Category: Abide in Him

Acts of kindness


No matter how small they may be or what they may cost, any act of kindness is a blessing. If the world could experience more real acts of kindness, especially in places where even the smallest act of kindness would mean a lot… it could mean living just one more day for a child and we could change the world!

But…what do we see today? Murder, bombings, shootings, suicide bombings killing twenty or more people, wars, famine, diseases…can we do any act of kindnesses to help with these?

Other than prayer, I am not sure what can be done until Jesus comes back.

You hear about these in the news and on social media about “random acts of kindness”, but why do they have to be random? Do we as people, who were created in the image of God, have to be kind on a random basis? I think we could be kind and caring to each other on a regular basis, if we had the Holy Spirit living in our hearts and we were truly living the way that Jesus told us to be!

I know, it is corny and a pathetic way of being in our world today, but why do we have to hate each other so much? Can’t we show the love of God to others like Jesus did? You know, love isn’t deadly and it won’t cause cancer, as a matter of fact love and laughter makes most healing processes move along faster.

Life comes from God through His love for all of His Creation. Every being on this planet was created with a purpose, many of the more disgusting ones we don’t know their purpose but God knows why He created them. He is still creating because every year science finds some new creature which has never been discovered before. Some of these live in places where we thought that there was no way for life to be, yet it is.

It is likely that the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have some form of life. I don’t know if we would recognize it as life if we saw it. But I feel sure that God didn’t put those moons and planets out there just to look pretty and make us wonder about the universe that we live in.

God’s act of kindness toward us is this: we are still here. He shows His grace toward us every day that we are alive and we have another day to live for Him. If we aren’t, then we should be. When your life is over, do you think that you are good enough or righteous enough to merit stepping through the gates of Heaven? God’s grace toward each of us is His kindness and love allowing us enough time to hear His voice and to understand that each of us NEEDS Jesus in our heart and in our life!

It doesn’t matter if you have had ten years, twenty or fifty or even one hundred years on this Earth. If you have lived here and have heard His Word preached or read the Bible, then you know about His love for you. All He is asking for you to do is to return some of your love to Him by following Him and doing His will in your daily walk with Him. It doesn’t cost you anything, but in return you will have eternity with Him to do even more!

Quiet time with God


Have you ever thought about having real, honest, quiet time alone with you and God and His Word. No distractions, no television or radio, no children or pets or spouses to interrupt your time with the Father and your Creator! Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Jesus made sure that He did this regularly during His ministry.

The Leper’s Prayer
(Leviticus 14:1-32; Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45)

12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. 14 And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Jesus did this not because He had to, but because when He communed with His Father, He would be told what to do and where to go next. He would also, very likely be refreshed through the Spirit and His time with His Father. Just as we can be, if we make this a part of our life every day. Prayer and reading God’s Word can be a refreshing time, especially if it is done on a daily basis and in a solitary place.

God walked with Adam in the garden, Jesus prayed and sought the Father’s guidance during His ministry so if it is important enough for Jesus to do it almost daily, it should be for us as well.

The Word of God


john317At the very first chapter of our Bible, God spoke into the void and into His creation His will, the breath of God filling all of Creation with all kinds of potential life and good and the possibilities of death and evil too. His very voice is the most powerful force in all of nature because He is the Creator of natural laws and nature itself! Because, the energy of every star, every galaxy and any powerful structure contained therein is only there because of God and His Word being spoken into the cosmos!

In the gospel of John, the very first few words tell what is believed about Jesus, the Word made flesh:

John 1:

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 was and is the Living Word of God, so it is by Him all things were made and through His power all things, including you and I and every other living being on Earth, live and have their being even now. It is by God’s Grace that we are here to do His work and His will in this life while we yet live. Not the grinding away that we chase after money and fame and family, but living for Him and to spread His Word and wisdom in this cold world that doesn’t know Him.

That is the will of God for all believers and whether you embrace it or not, it is still true. God intended for us to have a relationship with Him and through Him in this life into eternity. We should be receptive of that grace and His gift because it is something which we can’t afford in any way, yet it is given. We are loved by Him enough that He gave Himself, His Son, to pay the debt that we cannot. A debt that He didn’t owe but He knew that it was the only way to balance out the debts owed by all of humanity.

