Month: April 2021

You can’t do that!


Have you ever been told that before? Whether it is referring to achievement in school or something that your parents think you can’t do, it is humiliating and degrading. I once read a “fortune cookie” statement that said, “A great pleasure in life is doing what others say you can’t.” It is true of our Christian walk with Jesus too. Many people think that they have to clean themselves up or get “better” before they can come to Jesus and ask for His forgiveness and for Him to be their Savior. That is not the way Jesus worked when He called His disciples and He doesn’t work that way today.

Truly, we can’t be saved without the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sins. But we cannot save ourselves except by the Holy Spirit and belief in Jesus Christ for our salvation. Also…belief is not the only way to salvation. Your belief is not the only part of your requirement for maturity in Christ. We have to follow His example during the rest of our lives. Learn about Him through studying the Bible. Not just the New Testament but the Old Testament too because Jesus was foretold in the Old Testament.

The early church for the first two or three centuries after Jesus’ crucifixion only had the Old Testament to read. They did have the letters that Paul wrote to the churches that he started but they had to be copied to be sent to others who wanted to read them. There were letters that John and Peter wrote and a few others but until the New Testament was canonized in the fourth century but for many years the Old Testament scrolls were the only written Word of God.

Following Jesus is not easy because today much of what is taught from the Bible is considered “hate speech” because it has passages that go against the sins that most of the world enjoys today. We need a moral compass that is undeniable. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit so it is the written, inspired Word of God written down by men who were listening to God’s Holy Spirit. Many people think that it was written by a bunch of “old men”. Well, it likely was written by some old men who had given their hearts and lives to serving God but consider this: the forty-odd men who were involved in writing it all told some part of Jesus’ story!

He is pointed to from every book of the Bible. The Old Testament has 39 books in the English translation and every one of them has a prophecy or a “type” of Jesus Christ in their words. He is the Seed of the Woman in the early part of the book of Genesis. Later He is referred to as the Angel of the Lord. In Exodus, He is the Pillar of Fire by night and the Pillar of Cloud by day and the Rock which gave them water in the wilderness. Jesus is referred to in every book of the Bible, of course, He is in every part of the New Testament but that is to affirm and testify to the prophecy from the Old Testament.

God has done so much in our lives and in the world for all to see yet many still refuse to believe in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. Is it because they don’t want to see or understand? Partially. The other reason is that Satan is blinding them to the Truth that is found in Jesus Christ. He causes many people to believe that they have plenty of time to make that decision or even that they can get to Heaven on their own merit. I can tell you that you can’t do it! If we could there would’ve been no reason for Jesus to die on the cross and be raised to life on the third day!

You can’t save yourself and I can’t either but salvation from the eternity of hell only comes through following Jesus and giving your heart to Him. Some of you might say that the thief on the cross had no time to follow Him yet Jesus told him that he would be with Him in paradise today because of his belief that Jesus was the Christ. That is all that was needed. Believe in Jesus for your salvation so that you can follow Him from this point on in your life.

Jesus Christ paid our price


Amen

He became sin to save us…


Have you been blessed today?


Many of us might say that we feel terrible and our health has not improved so no I don’t feel blessed today. God gave you another day to live and pray for your healing and your blessing so why do you feel this way? Because the pain isn’t gone. Because my money, my bank account is still empty. Keep praying, keep believing in God and His promises because He loves you and He will answer. God blesses us with another day to live and work and serve Him with all of our strength and with everything we have because we should do so! He gave His Son for your salvation. He sent Jesus to pay the price for your sins and mine and everyone in the past, present and future of this world. That gift alone should be enough to feel blessed today!

If you are alive and breathing and able to read this then you have been blessed and your forgiveness is available through Jesus and your eternity depends upon your decision to follow Him from this day forward. Pray that He will save you and He will do it! Then follow Him by reading His Word and telling others about His provision and blessing.

Love one another


Amen

Who is God to you?


Who is God to you? Is He your Savior, your Creator, and a friend that you can turn to when things go wrong? Do you realize how awesome God really is or do you just think of Him as a genie or some “Santa Clause”? God can come to your aid when you need Him and He will but realize that He is with you all of the time.

We tend to put God in a box that is the size of a small book so we can handle being around Him. We don’t like to think about Who He is because our brains can’t comprehend Him! What do I mean by that? If you have ever read an article about astronomy, do you remember how truly huge our universe is? Astronomers tell us that it is approximately 14 billion light-years to the edge of the universe. Each light-year is approximately six trillion miles! I’m not going to multiply that number to find the distance in miles to the edge of the universe but God’s Word says that God stretched out the fabric of space like a sheet or a scroll!

Think about that…God stretched out space like a sheet! He is bigger than those trillions of miles and yet a part of Him resides inside your heart if you truly belong to Him. He is everywhere and yet we still try to squeeze Him down to a manageable size so that our mind can handle Him. Why would you do that? Because we can’t truly comprehend God, but we don’t have to. Just live your life as a Christian and follow Jesus. He said for us to follow Him and we should. Read the Bible every day, think about what you have read, and pray to the Writer (Who is God) of it so you can understand it and His message for you.

Each person has a purpose that is ordained by God and we are supposed to look for that purpose in His Word. Your purpose is in there but it takes time and study to find it. Your purpose won’t jump out of the page or the chapter and hit you in the face, but with study and prayer, you will feel it in your Spirit. His Spirit is present in every true believer because it was His Spirit that got your attention when you gave your life to Him. God loves you and He has a purpose and a plan for your life and He will equip you to accomplish it.

