Category: Abide in Him

What will you do?


If someone asks you for the reason that you have joy in your life when you should be sorrowful, what will you say? What would you tell them? Would you say that “I take a happy pill every day!”, even if that is truly a lie? What answer would you give them? Would it line up with your beliefs and your faith? Do you have faith in God, the One that can give you peace and joy during times of pain and even heartache?

These are questions that many churches and pastors seem to be missing or even not teaching it at all, because they are trying not to offend people in order to get them to come to church. Since when did Jesus not offend people? He called the Pharisees hypocrites and sons of their father the Devil. Some of His teachings offended people to the point that many people turned away from Him. We are supposed to tell people about salvation and do likewise in our ministry, not coddle them with soothing tones in a sermon which will do nothing but send more people to hell!

We, as Christians or followers of Jesus, are not supposed to be politically correct. That is the job of those in office! We are supposed to show people the Savior Who saved us from our own stupidity and selfishness, not water the message down until you can’t tell it from a self-help book! God’s Word is the only self-help book that you need, because it takes self out of the equation when you put Jesus into your life and your heart and live daily with Him!

Being saved is not being perfect, because we can only strive toward that goal…we won’t attain it until we are in Heaven with Him. Even then, we will not be perfect, just more like Him because we will have our glorified bodies and will live for eternity! Praise the Lord!

Tell someone about the God that you serve, the One Who created everything and inspired the writers of the Scriptures to pen His Wisdom and not their own.

Is Satan a real being?


Satan was an angel or as the Scripture puts it “a covering Cherub” at one time. Now, cherub in this sense does not mean one of those fat little angels that flits around shooting people on Valentine’s Day. Lucifer was and is still a very powerful being who is described as a dragon, a serpent, a liar and a murderer in Scripture. He is also described as a roaring lion looking for those he can devour here on Earth. What does all of this mean?

The King James version of the Bible gave Satan the name of “Lucifer” in Latin meaning “light bringer” in Isaiah 14, but the description of him in Ezekiel begins by calling him the king of Tyre. Although the description cannot be of a human being because of the attributes being described.

Jesus spoke of watching him fall from Heaven and he tempted Him in the wilderness after His 40 day fast, so yes Satan is real and he is alive here on Earth now. We see his influence and his activity every day on the news when evil is killing people all over the world for no apparent reason. All of the diseases that Jesus healed people of, or at least many of them, were attributed to demons as the cause. These demons were the angels who had followed Satan when he rebelled against God and was cast down.

Is Satan real? Yes! The world is paying the price for not thinking that he is or rather by placing him in positions of power over it by worshiping money, drugs, witchcraft and other things in this world instead of our Creator, God. Those who are doing these things believe that they are getting ahead in life because of their efforts, when it is likely that he is pulling some strings to get things working for them. Why do I say this?

Because, if they are successful then they won’t go searching for God! Satan and his followers are all about keeping as many people from becoming Christians as possible. He is trying to hurt God in this way because he can’t hurt Him any other way. Is Satan real and do demons and principalities really work for him or with him? Yes, this is true but if you want to investigate it please don’t invite them into your life or your home! Check out news about possessions, which will not be in regular news. Read about Haiti and the voodoo which goes on there, which is powered by Satan and his cohorts.

You can choose to ignore him or his influence if you want, but seek out Jesus in your life. Eternity is a long time and regardless of what your “friends” may say about Hell, it will not be an eternity of partying. Life everlasting in Heaven is much preferred over that!

Hope and ?


No, I am not posting about hope and change, we have had the first dashed to pieces in the last eight years and the changes in some areas are almost unbearable. Enough soap boxing. (Jedi mind trick–forget what you just read, it isn’t important).

Hope is a cousin of faith because both of them run together. You can’t have much hope without faith and faith without hope isn’t expecting much. Abraham expected (hoped),with faith in God’s ability to fulfill it, that he would have an heir just as God had told him. How it was going to happen wasn’t important really, he had faith that God could do it even at his age and his wife’s age as well. Would doctors today recognize this birth as a miracle? Absolutely, in light of it being one because there was no way it could have happened without God’s intervention!

