Comfort yourselves with this scripture…

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Psalm 23:6 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/psa.23.6/62591

We belong to Him…

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35‭-‬39 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/rom.8.35-39.KJV

We are the clay…

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64:8 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.64.8.KJV

Do you need Jesus Christ?

I know this sounds like a silly question and to many people it may be, but all of us need Him. We need Him for our soul and the comfort that He brings to our heart, even before we accept Him. Jesus never leaves us, even when we haven’t accepted Him as our Savior, He is only a prayer away. He is near you during your best days and He is close to your heart on the worst days of your life.

God told many people in the Old Testament and in the New Testament that He would never leave them or forsake them. Why can God say this? Because, He knows what is going on your life and He knows the purpose that He has planned for you. God loved each of us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for ALL of our sins. Every sin that you have done in your life, regardless of what kind of sin it might be, God loves you! He hates the sin, but He has always loved us, because all of us are sinners. The thoughts of sinful behavior will still attack your mind even after you give your heart to Jesus, but He gives each of us the strength to resist the temptation to sin.

This is the reason that I write here this blog and the messages that He gives me. None of this comes from my own mind except by the Holy Spirit’s influence. Just as He gave me the sermons that I spoke for over nine years as a pastor at a local church. I can’t come up with all of this on my own but God can give me the words just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit gave the words to all of those writers in the whole Bible. God loves each of us, but He doesn’t love the sins in our lives. Truly, even one sin is enough to keep you out of Heaven if you haven’t repented of your sins and asked Him to come into your heart.

I illustrated this one time with a sheet of paper, as white as possible for a sheet of paper. But I took a fine point felt pen and touched it and I said that one dark spot can come between you and an eternity with God if you haven’t asked Jesus to come into your life to cleanse you from those sins and forgive us of those sins…large and small. Stealing a pen or a bag of chips breaks one of the Ten Commandments and that is enough to keep you from Heaven. Jesus can bring you salvation through your acceptance of Him as your Savior and your belief in Him for that Salvation…no matter what kind of sin you have been in. He can pardon you, forgive you and make you whole again. The empty place that you have felt most of your life is the place where the Holy Spirit is supposed to be. Invite Him in and give your life to Him today.

Are you with me?

In Psalm 23, David writes that God is always with us regardless of where we may be or the kind of trouble we might be in at the time. God loves us whether you have known this in your life or not, He truly does. He has known you since before He formed the universe so He knows your problems and your abilities. He knows your fears and your hopes. He knows how you feel right now and why you feel that way. Regardless of the time of day or night, God is always near. If you haven’t asked Him to be your Savior yet, He is still nearby waiting to hear your prayer and your cry for Him to answer. Don’t turn away from Him because someone tells you that He isn’t the God Who formed you. Because He is the Creator and your Savior and He knows you better than you know yourself. He loves you more than your mother or your father do and He can heal your broken heart and mend your sorrows no matter where they come from.

Read it in the New Living Translation and you can feel God’s love for you. I pray that you will seek Him as your Savior soon.

Psalm 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

2 He lets me rest in green meadows;

he leads me beside peaceful streams.

3 He renews my strength.

He guides me along the right paths,

bringing honor to his name.

4 Even when I walk

through the darkest valley, a

I will not be afraid,

for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff

protect and comfort me.

5 You prepare a feast for me

in the presence of my enemies.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessings.

6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will live in the house of the LORD

forever.

Wait on God’s timing

This is the one thing that this generation has a lot of trouble with. They’re used to microwave food, single serve coffee in a minute or two, instant oatmeal, etc. Why can’t we learn to wait? Think about how long the Church has been waiting for the return of Jesus Christ! That’s why many people don’t think He’s coming back. It’s been over two thousand years, that proves that the Bible is just an old book. He’s not coming back!

The only proof that this amount of time has gone past is that God is patient and waiting for all of those who will give their lives and their hearts to Jesus before He comes for the Redeemed of Earth, the true Church. He is not slack in His timing but He is patient because of His love toward us. After all, He sent Jesus to die and pay the penalty of our sins in order that everyone might have a chance at eternity with Him.

But…there are many even within the Church who have not given their hearts to Jesus. They go through the motions and say all of the right words but their heart isn’t in it. Many of them are trying to uphold the “light that is in them” on their own strength rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and live through them. We are not able to live as Christ lived without the Holy Spirit giving us the strength and changing our hearts to be more like Him, but many people try to do it all the time.

There are others, usually young people, who think that because they grew up in the church or their family went to church regularly that they are saved. They believe this because they know some Scripture and they attend church more than once a month or because they’ve “always been in the church”. It is a false statement and a lie that Satan is telling them. He is getting them to believe this and many are, but it is leading them down the wrong pathway.

Just because one path is rough and hard to follow and one is smooth and easy doesn’t mean that the easy one is the best one. Satan will lead you down a smooth pathway and it may be close to the rough path but it will eventually veer off toward a wider path that leads to hell. Make sure of the pathway that you are on and that it is following Jesus toward the reward that we all desire. Life with Him.

Be strong and courageous

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/jos.1.9/66185

God never leaves you alone. If you are born again, you always have an angel or two nearby.

Delight in the Lord

In the multitude of my thoughts within me Thy comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/psa.94.19/2921

We are made new!

“As a deer pants for a stream of water, so my soul longs for You, O God” Psalm 42:1

Have you ever been outside in the heat of summer and you got so thirsty you felt that you couldn’t go on without a cool, glass of water? That is exactly the feeling that David is conveying in this Psalm! As His creation and His redeemed followers, we should seek Him, in the same way, every day! One day of attending church services in the morning or evening just isn’t enough. Our life as Christians should reflect our need for Him and His Presence every day. As Paul wrote, “we should press onward to our heavenly calling”

This life and the daily grind that it is should not be our only goal. Having enough “stuff” or enough money or a bigger house than our neighbor shouldn’t be our goal in this life. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior those things could be your goal and sometimes you might feel that it is enough. But consider just how short this life is and the things that we strive for are temporary. Your life and mine only last for seven or eight decades, some do live for nine or even ten by the grace of God, but who gets your stuff when you are gone? When God calls your soul into His Presence, what happens to your house or your car or your land? Will it stay in your family or will it be sold to someone else?

Our life should reflect Who we are. Do we belong to Jesus and He to us? Could someone who doesn’t know you tell by your speech and your actions if you are truly born again through His blood? Would there be enough evidence in your life and mine to convict us of being Christians? If there is any doubt about this in your mind, you might want to pray about it today and seek out the proof of it. If the proof isn’t there then you need to get in touch with your Creator and have a serious heart to soul meeting with Him.

Our life here is just a practice session for our eternity. Whatever you do here, whether it is for yourself or for God, makes a significant difference in where you will spend eternity. Your life and mine aren’t much more than a period at the end of this sentence. Especially when you compare, say 100 years to even one million years. One million years is only one drop in the time frame of eternity. We look at life and all of the little things in it as being precious to us because what we experience today won’t be repeated again. Your footsteps never touch the same parcel of grass again, no matter how many times you walk over your pasture in this life.

Make absolutely sure of your place in God’s Kingdom here and now because the tick of the clock only passes this place during that tick and it will never be here again.