Category: A new life in Christ

Who is Jesus Christ?


This is a question which has been asked ever since His ministry began over two thousand years ago. How can I answer this question? According to God’s Word He is our Savior and the King of Kings. He is also the seed of the woman. He was the cloud by day and the pillar of flame by night to guide the Israelites in the wilderness. When they finally crossed over into the Promised land, Joshua met the Captain of the Lord’s Host with His sword drawn. That was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

Our Lord can be our Savior if we invite Him into our hearts and believe that He is our Savior. So many times when the Israelites were going through the Promised land they turned away from God and went after the gods that those around them were worshiping even though these “gods” were not gods at all. They were a generation which had not seen the miracles of God which brought them out of bondage in Egypt. They may have heard about them from the priests or their grandparents but it is likely that they didn’t believe them.

Later, when Israel had been taken to Babylon, it was demanded that all of the people would worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar . When some would not, he had an oven made hotter than it had ever been. So hot that when he ordered the three to be thrown into the fire, the men who put them in were killed by the heat as they pushed Shadrach, Meeshach and Abednego into the furnace. Then the king looked into the fire and saw four men and one of them looked like “a Son of God”, and he called them out of the furnace. Their hair was not burnt, their clothes didn’t smell like smoke and they were not harmed because Jesus showed up in their fiery trial.

There are many other names and places where Jesus showed up in Scripture. Sometimes in a human form and sometimes He was there in the circumstances. Our Lord and Savior comes to us when that need is there. He is there during our hardest time and in our best day. If you believe in Him as your Savior then the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart and He will teach you about Jesus and be your strength when you don’t have any. He will be your friend when you can’t find any. He is our Provider and our Shelter. He is our Deliverer and our Protector. He is the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Great “I AM”. He is the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the Son of David and the Son of God. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Commander of the Lord’s angels. He is Jesus Christ now at the right hand of God the Father.

Seek Him and you will find Him and He will fill that empty place in your heart and bring peace to your troubled soul.

God watches over the righteous


For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 1 Peter 3:12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1pe.3.12.KJV

When you pray, God hears your prayers. If you are a sinner, the only prayer that He will hear is your prayer for forgiveness and repentance. After that, He will be near you every step of the way. God never turns away from a sinner if they are sincere about turning away from their sins. Only a prayer for forgiveness and repentance from a sinner will be answered instantly, if it is sincere. Just like trying to quit smoking or drinking will not work unless you truly mean it. God knows what is in your heart and He knows what you are thinking. It cannot be hidden from Him.

God does care about and He watches over all of us, sinner and saint alike, and His will for all will be accomplished because His will cannot be undone. The world around us thinks that they can change the future by their actions but the future is in God’s hands and it will happen the way that He says it will in His Word. Look to His Word for your peace and your salvation through Jesus Christ.

Another Saint goes home…


Life on Earth is getting harder to bear. More of my friends are going home to be with the Lord. Yes, we prayed for healing and God chose to heal by giving them their eternal body without disease or hunger or glasses. Life goes on here but I am truly looking forward to that day when the Trumpet of God is sounded and the Church, the Bride of Christ is called home. I don’t want to write much but I do ask for prayer for those who have lost loved ones to this COVID-19 thing! It is time for this to end.

We, and I mean all of us, are sometimes confused about God’s way of healing. Love works in ways which few of us can truly understand. Especially when it comes to God’s love which is deeper and more complete than any emotion that men or women can feel. Our emotions are not comparable to God’s. We ask Him for a healing, sometimes we plead for it for weeks or months, and we don’t see a healing happening…yet. But God has something planned. It may not be what you want or the way that you want it but God can see all of the options and His knowledge is boundless. He can see that one person’s death will bring about more than his or her life would’ve accomplished had they lived.

God is not being mean to the family because their faith will grow if they see that something greater is happening because of their witness in this life. Many may not have known about his ministry or influence. He or she may not have known that someone was changed or inspired in some way by their life or something that they said or did. God knows what it will accomplish and it is His will that it continue and it might not even begin had they lived.

God does things much different from the way that we think. Even the first miracle that Jesus did confused the people who had been serving the wine at the wedding in Cana. His mother called Him over and told Him that they were out of wine. He said, “What is that to me? My time has not come yet.” She still told the servants to “Do whatever He tells you to do”. He told them to fill six jars which held about sixty gallons each with water. When they had done so, He said to give a sample to the head waiter of the house. Then the man said that most people serve the best at the beginning of a celebration but you have kept the best until later.

