Category: Abide in Him

Life is different today…


What do we do during this crisis? We live through it each day, one day at a time. Some days we even live hours or minutes at a time depending on our health and that of our loved ones. Life is very different today than it was six months or a year ago. We are trying to fight a virus that doesn’t kill everyone who is infected but those who have other “health challenges” such as diabetes or heart disease or COPD may not live through the infection. Sometimes it seems that it is age-related and sometimes it isn’t because there have been many young people who have died because of it.

Why? I think this time in history and the things which we are going through are God’s way of telling us to wake up and seek Him. Get out of your rut and the feeling that you are the only one that is experiencing what is happening in your life! God loves you and He is trying to get everyone’s attention but if you feel that He is calling you…please don’t walk away from it. Yes, life is different today, much different than we have had to endure in the past but God is still in control.

I know the questions: “Why are we being testing with this disease?” “Why does the world have to endure this?”

Because sometimes it takes a little hardship and the fear that comes with the virus to cause each of us to look at our lives and realize that there is more to this life than the self-centered way we’ve been living it. God is waiting to show you what He has in store for you. Not bad things but an abundant life into eternity with Him. God doesn’t place burdens on us that we can’t handle but sometimes we need His strength and His Spirit to get through the problem better than we could ever do it on our own.

We will not be beaten down by this problem regardless of the country you may live in because God is bigger than any problem or disease that we could ever face. Stay close to Him, follow Him and ask Him to be your Savior because He can heal every disease and give you strength to get through every problem in your life here and into eternity!

What will you do?


One day the church, all believers, will be taken out of this world. If you don’t believe in Jesus for your salvation or even in the Bible or God either…you will be left here to go through what the Bible calls the Tribulation. This time will last for seven years and the beginning of it will be a seven year treaty which will be signed by all of the nations which want to destroy Israel. After the church, all believers in Jesus for their salvation, is taken up there will be all sorts of “explanations” for this, none of them will come from the Bible. Many people in the world will actually celebrate the fact that “the church” is gone, or they will think it is.

God will still call some people during this time to give their hearts to Jesus and be His witnesses around the world but they will be persecuted severely. My advice to those who are left here is to find a church and go inside it and locate a Bible, especially if you don’t have one. There may be other literature that will also help you to understand what you read and what it means for your salvation. Take advantage of these resources because the Antichrist and those following him will be destroying any book or building which had a congregation of believers. They do not want you to find hope in Jesus!

The last book in the Bible is the book of Revelation. In it Jesus told John to write many prophecies down which would only come true after the church, the believers, have been taken away because they are the bride of Christ. It tells of the churches which will be around at the time or just before the rapture of the church, some of which we have today. One will be a church which thinks they are working for God and His Kingdom but they aren’t doing a very good job of it. One church has lost sight of their first love which is Jesus. One church was on fire for the Lord but they have lost that fire and become “lukewarm” in their teachings and their works for Him. In a sense they have watered down the message so that it no longer means what it should mean. We see evidence of that today.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek out your Savior now! Before the church is taken up because the threats of death during the Tribulation and the strong delusion which will come upon those who are still here, even if you have knowledge of the Bible, will cause you to take the mark of the beast. If you do that, your soul is lost and you will be thrown into hell one day…if you survive long enough. The time of the “church age” or the age of Grace is coming to an end, very likely in our lifetime. I pray that anyone who reads this blog will seek out Jesus as your Savior, give your heart to Him and even if it is after the church is taken away keep your faith in Him.

Don’t wander into the belief that the current “savior” is the one. Read and study the Bible if you can find one. Find a place that you can grow your own vegetables and try your best to stay off of the grid if possible. Why do I suggest this? Because without the mark, you won’t be able to buy or sell gas for your vehicle or food or electricity but your soul has a place in heaven! I pray that anyone who may be searching for a Savior will seek Jesus Christ in the Bible and give your heart to Him. God has never left us and He loves you more than you can imagine. Read His Word and seek Him out before the day comes when you will truly have to choose between life with Jesus or death by beheading because you don’t have the mark.

What is salvation?


Well…it depends upon what a person is being saved from? Salvation can be many things to many people. You can be saved from physical death by a seat belt in a car or an air bag or both. You could be saved from a life of being filthy rich by your circumstances or by God’s grace, whichever you prefer. Salvation, for a Christian, is being saved from the punishment of hell that we deserve but by God’s grace our faith in Jesus atones for all of our sins and allows us to come before Him with no blemish of sin on our person. You could receive salvation from drowning by someone throwing a lifeline with a float attached to it.