Faith is important to our life in Him because we were never meant to live apart from Him. Though, now we need faith to do so because He is just outside our limited human vision just as the beauty of His Creation is as well, although we will see it one day. Amen. God loves each of us, whether we belong to Him yet or not. He has a plan for our lives in His Kingdom if we will accept our place in it!

52050-my-hope-is-in-youHope is where we should put our faith and our trust totally in the Lord. God loves you with an everlasting love that never dips up or down. He doesn’t love you today and hate you tomorrow! We and everything around us, every person, every animal, every star and planet are His Creation and He cares for all of it!

We are not special because we live on Earth, we are special because God loves us! He know what you can do and what you did yesterday or last week or even last year, but He loves you anyway! Why? Because He is God and He is Love perfected! There is no darkness or shadow in Him, He is Light and the Giver of Life itself!

Satan cares NOT for you, in fact he HATES YOU!! You and I are made in the image of God, he hates God, so you are hated by Satan and his demons. That is why there is so much war, so much disease, so much cancer attacking children and older people, because of demonic influence in your life, against your life in Christ, trying to turn you away from God by getting you to blame Him for your problems!

That is the way of our world because he, Satan, is the ruler of the air on Earth…but only temporarily. He knows that his time is coming to an end and that is why problems are getting worse, wars and more intense, diseases are harder to cure. He knows that he has already lost, but he is going to try to take as many people into Hell with him as possible. Not to have a party, but to torment them for eternity because they were offered a way out of Hell through belief in Jesus and they chose not to believe in Him

An experience


trinity2Worship in a church setting is an experience. In some churches it may be more of an experience than in others, but an experience nonetheless. Some churches are very laid back and, for lack of better words, they are bland and dull. Some are downright giddy with the worship of God and His Spirit. Then there are some who fall a bit in the middle. A little more alive than dull but not running around shouting “Praise God!!”

How we experience God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost (Spirit), regardless of the church we attend, should be a personal and intimate relationship. It doesn’t have to be shouting unintelligible babble-talk and it doesn’t have to be sitting there looking like you died last week but haven’t had the good grace to get yourself buried yet either!

Living daily with Jesus as your Savior is enough for me, yet there are times when I would like more. Then there are those days or nights where His Spirit fills me to the point that I weep because I can’t take anymore. The joy and the blessedness that I feel at those times are even more than when my son was born. I can’t describe it to you unless you have felt it too, then I know that you know what I am talking about.

Life with God in Three Persons is part of the experience when you believe in Him and ask Him to come into your life and change you. It isn’t about how much you shout and dance in church or if you sit quietly and meditate on His promises and His love for you. He is nearer to you than your skin because if you have given your life and heart to Him, then He lives within you and through you and to experience His Life, we need to live our daily lives knowing that and living that way!

For some people a “Holy Ghost church”, whether it is Pentecostal or Church of God, is just too much. When you have been raised in a church like a Methodist or Baptist one, it can be an experience to say the least. The point that I am making here is that when we are open and free to experience our life and His Life through us and inside us, it doesn’t matter what other people think. If you sit and soak in His Love, that is fine. If you can’t sit still and you have to get up and shout and dance, that’s fine too.

God loves you no matter which way that you choose to worship, as long as you don’t turn the worship experience into something which represents God but isn’t really Him or His Spirit. If your performance or speaking in tongues or shouting is not from Him but is emotionally bringing out your own personality just to bring attention to yourself, then you are acting like those Pharisees which Jesus condemned.

If it really is from the Spirit, it will be known and real, not just babbling incoherently. God knows the language of your Spirit and it is between you and Him. If you feel inclined to let it be known to others, then by all means do it. But make sure that it is not for your benefit only but for the whole congregation and their enjoyment of the moment and the worship itself.

Relating to….


