Life is Short

The other day I opened my email and a spam email wasn’t directed to my spam folder automatically but was in my regular inbox and the title of the email was “Life is short, have an affair.” Dang.  Check the box next to the email. Push the delete button and it was gone. I didn’t even bother to open it and read it, because I knew it was of satan and would only tell me things I don’t believe in. Life is short, have an affair-ha- how about “Life is short, find Jesus!” 

 

I usually open my spam folder to ensure regular emails didn’t get directed to the spam folder, but I can say that most of the spam I seem to get talk about the things of the world like porn, affairs, secret encounters, sex pills, prescription drugs without prescriptions, etc: bad things of this world.

 

It got me thinking about how many people live this way of life and how lost they really are in regards to their salvation.  I was pretty disheartened thinking about this and was troubled by the fact that a large proportion of the population is without Jesus. 

 

The world is full of temptations designed to get us off our walk with the Lord. In front of us, behind us, to the left and to the right, there is always temptation. Do we fall for temptations of this world? Yes some of us do and it makes us feel lost and disheartens us in our walk with Jesus: it makes us feel like we are not worthy of the Lord. When this happens, satan has succeeded in what he wants from us, to take us off our walk with Jesus. Yet, we have no fear of this, because we are sinners, we are prone to make mistakes and because we are saved and can’t taken from the Lord once we have Him and He has us, we can get back in our relationship with Jesus by asking for forgiveness and moving forward again in our walk with Him.

 

“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28, KJV)

 

For unbelievers, temptation surrounds them as well, but they don’t see it or feel it the same way as we do. It is just part of life for them. It is fun and do they feel guilty for their improprieties?  I’m sure they do and satan has won. He uses temptations of this world to ensure unbelievers remain unbelievers by making them feel guilty and hopeless in life.  It is up to us who are saved to witness and live our lives as the light of the world to attract these unbelievers to us and eventually lead them to Jesus.   

 

As an unbeliever at one time I can testify that I fell for the temptations of the world on a regular basis and felt hopeless and guilty, but mostly I felt empty.  What I believe is that the biggest issues for unbelievers is the emptiness they feel inside that they try to fill with the world has to offer, like I felt. Thanks be to God that I found Him! Yet there are those that haven’t found Jesus yet and they walk and stumble through life trying to fill that void in their soul that they don’t know can be filled with Jesus.

 

Remember how you felt before you were saved? That hole in your heart you felt? The things you did to try to fill that emptiness? Put yourself back in those shoes in your mind to remind yourself of those that aren’t saved and how they feel, the emptiness in their heart, the feeling of hopelessness.  This will give you the understanding of where they are and how they feel, it gives you sympathy and empathy to their situation.

 

Remember the feeling you had when you were introduced to Jesus? Remember that feeling of awe when you were saved and felt the presence of the Lord in your heart and the Spirit of God fall on you? Remember the zeal you had when you were first saved for Jesus, the love you had in your heart, that fullness of love and hope? Now it is our job to do our best to bring this to unbelievers by the gifts given to you by the Lord and by the path He has laid out for you. 

 

Admittedly, there are some unsaved people that don’t realize they have a hole in their heart. Satan has successfully filled them with lies and worldly things that will make it hard for us to break through to them, but with the Lord all things are possible. Prayer is our weapon to soften their heart to be receptive to the message of Jesus and His saving grace.  We must be warriors in this fight for the souls of the lost with Jesus as our commander in chief to lead us and help us lead others to Him.

 

Is this hard? Of course it is, we are fighting against an enemy that has had a lot of experience and tools at hand to deceive many to stay away from Jesus, but we can overcome this with our actions, words, and demeanors around the unsaved. We are surrounded by the unsaved and through us living our lives for Jesus, we can’t help but radiate His love and it makes unsaved people curious about us and what we stand for and what we live for.

