Will you listen?

Salvation is something that we all need, whether we think we do or not. I pray that you will read this and take it to heart.

What will it profit you?

It is written in the Bible, “What will it profit a man, to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?” All of the riches and power in the world today, if they were available and given to only one man, it would corrupt him so completely until his life would be over. Worry and hatred and bitterness would be his constant companions, even with all of the wealth of the world, if he were not saved by Jesus and a Christian. Moral living and a life of wealth on that scale has never been had by one person. If he were a Christian, I am not saying that the wealth wouldn’t corrupt him even then because it could and likely it would.

He would forget his faith in God and put it in money, because he doesn’t need God since he owns the whole world. God would say to him the same thing that He said to the farmer who said to his soul, “We can be at rest now, we have barns full and can take life at ease. God said to him, “Thou fool, tonight thy soul is required of thee”. Even all of the wealth of the world, and it would be in the trillions of dollars or whatever currency that you choose, could not extend your life or make it more comfortable. It is true that you would be able to take life easy, up to a point, although you would have teams of lawyers to watch over your wealth and CPA’s to take care of your taxes and investments. Many people would be getting wealthy from your wealth, and for some that would nearly drive them mad.

Money, gold, silver and wealth measured in any way over the Earth by title to land or oil or jewels is just stuff. It it true that by the world’s standard that much wealth would be seen as a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of all the good things that you could accomplish with it for those who are in need physically and financially, and a curse because everyone would be trying to profit from your wealth in some fashion. Yes, by the world’s standards, you would be a king and wealthy enough that you could do anything and live anywhere that you wanted to. But, if your moral compass was pointing toward yourself rather than toward helping others, then this much wealth would make you a very bitter and cruel person because of the things which you could do and get away with in order to keep your money.

What would you do with all of that wealth? I can’t even imagine having one billion dollars to use any way that I choose, let alone having all of the wealth in the world at my command. No one person has ever had that much and likely no one person ever will, but the good that could be done with it is extraordinary and hard to imagine. Yet, it pales by comparison when you consider eternity with God by accepting Him as your Savior.

Think of it. A pile of money that could cover the entire United States more than a mile deep, but what or who will it benefit when you die? Wars would be fought over it, people would die to have part of it, for what? Your life and your charity would be forgotten within a century, and where would you be spending eternity? Life doesn’t end with your last heart beat and breath, you were created with an eternal soul and it will go on…somewhere. Choose today where it will be, either in Heaven with God or in hell with Satan and his demons.

How much does it take?

We ask this many times in our lives, if you aren’t wealthy to the point of not asking the price that is. “How much is that?”, is usually how we look at all sorts of things from cell phone contracts and phones to Internet service and food from the grocery store. Most of us have to look at the price of things and decide if it is worth the price and whether we want to or can pay the price for it. Looking at our economic situation in this country it is easy to see that our government has no problem with skipping over this question, they just print more money and keep going. What a wonderful world they live in!

People don’t have that luxury because if we try to print money we will be put in jail, but they do it legally. I am not going to get off on this tangent today, but the world does exactly what it wishes and nobody seems to be watching or paying attention. We are all too interested in our Facebook friends and their lives or the cute picture of a baby or a kitten to care about what is happening all around us. So-called “reality” shows have taken over the TV and cable industry and people are being paid for ridiculous shows which chronicle their lives in order to cash in on this trend.

What for? Is it educational? Most of it is not, but all of this was foretold in the Bible. Not specifically, but that we who live in the “latter days” will be lovers of self and money, running here and there and we have many people and industries which are taking advantage of our intelligence by genetically modifying our food and all sorts of things. The Bible puts it as “knowledge will increase”, but knowledge without wisdom to guide it is not really smart at all. Living in this time is intoxicating at times because of the advances in medicine and technology, but it is also dangerous.

I don’t mean that we are in danger every day from something like wars, although some people are very much in danger from this, but much of the GMO food that we have been eating for years is very likely responsible for our health conditions. Especially those so-called “new” conditions which doctors seem to have trouble pinning down the cause of, but of course it isn’t the fault of our government approved food. Yes, our knowledge of genetics and technology has increased a lot over the past thirty years or so BUT did we gain the wisdom of how to use and when to use it to benefit the most from it? Are we using this knowledge to help as many people as possible to live healthy lives or have we pushed the envelope in order to make more money?

