ONE MORE SOUL IN HEAVEN AND ONE LESS SOUL IN HELL.
By Larry Pasley (January 2013)

When God loved us enough and we loved him back,
It meant one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (John 3:16)

When we love someone enough it can also mean,
One more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (John 15:12-13)

When we love someone enough to pray for them,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (I John 5:15-17)

When we love someone enough to weep over their lost condition,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (Luke 19:41)

When we love someone enough to take the time to teach them,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (James 5:19-20)

When we love someone enough to help them focus on the spiritual not the material,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (I Timothy 6:6-10)

When we love someone enough to warn them of their doom,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (Galatians 6:1)

When we love someone enough to not be willing for them to perish,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (2 Peter 3:9)

When we love someone enough to snatch them from the fire,
It can mean one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell. (Jude 22-23)

Are you content to leave that soul, you know, doomed to hell?
Or do you love them enough to want, one more soul in heaven and one less soul in hell? 
(Mark 16:15-16) - LP

Why Satan has an easier job than God.

*Satan can win someone’s heart and soul even if they don’t believe he exists, God can’t.
*God has certain standards that must be met to please Him, Satan doesn’t.
*God has several steps that must be taken by the individual. Satan only needs one step to be 
ignored, skipped, or refused. For example: 
         *We must believe God is and that He rewards those that seek Him. - Hebrews 11:6
         *We must believe the Bible is God’s word. - Romans 10:17, Ephesians 6:17
         *We must believe Jesus is God’s Son and that He is God. - Acts 16:30-31 
         *We must believe Jesus rose from the grave. - John 20:9 
         *We must repent of our sins. - Luke 13:3,5
         *We must confess Jesus. - Acts 4:12 
         *We must obey the gospel / be born again. - John 3:7, Acts 9:6
         *We must be faithful(This opens a whole new list.) til death. - Acts 14:22 
         *We must worship in Spirit and Truth(This is another list). - John 4:24 
         *The gospel must be shared with others. - Mark 13:10 
If there is a break in any one of these Satan wins.
*God requires man to have no other gods, Satan doesn’t care how many as long as it is not God only.
*God requires sacrifice and self-control, Satan doesn’t.

The Advantage To Growing Up In A Christian Home
Part 2

In our last issue we discussed the advantage of growing up in a Christian home and how we might question those who became Christians later in life getting the same reward in heaven as we do. In this issue we want to look at detail the advantage of long lives of service to God.
Those who have lived faithful lives throughout most of their adult years have some definite advantages over those who didn’t.
The one who has lived a life of sin has many regrets in their lives. The Apostle Paul asked the Romans, “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.” (Romans 6:21) Sin takes a toll on a person’s life in many ways. Sin has ruined people’s physical health that can never be regained. Sin has destroyed people’s mind and emotions that can never be restored. Sin has taken away the livelihood of many. But, perhaps the way sins affect us most drastically is in our relationships. Not only does sin destroy our relationship with God, (Isaiah 59:2) but it also destroys our relationships with those we love on this earth.
One of the saddest things I have faced in this life is to hear people grieve over the loss of their children to Satan. Their children grew up in their home before they became Christians and were not brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4) When parents become Christians later in life, after their children have left home, they deeply regret the fact that their children are not Christians and the parents often find it very difficult to reach them for Christ.
Another thing I hear often is grief over a marriage relationship which has ended in divorce. Many people divorce because they were not Christians and did not build their relationship on biblical principles. Most of the time it is too late for them to mend those broken relationships after they have become a Christian.
Alcohol, adultery, fornication, anger, jealousy, greed and any other sin can bring many regrets and sorrows into the lives of those who are not living by God’s principles. Even though the sins can be forgiven, the scars and results of the sins can affect us and those we love all of our lives and even into eternity.
So, if you have been a Christian from an early age, be thankful that you have escaped the snares of the devil that produce so much pain and sorrow in the lives of others. Also, be thankful that those who have lived a life without God, can be forgiven and become His children and have that home in heaven also.
If you are not a Christian, don’t wait any longer. The longer you wait, the more sorrow, pain and heartache you may have because of you delay in obedience to God. - LP

The Advantage To Growing Up In A Christian Home
part 1

In Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus tells the parable of the “Laborers in the Vineyard.” In the parable he tells of laborers who were hired early in the morning and others who were hired midday and still others who were hired late in the day. When it comes time to pay them, they are all paid the same amount. The owner paid those who worked the shortest time first and those who had worked the longest were paid last. They, of course, complained about not getting paid more since they had worked all day long and the others had worked only a short while. The owner told them that they should be satisfied that they received what they had agreed to work for the day. He had the right to pay the others what he wanted.

