Different viewpoints, one view


I have been listening to different preachers and reading books by some others. Some of them were written in the 1700’s and some books were written by pastors in the early and middle twentieth century. Jonathan Edwards, C.H. Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, A.W. Tozer and Billy Graham are a few of those whose books I have read in the past eight years. There are two things which all of them have in common, their love for Jesus Christ and their view of the world around them. You may want to ask me”How can this be?”, many years separate their viewpoint in history!

While that is true, the view of the world and its problems is still centered on the Word of God and from that point of view humanity really hasn’t changed all that much. From the time of Noah over three thousand years before Christ was born until today mankind has mostly gone their own way. Some do listen to God’s Word and His laws and precepts for living in His Grace, but they are few in comparison to the rest of the world. Most of the world around us, in America and in other countries, wants to get rid of the Truth of God and His Word. You know I’m right about this because you can hear it on the news every day.

Humanity has not changed in thousands of years. We are rebellious and we want our own way and we will not obey the Lord’s laws or even man’s laws, if we can get away with it. The truth contained within God’s Word is absolute and that is unacceptable to humanity in everything that we do. No one is willing to be obedient to parents or teachers or to laws in whatever land they may live. This is the very reason that so much violence is seen all over the world today.

No, there has been no real change in mankind’s ways since the days of Noah. In some ways, possibly, we are less hateful or less violent but I would say not by much. Our news media relates how we hurt and kill each other with guns and machete and knives and drugs today. We have many different ways of killing each other and yet very little remorse is seen in the faces of the people. Even unborn children are in dangerous places because of the laws which have been passed to allow women to kill their children before they are even born. Millions have died in the years since the law was passed in 1973 which legalized it in America and many other countries have followed right along with us.

Looking at the world around us from the viewpoint of the Bible and its laws gives the same picture of humanity regardless of when you live. Nothing has really changed. We are still killing each other, there is sexual immorality in almost every community, people don’t seem to consider what the Bible says about how we should live or act toward one another. The few who do read and listen to Biblical teaching on a regular basis at least try to live a life which is pleasing to God. Some of us try too hard to do so on our own without His Spirit’s teaching and leading so we stumble and fall more than we should, but we consider that as “our humanity” winning out over the Spirit.

God gives each of us a measure of faith and of His Spirit so that we can walk a pleasing walk before Him but many of us don’t listen to His voice and we just fall anyway without thinking of the consequences. We may not feel the consequences of our falling but what about your children or grandchildren? They watch you and listen to you so that they can learn from you. Are they hearing and seeing those things which Jesus would do or is it just your “humanity” that is showing them how to do it the wrong way? Consider this and leave a comment or share it with your friends.

Our purpose as Christians


Romans 12:1

I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God…

We are supposed to sacrifice our lives to God each and every day until He calls us home. While we do this in this life we are supposed to be useful to God as witnesses of His grace and mercy. God has made each of us a new creation when we have given our heart to Jesus because at that point God’s Spirit came to dwell in our heart. We are new people when we have given our hearts to Jesus. We live in His strength and by His power to be Christians. We are not the same people as we were before becoming a child of God. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit as His adopted child, with all of the gifts and treasures which come with that position.

Our holiness comes from Jesus the Christ and is not our own because we cannot be holy without His Spirit to cause us to be holy and able to do His will and learn from His Word. Without His Spirit, which seals us and equips us to be better than we were before He came into our life, we are weak and stuttering and helpless in the face of Satan’s assaults. But when we live our daily lives as a true living sacrifice to God and His Word every day, not just once a week or once every month, we have His Strength and Power and His Word to back us up in everything that we do for His Glory and not ours.

God can use our weaknesses and our insecurities to allow us to get at least one person to listen to His Story. That may be all that you are intended to do in your ministry and if that is it then you have done your part. But…should you quit at that point? I don’t think so because your life can have an impact for eternity on many more people than just one. So…don’t sell yourself short and don’t quit working at your calling which God called you into. Just because things are down a bit doesn’t mean they will stay that way.

Who can tell of His Love?


The love of God which is poured out on us and for us each day is hard for us to understand. He loves us even when we hate Him or reject Him. He loves us even when we try to live for Him but we fail because we try to do it in our strength and not His. God’s love for us began long ago, even before the light of the Sun was kindled into being. So, why do we choose to turn away from Him when we truly do need Him? Do we have proof of His love for us?

Yes! His love was poured out through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. God’s love for His creation is complete and deeper than we can imagine. Your so-called “race” doesn’t matter to God because we are all descended from Adam and Eve and Noah and his family. God extends His mercy and love to whoever He chooses to and there isn’t anything that we can do to influence His choices. As He said in the Bible, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion“. God’s love for us isn’t dependent upon our performance or our lack of performance because He is God!

His love is extended to all of us but it is still our choice of whether we will accept Jesus as our Savior or not. Love cannot be forced it must be given at least when we are the one’s giving our love to another or not. God’s love is not earned or given to us because of anything which we do. He loves us even if we choose to reject Jesus as our Savior and reject Him as our God. It pains His heart I am sure when we do this but that doesn’t keep Him from loving us anyway.

We have trouble seeing or even understanding how could God love us when we are sinful in our ways but He does it anyway. Everything which God has done in the past and what He will do in the future is tempered with His love for mankind. So, seek Him out as your Savior so you will have a chance to thank Him one day for His mercy and grace when you and I did not deserve it.

What do I need to do?


This is a question which many people ask when they feel the need for salvation but they have never been introduced to their Savior. Truthfully, there is not much that you need to do to obtain salvation because most of the “work” has been taken care of by Jesus Himself. When you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you realize that you need to repent and change your life, your only option is to believe that the atonement has been bought for you by Jesus. Believe and repent of your sins, turn away from your “old life” and follow Jesus into a new life which will never really end!

From the point of your repentance and your acceptance of Jesus as your Savior you have a new life and a new purpose and that is to tell others about your Savior so they can meet Him and get to know Him. Life for you and anyone who accepts Jesus as their Savior will never really end, you will just transition from this life into eternity. That is the best way to describe it because death just sounds too final and for someone who is serving Jesus and has accepted Him as their Savior, the end of this life is really the beginning of your real Life! This life is just a sort of “practice” for the next one so make sure to learn everything that you can about God and His Son while you are here.

When you pass through the door which leads to eternity you won’t need to learn more about Him because at that point you will “know and be known“. Life in eternity will be different and wonderful and beyond anything on Earth that we can imagine. I cannot imagine what it will be like to be in His Presence. It will likely be a feeling and an experience which doesn’t have an equal here and the grandeur and majesty of Heaven will be so far above anything that we know until any description of it would be futile in the attempt.

God has provided a way for you and I and anyone else who feels the conviction of His Spirit to know Jesus as our Savior if we will believe in Him and the atonement which He provided and paid for on the cross. Don’t turn the chance for eternity with Him down. Please accept His Presence in your heart and in your life while there is time. Because you can only make that decision in this life, so make the right one.