Is it still worth following Jesus...

[PaulThomson]

... if He does not actually promise endless uninterrupted bliss for all those who start to do so?

I had written in a post -

"Or maybe the effect of eating the tree of life is temporary and requires one to keep on coming back to it every 100 years or 1000 years. So grabbing quick fix before being barred would have had only a temporary effect. And eating frm the tree probably did not make one immune from a knife in the heart or a club to the head.."

Yesterday a poster responded to me like this -

"where would one get that idea?

temporary, impermanent salvation?

whats 'good' about having only the deceptive illusion of life?"

There seems to be a large number of "Christians" who have an attitude that "The crucial reason I have for following Jesus is that I believ His word promises me endless existence in perfect bliss after physical death. If God were not promising me an endless existence in perfect bliss ,why would I give up my own agendas and follow Jesus Christ as Lord. The gains for doing so would not be enough, in my opinion, to justify me doing so."

Somehow, experiencing the receiving and giving of God's love in this life, and knowing that God loves me with an endless love and always wants the best for me, is seen as "having only the deceptive illusion of life", unless I also have a water-tight guarantee that, no matter how badly I behave and treat God in the future, I will still inherit endless existence in perfect bliss. The idea that God would remove that experience of perfect bliss for any reason at all, seems anathema to such "Christians".

What if, because I insist on including having endless existence irremovably added to the terms of my contract, when I sell my soul to God, God grants me that demand. He gives me endless existence, but He blue lines my demand for continuous bliss. Am I better off, or worse off than the person who makes no contract with God, makes no demands on God, and after judgment is eventually annihilated?

Personally, I am willing to trust in the judgment of the loving and merciful God revealed in Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, and to trust such a Creator to always do what he knows is best for me in any situation, whether I live endlessly or not. I take the Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego position.

Dan 3:17 - 37
If it so be that you throw us in the furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and we are trusting he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if it not so be that you throw us in the furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Whatever the present or future holds, I will trust in the goodness of God.

"To whom else shall we go. You have the words that give us access to the way of life that is characteristic of the age to come. " John 6:68

 

[Cameron143]

You can find solace and security then in the last verse of Psalm 23.

 

[homwardbound]

... if He does not actually promise endless uninterrupted bliss for all those who start to do so?

I had written in a post -

"Or maybe the effect of eating the tree of life is temporary and requires one to keep on coming back to it every 100 years or 1000 years. So grabbing quick fix before being barred would have had only a temporary effect. And eating frm the tree probably did not make one immune from a knife in the heart or a club to the head.."

Yesterday a poster responded to me like this -

"where would one get that idea?

temporary, impermanent salvation?

whats 'good' about having only the deceptive illusion of life?"

There seems to be a large number of "Christians" who have an attitude that "The crucial reason I have for following Jesus is that I believ His word promises me endless existence in perfect bliss after physical death. If God were not promising me an endless existence in perfect bliss ,why would I give up my own agendas and follow Jesus Christ as Lord. The gains for doing so would not be enough, in my opinion, to justify me doing so."

Somehow, experiencing the receiving and giving of God's love in this life, and knowing that God loves me with an endless love and always wants the best for me, is seen as "having only the deceptive illusion of life", unless I also have a water-tight guarantee that, no matter how badly I behave and treat God in the future, I will still inherit endless existence in perfect bliss. The idea that God would remove that experience of perfect bliss for any reason at all, seems anathema to such "Christians".

What if, because I insist on including having endless existence irremovably added to the terms of my contract, when I sell my soul to God, God grants me that demand. He gives me endless existence, but He blue lines my demand for continuous bliss. Am I better off, or worse off than the person who makes no contract with God, makes no demands on God, and after judgment is eventually annihilated?

Personally, I am willing to trust in the judgment of the loving and merciful God revealed in Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, and to trust such a Creator to always do what he knows is best for me in any situation, whether I live endlessly or not. I take the Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego position.

Dan 3:17 - 37
If it so be that you throw us in the furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and we are trusting he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if it not so be that you throw us in the furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Whatever the present or future holds, I will trust in the goodness of God.

"To whom else shall we go. You have the words that give us access to the way of life that is characteristic of the age to come. " John 6:68

Serve God Father and Son as won for me alone, you too, thank you

 

[Intersection]

Luke 13:24
Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.

 

[homwardbound]

Luke 13:24
Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.

therefore believe God in risen Son and stand there in belief, no matter what. Job, did in the book of job, went through many troubles and was told by the worldly counselors, that claimed to know God, that Job had sinned and is why he was going through all those troubles. job refused and still would not deny God all in all, even in troubles. people punish people and even themselves, God does not! To me at least.
Then, see Jesus, what he went through without any flesh fight back at those worldly religious counselors then too, in a different scenario, Priests of God, Not the true God, yet the same evil goes after everyone to stop them from love and mercy given them in Son for them to see new and be new in God Father's Spirit sand Truth, John 4:23-24 Thanks

 

[GRACE_ambassador]

op: worth following Jesus?:

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."
(1 Corinthians 15:58 AV)

= Yes! (1 Corinthians 3:8-15 AV)

Amen

 

[CS1]

John 14:

14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”




1thess 4:13-18
13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

[reneweddaybyday]

Colossians 3:

1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
.

