For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” -Romans 1:16-17 (NIV)

Lately I have been getting a repeated message coming to me: As Christians, we are saved through faith in God and His tremendous GRACE. What Jesus did alone has justified us. That is the true gospel. Sadly, many churches today do not preach the true gospel, but mix grace in with some sort of works that must be done (or at least one must strive for) in order to please God and enter His kingdom. Quite often, preachers and teachers try to scare people into accepting Christ as their savior. On more than one occasion, I have heard some very descriptive sermons about hell. Is hell important? Of course. Jesus spent way too much time bringing up the subject for it not to be. Will it motivate someone to accept Jesus as their Savior? Maybe. But that does not seem to be what He wants. He wants us to love Him as He loves us. Teaching on the subject of hell certainly has its place in Christian theology, but it is our Heavenly Father who draws us to Him (John 6:44). We know that it is not God’s intention that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).

Embrace His love and see the foolishness of life without Him. That is my prayer for those of you who may happen on this page and don’t know Jesus as I do.