So you see, salvation can come to each of us in different forms and at different times but the one that most of us are seeking is our salvation from the punishment that we deserve for our sins. God is our Creator and our Savior which is why He came to live as a human for about thirty three years. He came so that He would know the temptations that we experience not to judge us for those but to call us into a life with Him. Sometimes the call that we hear from Him comes when we are young and sometimes we don’t hear it until we are a bit older.

There is one illustration that I would like to give here which points out the reality that our Savior gives to us and to no others in Creation.

“The life of Christianity consists of possessive pronouns” says Martin Luther. It is one thing to say, “Christ is a Saviour”; it is quite another thing to say, “He is my Saviour and my Lord.” The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the second. Resource, July/August, 1990.

To claim our salvation we must come to a realization that we need Jesus in our heart to save us. God does that when His Spirit reaches down and touches your heart, breaks it and re-molds it into a heart that is ready for His gift. Sometimes this is painful but sometimes it is something that we have sought for a long time and in that instance it feels so good to get the burden of years of carrying the guilt and the shame with us all of the time.

Only a Christian can say “Christ is my Savior and my Lord”. If you can’t confidently say that is feel in your heart that it is true then you may want to seek the Lord for confirmation of your salvation. Do you believe it or are you just saying words? God came down as a helpless baby to live as we live so that He could identify with every emotion and temptation that we have. He saw and healed many diseases while He was teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God and that He has healing for every disease if we will believe in Him for our healing.

Some people only say the words. Some people read the Bible but they don’t believe a word of it. Its just a book of stories and the history of the Jewish people. It is so old that it doesn’t apply to us today.

All of the statements in the short paragraph above are false with parts of truth in them as well. “Now, hold on preacher! The Bible is the Word of God, it can’t be a lie!” The Bible is the history of the Jewish people but some people read it like a book. Some just think it is too old to apply to us now, and there are many people who truly don’t believe a word in it came from God.

Why is that important? Because, God inspired the prophets and kings to write the words which make up the Torah, which is our Old Testament. The apostles wrote their accounts of Jesus’ ministry and Paul wrote most of the prison epistles from a Roman prison but even they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit. If the Word, the Bible, is inspired by God and His Spirit, then it is true and there is no other way to interpret it.

Finally, salvation comes to us by faith in the Holy Spirit which convicts us of our need of salvation. Then He points us in the direction of Jesus Christ Who is our Savior and Lord to believe in Him for our salvation to become real and genuine. After that we should read God’s Word to know what we should do with all of this joy and grace that we’ve been given!

Cling to Jesus!


I’ve heard this most of my life but until I read about how it should be done it truly never occurred to me. African-Americans have been wronged in so many ways, not just in America but even in their mother country as well. Many times it was one tribe who had conquered another tribe for their land or some other resource and then they would sell those to men who were willing to pay for them to be slaves in another country far away from their homes. Many of them didn’t even survive the trip in the ship because of such cramped conditions. Of those who did their life, if you can call it that, was miserable, hard and filled with pain and suffering.

My own ancestor came from either Ireland or Scotland, I’m not sure which, as an indentured slave to someone who could afford the trip to the New World as America was called at the time. I don’t know my ancestor’s name but since his skin was white he or she may not have had such a terrible time of it after arriving here. But I have read that some were just as cruelly treated as any other slave, regardless of skin color. Sometimes they might get a nominal education in order to do the job that their master needed them to do and sometimes they didn’t. Either way, regardless of their skin color, life was hard…much harder than it is today.

The one common thread that weaves through the Word of God is that faith and belief in God and the salvation that He offers grows tremendously when there is persecution involved. The Israelites held on to their faith when they were in bondage to Egypt. The early church was persecuted in horrible ways during the first few hundred years and in some countries today they still are, but the church itself grew in number even then. Faith seems to seek out the Savior when there is uncertainty and hardship regardless of nationality or skin color.

This is exactly what America NEEDS today…right NOW!! We need a solid anchor in the Truth of God’s Word. One that will not move and is always true in every instance that we need it for. Salvation, security, peace, hope, love, mercy and grace are all found in God’s Word and today the whole world needs these to be active and ALIVE in the church even if the church is located in someone’s home or basement.

Is slavery wrong? YES!! In every sense of the word. Child slavery, sex trafficking, and a host of other types of slavery that I didn’t mention…these are all wrong! Should we search out and destroy the places where this is practiced? That would be wonderful but I’m afraid that many in America would be surprised by how close to home this really is. We would be shocked and horrified by the realization that it involved someone we know or maybe even someone that we attend church with. I don’t know this for a fact, so don’t quote me here. But…it is possible.

