Month: April 2013

Do you act like a child?


“When I was a child, I spoke as a child and played as a child; when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:11)

This is something which we have heard from preachers for years, but what exactly does it mean?
To us, as Christians, it means that when we finally grow up, regardless of what age we may be when we do, we should act like it!
Do we act like it? Have we grown up? Are we, as adults, really grown up?
1. Most of us are not.
• We do what we want to do, when we want to do it, if possible. Then, we get mad if we can’t.
• People see themselves as good, but what about the thoughts that we all have. Are they good all the time? Would you want Jesus to read your thoughts every day? He knows what you think whether you have given your heart to him or not.
• Does it bother you that God knows every thought that you have? If it doesn’t, you might want to check your relationship with Him.
2. Can we fix our character, our heart or our soul on our own? Of course not! We can’t pull off something like that, only Jesus can do a soul-cleansing restoration on your heart and soul!

Many times, we believe that we are in charge. We start our lives wanting to be in charge of our life. “I can do it myself!” How many times have parents heard that? At those times it is cute, for a while, but when children get older it is called being rebellious. It tends to cause ulcers and grey hair and lost hair too.

The point is that, when we think that we are good enough to run our lives by ourselves, we are taking the throne away from the One Who is supposed to be there! We are doing the same thing that Satan tried to do when He was cast into outer darkness. He wanted to put himself on the throne which God was on or to put his “throne” above God’s. We can’t do that, although many people do just exactly that!

People that think they have plenty of time to get around to God do it. People who don’t believe that there is a God do it. People who have made their own version of “god” do it. This happens all over the world, every day. Billions of people think that they know better than God!

Can we be that ignorant? Are we? Many people think that they have all of the answers for their own problems and for the world’s problems too. You see them on television and on the internet every day. If they base their advice on God’s Word, and use its wisdom to advise people, then maybe they do have the answer for mankind’s problems. But, if they are using their own wisdom or some wisdom from man, such as Buddhism or Scientology, then they are mistaken. Even the Koran is only from a man, it was not given by God. God would not condone killing others because they won’t accept Islam as their religion. That sounds like it came from Satan himself.

The answers to our life’s problems lie in giving our hearts and our minds to Christ so that we can become more like Him. Following Him in all of our ways, every day and in all things. Give the day to Him before you begin it so that He will be in your mind and heart and direct your steps and words during your daily routine. It isn’t hard to do, but it is a conscious decision that we have to make. A decision that comes only when your heart is filled with the Holy Spirit and you have taken the Word into your mind. One sermon a week listening to someone preach doesn’t equip you for service to God, you have to do that daily!

I know that many people think that daily walks with God in His Word is what the preacher is supposed to do. It is what we are all called to do as Christians, to be followers of Christ. Walking with God daily is our responsibility because if we don’t, we won’t get to know the God who came to save us. Reading the Bible is the best way for us to get to know Him because it is His way of communicating with us and telling us about Himself.

God loves us more than we can understand but the way that we can learn about Him is by reading His word. Getting to know our Father better is one of the best things you can do for your relationship with Him, the better you know Him, the easier it is to recognize His voice when He speaks to you. I can’t imagine a more satisfying relationship than having one with the Creator of everything! He created us all for that, the least that we could do is return the love toward Him.

God knew you before you were born and He knows when your last day on the earth will be. Knowing this, He still chose you to be a child of His and all He is waiting for is your agreement with Him and your asking Him into your heart and life. God’s grace toward us is loving and eternal and doesn’t depend on anything that we may believe that we have to do, God doesn’t need our help in making us righteous. He works His changes in your heart and your life gradually and carefully, but sometimes those changes may hurt a bit.

We don’t agree with the pain and suffering that we have to endure during the time of God’s changes in our hearts and our lives because, even as Christians, it hurts or it is uncomfortable. That’s life! Jesus didn’t say that He came to make our lives easy. He told the disciples and us through them that we would have trouble and pain in this world, but He also tells us to take heart because He overcame the world and through Him, we can too!

There are many people in the world that are hurting every day and in more ways than we can imagine but God knows about each of them and His Spirit is with them through it all. He will draw them to Himself and if they answer the call they will have His strength to carry them through whatever they are being put through. Many people don’t acknowledge that call on their spirit because they are hurting too much or they are high on drugs or they are drunk, but God knows their hearts. He will keep drawing them until they tell Him to go away, if they recognize that it was Him to begin with.

