Category: Abide in Him

Time will tell


Old and new, wrecked and fixed, upgraded and better than it was.

What do you mean by that?

Long story shortened, it has to do with our car and each of us as well. It wasn’t really old, a 2016 model we bought in ’15, now it looks new again. It was wrecked a few weeks ago, now it is fixed. As far as the “upgraded and better” part, that doesn’t apply to the car exactly. It does, however, apply to more than one thing in our lives I suppose. I am building a new computer, kinda, using someone’s old hard drive so it is going to be upgraded and better than it was.

The other part of that is that when we come to know Jesus and He lives in our hearts, we become upgraded and better than we were before. We have our hearts (our soul really) cleaned up and given a shiny brand-new outside and we are changed from the inside out. Gradually, as we study the Bible to learn more about God and Jesus and what we are expected to do with this new life, we become more like Jesus.

It isn’t an immediate transformation and sometimes old habits and patterns in our lives linger on. Some for longer than we would like. But, eventually, if we are diligent with our Bible study, we will become more like Jesus. Granted, we can’t walk on water or calm a storm like He could, but we will know what grieved His heart about us and others in our world. We will begin, like baby steps, to understand what righteous anger and indignation means. We will also learn to take those problems to God and leave them there.

Some people may say that “living like that is a cop-out”, but it isn’t. It is harder to pray about something which is wrong, whether it is a wrong done to us or our family, and then leave the problem in God’s hands. Because you know just as well as I do that humans want to fix things ourselves. We usually make the problem worse and then we really have some serious praying and soul-searching to do.

No, being transformed into the likeness of Jesus is not an instant or overnight process…it takes time. It is true that His Spirit comes into your heart when you ask Him to come, but the change is usually hampered by our nature. What you did prior to realizing that you needed Jesus in your heart, that part of you still fights with your new Spirit and causes your old habits and desires to cause you to stumble in your walk with Jesus.

This one thing, which many preachers don’t talk about, causes many people to give up and turn back to their old life and their sinful lives, even after giving their life to Jesus. These are the ones which Jesus was speaking about when He told the parable about the thorns and the cares of the world. “Lacking a root, the seed sprung up but quickly withered away“; being a Christian is not an immediate change nor is it complete at the beginning. You and I won’t be complete in our transformation until we stand with Him in heaven, but with study and prayer in God’s Word we can strive to be more like Him while we are still in our bodies.

Seek Him to become an upgraded and better vessel for His Spirit and strive to be more like Him as much as it is possible to do. Seek Him so that your ministry will be better than mine or others so that He can say to you, “Well done, my faithful servant”.

Are you full?


Are your bills paid? Is your house paid for possibly? Don’t be so proud of what you have that you miss what you need to hear from God! 

What do you mean, “what I need to hear?” I am rich, I don’t need anything!

These are the words and the thoughts which enter the minds of those who don’t have any worldly worries. The problem with this thinking is that they haven’t heard what God has been saying to them. That is what they need to hear. It is what many of us need to hear, regardless of which church we may go to or how much study we attempt to do in the Bible, if any at all!

YES, God is still speaking from His Word, through His preachers and teachers in the different churches and online too. God speaks in the sunrise each day and in all of the daily miracles which happen but we don’t notice them. The clouds, the wind, the air that we breathe are all gifts from Him. God expresses His love for us in all of these ways.

So, why do we ignore them? Because most of them, if not all of them, happen every day and they are commonplace to us. We don’t notice because there is no urgency to it and no uniqueness to each of these things, yet God gives them to us and to the whole Earth each day.

themissingpieceIs it so hard to believe that the Bible is true? Is it beyond our understanding that God is the Creator that the Bible says HE is? I don’t think that it is any harder to believe that God is our Creator than it is to believe that all of life on Earth, from bacteria to blue whales, came from a puddle of protein! Truly, I don’t believe anything about evolution because building from nothing to the most complex of life is so far-fetched that it is impossible!

God designed our world and each life…each person in this world for the purpose of fellowship with Himself. Then He provided the way of blotting out the sins of those who would believe in Jesus by His death on the cross. God loves the drug addict and the pusher and the hooker and the pimp and He loves them just as much as He loves you or me or anyone else on Earth!

All we need to do is listen to His Word and see Him in our world and in our life. Believe in Him and the Son which He sent to take the punishment for your sins, regardless of how long your list might be. To God Who is Perfect and Holy, stealing a paper clip is just as bad as killing thousands of people, even if it was in the name of some “religion”! The love of God transcends time and space and fills our souls with joy that we can’t contain when we finally realize His Truth. From that point on, we are slaves of His majesty and we should tell as many people as we possibly can about our Savior Who gave His life for me and you and every other person, good or bad or fat or mean.