When we apply that to our Christianity, we conclude that those who are brought up in Christian homes and become Christians early in life and live their whole life as Christians get the same reward on judgment day as those do who became Christian late in life and labor a very short time in the kingdom. 
We, also, may conclude that it is not fair for those who lived their life as they wanted until late in life, receive the same reward as we who have lived whole lives of faithfulness to God

The older brother in the parable of the “Prodigal Son” in Luke 15:29-31 seemed to have the same problem. He complained that he had served his father all these many years and had never transgressed his commandment at any time; but his father had never thrown a party like that for him as he did with the younger brother. The father’s response is significant for those who have been a Christian since an early age and have served God all the rest of their lives. He said, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. The older son had been blessed much more that the younger who had suffered the results of his sin for all that time.

Paul dealt with a similar problem in Romans 2 & 3 where he talked about the gentiles and compared them to the Jews. He asked in Romans 3:1-2 “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? [2] Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. “

If we ask that same question (What advantage?) about those who have been brought up in the church and those who became Christians late in life; the answer is the same, “Much in every way.”
Next week we will look at the advantage in detail. - LP

FINANCIAL PLANNING
      Dan was a single man living at home with his widowed father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed to find a wife with whom to share his fortune. One evening, at an investment meeting, he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. 
     "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, "but soon, my father will die and I will inherit $200 million." Impressed, the woman asked for his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother. 
Women are so much better at financial planning than men.
      We would say the woman above was very shrewd in the way she handled the situation. Jesus talks about another situation of shrewdness about financial planning in Luke 16:1-13.
       He also said to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' 3 Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' 5 So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' 6 And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' 7 Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' 8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." 
     Jesus makes a comparison of the unjust steward and Christians. He points out that worldly people are more shrewd in their dealing with earthly wealth than we as Christians are with the spiritual wealth that is available to us (eternal life).
     True riches are found in heaven. Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 
    How are you at spiritual financial planning? Where is your heart? - LP

BROMISM OR BROMINISM - SKIN ERUPTIONS CAUSED BY EXCESSIVE USE OF BROMIDES
What are bromides? The dictionary gives basically 3 definitions for ’bromide’, 1) a salt consisting of two elements one of which is bromine (a dark red, fuming, toxic liquid), 2) a platitude, and 3) a boring person. As you can see any of those could be problematic for the church.

1)When Jesus said we should be the salt of the world I don’t think he was referring to this kind of salt. Salt is very important and we need it in our physical bodies as well as our spiritual bodies, but we also know that many health problems are aggravated or even caused by an excess of salt. In our spiritual lives we need to strive for the proper proportions. If we lose our flavor as Jesus said we won’t be ‘worth our salt.’ We will need to be thrown out. On the other hand, if we have too much salt; as the sons of thunder did when they wanted to call down fire from Heaven to consume those who rejected Jesus, we will do damage to the cause of Christ. Some ‘Christians’ were blunt to the point that instead of showing an individual what the scriptures said in a loving way, and allowing that individual to realize his lost state, they would tell the person something to this effect, “You are going to hell.” Not only were the words harsh, but the impression left behind was, ”You are going to hell to suffer for eternity, and I am glad of it.” Anytime we leave that kind of an impression with someone we have done more harm than good.

I often think back to the homosexual man who was killed out in Wyoming. At his funeral there were people claiming to be Christians with signs and banners proclaiming the judgement of God against homosexuals, and explaining how they would spend eternity suffering. I did not see a single one that told the people attending that funeral of God’s love and desire for all of us to come to him, or of the fact that if they will repent He will freely forgive. It is no wonder many in the sin homosexuality don’t want to become Christians and change if they think we all act like those individuals.

