Revelation 21:6 ESV
“And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.’”
Jesus Christ is God. He was with God in the beginning, and
through him all things were made that were made. So, he is also our creator. Not
only is he the Son of God, but he is the second person of our triune God –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he is completely sovereign over all that he
has made.
He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end. And
all that he has said that he will do will come to pass. God is always true to
his word. What he says he will do will be done. So, the things that were
prophesied in the book of Revelation are a sure thing. They will surely take
place.
“To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”
The thirsty are
those who are hungering for and desiring God/Jesus. They are yearning for him
and for his teachings. They long to spend time with him, listening to him speak
tenderly to their hearts, and to feed on his Word. And they are eager to obey
him and to follow him wherever he leads them.
They are not those
who have a casual interest in the Lord, especially if it is just so they can be
forgiven their sins and have the promise of heaven when they die. They are not
those giving lip service only to the Lord or those who are only going through
religious rituals, either.
You aren’t thirsting
for God/Jesus if all you do is pray a prayer to receive Christ but then you go
on living your life for yourself, doing what you want to do, watching and
listening to all the same junk you watched and listened to before you “believed”
in Jesus.
You aren’t thirsting
for God/Jesus if you feel your life is your own to do with what you want and that
God/Jesus is just a small part of it, maybe just on Sunday’s or at mealtime
when someone thanks the Lord for the food. Or maybe you spend a few minutes a
day having devotions, too.
Thirsting for
God/Jesus is like what you feel when your throat is parched, and you have to
have something to drink, or you will pass out or die. It is a necessity that
you quench your thirst. It is imperative that you have something to drink, and
so you crave that drink of water.
It seems that these
days very few people are truly thirsting for God/Jesus and for his word with a
desire to make him their all, and for him to truly be Lord (owner-master) of
their lives. Too many people are taking God’s grace for granted and are
apparently presuming that they can live how they want and still go to heaven.
Those who are
thirsting after the Lord, though, are those who will be given eternal life with
God. The ones who are overcoming, who are prevailing over sin and Satan, and
who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit and not
according to the flesh, will inherit eternal life with God.
Revelation 21:8 ESV
“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
All throughout the New Testament we are given a clear
picture of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ and what it means to not
believe in him, and it has nothing to do with the words that we say in
profession of faith in Jesus Christ or in verbal confession of him as Lord.
All throughout the New Testament we have repeated for us the
picture of the believer versus the non-believer, and it has to do with their
actions, which come from their hearts, which then prove or disprove their faith
to be genuine believing faith in Jesus Christ, the kind of faith that saves.
We either walk according to the Spirit, to please the
Spirit, or we walk according to the flesh, to please the flesh. The one ends in
eternal life with God, and the other ends in death and in eternal punishment.
And this isn’t works-based salvation for we can’t please the Spirit if we are
in the flesh.
Therefore, what it teaches here is that those who are
thirsting (actively) after the Lord are given eternal life with God, but those
who are making faithlessness, murder, sexual immorality, idolatry and lying
their practice, their portion will be the lake of fire, not heaven.
“But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life” (v. 27).
So, if you are living a spiritually unclean life because you
are still making sin your practice, and righteousness is not your practice, you
will not be in heaven when you die unless you repent and turn to the Lord in
surrender to his will for your life and you are now thirsting after his
righteousness.
So, please take this to heart, for not many people are
taking this seriously these days. Too many have bought into a cheapened grace
gospel message which tickles their itching ears, and which tells them pleasant
things that sound good to their ears, and which fits with how they want to
live.
And they are rejecting the teachings of Jesus and of Paul
(the teachings they don’t like) and of the other apostles which tell them that
they must die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, and
that they must follow him in obedience if they want eternal life with God.
Only those whose names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life will
enter heaven, and they are those who are walking according to the Spirit, to
please the Spirit, and who are not walking according to the flesh, to please
the flesh.
All of Me
Author Unknown
All of me not a part but all of me
All the heart and
soul of me
Jesus, I surrender …
I believe, Lord,
help my unbelief
On the altar now I
lay all I am today
As I am I come to
Thee without one plea
Only that Thy saving
blood was shed for me
All of me through
the ages yet to be
I surrender Lord to
Thee
Fully I surrender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV4XCyLcqh4
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*I sang this song many years ago with a different but
similar tune than this and with slightly different words, I believe. If anyone
knows where I can find the original lyrics and tune, please pass them along to me.
Thanks!
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