Those who have been healed by taking them into eternity hopefully were followers of Jesus Christ. Some may not have believed in Him for their salvation but their death may still influence someone to change their life. God allowed His Son to pay the price for ALL OF OUR SINS so that we could have an eternity with Him. A strange way to save humanity when most of them don’t even believe in God or His Son. It is because of His great Love for us that He has for all of us. Did my friend believe in Jesus for his salvation? Yes! I envy him right now because of the wondrous sights he is seeing, especially because he is reunited with his Daddy and his grandparents. Yes, I envy him because I can’t see those wonderful sights until I am there and I’m looking forward to it.

Are you following Jesus?


When Jesus called His disciples, He asked them to follow Him and they did. Some of them learned a lot from following Him and listening to His teachings. One of them was dissatisfied with how things were going. He wanted a King for Israel and one who would defeat the Romans and push them out of Israel. But…that was not the reason for Jesus’ mission at the time.

So, are you following Jesus or are you hearing the preacher tell you about Him and then going your own way? Believe it or not, there are more people who are in church just listening than there are who are following Jesus every day and every step of the way. Some who read this will want to know how to follow Jesus every step of the way and here’s the answer: read the Bible each day, praying that He will speak to you about your day and your problems.

God will do that if you are serious about reading it and learning from it exactly Who He is and His love for you. Even if you only read a chapter each day it will focus your thoughts on Him and you will have those Scriptures to help you in your time of need. The thing is: when you read God’s Word, the Holy Spirit can and will speak to you through it. You will never read the same verse twice and get the same message. It will always be a different more useful message even if you’ve read it 100 times!

Walking with Jesus is the same today as it was when the disciples walked with Him. Get up from your bed and thank Him for giving you one more day to live and learn from Him. Go through your day thanking Him for even the little things which seem insignificant but they touch your life or your thoughts in some way. Thank Him for your food and your job and the ride home. Be in a worshipful mood of thankfulness all day because He has given you this day to learn from Him. Thank Him for your day before you go to bed and thank Him for a home to sleep comfortably in because there are so many who don’t have even that “luxury”.

Make this a daily habit and your life will be so much more complete and secure.

You have led captivity captive


Psalm 68:18 Thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.

What did the Psalmist and the Holy Spirit mean by this scripture? One of the interpretations is that the whole world was and is still captive to sin in this world today, but when Jesus Christ came He made it possible for us to be led from the captivity of sinful living and into the “captive” life of a follower and believer in Him. That is the one that I choose to believe today.

Today, there are many of us that are captive to many things in life. Our work, our family, our TV or the Internet, our children or grandchildren and sometimes we are captive to bills that need paying even into our retirement years. It seems that we never get away from something that keeps us as “slaves” to whatever it may be. Even when we give our lives and our heart to Jesus there are certain things which we refuse to give to Him because those are special to us and we want them just for us.

It is usually those special things which cause us to fail at being His servant or His voice in the world. Because of those things that we don’t want to give up or give to Him, we can’t or won’t completely give our life and our being over to Him. It doesn’t take much really. A small part of your life that is important to you, that you want to keep doing or working on yourself but you don’t want God to have it. Have you ever thought about the truth of this matter: you have things which belonged to God first and He gave them to you.

Think about it. Abraham had to face it and many others did as well. Moses followed God and obeyed Him so that the nation of Israel was born out of Egypt. Moses had to go through all sorts of trials and tribulations for forty years because of the Jews decision not to believe God. In order to be obedient to God we should give Him ALL of our being and our family and our possessions because they were His before they were ours.

God loves all of humanity. Regardless of your nationality or your skin color or your culture. He created this world so that we could have a place to live. He named all of the stars and placed them where they are so that we can look up at them and see His handiwork and believe in Him. Our real problem is that many people will worship the creation rather than the Creator. We walk proudly through our life and tell Jesus that we can guide our life just fine on our own. But when a true problem comes along that we cannot handle such as a deadly accident or a diagnosis of cancer or some other disease….that is usually when we run to the Savior and plead with Him to help you with it.

Won’t you decide to follow Him today and give your life to Jesus? If you have ever felt the touch of His Holy Spirit prompting you to come to know Him please don’t turn away from His call. Because not one of us knows when our last day of life will be and we need to have the assurance that our eternal destiny will be with Jesus Christ. Just the knowledge of that assurance will relieve many anxieties and fears for many of us. God doesn’t want you to spend eternity in hell away from His Presence so please make sure that your heart belongs to Him today. I will be praying for all who come to this blog because God has asked me to. Thank you for reading and if you know someone who might benefit from this site please direct them here.

The Word…


On the morning of Creation when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters and He decided that it was time to act, The Word of God said “Let there be Light!”. John begins his gospel of our Lord’s ministry with these words: 

The Beginning

(Genesis 1:1-2)

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made

Jesus was and is the Living Word of God. There is no debate on this and no discussion needs to be done. Those who believe in Jesus as God’s Son will believe it and those who reject Him will do that as well. So…which will you be? The person who wants to believe in Jesus but is afraid of what your friends may say? That person who knows that the Bible is true and that they need salvation but…not right now? Either one of these people might get away with NOT accepting Jesus as their Savior and Lord for a while but it could be bad for them in the long run. Following your friends or choosing to put it off for a while puts you in a very slippery situation.

