Category: Abide in Him

Something is in the closet…


When I was a child, I didn’t have anyone to call for my fears at night. I have never thought about it much before today. I heard a song a little while ago about a child that was scared and didn’t want his Dad to leave.

The thing that we should realize is that when you have Jesus Christ as your Savior, He is always with you no matter where you are. Of course when you are young the dark can be scary. The closet looks scary with the lights off. The air conditioner can make things move and cause shadows to move and your imagination can go into overdrive and make these normal things seem to be much worse than they are.

As Christians, the “monsters” that we face are real but we can’t see them, thankfully. Satan and his demons and principalities can cause real problems in your life. Our only defense is to study God’s Word and have many scriptures memorized so we can use them to fend off their attacks. When you consider all of the wars and problems and everything that is going on in the world, take a look at where these things are happening. Notice that most of them are taking place where God or Jesus or both are not embraced by the culture or the country.

If you don’t believe in God or His Son, Jesus, as your Savior then what are your gods? Who or what do you ask for help in times of need and illness or trials? There is no name under Heaven that brings salvation except the name of Jesus! The previous sentence is a paraphrase of Acts 4:12 but it is the Truth. Believing in Jesus as your Savior and Lord is the only way to get to Heaven or to experience eternal Life! You can keep following other ways or other “prophets” or even other “gods” but none of them will give you life in eternity except Jesus. Others will lead you strait to hell for eternity and that is not Life.

What is in your closet? Is it an old, dusty Bible that you haven’t read in years? Then I suggest getting it out and dusting it off so you can read it and seek God and His Son in its pages. Eternal life is found in no other name except Jesus so make sure that you know Him and that He knows you too while there is still time in this life to make that choice.

God is always near


Psalm 46: 1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Many people think that the other phrase, “God helps those who help themselves”, is in the Bible but it isn’t. It sounds good but the phrase about God being a helper and being with you in troubled times is the one found in Psalm 46. This is not the only one which tells of His ability to help us when we are in need but it is very true that He is and He will if we will call on Him.

It doesn’t matter what sort of trouble you may be in or how you got into such trouble, if you are a child of God and have faith in Jesus as your Savior He is always with you.

Why do I bring this up now? Because of all of the problems and pain that our country and our world is going through right now. The pandemic of this “new” disease which is even less deadly than the flu and it seems to be the most important disease at the moment. Jesus told His disciples that when He went to be with His Father He would send the Helper (Holy Spirit) to teach them and testify of His message in their lives and their ministry. Every Christian has this Helper living on the inside of them and He is always present in every area of our life whether we are going through something good or bad.

Even when we can’t think of the words to pray with, He is praying directly to the Father for us in words which express exactly what the problem is and the urgency of it. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, our Helper, and our Voice when we are too emotional or maybe too sick or hurt to pray for our problem. That is why Jesus asked the Father to send Him and when you become a Christian, He comes to live in your heart.

When Jesus was baptized by His cousin, John, all three Persons of the Godhead were there. Jesus was there in His humanity, God spoke to those who could hear and the Holy Spirit came and stayed on Jesus in the form of a dove. So truly we do have “God with us” every day that we live after we become a Christian. I pray that whoever reads this will seek to learn about Jesus and His message, seek Him as your Savior and then live every day as if you are walking by His side because once you have accepted Him as your Savior there is a part of Him living within you from that day forward.

How much and how far…


God has lots of patience with us because He has been waiting for nearly two thousand years. So how much more time do you think we have before His patience wears down or until the last person on His list is saved? How far will He allow us to go with our rebellion and the majority of people on Earth rejecting Jesus as their Savior?

These are questions which I can’t answer and neither can you. Jesus told His disciples that when that time comes the world will resemble the world just before the flood which Noah survived in the Ark. Are we there yet? Well, millions of children are killed each day in abortions all over the world, not just here in America. The number of children killed in America only amounts to maybe 850,000 or so every year. That is not an exact number but it is a number which should bother people but most will fight you for their right to kill their “fetus”.