Will all of us be saved? No. Because, not everyone will listen and hear with their Spiritual ears and accept His Son as the sacrifice which paid it all for them. Some will hear this message or one like it and say that it can’t be as simple as believing in Jesus and just walk away from the offer of eternity.

So…are you full of….joy? Happiness? joySorrow? Fear? Anger? Loneliness? Is it something else which controls your days and nights? Alcohol or drugs or maybe sex? The problem is that most of these are what we try to fill up on when we find that there is an empty place inside, but we don’t know what to put there. It isn’t a what….its Jesus. This picture shows the very essence of the joy that we can feel because our Savior gave Himself for us so that we can know Him from this moment into eternity…if we will accept Him.

What do you need?


In truth that is the WRONG QUESTION!! It is not what do you need or how much money do you need, but Who do you need? Is it that hard to understand? It is Jesus the Christ that our world needs! Every country, every individual, NEEDS Jesus in their life! Why do they not know about Him as their Savior? It is because of us.

Americans claim to be Christians but our society and the culture,which every other country sees evidence of in the news, does not show that our country and our people truly are Christians!

It is because of our collective claim of being Christian but it has a faulty proof.

We have come to think or believe that just because we are born into a family which goes to church that we are Christians. Some think that because they have attended church most or all of their lives, they are Christians. Christianity does not come to each of us because of osmosis or proximity. Each of us is called by God through interaction with the Holy Spirit and by faith as well.

The person and nature of Jesus is the One that came to save us and He put His nature as God the Son aside to do this. That is something that we don’t understand because our needs or rather our wants are not centered around being disciples of Jesus, which is what we are actually called to do.

Although, in being disciples we are supposed to be more like Jesus too. What do I mean by that? I mean that we are supposed to tell others about Jesus at work, in Walmart, on the street if the opportunity presents itself. In other words, we are supposed to take Jesus with us and be His witness to every person that we meet. If we don’t know them, then we should get to know them.

I don’t mean to be pushy about it and don’t act like a street preacher yelling at people, but if or when the opportunity arises then tell them what Jesus did for you. God sent Jesus to all people and when Jesus told His disciples to go into all of the world and preach the gospel, He meant ALL OF THE WORLD! Good places and places you might not feel comfortable with, but if you take another believer with you then Jesus is there in the midst of it with you too!

Life places us in places where we are comfortable and uncomfortable, when it does then tell anyone who might listen about your Lord and Savior. If it is at work or school or wherever it might be, then make sure that Jesus is there with you. If you aren’t carrying Him out of the church, then what good is your faith and your Christianity doing in this world?

What He did not do


I wrote that as a statement and not as a question because it is something which, I believe, we have not really considered before. Jesus told His disciples that “I and the Father are One”

Jesus is as much God as He is God’s Son, so why did He suffer the things that He did? He could have caused the heat to be not so hot. He could have brought rain during His time in the desert. He could have done many things to prove His place as the Messiah, but He didn’t…why?

romans_5__8_by_israel42-d4r02q5Because He knew that the Jews would reject Him before HE came. He knew that they would crucify Him and He knew the one who betrayed Him and He could’ve stopped it all…but He didn’t. Why?

The spear that pierced His side, rent the flesh like the curtain in the Temple yet it was covered with water and blood. The cleansing blood of the only sinless sacrifice which could take the sins of the entire world, not just those living but ALL of those who had ever or would ever live…and make them spotless if they would believe in Him. Why?

There are many, many things which Jesus could have done during His lifetime to prove that HE was and is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God…but He didn’t do many things. He did heal some people and He fed many more with very little, it seemed, He calmed a storm and chased demons from people’s minds and bodies. He did all of these things, yet He allowed His creation to imprison Him in flesh and bone. He allowed them to scourge Him with whips and hang Him on a tree as a common criminal, yet HE had done nothing except to take the sins of mankind on Himself. Why?

The reason for the questions here is not so hard to come by if you read God’s Word for what it is. A story of love.

As John wrote is the verses which we know so well: “16For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.… John 3:16,17

It was because of God’s love for all of us, not just the Jews, that He sent Jesus to us to live, to teach and preach and heal during His ministry and to die for our sins and rise again so that we might live with Him one day in eternity. That is why Jesus did the things that He did and chose not to do those things which would get in the way of His mission for us.

Will the world end this week?


theworldendsI heard that someone has predicted that it will. I would like to know where these people get their information from. The Bible foretells of the end of the world and yes, there are many things happening right now that seem to point in that direction. BUT…until you see the church taken out of the world or see Jesus coming in the clouds with the host of Heaven, I don’t think that our world will end. Especially not when someone says that it will on a certain day. Humanity is not given that information in the Bible or anywhere else.

