Genesis – Media 4 Life Ministries

What is Life? That is a question, I have asked myself many times over the last few years. Now that I’m a bit more advanced in age, this question becomes more frequent. What is Life? Why am I here? What is the purpose of Life?

I have seen some of my friends pass on in the last few years and one begins to wonder, why and what happened to them? I remember those who have passed, when they were younger, full of life and energy, vibrant and driven. Some of my friends were taken by cancer or some other illness. Death is something most people don’t think about in the younger years.

In our youth some of us thought we are invincible and the thought of maybe one day ending up with something like cancer really never entered the mind. Who wants to think about death, or which way we may die? Death is so final. Everyone of us will have to face death one day, sooner or later. The statistics on death are pretty overwhelming, one out of one will die. No exceptions made.

There are those, who believe, that when a person dies, they cease to exist. Those who believe that, are those who also believe, that mankind came to be by chance, by accident. Humans came to be as part of a long process, known as evolution. Some 4.6 billion years ago, some cosmic event, aka the big bang, caused the universe and the earth to be formed. Every plant life and every living creature slowly started to evolve, into what we see today. All this happened through the process of natural selection, according to the theory of Darwin.

Personally, I can not buy into the theory of evolution.

To evolutionist, life came about by chance. They do not believe in creation, or that there is something after death. They believe, once a person dies, there is nothingness and nothing more. We simply cease to exist.

I believe that life is precious and that we were wonderfully made by a loving Creator. I believe in a God that created the universe and everything in it. We are no accident or just here by chance. We are here for a purpose and we were created for Him and by Him.

Atheist, state that there is no God. Atheist believe in themselves and mankind. They believe that all the problems in the world can be be fixed by man. They don’t need or want God. For them there is no higher authority, no deity, no one that will hold them accountable on the day they die. They don’t believe that there is a thing like heaven or hell, judgment or eternal life.

A life without God, makes no sense to me. A life without a future or hope.

I believe that somehow, we all have eternity written on our hearts. No one, wants to grow old and eventually die, if given the choice. We long for life.

Am I to believe, that I am here for 70 to 80+ years and then nothing?

Was I just born, to live a life that is filled with trials and tribulations, a life of laughter and tears, a life of happiness and sadness, to one day just die?

I am no accident and you are no accident. You and I were created by a loving God. When God first created Adam and Eve, he created them as eternal beings. Death came about when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden. This one-act of disobedience resulted in death, a spiritual death, a disconnect from God. It also brought forth physical death, and from that day on, all of creation was and is subject to death and decay.

I believe in the afterlife. I know that when this physical body, that is the flesh, of mine dies, my spirit will live on. The Bible teaches, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

That is the glorious hope that every believer in Jesus Christ has. Jesus defeated death on the cross and he has promised eternal life to all who believe in him by faith.

By believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior he has reconciled us to God the father through his death and resurrection. He closed the spiritual gap that existed between mankind and God.

Because of what Jesus did for us, we once again can have fellowship with God, as it was in the beginning before the fall.

Unfortunately, there are many who do not believe in Jesus and His finished work on the cross. They refuse to believe and to receive the free gift of life, that Jesus promised to all those who believe.

They rather buy into the theory of evolution, discarding creation and God. They are what the Bible calls, “the natural man” who live after the desires of the flesh, having no understanding of spiritual things.

“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1Corinthians 2:14.

Of course I cannot prove that there is life after death and neither can they disprove it. I believe by faith, just as atheist or evolutionist believe by faith that there is no God.

Frankly, I do not have enough faith to be an Atheist or to believe in evolution.

What is life? That is the question that Atheist and those who do not believe in the promises of God should ask themselves. What happens after they die, will there be darkness or is it not possible that there is more?

What if all we believers in Jesus are right, when we talk about eternal life? What if we are right, about Jesus and what His death on the cross has accomplished for those who believe by faith?

Life is nothing but a fleeting moment and there will come a day when we will face death. As a believer, I do not fear death, because I have already received eternal life, because of my faith in Jesus.

