nonfiction – James G. Owen, Author

A Life Without Jesus is a Difficult Path and Hope is Found

by James G. Owen

“Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.”

Proverbs 13:15

Darkness, the spiritual nature, is found throughout the earth. Its presence is evil and makes life difficult. Our lives were placed on this path after the disobedience of Eve and Adam. They were told by God the Father and Creator that they would work the soil for their sustenance, and Eve would bear labor in birthing children. From that day sin became generational in the manner man is born into the way of sin.

What is sin? It is a general term used by Christians to denote the different levels of wrongdoing. In our minds we perceive sinfulness from bad to worse even though God sees them as one big lump of disobedience. This word really means to “miss the mark”, and is unintentional, but there are levels of sin that are committed intentionally in rebellion against God. The intentional sins are various forms of sexual immorality, murder, theft, lying, vile affections, deceit, wickedness (corruption), envy, whisperers, malignity, backbiters, haters of God, boasters, inventors of evil things, covenant breakers, being unmerciful, and without understanding (Romans 1). Our actions should cause guilty feelings and shame and should prick our conscience so that we will reflect and change our hearts.

People all over the world live in a world of sin. Some do not realize the difficulty of their lives because a life of sin is all they have ever known. At times, they will tell you how hard their life is because of life’s experience of dealing with the death of loved ones, the misbehavior of kids, or difficulties they are having because of what life generally brings us. People throughout the world bring difficulty on themselves because of their idolatry, in worshiping demons, participating in the occult, or may be businesspeople and working to obtain wealth, or simply materialistic. Anything that a person covets will become idolatry. The most common idol is money.

We, mankind, were created by God to possess freewill. All of us decide who we serve on earth and in the supernatural. Man, either chooses Jesus as their Lord, or Satan who is described in Isaiah 14 as the son of Dawn as their lord. The choice is made by default is Satan and can be changed in accepting Jesus by seeking forgiveness of sin.

The way of the transgressor is hard because we are trapped in the bondage of sin. Our lives are made hard because of our unwise decisions because sin is pleasurable. There are opportunities of getting rich quick, which plays on our greed, and the desire by fiat. Decisions that affect us emotionally by seeking revenge for something someone has done against us causes us to reap consequences and find ourselves incarcerated, by taking drugs to overcome being abused, or drowning our sorrows using liquor. Sickness and disease cause our lives to be difficult as well, and never considering there is a higher power that can help us live a better life. Some have heard of Jesus, but some have not heard. The lifestyle of sexual immorality may result in sexually transmitted diseases, and if left untreated can cause death or mental illness.

Human life is based on needs. People live in poverty because of various reasons. The lack of skills to make a living, politics, or being overtaxed by government entities. This would bring difficulty in meeting the needs in life, and not having a faith-based system to keep hope within our hearts. Everything I have said here in the article can bring distress and depression, but as I said earlier there is a way out of this path of hardship.

As a Christian looking backward before my conversion, I have experienced some difficulties in my life. I know the feeling of having a yoke, a weight on my shoulder working to meet my needs and worrying about money. I have had other difficulties like dealing with death of loved ones and friends. The difficulty of dealing with personalities, and sickness. I see the evil and corruption in America and the world. I cannot fully fathom the level of the evil I see. Even as a sinner I would marvel at the level of evil and corruption, and that is due to my Christian upbringing. Listening to news reports and seeing the faces of people I see an emptiness I have never seen before, and that emptiness is caused by the deepness of depravity they are involved in. In their eyes I do not see joy. All I see is a lack of hope. I see and feel fear from the American people.

The world today is communicating fables to the people and convincing them it is truth. Their truth is presented in various forms of mediums to persuade people. Over the decades and centuries, the fables would come in the form of false theology. Now it is propaganda and disinformation in the mix of deception. Why the fables? Why false doctrines? The reason for the fables and the false doctrines is to keep people from believing in Jesus and coming to faith. In Jesus there is life, is eternal, and a gift given freely to all mankind. All is required is to accept Jesus and salvation into your heart. There, the Spirit of God will flow freely, and a joy rises from within, and sometimes it is unexplainable. The spirit of the recipient will know it is the Spirit of God because he has created us to sense his Spirit. People who create fables and false doctrines do not posses the Spirit of God.

There are different types of people who are living a life without Jesus. Some believe that God does not exist, but he does. We see his handiwork everywhere with our eyes and even through microscopes. By seeing his handiwork and through science we can see the works of our mighty God. Even though with all the evidence of his existence many people do not see an escape from the despair, bondage, and the darkness. They may see their salvation in themselves which is humanism. The answers to our human plight are found in our Creator—God.

