Category: Abide in Him

Problems? We all have ’em


Life is full of problems from the time you know what they are but can we do anything about them? Some of them we can but most of the real problems that we encounter in life need to be handled by God. Even Jesus told His disciples that some of the miracles that they tried to do needed fasting and prayer before the miracle could be accomplished. Some days we wake up with our problems and some nights we go to bed with them but the best that we can do is often not enough. That’s when we should seek out God and His wisdom because He is bigger than any problem or disease that comes along.

God is on your side regardless of the circumstances facing you. Whatever they might be He knows and He listens to your prayers. He may not answer them in the way that you want or as quickly but He will answer them. If you don’t know God or Jesus as your Savior then you need to pray even more earnestly for that to happen soon. The “church age” or the age of Grace is coming to an end and it will likely be in our lifetime. Make sure that you get to know Him and that He knows you too before this life is over because we are not guaranteed tomorrow.

Don’t give up!


16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/2co.4.16.KJV

Amen

Our lives are being challenged every day. Keep your focus on Jesus Christ and He will be with you through every trial that you have.

Knowledge comes from God


7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.1.7.KJV

Are you seeking Him?


Many people today seem to be seeking Him. They are asking questions about Him and the life that they would have with Jesus in their lives. But…are they seeking Him to be their Savior? Asking questions and reading books about Him from other authors and preachers who write about Him is a step in the right direction. But what are you getting from them? Second-hand information mostly. Possibly even their interpretation of Who He is. You aren’t getting the Truth or at least not all of it. 

Reading the Bible, God’s Word, on the subject of His Word which is the Savior, Jesus Christ! I know…many people say that the information on Jesus is only found in the New Testament so why should I read the Old Testament? Because every book of God’s Word has a reference to or a type of Jesus Christ in it somewhere. From Genesis, He is referred to as the Seed of the woman and the Angel of the Lord to Exodus where the type is the “bread” from Heaven, manna, or the Rock which gave its living water to the Israelites in the wilderness. Those are just two or three references to the Christ Who is to come.

Moses was a “type” of Christ, Joseph was a “type” of Christ so there are many references that allude to a Savior in the very beginning of the Bible. Actually, every book of the Bible has some reference to Him in it somewhere.

When you seek Him, don’t just read or pray about Him or what your need might be. Seek Him earnestly in His Word, pray while you are reading it, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. When you feel Him touch your heart and you will know when it happens, you will want Him as your Savior because you will feel it in your heart. You will realize that you are a sinner who needs a Savior, otherwise, you will be going to hell.

God loves each of us but He is not pleased with our sinful lives unless we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. If we have done that then the sins that we have confessed and asked His forgiveness for are wiped away. When the Holy Spirit comes into your heart and Jesus takes your sin away, it is gone. I’m not saying that you won’t sin again, but the guilt from your previous sins is taken away. Although, Satan will bring them back to your memory later to taunt you with them. God has put them all behind Him as far away as the East is from the West.

Life with Jesus in your heart is not an easy road to travel, especially today, but He will give you the strength to get through the troubles and trials which will come. Give your life to Him because He has already given His life for yours.

Choose to serve the Lord


15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. 16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; Joshua 24:15‭-‬16 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jos.24.15-16.KJV

Be humble…


4 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life. Proverbs 22:4 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.22.4.KJV

Amen

When you are afraid…


3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.56.3.KJV

All of us are afraid at some point in our lives. We may not admit it and we certainly won’t tell anyone that we are afraid…but deep down we are. It doesn’t matter if you are a police officer or a firefighter or in the Special Forces of the Military everyone feels fear. It is how we deal with it that defines our actions and our reactions in those situations. Courage is the control of our reaction to fear.

God is with us when we are afraid and if you are a Christian you have angels who are with you as your guard in front and behind you regardless of where you may be. So why are we afraid? Fear is one of the emotions that Satan uses to put doubts in our mind about God and His faithfulness. Fear can paralyze you and cause you to run when you should “be still and know that I am God“. Realize that whatever your circumstance and whatever may be causing you to fear something or someone…God is bigger than your fear and the cause of your fear!

God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for your sins and mine so that we could be welcomed into His family. God determined that this would be necessary all the way back in the Garden of Eden, long before any of us were known or thought of by anyone except Himself. He knew that we would need a Savior and that Savior would have to be one of the Trinity…His Son. Jesus came to the Patriarchs as the Angel of the Lord or the Commander of the Lord’s Army. He was also the Rock from which the water flowed in the wilderness and the Bread from heaven that sustained them. In Babylon Jesus saved the three Hebrews who were thrown into the furnace by being the One that was “like a son of the gods” in their trial with them.

God is always with us in our trials, whatever they may be so when you feel fear or you are afraid for some reason…pray a prayer for God’s Presence to be near you and to guard you and give you the strength to face it and move on.

Are we all guilty?


Every human after the fall is guilty of the same sin that Adam was guilty of. The sin of disobedience. Those of us who have chosen not to believe in Jesus for your salvation have disobeyed the call of God. If you have felt the call of God in your heart, it doesn’t matter if it was at church or a radio program or on the TV, then you should answer that call. Some people will answer and ask Jesus into their hearts and some will refuse.

