Category: Abide in Him

Be like Jesus…


When we get to know Jesus, the greatest joy that we can experience is to become more like Him every day. The problem is that we be don’t want it to take a long time, we want the transformation right now! When you are young, this can discourage you because of the immediate nature in the world today. We want “microwave changes” to happen in our life or faster if God would do so. Being a Christian and living this life is not about an instant change, it is a process which begins when you have given your heart to Him and then continues each day until He calls you home.

But, when you come to know Jesus as a mature person then you bring along all of the learning and thoughts that you have learned prior to knowing Him. That has to be trimmed away and sometimes it’s painful to go through this pruning process. Jesus said that we can do nothing for the Kingdom of God without Him. Living your new Christian walk with Jesus is essential not only for yourself but for those around you to see it and hear it in your words. Living each day like Jesus did is not impossible but it requires faith in Him and commitment to Him as well.

Many people think that because Jesus was the Son of God that we can’t live our lives by copying His life and His works. Why not? His disciples went about doing the things which He did and telling others about the Kingdom of God and the requirements of salvation. If they did it then why can’t we do it too? It requires faith in Him and it is the kind of faith which many in the church today just don’t have. It is not the faith of someone who spends a few minutes for a couple of days each week reading the Bible. It is not the faith of someone who attends church once or twice every month.

The kind of faith that I’m talking about here is the kind where you wake up each day thanking God for today and the possibilities of it. It is the kind of faith which, in prayerful speech, walks with God and Jesus during the day…regardless of the circumstances. Seeking His wisdom and His touch in everything that you do and say in whatever situation you are in.

God cares for us far more than we can know. That is the reason that Jesus was sent to pay for the whole world’s sins. The debt has been paid and it is up to each of us to accept His gift through our belief in Jesus Christ. If or rather when we do accept it, we will have eternity with Him to know others who have accepted His Son as well. If you do not accept Jesus as your Savior then you will live for an eternity regretting your choice. It is up to each of us which path we follow and we are given that choice at some point in our lives. So…choose Life through Jesus.

How do you feel?


This was a perplexing question for a certain Vulcan in one of the Star Trek movies. In particular it was the fourth one with the original crew. Spock was being taught by computer all of the knowledge that he was supposed to know. But when the computer asked him, “How do you feel?”, he was perplexed. Vulcan’s lived their lives trying to live in a completely logical way without the baggage of feelings and emotions. His mother, Amanda, was a woman from Earth and she explained it to him like this: “Spock, the computer knows that you are my son. Therefore you have feelings because you are partly human and they have to deal with their feelings”. (This dialogue may be a paraphrase since it has been a few years since I watched this movie)

Why do I ask this question or even bring up this science fiction movie in my blog about serving Jesus in our lives? Because it is our feelings at times which cause us real problems. Also, it gets us to notice just how much the unbelieving world is a bit off. Think about it. After we discover or are discovered by “aliens” who are benevolent and helpful since we learned how to go faster than light, we get rid of poverty, war, hunger, etc. Do you really think that mankind is capable of getting that good in just a century after finding out that we aren’t the only people in the universe?

In almost six thousand years, by the reckoning of the Bible and its timeline, most of the world has never been able to get along with each other. We fight over religion, oil, land, race, you name it. There have been very few peaceful years in the world’s history in the past six thousand years or so. Why would a momentous occasion like the one in Star Trek cause us to suddenly just get along? It wouldn’t! The fact is that the creator of this “Utopian future” was a devout evolutionist and an atheist.

Do we allow our feelings and our prejudices to get us into trouble? All of the time! That is why the only way that we can get along is with the Spirit of God living within us and giving us the wisdom of God to navigate through these troubled times. We can’t do it on our own and we won’t do it with “aliens” helping us either. Seek Jesus as your Savior and follow Him because He is your only way to eternity.

Contrary to Spock’s decision about feelings, they are not irrelevant. Feelings are things which we all have to learn to live with. In one way or another they either help us or cause us pain but we have to learn how to live with them. Only a life with Jesus can do so in a positive way.

Where is our help?


As Christians, our help comes from the Lord and the Holy Spirit. But do we always count on them or lean on them for our help or do we try to handle things ourselves until we can’t? Unfortunately, most of us fall into that last group of people whether we are believers or not. We try to do things and handle things on our own and when there seems to be no way for us to get something done…then we will cry out to God for HELP! The problem with this type of attitude and our attempts to do things like a child of two years of age, even when we are old enough to know better, is that sometimes we actually make things worse.