Today we have so many terrorist groups, home-grown I might add, which are doing much the same as those on 9/11 did except not with airplanes. Abraham Lincoln said that our country would tear itself apart from the inside out one day because we wouldn’t be attacked from outside our borders. We have been attacked from outside our borders but it seems that the attacks which do the most harm are those from within.

None of this is outside of God’s notice because He sees and hears every word and every deed done on Earth. One day we will pay the price for our pride and arrogance. I just pray that many more who read this may find their way to a church or to a bookstore and pick up a copy of God’s Word. Read it and pray that you will be forgiven in Jesus’ name because when the time comes it will be sudden and without warning. Those who are ready to meet Him in the air will go and those who are not will be left here to endure the wrath of Satan and the wrath of Almighty God.

For Biblical proof of what is coming and some of what is happening today, read Matthew 24 and all of the book of Revelation. Then pray that you won’t have to endure those dangerous times.

What would you give?


In Psalm 84:11-12 it says: 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

God gives to us everything that we need. He doesn’t give to us our wants and our demand, yet many people seem to think that He owes them their desires just because they are “following” Him. God doesn’t owe us anything at all! He protects us and keeps us in this life because He loves us. We have air to breathe and water to drink and most of us have food to eat, so what is there to complain about?

Jesus said that she gave more than the others.

God never said in any part of His Word that we would be rich or well off because we serve Him in some small capacity, whether it is as a teacher or a mother or a police person or even a preacher. It is only because of some “twisted scripture” or scripture taken out of context which people use to get what they want out of other people that we see so-called “servants of God” who are wealthy. You also hear some people saying, usually during times of hardship, that they would give anything if their loved one would recover. Sometimes, God takes them at their word and heals that person but when the healing is done their “promise” is forgotten or it is reduced to a very tiny portion of what they were thinking at the time.

God gave His Son to atone for all of mankind’s sins. We may not be able to give a sacrificial gift like that but we could give our time or our prayers or volunteer in a nursing home or a hospice. Anything that we do for others is considered more than we think it is worth. Many times we will do things and we may never think of it again. We may not find out about the good that our giving accomplished until we get to Heaven and find someone that reminds us of something that we considered small but it made a big difference in their life at some point.

If you ask someone who doesn’t have a home or food or maybe even shoes what they want most in life, what do you think they would give for an answer? A mansion? The finest clothes that money can buy? Maybe the best and most comfortable shoes? Most of the time, in my opinion, the few that I have heard interviewed on TV, they would like to have a warm meal, a warm bed or a cool place to sleep in the summer, comfortable, simple shoes and maybe the most important thing…someone to talk to and who will truly listen.

Jesus paid the price for our sins and our salvation because we can’t do it on our own. Think of the love that He and the Father have for each of us to make it possible for us to have an eternity to love and be loved by our Creator and our God just because we believe that He did it for us because He loves us. Some may say that they don’t want to live an eternity like that. You don’t know what that eternity will be like. God did not save us to sit around meditating on Him, although we could and it would be wonderful. God’s love for His creation is so deep and unknowable until we will be in awe of Heaven’s beauty for many, many years because of what He has perfected there. Your home, if you are a believer, will be so wonderful even if it is a tent (which I don’t think Jesus would do that to us).

Every prophet or disciple who has been given a glimpse of Heaven could scarcely find the words to describe its beauty. It was so much more than what we can see here until even the most beautiful places on Earth pale in comparison with it! I pray that all who reads this will seek to know Jesus as your Savior and Lord and I pray that I will meet you there one day.

Racism or ?


Racism-the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

I have said this before and I am emphasizing it again. God created the human race and we descended from a man and a woman that God created. We did not evolve from apes. God didn’t even use apes as the idea for us because He said, “Let us make mankind in our image”. We are created in His image and we still carry His image inside us.

So….what causes racism? It could be many things but the most likely culprit is in your own family. We see how our grandparents and our parents treat people who have darker skin than we do so the treatment or the thoughts toward those with darker skin are taught and handed down over the generations. It has become ingrained in our white culture just as other behaviors are in other cultures.

