Your future…

Have you ever thought about your future? I mean in eternity, not next week or next month. We are not guaranteed tomorrow or next week or next month but eternity for your soul is guaranteed. In either hell or heaven with God. It doesn’t matter whether you believe that there is an eternity ahead of you or even whether you believe that God is our Creator…eternity is still in your future.

Our works or our belief of God’s Word, whether it is true or not, has no bearing upon your eternal home. Just as your belief in gravity has no effect on its effect on you, whether you believe in God or not does not erase His Presence in your life and in your eternal home. While it is true that you must believe in Jesus for your salvation and repent of your sins there is no way that your lack of belief will get rid of the punishment if you don’t believe in Him!

God loves His creation and we are all His creation but if you choose to do things your way and live the way that you think is right for you and you choose to walk on your own pathway…God will let you do that too. Why? Because it is your choice to believe and be saved through Jesus Christ! God will not force you and you do have that choice but what will your eternity be like if you do live apart from Him? You don’t have control over eternity. You can’t raise yourself up from the grave. You are not god.

Why did I add that last sentence? Because there are some who actually believe that they are or will be a god. The operative word in that is “a”, you will not be God. He doesn’t share His throne with anyone besides the Trinity of Himself, the Son and the Holy Spirit because when one of Them is on the throne ALL of them are there! God loves you and the Creation which He has given us and He will raise you up on the last day. If you are a Christian, you will be with Him forever in Heaven but if you never accepted Jesus as your Savior you will be shown all of the times when you had a chance to accept Him and you did not! Then you will be sent to hell.

Being saved is not a choice that you make it is a calling from God Himself. He touches your soul and convicts you of your sinful life and when you feel it and know it then you seek out the only One Who can save your soul and heal that wound. There are no amount of works or money which will bring you into heaven because without Jesus as your Savior, you will be going to Hell. There are no gray areas or holding cells for those who haven’t made up their minds yet. You either are saved or you are not.

He is risen indeed!

The day after the Sabbath the women went to the tomb in order to anoint Jesus’ body with spices and oils to complete His burial ritual. But when they got there, the stone was rolled away from the tomb and the burial cloths were on the stone bier but His body was not.

We owe our salvation to the work which Jesus did and our eternity is assured because of His resurrection. What more needs to be said except that you need Him as your Savior? God loves you and has provided a way for you to live in eternity with Him but only if you accept His offer through Jesus. Just like the thief on the cross, you have to believe in Who Jesus is and ask Him to come into your life. Repent of your old life and walk in the newness of a redeemed life through Jesus Christ.

Separate, but why?

Separate? Why?

There are two camps in the world today. One is on the side of religion and the other doesn’t believe in any intelligent design or god. Granted, there is a fairly large gray area between those two and that is where many people have their ideas about who God is or who He is not or even whether there is a God at all. The limit of this could be shown by two mountain ranges and a deep valley between them. Our Savior didn’t teach this separation of beliefs so why did it come about?

With time stretching out since the crucifixion of our Lord and His promise to return, mankind has gotten some pretty “out there” ideas about how to serve Him or not. So, in truth, it is our ideas and our desires which have caused all of the divisions between believers and non-believers. Then there are divisions even in churches and denominations also caused by us.

The message of salvation is still the same as it was, to begin with. Believe in Jesus, ask Him into your heart, repent of your “old way of doing things” and follow Him.

Truthfully, believing is the biggest part of accepting Jesus as your Savior. Just think about the day that Jesus was crucified. One of the thieves believed in Jesus as the Savior and asked if He would remember him when He came into His Kingdom. What did Jesus tell him? “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise”.

We are not meant to be separate from God or in our belief about Him and our salvation, so what happened? In the past two thousand years, it has been our ideas and our desires to do things our way instead of truly following Jesus. We have tended toward the belief that “we know better” in our religious practices. Really? How could you possibly know better or more than God our Creator? He placed all of the stars in their galaxies and in the orbits where they are. He formed each of us in our mother’s womb and He knows you better than you know yourself. All of the universal laws and constants were put in place by God so how can we think that we are smarter than He is?

While it is true that many other religions are in the world and have been for thousands of years, God is still in charge of everything. Like it or not, He is the Creator and it is to Him that you will give an account of your life and your decision about your salvation. If you accepted Jesus as your Savior during this life, then it will be to Him that you will account for what you did with your salvation. Did you tell anyone about your Savior and what He did for you? Did you live your life as He would have so that others might see Him through your life?

Many things that we should do in our lives and being a disciple of and an evangelist in some way during our life as followers of Jesus Christ is the least we can do. I pray that many of you who read this will give Jesus a chance to be your Savior.

The night before…

Regardless of which day you believe that Jesus was crucified, the night before was His worst. It started out good with the meal with His disciples but then as the hours passed, He knew the time was getting closer. The time in the Garden of Gethsemane stressed Jesus to the point of sweating blood while He was praying. I mean, come on, sweating blood! You know that had to be some serious stress!