Will God make your life easy? No! Will He give you everything that you want? No! Jesus said that we would have trials and troubles in this world during our life as a Christian and a follower of His! Some people think that being a Christian is easy but it isn’t. If you depend on God for your provision it may seem to be an easy life to someone outside your home because the “drama” doesn’t happen the way it does for everyone else. Seek Him first when you wake up in the morning…begin your day talking to Him first, thank Him for another day that you have to be used by Him for His Kingdom.

God is close to you if you are a Christian. He is even closer than your own skin because He is in your heart so you are never alone. Prayer is your lifeline and your connection to your Savior and your Creator and that connection never fades. It grows stronger as you study His Word and get closer to Him each day. Don’t neglect your relationship with Him. Treat your Bible like your phone, take it with you everywhere. Even if you can’t read, get a copy of it on CD or USB and play it in your car or on your computer or TV. After a while, you will have His Word in your mind well enough to bring it to mind whenever you need it.

All of us stray from the path


Sad but true

Does God’s love mean much to you?


Many times I have been asked to pray in church, even when I was a pastor and the facts about our Savior just overwhelmed me and I would choke up. Some people may have thought I was weak or just a “cry-baby” by doing this although none of them would admit it. But when you consider the pain and suffering that Jesus had to go through on the day He was crucified to pay for all of our sins…it is overwhelming. God loves each of us who will give our hearts to Him and repent of our old ways and His love is so overpowering until we can’t understand it. 

Why would God send His Son to go through all of the suffering and pain as a man in order to pay our penalty for our sins? It’s because of His love for us and nothing else. Every time He disciplined the Jewish people in the Old Testament He was trying to get them to turn to Him for their provision and for His love to be poured out on them as blessings. Sometimes they recognized this and sometimes they didn’t so for a while they would follow Him or the person that He sent to bring them back into a relationship with Him. But as soon as that person died, they would turn back to the idols that they had rather than continue to follow God’s leading.

God has always been close to our little world and He has protected us from many dangers that we never know about. Can I prove this? Not really…unless you look at the surface of our moon and see how many hundreds of asteroid impacts have ended on its surface rather than hitting Earth. I would guess that there have been a few extinction-level impacts that were intercepted by the moon instead of impacting and setting our world back a few thousand years or more.

The love that God has for us, each of us, is so magnificent and deep until we cannot possibly understand or even comprehend it and it was because of that love that He came in the guise of Jesus to pay our debt so we wouldn’t have to. Just consider His love for each of us because He even knows how many hairs are on your head and mine! He knows when a bird falls from the sky because in the Bible Jesus said that “not even a sparrow falls without the Father knowing it”. If He cares enough to watch a small bird and know when they die, don’t you think that each of us is worth a little more than a little bird?

When you or I consider the deep and abiding love that God has for each of us, how can you not shed a tear or get choked up a bit? Not one of us deserves His love but He thinks that we do and He does care for us more than we could imagine or hope for. Give your life to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and help you clean out your heart because your future depends on this decision. He has already paid for your past mistakes (sins) and for any future ones too, all you have to do is repent of them and ask Him to come into your life and make it useful for His Kingdom.

A multitude without number


Amen

Live a life approved…


We live each day as if nobody sees what we do or knows what we say, yet God knows all. He sees and hears every thought, word and deed that we do each and every day. We will be judged by those words and deeds even if we are saved through Jesus Christ because many times we do these things not considering that many of them are wrong in God’s eyes. If you are to live a life that shows others that you have given your heart and your life to Jesus and that you follow Him daily then your life must show it. If you don’t want to live a Christian life following Jesus and His teachings each day then don’t give your heart to Him. There are only two choices for your life…salvation through Jesus or life without Him. One you get to live here in accordance with His teachings so that others might see Him through your life. The other, life without Jesus, you can live without ever knowing Him or going to church or serving others but your life will end with your death.

A life approved by Jesus and through His Holy Spirit is a life that never ends. You will seek Him each day, living life here as a disciple and a follower of Him so that others will see the effect of Jesus Christ in your life. Hopefully they will see the peace that He gives you in times of trouble or the strength that you get through Him when you go through testing. The greatest gift that you have is the gift of eternity with Him because your life will go on after this body and this life is over. Our life will go on to be present with Him in Heaven and we will have an immortal body that will never know pain or disease ever again. The few years that we have here on Earth are the proving ground and the testing of our faith in Him and whether we will give our life to Him or not.

Does it matter if we live a life approved by Jesus Christ? Yes! If you would like your child or your children to know Him then you must live a life approved by Him. Children will follow in your footsteps whether you want them to or not and they will see the things that you do or say and learn from them whether you intended for them to or not. They will find out your past in one way or another so be careful to show them that you may have been a reprobate in the past but you have given your heart to Jesus and you have truly changed. You are no longer that person from your youth because you are a new creation in Jesus Christ!

Being a Christian in truth and in deed means living your faith everyday, not just on Sunday or on a particular holiday. It is not something that you can put on for weddings or funerals and on Sunday and then take it off when it isn’t convenient for you. When your heart is changed by Jesus, you are changed from the core of your being. Sometimes it takes a few years for the change to become visible to everyone because it is a process. Your heart is changed but the maturity comes from studying the Word of God and prayer to give you the strength each day to walk with Him. The Christian life is not an easy road to walk on. There will be trials and days when you do stumble and make mistakes. You will sin with your cuss words and thoughts but you will seek forgiveness and help in repenting from those mistakes. As I said, it takes time.