Is it hard for white people to talk about racism? Yes, it is. Particularly when some of us have worked with people of color, regardless of the color and yet those of us who are “white” are called crackers, and honky by some outside our friends at work. Why? What did I ever do to deserve such names? Have I been disrespectful to you or someone in your family? My family never owned any slaves. But to hear the “news” today you would think that every white person has been a part of the slave trade from 200 years ago.

The earliest ancestor of mine came over on a ship from England as a servant to someone who could afford a servant. So…what does that make me? I am a descendant of a slave or servant as well, even though my skin is white. God doesn’t agree with slavery or the idea of it but the Bible was used in a very evil way to justify slavery.

Jesus didn’t come to save you based on your skin color because He created all of the shades of color which adorns our human race. Each has its advantages and disadvantages but not in the way that the news media tries to spin it these days. God created us in the way that would be the most beneficial for us to be His disciples so that we could take His message of love to those that we are known by and to some who may not know us at all.

Each of us has a talent or ability which may make an impression on someone outside our comfort zone. Hopefully it will bring them to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. I pray that our ideas of race and racism will be put behind us one day and one day in His Kingdom it will be. We just have to get there first. Lord, come quickly.

Children are not born racist, they learn this from others.

Does God care for us?


There is so much evidence for His love for mankind until I would imagine that it hurts His heart when someone asks this. He loved us enough that He created Earth for us. He placed it at the right distance from our Sun so that it isn’t too hot or too cold. He put the right mixture of gases in our atmosphere so that plants and animals of all kinds could grow along with us. Our planet has an abundance of water and the right nutrients in it for all of the life in the oceans and rivers.

God also sent Jesus to pay the penalty of our sin debt so that we could live into eternity with Him one day if we will place our faith in Jesus for our salvation. That is the one gift which we have that no other part of creation has or can understand…the gift of God’s love and His atonement for our sins through His Son, Jesus. This gift from God is by no amount of worth on our part. We cannot earn it nor can we purchase it in any way other than our deep belief in Jesus as our Savior. That is the easiest purchase that we can ever make because we don’t have to spend anything for it. Just believe in Jesus for your salvation and ask Him for your forgiveness of your sinful life before you knew that you needed Him.

God calls us to come to Him through His grace and He gives us enough faith to believe and repent in order to be saved. It has nothing to do with your idea of being saved or your decision of going to church to be saved. When His Holy Spirit convicts your heart of your need of Him, you will respond one way or the other. Choose the right way and trust in Jesus for your salvation. Time is growing short and when He comes for His church you do want to be in the number of those called home to Heaven.

God answers your prayers


In the world in which we live today, there are many people inside and outside the church who don’t believe in God’s ability to answer our prayers. Many times God answers our prayers almost before we pray them. Sometimes the answer is “no” or “not yet” but sometimes the answer is “Yes!”. We may not recognize His answer as if it came from God but I believe that many of our answers, if not all of them, do come from Him. Just like any parent or guardian, God says yes to some prayers which will give glory to Him and will help us in our journey. Then there are prayers, usually spoken in haste or anger, that God will answer “No!”. 

Sometimes we can understand His reasons when we don’t get a positive answer but many times we act like a spoiled child and pitch a fit when we don’t get our way. It is the negative answers which teach us how to be truly patient and one day we will understand why He didn’t answer our request with a “yes”. 

In 1 John 5:14-15 it says: 

14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask† anything according to his will, he hears us.† 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,† we know that we have what we have asked of him.†

Notice that John writes “If we ask anything according to His will…”, meaning that our request should be prayed about, and in asking Him to do one thing or another we must be in His will for Him to answer us with a “Yes!”. In other words, we should be walking with Him, studying His Word, and in a state of prayerful living so that we will know what is His will for our lives. 

Unfortunately, there are many people in the church and in the pulpit, who are not walking with Jesus on a daily basis. We tend to visit Him on Sunday or on a holiday or when something goes wrong in our lives and He is the only recourse for us to turn to at the time. Other than that, we just go through our day without a thought about Him or His Word…until we really NEED Him to show up! 

