How many of us live in the past. We make mistakes, we sin, some big and some small. But we believe that our mistakes and sins are unforgiveable and that we are stuck in them and cannot move on. We believe there is no future for us because of our past. But here is the good news, God through Jesus will meet us right where we are. He will forgive or past sins with an unconditional love and grace that is beyond our understanding. We can move forward in his grace. FROM NOW ON we can live a different life than our past. We can accept the love and forgiveness of Jesus and began our life anew. FROM NOW ON we can live a life of purpose and meaning. We can change the way we have been doing things. We can start living with the Holy Bible as our blueprint for our future. FROM NOW ON can be the three words that change our life. We have got to believe that Jesus really is God. He is The Way and The Truth. Our salvation and redemption come through Jesus and only him. We need to step out in faith and believe.

Galatians 6:17 – From now on. Let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Do people really realize the gravity of their words when they say….”I believe in God”. They are believing in the most awesome idea, person, and belief in the universe. The are believing in the creator of Heaven and earth…..they are believing in the Great I Am. … They are believing in Jesus, the word, the one and only true God. They are believing in The Way and The Truth and The Life. From everlasting to everlasting. The Author of grace and unconditional love. I realize that I am believing in an awesome God. And I do know that the whole concept of evolution and chance is pretty laughable. I think that its pretty obvious that an intelligent mind created it all and put everything in just the right place to make it all work. I base my belief on faith and thats fine with me. I don’t need to have God proven to me. I know because of my faith and that’s God’s plan and its fine with me. Some day it will all be revealed to us….God, Jesus, Heaven. And then every knee will bow. Praise be to God.

Philippians 2: 10-11 ……That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Author Dallas Willard has this to say about people….”While all forms of media insist the most unfortunate people in the world are overweight, homely, and old, God’s Kingdom says otherwise. For as he bestows natural beauty on a simple flower, so He bestows the same beauty on every person on the planet'”

We fight the image of natural physical beauty and glamor as being the greatest desire of our existence. We make beauty an idol in our society today. The truth is that this is only temporary. Beauty is here today and gone tomorrow. There is no fountain of youth. Those who madly pursue worldly physical beauty will be greatly disappointed when their beauty fades away and they have nothing else.

1 Peter 3:34 – “Your beauty should not come from outward adornments, such as braided hair and wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”

There are lots of philosophies floating around about who God is. Lots of ideas and lots of gods. People have made money, power, beauty, etc. their gods since the beginning of time. The Roman Empire had their gods like Zeus and Apollo and many others. So who is right and can there be more than one god. The Bible says in scripture there is only one God and He created life. Scripture also says that this God is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Furthermore it says that Jesus is God. So I guess what one has to decide is if this truth found in scripture is really the truth. Too many people reject the God of the Bible without even finding out who He claims to be. They don’t know anything about Him. I am saying that one should take the time to find out who Jesus is before making the most important choice they will ever make in their lifetime.

John 1:1- In the Beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word (Jesus) was with God and the Word(Jesus) was God.

Jesus is the Truth. The Bible quotes Jesus as saying that He is the Truth. So if it is between the world’s truth or Jesus’s Truth, who are you going to believe? If it is between Jesus’s Truth and man’s truth, who are you going to believe? If you are looking for answers will you go to Jesus or man? Its pretty simple for me, Jesus is The Way and The Truth. The answers are in the Word of God and Jesus is The Word. And guess where you find the Word…….in the Bible. You may not like the answers you get from the Bible, but they are The Truth. Jesus cannot speak anything but The Truth because He is God. The problem that affects mankind is that too many people listen to too many people and not God. People, even those with good intentions, are still just people. We the people need to hear truth spoken by The Word (Jesus) who is the ultimate Truth. If we want our lives to be rich with purpose and meaning there is no other way.

John 14:6 – I am The Way, The Truth and The Life…………

In reading author Brennan Manning I came across the following statement….”the gradual transformation from an attitude of self- hatred to a spirit of self=acceptance is what occurs in the process of ‘trying’ to be honest. Paradoxically, the human spirit soars in the daily endeavor to make choices and decisions that are in Christ Jesus, not who we think we should be or who somebody else wants us to be”. This kind of sums it up when it comes to our self identity. I think we all are tempted all the time to be someone we are not. It is very difficult to find out who we are and not fall into the trap of being a person we are not. When we discover that our identity is in Jesus Christ and him only a whole new life begins to unfold right before our eyes. It doesn’t happen overnight, but a “gradual transformation”, or as Romans 12:2 says…”a renewing of your mind.”

Romans 12:2 – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —–His good, pleasing and perfect will.

The following message of Easter is taken from a writing by N.T. Wright…..”The message of Easter is neither that God once did a spectacular miracle but then decided not to do many others, nor that there is a blissful life after death to look forward to. The message of Easter is that GOD’S NEW WORLD HAS BEEN UNVEILED IN JESUS CHRIST AND THAT YOU ARE INVITED TO BELONG TO IT. And precisely because the resurrection was and is bodily, albeit with a transformed body, the power of Easter to transform and heal the present world must be put into effect both at the macro level, in applying the gospel to the major problems of the world, and to the intimate details of our daily lives. Christian holiness consists not of trying as hard as we can to be good but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world we publicly entered in our baptism. There are many parts of the world we can’t do anything about except pray. But there is one part of the world, one part of physical reality, that we can do something about, and that is the creature each of us calls “myself”.

I have spent most of my life going to church. I have attended different churches during my life and I have never been in a church that didn’t add something to the Grace of Jesus. Accepting and believing that Jesus is God was not enough. The church and its religion taught that Jesus’s love and forgiveness was conditional. I had to earn it. It was about works and giving money. The more you did for the church and the more money you gave the more you were accepted by God. Thanks to one church and much pursuit by me I learned the truth that Jesus accepts us unconditionally……Right now, right where we are and if we will believe this then its a new beginning in our lives as we learn about who Jesus really is through prayer and pursuing him by reading the Bible and the books written about him. Its true that one needs to be careful what he reads and who he listens to, but if one does it right a whole new purpose and meaning begins to unfold before him. No strings attached, just listen to the word of God (Jesus) and trust him. Remember that Jesus plus nothing equals everything………..