an expected end>

Whats up everybody,

I don't know how your new year is going but I hope that you took to heart what we said last week about making a decision to make a fresh start. It doesn't matter what you have been through, it doesn't matter who hurt you, it doesn't matter how mean somebody was to you... I want you to forget those things which are behind you and start reaching forward to whats before you. The bible says that God..."knows the thoughts that He has towards you, thoughts of good and not of evil,...thoughts of hope and an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11). That means that you better expect for your end to be off the chain if you follow God. The reward for you following God is something I can't even explain to you. If you follow God now that means that you will have reward here on earth and you will have treasures stored in heaven. You get double for all your trouble. Thats what I am talking about!!! Anyway I hope you make a decision to start fresh this year following God and forgetting your past. Why do you make a big deal about following God? Whats the point? What has God ever done for me? You can't even see Him. I would rather chill and hang out just get through school and do my own thing. This is just something that you believe. There is so much stuff out there to believe I don't know what to believe. Good for you. To each his own, right? I will do what I want and then I will worry about important stuff as it comes. How do you know who is telling the truth anyway?...I am glad you spoke your mind. Thats good, you need to let it out sometimes. The reason I made a big deal about telling you about the birth of Jesus during the month of December is because it is something that really happened. It is not a myth or a fairy tale. It is cold hard truth. And to be real with you... it is actually good news. It kind of makes me mad that they don't teach it to you in history class at your school. The single greatest event and turning point for the human race and they leave it out of our schools. They teach you about everything else but they leave the details of the greatest moment of our lives out. It stinks but I want to give you a little history lesson right now. Jesus is as real as the oxygen you breath, the ground you walk on, and the clothes on your back. You can't see oxygen, right? But you know its real. How do you know? Because they tell you in a science book? Then why do most of us choose to live like Jesus never died for us and rose from the dead for our sins? Because our education system, that takes prayer out of school, chooses not to teach it to you because they don't want to offend anyone. And you live in a society that tells you its okay to believe what you want. As long as you are not hurting anyone. I want to make a confession. That is a bunch of crap. Just like it is the truth that the sun sets and rises everyday it is the truth that God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the world. I can't help it that God did it that way, but He did and it is for our good. Let me give some background as to why Jesus died and why it is of major importance to accept Him into our lives. God created Adam (represents all of the people in the world) to rule the earth. He was doing great. The bible says Adam..."walked with God". Then Adam ate of the fruit that God told Him not to. After this, Adam lost his right to rule on earth, sin entered the world, and he died spiritually. He was supposed to live forever but now he had an expiration date on his life on earth. Now that there was sin on earth we could no longer "walk with God" because God and sin don't mix. In order to come to God you had to bring something that was acceptable to Him (the bible goes into great detail about this, its pretty sweet). God's desire was that everyone would be able to come to Him. So he had to send something to earth that was acceptable to Him. It had to be perfect. He sent his son who lived as a man for 33 years on earth and he never did a bad thing in His life. He never sinned. This was the only acceptable thing that could be presented to God because it was perfect. It so happened to be God's only Son. So Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. Three days later He rose again and restored everything we lost when Adam ate the fruit. We can now walk with Him and come to Him anytime we want but only under one condition. As long as you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior God will see Jesus inside of you and see you as perfect. WOW!!! I used to be off the chain. I would drink, smoke weed like it was nothing, and a whole bunch of other drugs including ecstasy. One of my friends who had given his life to Jesus told me that a guy who when he accepted Jesus into his heart felt ecstasy all over his body. I was like, DANG!!!! I have to find out if this is real. That night I went into my room, got on my knees, and prayed..."God if you are real, show me"....The moment I said that I felt a charge of electricity run straight through my body and I began to shake to where I could not control myself. Ever since then I have vowed to live for Christ all the days of my life. He is real. And it is true that He died for us so that we could "walk with God" again. I encourage you to give your life to Jesus. It might not be the easiest decision but it sure is worth it. If you don't know how to give your life to him I will leave my email so that you can hit me back. And if you do give your life to Him please let us know.
Stay tuned for our next devotional...

Much love,
Mickey Santiago

mickeyspassion@hotmail.com