25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. Job 19:25-27 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/job.19.25-27.KJV
Category: Abide in Him
Listen…
Have you ever noticed these two words: listen and silent
They contain the same number of letters and even the same letters as the other but they are arranged in a different order. Both are useful in a time of hurt and pain. When you need to listen, be silent. You can’t hear much when you are talking or listening to music or watching a video because your attention is usually on the conversation or the video.
God has given us His Word, the Bible, to be able to seek and to know Him and His ways. Leaving it on a shelf or under some other books doesn’t help us to know Him at all. Open your Bible if you have one. Get one if you don’t. Read it and learn about our loving God. While it is true that He is a vengeful God and a jealous God, He is also loving and compassionate. He sent His own Son, Jesus, to die for us…in our place to pay the penalty for our sins. We may not understand His ways at first, but if you read the Bible and ask Him to reveal Himself to you, you will begin to understand.
God loves each of us but He sees and knows every thought and every deed that we do before we finally decide to believe in Him for our salvation. Once we have asked for Jesus to come in and cleanse our hearts, those previous sins in our life are wiped away and God doesn’t dwell on them ever again. We do, but they have been removed as far as the East is from the West. Give Jesus a chance in your life, be silent while you seek Him in the Bible, and pray for Him to reveal His will for your life. Listen to His wisdom and you will find it.
God’s will for you is only found when you read His Word and learn more about Him because His will for each of us is found in it.
An upright man who worships even in the bad times
So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord , and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2:7-10 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/job.2.7-10.KJV
What do you truly believe?
When the Pharisee, Nicodemus, came to Jesus at night He told him that you must be born again. Nicodemus couldn’t believe at first what Jesus was saying. “I can’t go back into the womb and be born again!”, Jesus told him that He was speaking of a spiritual rebirth. “What does that mean?” he asked. Jesus told him that to be born of the spirit meant to believe in his heart that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Not believe in your head through knowledge but to commit your heart and your life daily to following Him. This commitment cannot be made because of your knowledge of the Bible or even your knowledge of Jesus. You may have a degree in Bible studies from a seminary or a college but if you have never truly given your heart to Jesus, confessing your sins to Him…you are not saved. This is something that is totally between you and God. I don’t know your heart, only God knows for sure, but until you have felt your heart break and you know that you need Jesus as your Savior you will never truly give your heart to Him.
The Holy Spirit of God can touch your heart and your mind and you will know that you need Jesus as your Savior. Many people feel this touch and then decide that they will do it later. You are not guaranteed a “later”! You don’t know if you will even be alive tomorrow! I could die in a car accident today or you could yourself, no one knows for sure how much longer we have in this life. We make plans for a weekend outing or a vacation for a few months from now but we are only hoping that we will be able to go on that trip. We don’t have a guarantee that we will be alive next week or next month, but many of us make plans far in advance regardless.
I have heard while watching a TV program that some celebrities have read the Bible completely through from Genesis to the book of Revelation and that may be true. But…reading God’s Word doesn’t change your heart unless the Holy Spirit reaches down and touches your heart first. If that doesn’t happen or it hasn’t happened then reading the Bible is like reading any other book. It only gives you knowledge. The spiritual aspect of the Bible doesn’t come into your mind or your heart unless the Holy Spirit breaks your heart and you realize that you need Jesus Christ as your Savior right now! When the Holy Spirit touches your heart, God gives you enough faith to know that you need Jesus because without faith His Word doesn’t mean anything to you.
Without even a small amount of faith you can’t please God in any way! Your life as a Christian cannot begin without a small amount of faith, trying to do it on your own will fail every time. Your strength is not enough. Peter and John and all of the disciples could not have started the church that Jesus told them to do without the Holy Spirit’s anointing. They couldn’t do it with their own strength. Jesus even prayed the night before His crucifixion, “Father, let this cup pass from Me!”, His human mind and body were terrified of the punishment that He knew was coming in just a few hours. But…He said, “Nevertheless, let Thy will be done.”. He submitted to the will of God that His sacrifice for each of us was the only way to pay the penalty of sin for every person that would accept Him as their Savior.
If you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit on your heart and you know that you need Jesus as your Savior, don’t turn away from Him until you have asked Him to come into your life and into your heart and save you. Ask Him for His forgiveness and to make you a new creation in His Kingdom. We may not live past the next hour or even the night tonight so make this decision today while you can. Please do this before it is too late. Jesus loves you enough that He gave His life for yours, don’t turn away from Him today.
