Life In The Kingdom Of Peace

Salvation is a choice. A personal choice of life, or death. God prefers that all choose life, but He will not force salvation upon anyone.

"^30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. ^30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; ^30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. ^30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy 30:16-19 KJV)

God is patient, but not infinitely so. Fire is going to destroy those who reject salvation for themselves.

"^3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ^3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ^3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, ^3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:9-12 KJV)

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"

Living a good Christian life in this world is not easy (nor was it designed to be - see the Fact Finder question below). But no one will face a challenge that is too great for them to overcome.

"^12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: ^12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God [see Grace Into Licentiousness]; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; ^12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. ^12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

^12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, ^12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: ^12:20 For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: ^12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake [see also Why Did Christ Put Moses To Death?]:

^12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God [see Zionism], the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, ^12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn [see Church of God], which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, ^12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant [see What Is Jesus Christ Doing Right Now?], and to the blood of sprinkling [see Christ's Mercy Seat], that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

^12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [see A Journey Without A Destination], much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: ^12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. ^12:27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

^12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: ^12:29 For our God is a consuming fire [see Baptism Of Fire]" (Hebrews 12:14-28 KJV)

Fact Finder: What is the purpose of the "trials and tribulations" of this life?
See No Pain, No Gain

This Day In History, November 12

1035: King Canute of Denmark (ruled England, Norway and Denmark) died at age 40.

1812: In their retreat from Moscow, the remnants of Napoleon's Grand Army crossed the River Berezina; 10,000 stragglers were left behind.

1833: A meteorite deluge occurred, estimated at 1,000 per minute. Scientists believe that about 25,000,000 enter earth's atmosphere each day.

1859: In Paris, France, the first flying trapeze act was performed, by Jules Leotard at the Cirque Napoleon, without a safety net. The body-hugging costume he used was later named after him - leotards.

1867: A major eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy began and lasted for several months.

1912: A search party found the remains of British explorer Robert Scott and his companions after their ill-fated South Pole expedition.

1918: The day after the First World War armistice (listen to our Sermon The European World Wars), Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary abdicated, making Austria a republic.

1923: Adolf Hitler (see Presidential Quotes On War, Terrorism, Religion) was arrested for his failed "Beer Hall Putsch" 4 days earlier.

1933: The Nazis received 92% of the vote in the German election.

1938: High-ranking Nazi official Hermann Goering stated that Madagascar should become a Jewish homeland.

1939: The occupying Nazi forces in Poland ordered Jews to wear yellow arm bands.

1942: The British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery captured Tobruk in Libya, taking over 30,000 German prisoners.

1944: The German battleship Tirpitz, sister ship of the Bismarck and Hitler's last major warship, was sunk by Lancaster bombers at Tromso Fjord in northern Norway.

1948: In the aftermath of the Second World War, Japanese Prime Minister Hikedi Tojo and 7 others were sentenced to hang by a U.S. war crimes court for "breaching laws and customs of war." Among the specified war crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death by U.S. judges was the waterboarding torture of prisoners.

1968: The U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools (listen to our Sermon Darwin's Theory of Evolution).

1982: Yuri Andropov was elected First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party following the death of Leonid Brezhnev.