Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 171

June 20;    Matthew 16:26;    16/260(III);    ‘One Thing Matters’

Matthew 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have one goal in mind for every person.  That goal is that every person would become Born Again by hearing the Word, believing the Word and accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  Conversely, satan has one goal in mind as well.  His goal is that no one will ever become Born Again.  The devil hates God and since he knows how much the Father loves people, satan will do everything he can to deceive people and keep them from becoming Christians.  Revenge is satan’s motive.  The devil cannot ‘mess’ with God, he tried that, so he ‘messes’ with people because he knows our incredible worth to the Father and Jesus.  The primary tactic of the devil is to do everything he can to keep us from reading and believing the Bible.  The devil uses religion to deceive multitudes.  Religion is particularly effective since it causes someone to believe that they are acceptable to the Lord, when if the religion is not in line with the Word, it is false.  Believing good works, trying to keep rules that you cannot keep and denial of worldly things are what we need to do to go to heaven keeps sincere (but deceived) people busy with their own efforts.  Pride, thinking we have earned heaven by what we have done is so very cruel.   Additionally, satan has no problem when people have fame, fortunes and popularity.  They are so self-absorbed that they feel they have no need of God as the devil has blinded them with their self-importance.   Nothing that they may have built their life on matters when they die.  Being Born Again is everything, nothing else matters,