Thinking about a relationship with God? He wants a relationship, not religion.

I know what it’s like to be in bondage. It’s a real word and a real situation. The interesting thing about bondage is sometimes you don’t know it when it’s happening to you. In my case, I knew it and not only did I know it, I could define “it.” However, the people looking at me, living with me, interacting with me had no clue. The level of suffering was beyond comprehension. Yet, I was expected to be me, to act like me, to function like me. I was expected to operate at a high level of capacity. After all, I am Mom. I am wife. I am daughter and sister and friend. I quickly discovered their was only one way out of this bondage that only I knew about that the other’s couldn’t see. This is when Christ came crashing in. Most say, it doesn’t happen this way. I don’t know because people don’t seem to talk about these subjects these days in this world. It is almost like talking about Jesus outside of the body of Christ is taboo, or gets you labled crazy or weird. Here is what I do know. I know he comes to heal the broken hearted. I know he rescues those who are lost. I know you can count on him like you can’t count on anything else. I know he loves you. I know he is consistent and never fails. I know he is there right now, right here with me, fighting for me, never failing or foresaking me. And I know he can be there for you too.

The Bible is God’s love for all people. This love was revealed when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world as a human being, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead. Because Christ died, our sins can be forgiven, and because He conquered death we can have eternal life. It is possible to know for sure what will become of us after we die.

This gift of forgiveness and eternal life cannot be ours unless we willingly accept it. God requires an response from us.

God’s Love Is Revealed in the Bible

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” –John 3:16 (NIV)

God loves you. He wants to bless your life and make it full and complete. And He wants to give you a life which will last forever, even after you experience physical death.

We Are Sinful

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” –Romans 3:23 (NIV)

We are all sinners. We all do things that we know are wrong.

Sin Has a Price

“For the wages of sin is death.” –Romans 6:23 (NIV)

If we chose to continue to sin, we will pay the penalty of spiritual death: We will not only die physically; we will also be separated from our holy God for all eternity. The Bible teaches that those who choose to remain separated from God will spend eternity in a place called hell.

Christ Has Paid Our Price

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” –Romans 5:8 (NIV)

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, has paid the price for all our sins. You may think you have to lead a good life and do good deeds before God will love you. But the Bible says that Christ loved you enough to die for you, even when you were rebelling against Him.

Salvation Is a Free Gift

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” –Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

God is offering us something we could never provide for yourself: forgiveness of sins and eternal life, God’s gift to us is free. We do not have to work for a gift. All we have to do is joyfully receive it, Believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ died for you!

Jesus Is at Your Door

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” –Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

Jesus wants to have a relationship with us. Invite Him in. He is waiting for you to receive Him.

You Must Receive Him

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” –John 1:12 (NIV)

When you receive Christ into your heart you become a child of God, and have the privilege of talking to Him in prayer at any time about anything. The Christian life is a personal relationship to God through Jesus Christ. And best of all, it is a relationship that will last for all eternity.

Are you ready to accept the gift of eternal life? Then talk to God from your heart through what's known as the sinner’s prayer.

Sinner’s Prayer

“Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I do not deserve eternal life. But, I believe You died and rose from the grave to purchase a place in Heaven for me. Jesus, come into my life, take control of my life, forgive my sins and save me. I am now placing my trust in You alone for my salvation and I accept your free gift of eternal life.”

Deuteronomy 32 -The Rock, Your Savior

I now understand why suicide is so rampant and why mental illness can be unexplained. Some say that 80% of diseases are just a “curse.” Blessings and curses are explained in Deuteronomy. In the new testament, one is under a new covenant. Sometimes I have found that the past just needs to be put to rest for the benefit of the future generations. For those of you that don’t understand, that is fine –try not to judge and if you do judge – ask for forgiveness. God’s job is to judge. Some don't believe in curses, most believe in blessings.

 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
    hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
² Let my teaching fall like rain
    and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
    like abundant rain on tender plants.

³ I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
    Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
⁴ He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.

⁵ They are corrupt and not his children;
    to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
⁶ Is this the way you repay the Lord,
    you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,^[a]
    who made you and formed you?

⁷ Remember the days of old;
    consider the generations long past.
Ask your father and he will tell you,
    your elders, and they will explain to you.
⁸ When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of Israel.^[b]
9 For the Lord’s portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted inheritance.

¹⁰ In a desert land he found him,
    in a barren and howling waste.
He shielded him and cared for him;
    he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
¹¹ like an eagle that stirs up its nest
    and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
    and carries them aloft.
¹² The Lord alone led him;
    no foreign god was with him.

¹³ He made him ride on the heights of the land
    and fed him with the fruit of the fields.
He nourished him with honey from the rock,
    and with oil from the flinty crag,
¹⁴ with curds and milk from herd and flock
    and with fattened lambs and goats,
with choice rams of Bashan
    and the finest kernels of wheat.
You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

¹⁵ Jeshurun^[c] grew fat and kicked;
    filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.
They abandoned the God who made them
    and rejected the Rock their Savior.
¹⁶ They made him jealous with their foreign gods
    and angered him with their detestable idols.
¹⁷ They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God—
    gods they had not known,
    gods that recently appeared,
    gods your ancestors did not fear.
¹⁸ You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
    you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹ The Lord saw this and rejected them
    because he was angered by his sons and daughters.
²⁰ “I will hide my face from them,” he said,
    “and see what their end will be;
for they are a perverse generation,
    children who are unfaithful.
²¹ They made me jealous by what is no god
    and angered me with their worthless idols.
I will make them envious by those who are not a people;
    I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
²² For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,
    one that burns down to the realm of the dead below.
It will devour the earth and its harvests
    and set afire the foundations of the mountains.

