Worries about your loved ones

If you worry about your family members and their eternity and nobody listens to you, know you're not alone. Most of us have heard the regular stuff:

"Jesus Freak"

"Can't you have an open mind?"

"I wish you were the old Tamara" (well, fill your name in there!)

... Or one of my personal favorites (yes, that's actually sarcasm!):

"I'm glad you found religion."

Isn't it something that people think Christianity is about religion and not about life? Is the Church doing something wrong that so many people think it's about religion?

Nobody is going to stand before Jesus after they die and He says, "How come I should let YOU in?" And the person says, "Because I chose a good RELIGION!" Nope. It's either Jesus Christ and His cross or Hell.

Jesus said He is not about religion! He is about making a person born again, about giving the gift of eternal life through repentance and faith. He said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. - John 3:3,36

Of course the word "believes" in the verse above is not a belief like "yeah, yeah, I know He is the Son of God," but means a trusting in Him for who He is and what He has done! I hear so many say "I believe!" Yeah sure, and the demons believe, they also worship Jesus, and bow down to Him. Hey, they even go to church! Where is their final destination? Heaven or Hell?

Jesus also said:

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." - Matthew 10:34-39

It is a difficult thing that many of us struggle with having no family members who are born again, but it's nice to know you aren't alone, right? Check out what Kurt Warner says about his worries about his teammates and family members below.

- Tamara Slack