 

[MrE]

... if He does not actually promise endless uninterrupted bliss for all those who start to do so?

I had written in a post -

"Or maybe the effect of eating the tree of life is temporary and requires one to keep on coming back to it every 100 years or 1000 years. So grabbing quick fix before being barred would have had only a temporary effect. And eating frm the tree probably did not make one immune from a knife in the heart or a club to the head.."

Yesterday a poster responded to me like this -

"where would one get that idea?

temporary, impermanent salvation?

whats 'good' about having only the deceptive illusion of life?"

There seems to be a large number of "Christians" who have an attitude that "The crucial reason I have for following Jesus is that I believ His word promises me endless existence in perfect bliss after physical death. If God were not promising me an endless existence in perfect bliss ,why would I give up my own agendas and follow Jesus Christ as Lord. The gains for doing so would not be enough, in my opinion, to justify me doing so."

Somehow, experiencing the receiving and giving of God's love in this life, and knowing that God loves me with an endless love and always wants the best for me, is seen as "having only the deceptive illusion of life", unless I also have a water-tight guarantee that, no matter how badly I behave and treat God in the future, I will still inherit endless existence in perfect bliss. The idea that God would remove that experience of perfect bliss for any reason at all, seems anathema to such "Christians".

What if, because I insist on including having endless existence irremovably added to the terms of my contract, when I sell my soul to God, God grants me that demand. He gives me endless existence, but He blue lines my demand for continuous bliss. Am I better off, or worse off than the person who makes no contract with God, makes no demands on God, and after judgment is eventually annihilated?

Personally, I am willing to trust in the judgment of the loving and merciful God revealed in Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, and to trust such a Creator to always do what he knows is best for me in any situation, whether I live endlessly or not. I take the Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego position.

Dan 3:17 - 37
If it so be that you throw us in the furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and we are trusting he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if it not so be that you throw us in the furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Whatever the present or future holds, I will trust in the goodness of God.

"To whom else shall we go. You have the words that give us access to the way of life that is characteristic of the age to come. " John 6:68

Yes, won't it be great? "Endless existence in perfect bliss after physical death."

 

[Bob-Carabbio]

Is it still worth following Jesus?

About to the same degree that it's worth Breathing, or eating.

Since there IS a life beyond the grave (or the overpriced jar in my case), and two options destination-wise when physical life ends, one of which is inferior to the other, then regardless of the exact details, common sense directs us to consider the life that God promises to them who are the redeemed, then the ONLY I(MPORTANT THING is following the one who provided the way to be Born again and to become a child of God.

Simple as that.

 

[PaulThomson]

You can find solace and security then in the last verse of Psalm 23.

I find solace in all Bible verses. What do you think David meat by לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים , L-"oRek YaMiYM, for-a-long-time, at the end of the last verse of Ps. 23 ?

 

[Cameron143]

I find solace in all Bible verses. What do you think David meat by לְאֹרֶךְ יָמִים , L-"oRek YaMiYM, for-a-long-time, at the end of the last verse of Ps. 23 ?

You mean forever?

 

[Omegatime]

There is no one else that a man or woman can be saved from death

 

[MrE]

I guess I'm not Captain Obvious.

I do not think we are going to float around on clouds playing harps in endless, uninterrupted bliss for all eternity.

 

[Aaron56]

John 14:1-5 is often read a funerals. I believe this practice misses the meaning of the scripture.

John 14:2-6
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

The word for "mansions" is monē. It's the same word used in this verse when Jesus explains that the Father and the Son will live with believers:

John 14:23
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

So, the question is: if you are a believer, did you add onto your physical house to make room for the Father and the Son?

No, of course not. We know that Jesus is using figurative language.

Jesus is factually reporting that the Father and the Son will, by their own volition, abide with those who love them. This hints at the depth of security in the covenant: it is assured not by man's strength (as was the Law) but by the will of and the word of the Father and Son.

Now let's look at "place".

Place is the word topos. The same word is used here, when the Jews appeal to the Pharisees to help with the threat that Jesus was to their nation and religion:

John 11:48
“If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”

If we read "place" as a physical dwelling, we could conclude that the Jews were afraid to be evicted from their homes because of Jesus.

We know that's not what they meant.

They were afraid to lose their positions of influence and their places of power.

Let's look at one final area.

Jesus said "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself". Is there anywhere in scripture where this is so?

If He's not talking about receiving you in heaven when you die but, rather, about receiving you to Himself on this side of life, we should be able to find that in the scriptures, right?

Of course we can.