God does answer prayers and He hears the prayers of those who belong to Him in their hearts. The Holy Spirit speaks to Him even before we do especially when it is a request that is painful to ask for and it is during those times when God’s answer shows up before we even know that we need it. Sometimes it shows up in a way that we weren’t expecting but many times it will show up in an unexpected way and it will bring joy into our lives that we never knew we had.

Considering our prayers and our relationship with God, we need to remember that He is not a genie. God doesn’t answer at the same moment that we ask and He is not willing to give us the desires of our heart unless our desires and His are the same. Would He give us the desires of our heart? Yes, if it would bring Him glory and bring more people into His Kingdom.

We have to have a close relationship with Him in order for our requests to truly be in line with His will for our lives. Today there are many people in the church who really aren’t that close to God at all. Even though they may think they are. Some of those who think they are close to God are not and some of those are in the pulpit. Are they saved? Maybe or maybe they think they are, only God can answer that question.

That is the most important question of all. Are you truly saved like the thief on the cross? Believe in Jesus for your salvation because He is the only way. Or…will you leave the church with the idea that you’ll get around to it one day but not today. Are you sure that you will be here the next time we meet? Not one person knows that they have tomorrow as another day to make that decision. I don’t and none of you know without a doubt that you will live another day or another week. The only person who knew when He would die was Jesus and that only because He was God in the flesh.

The pathway is narrow


The Narrow Gate

(Luke 13:22-30)

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Our pathway is very long and narrow but with Jesus as our guide we can make it. One day at a time, keeping prayer on our lips and our eyes on Jesus as we travel this road. Why is the pathway narrow? Because it is not an easy path to walk. There are trials and temptations and problems which come into every person’s life and it is by faith alone that we can endure until the end. Because when the end arrives and the Trumpet sounds we shall be taken home. Then the whole world will know that the Christians and the Jews were right to believe in their Holy Book and in the God Who inspired the writings in it.

Many who have heard sermons from God’s Word will know what is happening or what is about to happen but since the church, the body of true believers, has been taken away that is the only sign which will confirm it. There will be many who won’t believe it or possibly just brushed the revelation of it away as a fairy tale.

You would be wise to seek to know Jesus now, today. Because once the church is gone the riots and the collapse of governments will bring much chaos. Even more than is happening today. The pathway is narrow because it takes diligence and patience and faith to keep your feet on the path. The easy road has always been there and it has lured many people to believe that they are following the right way when in fact they are headed for hell.

Doing good works or being a good person is a wonderful accomplishment but those actions won’t save your soul. Only belief in Jesus as your Savior can do that. Some think that a socialist society and government would be better for our world today. But if everyone is getting paid by the government where does the money come from to pay each person a wage? Free healthcare and education are wonderful goals but again where does the money come from to pay for those?

Your life, your soul is worth more than the world to God and He loves you. I pray that anyone reading this will seek to find Jesus as your Savior. The church age is coming to a close. I don’t know when it will happen but it will because it is foretold in the Bible and God cannot lie. Seek Him as your Savior and tell others about Him while you can. I don’t believe there is much time left before this happens. Be watchful, read the books of Daniel and Ezekiel and Revelation and pray about what you are reading. Ask God to give you the wisdom to understand the prophecies contained within them. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He convicts you of your sins and repent and ask Jesus to cleanse your heart.

God’s Promises


In a relationship don’t you keep your promises? Particularly to your significant other? 

God has always kept His promises to us because He loves us. He sent Jesus to pay the debt for our sins and not just American Christians but for all Christians in the world. Yet, somehow we think that we are special and that we deserve His favor. None of us deserve His favor or His grace or His love but God has given us those things because of His love for us not because of what we deserve!

Why would that be true? We have pushed Him out of nearly every government office and building. We have taken Him and His Word out of schools and there are many who are trying to get any reference to Him out of our country so they won’t have to hear about Him or His Son again.

In Matthew 6: 25, 31-34 God promises to meet our needs. Here is the text of those verses: 

25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Every promise that God made with anyone in the Bible, He has kept. Even if the promise hasn’t come to completion yet. All of the promises leading up to it have been. So why do so many people doubt the existence of God or His love for us? Why is it that one part of humanity considers themselves to be the apple of His eye and yet they don’t seem to follow Him any better than the rest of the world?