Have you ever noticed that most of the Bible is about relationships? In the beginning, it is between God and Adam. Then it shifts to Adam and God and the animals, then it becomes a relationship between Adam and Eve. Then there is a broken relationship when Adam and Eve decide that they don’t want to do what God told them. They eat from the one tree which He had told them not to eat from. Out of ALL the fruit trees and other foods which they had, they chose the very one which they were commanded NOT to eat from.

Did they do it because they were mad at God or were tired of His rules? There was only the one rule…not to eat of the tree in the midst of the Garden! It couldn’t have been the rules because there was only one! So, what happened? Satan, Lucifer the deceiver came into the Garden and he wanted to disrupt the relationship which God had with His Son, Adam. So, his lies and deception caused the first couple to sin, to go against God’s rule.

Creation then was like a vase dropped on the floor, shattered into many pieces. The relationship broken and damaged forever…or so he thought.

God knew that this was coming and wasn’t caught off guard. Satan thought that he was doing something to God, his Creator, that would hurt Him. It did, but God used it to work out His purposes and His redemption of mankind anyway. He works in ways that we can’t understand or even comprehend, but God loves all of us and He is in control of all. He doesn’t dictate to us how we live or work but He will work in your life to bring about good things for you and for those around you.

Why is a relationship so important? Because, that is what God has always wanted with mankind! A relationship with Jesus is what is necessary for you to be His child, believing in Him and He Who sent Him. God knows your heart and what is in it, if there is hatred and worldly things in your heart and life and the evidence of it is known by all then your life doesn’t belong to Jesus. He is the Author and finisher of life and our Creator. He is with you whether you believe or not, but He takes pleasure in your life and rejoices when you invite Him in.

He will forgive you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, but if you aren’t convicted of them enough to repent and turn from them and ask for His forgiveness in order to live with Him daily, then your life is yours and not His. It is necessary for us to come to Him knowing that we need Him and His forgiveness. If you are too proud in your own religiosity and your piety, thinking that you have an “agreement” with God about your life, then you are lost and are bound for punishment because you would not subject your heart to Him.

Where is God?


Don’t read the title and wonder if I have lost my mind, you have wondered the very same thing from time to time! I have too and it does vex me at times to think of all of the evil and pain in the world and wonder about Him. He is right next to each and every person who is in pain, in duress from a multiplicity of reasons, or who is just lonely. God is as close to you and I as our next breath or even as close as our heartbeat. He is always closer than we can imagine or comprehend and He cares more than we could possibly know or understand!

Jesus said that “not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing it“, now that is my paraphrase of the actual scripture so don’t think it will be worded the same. But…if Jesus said, which He did, that a sparrow doesn’t escape God’s attention, don’t you think He pays attention to the rest of us as well? We can’t touch Him or feel His Presence all of the time, but He is there and He feels your pain and your sorrow and your joy.

12804782_1044929828955942_1233315242139204553_nAs a Christian we can feel Him near us, maybe not all of the time but if you are listening to His voice like you should then you can’t miss it. He is always there and as a Christian you and I have part of Him living inside our hearts, so He can’t get much closer than that can He?

For someone who is not as close to God as they should be or even someone who hasn’t given their life to Him, then the Presence of God may not be felt but that doesn’t mean that He isn’t nearby. Especially if you are being called into His Service! He will not let you get too far away from Him and He will bring you back in order to do His Will in your life and for His Kingdom. He doesn’t force you to serve Him, but when you realize what He has done and is doing for you and in your life, you will want to work for Him.

Paul did and he was persecuting the Way as it was called. He was called Saul at the time, but Jesus changed all of what he had been doing to make him into the greatest missionary of the New Testament church! If he can change and become one of the most successful disciples of Jesus, then you and I can do it too. We have to learn from God’s Word what to look for and how to understand His commands and His Voice in our lives and you can only learn that from prayer and reading the Bible.

So, where is God? He is everywhere! My best guess is that He is where you are and I know that He is where I am too! Give your heart to Him, learn about Him and His voice from the Bible, then you will hear Him and know that He is God and He is in your life, regardless of what may be happening, He will never leave you!

