{"id":870941,"date":"2012-07-27T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T06:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=870941"},"modified":"2012-04-11T19:27:20","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T19:27:20","slug":"desires-and-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=870941","title":{"rendered":"Desires and Destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As we learned in previous posts, the basic problem we all have is that when someone tells us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heavenly things\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like the gospel that Jesus lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death to pay for the sins of everyone who would ever believe on Him through faith and that God raised Him from the dead three days later, Jesus says when you hear things like that, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/em> believe unless God changes your heart and opens your eyes. And if that bothers you, then there is hope. If you want to worship Jesus as Lord, then God is already working in your heart and drawing you to Himself. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Our desires point toward our destiny. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you desire<\/em> to give Jesus Christ complete charge of your life, your thoughts, your habits, your words, your actions, your money, everything, then God is already at work drawing you to Himself. You need to yield to Him and start obeying Him right now. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It begins by doing what the Bible says. Repent of your sins, put Jesus Christ first before everything and everyone else in this life, and follow Him. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In verses 14-15, Jesus said that He must be lifted up (referring to His death on the cross) so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life<\/em>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Every person will exist forever either in heaven with Christ or in hell. Eternal life is about the quality of life with Jesus we will have beginning now and for eternity in heaven. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be boring or monotonous. It will be thrilling with new marvels of majestic glory throughout eternity and (as C.S. Lewis noted) every new chapter that opens will be even better than the one that preceded it. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In John 3, Nicodemus didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe what Jesus was saying\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet. But sometime later, we learn in the gospel of John that Nicodemus did<\/em> come to faith. God opened his eyes spiritually and he saw what Jesus was talking about. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see this and if your heart is cold toward the Word of God, I pray that God would give you a warm heart of true belief; that He would regenerate you from within and cause you to believe like Nicodemus. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is the only way to the Father. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Trusting Jesus for His finished work on the cross as payment in full for all of your sins and for all of your self-righteous attempts at earning His favor is the only way to spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus. Trust Him!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For His glory in your life and for your joy in Him,
\nPastor Kevin<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we learned in previous posts, the basic problem we all have is that when someone tells us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heavenly things\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like the gospel that Jesus lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death to pay for the sins of everyone who would ever believe on Him through faith and that God raised Him from … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Desires and Destiny”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870941"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=870941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=870941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}