By giving His life, His blood and the suffering which went with it, that debt was paid for all of us. When the Spirit convicts you that you are a sinner in need of Jesus, then you will and you should seek Him out at all costs, even your life. Because He is the Pearl of great price and the lost sheep that was found, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He is your Savior and mine, all we have to do to receive His grace and the gift of eternity is to believe in His work and in Him. Like a child believes her father will catch her, we should believe in and trust Him.

Please, take the time to read about Him and learn about Him because He is the ONLY way to be forgiven and to obtain that which cannot be bought…eternal life with God.

The name “Lord” appears how many times?


The word or name “Lord” appears far more in the Bible than many would believe. According to some counts, it is in the Old Testament (KJV) 7234 times. There are other interesting number counts on this page and it depends upon which translation that you use regarding how many times a specific word is mentioned, but it is an interesting page.

Why did I bring this up today? Because, many people seem to wonder about some words in the Bible and how many of them there are. Why does that make a difference? It may not, really, but for some people it may make a bit of a difference. God’s Word does say many things and it is good to know what and why it is said. The only reason that you would need to know this is because you won’t be fooled into believing something which is not in there if you have read it enough to know what is found in it and what is not!

God inspired the writers to write His Word down not because He couldn’t remember, but because we can’t always remember the exact words which He said to us about certain things and why. Which is another reason why each of us needs to read it and study it. Taking a verse or two out of context renders them useless because some of Psalms and Proverbs has no meaning unless you read the whole chapter and verse. Taking any verse on its own renders it unable to be understood in its entirety because the paragraph before and after may lead you to a different understanding of it than just the verse itself.

The shortest verse in the Bible which was written about a sad day in Jesus’ ministry, even though He had told His disciples about what was happening, is: “Jesus wept.” Unless you read the before and after verses, that small verse doesn’t mean much except that it shows how Jesus felt emotions just as deeply as the rest of us. He wept because his friend had died, not because He couldn’t save Him from death but because He had to bring him back from Paradise to live again. It was necessary to do so for the people to see that He had the power to do it even after four days. Not for bragging rights, but to show Who He was and Who He is!

Give your heart to Him, seek Him in the Word and learn more about Him and in that way, one chapter or two every day, you will get to know our Creator and Lord better than you ever have before.

Small things, big changes


What can you do in increments that will make a big change in your life? Cut down on calorie heavy drinks like energy drinks and latte’s, walk up a flight or two of stairs instead of taking the elevator, park on the far side of the lot so you have to walk a bit more to get to your car, all of these are good ways for getting in better shape physically and would be applauded by your doctor in America today.

So, what could you do to help yourself spiritually? Just small things, nothing huge. Like…read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation at least once this year. Most people would say, “Hold on! That is NOT a small task!” I said read the Bible in a year, not in a month. Begin by reading two or three chapters every day, starting at the first chapter of Genesis, by the end of a month you will be in the book of Exodus reading about Moses getting the Israelites out of Egypt.

See, it doesn’t take a lot of reading or time. Two or three chapters every day only takes maybe fifteen minutes or so, but you are learning about our Creator and why He does the things that HE does. Pray about what you read, either before or after reading so the Spirit can teach you about what you have read. Why do I know this works? Because, when I became a pastor in 2011, I began reading God’s Word every day, just a few chapters a day. I have read through it at least six times now, and I find something new, something different, each time.

The first time I was rushing it, I wanted to get through the Bible FAST! I read the whole Bible in three months, but that was HARD! Some days I had to read ten or more chapters and it’s hard to find the time to read that much in a morning or evening while you are working too. So, unless you are just reading and not really intent on understanding (which you won’t by going that fast), I don’t recommend that reading plan.

My point here is this: God gave us His Word, the Bible, to read and to learn about Himself and about the Messiah, Jesus. The only real way that you can learn about the voice of God and His intentions for your life and your purpose is to get to know Him better, so what better way to do that than by reading His Words? God loves us and His Love is expressed in His Word and by getting to know His Voice through reading the Bible, you will be able to tell the difference between His small voice and your small voice when you are trying to listen to Him!