No, I’m not being trite with this. Jesus’ human side was truly scared and wishing, even praying that He didn’t have to go through with this. But, He did and He did it for you and for me and everyone else in this world. Why? Because His sacrifice and death on the cross was necessary to pay for ALL of our sins. He was the only man who could do this. Not the Pope nor any other religious figure in the past could pay for our sins because none of them could live a sinless life.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That is Who Jesus was and who He still is. So why do people have so much angst over His name? Is it because He claimed and proved that He is the Son of God? Maybe. His suffering was prophesied many years before He was even born and yet the prophecies all were fulfilled in His Life and His death on the cross and by His resurrection after three days. Regardless of how you calculate His death and the feast which was taking place, He still fulfilled the prophecies about Himself. No mere man could do that!

Jesus, Yeshua, the Son of Man and the Son of God is the only man who could be the Savior of the world and the only begotten Son of God! If this bothers you enough that you never want to read this again…then don’t. Walk away from His Spirit which is touching your heart and letting you know that you need Him as your Savior. It will be the worst mistake of your life if you do. Why do I say that? Because you have no idea if you will ever have the chance to give your heart to Him and ask Him into your life. We are not given a guarantee of a certain number of years on this planet. You or I may die tonight before the sunrises tomorrow.

Don’t turn away from His call in your life because that is a call you don’t want to miss. It is like a call from a “lottery” about a number that could make you rich, it will likely come only once in a lifetime. Don’t pass it up. Giving your heart to Jesus is more valuable than any amount of money you could win because in eternity the money you have here is worthless. Please, don’t turn away from Jesus.

Jesus gave His Life so that you could have eternity.

No one is an accident…

We are not accidents

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, a God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them, my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

God doesn’t cause accidents in His creation and each of us is a person that He caused to come into being for a reason. He has a purpose for you and for me and for all of those on the Earth. What that purpose is only He knows. He has given each of us gifts and abilities to be able to glorify Him and to be useful to Him in His Kingdom. So we need to start acting like we have a place in His Kingdom. If you don’t want to have a place in His Kingdom, that is fine. He doesn’t force anyone to be a part of His design and His will for His creation. Our God and Savior is the only pathway to Heaven, there is no other. Seek Him while you can find Him because when the shout comes and the dead are raised incorruptible and the church rises to meet Him, the easy time of coming to Jesus will be over. The time of “Jacob’s trouble” will be upon the world and giving your heart to Jesus will carry a death sentence soon after. I pray that all of you will be counted among those who rise to meet Him in the air. Amen

Jesus is the only Messiah!

John wrote this in the first chapter of his gospel:

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.

Jesus is the only Way to get into Heaven. He is the Door of the Sheepfold. He is the Commander of the Lord’s army. The names of Jesus are listed in many verses of the Bible but the one name which John was writing about is “The Living Word”. Jesus is that and more but let’s concentrate on that for a few minutes.

The Living Word of God is the Creator and our Savior, it is only through Him and belief in His atonement for you and me and for our sins that we can enter into Heaven and it’s glorious vista one day. There is no other religion or cult or opinion which will gain you or your family access to God’s Heavenly Home. It doesn’t matter what you have done in this life, good or bad, but the decision to give your life to Jesus and to repent (walk away from the sinful life which you were living) is the only way to be granted access to Heaven.

There is no other name under Heaven by which man can be saved. Your eternal life is before you and whether you make that decision in this life or not determines where your eternity will be. Accepting Jesus as your Savior when you feel the conviction of the Spirit brings you into Heaven, rejecting or refusing to accept Jesus will give you an eternity in hell.

God is…

Oh that I could adequately fill this writing with all of the descriptions and attributes of God. He is described as All Powerful and Knowing. He is the Creator of everything. He is Love and the Finisher of All that is. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Lover of our souls and the Pillar of Fire and Cloud. He was the Burning bush and the Finger that wrote the Commandments. God is.

There are so many descriptions of His awesome power and His gentle love for His Creation until it is hard to write this. God loves us and all of His creation not because of His needs but because of His Glory which comes through when we see His creation for His Glory.

Your life and mine bring glory to God when we acknowledge that He is and always has been in control. Your life and your accomplishments are possible because of His blessings in your life and they are not because of your own power but because of His grace toward you as well. God is much more than our Savior and our Creator but until we give Him the honor and the glory that He deserves many of us just consider Him as being the Intelligence behind evolution or the creation and nothing more.

He is much more than I can describe in a short article here. A better description of Him is found in His Word, the Bible. All of His attributes and His power are demonstrated in the Word and will be even more evident when the time of Tribulation comes upon the world soon. I pray that many of you who still question God and His power will seek Him out as your Savior before that time of testing and wrath comes upon the world because even though it won’t last but seven years it will be hell on Earth.

