“Depart from Me. I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23) Many will hear those words spoken by Jesus. It will be a very tragic time for those who thought they were serving God, but in reality He disowns them saying that He never knew them … never had a relationship with them … implying that they never knew Him either.

I can honestly say that I know a lot about Donald Trump. However I have never met him and don’t have any relationship with him. I can’t truthfully make any such claim. Therefore I don’t know him. The same is true of God. He is a real person and He can be known. We can be His friend if we choose to be.

But many people stay distant and simply learn various things about Him … settling for that … and thinking/hoping that they are ok with God. Many people go thru life being “hopeso Christians”

The good news is we don’t have to be hopeso, we can be knowso in our relationship with Him. If we are serious and sincere with God He will put His Witness in us if and when we obey the Gospel message. He will be faithful to save us and He will do His part to make Himself real to us thru and by His indwelling Spirit.

God has many names. One of His names is Emmanuel (or Immanuel) which simply means “God in us”. Yes, God can be known. He is a personal God. In fact, it is His desire to have fellowship with everyone of us. His Word tells us that it is His will that everyone of us repent and come to Him.

He has made the first move. Now it is our turn. The ball is in our court! He has done all He could and needs to to keep you from going to hell, but the choice is yours and yours alone. No one else can make the decision for you. And, by the way, the decision is already made. “He who has the Son has eternal life, but he who rejects and does not have the Son has not this life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. (John 3:36)

God hates sin and can not have it in His presence for He is holy and pure. We are all sinners with no exception. We are all bound for hell and worthy of it. But God in His great love for us made a way for us when there was no way. There is nothing we can or could do by ourselves. God tells us that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Only by God’s Way can we be saved. Jesus said of Himself, I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THRU ME. Anybody who tries any other way will not only miserably fail but it will anger God all the more toward that person.

Many people are greatly deceived and mislead. They are trying another way. They look to and trust in religion. They may go to church, they may serve somewhere/somehow in the church or in the community believing that their “good works” will merit God’s favor.

God does not use a balance beam scale to judge us but if He did we would readily lose out when weighing our righteousness against His. What God does use is His written word to judge us.

If and when we buy a new car an owners manual comes with it. When God created us an owners manual was given to us by the One Who created us. It tells us all we need to know about this life and eternity. But ignorance of God’s Word is our undoing. We perish because of our ignorance of what God has revealed.

To add to the entire mess there is a devil who is out to destroy us. He lies to us, distracts us, blinds us and more … much more. In addition to what I have already mentioned above Satan has created false religions to keep people away from the truth. The two biggest false religions are Roman Catholicism and Muslim. These two have misled and trapped more souls than any others keeping them hellbound. Of course, there are many many more false religions … Mormonism, Jehovah Witness, Buddhist, Hinduism, Jewish (yes, I said Jewish) and the list goes on and on. They are all man made and headed up by Satan and his demons except the Jewish faith which was “replaced” by Christianity. And he is loving every victory he has of taking a soul to hell with him. He is called the Deceiver by God and is a master at what he does. Has he deceived you? If what we know, believe and practice is not in accord with the Bible then we are indeed deceived.