In the “real” world of business, I believe that we have done the latter. Cancer research has stagnated so that the treatments only treat symptoms and not the cause. Chemical companies, whether they produce medicines or herbicides, have not fully tested the outcome of the ingredients that they push out to consumers because it would cost too much to do that. They would rather do limited testing, get it stamped as being safe under certain conditions but with all sorts of legal jargon warning of possible side effects and then push it out so that they can reap the cash off of it before the lawsuits start coming in.

Wisdom comes from the fear and admonition of God and we have not exercised that kind of wisdom in a long time! We have stepped away from God and the Bible. We have allowed the schools to push out any reading of it or study of it in the sense that we will offend someone or that we might be seen as promoting a “state religion”. Then the schools and teachers wonder why we have such delinquent behavior in our schools and so many in the prison system. Come on! The Ivy League schools like Princeton and Yale and Harvard were begun as theological schools to teach ministers, it was only recently that they became so focused upon “higher learning” within the past 150 years or so.

How much does it take, really, for us to learn that we can’t live our lives in a vacuum or look at life-like it was a test tube? We are and were created to be dependent upon God’s wisdom and knowledge and fellowship with Him in our lives. We are not created to be “self-gods” because we can’t be! Romans 8:28 states this: 28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church: 2 Corinthians 5:17: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We are new in Christ because the Spirit renews you from the inside out when you become a Christian. Life without Him can be fun for a moment or a day, but your life here is but a speck compared to eternity. Consider this: if you were to die tonight or even today, where would your eternity be spent? Many people think that they would enjoy hell, but the rich man told Abraham that he was in torment and that he needed just one drop of cool water. How long would you think the so-called “party” will last in torment and heat for an eternity?

If you aren’t sure of your salvation today, then you need to seek Him out and make sure of your decision while you can.

Our God Reigns

http://bible.com/1/dan.6.25-27.kjv Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

This is the God which rules and reigns over ALL of the Earth. Amen!

God is in control!

http://bible.com/1/dan.4.34-37.kjv And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honour and brightness returned unto me; and my counsellors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

It doesn’t matter what man thinks, believe or choose not to believe. God will always be the One who is Ruler over all, amen.

So many who need Him, so little time!

I know, I am trying to scare people into accepting Christ…right? NO! But I am trying to make you realize that regardless of how young you are or how long you may have lived without Jesus, your life does have an expiration date. It is known only to God, but we all have one. Mine may be in the morning or next week, yours…? Why am I starting off like this?

Because in the past few weeks, if you have been following my blog here, two teens in our community were killed in a wreck. Did they know the Lord? Yes! Both of them did and they are enjoying eternity and their life in Heaven right now! I know, the families are still hurting and they will be for a long time, but they do have the assurance that those girls are in their homes with Jesus.

God sent Jesus to provide all of us with salvation, if we will accept it. That is like a rich man who might give you one million dollars, but you have to accept it with some limitations. You can only use it to help people in ways that make a difference, like helping with their medical bills or building someone a better home to live in. You can use it for yourself, but only for things that you NEED. It can’t be used for buying a sports car or a mansion. If you can accept those limitations, then you can have it. If you can’t or won’t, then it will be offered to someone else.

Salvation is the best gift that we can be given. Why is it so good? Because you are being saved from an eternity away from God’s love and in the torment that was reserved for Satan and his demons. Salvation also gives you eternal life, which everyone seems to be chasing on Earth, yet we can’t get it in this life. We all have an eternal soul, but unless it is rejuvenated by Jesus and the Holy Spirit it will spend eternity with Satan and it is not going to be a party!

The Life that we get from the Holy Spirit is a gift from God for our belief in Jesus and His atonement for our sins. We can’t do anything to get it, purchase it or work for it because anything that is done in our own strength during this life is left here when we die. No tickets that we buy, no amount of gold or silver that we own, absolutely nothing that we acquire during this life will go with us when we die. The only part of me or you which goes to the judgement after we die is our soul. If you are a believing Christian when you die, all of your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. If you are not, then you will be judged according to what you did and the words that you said during this life…ALL of them!

Seek Him while you have the chance and the time to make the commitment to live your days for Him by reading the Bible, prayer and learning about Him. Even if you only have a week left to live from some illness or if you may live for fifty more years, do it while you can. Because if you were to have an accident on the highway tomorrow and get killed, you will be standing in front of God then and there won’t be a second chance.

