much easier than MAN has made things. 

Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.