God’s promises are sure and yet we doubt Him and His Word all of the time. Do you believe His promises for His provision in your life? I do.

I have been pushing the lawnmower and I will ask Him for a cloud or a little breeze to give me some relief from the heat. Most of the time it is provided. I know that many people won’t ask God for such little things but they aren’t little to me at the time. I have laid before Him the fact that we needed to pay this bill or that one and somehow the money is available. It may be just enough to pay the bill but He provides.

While it is true that many of the promises that are in the Old Testament are not available to us today, the promises in the New Testament are available to each of us who has given their life and their heart to Jesus. I don’t mean walking down and getting wet. I mean real, honest, and completely giving your heart to Him. Changing your life and living each day with Him, reading the Bible and learning more about Him and actually leaning on Him for your day to day, getting by kind of things.

Will God answer the prayers of one of His children who is living day to day with Him? If it’s asking for a million dollars, probably not. But if you are talking to Him and listening to His responses then what you ask for is usually in line with what He wants to give you and He’s waiting for you to ask for it. Is living by His side easy to do? No, it isn’t. There are so many temptations around us and Satan knows exactly which buttons to push to cause you to step off of the pathway that you were on. But, the closer you are walking with God it makes it harder for you to listen to anything that Satan says.

God’s Promises


God has given us many things and many promises in His Word and yet many people who claim to be saved through their belief in Jesus ignore them or don’t believe that He will deliver on them. God is not like we are. He doesn’t lie because if He did He would not be God. This message is for those of us who have given our hearts and our life to God through Jesus His Son. If you have not done so, then these promises don’t apply to you until you do. 

The first promise that I’ll begin with is this:

Romans 5:6-11 

Christ’s Sacrifice for the Ungodly

(Genesis 22:1-10; John 3:16-21)

6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Jesus came to Earth as a baby, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, of parents whose lineage could be traced back to King David of the tribe of Judah. All of these were foretold years before He came and He fulfilled all of these prophecies and more. The people who choose not to believe God’s Word or even any part of it have no claim on even this first promise. The promise that you, as a believer, are a child of God. You have been adopted into the family of God through your belief in Jesus as your Savior.

This is God’s promise and it doesn’t matter if you believe in man’s doctrine of once saved you are always saved or if you believe that you can lose your salvation. God’s promise stands regardless of your belief in man’s doctrine because it is His promise and that settles it. As long as you believe in Jesus as your Savior in your heart and you live your life in accordance with your belief, then you truly are His child.

This promise is from God’s Word and it applies to each of us who are His. During these troubled times in which we are living, we need to lean on our Lord for His strength and guidance because without it we are lost. Our faith in Him should bring hope to those around us and yet we see every day the despair and hopelessness in the world. Those who have no hope cling to what they know and most of that is fear and anger and revenge for anything that is happening to them. Even if it is a virus that mankind has not caused but it brings fear into their lives and then other men bring hatred and murder to people only because of the color of their skin. Fear stirs up hatred and hatred lights a fire that won’t be put out easily.

Can the church and the believers who make up the church have any influence in this troubled world? Yes but only by living our lives daily so others can see Jesus in what we are saying and doing. If we live our lives as if we aren’t the church and like those who don’t believe in Him then we shouldn’t claim to be His at all. Yes we were sinners and we still are sinners but as Christians, we are forgiven and we need to live like it. Don’t leave your “Christianity” at the church building on Sunday. Your life was supposed to change when Jesus came into your heart so live your life as a changed Christian who can be seen as a Christian and not labeled as a hypocrite.

When you accepted Jesus as your Savior you were adopted into the family of God. The Holy Spirit came to dwell within your heart to teach you about Jesus and about your life in Christ, so act like you received the most precious gift of all instead of a burden or something that you never wanted to begin with. The gift which each of us has been given through belief in Jesus for our salvation is worth more than all of the wealth in the whole world because we have a home with Him in eternity. This life doesn’t matter except for what we can give to others by our faith in Him. Any gift which has no beginning in Jesus Christ means nothing.