We should seek God’s provision and His help in every endeavor that we try to do, especially when it is something that we are doing for His Kingdom! Everyday life is also where we tend to “do it ourselves”. When you think that you can handle all of your problems without God’s help, that is usually the time when something will come along and make you rethink your thinking.

God created the whole universe! From the largest stars and galaxies down to the atoms of hydrogen which power every star you see. How could you possibly think that you could do better than the Creator? Can you create something from nothing? No but God can. Make sure that He is your Savior and Lord while there is still time in this life to do so because when you have taken your last breath here, you will be in His Presence. The outcome of that meeting depends upon your decision of belief in Jesus as your Savior or not…the choice is yours.

Are you sure?


The prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation both speak of a time when the redeemed of the world will be taken. The book of Thessalonians also speaks of a time like this just as Jesus said in Matthew 24 that two would be in the field and one would be taken and the other left. So are you sure of your salvation and your place in the Kingdom of God? Do you belong to Him truly and completely? One day we will all find out exactly where our heart and our soul belongs because on that day…we will be taken to be with Him forever.

What if it happened this Sunday morning during the church service? Would you be in that number of people who leave their clothes and their shoes and everything which was man-made behind? Even your dentures and your hip replacements and glasses will be left in the pew. So are you sure of your salvation? Be watching for Jesus and expecting His return because it will happen and all of us need to be ready when that day comes.

A new beginning


A new mother and a new Christian have a lot in common. One has given birth to a new life, the other has been given a new life in Christ. The processes are different since one is a physical birth and the other is a spiritual birth but both are new in their beginnings and in their experience.

The new life of the baby is completely dependent upon the mother for its nourishment and care. A new Christian is dependent upon the people around them to learn about their Savior and about being a Christian. Both babies have to be nourished and cared for but in different ways. The new baby, whether it is a girl or a boy, has to be bathed and have their diaper changed often. They have to be fed either at the breast of the mother or by a bottle for a while, but it won’t be long before they will begin eating “baby food”.

The baby Christian needs to be fed as well. Regularly and with much prayer because they need to start off on a good Biblical foundation, preferably in the New Testament as their starting point. Later, they can go into the Old Testament, again with prayer so the Holy Spirit can teach them what is needed from the books of the Law and the prophets and the historical books. All of these are necessary to their growth as a Christian but the Old Testament could be considered the “meat” of God’s Word. Most of the New Testament is much easier to understand for a Christian who is just starting out.

These descriptions are the best comparisons which I can come up with because this happens all over the world. People are coming to know Jesus as their Savior and they need guidance and direction when they are new in their faith. A baby needs many of the same things but in a physical way. When I became a believer, at first I didn’t get the help I needed so I was more like the wet ground which seeds fell on but it was very thin. In Jesus’ parable about the sower, some fell on good ground but it was thin because of rocks being beneath it. The roots didn’t go very deep and when the heat and other factors came together, the sprout withered away.

That is what happened when I first began my life as a “believer”. I did believe but I didn’t get the spiritual help that I needed so my faith shriveled up and my faith went with it for a time. Belief in Jesus does save us but if your new life in Christ isn’t watered with God’s Word and allowed to process what you are learning, your new life can become stale and ineffective. Without nourishment in a believing home and a believing church, your faith can wither and if you don’t get the help you need before your faith dies, it may be a long time before you will come back, if ever.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek out the Word in a Bible study group or church, especially if they are a new Christian because it really did help me when I renewed my faith in Christ many years ago. I suppose I was saved at the first but since there wasn’t real growth in my faith for a long time the Holy Spirit just kept nudging me toward God so that I would learn more about Him so eventually I did and you can too.


We begin our lives as babies, in our physical form as well as in our faith in Jesus. You aren’t born knowing everything, it takes time and effort. Becoming a mature Christian does too. Seek His Word in a church and in your Bible so that you will grow to know Him more.

How much time…


For all of the parents in the world, this is a question that most of us ask when our child or our children are born. The same goes for grandparents. How much time will we have with them? Please, God, give us as much as possible, that was my prayer when my son was born. I don’t want just a year or two or ten and then something happens and he is taken back to heaven. I want him for as much time as possible and I prayed a similar prayer about my marriage before my son was born. But…you know, most of us never know how much time we will have with our family. We don’t even know if we will come home from a grocery trip or from work.

