At the urging of his children and grandchildren, Martin started a blog to share his knowledge of the family. He suffered from macular degeneration, so he didn't write for long. I was able to go back and make copies of his writings.
His faith in God was deep so I will share his post about that first...before his family memories. He wasn't "preachy"...he just lived by example.
Christianity Here to Stay – Martin
Jones
Posted on August 10, 2012 by Martin Jones
To begin my
feelings I must explain my thoughts about what I believe about God’s plan for
His relationship with man. I think that His plan existed before He created the
universe. I want to make it clear from the start that I will not be referring
to scripture to back up my thoughts. I intend to let you do that for yourself.
I think that anyone who happens to read this will understand that I don’t claim
to be a bible scholar. But I am now 84 years old and have been involved in
trying to understand God’s plan over the years.
God created man in
the image of God. Man was created and given the freedom to make his own
choices. This fact is somewhat a mystery to me. But I believe that God must
have wanted to have a kingdom of people who were devoted to Him. Our freedom is
one of our most treasured aspects of our relationship with God.
We are told that in
the time of Noah, mankind had retreated from God to the extent that God in his
relationship with man decided to destroy all those on the earth at that time.
He must have decided to start over with Noah. So God instructed Noah who evidently
was the only man living at the time who still was faithful to God., to build an
ark to save Noah and his family from the flood that destroyed the whole world.
We have the rainbow as a reminder that the world will never again be destroyed
by flood.
Jesus established
his church shortly before he was crucified. Peter had testified that he
believed that Jesus was the Son Of God. Jesus declared that he would build his
church upon that fact and that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail
against it. The church that Jesus established is not limited to any one
denomination but includes all the Old Testament saints and all who put their
faith and trust in Jesus for the redemption from their sins. Jesus also
promised his disciples that he would return someday to gather his church and
establish a kingdom and that every knee would bow to his authority at that
time.
We are told in the
New Testament that God provided a Savior in Jesus even before he created the
world. We are told that Christ stood as a Lamb slain before God created the
World. So, that leads me to believe that all men since God created Adam have
been added to God’s church by faith that God would provide a savior or
sacrifice for their sins. I do not understand why God created us with the
ability to sin. He created us in his image. We are free to either accept or
reject God’s salvation. God’s plan for man’s redemption is made clear in the
new testament. “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT
WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING Life.‘ (John
3-16). We also know that God’s penalty for sin is an eternal death in hell. God
told Adam that if he disobeyed Him that he would surely die. He and all mankind
since have been under sin. Adam was cast from the Garden of Eden, and had to
work for a living, and he surely did die. By the same token we live under the same
rules. But God in his Love and Grace sent his son to redeem us from our sin.
Just as Christ died and was buried and rose again, we will die and are assured
of resurrection when Christ returns. I believe that our trials and tribulations
in life, and natural death are the only penalty we will have to pay for our
sins. John 3-16 assures us that we will not have to pay the eternal death,
because Christ paid it for us.