Other times, which happens more often that we would like to believe, they don’t hear His call in their life. People are so caught up in what they are doing or having to deal with until they are spiritually deaf. Satan loves it when we are so caught up in our lives and our jobs or with our family that we can’t even hear God calling to us. That is when he will crank up the volume in our life so that we are even more involved and there is no way God can get through. But, God knows your heart and He knows whether you will hear Him at some point and it is at those times, whether you like what is happening to you or your family or not, that you will hear Him! You may wonder why this is happening at that point but it is because God has something that only you can do and He will not let you ignore Him.

I can hear many people saying that we are not predestined but God says that we are. He can raise up a ruler or bring him down for His purposes and He can do the same with us. He is the Creator and can do anything that He desires to do and if that means breaking down your will in order to build you up to be the person that He knows you can be, then that is what He will do. Give your heart to God before He has to allow that to happen in your life, so that He can use you in a more fantastic way than you could ever imagine! Won’t you call on Him today?

What do you do when you can’t do anymore?


Do you give up? I have heard that many people do just that and its a shame. What about looking for something that you can do? When we get to a place where we don’t think we can do or say anymore about something, what do we do then? The thing that I do is..turn to God and ask Him to show me what to do! In today’s society, there are many people who don’t do that simply because they don’t believe in God, but what else is there to believe in? Man-made religions and beliefs did not create the universe. Religion doesn’t have a risen Savior that is present to be called upon.

The thing that makes Christianity different from religions that are all over the world is that our Savior died in order to bring us into a relationship with Him! Many other religions require you to “do something” in order to be worthy of a relationship with their “god”, while the God of the Hebrews is the only God! And He doesn’t require you to work your way into heaven because you can’t! We cannot do anything on our own that makes us good enough to be allowed into heaven. The only requirement that we have is to believe that Jesus died for us and took the punishment meant for us, accept it and then do the best we can, with Him as our guide, to go out and spread the news to others!

Whether the world accepts Him or not is not our problem, all that we have to do is tell them about Him! He will speak to their hearts and minds so that they will be convicted of their sins and turn to Him or they won’t, but they cannot be forced into it. The talents that God gives to each of us, whether we are Christians or not, were given to bring Him glory. Though, most of the time we use those talents for our glory and our personal gain, especially if it is a talent like singing or acting. The bottom line is that we are selfish.

We, all of us, think that we are the most important person in our world and to some extent that is true. But, being that self-centered does nothing to give us a positive image of ourselves unless we are being praised or we happen to be good enough that we get praise for our performances.

And yet, if we are not good enough we begin to believe that we aren’t good enough for anything or anyone. We get into a real pity party and get depressed and turn to many other ways to make us feel better, even if only for a little while. People turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, reality television, money, etc.; the list could go on and on forever. Even our jobs and our house or how much money we make or the kind of car that we drive can turn into or be used as a status symbol, which many people use them just that way.

But, what does that accomplish? Does your job help you in any way spiritually? Can your car solve problems at home, or can money fix your relationship with your children or with your spouse? We tend toward idolizing people and things in our society and we don’t realize that we have actually turned them into idols. These “things” cannot do anything for us. They cannot help, but they do get in the way of our perception and keep us blinded to the One who can help.

Jesus, by the love that the Father had for us, was sent to be the sacrifice that would take the punishment for us all, and He did! He paid the price of everyone’s sins so that we wouldn’t have to pay the price for our rebellion. All that we have to do is to believe in Him and His sacrifice and that we are His when we do. We cannot help Him to save us, because there is nothing that we can do that would be good enough. The only thing that sends you to hell is believing the lie that Satan puts in front of you, the one that says “I can do it on my own, I don’t need you!” The other lie that many people believe is that there is no hell or punishment for those who reject Jesus or even that there is no Satan who causes us to believe more in our own self than we do in the One who created us!

The grace of God is extended to each of us every day when we are able to get up and greet another day, yet many people don’t acknowledge it as such. They take each day for granted because they believe that they are guaranteed their time on earth, but we are not! We have the time that God gives us and that may end tonight, we may never see another sun rise on earth. But, when your eyes close in death you will rise to an eternal life afterward. Your enjoyment of that eternity hinges on your decision to accept Jesus as your Savior and ask forgiveness through Him or not. Your immortal body will be able to withstand the terrors and the punishment in hell and you will feel it forever or you will be rewarded with a life in heaven that is free from pain and suffering. The choice is yours to make, but it must be made before you die!

