{"id":3635,"date":"2018-02-10T22:22:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T04:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=3635"},"modified":"2018-02-24T03:50:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T09:50:24","slug":"the-thief-comes-to-kill-steal-and-destroy-part-a-the-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/?p=3635","title":{"rendered":"“THE THIEF COMES TO KILL, STEAL, AND DESTROY.” (part A, the bad news)"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, satan does everything he can to kill<\/span> your chances of getting eternal life—that is, giving your life over to Jesus now, for heaven forever.<\/p>\n

Every person whom Jesus wins is satan’s loss, so he relentlessly tries every lie and trick and bribe in this battle for the souls of man.<\/p>\n

When he kills<\/span> your soul for heaven, he steals<\/span> your heart for God, and destroys<\/span> your peace forever.<\/p>\n

So he replaces it with all kinds of temporary good stuff, as much as he can.<\/p>\n

If he thinks he is successful now, in kill<\/span>ing your eternal life, he may very well seem to leave you surprisingly alone for most of the rest of your life on earth.<\/p>\n

This can explain why many people who have no time or regard for God and the life hereafter, seem to have an easier life here.<\/p>\n

Such explains partially the theological cliche, “Why do good things happen to bad people?”<\/p>\n

If satan does not win his first goal of kill<\/span>ing your eternal life and getting you to hell—if you become a Christian, born again—he may very well give you all the hell on earth within his power.<\/p>\n

Such explains partially the other theological cliche, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There, that’s just the facts.<\/p>\n

But that’s not all the verse from His Book.<\/p>\n

Thank God for part B, the Good News:<\/p>\n

Jesus said, “I come that you may have life, and have it abundantly.”<\/p>\n

Take it—now.<\/p>\n

Be born—again.<\/p>\n

Get saved—today.<\/p>\n

Choose life—live it.<\/p>\n

Live now—and forever.<\/p>\n

There’s more—much more.<\/p>\n

God loves you—loves you more.<\/p>\n

You can love Him—love Him more.<\/p>\n

Live abundantly—with His provisions.<\/p>\n

Live more abundantly—on His promises.<\/p>\n

Choose life on purpose—or death by default.<\/p>\n

Today is your best day to begin life with Jesus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I pray that you will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, satan does everything he can to kill your chances of getting eternal life—that is, giving your life over to Jesus now, for heaven forever. Every person whom Jesus wins is satan’s loss, so he relentlessly tries every lie and trick and bribe in this battle for the souls of man. When he kills your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-inspire_lifter","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3635"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3660,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3635\/revisions\/3660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}