What is the most disastrous thing you can think of right now? Perhaps it's the loss of a child, parent or sibling; even your best friend or spouse? More than family, maybe it's your fortune for which you have worked so hard. For others it may be the loss of reputation or power. Everyone hangs onto something which loss would be the "end of the world". What most of us dread is the ultimate disaster... the death of ourselves. People dread dying. Christians dread dying, although death for a Christian is not a disaster, but is reward.
Disasters are those things which destroy what's important to us. For a Christian, death is the cessation of life. Temporal life should not be important to us, for it's promised to be replaced by eternal life... yet we all dread dying. Are we that shallow that we dread that we should be looking forward? In fact why should we look forward to eternal life?
It's called "salvation" for a reason. People turn to Christ to save themselves... from eternal torment... from hell. However, Christians have hope. It's not hope that we avoid hell. It's hope in something better than what we have here and we seek eternal life because:
Luke 14:14 (ESV) "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”We desire heaven so that we'll be blessed. It's a better place than it is here and when we arrive in our new home, we truly shall be blessed! Although heaven is a better place than here, and so much better than hell, people don't seem to care about where they spend their afterlife. Of all the subjects to speak on, "religion", especially Christianity, intimidates the most people extremely. There is one thing which is in the recipe for eternal death. It's not a secret ingredient, and most people have it.
Luke 12:10 (ESV) "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."This is what's called a "hard teaching", but it's that extra ingredient which makes the recipe for death so potent! First off, salvation is through Jesus only. There is no other way! It would seem that speaking ill of Jesus is what damns, but it's not by speaking ill of our Savior, but of the Holy Spirit! Why is that?
Luke 23:34 "Then said Jesus 'Father, forgive them. They know not what they do!'Jesus has already asked that God forgive those who speak against him because they are ignorant people. Ignorance can be forgiven! However, the Holy Spirit was left here as our guide. He's the one who leads and directs us:
Acts 5:32 (KJV) "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him."We are to obey the Holy Ghost! As we move around in this world, which by the way, belongs temporarily to the devil, the Holy Spirit keeps us safe, guides our spiritual life and is our aid in righteousness. He comforts us when distressed and leads us away from temptation. He "guards our hearts", so if we reject the One to whom we are to obey, that's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and is a rejection of God here on earth... and for that people "will not be forgiven"!
Blaspheming is talking about God or his word with disrespect. It's irreverence for his doctrine. At some time, some place and some where in one's life, they must accept the doctrine of Christ, he being God. His doctrine is clear: Salvation through Jesus only and one receives the free gift by faith. If this doctrine is not followed, that's blasphemy.Non-Christians who blaspheme are damned because they were never saved in the first place, but blasphemy restores Christians who do so to a fallen state.
Hebrews 6:4 "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."This is called apostasy. It's those who "were once enlightened" and have been "made partakers of the Holy Ghost" and "fall away". It's clear that this is the unpardonable sin. For those who have received the Holy Ghost it's to kick him out of their temple.
1 Corinthians 6:19 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"Here's the scenario: You become saved and are filled with the Holy Ghost. Your soul within your body becomes God's temple where his Spirit resides. Inside that temple is the Holy of Holies. God sits on the mercy seat of your heart. As such, you have been enlightened. You are to obey the Holy Ghost. If you continue to obey the Holy Ghost the race is finished. You are rewarded with your heavenly home. However, if you "fall away" from your "enlightenment" and reject what's in you, then that's blasphemy! Congratulations! You have just followed the recipe for disaster!
There are various ingredients in the "Recipe to Disaster", but here is one such recipe:
- Failure to think about the recipe. Merely throwing ingredients into the mix means untasty cakes.
- Being apathetic about the taste of things to come. You can do without that tasty cake. The cake you have is ample and you enjoy it.
- You may care about the tasty cake, but are careless. You don't think you deserve such good cake. You don't even try!
- Good tasty cakes are a mystery. It has to have an ingredient of love. If the cake is made by following a good recipe, and the secret ingredient is not added, the cake falls!
- Making tasty cakes requires sincerity. You've made many untasty cakes and son't want to make any more. You must be sincere this time, but yet you're not! You still want to use your own recipe, although with it you have always made untasty cakes.
- You must accept the recipe for tasty cakes. Pride will ruin tasty cakes. You must turn to a good baker and use his recipe. However, you fail to do so!
- The ingredients for a good cake is: love, charity, hope, faith and several more. You try to make tasty cakes without those ingredients and it falls flat!
- The good baker has a gift for you. It's his recipe for tasty cakes and a baker's helper to turn to for grace, the main ingredient of tasty cakes.
- By faith you know that the good baker and his recipe makes tasty cakes, but you have more faith in yourself. Your nemesis tells you constantly that you don't need the good baker and that your own recipe is superb! You listen to your nemesis.
- You go ahead and make your own cake! The Judge looks at you in pity. You walk off the platform and are never to taste of really good cake. Your recipe led to disaster!
- Some of you go ahead and accept the recipe and the baker's helper. You make the cake as directed and it is truly tasty! You enjoy tasty cakes for awhile, but your nemesis keeps on telling you about his tastier cakes. You try one of his and really like his cake. This is what you used to eat and you look back at all the tasty cakes you had before you met the good baker. You fail to realize that the taste of the cake was all artificial and will cause cancer. It just tastes good and you don't think about the cancer.
- You always seem to eat the artificial tasty cakes and forget the goodness of the real thing. Your good baker's helper gives up on you because you continually insult his recipe and fail to obey what it takes to make good cakes.
- You eat the artificial cake until it destroys you. You have cancer throughout. You try to bake a few good cakes on your own, but you try using your own recipe again. You die. You destroy yourself by eating toxic recipes! Then at your death you turn toward the good baker and ask for a little more of his tasty cake. He says "Who are you? I never knew you!" Your cakes become your agony. You remember all the good cakes and all the bad! If only you had a chance to bake tasty cakes again! But, alas, the oven is overheated and tasty cakes are never good in the heat of the kitchen!
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