So…are we guilty or not? Yes, we are all guilty of being sinners before we come to Jesus for our salvation. Can we be redeemed? Yes, even for the most heinous crimes imaginable and for the least crimes as well. Every sin, no matter how small, is equal in God’s sight! Sometimes we look at these things, meaning sins, with the wrong outlook. Stealing a pen is still stealing. Looking at a woman/girl with lust in your heart/mind is still adultery even if you never touch her. Your mind can conjure up all sorts of imaginings that you may not even be physically capable of doing sexually but it is still a sin in your mind. Our minds are the places where everything that we do and say or imagine comes to pass. That is why we should “capture every thought and bring it under the control of the Holy Spirit“.

Do we do this as Christians? Many times we don’t do it immediately so we have to ask Jesus to forgive us and give us the strength to capture it quicker when it happens again. It will happen because not one of us is perfectly able to do this. Jesus did but He was totally submitted to His Father’s will for His life and there isn’t a person on Earth capable of doing that today. Some may think that they can do it but they are being deceived by Satan.

Each of the Ten Commandments has been broken by preachers, teachers, carpenters and shepherds all over this world. It doesn’t matter what your occupation is but if you consider yourself a Christian and your heart has been changed to the point that you don’t do the things that you used to do…you will still fail in some way. We are human. Yes our heart belongs to Jesus and we read and study God’s Word but our mind can be tricked so easily into thinking something or imagining something that we shouldn’t. It takes prayer, every day, and seeking Him more than just once or twice a week to be successful in your walk with Jesus.

I pray that whoever reads this short message will seek Him out and give their heart to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your life and change you so that your life will be useful to Him from that point on. Then your eternity is secure and your life can be more than it has ever been or even more than you could imagine.

Obligations


There was a workday at our church this past weekend but I couldn’t attend. The need for getting groceries early because of the heat and our lack of an air-conditioned vehicle seemed greater than the need for one more set of hands at our church. Yet, on Sunday morning I felt as if I didn’t belong there because I didn’t do my part the day before. I prayed for their safety in the heat and for our revival coming up but it still didn’t seem to be enough. Why? 

The spirit of “guilt” was affecting my conscience I suppose. Nobody said anything to me about my absence but I still felt out of place. Was it Satan trying to get to me for not being there? It could’ve been.

In spite of our salvation, Satan can and does get into our heads and he can make us feel things that aren’t an issue as if they are. That is how he can split a church over trivial things that shouldn’t matter that much! Many times we make problems bigger when they shouldn’t be actual problems at all. That is his work. He tries to make our lives miserable even when we are serving the Lord. This is when we should recognize that he is behind it and just tell him to stay out of the way in the name of Jesus. 

God carries us through each and every day whether they are good or bad days. Our problem is our own minds can and will listen to Satan’s lies making little things seem to be much bigger than they are. Seek to do the will of God on the good days and the bad days. Read His Word and learn of His Wisdom because your own wisdom can get you into trouble far quicker than you can imagine, especially with Satan’s help. If you think you are above listening to Satan, he will prove you wrong and in a big way. He can place thoughts in your mind that can cause you to think things that you wouldn’t otherwise, so be careful.

God loves each of us and He has given us a way to tap into His strength through the Holy Spirit but we have to initiate it through prayer and by knowing His Word well enough to use it for our defense. Read His Word each day, pray about what you have read and ask Him to give you His wisdom so that you can understand the meaning behind what you have read. It is our obligation to know His Word so that we know His voice when it speaks to us as we read it. It is our obligation to do what His Word commands us to do so that others will know about the Savior Who came to give each of us a chance at eternity. Make sure that you know Him and that He knows you before your time here is through.

So much to do…


How can I put this? The number of people who need to be reached seems to be growing beyond the ability of the workers that are available. Why? Because there are fewer believers willing to get the message to them regardless of the method used. Yes, there are plenty of “ministries” that are working around the world to reach the lost with His Message but there are still more at home who need to hear it too! Jesus came as a child…a baby in a manger and grew up as a Jewish kid learning the carpentry trade from His Earthly father, Joseph. Many sermons don’t tell this because after the time that His parents found Him in the Temple we rarely hear about His childhood or the vocation of Joseph. It seems to belittle or make a light thing out of His early life that He learned from Joseph.

While it is true that Jesus came as the Son of God, He was raised and taught the Torah by His Earthly father. Joseph also taught Him about being a Jew and living by the Laws of Moses and all of the Ten Commandments. I’ve heard some preachers and others say that Jesus was the Living Word, He didn’t need to be taught like other children. Why not? Just because He was the Living Word doesn’t mean that He was born with all of the knowledge of the Old Testament packed inside His brain. Jesus had to learn just like all the other Jewish boys His age although He did have the Holy Spirit to guide Him and give Him deeper insight into the Word that He was learning.

The Christian church needs to seek God’s Wisdom in our daily lives so that we can take His Wisdom with us everywhere we go. People need to see it in our lives and hear it in our speech so they will know that we belong to Jesus. Your life as a Christian is one that begins when you give your life to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you for all of your sins. Then you have to learn as much as you can every day from that point forward in God’s Word so you will know His voice when He speaks to you. Learn about Him and then tell others about Him too!