Do I have to forgive?

Hey Guys! It’s me again. I’m just chilling at home it’s Sunday afternoon here, I have church at night.

Today I’m going to be answering the question of forgiveness. Do I have to forgive the people who have hurt me and what if they still live with me? What do I do with that? This is something I spoke to you guys in Russia about a little bit. I talked about my parents and how I had to forgive them. For those of you who don’t know, I grew up with parents who were addicted to alcohol and drugs, my dad still is, he’s actually in prison right now. Through that God’s led me on a journey of forgiving them and it’s hard. For those of you who have friends or parents who have hurt you, you know, it’s hard. We all have been hurt by someone in our lifetime.

Today I’m going to answer this question in two ways. [and of course the answer is yes!] When someone has hurt you, you have to forgive them for two reasons. The first is because God loves them and therefore we have to love them. When we hold back forgiveness from someone, we’re not truly loving them like God has loved us. It’s deciding that we’re going to become a judge to them and not love them through what they’re going through even if it hurts us.

If you have a Bible look up the verse 1 John 4:10-12. And by the way, if you want to learn to love people, read 1 John 4 because it’s amazing! “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”
That verse says that it was a sacrifice for God to come and love us. A lot of times it takes a sacrifice to love others. We have to give up the pain that we have, the expectations we have. We have to love people and not expect anything back.

The second reason we have to forgive people is because God’s forgiven them and because God has forgiven us. When we decide not to forgive someone, we’re deciding to hold back and not give that person exactly what God has given us. When I wasn’t willing to forgive my parents, I wasn’t willing to give them the love God had given to me and it was really selfish! Something God had to teach me was that He has forgiven me a lot and I needed to be willing to give that to my parents.

I love C.S. Lewis, read him if you get the chance! He has a quote that says, “To be a Christian [or Christlike] means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
It’s going to seem like people have done worse things than us. I may think that since I’ve never been addicted to drugs or alcohol that I’m a pretty good person, but God sees us all the same. When we sin against Him, even if we’ve just done one wrong thing, He sees us all the same. He’s forgiven us just as much as He’s forgiven those who have hurt us and that’s why we need to forgive them.

Now lastly I want to talk about forgiving the people that we live with. How can you forgive the people I live with that still hurt me? Can you forgive them? The answer is definitely yes!

This is something I’ve struggled with a lot. Actually, while we were in Russia, I was struggling with it because my dad relapsed and went back to prison right before I left for Russia. So while I was in Russia it was really hard because I was trying to learn how to forgive him again and love him despite all of that. God’s really shown me that it’s a daily choice. That even with my mom and living with her and my brother… the things siblings do to you! Sometimes I love my brother… sometimes it’s really hard. But it’s a daily thing that I have to do. I have to decide everyday that I’m going to release that to God, that I’m going to love people. The people that you live with and are being hurt by, give it up to God every day! Every time someone hurts you, give it right back to Him.

When we don’t let go of it, we start to become bitter and bitterness is not fun. It’ll stop you from being able to do what God wants you to do, it’ll make you react to people badly, it’ll start to change you. That’s why forgiveness is important!

So to go back over what we talked about today: Yes we need to forgive people. First because God has loved them and so we need to love them and secondly because God has forgiven them and we need to forgive them. That’s going to be something we have to do every day!

Love you all… hope you’re having a great first couple weeks back at school. Have a great day!

Can I be sure I'm saved?

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We want to talk about assurance of Salvation! How can one actually know that they are born again? It talks in the Bible that we can know we are saved. 

John 5:24 

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

If you are a believer and have accepted Jesus as your Savior, the devil wants you to have doubts. It's not uncommon for us to have doubts as Christians but there should be no reason to have them if we read the Bible and see what God says about it. He said we can know...

1 John 5:13

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."

So when you become a Christian and are born again, God gives us the Holy Spirit and that's how we can know we are born again.

Rom 8:1 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

The Holy Spirit will help us and that is what we need - to rely on him to help us get through our Christian life.

John 10:28

"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

Once we are saved, no one can snatch us out of Gods hand. We are sealed and secured in God! If you're having doubts or fears about your salvation, remember these verses. We can know because we have the Holy Spirit.

