Gateways to Joy

'W hen I see the blood I will pass over you." ~ Exodus 12:13 God looked upon the blood and was reconciled.  Israel was safe. God looked upon the blood of Christ and was reconciled.  You and I are safe. Lately I've been thinking a lot about death, blood and salvation.  Just this morning my mother and I talked about two of her brothers who have passed away and them not knowing the Lord. I've only walked with the Lord for 20 years.  I didn't grow up in a Christ-centered home.  Not even a religious home, really.  A good moral home, yes. In fact, my father instilled in me at a very early age that  "Good girls didn't have sex outside of marriage or before they were married." "A good girl,"  that's exactly how I wanted my father to see me.  Even up until he died, a week ago, I wanted him to see me as good.  It was good with a flare though.  I always told him that I wasn't perfect, that I was a sinner. After I accept...

Do you know the difference?  Did you know there was a difference? Yesterday a good friend and I were talking and he said, "When he speaks he always ask, 'What is Christianity to you ... is it just a "status symbol?" ' "A status symbol?" I replied He then went on to share with me some of his experiences in counseling Christians. Were you aware that some people practice "religion"  Christianity...   to look good ? At first this was hard for me to conceive.  I knew it, but I'd dealt with the opposite.  I was more aware of the Christian who yearned to live right, wanted to live right, but fell from time to time.  Sincereity but flawed human being. I wasn't ready, though Scripture talks about them, to believe that some people carry their Bibles around...talk the Christian lingo, and do what they do JUST and ONLY to look good .  "You know what that is I asked him?" "The awe and the responds is the reward for s...