What about you? Do you believe that when you die, that you cease to exist? If so, you better be right. Believing that there is no afterlife, means to deny what Jesus said before He went to the cross. Those who do not believe His words, make Him a liar. Something to at least think about. Here is what Jesus said:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” John 3:14-21

I believe among others, that Christianity is the oldest “religion” known to man. There are many religions that were way before Christianity that came along about 2000 years ago. Did Christianity begin 2000 years ago with a man named Jesus? Let me begin with saying that Jesus did not come to bring something completely new, He did not start a new religion and new doctrines. God’s truth is never-changing. Jesus did not just suddenly appear and brought a new message or believe to the people. The Old Testament is all about Jesus and the promise of a Savior was given long ago, long before Jesus came to the earth. The first gospel message can be found in Genesis: “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” Gen 3:15.

It is widely understood that this verse is a Messianic prophesy. This prophesy was given by God in the Garden of Eden, you can not go any further back as the Garden. Throughout the Old Testament God gave progressive prophesies concerning the Messiah. In the old the new is concealed, in the new the old is revealed. When we get to the New Testament, and we look back at the Old Testament, it’s all clear. In the Old Testament the gospel was there from the early beginning. The Bible is a book of redemption. The Bible does contain history like the creation and the beginning of mankind, kingdoms, people and places, but the main purpose of the Bible is redemption, God’s plan of salvation for fallen man.

Jesus is all over the pages of the Old Testament, there are many prophesies concerning His first coming and many allegories that pointed to Christ. Abraham offering up Isaac on Mount Moriah which is the temple mount today, a picture of what God would do 2000 years later. Joseph in Egypt, he was not recognized by his brothers at the first meeting, but they recognized him at the second time they met. A picture of the first coming of Jesus and He was not recognized as Israel’s Messiah, which will happen at His second coming. Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wildness on a pole, and everybody that looked up to it was healed, a picture of Jesus lifted up on the cross dying for the sin of the world and giving healing and life to those who would look upon Him and believe. He was the Rock in the wildness bringing forth water, He was the Bread that came from heaven and so much more.

The 70 weeks of Daniel given by the angel Gabriel gave the exact time and day when the Messiah would ride into the city of Jerusalem. Zechariah prophesied that the King would come riding lowly on a donkey. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on what we now know as Palm Sunday. Nothing was by coincidence, God had a divine plan and time schedule and Jesus came at the appointed time, His hour. The day the Lord has made. There are over 300 prophesies concerning the first coming of Christ, and He has fulfilled them all. Jesus was nailed the cross at the time of the morning offering on passover, He gave up His Spirit at the time of the evening sacrifices. This day was also predicted long ago and God had a certain day in mind and Jesus died on that exact appointed day. Old Testament believers were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, they believed God, thus it was accounted to them as righteousness.

Today we look back at the cross and the finished work of Christ and because we believe by faith we are accounted righteous before God through Christ who is our righteousness. The gospel i.e the good news is therefore much older than 2000 years, the gospel and the coming of the Messiah goes all the way back to the beginning. There are many religions today and in the past, but they are all man-made and they are all man centered. The Christian faith is not really a religion per say, it is a relationship with the true and living God. Christians worship and serve the God of creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The God that is truth and His word which is sharper than a two-edged sword. If you read this and you are of another faith, like Islam or maybe Hinduism etc. consider Jesus and the claims He made. He came to die in our place, God did what we could not do for ourselves. He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus said that He came to set us free from bondage. Are you in bondage to sin or religion? Do you want to be forgiven of your sins and have eternal life? Jesus promised that those who would believe will never die. He died for us and rose from the dead to overcome death and give eternal life to those who would believe. Jesus is God and only God can forgive sins, all other gods are impostors and they do not exist.

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.” Exd 20:2-5

Many religions have made their own gods made out of wood, metal, in the likeness of man, they worship the creature rather than the Creator. These gods do not move, they can’t hear or speak. They are dead, they cannot give life eternal, only the true and living God of the Bible can. There is only one way to be reconciled to God the Father, and that is through His Son Christ Jesus. May you find Him and feel His peace and His love. May you realize how much He loves you.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16