2) On the other hand we don’t need to be spouting meaningless or overused platitudes. If you have just experienced some tragedy in your life, even if I went through a similar tragedy, I don’t know how you feel. Telling me that all things work for good, which I already know, doesn’t help much when I am in the depths of despair. There are so many things that we say that just don’t help. Sometimes it’s best to just be there and be quiet. Job was comforted by the presence of his friends until they started talking. (Job 2:13) “So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.”

3) Many in the world think that the Christian life is boring. Some of them think this way because we don’t get drunk, sleep around, do drugs, or any other of the things that sinful people seem to think is exciting. If that is the reason then let them keep thinking that way, I will take the boring path. There are some though that have gotten the impression from us that a Christian has to be miserable, or at least somber, all the time. We have given that impression at times. If we walk around looking like we were baptized in vinegar and weaned on a pickle what do we expect. It isn’t very pleasant to be around someone who never smiles or laughs, never plays a game, and never whistles or hums a tune or sings a cheery song.

There is an old story that you may have heard. Jesus was showing one of the angels around the earth. He pointed out all the places He had been when He was here; the temple, the garden, the cross, the tomb, etc. Then Jesus took the angel to an assembly of the church and explained to the angel that these were the people who had accepted his love and returned it in their obedience. Jesus told the angel how these people were on their way to Heaven and could spend an eternity there with the other angels, and with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The angel was excited about this even though he had known it for 2000 years, and he looked at the people gathered together singing and praying and studying the Bible. After seeing the looks of boredom, solemness, sadness, and seriousness on their faces the angel turned to Jesus and asked, “Do you want me to tell them or are you going to?” Let’s be sure to live our lives in such a way that others know that we know that Christianity is a better way to live in this world and in the next.

BARBARISM - A BARBAROUS OR UNCIVILIZED STATE OR CONDITION
We live in a civilized land and of course, consider ourselves to be civilized. Oddly enough though, we often do things that the barbarian would never do. Let’s be realistic the heathen of the South American or African jungle would never even think of doing some of the things we do in this civilized country. When was the last time you heard of a barbarian killing his wife and their children and then fighting off others for hours before finally taking his own life. It happens several times a year in this country. Even though the barbarians as we call them will fight viciously against an enemy tribe, they do not make a habit of fighting among themselves like we do. Even those battles between tribes with spears and bows and knives over such petty things as tribal boundaries can't compare with our civilized wars with guns, tanks, bombers and missiles.

Spiritually we find some of those same human weaknesses in us as Christians. While the barbarian would shout a warning or possibly even physically intervene to stop a companion from going over the edge of a cliff, we are too civilized to do that. Everyday somewhere around 8 - 10 million people die in this world and the vast majority of them do it outside of Christ. Right near us the local papers are filled with obituaries of people who have stepped off the cliff into the great eternal abyss, and what are we doing about it? Nothing. How barbaric. We haven’t seen the worst yet. There are often Christians who begin drifting away from Christ in one way or another, and do we help hold onto them to bring them back? Do we even shout a warning to them? The fact is that in many cases we help push them off the edge. It happens with the new Christian who doesn’t say or do something just right and instead of exhorting them to continue to grow and encouraging their willingness to try, we jump on them and condemn them for not knowing everything we know. Or we see someone do something and immediately tell everyone in the congregation how wrong they were for what they did instead of going to them. In neither of these cases do we ever think that it has taken us a number of years to grow beyond the stage this individual is. In neither of these cases do we stop to first examine our own life, attitude, and motives.

I wish I could say I never faltered in this area. I know as well as you do how difficult it is to have the courage to say or do something, and how much more difficult it is to be sure to say or do the RIGHT thing. We don’t have the ability to see others’ hearts and minds to know just what will get through to them the way Jesus could, but we do each have the ability to look at our own lives and attitudes and to control the way we react. If we will go as we should the blood of those going over the cliff will not be on our hands, but if we fail to warn them we will be to some degree responsible. (Ezek 33:7-9) “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. {8} When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. {9} Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”

Are you your brother’s keeper? If not you should be.

ANIMISM - BELIEF THAT OBJECTS CONTAIN SOULS

At one time or another all of us have probably given inanimate objects  human characteristics. I know I have complained about how my computer  doesn’t like me, or how a chair moved into my way causing me to stub a toe.  Yes, we all do this, in literature it is referred to as personification and  even the greatest of writers use it. Hopefully we realize that those things  are not even alive, much less human and couldn’t possibly do the things of  which we are accusing them.