The only person that could fix this is our Savior and our King, Jesus Christ. Many of these rings which conduct business in the middle of our cities and towns are only known as legitimate businesses. Even people that we do business with at least once or twice every month. It may not happen in small towns but it is possible

Every member of the church should dig deep into God’s Word and learn how He does things and then let your voice be heard. Make sure your voice is heard because if we don’t then the other side will and the country that will rise from their influence will be worse than the one we have now. If we aren’t going to make our voice, as the church, heard then we aren’t helping anyone. God sent His Son to pay the price for our sins and the least we can do is follow in His footsteps. Letting others know about our wonderful Savior and His love for them. If we don’t do that then we aren’t really His followers at all.

One message in its pages


Ever since mankind began writing he has recorded important facts pertaining to his history and all kinds of important details of life in the ages past. We have books and written history going back thousands of years at least back as far as the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Hebrew writings of Moses. Some have questioned the authenticity of God’s Word over the centuries but there are more accurate copies of the books that make up the Bible, even the New Testament than there are of other profound works such as Iliad and other Greek tales that no one questions.

The message which is stated in the Bible, from Genesis to the book of Revelation, is about God’s love for humanity. Specifically for the Jewish nation but His love extends to all of the people of the world as well. In the gospels, Jesus says that his disciples will take this message to the whole world and in the two thousand years since His resurrection it has been taken or it is available to everyone who is seeking salvation through Him. That message is that we are loved by the Creator with a love that we just cannot understand on our own.

C.H. Spurgeon said it this way in a sermon and it is more true today than ever:

See what vitality the gospel has! Plunge her under the wave, and she rises the purer from her washing; thrust her in the fire, and she comes out the more bright for her burning; cut her in sunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and like the hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you cut away. She cannot die, she must live; for she has the power of God within her. (C. H. Spurgeon)

The Biblical Illustrator, Electronic Database.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission. BibleSoft.com

In chapter one of the gospel of John he writes:

The Beginning

(Genesis 1:1-2)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

The message conveyed in the Bible from beginning to the end is the same one found in John 3:16, 17. Here is the text of those passages:

For God So Loved

(Genesis 22:1-10; Romans 5:6-11)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Anyone who seeks Him will find Him and in Him they will be saved and have life eternal with Him in heaven. The message is simply: God loves you and me and the whole world, that is why Jesus came to live and die and rise again.

Faith…do you have it?


Without faith it is impossible to please God. So…do you have any faith in Him? In Mark chapter 9 there was a father who had come to Jesus’ disciples first because his son had a demon who afflicted him. This boy had this going on for many years and the apostles could not cast it out. When his father saw Jesus he said something that you don’t hear or read in the Bible very much. The father told Jesus that his son had been this way since childhood and he said “If you can….”.

Mark 9:14-29  14 When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” 19 And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

The boy’s father didn’t know Jesus very well at this point but he did ask Jesus to heal his son and help him with his unbelief. God can do all things as long as we believe in Him and don’t doubt that He can. But, mustering up enough faith to see something done that you have trouble believing that it can be done is something else entirely. Yet, God can help you with your faith in ways that you don’t reallize at first. Our God and Savior is AWESOME so don’t consider for a moment that He can’t do something that you ask of Him because He can!

I pray that everyone who may be in the path of the storms in our country and all over the world will seek His strength and guidance in these troubled times.

Who is in charge?


In our society today even those who are supposed to be in charge have doubts about who is really in charge. Some aren’t sure of their ability. Some are blocked from doing what needs to be done by those who want to see them fail. Some people just want to find someone to blame for their problems and they don’t care what they do or say about someone to switch the blame to someone else. In our country and our world at large it seems that nobody acknowledges that God is really the One Who is in charge.

In Colossians chapter 1 Paul writes this:  16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 

Our Creator, Redeemer and Savior is God and also Jesus Christ in whom we live and have our life now and into eternity. If you have given your life to Jesus and follow Him then your Spirit lives in Him and through Him. God’s love for us and especially the Jewish people is a love which cannot be measured by any human measure. We cannot understand it. He is above us and yet when Jesus came to live among us, He personally lived as a man so that He would know our weakness and our frailties and would be able to identify with each of us in a personal way.

Some people foolishly think that we are able to “rise above the human condition” with no help from anyone. If you look at the history of every country in the world, you can see that it just doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter what political system is involved, mankind will be the animal that we think he is. While it is true that humanity can be and do good things for a while, historically it won’t last very long.

