Text messaging for God

I know, the name of this post sounds a bit funny or weird but in the age that we live in it is not really that far fetched. Jesus told His disciples to go out and take His message, the gospel, to every person beginning in Jerusalem and then to the ends of the Earth. In today’s tech-savvy society blogging and text-messaging for God works just as well and through Twitter can reach a very large audience in a very short time. No travel required.

I am not saying that we should look at our work for the Lord on this platform or any other Internet platform as a way to avoid going on mission trips, but it does reach out much farther than most of us can afford today. Jesus said to take His message out to the world, He didn’t tell anyone how to do it. This is one of the ways that gets the job done.

God loves all of humanity, but there are places where mission trips are not allowed and are not safe. They aren’t safe for the people you are trying to reach and they aren’t safe for you either. I know, we have God protection on us and your faith in Him will be tested if you depend upon that protection alone. But there are so many places in the world and there is very little time to get the gospel out there.

Jesus came to bring the news that belief in His sacrifice would bring salvation to many and it does. With our help, through the platforms available to us, we can get His message to many people and I pray that there are many who are giving their lives to Jesus through hearing of His message. I pray that many of you who read my blog are doing the same thing so that even more people will come to know Jesus as their savior.

Jesus came to bring salvation to everyone, and we should tell as many people about Him as possible.

We are God’s clay…

The I-phone person

In this day and age that we live in everyone has a phone. A connection to the Internet and to anyone that they want to reach out and touch. This is a period in time that many of us thought would never really happen…but it did. I’m not speaking of people who use and own Apple products. I am talking of people who can’t be themselves without their phone!

You’ve seen them or heard them in stores or on the street, at the gym or even at a movie. They can’t seem to stop talking! Sometimes you will be going through the grocery store and you will hear bits of a conversation and if you happen to keep running into that same person you will hear it until you decide to move away from them. It seems that they can’t get away from talking into their ear-buds which are attached to their phone either by a wire or wireless.

Many times I have wondered how they can get any sleep? Or even if they sleep, do they talk in their sleep? Is their phone always as close by them at home the same way it is out in public?

How much would the world change if we used our Bible as much as we do our phones? If we lived our daily lives in contact with God in the same way as we seem to be with our phone and our friends, we could impact the world for His Kingdom and it would make the world a better place. In the beginning, God did have a close relationship with Adam and Eve. He walked with them and taught them things, even though it isn’t written down in the Bible. I mean, how else were they going to learn?

God has always wanted a close relationship with us and at times He has had that with some of His prophets and disciples. But He wants that relationship with us today and we push Him away because we don’t have time or today isn’t a good day or some other excuse that is meaningless in the grand scheme of life. If we read the Bible as religiously as we read posts on Facebook or check it for advice like we check our emails, our world would be radically changed from the impersonal world that we live in to a world where God has more influence over all of our affairs.

Think about that today before you pick up your phone and pick up God’s Word a few times at least. Read some passages in Proverbs or Psalms today before you head out to shop or go to work. Pray about what you have read and think about what He says in those passages that you read. Then ask Him to show you the reason for your life being a little off balance and ask Him how it can be fixed. He will tell you, if you will stop talking long enough to listen.

Does this look familiar? I’m not talking about the brand of phone, just how many people live with them in their hands 24/7.

Who are your friends?

Living with God’s wisdom as your shepherd, life will be better.

Offer yourself as a living sacrifice

You are being sent out to testify of Jesus

Our Good Shepherd

In Psalm 23 David begins with “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”. There are many ideas and interpretations of that phrase but mostly it has to do with your Spiritual life not your physical one. The Lord provides physical food and the ability to do your job and get the things which you need, but the last four words do not mean that you will be wealthy. It means that you won’t be in need of anything beyond His will to provide it for you. God’s will overcomes all obstacles from disease and famine to relationships between Himself and you or your family.

That doesn’t mean that He overrules your choice or your right to choose because God doesn’t force His will on us. But He does provide for us in every way and in every situation. There are times when we don’t see His hand in our lives and we feel as if He has left us to fend for ourselves but God is still close to you and me. We are never truly alone if we are Christians. If you have rejected Jesus as your Savior, God is still close by but He isn’t as close as He could be in your life. Particularly if He knows that you can do something in His Kingdom that nobody else can do. God will keep touching your life until you finally realize that you need Him as your Savior.

God has loved mankind since the dawn of Creation and before. We will never know the depth of His love for us until we are in His Presence and even then it may be too much to take in, even with our glorified bodies. Jesus came to bring His message of love to everyone, Israel first and then the rest of humanity, but many people rejected His message and still do. Is it too simple or is it just simple enough? I don’t know. I do know that some don’t place much faith in salvation in which we don’t have a part in bringing it about. They don’t like “free” gifts from God. They would rather work for their salvation to help God save their soul but our works are not necessary because Jesus did everything that needed to be done, all we have to do is accept it and believe that He did it for us!

Salvation is a gift from God to us through our belief in Jesus for our eternal soul. We can’t save ourselves and our idea of working for our eternal soul is flawed because of our fallen state. Any righteous act on our part and apart from Jesus is nothing more than rags. Because when we do anything in our own strength to “help” God save us, we are stepping out of His will and into our own. God doesn’t need or want our help in redeeming us because Jesus already accomplished it. All we have to do is believe that He did and repent of our sinful lives so we can follow His footsteps to becoming more like Jesus every day.

Everything you do should be done with love

The love of Christ compells you in everything you do.

Greed can tear apart a kingdom.

Living forever, can you?

A better question might be “Will you be living forever?”. Immortality here in the flesh is not possible and frankly I wouldn’t want to. My aches and pains are bad enough at the age I am now, which is 57. I could not imagine living to be 150 or 250 unless Jesus cured me of all of them. In Genesis when Adam and Eve were created they were created with perfect DNA and therefore could have lived forever IF they hadn’t disobeyed God. Even outside the garden of Eden they lived to a ripe old age. Adam lived to be 930 years of age, so to many people today that would be immortal since it is almost 1,000 years!

Jesus said that if we believe in Him for our salvation we will never die. Our physical body on Earth will die but our spiritual body, which we live into eternity with, will not experience the “second death” of being in hell and it will live into eternity in Heaven with God and all of the believers who are there. There are passages in the Bible which tell us that we will know our loved ones and be known as we were on Earth but with a deeper understanding given to us by God Himself. Your body and mine will be recognizable by our family and friends regardless of our race or our age. So immortality is possible but only through Jesus and His redeeming grace for us.

Those who have rejected Jesus in this life still have an immortal body in hell but they will experience the eternal punishment of being in a place where the Life of God and His love for us is not present, even if you have refused Him in this life. In my opinion, immortality is only worth it if you can enjoy it. I pray that all who read this will seek Jesus for their salvation before that day when they meet Him as judge rather than being welcomed by Him to your eternal home.