²³ “I will heap calamities on them
    and spend my arrows against them.
²⁴ I will send wasting famine against them,
    consuming pestilence and deadly plague;
I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts,
    the venom of vipers that glide in the dust.
²⁵ In the street the sword will make them childless;
    in their homes terror will reign.
The young men and young women will perish,
    the infants and those with gray hair.
²⁶ I said I would scatter them
    and erase their name from human memory,
²⁷ but I dreaded the taunt of the enemy,
    lest the adversary misunderstand
and say, ‘Our hand has triumphed;
    the Lord has not done all this.’”

²⁸ They are a nation without sense,
    there is no discernment in them.
²⁹ If only they were wise and would understand this
    and discern what their end will be!
³⁰ How could one man chase a thousand,
    or two put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    unless the Lord had given them up?
³¹ For their rock is not like our Rock,
    as even our enemies concede.
³² Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
    and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
    and their clusters with bitterness.
³³ Their wine is the venom of serpents,
    the deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴ “Have I not kept this in reserve
    and sealed it in my vaults?
³⁵ It is mine to avenge; I will repay.
    In due time their foot will slip;
their day of disaster is near
    and their doom rushes upon them.”

³⁶ The Lord will vindicate his people
    and relent concerning his servants
when he sees their strength is gone
    and no one is left, slave or free.^[d]
37 He will say: “Now where are their gods,
    the rock they took refuge in,
³⁸ the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their drink offerings?
Let them rise up to help you!
    Let them give you shelter!

³⁹ “See now that I myself am he!
    There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
    I have wounded and I will heal,
    and no one can deliver out of my hand.
⁴⁰ I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear:
    As surely as I live forever,
⁴¹ when I sharpen my flashing sword
    and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
    and repay those who hate me.
⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
    while my sword devours flesh:
the blood of the slain and the captives,
    the heads of the enemy leaders.”

⁴³ Rejoice, you nations, with his people,^[e][f]
    for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
    and make atonement for his land and people.

⁴⁴ Moses came with Joshua^[g] son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. ⁴⁵ When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Moses to Die on Mount Nebo

⁴⁸ On that same day the Lord told Moses, ⁴⁹ “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. ⁵⁰ There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. ⁵¹ This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. ⁵² Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Isaiah 51 - Jesus Saves Generation After Generation

As with many family’s, I also know that my health was impacted by past generations. I know some do not believe this could be the case because of the new covenant, but it was the case for me. If all of this was revelation provided to me for the benefit of my family, it can be different than your story. For us, this physically showed up as allergies and asthma.  For others in my family, the outcomes were traumatic deaths, early deaths, lung issues, allergies and others. It can also be explained by my ancestors and the covenants they made knowingly or unknowingly.

Everlasting Salvation for Zion

51 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness
    and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut
    and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
² look to Abraham, your father,
    and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him he was only one man,
    and I blessed him and made him many.
³ The Lord will surely comfort Zion
    and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
he will make her deserts like Eden,
    her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
    thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

⁴ “Listen to me, my people;
    hear me, my nation:
Instruction will go out from me;
    my justice will become a light to the nations.
⁵ My righteousness draws near speedily,
    my salvation is on the way,
    and my arm will bring justice to the nations.
The islands will look to me
    and wait in hope for my arm.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
    look at the earth beneath;
the heavens will vanish like smoke,
    the earth will wear out like a garment
    and its inhabitants die like flies.
But my salvation will last forever,
    my righteousness will never fail.

⁷ “Hear me, you who know what is right,
    you people who have taken my instruction to heart:
Do not fear the reproach of mere mortals
    or be terrified by their insults.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment;
    the worm will devour them like wool.
But my righteousness will last forever,
    my salvation through all generations.”

⁹ Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,
    clothe yourself with strength!
Awake, as in days gone by,
    as in generations of old.
Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,
    who pierced that monster through?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
    the waters of the great deep,
who made a road in the depths of the sea
    so that the redeemed might cross over?
¹¹ Those the Lord has rescued will return.
    They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

¹² “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
    Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
    human beings who are but grass,
¹³ that you forget the Lord your Maker,
    who stretches out the heavens
    and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
    because of the wrath of the oppressor,
    who is bent on destruction?
For where is the wrath of the oppressor?
¹⁴     The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;
they will not die in their dungeon,
    nor will they lack bread.
¹⁵ For I am the Lord your God,
    who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord Almighty is his name.
¹⁶ I have put my words in your mouth
    and covered you with the shadow of my hand—
I who set the heavens in place,
    who laid the foundations of the earth,
    and who say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”

The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath

¹⁷ Awake, awake!
    Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
    the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
    the goblet that makes people stagger.
¹⁸ Among all the children she bore
    there was none to guide her;
among all the children she reared
    there was none to take her by the hand.
¹⁹ These double calamities have come upon you—
    who can comfort you?—
ruin and destruction, famine and sword—
    who can^[a] console you?
²⁰ Your children have fainted;
    they lie at every street corner,
    like antelope caught in a net.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,
    with the rebuke of your God.

²¹ Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
    made drunk, but not with wine.
²² This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
    your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
    the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
    you will never drink again.
²³ I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
    who said to you,
    ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
    like a street to be walked on.”