So what are we supposed to do? First, don’t worry about it. If the world ends, there isn’t anything that we can do to stop it. If the church is taken up to Heaven, that is God’s decision and there is still nothing which will change that.

The most useful outcome of this would be if people really began to read and study their Bibles to find out if there is an end coming because it is, just not this weekend. God has given us, humanity, nearly two thousand years to learn that we need Him and to give our lives to Him. In may opinion He has been very patient with us when we have been doing some things which would provoke any human to just kill everyone!

Thankfully, God is not like us. He loves each of us with our faults and our fears and our tears. He doesn’t care how much money we have or how big our house is, but He does want us to give our lives to Him and to tell others about Jesus! If you are looking for your calling or your purpose in life, that is it as far as God is concerned. Study His Word, learn as much as you can about Him and His Son, pray about your problems, your fears and your joys in this life because He is the One Who supplies all of our needs and our ability to live in this world!

In the news it seems that more people want to cause chaos and destruction in the world. For what reason, I don’t know. Maybe their idea is if the world is on fire, a Savior will come to fix things. Maybe the rest of the population will decide to follow their god or their ideology so that there will be “peace”. Honestly, a peaceful world doesn’t get that way by killing and burning everything in sight! At least, that doesn’t sound like a way to bring about peace  to me!

Seek peace in the Word of God and learn from its wisdom because mankind’s wisdom is foolish to the rest of the world and peace does come through God alone.

Prayer for help in time of trouble


Psalm 13

How Long, O Lord?

{To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.}

(Habakkuk 1:1-4)

1 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

3Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

4Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

6I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

When David was being chased by Saul and having to hide in caves and in the desert, he asked God “How long, O Lord?” Sometimes, when we are going through troubles and hardships it is the same feeling. How long, Lord? How much longer will I have to go through this?

It seems at times that God isn’t listening, but He is. He is just trying to teach you something or show you how strong you are as long as you and I depend upon Him in our weakness. If we try to do things on our own or make it through the tough times without leaning on Him, those tough times may last longer than they would have otherwise.

God’s not angry with us exactly. He doesn’t like the way that we are treating each other and ignoring Him. God loves us. Yet, we don’t care about His Son’s sacrifice nor does much of the world even acknowledge that He is God. He watches over our world and keeps everything going the way it should regarding our life-giving planet.

Satan is the prince of the air here on Earth because Adam gave it to him by disobeying God. Much of the destruction and hatred that we experience is because of Satan and his minions causing havoc all over the world. Not because it is fun but because they are trying to keep as many people from becoming Christians as they possibly can, in order to cause God pain.

Lean on Jesus in your hard times and don’t turn away from Him. Life is too short to be on the wrong side at the end, don’t you think?

Laugh a little


As much as the news bombards us with things which bring us down, it is good to find something to laugh about. Just as David danced and praised the Lord as they brought the Ark into Jerusalem, we should laugh and find joy in our days. I know it isn’t easy to do at times, with all of the news being confusing and bad, in ways that make you want to give up. Find little joys in your day like seeing a child having fun or a bird flying and living its life the way God intended. Seek out joy and it will find you.

Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Life is too short to live with a sour face and a spirit which says to others “Leave me alone in my pain and sorrow!”. Children in happy homes find all sorts of imaginative things to do and be happy about. Unfortunately when we get older and have too many responsibilities, we lose that joy and wonder mostly because we don’t have time for it. Live…because you are designed for life and God gives you each day to enjoy every minute!

Lightning Storm Over City LightsLook at the stars, watch and sunrise or sunset and see the beauty of it, if you can watch a storm from a distance and see the dance of the electrical storm and the power in it. Above all…know that God loves you and has provided everything that you need in this life as a practice run for eternity! Run your race reaching for that goal of seeing your Savior and the reward of eternity after this life is finished!

Do you preach?


Actually, I do. I was called to be a preacher about seven years ago, and this unique part of the Christian religion is imperative for all of us who believe. Each of us was also given a command to go into the world and tell others about what Jesus has done for you. In this instance preaching and telling about your salvation sound very much alike, but they are different. In many ways they are very different.

Consider this: Jesus came to his disciples teaching and preaching the Word of God. Sometimes He did it with parables, then sometimes He used examples from Scripture. Then at other times, He healed people in ways which couldn’t be explained except by the acceptance that He was and is the Savior, our Messiah, the One Who was to come and save not only Israel but the whole world!

preach-the-wordTelling others about your salvation and what Jesus saved you from is a good thing and we are commanded to tell others when they ask us about our joy in Christ. Preaching is telling others about the good news of Jesus and why He came to save us from our sins and our sinful nature. To change us from the inside out and make us become more like Him in our nature and in our lives. To do the things which He would do if He was here. That is why He came, that is why I preach even when I am just writing it down like I am here!