You have no idea when you will die. It could happen in a car wreck tomorrow or you could get sick with this COVID-19 and be in the ICU for a while and then die…the outcome is the same. You are now standing before God as your Judge without Jesus as your Savior. Will your righteousness be enough to get you into heaven? Nope. There isn’t a single person on Earth who is righteous enough without Jesus to get into heaven. That one decision has caused your eternity to be very different than it could’ve been.

It’s something to think about. Especially in this time that we live in where people can get shot and killed in their car going down the street. Please seek out Jesus as your Savior before you stand before God without Him.

Seek and you shall find…Him


Some people wonder where they might find the Truth of Jesus…but will you believe in Him? Some may ask why should I believe in Him? You can choose not to if you wish but that choice will impact your eternity. Why not seek Jesus and the Truth of God’s plan for salvation? It takes faith and the will to believe even when others don’t want to. There are so many choices today, so which will you choose?

We believe in entertainers, professional athletes, money, position, power, money, but none of these can bring you salvation. Regardless of how much money or power or position you may have, when you die it means nothing. Not one penny of your fortune or any part of your fortune goes with you after you breathe your last breath. But if you have faith in Jesus and believe that He is the Son of God Who died for your sins then you will have eternal life with Him! What kind of price could you place on that promise? It is given to you freely and without cost. For the price of your faith and your belief in Him you get a prize which no one on Earth can give you at any cost!

But many people today are burning God’s Word, the Bible, which teaches about Him and how we might come to know Him. They don’t want the good news which is found in its pages. They are afraid of its Truth and all of the wisdom that is in its pages for anyone to read and believe.

Why are they afraid?

Because God’s Word is more powerful than anything that mankind has ever done and all you have to do is have faith and believe in Jesus to claim it. Consider for a moment…the most powerful bomb that we have created. I’m not speaking of the bombs dropped during World War 2. I am speaking of the hydrogen bombs which, thankfully no one in their right mind would drop. The ones dropped in Japan were rated in the kiloton range, meaning that they were equivalent to about ten thousand pounds of TNT each. The hydrogen bombs which we have today are equivalent to millions of pounds of TNT each.

God created stars which put out that much power in one second! Our own star puts out that kind of power in one second and it is considered a dwarf star! It is only approximately 900,000 miles across and there are stars out there that God created which make our Sun look like the Earth next to them in size. Yet with all of His power and majesty and wisdom creating everything that is in this VAST universe, God still knows how many hairs are on your head and mine and everyone else around you. He even notices when a sparrow dies and falls to the ground. Why?

Because He is God, Jesus is also God and the Holy Spirit is also God. Three distinct Persons of the Trinity but still God. The Spirit moves us to know that we are sinners in need of salvation and gives us faith to act on that to seek out our Savior which is Jesus the Son so that we can be reconciled to God the Father

We try to put God in a box of our own choosing so that we can relate to Him. That is why you hear some people say that “my god would not be so cruel” or “my god understands me and we have an arrangement”. Satan has convinced them that they can do this and god will understand when we go fishing or hunting or stay home to watch the ball game. Because they claim that “I can worship from my living room or from a boat or my tree stand”. Have you ever praised God from your boat or a tree stand? I’ve never heard songs of praise or prayers in the woods during deer season. Unless they were something like “Lord, let me get that BIG buck and I’ll be in church every Sunday”.

You can’t bargain with God like that! He knows your heart and He knows exactly where you will be next Sunday and it won’t likely be in His house.

Jesus said:

Ask, Seek, Knock

(Luke 11:5-13)

7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

What rules our world today?


Believe it or not it is death. Every day more than 100 million people die each day from diseases and other ailments as well as from accidents and preventable causes. From the World Economic Forum‘s website: Nearly 150,000 people die each day around the world, according to 2017 data. Of course this year’s data has the COVID-19 death toll included but it is safe to say that there are millions of people dying every year even without this pandemic. According to the data referenced above the number of people dying each year is nearly 5.5 million, regardless of their economic status or country of origin.

Yes, death comes to each of us at some point. Whether it is sooner or later is not up to us but God knows. Hope is only in your individual beliefs and if those beliefs don’t include belief in Jesus for your salvation then death will be an eye-opening experience for most people in the world. God’s Word says that we will all face Him for judgment of our souls after we die and none of us will escape death unless the Lord comes to take His church home before we die.

