[category devotionals]"If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1:17-19

We all live with a limited time of life on this earth. No one knows the day or hour Christ will return, and no one knows how many days they will live here on earth. But one thing you can know is where you will spend eternity by reading God’s Word. We all are eternal beings whether we believe it or not. There will be an eternity we all will pass into, and we will spend it in heaven or hell. Hell is as real as heaven. We will all stand before the One Righteous Judge and give an account for all we have said and done.

Because we reject truth, doesn’t change the truth in God’s Word. You can do nothing against God’s truth to change it, even though many have tried throughout the ages. The Word of God will stand when heaven and earth pass away, the Bible tells us. (Matthew 24:36)

If we are among those who live out the four seasons of life, many make the mistake of not giving a thought to eternity until they enter into winter when our bodies reveal to us it is not eternal, or if they have close encounters with death for whatever reason.

This is a sad mistake, because that realization is what determines how we live out our lives day to day on this earth. God’s love teaches us to turn outward to others. Man apart from God will turn inward, and live in his sinful nature which will always put himself first. Narcissism is a nice sounding word that sounds like a disease, but in reality it is a choice to live life totally selfish seeking your own happiness most often at the expense of others. We are quite familiar with this behavior. Just turn on the news if you can stomach it. It reveals what we are without a moral compass written by something bigger than the false gods man creates for himself as they did in Biblical times.

For the life of me, I don’t know how we can be that ignorant! If we create our own gods they are limited to ourselves, therefore they cannot be any kind of true God. When the Israelites took all their gold, melted it down, and formed them a golden calf, and called it god, didn’t make it so.

It was simply a creation of rebellious people who wanted their own way more than the ways of the one true God. As scripture reveals His ways are heavenly, ours earthly; His ways are much higher than ours. For our own survival there has to be something or Someone bigger than ourselves. We aren’t that smart, and never will be.

We all need the God who created us and all that exists. Creation itself screams of His greatness! Jesus and the cross revealed His goodness and what love is. He is love. Looking at Peter’s writings, he tells us if you address Him as Father, the One who judges impartially each man’s work, we are to conduct ourselves in fear during our time on this earth. If we address Him as Father and know His love as an earthly father, we are to respect Him as we do our earthly fathers. Therefore, knowing there will be consequences for our disobedience.

Then we look at the blood of Christ, His only Son, that we have been redeemed by. His blood was perfect, spotless, and unblemished that paid for our sins so we wouldn’t have to, when we stand before a holy God. God made a way for all to escape hell. All! It is your choice whether you accept and believe upon the sacrificial Lamb of God.

Let’s read together Peter’s words in verses 3-9:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to HIs great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, maybe found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls."

I urge you to contemplate where you and your family will spend eternity. God deliver us from being swallowed up with the cares of this world which are only temporal. We must turn our hearts to our Father and the eternal consequences of our choices, not only for ourselves, but for all those around us — especially the children.

I want to make a difference knowing my hourglass of time is emptying simply from an awareness of entering the season of winter, subtly revealing an aging body. However, when Peter penned these words, our Lord Jesus had revealed to him he was just before being martyred for his faith. I will allow his words in his second letter in 2 Peter 1:13-15 to speak what I hope we all carry in our own hearts:

"I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing the the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind."

God help us to bear fruit that will remain, as He did.
In His love.

Teresa Roberts

Masterpiece Fitness

www.masterpiecefitness.com

276-237-6680

Our Father’s creation alone is enough to make us serve Him! What a gift as photos will reveal from trail running 14.25 miles at Hungry Mother Park near Marion, Virginia. I was obviously elated reaching the peak of Molly’s Knob!🤗