All of us need this…

https://godinterest.com/2019/09/20/how-christians-can-experience-deeper-rest/

In many ways, we need to study God’s Word to learn from Him how to find a deeper rest in Him. Following the path which David made while he was writing the Psalms, it is easy to find peace in your walk with Him. We are so busy in our lives today, until we get away from God’s Word. Sometimes we begin to feel as if we have moved away from our relationship with Him as well. The important part that we need to remember is that it is we who have moved…not God. He is always near His children and He is always available to us in our problems and in everyday life.

We all need the rest from our busyness that each of us has each and every day. Some of us have more of it than others do, but all of us suffer through it regardless of our vocation or our location. God knows this and He says that He will give us rest in Him, but do we accept that? Do you? Resting in Jesus’ is something that many of us find foreign and hard to do. Christians who have bills to pay, and who doesn’t, find it hard to slow down enough to rest most of the time. We look at all of the beauty around us and we sometimes wish that we could just sit and enjoy God’s creation but then the world intrudes and we move on.

We see the mountains or a beach and think that God was having a good day when He put all of that together. Our lives tend toward busyness so much until it seems that our relationships suffer, even with our own close family. But we should realize that God was having a good day when He formed each of us in the womb too. He put the molecules together which give each of us our unique personality and our abilities. He knows each of us better than any person ever could know us, whether we know Him or not. Jesus told His disciples that God the Father knows when a sparrow falls, so He certainly values each of us more highly than a sparrow. Why? Because we carry His image inside us even if we aren’t Christians.

All of us are made in His Image. Isn’t that amazing? The Creator of the universe, with all of the worlds and stars of all of the galaxies which He placed out there for us to realize that we can’t comprehend it all, knows each baby born on this small ball of earth in this solar system. He even knows the ones which haven’t been born yet! God is more than we can imagine or know fully, but if you know His Son then you will be known fully one day and you will see a little more of Him while you have eternity to learn and grow closer to Him.

I pray that this post finds you in your life when you need to find rest in Him because it is only by resting in Him that we can find true rest for our souls.

Be worthy of your calling

Be wise with your words

Revive America, Lord!

Does Jesus know you?

In the South this is a question which might insult some people. It may insult many people. Why? Because, the South has always been known as “the Bible belt”. Nearly everyone goes to church at least once during the month. Most people have heard a sermon about Him and His offer of salvation but does He know you?

It is an intriguing question and one that makes you think about your eternity and if you are saved. Can you answer this question and feel confident about your answer? You can if you have never given your heart to Him because you can tell people that you don’t know Him, so it is a surety that He doesn’t know you as a child of God. I don’t mean that He doesn’t know you because He is the Creator! He knitted each of our DNA strands together and He knows who you are and your abilities because He gave them to you!

Jesus the Christ is the Second of the Godhead. He is the Living Word of God the Father and then there is the Holy Spirit which does the will of them all in the universe. Jesus was God Who came to live with us and be tempted just as we are so that He could understand our problems and our humanity. He put on humanity in order to pay the price for ALL of our sinful thoughts and words and deeds and He did exactly that on the cross!

The legion of demons that possessed the man in the tombs pleaded with Him that He would not send them into outer darkness. They knew Who He was. Jesus is our Savior but we act as if He doesn’t exist and those who do not believe in Him for their salvation are lost in their spiritual life already. Denying Jesus is the only real sin which sends you to hell. Your decision to deny Him or to push His offer of salvation away and tell Him that you don’t want His free gift is the decision which will send you to hell.

God loves you and He sent His Son to bring salvation to those who seek it. He has known those who would seek Him since before the foundation of the whole world. He could see you in the future and He knew what you are doing and what you can do for His Kingdom. He has given you your abilities and your intelligence and your experiences which shape you into the person that God needs to use as a disciple or apostle or just as a witness to those who haven’t heard about Him yet. Don’t turn this chance down. You may not get another chance to give your life to Jesus.

Only by giving your life and your heart to Jesus can you claim any of these promises. Please consider your eternity with Him and ask Him into your heart, repenting of your sins so that you can claim these promises and more in Christ.

The Truth will set you free!