What is in your heart


Is it fear or anger? Is it insecurity or selfishness? Could it be some emotional baggage that you have been given by your parents? For many who have lived through being children of divorced parents, all of these are true. We grow up with things inside us that we don’t understand or comprehend. Sometimes, this emotional baggage will cause a person to implode or explode depending upon the way they are raised and who is raising them.

Life is changed and altered by the things which we experience during our childhood. Good or bad, it sticks with you regardless of the outcome. Sometimes each of us can overcome it by our own perseverance, if we recognize it for what it is. Sometimes…it is the over-comer.

Feelings of helplessness and despair can cripple you while growing up, especially when you feel like you aren’t wanted or loved. Many of us have felt these feelings as we grow up, either due to a so-called friend’s remark or a family tragedy such as the death of a parent or a divorce (which amounts to the same thing). Many family members will tell you that you will get over it, in time, and that may be true but the scar is still there and sometimes it doesn’t heal completely.

The only cure for this condition, regardless of its cause, is to seek out Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart and your life so that He can heal the wound that is there. He is the only Physician Who can do this, there is no other! Drugs only make things worse, alcohol fits in the same bucket with drugs, all other “things” which people chase after are also temporary and really don’t help in the long run.

Jesus can heal those wounds and He will fill that empty space which is there. It doesn’t matter if that empty space was caused by drugs or a divorce or a death in the family, Jesus can heal all of those wounds. It may not be instantaneous but with time and prayer and reading God’s Word, the healing will begin and it will heal. One day as you are reading His Word, you will notice that the pain and emptiness are gone and in its place the Holy Spirit of God has placed peace and joy!

Joy that can’t be explained without faith in Him. Joy that makes no sense to someone who hasn’t asked Jesus to come in and heal their heart and the pain which has lived there for so long. God love can do amazing, glorious, miraculous things in your life and in mine. We can’t explain it to someone who doesn’t know Him, but they can see the difference in our lives and in our personality. Jesus came into the world to save it from itself, and when He does this to your life, others will notice.

Pain, suffering, and all of the ailments which go along with them may not completely go away, because Satan will bring them back to hurt you, to put a stone in your path or to trip you up in your walk with Jesus. Cling to Jesus and His Word because it is the only eternal Rock which will bind your wounds and be able to carry you when life gets rough.

What is in your heart? God knows and He will give you the strength and the ability to fill it with Himself and will begin your healing, if you will allow Him to.

Consider….


Faith, religions, Christianity, and church, to some people these are all lumped together in one big mess. We bring religiosity into the church and create some doctrine around a couple of verses then go around telling others that our way is the only one. How arrogant and stupid is that? Religion is what crucified Jesus. Self-righteousness is what makes people act the way they do toward other religions.

Consider this too..God loves each of us whether we know Him, believe in Him or worship Him. Your salvation and your eternity depend upon your belief not on your actions or anything that you do in this life. The work was already done by Jesus, you just need to realize that you need Him and come to Him in humility asking for His forgiveness. No amount of money or donations or building projects or evangelism for “your church” will get you any closer to Heaven, only your belief in and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior can do that.

Life is hard and depending upon where you live it can be brutally so. God loves you and cares for you regardless of your location or your circumstances. This is why He sent Jesus to pay the price for ALL of humanity’s sins, not just a few. Seek Him out in your life and in your situation, even if He doesn’t change your situation now, your eternity will be assured and you will spend it with God! Place your faith and your trust in Him and let those other “gods” go, since they can’t save you or help in your situation now.

God’s Promises


This is the day that the Lord has made for you and for me. What will you do with it? Do you wake up with an attitude of “Oh no, not another day!” or do you thank God for waking you up so you can have another day?