 

By living for the Lord and having Jesus in your heart, you can’t help but be radiant in love and affection for those unsaved around us. They are attracted to us for some reason like moths to lights. As we live for Jesus, He will open up opportunities for us to witness to the unsaved and will give us the right words to introduce Christ to them.  For some people, this gift is great and they are very successful, but for others this is hard because of fear of rejection or fear of reprisals from people. We shouldn’t fear though, because God is with us in those times.

 

If we introduce Jesus to others and they reject us, does that mean we give up on them? NO! We must pray for them and continue to live and radiate the love of God to them. Sometimes people may reject you and your words, but the words were given to them and later in life when troubles come, they will remember you and your words and will come back to you or a church for comfort. On the other hand, they may reject us and Jesus completely. If they do this, it is in the Lord’s hand and we have done our job of introducing Christ to them.

 

Personally, I take the approach of talking about my faith when asked about it or approached by someone who has questions. I’m not pushy or demanding, but respond with love and compassion and by my words and actions, Jesus comes through me to them and at that point I can introduce Jesus to them. Do I get scared sometimes? Yes, but once I get talking I feel more confident and with the Holy Spirit as my voice, I say the right words. Do I push Jesus on people, no, but when the opportunity arises, I take advantage of the situation.

 

Most of my witnessing happens online through these articles and on the support group I’m part of for my health issues. I have a verse in my signature block and I get a lot of people that email me asking me more about my faith and at that point I get to witness to them through writing, for I’m a better writer than a speaker when witnessing because I can get my thoughts in order better on “paper” than verbalizing them. One of my gifts of from the Lord is writing and I use that to better his kingdom. Sometimes people write me back and sometimes they don’t but I have at least planted a seed in them.

 

That’s part of our job as Christians, to plant seeds in the field of this world. If we plant the seeds to people they may grow or they may not, but that is our duty, to plant the seeds of faith for others who don’t know Jesus and let Him be the water that nourishes them.  By writing, I can reach more people and touch more people than I can if I verbalize my words. For others out there, your gift may be different but you must use your gifts to plant the seeds of faith for unbelievers. Whether your gift is writing, talking, hospitality, etc, we are charged to use our gifts to spread the word of Christ to others.

 

To any unbelievers reading this far down so far, know that we Christians have nothing but love for you. We want you to join our eternal family with Christ. We want you to feel and know the love of Jesus in your heart as we do. We want you to have the hope of eternity in heaven with Jesus, for He is the only way to heaven. You can’t do it yourself by works or living a good life or having your own views of what it takes to get to heaven. All the good you do, the life you live, and the hope of heaven means nothing unless you have Jesus in your life and heart for salvation.

 

If you want to have eternity in heaven, if you want that emptiness in your heart filled, this moment is for you.  All you have to do is to genuinely pray to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Do this now and you will become a changed person. The Holy Spirit will fill your heart with an unspeakable joy. You will begin to desire to know the Lord more and more and your life will change for the better. You will see the world and your life through God’s eyes. The Holy Spirit will guide you on your walk with Jesus. You won’t regret this decision.

 

If you are scared or hesitant of this decision, don’t be. God is love and if you want that love to fill your empty heart, that emptiness you are feeling right now, He will do so. He will never let you go and will be with you always in your heart and thoughts.  You will be a new creature, God’s child wrapped in His comfort and love. Don’t miss this opportunity. Your eternal destination depends on this decision right now. Choose Jesus.

 

You don’t know when you life will end and it may end today, tomorrow, or 50 years from now, but you don’t really know. If you don’t choose to have Jesus in your life, you will miss the opportunity to spend your eternity with Jesus in heaven. We all want to go to heaven and the only way to heaven is to believe in Jesus and His promise of eternal salvation with Him if you simply believe in Him, His life, and His resurrection. He died for your sins and you will be washed clean and will be blameless at the judgment seat of God if you simply believe. Life is short, choose Jesus.

 

God bless.

 

John Lysaught

John_lysaught@yahoo.com