 

Our world is (mostly) lost


There are many who, I imagine, would agree with that statement and many who would disagree as well. But, from a salvation point of view, it is true. Many people, billions of them in fact, are lost. They are looking for something, yet they don’t know what it is, and they are looking in the wrong places. The look to things or people or religions that offer no real hope. Nothing proven to be a future hope, just feelings of belonging to something that is temporary. Life itself, the one that we all live on this planet, is temporary. It may seem to be an arduous task to live it, however you may do so and wherever you may live and yet the time that we have is but an instant.

Eternity lies before us, all of us, regardless of the place we may go to after our physical death. We should choose whether we will serve our own lusts and desires in this life or will we give our life to Christ and do the work that He has for us to do. Many people think that living for and through Him is boring and not fun and that couldn’t be more wrong. Once the Creator has taken up residence in your heart, He is with you regardless of what you are doing or where you may be. He sees and knows the things that you do before you belong to Him and it grieves His heart to see you going through so much heartache without Him.

To be useful to Christ doesn’t take going on a mission trip or being a pastor. Just doing little things for people who haven’t know Him, but they know that you do, will have a BIG impact. Even if you don’t do those things every day, just once a week will get them to thinking. When we act like Jesus toward others, that is when they see Jesus in us, and many times they will want what they see.

I learned this morning that a wonderful man of God went to his reward and went to his eternal home yesterday. He was over one hundred years old but I know that he won’t look it when I see him in eternity. I didn’t know him personally in this life, but I will in the next one. His name is George Beverly Shea and I don’t consider him to be dead at all. Just as Jesus spoke of Moses and others as being alive and not dead, I consider all those who have gone to their reward as being alive forevermore.

Regardless of what you may have learned in college, this life doesn’t end when your eyes close in death. That is only the death of the physical body. Eternity is for all of us, the place where you spend that eternity is up to you!

What will you do with the time that you have? The decision must be made while you are here because there are no “do-overs”, we don’t get to come back and fix things and do better next time. The dress rehearsal is the life that you are living and you only get one.

 

Murderers, killers and thieves


Our nation is in mourning because of the people who commit these acts in our cities every day. Yet some of them do it legally and no one says anything about it until something is discovered that gets people angry enough to do something about it. The murderers who use guns get attention in the media whether they kill one or more people, especially if it is a child. But what about the so-called “doctors” who perform abortions daily.

I realize that there are some who are actually board-certified physicians, but they are not gynecologists or if they are why would they be consenting to do these things. The answer boils down to MONEY! Some reports show that abortion doctors can make anywhere from $350 to upwards of one thousand dollars per “procedure”. Regardless of what you call it, in the eyes of God, it is murder.

In the title I referenced thieves and I mean that in the way of stealing life from someone who may have been important in the future. But we will never know for sure, because they were aborted before they had a chance to live! I know that I am speaking against abortion, but there are some that have been aborted that were just plain murder! These partial-birth abortions in particular are grievous because if the child were wanted, they could have lived.

God doesn’t take the murder of children lightly like we do in our society today. How much blood has been spilled and innocent lives taken because of the idol of “convenience” got in the way. Pride and greed and selfishness are all involved in this industry. Selfishness because of the money to be made and because it is “inconvenient” to have a child. Children are gifts from God, but many people treat them as if they are slaves or property or even pets!

Our lives and the lives of our families are not “things” to be used as bargaining chips. If the argument for abortion were just involving a so-called “clump of cells“, then why do we punish murderers in the prisons? We just happen to be living clumps of cells that can fight back and talk and defend ourselves, babies cannot! Why do we punish a criminal for two murders if he kills a pregnant woman and yet we define her child as a non-living clump of cells?

God creates each of us in the womb and He knows the person that we are destined to become. When we take that life, even before it draws its first breath, in God’s eye we have murdered that person. The people that we, as a society, have killed since abortion became legal is numbered in the millions.

After Easter, what now?


The services are over, the message is done. Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour yet? There were “passion plays“, re-enactments of Jesus’ hours before His crucifixion that touched many people’s hearts and their minds with how well they were done and put together. Yet, did anyone really get the message found in them?

Jesus came to be the sacrifice for all of our sins. Not just those of the people who He preached to and His disciples preached to and carried the gospel to in their journeys, but for all of us, especially those who had not been born yet! His message and His sacrifice was for you and me and everyone else on this world, all we have to do is believe in what He did and Who He was so that we can have eternity with Him.