When you desire Him…
Many people seem to think that this means you can get everything you want from God, but that’s not the message in this verse. The message is when you desire God and His ways more than your own, He will give you the desires of your heart. In other words, when your desires and God’s desires for you line up together you will get the assured promises that He wants for you.
Living your life here as if God owes you something is the biggest lie that Satan ever put into the world. God doesn’t owe us anything but we owe Him everything! He provides the air that we breathe and the sunlight for our world to produce food along with the rain to grow all of the vegetables and herbs which make our food taste good. Seek your salvation in Jesus Christ and your appreciation for Him will be more than you can understand. He gives us the joy that our soul seeks every day and the assurance that eternity is with Him.
Why won’t you listen?
There are so many sermons being preached by so many preachers yet churches are closing all over our country. Membership is dwindling and people don’t seem to care that the beliefs which shaped our country have gone out of favor with the young and old alike it seems. Some still go to church on a regular basis but many just sit there and barely hear the message at all. What is happening to the church? The people who are in the church don’t seem to care that their beliefs are getting weaker by the year. Even those who live in areas where there are churches on almost every corner of the square seem to have lost their way. Why?
Some people think that it is because of the lack of spiritual teaching, particularly from the Bible, that children and their parents should’ve been exposed to. Some lay the blame at the feet of our government for taking the Bible out of education and for taking prayer out of public schools as well. While those reasons have likely contributed to our country’s moral decay over the last fifty-plus years, it can also be traced to God’s Word and the prophecies contained within it.
At the end of the age, there will be a “falling away” meaning people will gravitate toward other “ways” or pathways to get into eternity and heaven. The problem with this is that there is no other way to get into heaven! Only through belief in Jesus as your Savior and repenting of your sins, then following Jesus for the remaining time that you have will you be able to redeem your sins and be granted righteousness through Christ. I am not saying that you have to do “works” to gain entry into Heaven. I am saying that there has to be a real change in your heart because of the Holy Spirit’s conviction that you need Jesus as your Savior! If you aren’t convicted of your sins and your need of a Savior you wouldn’t look for one. I wouldn’t have sought out Jesus either if I had not been convicted by His Spirit.
At the time of the end of this age, the Church age, there will be a falling away and it is happening. Christians in democratic countries like ours are being persecuted for their beliefs. Right now it isn’t as bad as it is in other countries but it is starting to be seen. This will only get worse, especially when the church is taken up and the world falls into chaos at the beginning of the Tribulation. I am writing this to warn those who have the time right now to seek your Savior while there is still time to do so. Being or becoming a Christian right now is not hard to do, but during the Tribulation, it will be dangerous to the point of losing your life!
I will rejoice!
Do not love the world
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:15-17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.2.15-17.KJV
We are living in the last days
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/2ti.3.1-5.KJV
What do you believe?
Do you believe?
You might ask me, “What do you mean…do I believe?” If you have faith in God and what He can do and has done, do you believe in Jesus for your salvation? There are many in America who claim to know Jesus but many only know about Him. The salvation that they need…that we all need is found only when you follow Him every day. Knowing about Jesus from hearing a sermon or going to Sunday school or a Bible study is better than the alternative but even the demons in hell and Satan himself knows about Jesus.
After Jesus came back from the dead Thomas didn’t believe…wouldn’t believe until he saw Him with his own eyes and touched Him. Jesus said to him “blessed are they who will believe even though they don’t see Me”. I know that I paraphrased His answer to Thomas but only His disciples saw Him in the flesh and those who listened to His teachings. We are separated by two thousand years from His physical presence and yet there are many that have come to know Him and are still coming to know Him as their Savior today!
How is this possible? Because the Holy Spirit and God the Father cause it to be so. We are drawn to the saving knowledge of Jesus as our Savior not because of our choice one day but by the Holy Spirit convicting us to realize that we need salvation in the first place. Without that conviction we, including me, would still be lost and living our lives as sinners just as we were before. But God saw that I could be useful in His Kingdom in some small way and He called me, touched me and convicted me to come to Jesus for my salvation. It was not my decision alone!
When someone realizes that they are in need of salvation all they need to do is confess their sins and ask Jesus to come into their heart and their life to change their life completely. Being a true follower of Jesus, one who knows Him as their Savior truly will be changed from the inside so that others will know for sure that they cannot explain. You will never be the same again because as Paul wrote, “you will be a new creation“. Your old way of life has passed away when you accept Jesus as your Savior, so make sure that you read the Bible prayerfully and thank Him for saving you from your sins every day.
The Living Message of Christ 