We speak to ourselves in our mind or maybe Satan does, trying to throw us off the track of following God’s lead. Many times, people talk themselves out of following Him by listening to the wrong voice, their’s or Satan’s. Reading God’s Word gives you an inside track on knowing what He would say and what He would NOT say. We are in the beginning of the last days, not the Tribulation yet but leading up to it, so make sure that you know Who it is that is speaking to you and what is being said.

Walking in faith


If you have ever been in a church service which preaches from God’s Word, then you have heard this phrase. But was it ever explained to you?

It isn’t some fanciful way of living or some magic way of doing things, but one of submitting yourself to the Spirit of God and Jesus in your everyday life. Being thankful for all that you have, whether it is good or bad, because God is bigger than all of our problems. He Who created everything, takes care of you and me and all who are on this world…not because He has to but because He loves us. On those days when you feel that nearly everything that you do is going wrong, He is still there to give you strength and help you get through it.

madewholeinHeavenDuring the days and nights of those who have to spend time in treatment for cancer or an accident, He is there. In the hospital or the ambulance or on the road going from one place to another, He is with you.

If you don’t know Jesus the Christ, then your life is in turmoil even if it doesn’t seem so right now. Why? Because you are living in the camp of Satan and the world itself. You are doing those things, good or bad, which please you and you alone without a thought to who may or may not be watching. God sees all that you are doing and if you are not His, it breaks His heart but He won’t force you to come to Him. Love and devotion cannot be forced and cannot be given without love in return.

Faithful living and living thankfully toward God for His grace and mercy is something which can’t be done without Jesus in your heart. You can fake being a believer by acting good in front of others and attending church, you can even practice it well enough to be a Pastor of a church and be perceived as righteous…but God knows your heart.

When you die, which all of us will one day, you will stand before God and you will do it with the righteousness of Christ’s blood to cover your sins or in your own righteousness without Him. In the first your life will be an honor to God and you will be welcomed into His Presence, if you stand under your own cloak of self-righteousness then there is no grace and no amount of goodness which will save you. You are without Jesus and His Grace and your every thought and word and deed will be laid bare, without forgiveness. You will be cast away from the Presence of God into the hell which was prepared, not for mankind but for Satan and his demonic forces.

Think about this before you decide to live your life on your own terms and not with Jesus in your life. Without Him we have nothing to boast of but with Him we have everything!.

Three words in Scripture


There are three words which contrast the grace of God toward us and they are seen in all of the Old Testament and the third one is mostly in the New Testament. These three words are “but God” and “therefore”.

Have you ever wondered why there are statements like that? Mainly, both of those statements are to show us that God is not lacking in love toward us because when you see these words, He is about to change something or do something which will make a difference in many lives! When you see “therefore” in the New Testament, it means simply that whatever follows is done, period.

Why do I claim this for either of these statements or words? Because my claim is accurate and true. How can I say that since I am just a man and not God?

Here are a few proofs:

Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Genesis 31:42
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

1 Samuel 23:14
David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

All of these examples show that God cares for us, not just the Israelites but the whole of humanity! Why? Because, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus to die in our place, to suffer the scorn and the abandonment upon the cross if He did not love us!

Why do you think that Jesus said to His disciples, “Suffer the little children to come unto me”, because children don’t need a “why” or a reason to believe…they just do! This is the kind of faith that we seem to lose as adults. We get so caught up in life and in our living until we can’t or won’t believe unless we can touch it or feel it in our hands. This is why there will be so many “Christians” in hell one day! Many of them think that they know Jesus and that they believe in Him, when they really believe in the idea of Him and His love for them. The “idea” won’t save their souls!

We have to shed our veil, the curtain which we have been seeing Him through and look at Him as our Creator and our Savior and see Him as a real and living person, not as a “quaint idea” that is spoken of in the Bible and at church. Many times during my life when I thought that I was a “Christian”, I prayed and I read a few verses of scripture. But, I never did get into the Temple. I never crossed the threshold of the outer court, let alone come into the Holy Places where God is. God enjoyed a relationship with Adam and Eve for a while, yet we don’t know how long it was. They were immortal at that point, so it could’ve been a long time. This is the sort of relationship that He wants with His church, His people….today.

Do we come near to Him? Do we visit with Him every day or do we just visit for an hour or so on Sunday morning, then go home and don’t think about Him again until next week? How would you feel if that were your relationship with your spouse? Kinda cold isn’t it?

