Skip to main content

You are in one of these 3 Groups



All living people likely fall into one of the three groups listed below:
  •          People who are hostile to God
  •          People who are ambivalent to God
  •          People who love God
All three know God exists but express that knowledge in profoundly different ways:

People who are hostile to God
This first group typically display hostility to God because they don't like what He represents - an all powerful force who will not allow them to live as they please - therefore the hostility. Their lie is public expression of a lack of belief in Him or His sovereign nature. Otherwise their hostility to God is paradoxical. Why be hostile to something that does not exist? If you sit next to one during extreme turbulence on an airplane, you'll understand why I call their lack of belief a lie. They fear dying and in most cases refuse to deal with this subject unless it cannot be avoided i.e. the death of someone close. Their hope is in the story of Saul who became Paul - writer of the majority of the Bible's New Testament (see the Book of Acts)

People who are ambivalent to God
Probably the largest of the three groups. Some are people who may have never heard the gospel but as the Bible says in Romans 1 - they instinctively know via nature that God exists. Many believe that God is who He says He is - the creator of all things. Sovereign above all. However, they care more about themselves than they do about worshipping God. When the demands of God and the demands of their life are in conflict, they almost always choose their way. If there is no conflict, they will acknowledge God in their lives (i.e. asking Him to help them in times of need or crisis). Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this group who believe (in error) that they are in the group below (see the Matthew 7:21-22). They too fear dying because deep inside, they know that the consequences for them are not good. Their hope is the example of the vast majority of the people in the next group below - most of who were once part of this group.

People who love God
Likely the smallest of the three groups (see the Matthew 7:13-14) These are people who have had a true life conversion somewhere along the way, where they have come to know that a) they are born sinners b) they will die someday c) upon their death, they will have to give an account of their lives to God and d) that accounting can only be removed by accepting that Jesus has already paid for their judgment. Most of these people probably came to this realization through a crisis in their lives. Something that made them realize that all of their own efforts at trying to solve their problems are futile. However, once the acceptance of Jesus is made, it was like a "veil had been removed from their eyes and mind". They no longer feared death. Maybe they still fear how they would die, but not death itself. They have a firm belief that as the Bible says…to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8) or to live is Christ, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). Their hope is in Jesus alone.

Where are you within these three groups?

Popular posts from this blog

Were they Saved?

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many… (Hebrews 9:27-28 NIV) My wife and I were talking about a celebrity who we learned had died recently. One of my first thoughts (as is customary) was “were they saved”? Did that person accept that Jesus died for their sins so that they could live forever in Heaven? Though neither my wife nor I could know the real answer to that question, if we went by the “evidence” of how that person lived their public life, then it appeared highly unlikely that a salvation conversion would have occurred in their life. If so, then their death was indeed a tragedy. Acceptance of Jesus is indeed the difference between life and death (for eternity). Look at this diagram below (taken from a previous publication by author Bruce Wilkinson). The size of the circle denotes the average life span of our present life on earth. The length of the line denotes the first .000...

Funerals for the Unsaved or Unbelievers

I am not a leader of a church, but I oftentimes wonder how does one lead a funeral service for someone who dies without knowing Jesus Christ as Lord ? Admittedly I have not been to many funerals in my lifetime, though they are appearing to come more frequently lately, but the fact is that funerals are held daily throughout the world and as such this is a pertinent question to someone just about every day.   I’ve been to the funeral where the person lived a fairly routine life, taking care of their families and other responsibilities as best they could, paying taxes and doing the average things that we as human beings do on a consistent basis. They however had no visible relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ. When this person dies, the surviving family members are oftentimes left scrambling trying to find a person and a place to officiate the funeral services – generally because the deceased did not have a regular church that they attended. Funeral homes sometimes ...

Scripture: Eternal Life available only through Jesus

(John 5:21-14 NIV): ...For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life..." (John 6:35-40 NIV): ... Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of ...