Life, as a Christian, can be described in many ways. For some, it is a journey toward a joyous reunion with your Savior. For others, especially those who don’t want to believe in Jesus as their Savior, it represents a drab and dull existence that they have no intention of getting involved in. Have you ever thought of what a joy it is to live with Jesus as your Savior on a daily walk with Him? Why do I use the word “joy” rather than “happiness”? Because joy is a state of mind that doesn’t require outside stimulation to attain. Happiness is an emotion that is fleeting and never permanent.
“The joy of the Lord is my strength” is an expression of joy from the Lord toward His people when they were brought back from captivity and were able to live in their land and worship Him in their Temple again. Why wouldn’t He be joyful? God is joyful every time someone repents and turns to Jesus for their salvation. That is why Jesus said that the angels of God rejoice over one sinner brought to salvation!
God loves every one of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful lives that we lead here on Earth. Until we repent and turn away from our sins and give our hearts to Jesus, we are still lost in our sin. When you feel the Holy Spirit touch your soul and your heart letting you know that you need Him as your Savior, don’t turn away from Him. You may not get another chance and it is during this life that you must choose. There are no second chances after you die. You will stand before Him and give an account of your life and why you didn’t choose to follow Jesus.
After you have given your life to Him and you know that you have salvation in your heart, the joy that you feel will never go away. Every time you think about eternity and your life with Jesus…a smile will come to your face.
O come, let us sing unto the LORD: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: And his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, As in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest. Psalm 95:1-11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.95.1-11.KJV
Life, as we have known it over the past few decades, is soon coming to an end. The first couple of decades of this century has been pretty hectic and enjoyable to a certain extent. Yes, there have been some terrorist bombings and quite a number of shootings but for most of America, this century has been pretty good. We never did win the war on terror but that is because there are no winners in a war that has religion as its driving force. The main point that I am getting to about the “count down” is that everything is going according to God’s plan.
If you have read Matthew 24 or the book of Daniel and some of the first few chapters in Revelation, you can see most of the prophecies coming true to some extent every day in the news. Why do I point this out? Because there are few people in our nation who are paying attention to the comparison between the news and those books of prophecy that I mentioned. We truly are counting down toward an ending that I believe will arrive much sooner than we are ready for.
Are you ready for that day? When the dead in Christ will rise to meet the Lord in the air and those who belong to Him and are still alive will join them. When that happens, the economies of the world will crash. There will be many who will wonder what happened and there will be a few who will still be here that will know exactly what happened. If you believe that we are in a recession now, just wait until many millions disappear without a trace.
Can you be ready for this when it comes? If you give your life to Jesus and follow Him today and for the rest of your life then you will be ready for that day when it arrives. Is there any other way to get ready for the taking away of the church? NO! Belief in Jesus and following Him as your Savior is the only way. Nothing that you try to add to it will make any difference. God has made this easy but so many want to “help” Him with their salvation. There is nothing that we can add to His work that He completed on the cross and in rising from the tomb.
Our efforts are only useful when we have given our hearts to Him and the service that we do after that only adds to our rewards in heaven. We can’t help God save us or to consecrate our lives more by accepting Jesus as our Savior. Reading the Bible, studying it daily so we will know His voice, and washing our minds with the pure water of the Word every day are the ways that we can become mature in our faith and become more like Jesus.
Seek Him in everything that you do. Look for ways to let others know that God loves them and then show it by your actions as well. Be His disciple daily so people will see Him by your words and your actions so they might want the relationship you have with Him.
This counsel from John Piper has been helpful to me: “Occasionally, weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have.”
If we could do this every day, the world would be a different place altogether. Today, people don’t want to hear the words “trust God”. They seem to be more interested in “what’s in it for me?” This generation has become the most self-centered and selfish generation that the world has ever had. No one seems to want to help anyone anymore unless they can get recognition for it. Selfless acts of kindness and compassion are the exception today instead of the normal actions of everyone.
Most of the time selfless acts even get on the news as if it is something unheard of and so unusual that it has to be pointed out. Why can’t we just learn to trust God for our daily lives?
The reason for that is our mistaken notion that we aren’t supposed to have God or any mention of Him in our government or in any school function. The separation of church and state is NOT in the constitution!! Thomas Jefferson wrote that the government would not have a national/state-sponsored religion. That was in a personal letter to a Baptist association assuring them that it doesn’t matter which religion you follow, the government wasn’t going to impose their will on the people by requiring them to be members of a “national church”.
You can trust in the God of the Bible or a god of your own choosing if you wish. You can worship either or both of them or just choose not to. Your life depends on what God blesses you with whether you believe in Him or not. Every life on this planet, human beings or not, depends on His grace and His provision for each breath. Do we acknowledge this? Most don’t until they feel the need to seek Him for a loved one or for some other reason. God is in control whether you believe this or not will not affect the outcome one way or the other. He will accomplish His will and His purposes in His time.
This word is something many of us could use more of but right now we had better be thankful that God has an immense amount of it. Why? Because of all the fighting and fussing over the “right” to kill babies that He has sent to us as blessings! I know, some people look at children, babies in particular, as an inconvenience but God has His reasons for sending that soul to you to be in your care. He doesn’t have to ask if it’s okay with you. If you are putting yourself in the position to have a child then God will oblige by sending you one. Whether you are ready for it or not!
Many new parents find that the job of being a parent is overwhelming at times and just plain exhausting during the first few months but most of us can get through it. Sometimes it takes a lot of prayer and “on-the-job” training but for those of us who truly want to be parents, it is worth it. Speaking of being worthy, none of us has the market on being worthy to be parents. Life happens and sometimes it is messy but with help from God and a little time, you can learn to be a good parent depending on your living arrangements.
Why am I focusing on this issue? Because that is one of the “big” stories on the news today. There are many other newsworthy things happening in the world but it seems that having the “right” to kill your child in the womb is more important right now. I worked as an EMT for a number of years and I carried a few expectant mothers to the hospital to have their babies. I never heard even one say that they didn’t want this child regardless of their age. As I said earlier, God sends these souls to Earth to fulfill some need or a specific calling that He has in mind for this child.
God knows what He is doing, whether we agree with His idea or not, is not supposed to be part of the equation. A child is supposed to be celebrated for their potential…their future. He or she is not supposed to be judged as useful or a nuisance. If your life doesn’t have room for a child, then give them a chance at life with someone who can’t have a child. Seek a way to give life a chance because this child may be the doctor that finds the cure for cancer one day.