God loves you and me and everyone else on this world that He created for us, but we seem to forget that He is there. We don’t want to acknowledge Him unless we need Him for something, usually urgently…like RIGHT NOW!!

God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit don’t work like that! The Spirit comes to you when you become a Christian. He doesn’t come as a drip at a time, but as the whole package. Jesus saves you and you are to become more like Him as you mature in your walk, daily, as a Christian, studying the Word of God and learning from Him. God watches over you and me and everyone else and makes sure that all things work to our good and His glory IF we belong to Him.

The church needs to understand that since we are the “body of Christ” until His return, we need to mature into people who are as priests in His Kingdom. We shouldn’t be acting like little children who don’t know better or who don’t know how to act like Christians who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We act as if reading the Bible and singing a few songs on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday night and listening to a preacher or elder in the church expound on scripture is all that we need to do!

Are you kidding? Reading the Bible is great because you are learning more about God and His ways, but just reading a few verses once or twice a week is not enough! We need to read chapters and verses and books because we can’t understand His ways and His way of doing things until we get into the context of Scripture. The context can’t be discerned by a verse or two, it has to be pulled from a chapter and a book and the only One Who can do that is the Holy Spirit. He can help you to understand God’s Word and the context in which it was meant to be learned.

 

So much anger


angerIn today’s world, on the news, in your home town even, it seems that there is a lot of anger. You see the effects of it every day on the news and in your neighborhood. You see it and hear it sometimes in your own home. But…everyone seems to brush it under the rug and ignore it until, one day something blows up. Frustration with our government or with your family builds and builds until one day it is in the news on television. A couple kills each other over supposed infidelity, whether true or not the end result is that two people are dead. Someone straps a bomb to themselves because they were taught to hate other people who worship differently and they go to a marketplace and blow themselves up and kill as many people, men, women and children, as they can. What did that accomplish?

It is hard to understand these things because we don’t know what happened to cause them. Sometimes, it is a senseless thing which is happening, at other times it seems that there is a reason for it. Outside the culture or the neighborhood or even the family, the reporters and the rest of the public just don’t understand what caused this? Why did it happen the way it did? Is anyone responsible?

We don’t understand the reason even if one is given via email or post on social media, so how can we help? Can we help? Is there anything that someone could do or say to help in these situations?

The truthful answer is: we don’t know. I can’t understand the mindset of a person or a group of people whose intent is to do these things. Is there a way to help?

The only answer that I can come up with, comes from God’s Word: Love your neighbor as yourself. So, why aren’t people being taught this instead of hate? Because the world and those in it don’t like to hear the truth from an indisputable source. The world and its religions, besides Christian religions, doesn’t want to hear this and they can’t come back with a saying or a truth from their religions which is better!

The advice and love and mercy which comes from God’s Word can be disbelieved and thrown in the trash but you can’t find better wisdom and knowledge because it came from Him. God is the ultimate Creator and King of all and His wisdom is beyond our understanding. His wisdom is above us as we are above an ant or a snail, yet each of those is wise in their own way. The ant does his gathering for when things are tough, the snail does what God designed him to do because he is a snail.

We are created in His image to be like Him and in order to be like Him we should learn about Him and walk with Him daily. Not weekly or once every month or just a couple of times in the year, but every day that you wake up thank Him for that day and be thankful for the opportunities that you may have during that day. Living daily with Him and through Him is not something which is easy, you have to purpose and decide to follow Him daily. Christians all over the world, those who are saved by their belief in Him Who saved them, neglect to do this even though they belong to Him. Why?

Because, after their salvation they feel that they have all that they need from God until something happens and then they call on Him to give them help and healing. It is something which you see in the Old Testament from one chapter to the next, following God while they are without enemies or without drought. Then, they forget the One Who saved them from their enemies or from a drought and go back to living as they wish to until some other calamity comes upon them.

I am not saying that living with God daily, reading His Word and praying to give Him praise for His grace and mercy will give you a life without problems, it will not! We are not perfect, we will all fail in our faith at some point, but God is gracious and will forgive us if we will confess it and turn back to Him again. Life, even the life of a Christian, is not easy but as a follower of Christ, Satan will attempt to cause you to fall in the sight of all so that your witness to them is taken away. Sometimes, your witness will be stained not by Satan but by your past. If you are called to be a minister in an area where people have known you for most of your life, like Jesus when He came to Nazareth, many won’t hear the Word of God that you preach but will be listening to you as you were when you were younger.