Light counteracts and causes darkness to flee. Many years ago, I found this hope. This hope I found was giving my life to Jesus. From that point forward, I have had my problems, temptations, have sinned, but God and his son Jesus had mercy on me and granted me grace once again. I know the experience of living for Jesus. It is a joyful, and a spirit of love arises when I compare the life before, and my life now because I am redeemed. The old man has died, and the new man has arisen within me. A change took place in my heart and his Spirit filled my soul. My outlook, insight, and paradigm changed. I saw the world with fresh new eyes. Yes, all of this is spiritual, yet there has been a physical change within my soul. The change taken place is a changing of the mindset from sin to righteousness. The will and the desire to no longer sin, to do the things I once did, and a new desire boiled up from within to live in righteousness and to follow the commandments of God. My life, mind, and heart were changed because of the new covenant that Jesus fulfilled, and I came to learn and follow the teachings of Jesus who taught the old law at a higher form with an infinitesimal amount of grace. A superabundance of grace.

Why would a person live a life without Jesus? Why live-in despair when there is a better avenue of life? The way of the transgressor is difficult, but the way of following Jesus is easier. Though I must tell you even life as a Christian disciple is challenging, we have hope in the fellowship of other believers. There is encouragement, understanding, and wisdom that is found in the reading of the Bible. Our souls are fed in doing so and recharged by prayer. Paul in his writings in the New Testament teaches us how to live in our Christian walk. We are to keep our eyes on the prize, which is eternal life, doing good works, purging the sin through prayer, and resisting the devil. His letter of Ephesians tells us how to interact as a church and be successful.

In my spiritual walk knowing Jesus I have seen frowns and hard looks turn into joy. I have heard of everyday lives being changed. People being blessed by jobs and places to live. Lives changed from alcoholism and drugs. Their countenance and health becoming better and the presence of healing. You can see it on their faces. Things like worry and fear are no longer present because we have learned not to fear the things that the devil puts upon us. Life in Jesus makes us stronger within and even words and the looks of men cannot cause us to fear because we know that God is with us. So, why would you live without Jesus any longer?

Note: All scripture given is taken from the King James Version, Public Domain, BibleGateway.

God Gives You Grace to Reach Your Destiny

by James G. Owen

Grace is not messy, and this word implies being disorderly, confusion, and untidy. Grace is orderly because everything we see in nature is orderly. In fact, grace is clean, pure, and planned. Grace is a gift that is freely given by our Creator because he loved us so much to provide a way out of imperfection caused by sin, and a path to escape the second death which is eternal damnation. The gift of Grace is undeserved because Adam and Eve chose to disobey and sin entered all creation, and the result is a curse that runs through the generations of mankind.

Jehovah, God our Father and Creator loved us so much that he was merciful on mankind and provided grace. Instead of letting us remain in an undeserved state he chose to bring us into an unmerited state of grace because in his redemption of mankind grace would perfect us to a higher plane by which we were created, a return to the original state of man in his image.

Grace is more than unmerited favor. Grace is a ladder to higher spiritual growth and brings us to a point where we are used in the defeat of Satan by means of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You see, grace in the Greek is charis, a blessing and blessings from out of his kindness towards us. Grace is an operation, a process. From the beginning of forgiveness and becoming born again (our soul is saved to attain eternal life) grace takes us to sanctification in which we are cleaned up being readied to serve to spread the gospel to the world to win souls to become disciples of men. Next, we are brought to the level of receiving a spiritual gift, and our spirits will display to people the fruits of the Spirit, which is how people recognize us as disciples of Jesus because the Spirit will bear witness.

Grace grows from just unmerited favor to charisma which is Greek for the Holy Spirit action of emboldens people to be able to witness to people, and will show its power, Dunamis in meeting needs of the unsaved. Charisma also leads the person to work in spiritual gifts as I have mentioned above. In 1 Corinthians 12:4-11,

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of ministrations, and the same Lord.And there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all.But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit: to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of spirits: to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally even as he will.”

After the distribution of the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit these gifts we find they will be administered through the five- fold evangelistic ministries. They are found in Ephesians 4:11-14.

“And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ^for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:”

As we grow spiritually, we will become more experienced in our ministerial work gaining wisdom and knowledge. Also, through the times of trials and temptations in overcoming them we are brought to a higher plane of grace. He moves us higher each time we overcome, thus perfecting us to serve in greater capacities.

