His Forever
Do our actions and words look and sound like the words of Jesus?
When we are faced with challenges in life, or hit a point where it just feels like, "nothing is going right for me...", reflect on yourself and your actions and words that led you to where you are in life right now.
Do they line up with the actions and words of Jesus? Likewise, there are reasons for every action and emotion Jesus displayed, and we can apply this to our life as well.
For example, Jesus was very angry with the money-changers and merchants present at the temple of God in Jerusalem. The Cleansing of the Temple narrative tells of Jesus expelling the merchants and the money-changers from the Temple, and is is recounted in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament.
Was he breaking his own rule by doing this? No. He had a good reason for being angry; the money-changers were cheating the people and doing it in the Temple, of all places! There are things that should make us angry: seeing someone being abused is a good example!
Today, it seems that anything can cause anger and people react violently with the slightest provocation. Thinking that someone insults you, for example, can lead to a fight. Road rage is another example of this. What about using abusive language? That is so common-place that people often don’t even hear it when speaking to one another, or in passing.
What has happened to us as a society, that we feel it is normal and OK to have pushed Jesus and his actions, words and commands on how to live, so far out of our lives?
Chaos is the absence of light in darkness. More correctly, the absence of Jesus amidst the evil in the world.
I've said this before, and I'll say it again - if we focus on the words and commands and actions of Jesus Christ, and truly follow them every day, and love one another, and practice repentance for our sins, it would be impossible for evil of this magnitude to exist, and we would not treat one another like you see taking place across the world at times.
Practicing proper repentance leads to salvation. This salvation is eternal; which means that yes, surely, we will get to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The love of God will never cast us out; drawing us closer to God. God’s grace and mercy will always be with us, because we are God’s children and He desires that we dwell in His goodness and in His mercy, forever.