Pickin’ and choosin’

I have had many who liked this on my other blog, so I thought I would share it with you as well. I pray that it touches you in some way.

In service to Him

Religion is an easy thing in America. We have the freedom to pursue and
worship whoever or whatever we wish to or even to not worship
anything at all. Being religious is very easy and there are many
people who are very religious about their chosen religion, some even
to the point of being fanatical about it. So what is it about this
trend in America? Mainly it is because for the past fifty or sixty
years, we have been searchers and seekers. Not so much as seeking out
God and His ways, but seeking that which suits us the best in a
church or religion.

That is not such a bad thing because many times in this searching, people will be called to faith in God and give their hearts to Jesus. Although, some may not listen intently to the messages that are presented to them and they want…

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Rainbows, Light and Love

In the late sixties it seemed that everyone was into rainbows and “free love” was everywhere. It was all just noise to me that I heard on the radio or on the news, I wasn’t old enough to participate. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t conjure up some imaginative thoughts though. I was about eight or so at the time, didn’t really like girls too much, but there were some that I thought were sorta cute.

Anyway, the rainbows were being used on flags and on the TV, I don’t remember exactly for what but I remember seeing them on there a lot. You have to realize, 1968 has been a while back and parts of my memory don’t work perfectly like they used to. The entire country was caught up in the Viet Nam war and the astronauts going to the moon, as well as a couple of people being shot. To a young mind at the time, it was just news and not very important.

What else was happening? My parents got divorced or were in the process of doing so, I really don’t remember much about it. I think my mind blocked a lot of it out. Dad dropped us off at my grandfather’s house when I was five and I rarely saw him from that point on.

My point in bringing up my childhood? Mainly it is about what you may remember and what you don’t. I can remember going to church with my parents when I was three and going to work with my Dad about the same time, once. But, again, why am I bringing this up for you to read? So that some of you will know that I am just as normal, just as messed up from my past as the rest of us. My life has not been perfect, never was and never really came close to it.

Later, after their divorce, when I became a teen I rebelled a lot. I didn’t get put into jail, but I drank alcohol before I was old enough to do so. I wrecked cars and put myself in the hospital because I was drunk. I smoked marijuana although I didn’t get into anything any worse than that. Now, I am ashamed of my past, but it is a past that doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary today. Actually, it seems pretty tame compared to what you see and hear on the news.

The Light which I reference in the title is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. At the time that I was speaking of there was a song out by the name of “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and a play too I believe. The funny thing is, they were actually making fun of Him and of those who believe in Him. I never understood that and still don’t. Jesus is the answer for many of the world’s problems today, individually and collectively but many people don’t see it that way.

God loves you and me. He loved me when I was being rebellious, though He didn’t like what I was doing at the time. He kept me in His love and protection though because He had something for me to do later. He has something for you to do as well. I don’t know what it is and you won’t find out what it is unless you ask Him into your life so that you can work for Him. It doesn’t matter how much longer you have in your life, even if you only have a week or a month, God will use your testimony to touch someone else. He will also welcome you into Heaven when you arrive.

Quotes, from who?

Sorry. I am being lazy today and I didn’t want to rewrite this, but it is needed by our world today.

A blog about living well and successful today

I have noticed that some blogs include “inspirational quotes” from people from all walks of life. While this is nice and commendable, our lives can’t be based upon the words and thoughts of other people. Inspiration which comes from people who are just as flawed and helpless in many situations as we are really doesn’t help much, unless they are pointing us toward the One Who can help in all situations.

People just like us. Sure, the writings which I put up on the web are from me, but most of the wisdom that I have, came from God’s Word, not from my own thoughts. It seems odd to me that we will listen to every speaker, every writer in the world spouting all sorts of “wisdom” about things which many of them don’t have a clue about.

Many of their words actually come from other self-help books or articles…

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What is humanistic Christianity?

This is exactly the kind of Christianity that we see in the world today. I couldn’t have done any better so here is another writer’s words. I hope you enjoy them.

In My Father's House

I realized when I posted my last article on faith that I use the term “humanistic” a lot in describing the kind of Christianity we’re coming out from under, and that it would probably be a good idea to take some time to define what I mean.