By: Kathleen Rasmussen
Here are some spiritual questions asked about from
two 13-year-olds by the
name of Kokie and Jordan, that others might benefit from the
answers Kathleen Rasmussen provided them:
Do you have
to finish the bible to go to Heaven or not?
If you don't go to church but its not your fault because other people won't let
you and you really want to, are you going to go to hell?
How do you sacrifice things to Jesus?
How can me and my best friend be reborn?
Is it bad if you say, God bless you to Jesus in your prayer. (Just wondering)
Do you have to remember certain verses in the bible from the top of your head?
Dear Kokie &
Jordan,
What a blessing
it is to hear from someone your age asking such good and important questions
about God/Jesus/and the devil. I only include the devil here because it is
important to know who your enemy is, and he definitely is. As I was reading
your message/questions, thoughts were coming to me, so I am going to share
them with you.
First of all,
you don't have to be afraid of the devil if you have asked Jesus Christ into
your heart and life. We don't have to be afraid of him, but we do need to
be aware of how he works against us. When you are afraid of him or
something else, that is just a spirit of fear trying to keep you being
afraid. When we get those "afraid" type of feelings, we can easily reject
them by telling them to leave us now in Jesus Christ's mighty name, and telling it
to get lost, it has no part or place with you.
I am so blessed
to hear how you pray when you lose things, and then Jesus helps you find
it/them. I and my husband do the same thing and He always comes through
for us too!
Jesus indeed is
awesome, and He loves you so much! He also will continue to keep you safe
and answer all your prayers :)) You are doing the right thing by resisting
the fighting and name calling with your brother. You need to remember
though that when you do resist those bad things, it's not in your own power
that you are able to not do that anymore. It is only by the Holy Spirit and
His help and power that you are able to hold your tongue or refrain from
angry feelings towards your brother. Always remember to keep asking the
Holy Spirit to help you when those temptations arise, because He will help
you! And I think sleeping with your Bible nearby is awesome too :)) The
devil, Satan is his name, and you don't have to be afraid to call him by
name either :) He hates the name of Jesus and God's Word (the Bible), so
when you speak to him in the name of Jesus, and you can also say when you're
telling him to get lost "by the name and blood of Jesus Christ", he has to
flee!! And if you learn any Bible verses to use against him too in certain
situations, that would be great as well and will most definitely help you.
It is so
important to know your Bible, learn it, and study it; by that I mean read it a
lot and memorize scriptures too to hide them in your heart. Sometimes we
don't have a Bible handy to go to when we need to, and having the scriptures
in our hearts will really help during those times. Also, you can claim
God's promises in the Bible for many things, such as your sleep. In
Proverbs 3:24, it says "When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
Yes, you will
lie down and
your sleep will be sweet." That is
a good one to thank the Lord for before you go to sleep at night; just thank
Him for his word, reminding Him of what it says and quote that verse back to
Him.
Now I will
answer the questions you have asked...
Do you have to finish the bible to go to
Heaven or not?
Absolutely not! God
is looking at your heart; not in how much or how well you read the bible.
The only thing that will keep you out of heaven is if you reject the One who
is the only way to get there, and that One is Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). He
does want to have a personal and intimate relationship with you, and that is
one thing He will judge us on - did we know Him? We
can only know Him by having that personal and intimate relationship with
Him. You can talk to Him about anything, just as you would a personal close
friend. And another way we can KNOW Him is through never stopping to learn
about Him through His word, the Bible.
If you don't go to church but its not your fault because other people wont let
you
and you really want to, are you going to go to hell?
Absolutely not again! Again,
God is looking at your heart. If you don't have any control over getting to
a church, and if you've accepted Jesus Christ into your heart and life, and
you are doing all you know to do to follow Him and be obedient to His word,
you are saved and no devil in hell can snatch you away. You can be
confident in knowing where you're going when you die - heaven - because you
belong to Him and that's that! The Bible doesn't say you "have" to be in a
church to accept Jesus Christ into your heart.
How do you sacrifice things to Jesus?
When you give your life to
Jesus, you are attempting to make your life a holy and acceptable sacrifice
to Him by asking him to be Lord of your life (Romans 12:1).
There are sometimes some things we may need
to sacrifice to Him, such as a bad habit, swearing, excessive spending, poor
eating habits, or something that seems to take away from your time with
Him. That could be anything from a hobby we love doing, to spending too
much time on the computer :) If those things are taking us away or causing
us to spend less and less time with Jesus in our prayer time or reading of
His word, then we may need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us give those
things up. That would be some good examples of sacrificing things to
Jesus. When I say give some of those things up, I don't necessarily mean
give them up totally, but we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the
discipline and self-control (which is one of the
fruits of the spirit; Galatians 5:22) we need to resist those things
and do what we need to be doing. That can range from things in living
everyday life too (Colossians 1:10), such as
being an obedient child to your mom (Colossians 3:20)
and doing what you know pleases her. When you are learning to be obedient
to God and his Word, you will be pleasing not only to Him, but all those
around you too (sometimes though, not for those who don't love or know Him
personally). There are exceptions to that as well; to those such as your
mom, you will be pleasing to her when you are being obedient to her because
the bible also says to submit yourself to those in authority over you
(I Peter 5:5). When we are doing what we are supposed to do, being
pleasing not only to our Heavenly Father, we also will be a sweet
smelling aroma to those around us (Ephesians 5:1-2).
How can me and my best friend be reborn?
When you ask Jesus Christ to
come into your life and ask Him to take control of your life, forgive you of
all your past, present, and future sins, you are being reborn at that very
moment once you do that. And believe me, when I say future sins, you will
even sin after doing this because we live in a fallen world and the enemy of
our souls (Satan) is ever present causing us to say and do things we don't
want to do. That's why when Jesus left this earth and ascended into heaven
again, He sent us the Holy Spirit to be our guide and comforter in all areas
of life. You will understand more about that when you learn what the Bible
has to say about that. The apostle Paul explains it very well in
Romans 7, because he had to deal with sin in
his own life after he accepted Christ as his Savior. Acts
16:30-31 also talks about how to be saved. When you are saved, you
are reborn in Christ. You are a new creature. Old things are passed away
and all things become new in your new life with Christ
(II Corinthians 5:17).
Is it bad if you say, God bless you to Jesus in your prayer. (Just
wondering)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying 'God
bless you' to Jesus. I'm sure it blesses His heart to hear you speaking to
Him like that :) Even though God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the
Holy Spirit are 3 in 1, in essence when you say God bless you to Jesus,
you're saying it to all 3! because in I John 5:7-8
it speaks about this, and in John 1:14 it
explains how the Word became flesh, meaning Jesus Christ (the Word) came to
this earth in human form.
Do you have to remember certain verses in the bible from the top of your head?
You don't HAVE to remember certain verses of the
Bible, but when you memorize scripture as I explained earlier, it is to your
advantage because you are hiding it in your heart and it will come to you in
times of need by the Holy Spirit as he brings it to your remembrance. When
you hide the Word (Bible verses) in your heart, it will become natural for
you to remember them when you need them. And also as you learn and grow in
the knowledge of God's Word (the Bible) and learn how to walk or live it out
in your life, you will be able to remember certain verses from the Bible,
especially in times of need.
I
hope and pray that what I have shared with you here has helped you and your
friend, Jordan. Keep your eyes on Jesus dear ones and you will be safe in
Him, and I most definitely will be praying for the two of you. Also,
you may contact me again for anymore questions or concerns you might have,
ok?
In His Love & Service,
Kathleen Rasmussen
Declare His Glory...Psalm
96:3
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SPIRITUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR A COUPLE OF
TEENAGERS