Jesus, the man, was only one man. The laws of physics prevented another man from being in the same place as was Jesus. But, when He died (and this is what He was alluding to) He did not rise up as Jesus, another man. He rose up as the Christ. When we plant a seed we do not harvest only a seed. No. An entire plant full of seeds grows from the one that is planted.

So what is the corollary between Jesus dying, being resurrected, and being able to receive all unto Himself?

The many-membered Christ.

Christ is the spiritual man in which all men, who are redeemed, are fit into and knitted together.

Paul explains this mystery...

1 Corinthians 12:12
For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

Ephesians 5:30
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.

Paul also used the same word for "receive" (paralambanō ) in Colossians 2:6-10

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Notice how man "in Hims" are used in that small section. This is the reality of being received unto Christ: our place is indeed "in Him".

We are the structure, engineered by the Holy Spirit, through which the corporate Christ is seen in the earth.

Furthermore, in Christ, we are not another; we are not a foreign body. We are actually His flesh and blood. That is why He can share His glory with us:

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Let's look at the first set of verses again.

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Jesus is explaining how He will administrate next part of the New Covenant.

This is a paraphrase using the points from above:

My Father's family is vast! I tell you these things because I tell you my Father's business. By my passing and resurrection you may be included in the house of My Father; Our Father. I will even arise as the Christ and include you in myself. When I walked the earth My Father secured a place for Me. He was always with Me. When I return and receive you to Myself, you will walk the earth with the same grace I was given. I will always be with you. Do not be troubled in your heart.

Blessings,

Aaron56

 

[Suze]

... if He does not actually promise endless uninterrupted bliss for all those who start to do so?

I had written in a post -

"Or maybe the effect of eating the tree of life is temporary and requires one to keep on coming back to it every 100 years or 1000 years. So grabbing quick fix before being barred would have had only a temporary effect. And eating frm the tree probably did not make one immune from a knife in the heart or a club to the head.."

Yesterday a poster responded to me like this -

"where would one get that idea?

temporary, impermanent salvation?

whats 'good' about having only the deceptive illusion of life?"

There seems to be a large number of "Christians" who have an attitude that "The crucial reason I have for following Jesus is that I believ His word promises me endless existence in perfect bliss after physical death. If God were not promising me an endless existence in perfect bliss ,why would I give up my own agendas and follow Jesus Christ as Lord. The gains for doing so would not be enough, in my opinion, to justify me doing so."

Somehow, experiencing the receiving and giving of God's love in this life, and knowing that God loves me with an endless love and always wants the best for me, is seen as "having only the deceptive illusion of life", unless I also have a water-tight guarantee that, no matter how badly I behave and treat God in the future, I will still inherit endless existence in perfect bliss. The idea that God would remove that experience of perfect bliss for any reason at all, seems anathema to such "Christians".

What if, because I insist on including having endless existence irremovably added to the terms of my contract, when I sell my soul to God, God grants me that demand. He gives me endless existence, but He blue lines my demand for continuous bliss. Am I better off, or worse off than the person who makes no contract with God, makes no demands on God, and after judgment is eventually annihilated?

Personally, I am willing to trust in the judgment of the loving and merciful God revealed in Jesus' incarnation, life, death and resurrection, and to trust such a Creator to always do what he knows is best for me in any situation, whether I live endlessly or not. I take the Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego position.

Dan 3:17 - 37
If it so be that you throw us in the furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and we are trusting he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
But if it not so be that you throw us in the furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Whatever the present or future holds, I will trust in the goodness of God.

"To whom else shall we go. You have the words that give us access to the way of life that is characteristic of the age to come. " John 6:68

God is the reason I get up on a morning with a smile on my face , God is the reason I'm happy and feel safe . In death or in life God is everything . If I don't have Him I don't have anything at all . Thy Kingdom Come !

 

[lrs68]

I have faced eminent dangers, improbable outcomes, hopeless situations, and trials where no hope existed any where.

I guess one could say that I had the [luck] of someone like no other.
They could say, coincidence has been on my side.
They might even encourage to buy a lottery ticket and see if the streak continues.

But what I do know and understand is that in every scenario beyond my ability to control and to fix, and even with the ones I thought I might be able to. I cried, I prayed, I kept, I sought for, and continually in my mind-heart-mouth I had my God, Lord, Savior in focus the entire time. And I without a doubt, and I mean no wavering or any chance of second guessing I believed whether God brought me through or that would be my last trial that He could save me if it was His Will. I believed because I know His Will includes my own Calling that will be fulfilled before I leave this earth one way or another.

But to make my answer as simple as possible, God alone is the reason I survived everything that has happened in my life. And God alone is the reason for what will happen later today, tomorrow, until I am no more. I need Him more than I ever have before because I know who I am without Him. He is as real to me as my own 2 hands and feet and eyes and ears. He is my EVERYTHING!!

 

[homwardbound]

Been shot, stabbed, beat to death almost and been sick, and I still smile, not a laughing one bit as if I am someone, a trust that does not quit, no matter what. I have died more than-once and should not have lived, I know it
We all go through Hell here on earth first thanks