God loves you more than you could ever know …
And HIS righteous favor is on those who cry out to HIM with a broken and contrite heart over their sin. “Wash me with hyssop until I am clean and whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7, CEV. Are you ready and willing to serve God, who bought you with a price, namely the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ, which he has shed for His friends? The following is taken from John 15:13-15, CEV, in which Jesus says: 13 “The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them. 14 And you are my friends, if you obey me. 15 Servants don’t know what their master is doing, and so I don’t speak to you as my servants. I speak to you as my friends, and I have told you everything my Father has told me.”
So who is this information for? It is for a younger version of myself, when my relationship with Jesus was in its infancy and I was too afraid to ask Him for help; it is for those like me who have not, do not and will never practice homosexual behavior, but perhaps you continue to have homosexual thoughts and feelings that, on your own, you are unable to become free of once and for all; and want to know the love of Jesus on a deeper level and to experience His complete salvation from those thought and feelings. More importantly, it is for whosoever will understand or need to be reminded to never to be ashamed about struggling with sin to the point that you find yourself struggling alone or trying to save yourself, as I did in vain for many years.
Because not only can we never save ourselves from the curse of sin, but our good Jesus has taken all of the shame of everyone’s sin upon himself when He died to save and redeem all of humanity and His entire creation from the curse of sin and the day to day struggle with ungodly behavior, if we lay it all at His feet rather than become burdened by it. The way that Jesus, the Son of God loves each one of us and His obedience to His Father is with indescribable devotion: He is therefore our biggest and best example for worshipping God in truth, and our most important ally in the goal of achieving and maintaining a Godly life.
5 Thomas said the him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.” See: John 14:5-7. Whenever we need reassurance, we can go to Jesus in prayer at any point in our salvation journey. Further, He continues to advocate for us to God, His Father, because Jesus is a true friend and the trustworthy Savior of all who faithfully believe in Him.
Jesus Christ is our Anointed Savior: He died for us all, not because we could save ourselves but because He knew we were helpless and hopelessly lost to our sin. In His unspeakably great compassion, He willingly shed His Holy blood to redeem the world while all people languished under the curse of their transgressions since the days of Adam and Eve. The conscience that God has given every one of us reminds us of sin in our lives through the thoughts in our minds. Sin has a way of wearing us down and driving us to call upon God for salvation. And Jesus Christ is there for us, always waiting for our call. Therefore, it is up to each one of us to not wait or trust in our own strength. “But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.” See: 1 John 1:9, (CEV)
On the other hand, not even God in all of His grace, self-sacrifice, power, and wisdom can make us love and obey Him. We must willingly choose to trust Him to redeem us from the burdens of this life and from the curse of sin that is upon all of humanity. Remember, that curse was so severe that God had to put on flesh and die for you, me, all people, and all things in His entire creation. Only when each one of us becomes a new person in Christ, AKA Emmanuel, which is translated “God is with us”, can we meaningfully fight the good fight of faith through praying without ceasing and consistently depend on God to help us to choose righteousness over wickedness and salvation through Christ over sin.
By profound contrast, the Lake of Fire (which is spoken of in the book of Revelation) is a place of torment and final destruction that is reserved only for Satan, his angels, and people who are too proud to relinquish the helm of their “ship”, (represented by their own willful decision-making) to Jesus, the true Captain of every soul that has ever lived on the Earth. “9 God doesn’t intend to punish us, but wants us to be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 Christ died for us, so we could live with Him, whether we are alive or dead when He comes. 11 This is why we must encourage and help each other, just as you are already doing.” See, 1 Thessalonians 5: 9-11, CEV.
Further, in the greater scheme of things, Jesus is Lord and King of all, including of every angel; and we human beings are a little lower than the angels. The choice of spending eternity with God or perishing once and for all in the Lake of Fire is determined by whether each individual will accept redemption from sin that Jesus provided through His sacrificial death for us all. And all we have to do is say, Yes, to Jesus, trust Him daily with our salvation. Don’t allow sin pride or deception to rob you of the abundant life that Jesus has for you now and in the life to come, which will be free from any type of sin and where the power to sin will be forever destroyed.
Since God is Holy, He expects us all to serve Him with fear and trembling, as we certainly would also do for our mere earthly fathers; so how much more should we fear and respect the will of the God of all, who made everyone and everything? Please see, Psalm 2:11-12, Philippians 2:12 and similar Bible verses.
Unfortunately, sometimes a person may become unreasonably proud, selfish, and unwilling to share any of his wealth with others. And such a person will do only what they want to do. They will not listen to preachers/prophets while they still have the opportunity, not realizing that their wrongdoing may lead them to a place of torment where they can no longer enjoy their wealth at the end of their earthly life. Read what Jesus teaches about The Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. One of the main takeaways from that parable of Jesus is that, the time to do good and share our abundance with another is while our wealth is still in our possession, the person in need is still alive on the Earth and they are therefore able to benefit from the gracious behavior of another human being.
Jesus teaches us that if someone refuses to listen to the Moses and the prophets, neither will he hear, even if someone returns from the dead to warn him of his errors. Further, God is willing to give every Christian all of His riches in glory for all of eternity for simply believing in Him, honoring God with righteous living, and loving HIM as we love ourselves and our fellow human beings. This includes sharing our abundance with the less fortunate. Our abundance is whatever God gives us to share with others: It may be special Godly insight, or unwavering belief in spiritual truths, based on our own experiences with God’s grace and wisdom.
Or, perhaps, we may be have abundant earthly riches. In either case, since God is a loving, giving and forgiving God and we are all made in His image, He requires us to imitate Him by being fair to others in business and in daily life: To help people who may lack something that we may have significant spiritual knowledge of or physically possess in great abundance. In the parable of the beggar and the rich man, Jesus tells us how the beggar received mercy in Heaven but the rich man received fiery torment, because he forsook the beggar by refusing to share his wealth while they both lived on Earth.
Jesus shares many parables in the Holy Bible to teach us about loving God and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Further, God has asked me to share my story with others, who are puzzled and feel trapped by the sin of homosexual thoughts and feelings just as I once felt. Jesus in His great mercy has counseled me and given me an understanding and a resolution about that sin; and HE forever provides HIS encouragement and saving knowledge as needed. Sharing my story may make a huge difference for someone else: It may help them understand that God isn’t angry with them.
On the contrary, because He is a righteous and loving Father, He wants to save you and develop a trusting personal relationship with you through both His written Word, the Holy Bible and answered prayers. And when you become strong in the faith, you in turn can help to save others from the deception of sin. However, even God may despair of calling people to repentance, as the Bible teaches that some people will simply go on refusing to serve and to obey HIM. “So God abandoned them to their hearts’ desires, which led to the moral corruption of degrading their own bodies with each other. They traded God’s truth for a lie, and they worshipped and served the creation instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Please see: Romans1:24-25
Finally, by merciful contrast, the Word of God also teaches the following: In the Scriptures, God says, “When the time came, I listened to you, and when you needed help, I came to save you.” That time has come. This is the day for you to be saved. See 2 Corinthians 6:2, CEV.