Many people who I have heard say that is too simple. It just can’t be that easy. The problem that they have is that they are making it harder than it is! Accepting Jesus doesn’t make your life easier! It doesn’t take away the suffering, the bills, the heartache of life that we have to live but it does make it easier to bear because we have Him and His strength to bear it with.

God loves us enough that He sent His Son to become a man and die a very cruel death to pay for all of our sins so that we would not have to pay the penalty for them. Many people don’t think that there is a punishment for not accepting Christ, but God’s Word clearly says that there is. Some may be punished more than others, depending on what they did in their life on earth, but the punishment is real nonetheless. It was designed for Satan and his demons but by rejecting Jesus and the offer of eternal life, we will be cast into it as well. We have free will to do what we choose which is why we sometimes get into trouble that we shouldn’t be in. If we didn’t have that free will, we would be unable to truly enjoy our lives. We would be like puppets and that is not what God wants! He wants us to freely give our love and service to Him because of His Grace that has been extended to us.

It is our own choices which place us there, not God. He won’t change our choices while we live, only we can do that and it is our individual choices which will condemn us to an eternity in hell or to live in paradise with Jesus. The choice is up to each of us, which one we choose to follow during our life will determine the life we have in eternity.

Life is..?


Life is…? What? Hard? Easy? Difficult? Mostly, life is all of these. Occasionally, all of them at the same time!

The wind blows, the trees sway.

The river and streams run and tumble and play,

But the rocks are still, yet they are shaped,

By wind and water too.

Life is like that as well. The things that we experience shape our lives and how we perceive life. Can we do anything about the life that we live? Sometimes, but most of the time we just live it. Is it hard to “just live it”? Not really unless you live in poverty or in an area that has been under a drought for a long time or in a war torn area of the world. Life is not easy, regardless of where you live or what you believe in.

The society and cultures that we live in, regardless of the country, shape our opinions and our lives as well as our characters. Is there any way that we can be good enough to be human and be kind to one another? Yes, we all have the capability and the moral compass within us. Whether we choose to be that person or not is our choice. We are free to choose, for good or evil, how our actions affect those around us.

Most of us would like to be liked by our colleagues, so we choose to be likeable and friendly. Others in society choose to be selfish, caring only about what is good for them as individuals and nothing for anyone else. Thankfully, those who are selfish make up a smaller portion of society, but they do get most of the media attention so we hear about them most often. I think that is why we are so fascinated by reality shows. When cameras are around, at some point the selfish person will show up when they are least expected and usually it is the person who wasn’t selfish to begin with.

We are a group of contrasts, always changing as we get older. Sometimes for better, sometimes not so much. Age doesn’t always bring wisdom, it should but life has a way of teaching you lessons that you really don’t enjoy and whether you get wisdom from these lessons or not is still up to you. We are ruled by our choices in life and in eternity. I know, many people don’t really believe that there is an eternity but it is mentioned in the Bible so I believe it exists, and it is a very long, long time!

How can we make a difference in our life and in other people’s lives now and into eternity? By living the life that we have like it is going to end tomorrow! Telling and showing others the One who came to give them life after this one! It is not a hard job, but it is one that is not very popular right now. Some of the lessons contained in God‘s Word are considered “hate speech“, bigoted, elitist views of salvation, the list goes on and on.

The point of all of this is that we only have a limited amount of time to let others know about Jesus. Our lifetime is only a small part of eternity and compared to eternity it is but a puff of smoke or mist. The message that we have is one that is very important to those who need it and will listen. If you don’t think that you need it..well, prayer is an option, searching for the answer in God’s Word is another option, but religion is not. Religion, regardless of which one it is, can get you and anyone else a place in hell quicker than anything because it is not religion that saves your soul, it is belief in Jesus‘ sacrifice for you that saves you!

Open the Word, seek the wisdom contained in it, ask God to reveal Himself to you. Then let His light shine through you to others so that they can see Him and want to know Him too. Truly God is in control, otherwise our world would’ve ended long ago. Get to know Him while you can.

 

 

How does society shape your beliefs?