We can be more like Jesus Christ if we live according to His Word and teachings. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and changes your “condition” so that we are able to rise above but we must live in His Word. Reading it, studying it, praying about it and what we can do through Him to be more like Him. Without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. Our “natural inclination” is to be selfish and seek pleasure for our own purposes and do whatever it takes to “get ahead” in life. But by reading and studying God’s Word, not man’s rules and ideas, we can move toward being better than we could be on our own IF the Holy Spirit is allowed to work in and through us.

Don’t be the animal that “evolution” says that we are. God did not design us by using an ape, we are made in God’s image! More people need to see Jesus in and through our actions and our lives so that they will want to know Him too. The future of humanity is written in God’s Word and we should be living through Jesus and He should be working through us to bring the whole world into the future that God has prepared for it.

What makes the difference?


What makes a difference in a person’s life? I don’t mean materially like having a lot of money, what I am speaking of is an eternal difference. Now, there are some in our country today who would ask, “What do you mean “eternal difference”? Well, according to God’s Word which, isn’t read very much in America anymore, all of us have an eternity to look forward to after we die. Some of us won’t like it there at all. They will see their eternity as a punishment and a prison. Well, it is. 

You see when you live your life like the devil then your eternity will be to live in eternity with the devil. Now during this life, I have heard many people say that in hell we will be having a party all through eternity. But that is not the way Jesus describes hell. He said the smoke of their torment rises for eternity and that they will be thrown into the lake of fire with Satan and his demons. A lake of fire doesn’t sound like a party to me. Especially when your eternal body is capable of feeling pain even though the lake of fire can’t kill you.

The difference that we make in other lives and in our own life can only come by one Person, Jesus Christ. He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith and it is His Spirit which remakes us into a child of God. We cannot do this transformation on our own. There is no amount of money or time or work, which will miraculously make us righteous in the sight of God. Only belief in the Son, Jesus Christ for our salvation will accomplish this task. We do not choose this on our own because even when you have been in a revival tent or meeting if you feel that you need Jesus and you go down front that decision may be because of your friends going down or some girl going down.

When the Holy Spirit touches your heart and breaks it so that you know that you need Jesus regardless of who may see you or what your friends might say. Nothing will keep you from going down and making Him your Savior. God’s Holy Spirit will move you to make that decision and you will make it. Sometimes it may take a few more prompting touches from Him but you will get down on your knees and give your life to Jesus.

What does all of this have to do with making a difference? Because others will see the difference in you and they will want to know what happened? Your life and your way of living changed and someone will want to know how they can have the peace that you have. They will hear about your life turning in the opposite direction from where you were headed and they will see a difference in you. Some may not see it as a good thing and that’s okay but there will be others who see the change and they will want what you have found.

When your life changes like that then you will make a difference in someone’s life. Maybe even more than one person. Then they can go out and make a difference and the effect will keep going from there. God can make one person…one seed sprout into a field of new growth for His Kingdom. It only takes a spark to start a fire if the right kind of wood is there. Your “spark” comes from the Holy Spirit and the fire that He starts in your heart is what other people see. Once they see this change in your life, they will want to know what or Who it is that made this change.

Make sure that they know it was Jesus Christ Who brought you to this place in your life.

Endless love for…


We have heard songs for this and we’ve prayed for it to happen to us but until you realize that you already have it…it never really sinks into your conscience. God has loved every one of us since before the first blade of grass grew in Eden. He has known our weaknesses and our strengths and where and when we would make mistakes and He loves us anyway. Even when we refuse to listen to Him or we turn away from Him for a time and do our own thing…He still loves us. Feeling loved or unloved? Seek God in the Psalms and Proverbs. His love shines so bright that our own Sun cannot be bright enough to make a shadow.

Endless love. The kind of love that lasts not just for a lifetime but for eternity is the love that God has always had for each of us. Will He show this love to us while we are still alive? Yes, and He does it every time you wake up to a new day. When your day goes your way until you get home that was God making your day smooth and productive. God’s Spirit comes to live with you when you accept Jesus as your Savior and He is with you during the good days and the bad ones. He is never any further from you than a breath and a prayer. If you are hurting, the Holy Spirit can fill in the blanks that you can’t pray because of grief or the loss of a loved one. He knows your pain but He will give you the strength to get through it today and tomorrow and the next day too.

The gifts which the Spirit brings to your life will help with so much and add to your life and your enjoyment of it. God does so much for us each day and most of it goes unnoticed because He takes care of little things before they become big ones. Sometimes we ask Him to do something for us and He knows that we don’t need it or that it would cause problems for us later. He answers those prayers by not answering them. We don’t understand His logic but we aren’t supposed to understand Him. He’s God our Savior, our Protector, our Creator and our Redeemer. What more could you want or need?

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.