So…what is your idea about death? All of us have to face it one day. Some of us won’t be here next weekend. Some of us may not live through tomorrow. So have you made sure of your salvation yet? There is a judgment after you die so you can’t say that we “just go poof” because our spirit lives on into eternity. Whether that eternity includes family and friends in a life-giving setting is up to your choices in this life. Because it is up to your choice about accepting salvation or not, which will determine your eternal home.

Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the penalty for ALL of the sins in the world but your eternity is decided by your choice of whether you believe in Him for your salvation or not. It truly is a matter of belief or of unbelief for each of us which decides our future home in eternity. So which will you choose? Life with Jesus or eternal separation from Life? The choice is yours.

God is…


Our Creator…the Creator of everything. The Savior of all who will believe. Our God Who sees us as we are and loved us even before we were born. The Father of Jesus the Christ and the Lamb of God Who gave His life as a ransom for ALL of our sins. The One Who named the stars and placed them in their places. He is All knowing and all powerful. The One Who was and is and is to come. He is the One Who defends the helpless and heals those who are blind or deaf or paralyzed. He can soften a heart grown cold from abuse and neglect and make it to hope in the future and see His great love for them. He loves each of us, whether we believe in Him or not, just because He is God. He doesn’t have to have a reason or an excuse to do everything that He does because He is Life, Love, Perfection, Time and everything that is good and holy in the universe.

Since God is all of these things and more and yet He is holy and pure…how could you believe that you or I could stand in His Presence one day and even consider that we are worthy to be allowed into Heaven? We were in His thoughts before the Earth was formed and the moon was hung in its place. He thought of each of us before He hung the stars or our Sun in its place. So how could we be holy and blameless before Him unless we give our lives to learning from His Word and living our daily lives by striving to be more like Jesus? The answer is simple…we can’t! There is nothing that any of us can offer to God or live by on our own that will qualify us to be granted access to Heaven.

Only by believing in Jesus as our Savior can we be in God’s Presence because we loved Jesus more than our own life. I pray that all who read this post will seek to be saved by belief in Jesus as your Savior because the day is coming soon. Don’t be left behind when the church, the Body of Christ, meaning all believers are taken up to be with Him.

Amen, come Lord Jesus!

Every life matters!


Life matters regardless of skin color or ethnicity

God created all life on our world and He created the different shades of color found in humanity as well as all of the variety of life and colors found in nature. So…why can’t we look beyond our skin color? It has been over fifty years since Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered by a white supremacist and yet those on both sides of this tragedy still haven’t moved beyond the same anger and frustration fifty years later.

Life does matter and it doesn’t matter if it is a black life or a white life or any other skin tone, in God’s eyes ALL of life matters. So why can’t we realize this and find something in common and work from there? I do realize that there are many things that the white “race” has done in the past and in many ways are still agreeing with even today. Even though today we don’t vocalize it for the most part. Our crime of being racist is shown in how we react to the situation that we may find ourselves in. We may think that we aren’t showing a racist attitude toward anyone but our body language and our eyes show something else entirely, even though we may not even realize that we do these things unconsciously.

Is there a way to end the violence and the hatred in this world which has been sparked into a raging fire? I don’t know that we can find one without Jesus coming back and ruling our world. I don’t really believe that we have the ability to place our emotions and our prejudices aside in order to bring lasting peace into our world and keep it that way. Now, I’m not pointing a finger at any government or any other movement in the world. Black lives do matter but so do the police and fire service men and women. The EMT’s lives matter, who try to help those who are injured or shot in any confrontation. The doctors and nurses lives matter because regardless of color or “race” they do their best to put people back together who have been hurt regardless of the circumstances.

Yes, in the past people have treated other people differently because of their skin color or their station in life even, but that doesn’t give you or me the right to go into the street and burn down small businesses and homes and threaten people with harm for no reason other than the color of their skin! When you are doing that you are no different than the ones who did this to your ancestors many years ago. We are living in the twenty-first century but many people are acting as if they are still in the 19th century. If things keep going in that direction and someone sets an EMP off one day we will be back in the 19th century in the area that it affected.

God never intended for us to live like this or act in this way toward each other but we are doing it. Satan is the one who hates us and it has nothing to do with your skin color at all. Satan hates us because we were created in God’s Image. It is Satan’s coaxing and prodding which is pushing this movement to be as violent as it is and he doesn’t care if we kill off a few thousand or more because that is fewer than he will have to deal with later. God loves each of us and all of our unique abilities and our outlook on life. Seek to please God and walk with Him in this world so that you can be victorious against Satan and his influence over a world that seems to be crumbling around us.

We are a part of God’s creation whether we like it or not, whether we believe in Him or not, but that doesn’t change the fact that murder is wrong in every instance and it doesn’t matter if the one murdered is old or young, a cop or one of the crowd. Even suicide is wrong in God’s eyes because you are killing yourself and you are also created in God’s Image. He loves each of us and we should try to reflect some of His love back into the world and make it better than it was before…not worse.