In the western part of the world, consumption of material things, selfishness, greed all play a part in our society. Whether we like to admit it or not. Many people look at their religion in the same way. They want it to be their personal religion, not a religion that everyone follows but something that is uniquely theirs. The problem with this is that when you “choose” your religion it is like a pair of jeans or a shirt in your closet, it is yours alone. No one else has to believe in what you believe and that is fine because that is the way you wanted it anyway. There are many religions that have sprung up in the past one hundred years like this. The preferred religion of Hollywood, Scientology, was created in the past eighty years and yet claims to follow beings who are trillions of years old. It also claims many of the same things which are exclusive to Christianity and yet it says that one day you can be like a god. Really?

No person on earth has ever been a god except one…Jesus. He is the only prophet, Priest and King who can claim this title because He is the only person to have been resurrected and Who now sits next to His Father, ruling the universe and watching over everything until the time for His second coming is fulfilled.

I know that there are many who don’t want to hear this and I understand that it upsets your personal life and belief in the “god” of your choosing, but listen to this argument and if you don’t take it to heart then I have done what I set out to do, tell you about the One who can show you the way to eternity.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a baby and grew up as any other child does. The only exception to His life is that He was always in contact with His Father. They likely had many discussions about His mission and His purpose on earth, although we don’t know of it. The only parts that we can be privy to are in God‘s Word. Some of those narratives are more detailed than others but suffice to say, His mission began when His cousin baptized Him.

From that point on, He went all over and around Judea or Israel, teaching, healing those who were ill, telling the religious leaders that they had missed many things in the prophets because they did not or would not recognize Who it was that was speaking to them.

His followers, the twelve disciples who were the closest to Him, also took up the message after His resurrection. He told them to take the message of salvation to Jerusalem and to all of the world and that is what they did. Even the Pharisee called Paul who was trying to get rid of the sect that they called “the Way” became Jesus’ disciple who would take the gospel to the Jews and the gentiles. It was he who wrote nearly half of the New Testament.

The world would be a very different place without Jesus and the Bible as well as Christianity. Many of the laws and moral teachings that we take for granted came from the Bible. Our world has been irrevocably changed because of its influence so it cannot be ignored or pushed aside. Think about it, read it, check the facts contained in it, then let your heart decide!

What can we say to Atheists?


There are many things which are not right in our world. Many people die each day of starvation, disease, war, gunshots. anger, heart attacks, etc., the list goes on and on. The question in many people’s minds is this: “Why does God allow all of this suffering?”; “Why doesn’t He step in and fix everything that is wrong with the world?”.

There are many answers to these questions, most of which atheists and many other people really don’t want to accept. God allows this suffering because it is part of the human condition. We live in a world that “fell from grace” when Adam sinned in the Garden and the suffering is part of that fallen world. To answer the second question is very simple and easy: He will fix everything when He returns.

These answers are unacceptable to most in our world because they believe that God shouldn’t allow suffering. But, the suffering that we go through is only a shadow of what will be if we are unwilling to accept Jesus into our lives and hearts. The suffering that you will experience by being out of God’s presence for an eternity will be many magnitudes above the suffering that you or I would experience here on earth.

The suffering that Jesus experienced on the cross when His Father turned away from Him is exactly what we will experience, because we will know the presence and the love of God before being cast into hell. Knowing the love that He has for us, for even a brief time, will be painful to be separated from it.

During the crucifixion that Christ suffered to pay the penalty for each of us, Jesus did feel that separation and loss. Many people will say that He only felt it for a few hours so how could that have meant anything? The Son of God had never before been separated physically or spiritually from His Father. They had always been together from before time began until that moment on the cross, so an hour or even a minute’s time of separation would have been painful for both the Father and the Son. Yet, it had to be done because He was the only sacrifice pure enough to take care of the penalty for the sins of mankind.

The world that we live in is in a fallen state due to the actions of Adam and Eve. That fallen state and the “ruler” of this world, Satan, is the reason for the suffering and the other problems that happen everywhere. Of course, people add to the suffering because of our nature. The Bible says that our thoughts are continually toward evil and left to ourselves we will do what our nature and our thoughts dictate.

Trusting in God and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, asking Him to forgive us and make each of us more like Him is the only way for us to break out of the sinful mold that we are born into. The mini-series that many watched during March has started a wave of people looking for answers and they are found in the Bible, not in stuff that we consume or in man-made religions which have no real answers to life in general.

Study and read the Bible, question the things that you find in it, learn about the One who can make you whole. Because without Him, we can do nothing that has a lasting value. The things that we do here in this life are only temporary, the service that we can do with His strength and through Him is eternal. Think about it.