Do not fail to deliver the Word in your calling, regardless of their view of you or their opinion, because that is what God called you to do. If they accept it and repent then God brought it about, if not then they weren’t listening with their spiritual ears to begin with.

Is listening so hard?


Sometimes it seems that we just can’t listen to each other’s problems or to our preacher’s sermons. Listening to each other is the best way to get along with each other, yet there are so many problems between couples and countries all over the world. Most of those problems could be solved if we could put our pride and our attitudes on a shelf and sit down like adults and talk and listen to each other!

This would solve many if not most of the world’s problems, but it seems that when pride gets in the way and our attitudes become broiled in the juices of envy and hatred, then our ears and the ability to listen to each other becomes cut off or stopped up. Believe me, Satan has his hand and his followers all in the middle of these conflicts, whether it is between a man and woman trying to make their marriage work or between political parties in a country!

Our ears, spiritually and physically, become muddled to the point that we don’t hear what we should and we hear only part of what we shouldn’t. Which causes more misunderstandings and problems and it just gets worse from there, like a wet snowball rolling downhill. Pretty soon the problem or the snowball is so big that it can’t be fixed or stopped by just one person!

Jesus listened with His ears and with His heart and that is something which the church in general seems to have lost the ability to do, especially in the times that we live in today! The problem that we have is that we can’t understand the problem today because we aren’t really listening with our spiritual ears, our heart. We listen with our ears but we try to use psychobabble to “take care of the problem”, or make people feel good about themselves, or try to work around the issue.

In truth…all we are doing is putting a band-aid over a large cut or rather we are bandaging it but we aren’t helping in the healing of it. This kind of “help” is not helping at all, it only makes the problems worse! Like putting used tires on a car every six months, they wear out sooner and will still go flat easier than new ones, even if they are cheaper it is not helping.

Making people feel better about themselves is good, but spiritually it is suicide and murder. If you smooth over people’s sins and make them feel okay about them without telling them about salvation through Jesus, you are not a preacher…you are acting as a psychiatrist and that won’t do anyone good for eternity! PREACH FROM THE BIBLE! Tell the salvation and healing story of Jesus and His atonement for all of us from the gospels!

People need that today more than they know! John 3:16 is so powerful that it is a sermon in itself! Please, the Church needs to wake up and be the Body of Christ that this world needs NOW! This world will soon be in more of a situation than anyone alive has ever seen or experienced and the only rescue is through Jesus!

Living with….


We all have different things which we have to live with on a daily basis. Whether it is arthritis or Parkinson’s or cancer, at some point all of us have to go through life with pain or a condition which makes daily life harder or more difficult. So, what do you do to get through life on a day by day basis?

Some people take pills, some use other drugs such as alcohol or opiates, some use harder drugs than these. Some of us just suffer through with the pain and discomfort or with OTC medication. These coping mechanisms, legal or not, are ways to handle the discomfort and pain on your own. Sometimes they work pretty well, sometimes they cause more problems than they help.

Trusting in God and His Word will help with all of these problems and more. It is true that God will not always take the problem or condition away by healing it, but He can supply you with the strength to get through it a day at a time…if you will listen to Him and follow Him. Don’t try to do things on your own all of the time! We are taught to be independent, but when it comes to your life, God wants to share it with you through all of your good and bad days!

He doesn’t just want to hear from you when things go completely off script and throw you under the bus! When you wake in the morning, thank Him for it. When you get to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee, thank Him for your ability to do so even if you are in pain getting there. Live  life, everyday, with Him by your side and even if the pain is still there, God is with you too.

We have the privilege of having an awesome and mighty God and Creator Who can bless us in mighty ways. Sometimes by giving us the strength to get through a tough time and sometimes by healing us of the problem. It is up to God to decide which. Sometimes, His timing seems off to us, but in His time He will answer your prayer one way or another. Because, He is a good and loving God, Father, Savior and Creator and He says in His Word that “I will never leave you or forsake you“.