thought for the day

Last night our pastor spoke about fear. Are you afriad of anything? I used to be deathly afraid of snakes, but it has gotten a little better :). Pastor Andy brought to my attention that if you fear anything more than you fear God you are committing idolatry-breaking the 2nd commandment. Rightly so, when we fear what people may think of us, are we not fearing man over God who holds the power to give and take away our life at any moment? When we fear snakes, spiders, flying, fear loosing our house by worrying about getting the right job to make enough money to pay for our house, cars, and "stuff" are we not fearing and not trusting God to provide for us?
God is the only one we should fear. Matthew 10:28 say, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." God gets angry every time we sin and His wrath against our sins will be poured out on either us by sending us to hell or someone else (Jesus). Jesus has already taken the wrath for my sins, but He didn't take it for all the men of the world. If he had died for everyone's sins, there would be no hell because all sin would be paid for already and no one would go to hell. The Bible tells us that if we trust and truely believe that Jesus died for OUR sins, if we turn from our sins and try to stop sinning, and really believe that Jesus is our only hope of salvation that we are saved from hell. You must truely believe that Jesus took the payment for your sins. Just believing the Bible as factual that Jesus was God's son and came into this world 2000 years ago and died for our sins is not enough. Even the demons believed Jesus was real! If you are saved, you will know it, Why? The bible says so in Romans 8:16 "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." There will be no doubt. If you doubt, consider your salvation and earnestly pray and beg God to grant you repentance from your sins and belief in Jesus's payment for YOUR sins.