If You Only Read One Thing I Write in My Entire Life - Make it this Post

Tonight I heard a former Muslim man named Saleem talk.

Here's what happened:

Saleem brought up a young man in college, he pulled out three colored scarves. One white, one red and one black. He draped the white one around his shoulders and pulled the young man in next to him, sharing the scarf.

He said, "this is what God wanted when he created man. He was like a daddy that wanted children. He desired fellowship with us and we were blameless. He told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree, except for one, the tree of life. And that if they did, surely they would die."

"And what did they do? They ate the fruit. And although their physical bodies didn't die in that moment, they suffered a spiritual death," Saleem said, removing his arm (and the scarf) from the young man. "And so the world fell to sin," he said, draping a black scarf over the boy.

"But we were still God's children and he did not forsake us. Instead, he instructed his people to sacrifice lambs and goats." He put the red scarf around the boy, on top of the black one. "He used animal sacrifices to take the place for our sin."

"Take the tenth plague for example, when Pharaoh wouldn't let Moses' people go, the people were instructed to sacrifice a lamb and use it's blood on the sides and lentil of their doors, so the angel of death would pass over."

"Notice that the angel didn't go inside the houses. It didn't inspect the people inside to see if they were Jewish or Egyptian. It didn't matter what their past was or ethnicity or background was. What mattered was the blood sacrifice that set them apart."

"And although these sacrifices atoned for sin, they didn't fix the problem. It was a temporary solution. And so God sent Jesus, pure and blameless like a lamb, free of sin, to Earth where he became the sacrifice, and became sin," he said, pulling off his white scarf and putting on the black one.

"And being the son of God, he overcame sin and death," he said taking off the black scarf and putting it back on the boy, putting the white one on himself.

"He did this so that when God looks at us, he sees the blood sacrifice of Jesus, he sees the blameless holiness of Jesus, which allows us to be in fellowship with God. Because what is holy cannot otherwise be in fellowship with what is unholy. So God made us holy through his son," he said. 

"And God is waiting, to be in fellowship with us, he is waiting to put his arm back around us," he said holding the cloak over the boy's shoulders as if to put it on. "But, we first have to acknowledge the sacrifice that Jesus made. We have to declare with our mouth "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:9) And you must accept this gift. Because as it said in the Bible, "No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

"We are God's children, he is our Father, and when we accept the gift of Jesus' sacrifice, we are wrapped in the gift of Jesus' blameless holiness and we can once again have fellowship with God," he explained, pulling the other scarves from the boy and putting the white one on him.

Your works don't matter. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) 

It doesn't matter if you spend your whole life helping others and giving to the poor and traveling the world bettering humanity. What you do means nothing if what you believe has yet to mean everything. Even if you lived the simplest, purest life, you will still reach the gates of heaven and be told "Depart from me, for I never knew you," if you have not accepted Jesus. (Matthew 7:23)

This life isn't about your story, believe it or not. It's about Jesus' story, and what you are doing to further the kingdom of heaven. Because we can't take fame or cars or money with us, only people. So what role do you play in Jesus' story?

This is why I'm sharing this with you. Because I want to take you with me to heaven. Because I love you and I want eternal life with you.

God said to "go!" go and make disciples. Not converts, disciples. It doesn't matter what faith you grew up with, what nationality you are, what your social status is, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God." 

So if you have a different religion. Ask yourself why you follow it? What it means to you? Do not harden your heart against those who wish to share things (like this blog post with you) because they do it out of love.

Ask God to reveal himself to you, for the pure of heart will see God and will know the truth.

It's bigger than culture or your background or your sinful past or whatever your future holds. God is only looking for that blood on your door, and if he sees it, he sees the perfect holiness of his son and allows us to once again be his children, and he our father.

Ask yourself if you think hell is a doctrine or a destination, because it will change how you live your life. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

You were given a purpose, a destiny that is already written, and if you are still here, still breathing, then God is not done with you yet. And perhaps the reason why is because you have yet to acknowledge who you are in him; you can't live out your destiny until you come to the realization that God gave you one through his son. 

People have asked me, how do you know that your religion is the "right" religion. And my answer to that question would be because I have sought the truth, I believe Jesus is God's son who died for my sins and rose again, and it's not as much about "religion" as it about the sacrifice that was made for me, and the fact that through that sacrifice I can now call my God "Father."

It is the best gift that has ever been given, and once received, it is our duty not to just go to church, but to BE the church. The holy spirit lives in the word and it lives in the body of Christ. You are the body of Christ if you believe! He lives in you! How is that not the single coolest thing ever?! 

It's so cool that I want to feed off the word and use my life however God sees fit to further God's kingdom. I've given him the pen to write my life's story. 

And I also just want to put it out there that I'm not trying to "turn you into a Christian," or convert you or convict you or anything...if you just read this one blog post that I've written, that is enough for me.