What are the proofs that you truly love yourself? First, when you were still a baby, you wanted to have all the comforts that's why you were crying to get the attention of your parents. You needed to be fed and when you were full, you then slept the most hours that you can because you love to do it and you've felt the need to do it.. You wanted the full attention of your parents and felt so secured and loved whenever you feel their touch. You've always longing for their love and comfort. Second, Your need of love and comfort increased by your longing for being accepted by other kids of your age like your playmates, cousins, friends, schoolmates and others. You wanted to feel continuously the love and comfort that you felt when you were just a baby. Aside from having toys that you love, candies that you like, beautiful clothes, shoes, bags, pencil, games, nice scenery and others, you were always still looking for acceptance and community. Third, When you were in the grades school onward, and your mind is trained to love education, book, and learning, your need was then elevated more. You wanted to achieve your dream to become somebody or useful in the future. You wanted to prove something, to find yourself and to have a sense of fulfillment through personal accomplishment. You realized as student to stand on your own feet and reduced your dependence on your parents, others and to be of help to others to have fulfillment in life. Fourth, When you finished your college and pass the board examination and made to get a nice paying job and knew your capacity to help your parents financially, help to support the studies of your brothers and sisters and help others, you were then thinking to have a family that you've felt as one of the last moves to be done in life that will give complete meaning in your life. You've spent more time to work hard because you wanted to give the best education to your children as your investment for their future. Lastly, After you've set and placed everything in order, you wanted to retire in a very quiet scenery in the province or to have a retirement home whereto plant fruits and vegetables, to raise livestock, and to visit once in a while your grandchildren. You've felt personally that you've done what you aimed when you were still a child. Now that you're belong to the senior level, you're now just waiting for your death which normally not part of the preparation you've prepared when you were just a child and even when you've in your middle life. Your plan was only up to your retirement age. And this cycle will continue to roll up to the next generations and the most important part of life was not included and this is to place God at the center of his life. Man realized his need for God when he is old, weak and sick. God doesn't want that cycle becomes the norm of man's life but because of man's intention to focus his life for himself, he let Satan to deceive him and didn't see the importance of life after death. God wants that all men will enjoy life here on earth and not to suffer his life in hell for eternity, but man had no regard for God because he was strong and enjoyed life and the offered happiness of materialism.
But what the bible says about life? "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul." Mark 8:36. And in I Peter 1:24 says, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field, the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the words of the Lord will stand forever." The average life span of man during the Old Testament time reached up to 969 years old and this man was Methuselah but because of sin of disobedience done by Adan and Eve, this life span was reduced to an average of 85 years old in the 21st century and will continue to go down till the second coming of Christ. The world is now in the last days and now ushering this critical time, people will continue to become more wicked as how it describes in II Timothy 3:1-5. The world food supplies now is contaminated by chemicals, the air that we breath is so polluted cause of the continuous emissions of gas, diesel and chemicals by billions of cars, millions of factories, billions of tons of garbage dumped, polluted waters and others. Different kinds of sicknesses are now present in the world like HIV, cancer, Ebola virus and others. The world's death rate as the report of the CIA World Fact book last June 30, 2015 is 108 people per minute or 6,480 people per hour or 155,520 people per day or 56,764,800 per year. Death is a reality and will continue to increase until the coming of Christ. If the average life span of man in 2016 is 85 years old, all seniors age 60 years old have only 30% or 25 years left here on earth. But to all young people or middle aged men and women, don't be so confident, death is coming to all unexpectedly. Death is coming to all like a thief in the night. No one knows when death will come.
If you truly love yourself, you will invest in an insurance that will cover not only your life here on earth but your life after death. You can't bring anything or your accumulated wealth in your tomb, all of your savings will be left to your family and this will be the normal cycle of life of men. That's why the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus was written to remind the people worldwide to repent. The rich man begged two requests from father Abraham. One was to bring Lazarus back to life and to dip his finger into water and dip it to his lip to lessen at least his thirst because of agony and pain in hell but Abraham rejected him. And the second one was to bring Lazarus back to life and to go to the house of his father cause his five brothers are there and they need to be warned to repent so that they will not experienced the pain and punishment he is experiencing in the lake of fire. He think that they will believe if the dead like Lazarus if brings back to life will become more effective to remind them in order that they will surely believe and not to experience the same horrible fate he is experiencing in hell. But Abraham rejected him and told him that Moses and the Prophets are there. Its up to them to believe and to accept the warning. They have the freedom to choose and all the warnings are there to remind the people Luke 16:14-31.
God sent godly men to his chosen nation, the Israelite to obey his words, not to worship idols and not to live a wicked life but they insisted to reject the warnings to live a holy life through Moses, Joshua, the Prophets like Jeremiah, Elijah and others. They wholeheartedly hugged and kissed wickedness and because of their disobedience, God used king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to conquer Israel, destroyed the temple of Jerusalem, killed so many Jews, some were put in exile and others were scattered in different countries in the world. God let these horrible event to come to his people to teach the younger generations of Israel not to follow their fathers. And this is also the lesson all people in the world should learn and not to do the same as the Israelite did against God. God is holy and he expects his people to live the same. In spite of this, God told his people through Jeremiah that he loved them so much and Jeremiah told them the beautiful plan of God to them that says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, "declares the Lord," and will bring you back from captivity and from the places where you were exiled." Jeremiah 29:11
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If you truly love yourself and your loved ones, you will seek now wholeheartedly the Lord and our God while he may be found. Don't waste the life and time he's given you. We owed everything to him and we're just the stewards of all things he entrusted us to manage, even our lives. He said in his words in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, Jesus that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And in John 1:12 says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God." Religion, good works, money, connections and wisdom can't save a man from the power and punishment of sin, only Jesus is the answer and it is written in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Friends, Jesus loves you and he has a wonderful plan in your life. Accept him as your Lord and Savior by faith. Admit before him that you are one of the reasons why he died on the cross, confess your sins and he will forgive you, turn away from your sins and ask him to help you to obey his words and to live a holy life until he comes again. When you decided wholeheartedly to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will become a child of God and will inherit eternal life in heaven and will no longer pass through judgment of God to all who will reject him, will insist to disobey his words and will continue to live in wickedness.
For more messages about love, forgiveness, eternal life and others, visit our website at savelifewithjoy.com or go to our blogs at hopeandlifeforyou.com and Eugenio "EJ" Juarez. For your suggestions, comments and prayer requests, email us at agn623@gmail.com
May our God be with you always.
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