Rom 10:13

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Salvation is a gift from God. He will not take it away from us if it's genuinely in our heart.

If you have fears and doubts about whether you are a Christian, or that you don't feel good enough, maybe you don't think God can forgive a sin you have committed! Always remember God will forgive you, its not a good enough reason to go and sin just because God will forgive us though...

If you are having doubts or fears, talk to God about it. Read the Bible too and see that God has offered us everlasting life which is forever and it cannot be taken away.

I hope this is an encouragement to you, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask us. We will do our best to answer them from the Bible.

Thanks for tuning in once again  

God Bless  

What is Grace?

Hi Everyone! It’s Elisha here, all the way on the other side of the world in America.

I just want you all to know that I miss you all so much and I am praying for you.

Today I want to talk to you about grace. What is grace? What is God’s grace? I’m going to start with a verse:

Ephesians 2:8-9, “ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

By definition, grace means undeserved favor- its favor that we really do not deserve. There is a cartoon here in America called Dennis the Menace. It is a comic. It is about two boys, Dennis and his friend Joey. They go to their older friend, Mrs. Wilson's, house and they come home with a whole armful of cookies. Joey says, “Wow, what did we do to deserve all of these cookies?”
Dennis says, “Mrs. Wilson did not give us cookies because we are nice, but she gave us cookies because she is nice!”

That is exactly what grace is- it is getting things that we do not deserve.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The Bible has a whole bunch of things that we cannot do, like, lying, stealing, getting angry, and coveting (wanting something that your friend has). Those things are called sin. We cannot go to heaven as a sinner. In fact, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. That means that the payment- the consequence- of sin is eternal death in hell. That is what we deserved.

But, God loved us so much. He said, “I know that you deserve that, but what I am going to do instead is this: I am going to give you favor and I am going to send my Son, Jesus, to die FOR you. So that if you just believe in Him, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (because He died, but three days later, God raised Him from the dead) you will be saved.

That is grace. We deserved hell, but now we can go to heaven IF we believe.

Maybe, you are already a Christian. That is awesome! Grace still applies to you. Because, when Jesus was on the cross, He took our sin on the cross, but then, He gave us His righteousness. He gave us His holiness, His goodness, His blamelessness. We are now holy and righteous. That is grace!

We were sinners. But now we are holy.
We were Satan’s possession. But now we are God’s child.
We were guilty, but now we are forgiven.

It is completely undeserved, but God gives it to us. The Bible says in Ephesians, that God lavished His grace on us (Ephesians 1:8). Because He loves us, He made you to be a new person through Jesus Christ. He wants you to live a whole new life.

And that is what I am praying for you. That you would live in that new life. I hope to see you all very soon. I miss you a lot...I am even wearing my Moscow t-shirt.

And, well, Thanks for listening!

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? What did he do for us? Why is his love for us so amazing? These are all questions we have about this God whose name is Jesus.

Who is Jesus? He’s the son of God. The Bible says in John chapter 3 verse 16: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life.'
God sent his only son Jesus to die on a cross for you and me. Why? Why would God send his son to die for you and me? The reason why is because he loved us. That’s what makes the love of God so amazing, that he would die for us.

Sin is simply anything you do that is wrong. Have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments? That is sin. The Bible says in Romans 6:23: '..the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'
Did you know the payment of your sin is death? Because of your sin, you must die. But, God sent us a gift. His name was Jesus. This Jesus came to die on a cross for my sin and your sin because he loves us so very much.

Did you know God loves you? Did you know that God will never leave you? Did you know God will always be with you because he loves you? But why did he do this for us? Jesus had to die so that we could live. Eternal life means a life that goes on forever. There is no end to eternal life. And Jesus died so that you could have eternal life in heaven. Jesus was beat for you. Before they placed him on the cross they led him to a pole, tied him up and beat him. Because of sin, you should have been crucified on the cross. But, Jesus Christ came and took a beating and took the pain and died on the cross so that you wouldn't have to. Why? God loves you more than anyone else will ever love you. Because of this amazing love that Christ had for you he died in your place on the cross. Love him back!