Whosoever

Jesus invites all to come to Him; the cross on which He died reminds us of His expression of His love for all humanity. Revelation 3 states:
18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Jesus gave His life so that we can come to know Him.  By His blood, He has brought forgiveness of sins and the promise of a right relationship with God.  He was our perfect sacrifice for sin, paying a penalty that each of us could never pay.  And, He rose from the dead, so that we could experience His new life.  He defeated death so that we could have eternal life.  That is now available for all, for anyone, who would accept Him as Lord and Savior.

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We can reflect on all that God has in store for us as we surrender our lives to Him; embracing His
Son and being born again. Colossians 1 states:
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

He loved to skateboard and he loved the party scene.  After his girlfriend became pregnant - twice - and aborted both their babies, he got mad at God.  As the God Reports story relates, his partying "ramped up."  He got a job with an international sports and events marketing company and traveled the globe.

He is quoted in the article as saying:

“Playboy mansion parties, porn stars hosting our events, taking cocaine like crazy,” he remembers. “It feels good for a while. But what happens is the hole in my heart keeps getting bigger and bigger. I keep having to fill it with more alcohol, more drugs, more girls. It’s like the dog that chases its tail. That’s what I felt my life was.”

Ryan Ries asked God for a sign - God gave Him the Word.  In a hotel room in Panama City, Panama.  With a Gideons Bible.  He was there on a promotional gig and overdosed on a powerful combination of drugs; he almost died.  The story says:

He grabbed the Gideon’s Bible from the hotel room and started reading on the plane from Panama City to LAX.

“I literally read the Bible for six hours,” he says. “I remember the whole skateboard team, they’re looking at me, going, ‘The cocaine pirate is actually reading the Bible? Are you kidding me right now?’”

But when he landed, he felt peace for the first time in a long time.

Once home, he prayed. “I have some serious issues,” he told God. “I need you to remove this stuff out of my life.”

Ryan gave His life to Christ and began to use his talents for the Lord.  A CBN article quotes Ryan:

So by the time I came back to church, you know, after living this life for 19 years, being very disconnected from Christians and Christianity and God, you definitely feel like a black sheep when you walk into church.

And I just laid it all down at the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane and said, ‘God, if you can have someone contact me that's not in my inner circle, I'll follow you and I'll go tell my story.’ The Holy Spirit answered my prayer the next day.

I was out in Israel with Sonny Sandoval, the lead singer from P.O.D. and he told me this idea of this movement he had called The Whosoevers, the anybodies around the world coming together to reach the culture.

The God Reports site states:

“Whosoevers” comes from John 3:16 KJV: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Whosovers is dedicated to reaching out to young people with the truth of Jesus.  The Tactical Faith website has an interview with Ryan, recorded at a conference sponsored by Maven, a new ministry started by Brett Kunkle, that is, according to Tactical Faith, "...focused on equipping a younger generation on defending the faith with grace and truth."  The website says, "This guy has a passion for Jesus, and a willingness to bear the cross of Jesus."

The CBN article quotes Ryan:

This movement is for the youth around the world. We speak purpose into the lives of people that need Christ. In reality, Jesus loves homosexuals, Jesus loves the prostitutes, Jesus loves sinners. That’s why God sent Him into the world. And by Him loving them and them accepting Him then God transforms their heart, transforms their mind, and does the work supernaturally in the natural.

From death to life...and "whosoever" can receive it.  That's the message of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  We can place all our sin, all our hurt, our sorrow, our shame, on the cross and experience Christ lifting our burdens and walking in the new life that He promises.

From darkness to light.  We have all walked in the darkness, separated from God by our sin.  But Jesus shone His light in the darkness!  The light of the world has come to set us free.  His truth enlightens our minds so that we might know Him better.

From deception to liberation.  The enemy wants to destroy our lives, and He will lie to us to keep us in bondage.  But, Christ brings His truth and we can break free from the deception of the enemy so that we might experience what God has to offer us.