Within the spiritual gifts and the ministries are the fruits of the Spirit that will display themselves. The gifts of the Spirit are:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

God has brought us on a journey from salvation and forgiveness to working in his kingdom to win other souls from the enemy that were to be destined for destruction. He has brought us to full fruition in the operation of grace so that we can meet our destiny. God is working to bring all things to an end and is saving those people who accept him as Lord and King. For it is Jesus who is the head of the kingdom and will be eternally on his throne. He is reigning now and sitting at the right hand of Power.

Notes:

1. Scriptures used as been taken from the American Standard Version and the King James Version, Public Domain, BibleGateway.

2. Greek 5486 charisma, Biblehub.

3. Greek 5485 charis, Biblehub.

4. Merriam-Webster Dictionary for definition of messy.

Faithfulness—Being and Remaining Faithful to God

By James G. Owen

A young man saw a lady across the church congregation wondering if she was single. So, after church he went to introduce himself to her. Upon meeting her they chatted for a while getting acquainted and then he asked her to if she would go out with him on a date the next week. She said yes, and a friendship began to spring. As we know there are steps in a relationship between a man and a woman. Eventually, they decided to be exclusive, and not to date another. This began a covenant, a promise not to consider another person for possible dating. Each remained within the covenant they made to each other, and their covenant was sealed by marriage. A covenant over another covenant. The marriage covenant ideally is to be for life.

As they continued to live being married the couple made time for each other, confirmed their feelings and emotions for one another, and their love for each other grew as the years went by. Never looking at another person, nor even had vain imaginations, their marriage was successful until one passed away. The spouse passing went to be with Jesus to be granted of their inheritance which is eternal life, which is a spiritual wedding between God and the past spouse. While we are here on earth having accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are betrothed to him awaiting our marriage. The physical and the spiritual covenants parallel to one another. We make the choice in whom we become betrothed and marry. This is an example of faithfulness.

Faithfulness defined is an allegiance, an oath or covenant created between two parties. To be faithful is to not commit any acts against the covenant made. As in marriage, one will not commit adultery and hurt the spouse. It is a promise made and shall not be broken.

In the moment we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior in receiving salvation we create a covenant between God and us. We are to be faithful to him as though he is the Groom, and we are the bride. For the Church is described in scripture as the bride of the bridegroom, and he will come after he has everything under his feet to claim his bride. All of us are his bride, collectively the Church.

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”

Isaiah 61:10

As our relationship with God and us we are to remain faithful, and we are faithful as stewards of our house. Our house is our body, soul, and spirit. In scripture our house is also described as a temple of God. For he dwells within us after sanctification has occurred in the salvation process. We are responsible for the upkeep of his house, to keep our sanctification current, and not yielding to sin or temptation. Even though we have trouble remaining faithful because of temptation and yielding to sin, God is always faithful to us in the relationship. He understands why we fail and continues to love us. All we must do is confess we have failed and restore the relationship. The relationship requires stewardship from each other.

“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

1 Corinthians 4:2

Two people in a relationship or covenant will be faithful and remain faithful if they genuinely love one another. They know that any breach of the relationship will cause pain, distress, and distrust. The same goes with God and us. He is faithful to us because that is his nature, and because he loves us and will take care of us in sustenance and care. When we need him, we can go to him in prayer and God will listen to us. Caring spouses will listen to one another and work out the differences too. Whether earthly covenants or spiritual covenants both takes work to remain in faithfulness. Forgiveness is part of remaining in faithfulness to one another, and if a man or a woman does not forgive it puts a strain on the covenant or will negate the covenant. Both must be forgiving to stay within covenant, and this is the same in relation to God and us.

“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;”

Deuteronomy 7:9

As we live our life righteously, think of how our life can be a testimony to someone who does not have a relationship with God. Our lives show either good fruit, or bad fruit. Either will cause a person to decide to live for God or not. They are watching us and how we are faithful and the manner we remain faithful. God never fails us. He can never be unfaithful because he is truth, love, and compassionate about being in a relationship with us, and he knows a righteous relationship is life, and that its result is eternal life with him. That is our inheritance. The inheritance for the married couple, the man and the woman are their testimony to future generations. This is the heritage of the earthly couple, their testimony. God’s heritage is the righteous living of his children who come to live with him eternally.

The success of being faithful and remaining faithful is having hope in each other and living a righteous life and placing our hope in God. His compassion is new to us every morning and his love is refreshed.

“They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”

Lamentations 3: 23-24

Be faithful to each other. Be faithful in your promises remaining true to both sides. Above all remain faithful to God.

Notes:
Merriam Webster Dictionary online.

All scripture is taken from the King James Version, Public Domain, BibleGateway.