Our condition doesn’t change

Of all of the preachers and evangelists that I have read their sermons or their books, it seems that the spiritual condition of humanity hasn’t really changed much. When I read something like “Pilgrim’s Progress” there were still many in the world who were content in their own sins and felt that they had no need to seek Jesus or a Savior. Then there are the sermons of Jonathan Edwards in the 1700’s and he is speaking of a world full of sin and strife against all that is holy. The same can be said for the prince of preachers, C.H. Spurgeon. He talked and preached to a crowd sometimes in excess of three thousand people and yet he spoke of sins which we hear about today.

Sins have not changed over the years between the time when Jesus walked in Galilee and today. The sinners have changed and the severity of the sins have changed but the sins have not. We have newer ways to sin if you consider those committed on the Internet today. There is a whole generation of people who have not grown up in the church and who don’t know any of the stories from God’s Word. Even if they did know some of the stories they would likely think they were made up or fairy tales rather than the inspired Word of God.

Even life on Earth hasn’t really changed that much, except in the last century or so. Until the 1900’s most people got around by horse and buggy or by their own horse or by carriage. Then the car was invented and the airplane and so much more. In the last one hundred years there have been many advances in so many areas of our life.

Seek out your Savior while there is time to do so because He loved you enough to die for your sins so you wouldn’t have to.

**He does love you this much, don’t turn away from Him.**

What can I do to have eternal life?

In the sentence above is one mistake which many people cling to and never realize that they are wrong in doing so. The word “I” has no place in this sentence. There is nothing that we can do which will bring us into eternity with Jesus. Only by giving your life and your heart to Him and asking for His forgiveness of your sins can you obtain eternal Life. “The soul which sins will die” is a promise in God’s Word, not a suggestion.

But, the death that this soul which sins will endure is not an instant, one-time death. It is an eternal separation from God and His Life in heaven. So, in effect we are all immortal it just depends upon your choices in this life whether you will truly live into eternity or endure suffering and pain for eternity by being separated from the Author of Life, which is Jesus our Savior.

If it were possible for us to contribute anything to attaining or grasping eternal life then why did Jesus have to die? If we could do it and be successful at it, by being righteous and holy in everything that we do in our lives, He didn’t have to die on the cross and be raised on the third day. But we cannot be perfectly righteous and holy in our life.

Our holiness comes through striving to be more like Christ and not being like the person we were before our relationship with Him. That is what “taking up your cross” means. Put down your old way of life and turn away from it and follow Jesus Christ every day because only by doing this can you begin to understand His wisdom and His Word. If you are wondering how this is possible if we can’t do it ourselves, it is because of the Holy Spirit’s conviction which brings you to the place where you know you need Jesus. Then the Spirit changes your heart to be a little bit more like Him each day when you read the Bible and study it with prayer.

Prior to my acceptance of Jesus as my Savior I couldn’t understand the message in the Bible whether it was in the Old Testament or the New Testament. It just seemed to be stories and history of a people that I had heard about in movies. God’s Spirit does have a way of teaching us even when we don’t know we are being taught. The title of this article is the same question which the rich young ruler asked Jesus but when he learned that he should give up his wealth…he turned away.

Money and fame can lead many people away from the message of salvation simply because with both of those we don’t feel the need for God in our lives unless a true tragedy happens to us. Even then some people will blame God for it rather than turn to Him for their comfort and healing. I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Jesus out as their Savior before the church is taken up one day soon.

The world will change…

When the Tribulation is over and Jesus comes to set up His Kingdom on Earth everything will change. There will be no more crime or war or drugs or any of the bad stuff we hear on the news today. It sounds like a wonderful place doesn’t it? It will be for those who believe in Him and live during this time, even those who have died and gone to Heaven will return to reign with Him. Those believers who have managed to come to faith in Him during the Tribulation and live through it will spend the next one thousand years working with those who need to know and believe in Jesus.

It is hard to believe that there will be people living during that time, with Jesus ruling the world, who will not give their heart to Him and believe in Him for their salvation. But there will be many, so many in fact that Satan will have an army at the end of that time which is larger than any army on Earth now or ever! Yes, the book of Revelation is real and it is the Word of God so it is True and will come about in the future. You can choose to believe God and His Word or not but since God doesn’t lie, I would suggest that you believe His Word!

Why am I bringing this subject up? Because there is no way to know when Jesus will come for His church and when He does the whole world will become much worse than it is right now. He could come tonight or tomorrow or next week or next year but the point is that we don’t know the hour or day. If you aren’t ready when He does call for His Bride then you will be here when the Anti-Christ takes over the world. For a few years his rule will be tolerable but it will get much worse before the seven years are done. I pray that all who read this will be ready when Jesus calls for His church (those who have believed in Him for their salvation).

I pray that many will come to know Him as their Savior before that time comes so I can meet all of you in Heaven one day. Seek Him for your salvation and your soul.