What Do You Love

“All those that hate me love death” . God is so just that He gives to everyone that which he loves. If you love His Son Jesus, you will receive the salvation He has provided for you. If you love that which is against God, you will receive death, hell and the grave.

The full verse represented above is: “But whoever fails to find (who miss me , sins against me) me harms himself (Wrongeth his own soul); all who hate me love death (all hating me have loved death )." “Wrongeth his own soul - It is not Satan, it is not sin, properly speaking, that hurts him; it is himself. If he received the teaching of God, sin would have no dominion over him; if he resisted the devil, the devil would flee from him. Love death - They do it in effect, if not in fact, for as they love sin, that leads to death, so they may be justly said to love death, the wages of sin. He that works in this case, works for wages; and he must love the wages, seeing he labors so hard in the work”.

God is love. He is the author of all creation, including you. He also created Lucifer: not as Satan, but as an angel of light. Because God told Lucifer to serve man, Lucifer rebelled (much in the same way we do today) because he felt he was superior to man, and was created before man. The poor little fellows self esteem was injured. Satan wants to be worshiped by man, as those who know the truth (and don’t ignore it) worship God. Satan is the author of lies, confusion, deception, blasphemy, lawlessness, counterfeit miracles, counterfeit signs and wonders, theft, murder and destruction. He is the one who “roams through the earth and goes back and forth in it’ looking for anything he can find, to present to God, that would show us in a bad light. In other words he is the accuser of man, before God.

What does God say about His grace, His love and His salvation? “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the Lord, who is my refuge— then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. ‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation’.”

If you don’t believe in God and His salvation through Jesus, why do you want to keep on living? Is it simply that you don’t want to start your stint in Hell with all its fire and brimstone? Is it that you can’t believe God loves you and therefore you reject Him? God says He loves you and He weeps whenever a soul is lost to the wiles of Satan.

“All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.” Jesus said: "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts.” “All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” We are distracted daily by the things of this world; this is in addition to being tempted by the evil one.

How do we know that God loves us? How do we know that God only wants the best for us? Because God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but rather to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him, and receives Him as Lord and Savior, is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. Therein lies the choice. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” . God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Because of us, Christ was tortured, beaten and hung on a cross. He did this because He loved you enough to save you from what you deserve. Isn’t it about time you loved Him enough to say thank you? Now is the time to evaluate your life. Now is the time for salvation. What is it you love, if not Christ?

Rick Rahn