All of us are truly living on God’s timetable. He knows when we were conceived and how many days and hours we will have in our life. Thankfully, He never shares that knowledge with us. I mean, come on, what would you do if you knew exactly when and how you were going to die? I have thought about it but I really don’t want to know! And I doubt that anyone else would like to see the exact date and hour of our passing or of someone in our family. That is information which we look back on later and wish we had known but to know it beforehand? I don’t think anyone would truly relish the idea of knowing that they will live until say July 2, 2019, at 2 am. It would be great for planning the funeral but how would your family feel unless you kept that bit of information to yourself and didn’t tell anyone.

God keeps those secrets hidden from us. Sometimes He may give you a hint just before your death, like a day or two, maybe. I have heard from the family of some people who got these hints. Still, the hints which they got were specific to their life and situation. I do believe that we should attempt to live our lives as a reflection of Jesus as much as possible. Every day seeking to do whatever we think He would do in our situation and trying to be the best reflection of Him. The time which we have is not guaranteed nor do we have a certain number of days or hours to make our life meaningful. Just living our lives as Jesus did and following His example until we are called home to Heaven should be our goal in life.

When you are called to become a child of God through your belief in Jesus the rest of your life is what you will have to do all of His will and His purpose. If you have fifty years or five years or just five months, and thankfully we don’t know about how much time we have, you should begin that day to tell others about Jesus. If you have tomorrow thank Him for it and then use it to the best of your knowledge and ability to get His message to someone, even if it is only ONE person.

If you have another month or another year, and I’m including myself in this, we need to tell as many people about His grace and mercy which is available to all of us for our salvation through Jesus the Christ! He has given us the time and the ability all we should do with it is use it and tell others about Him during the time that we have. Amen

Seek Him and His Presence in your life. Give your life to Jesus and turn away from the sins which kept you from Him. Then teach others to do likewise.

How would you feel…


If God or Jesus walked into your home and sat down to talk with you? I would worship Him and listen to every word He said. I would feel unworthy of His attention and unworthy of His Presence because I am a sinful man. We don’t deserve God’s love or His grace but He gives those to us because He loves us. He chooses to take care of us because He is the embodiment of Love!

Would you enjoy this conversation? Are you worthy of His Presence? No, not one person on Earth is worthy but by giving your life and heart to Jesus then He would consider you worthy.

By acting on the call of God’s Spirit and giving your life to Him, repenting of your sins and asking Jesus to be your Savior and Lord…you are worthy. God is waiting for your answer, won’t you at least seek Him out and follow Him today? Why? Because you may not be here tomorrow. We aren’t guaranteed a certain number of years or months or days and when you do seek Jesus, Satan will try to stop you in any way that he can. Don’t let him. Your eternity hangs in the balance so choose Jesus and be His disciple until that day when He calls us home.

Does God care about me?


This is one of those “duh?” questions but YES, He does care! It is true that we don’t see Him physically or feel His comfort as if He was giving us a hug, but God has always cared about each of us. Even those children who are killed by their mothers because of convenience (the time isn’t right), God takes their Spirits back until there is a mother out there who will raise and love that child (IMO). Do I know for sure that He does this? No, but I do believe that He will hold accountable those who continue to kill their children and those who have done it in the past but have not given their heart to Jesus in repentance of this terrible act.

Okay, off the soapbox.

Does God care what happens in your life? Yes, He does. He created each of us for a specific purpose in His mind. Finding that purpose is sometimes hard to do since we aren’t born knowing Him or even about Him. Some of us take years before we are brought to the point of realizing that we can’t do it all on our own. Sometimes that moment of finding this out leaves a scar or a bruise, physically or spiritually, which we sometimes push back from. Even though we know Who is trying to get our attention we act like children (even when we have a few decades of life behind us) and we try to tell God, “NO, I want to do it my way!”. Then when He lets us do it our way and it fails miserably, we get angry at HIM because it didn’t work that way we wanted it to.

Yes, God cares because He can see the end from the beginning in your life and in all of history. He knows who will listen to Him easily and He knows who will need a bump with a 2×4 on their head in order to get their attention. Somehow, I feel that He has to use more than a little persuasion for most of us in order to get it through our hard heads that He is interested in our well-being. While it is true that when God is in the process of getting our attention it is also for His Kingdom’s benefit, the rewards flow both ways.

We are useful to Him and to His Kingdom but the blessings of our usefulness come back to us even when we can’t see those blessings at times. We may not truly see the rewards of our labors for Christ until we are in Heaven. This is something which most in our world do not care about because those rewards are not physical or real in this life but in the next. Living and breathing in the present is more relevant to our existence and our experience but the rewards of working for God don’t necessarily come in this life.