This is the life that we are given, daily, and we should be walking with Jesus but are you walking with Him or maybe someone else?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
God promises many things in the Bible but most of us either don’t understand that we are entitled to those promises or we haven’t read the Bible enough to know what those promises are! God loves each and every person on the Earth, which is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice which could pay the debt which everyone owes. Why didn’t I put that in past tense? Because we are all still committing sins regardless of our status as Christians or not, the only difference is that those who have given their heart to Jesus know they are forgiven.
They will be convicted of that sin, no matter what they do and they will ask forgiveness for it. Anyone who is not a Christian will not because until the Holy Spirit convicts you enough that you seek Him out, or you won’t do it at all. Truly, God does love you more deeply that you know or even realize but unless you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit and become convicted of your sinful nature, you will not seek Him.
God intended for mankind to have an intimate relationship with Him and, before they ate from the forbidden tree, that is what He had. What happened? Adam and Eve did not obey God. It wasn’t the fruit or the tree that caused the sin of disobedience, it was the disobedience which caused the rift between man and God. The curse which was placed on mankind and all of creation was because of his disobedience and we still haven’t learned from it yet…because it is still going on!
People go against the rules, the Ten Commandments, all of the time. Murder, rape, stealing, incest, disregarding parents and grandparents, all of this and more happens every day. The only cure for our world’s problems is obeying God, the True God of the Bible! Not the one in the Quran or any other “book”, but the One Who created everything and everyone. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One that we need to be listening to and following!
Seek Him out in His Word because His Spirit prompted and inspired the writers to write down His Words. The Bible is not made up by man because the prophecies that it contains would not have come true if that were so! The birth of Jesus was foretold down to Him being born of a virgin and in what town He would be born in. This was written at least six hundred years or more prior to His birth!
The same goes for the Psalm which David wrote almost one thousand years prior to His death by crucifixion. A type of punishment which wasn’t even being used at the time that David wrote Psalm 22, but it describes it perfectly even to the soldiers gambling for His garments. Give the Word of God a chance to change your life for the better and you will never be the same again!

Make a difference…


I watiamnotashamedched the movie “I am not ashamed” yesterday and it made me think of our impact on the world and the people around us. Rachel Joy Scott struggled with her new faith in Jesus in high school before the shooting that took her life. Most of us can relate, if we were a Christian in school, which I wasn’t. I knew about Jesus and the Bible because I had been on the drug plan for learning it. I was drug to church every time my Mom went, so I had heard all of the preaching and stuff. But, hearing and knowing about Jesus is not the same as having faith in Him, real honest faith.

I provided the link above just in case anyone wanted to know about the movie, I get nothing from your following or purchasing it. The point of this post is this: will you make a difference?

Her story and the fact that she didn’t back down in the face of losing her life, as many Christians over the centuries have done, has made a real impact on many people. At the end of the movie there was some statistics which said that her life had impacted over 20 million people since April 20, 1999. One life, just one-act of selfless faith and forgiveness can make a difference. It doesn’t take a Master’s degree or a PhD to tell people about Him and to show your faith by your life and your deeds to those around you.

God loves us even when we aren’t sure how we feel about Him. He loved each of us whether we even knew Him and before we were all born and He did so in a way that we can’t understand or comprehend! God is and should be your strength and your source of living water which never dries up and never gives up on you and your purpose in Him!

During high school, I was a very angry boy. I kept it bottled up most of the time, but I allowed it to hurt me by smoking and drinking to the point of being so drunk I barely remember the drive home, if I made it at all. At least one time, I had a wreck on the way home, although the only one that really sticks in my memory is the one where I totaled my mother’s car. I was angry at God and at my parents for getting divorced and I really didn’t care much about what happened to me. I could identify with Rachel in being a child of a broken home.

My point, as I said earlier, is that we can all make a difference in the world. Even if it is only in our immediate area. Heaven rejoices when one sinner comes to Jesus and if you or I have any part to play in that, then be grateful and willing to be useful in His Kingdom for that one person. Make sure that your life means something because we are not guaranteed tomorrow, so make today a day that God uses in your life and your witness  for His Glory!