God loves each of us in a way that we cannot understand because He has loved us from the beginning and even before. We are loved by our Creator even if we don’t return that love and that is what makes it hard for us to grasp. To our human mind, that kind of love doesn’t make sense. But, if you look at the first few days of Creation in Genesis, those days don’t make sense either. God said “Let there be Light!” and there was. He didn’t fashion a star, like our Sun, to make that Light on the first day but Light was there!

All of the other days in that first week of Creation, He commanded the fish in the sea and the birds of the air to come forth and they did! He called forth the plants and trees and all kinds of animals and creeping things and they were there! Then the only creature which God made with His hands was mankind. We were not called forth out of the mud, God fashioned Adam from the dirt and breathed the Breath of Life into him and he became a living soul! If God didn’t love us, why would He get His hands dirty while making us?

Because He is God! He could’ve called forth man from the mud and made male and female like He did everything else…but He did not! Man is special to God and in the grand scheme of things, His plans for us include being fruitful and being married. He also wants us to live to please Him and to worship Him. He doesn’t need us, but He wants us to need Him. God is a Triune being and He and the Son and the Holy Spirit are capable of being and doing anything necessary for the universe to keep going and to create whatever they wish.

Life is a gift from God and every good thing which we have is a gift from Him, even before we come to realize that we need Him. If you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked Him into your life I pray that you will do so soon. Our world is dangerously close to the edge of history which Jesus told John about almost two thousand years ago. Read the book of Revelation and see if some of its warnings don’t sound like the news today. Read Matthew 24 along with the news and see if that doesn’t sound eerily similar. It sounds that way because it is prophecy coming true in our time.

How much more will it take?


In the news, online and on TV or cable, we are hearing about so much violence in our world. There are shooters and suicides, bombs and bombers, stabbings, wars and skirmishes and “actions”. When will all of this come to an end? Will it ever come to an end? I have noticed the news for at least fifty of my fifty-six years and the Vietnam war was going on when I was six. A few years later Martin Luther King was also murdered in 1968 and then Robert Kennedy was assassinated by a white man. There was violence and riots and all sorts of protests going on, about the war and about the murders of those two great men.

So much violence and hate seems to be in our culture today. Not just in America but around the world. Fighting about religion or someone’s right to be what they want to be even if it isn’t natural. All kinds of vile words being spewed online through social media sites, causing some people to take their own lives because of “cyberbullying”. How much more can our culture, our nation or even the world itself take?

Is there no way to bring peace to the world?

Yes, there is but it will take turning to God and repenting of our sinful ways and lives. Is it possible today? I’m not so sure actually. There doesn’t seem to be enough people who are interested in saving their lives into eternity, let alone believing in Jesus! The only way to bring peace to the world would be for most of the population of the world to become Christians. Of course then we would start arguing about which doctrine to follow. Likely this would even set off some wars and killings as well, so even that wouldn’t work without the Lord returning to rule for 1,000 years!

ourlovingsavior

Fear, what does it mean to you?


I read this recently and it does make sense, if you look at it the way the definitions are worded.

Fear has two meanings:

Forget Everything And Run  or

Face Everything And Rise

Which would you prefer? We all have a fear of something, it just depends on how deep that fear is regarding how we will react to it. The circumstances also come into play as well because as you get older your fears change. Some will cause less panic than they did when you were young. Some will cause more panic when they confront you as you get older.

Don’t be afraid of things which you have no control over, such as a hurricane or a tornado. God has your future mapped out perfectly and He knows exactly how and when you will die and where you will be tomorrow. His angels will guard you in every step that your life takes you through no matter what you have to face. You are never alone when you have Jesus as your Savior!

But what if you don’t have Jesus in your heart? What do you do then? If you don’t know or you’re not sure about your salvation, then I would say you need to turn to Jesus for your salvation very soon. Why? Because, He is coming back soon and you don’t want to be caught in the camp of the enemy when He does. If you are, then you will find out what FEAR really means!

God loves each of us and He doesn’t want us to be left here during the time of His wrath on Earth, so the simple solution is…don’t be! Give your heart and soul to Jesus today so that you will be caught up with the church when He returns. Seek Him out and get to know Jesus while you have the time because you don’t know when your time is up!

Bible verses about salvation

The classic hymn Amazing Grace says “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me”. In this post you can read a couple of Bible verses about salvation.

For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us:
‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
so that all the world may be saved.’ (Acts 13:47)

I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
(Psalm 62:1)

Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10)

Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us. (Acts 4:12)

I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life. I am telling you the truth: the time is coming—the time has already come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life. And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man. (John 5:24-27)

He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but now it has been revealed to us through the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus. He has ended the power of death and through the gospel has revealed immortal life. (2 Timothy 1:9-10)

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. (John 3:16-17)