I continue to enjoy my pastor's study on prophesy. He clarified the difference between Allah and the Yahweh God, whom I worship, during this Sunday's sermon. I admit that at one time before I really began to seek the face of God, I speculated that maybe God did assign different prophets throughout the world and maybe Mohammad was one of them. Maybe Buddha was one of God's prophets, and maybe the fellow who started the Hindu religion was sent by God. As time went by and I continued my search for the truth of just who the real God was, I began to understand the false religious teachings that are just everywhere we look these days.
I began to understand that Satan doesn't care how he gets you, as long as the true God doesn't. So many and probably all of the false religions got their beginnings in cultures with polytheistic beliefs. The more I explored, the more I realized how tiring it must be to have to remember which god does what or handles what issue in life. I am thankful for my one God in three persons. The Father in Heaven, his Son who died for my sins, and the Holy Spirit who now inhabits my soul. I also realized that life today and life at the beginning of creation is the same. From the very beginning God had to search for men who wanted to know Him personally instead of seeking man made idols. Nothing much has changed.
Even the labels for man made idols are the same. In history and yesterday in the news, men are seeking power, wealth, and false idols. We are currently embroiled in wars because one group who follow Allah, want to kill all Jews and Christians. Now, this just make me think. Satan is still deceiving so much of the world just as from the beginning of history. I am thankful that each time I read the bible, something new is revealed to me about how God is in control and I am to cast my worries to Him.
I am constantly reminded of the influence that false idols have on society. I drive by a Buddhist temple, I hear about protests during a Christian worship service, I see the large and small statues in various shops all over America. I've witnessed foolish chants and calls to the goddess of nature. It just makes me sad.
It also lets me understand the passages in the bible that speak of a narrow path to the Lord. I never understood that growing up. Everyone I knew growing up went to some kind of Christian church. Not so anymore. In fact the most prominent cult in America today deals with disbelief. Atheists, agnostics, and other rationalists make up this group. This too makes me sad as I see really nice people miss out on the only real gift in life, and that is life after death made possible by simple belief. By simply believing in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God and accepting Him as a personal Saviour, anyone can approach the very throne of God. The true God of all creation wants to fellowship with all man.
As a Christian it is my responsibility to pray for all man, that their eyes might be opened to the truth of who God really is. The truth of Salvation made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus is the light that will set any man free to live forever in the presence of God. What a blessing!