There are, however, people in the world, in this country, and probably even  some in the church who believe that objects or plants or animals have souls  and will be in heaven (though interestingly enough, never in hell). Many  people who believe in the doctrine of animism will often make statements  about how precious all life is, and we don’t argue that. They will go on to  equate the life of an animal or plant with that of a human, and there we  must draw the line. While it is true that we should never take any life;  plant, animal, or human needlessly as good stewards of God’s creation, we  must also realize that it was God himself who proclaimed man’s value to be  superior to that of any other of his earthly creations.

I heard a news report a few years ago about a boy who was lost in the woods  for quite some time. When the boy was finally located the rescue chopper  couldn’t land because he was in a part of the forest where some endangered  species lived and the landing could have harmed them. Fortunately, the boy  survived after rescuers hiked in to get him, but his life was needlessly  endangered to save an animal’s life. Only a few weeks ago people threw a  tantrum when police had to shoot and kill an elephant which had killed its  trainer and escaped from a circus. The animal was wreaking havoc around the  city and threatening other lives, and after failing to capture the animal  without harming it they had no choice but to protect innocent people.

Jesus compared a human with a soul to all of the material world and asked  the question, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,  and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”  (Mat 16:26). Objects living or otherwise that are not human do not have  souls, and are of less value than one human’s soul. Certainly we need to  respect life and all that God has created, but we have to remember the  eternal difference between humanity and the rest of creation.

Jesus asks two questions in Matthew 16:26. First, "...what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” As we mentioned in our last article the answer is ‘nothing’ and in fact he has lost a great deal in the bargain. The second question is, “...what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” This is the question we want to focus on this week. Instead of thinking of ‘a man’ as Jesus asked the question, we need to make it more personal. It is always easy for us to tell what others should do or what some hypothetical person should or shouldn’t do in some hypothetical situation. It is quite different for us to look as honestly and objectively at our own lives. 

That is why we often ask a question as Jesus did to get an honest answer and then see if people will take it to heart and apply the lesson to their own lives. For example: when asked if it is wrong for someone to steal from them almost everyone would say, “yes, of course it would be wrong for someone to take something that belonged to me.” But when push comes to shove there are far fewer people who believe that principle, ‘it is wrong to take something that is not yours’ applies to them. We know it is wrong to steal, but many of us practice it on a regular basis. At this point people say ‘not me’ and some really mean it. Do you report all of your income on your tax forms? Have you ever bought or sold food stamps? Did you ever take a few supplies from your office or job? You see, most of us have never broken into someone’s house and carried out their TV, but many take things that don’t belong to them on a regular basis.

So, it is easy for us to say nothing is more valuable than a soul and nothing would be worth losing your soul. The real question is will we apply that fact to ourselves and the way we live our lives. Instead of wondering what a man will give in exchange for his soul, ask “what will I give for mine?” What answers do you come up with?

You may be thinking this is silly. Why would anyone ever make a trade that would cost his or her soul? The answer is simpler than you might think. Most of the time the soul is lost before it is even realized. Much like an addiction that starts working before the person realizes it. Maybe you have already traded your soul and don’t know it. With some it is alcohol and drugs. With others it is lust, pornography, and sexual immorality. With many it may be friends and family. With a few it is a job or a business or some other wealth building scheme. Sometimes it is apathy,  laziness, or a desire for fun and games. Maybe it is hatred, racism, or bigotry. Whatever pulls you away from God is what the devil will use to destroy your soul.

Ironic isn’t it that some of the very things God created for us to enjoy and to help bring us closer to him are the very things the devil adds to his own evil ways to try to draw us away. Who would ever imagine that the innocent little baby cooing in your arms could be exactly what Satan needs to keep you from prayer and Bible study. Sometimes Satan even uses churches and religion to keep people firmly in his grasp. When we put man-made rules and traditions before God’s word we have traded our souls for those things just as the Pharisees of Jesus day had.

What are you giving in exchange for your soul? I hope you won’t trade it, but even if you have there is good news. God is in the business of buying back or redeeming souls that have been traded. We would be happy to help you get your soul out of the devil’s hands and back into God’s. Let me know if we can help.