Just You and Me, Kid

Good morning,

Great teaching today. As I get ready to leave for Dubai tomorrow where it is a melting pot of religions in that area, I am so thankful that I am a Christ follower. My relationship with Jesus who loves me and teaches me to aim for being loving and merciful and gracious to others and trust in and rely on Him is eternal life. I will never stop knowing Christ and His light. My eternal life started when I asked Him in.

I am glad I can live in faith, not fear. I can call on angels, call on scripture, be filled with joy, and have fun with my friends and family, give generously, work hard and trust God in all of it. Read the teaching! Eternal life is about Jesus and you doing life together from the minute you ask Him in!! He designed us, He gets how we work, and He loves us!! If you think you are always screwing up and Jesus is mad at you, you are so on the wrong page. God is about love, mercy, and grace.

Once we get that, He tells us how to run our life and things will work better, but if we want to keep doing things our way and seeing over and over again that it is not working, He loves us still. What He wants is for you and me to believe in, adhere to, trust in, and rely on Him every day, all day! That is eternal life… not scorecard life, graded-on-the-curve life, or any other life that is performance-based. Like that saying goes, “Just you and me, kid.” Jesus and you, real and connected!

Love you, Teri

HOW TO EXPERIENCE ETERNAL LIFE TODAY.

John 17:3: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

In order to fully understand what eternal life is, it is helpful to understand what it is not. Eternal life is not living forever. Everyone lives forever in either heaven or hell. Also, eternal life is not living forever in the blessings of heaven as opposed to being tormented in hell.

John 3:36 and 5:24 show that eternal life is a present tense possession of the believer.
Here, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ.
As we have already discussed, the word “know” is speaking of intimacy instead of mere intellectual knowledge. Therefore, eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son.

According to John 3:16, this intimacy with God is what salvation is all about. Forgiveness of our sins is not the point of salvation: Intimacy with the Father is. Of course, Jesus did die to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins block us from intimacy with God. Sin was an obstacle that stood between us and God. It had to be dealt with and it was. Anyone who views salvation as only forgiveness of their sins and stops there, is missing out on eternal life.

Salvation is intended to be the way to come back into harmony with God. Instead, it is often presented as the way to escape the problems of this life and the judgment of hell later. Most non-believers are so occupied with their “hell on earth” that they don’t really think or care about their eternal future. They are fed up with religion and are looking for something that will fill the emptiness inside.

Only intimate relationship (eternal life) with our Father can do that.