Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
We thirst for money as if it will save us. Yet even all the money in the world only can buy a temporary reprieve. Sooner or later all men go to the same place—the grave and the place of judgment. Our eyes have become blind to the things that really matter. We labor, we toil, we sweat. We manipulate. We lie, we cheat, we steal in order to “get ahead.” But get ahead of what? What good is it to gain the whole world, yet loose or forfeit your very soul? We can only outrun death for so long before it overtakes us. It cannot be escaped from. We even have deceived ourselves into thinking that doctors can “save” lives. But the truth is there has never been a single doctor that has saved even one single life. All a doctor can do is postpone death to some future date. Throughout all history there has only been One who has the ability to save anybody. His name is Jesus Christ. Only He rescues us from the grave. Only He saves us from death and destruction. He pulls us from the depths of the pit; He pulls us from the very clutches of the devil. He redeems us and gives us eternal life. When we are baptized He bestows on us a treasure we can only pray we begin to comprehend the depths of. May He enlighten the eyes of our hearts to understand the riches of the eternal inheritance in which He has so lavishly blessed us with. May we seek to begin to grasp and comprehend the vast and unsearchable riches that He has so freely given us.
There is no one who escapes death. There is no one who gets out of life alive. That much is certain. That is, unless they belong to the One who purchased them from the grave. Our physical bodies will die. But our soul has hope through Jesus Christ our Lord. Even the richest and most powerful will one day die and face the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen.
" 'the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'
"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Every heart will melt and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every knee become as weak as water.' It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD ."
All the rich and powerful of times past have come and gone. They have had their day in the sun and now it has passed from them. Even the greatest of the earth are not spared from the grave; even they are not spared from the shadowy fate that overtakes all who live upon the face of the earth. Even now, their names are gone and have vanished from this world. For their glory was brief, but the Word of the Lord is eternal.
So how then, will you, O little man, escape the sickle of the angel of death?
I will tell you how. I will tell you now: By believing in the name of Jesus Christ –the One who rose from the dead; by believing the Good News and repenting of your sins; by being baptized into Him for the forgiveness of your sins that all your transgressions may be washed away and blotted out for all eternity and you enter into His eternal kingdom of light—A kingdom that will never perish, spoil or fade. He has paid the price for you long ago-- before you were even born. Now accept His offer of life. Accept it and repent and be baptized. There is only one Name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Salvation is found in no one else. Jesus Christ is that Name. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
“Consider, if there were somewhere a physician who understood the art of saving men from dying, or, even though they died, of restoring them speedily to life, so that they would thereafter live forever, how the world would pour in money like snow and rain, so that because of the throng of the rich no one could find access! But here in Baptism there is brought free to every one's door such a treasure and medicine as utterly destroys death and preserves all men alive. Thus we must regard Baptism and make it profitable to ourselves…”
To cling to this life and this world is but to cling to a speck of dirt that is swirling down the bathroom drain. For this world in its present form is passing away. And when the Lord of Glory is revealed the earth and the sky and the stars above will melt away in the fervent heat and fire of His judgment. But those that are found in Him and clothed with him will pass through the flames in the same way that Daniel and his companions passed through the fiery furnace without even so much as a singed hair. Those who have believed and been born of water and the Spirit and remain faithful will pass through the flames and will receive the crown of life, their eternal hope-- the salvation of their souls. And when we have been there 100 billion billion years, we will have no less days than when we first begun.
Now to the only wise and true God, the faithful and true witness, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory, honor, power and praise in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
What is the meaning and purpose of baptism?
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