God numbers the hairs on your head and since He cares enough to know even that bit of information about each of us, don’t you recognize that we are important to Him. We may have to do a bit of searching for our calling in this life but the reward will be so much more than we could experience in this life! Seek Him and His Kingdom and your reward will outweigh anything that you could have now.

Are you frustrated with God?


In our lives we do sometimes feel this way. Why has this happened? Why did my child die in that car crash? Why did my grandchild overdose on opioids? Why did I lose my job? The questions go on and on, but usually without an answer. At least we usually don’t get the answer that we truly want to hear. So we begin by blaming God for all of our troubles or we confront Him and demand an answer while we are ranting at Him in our prayer time!

The fact is that God doesn’t owe you or me any explanation about anything which is happening in our lives. Most of what happens in our lives could be explained as being allowed to happen by God but He doesn’t have to give you a reason or an explanation for whatever may be happening. Is it frustrating for us to have things like this to happen and then we can’t figure out why they happened? Yes, of course it is, but if you have read much of the Bible you will see that people who have faith in God and have placed their faith in His provision for their lives usually have that faith tested in some way. But before destruction comes to them, God will come in and save them to bring them back into fellowship with Himself. God is always on time but it is His time, not our idea of His time.

Many times this testing is allowed, such as the case with Job where Satan was allowed to take everything, including his health, from him just to prove Job’s faith in God. Job didn’t ask for this but since the question was brought up by God because He was proud of Job for being a righteous man, Satan said that Job would cast his faith away if God would remove His protection from him. But Job didn’t lose his faith. In fact by the time the book is over Job’s faith was increased rather than tossed aside.

So should we live in our faith like Job did? We should, but most people who claim to have faith in God would not keep their faith in the same circumstances which Job went through. In today’s world even the church and those who call themselves “Christians” who attend church services have little faith. They would blame God for their troubles and seek to fix their problems on their own and by their own strength. In today’s world they might succeed in paying of their debts and possibly regaining some of their wealth. But if your faith is in yourself and in your job or your business it will not last. God is the only Savior of mankind and it is He Who controls all aspects of life that we take for granted!

Seek and serve the One Savior, Jesus the Christ, because it is only by His grace and your repentance from your sinful ways, believing in Him for your salvation that you will see Him face to face in Heaven. He is the Door and the Good Shepherd and only through Him will we find peace and salvation for eternity. We cannot add any amount of worth to our salvation by the works which we do because He has already paid the price for each of us, the full price. All that we have to do is accept it as a graceful gift from God, believe in Jesus as our Savior and turn away from out old way of life to live in His Newness of Life through Him! Amen

We are ambassadors for Christ


Many people who claim to be Christians are not pastors or teachers or serving overseas as missionaries. They are just members of their respective churches. But…we are called to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ wherever we may be. At work, at home, at school, at the mall or at a restaurant eating out, if someone sees you blessing your food or any other action which might identify you as a Christian, then you should represent Christ in whatever capacity you can.

When we are called by God’s Holy Spirit to repent of our old ways and follow Jesus, we are also called into His ministry. This is not optional, it’s just part of being a follower of Jesus. The disciples knew it and everyone who knew them also knew that they were His followers. It is a ministry which doesn’t have a retirement date until you meet Him upon your death.

Does Jesus require us to do this for our salvation? No, it is not a requirement because He did all that was needed for you to be saved. It is up to you to accept the gift of salvation and atonement from Him when you feel the need for giving your life to Him. The Holy Spirit convicts you of your need but it is your responsibility to accept it and ask Him to come into your heart and change you into the person that He knows you can be. His ambassador wherever you go or whatever you do. That is your calling after you have accepted Him and truly given your life over to Him.

Salvation is not a sometimes thing and it isn’t something that you can choose to use when you need a blessing from God and then turn it off. True salvation is a change in your heart and soul because you KNOW that you need Him to change you into that person that He already knew about but you didn’t want to until the Holy Spirit convicted your Spirit of it through faith and by your accepting His Grace for your new life in Him. We are not born into the family of God, we are invited to join by God’s Spirit which convicts us of our need for Him.

Eternity is waiting for each of us and there are two different places where we will spend it. Heaven for those who give their lives and their hearts to Jesus and live a life of service and grace through faith in Him. The hell of separation from God’s Presence with the demons and Satan because you refused His grace and the salvation that only He can bring into your life. When we hear a message about salvation at church or a revival meeting and we don’t know Jesus yet, it is our responsibility to either accept it as the wonderful gift that it is or to reject it and go about our life as if we have all the time in the world. But nobody has that luxury.