This message concludes our study on many of the beliefs we hold to be true at Hillside. There are many other beliefs we could talk about but we’ve covered the major issues. It is foundational that we believe the Bible contains the Words of God, that Jesus sacrificed his life to free the world from Sin, that we may have eternal life and walk by the Spirit of God in every day decisions. We only need to submit ourselves to God through Jesus Christ. It is a great life!
Our focus in these past two weeks has been on the end of time. The end of all things will come soon. I hope you are ready to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. The one item that will make you ready is your name written in the Book of Life. You get your name written in the Book of Life by surrendering your life to God through belief in His Son Jesus. (Romans 6:23, Rev. 13:8)
I had an interesting experience this week that got me thinking about my readiness to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Twice a year, I will gather with a group of other Assembly of God Pastors to interview new candidates for licensing with our Fellowship. Sometimes, we must decide that a person needs to wait on receiving their licensing until they finished other requirements. So this week, one of the candidates was returning after about 6 months because we had rejected his application for licensing. He and his wife had taken care of the things we had asked; even going further than we had requested – cutting back fixed expenses and completing more theological training. We all felt confident about approving them for licensing with the Assembly of God Fellowship. They had made some real changes in the past few months.
The exciting part of this experience was listening to the sacrifices they had made in an effort to loosen the world’s hold on their lives – more affordable rent, saving account, and budgeting for one-time expenses in advance. It was refreshing to hear how they had adjusted their life to meet the Call of God upon their lives to minister the Gospel. Then, one of my partner interviewers asked this question, "Do you feel like moving into a smaller home is a great sacrifice?" The candidates responded, "No, the house is still big enough for our family, but for less money. It has allowed us to live in freedom while still receiving a 10% decrease in pay from my job because of economic troubles." Amazed.
How wonderful…God will empower us to break the hold of the world on our lives. This is what I believe is the point of studying the end of time. If you read the book of Revelation from this prospective you will get so much more from it. Many people study what the Bible says about the end of the world in an effort to figure out all the details of how it will happen. Revelation was not written so you would know exactly how everything would happen, but to encourage Christians to let go of the world and concern for the world, instead holding tightly to Jesus. I hope more than anything that you make the decision to hold tightly to Jesus.
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