We are destroying our minds

Scripture — in both the Old and New Testaments — warns us against investing in things which cannot give us anything in return, in pouring our affections and attentions toward the worthless and temporal. Much of that is what many people are doing today. Looking at their phones and at games and tablets. Liking this and texting that and commenting on the new dress that someone bought that you don’t even know. Sometimes praying for people who are hurting from the loss of a loved one but most of the time we spend useless hours looking at things which have no real value to us in this world or for the next one.

Can we get away from this destructive addiction to Snap chat or Facebook? Can we get away from any one of a number of “social media” platforms which are taking too much of our attention away from God and His purpose for our lives? Yes we can but for some it will be a very hard break from a platform which has consumed our attention morning and night for many years. It really is an addiction when you look at it that way and it is getting worse. How can we move back to our lives which we enjoyed before the Internet and Facebook came along? Truthfully, many young people won’t be able to. They have grown up from the time that they could hold a phone or tablet until they are nearing pre-teen years and TV and movies just don’t have the same impact on their lives as their social media does.

They don’t look at it as an addiction but that is exactly what it is. Anything that you begin your day with and go through your day with very little break from it and then you take it to bed with you…I would call that an addiction. It isn’t drugs or anything like that but the opinions and ideas that you are exposed to all day every day get into your mind and into your thought patterns. Eventually those ideas will become your ideas and your opinions.

Christians are supposed to meditate on God’s Word and read it daily so that we can protect our minds from the temptations of life and those from Satan as well. We are not immune from those and if we don’t have God’s Word in our mind, helping us to resist those temptations to say something or do something that we shouldn’t then he will be victorious over our witness. I would rather be addicted to reading God’s Word than to any social media that is available today. Follow Jesus and read His Word because there is at least one person that you will meet tomorrow who needs to hear about your Lord and Savior!

Do you believe in Jesus?

So many people seem to have a problem with him. It seems that the name of Jesus causes many people to pull away from Christianity, but why? Is it because He is Jewish or because He was crucified on a cross? I’ve heard that people don’t like Christianity because of its bloody history. Not only because of the way Jesus died but because of the Dark Ages and the Inquisitions in the past. It truly is sad that all of that happened but like slavery and other atrocities which have happened in the past, none of those have anything to do with us living in the present.

God sent Jesus to us to pay the penalty for the sins of humanity past and future, until that day that He calls us to be with Him. Will more people come to know Jesus during the Tribulation? Yes, but it will be a very dangerous time for those who do. They will be put in jail or killed or both just because of their faith in Jesus. Why am I bringing this up? The time is growing short because the prophecies at the beginning of Revelation and from Matthew 24 are coming true now.

He came for each of us and there is no greater love than His. Make sure that your eternity is sure in Him.

Why did Jesus go up to Jerusalem?

On the last Passover that Jesus celebrated with His disciples, He knew what would happen soon. His Spirit knew what was being planned for Him. So why did He go there? You know that if it were you or me, our fear of death would’ve kept us away from that place. Jesus was as much human as we are, but He was also God and He knew that if He didn’t go and fulfill the Father’s will mankind would have no part in His Kingdom when it’s time is fulfilled.

So, why did Jesus go to Jerusalem that night? Because of His love for mankind, not just for the Jewish people but for all of humanity. God did this because He knew that we could not have a relationship with Him unless our sin debt had been paid fully and only Jesus could do that. The blood of bulls and lambs and goats could only atone temporarily for our sins as it did in the Old Testament, but the New Testament in Jesus’ blood is a permanent atonement for our sins if we will believe in Him for our salvation. That is the only requirement that we have to fulfill for our salvation and it is our belief which comes to us through the faith which is given to us also by God. We cannot choose to come to Him on our own but when we feel our broken state and know that we need Him, then we can cry out to Him and He will heal us by the blood of Jesus.

You may wonder why I said in the paragraph above that He will heal you by the blood of Jesus. We are under a curse of sin and before Jesus comes into our heart we are dead spiritually. It is this spiritual death which Jesus heals us of and quickens us by His Spirit to do His will for the rest of our days. God loves you and has always loved you. The only requirement for your salvation that you can accomplish is to respond to the Spirit of God which breaks your heart to bring you to the point of repentance knowing that you need Jesus as your Savior.

God sent His Son to bring salvation to Judea but since they refused to believe that He was the Christ, the world gained a Savior. Believe in Him for your salvation because it is found in no other. Salvation is by the grace of God given to us through Jesus and by Him only.