Category: Abide in Him

What can I do?


We ask this when we see something that needs to be done and it seems that no one has stepped up to do anything. In the world we live in today…there are many opportunities to help others. So, what can you do?

Through the power of the Internet we can encourage and pray for people all over the world, and prayer is a powerful tool for helping people. But…can we do more? Can you do more? Should we do more?

If we are going to show that we care and have the love of Jesus in our hearts and our lives, then the answer to those questions has to be YES! People cannot see or know how much you love Jesus until you show them, in a tangible way, how much you care. Bringing a message of hope in a blog is one way to do this, but the result isn’t tangible. Hope is good because without it we don’t have much to cling to in this world.

Love is tangible because the love of God flows into each of us every day when we are given the grace to wake up from sleep and go about our daily lives. God loves all of us, He doesn’t like it when we break any of His commandments and do something sinful, because He is Holy and cannot have a relationship with sin. If you have felt Him in your life, even a little bit, then you should respond to Him, positively or negatively but don’t ignore Him.

The only unforgivable sin is the rejection of Jesus’ atonement for your sins which is offered to all at one point or another. You hear a broadcast or a sermon or maybe you attend church once or twice, you hear and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit touch you..and you walk away. Choosing to go your own way instead of following Jesus. It really is your choice, God doesn’t force salvation on you. It is offered freely so that you can begin a relationship with Him. Why would God do it this way? Why not, He is God after all! Getting back to my original premise, in your own strength and your own way of doing things what can you do? You are limited by distance and time and resources as well as physically, God is not limited by any of those things.

He can do, through you or your prayers or even your gift of money to an organization of some kind, so much more than you could ever do! Unless you happen to be blessed with billions of dollars and unlimited time, which very few are, there isn’t any way for you personally to have as much influence around the world and in people’s lives as God can.

Prayer is a big and powerful way to let God know about your problems and those of others, although He already knows about them. He wants us to petition Him to do something that will show people what He is capable of. Healing a child with cancer or a relative which has had surgery recently are two examples but He can do and accomplish them all and He will if you pray and ask Him for this. He truly likes specific prayers like, “Father, I have been diagnosed with a cancerous growth in my colon. If it is in your will to heal me, please do so. I thank you in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

A simple prayer to be sure, but God loves children and we are His children. Pray with the faith of a child and be specific in a child’s way. It doesn’t have to sound like you read the King James Bible to Him, just talk to God as if you were talking to your wife or husband or your grandmother. He loves you and will listen but I must let you know, the only prayer from a person who is lost that He hears is “God forgive me for being the way that I am. Help me to come to know you through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Clean me up and help me to be the person that You want me to be. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” Once you have prayed that prayer, you are what Paul referred to as a “babe in Christ”, you need to join a church and learn more about your Heavenly Father. Read the Bible and ask Him to show you what the words mean to you and your life, then you will be able to do “all things through Christ which strengthens me”.

In Service to Him.

We have a lot to do….


There are many young people and some older ones who have lived their lives without Christ. WE, as Christians, have to tell them about Him. This is not a request, but it is a command from Jesus written in the gospels. Christians have turned the other cheek and been quiet long enough and the only way that they will know, that many more will find out about their Savior is if we do our part and get the message out to them! I know that today, even in the USA, Christians are being targeted as hate groups because of our beliefs which come from the Bible. This treatment will likely get worse in the near future, but we must push our fear aside and tell others that the Hope that they are looking for can only be found in Jesus.

Why should we do this? Because of God’s love for us, because He gave His Son up to be the Lamb, perfect and unblemished, as the atonement for all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, because all of us fall under that category! There is no one on the Earth now nor has there ever been anyone like Christ! Failing Him and His command is not an option in my being. Like the one who blows the trumpet on the wall to let everyone know about an enemy outside the gate, I want others who follow Jesus to begin to let your friends know, let your family know about Him! We are held accountable for the Truth that we have heard and read in the Bible, therefore we can’t be silent and we shouldn’t be.

If you could save your friend from certain death, wouldn’t you do it if it were in your power? If it were your child or your parent, you certainly would if possible! We are coming to the end of the age of grace, which we have been under for almost two thousand years. Evil is spreading in the world, anti-Christian speech and laws are being passed and reported on around our country and in other parts of the world. The world that most of us grew up in has changed so much in character until it is barely recognizable as the same anymore. It’s not the same as it was, it is much worse!

Television shows and talk shows are bringing up subjects that are occult in nature, much of what is on TV does not fall into the “wholesome” family category anymore. It seems that just in the past fifteen years that it has become harder to find entertainment that is good for the family to watch together anymore. The Internet itself is a place where kids can find anything that they want online, even if mom and dad don’t approve of it. They can bring it up on their phones or their tablet or any connected device available to them.

Even many of the books and games offered on Amazon and other “toy” stores are occult oriented as are many of the games on the Internet. Children don’t think anything is wrong with tarot cards or other occult and witchcraft oriented games or books. Some are innocent to an extent, but if the door to the occult gets opened a crack, many things which you don’t want in your house will have access to your home and to your children.

Read God’s Word and ask for Him to help you understand the wisdom contained in it. Give your heart to Jesus and lead your family in prayer and study of the Bible. The strength and protection that He can give you and your family is needed in these times.

Live…Love…and Joy!


In times of trouble and strife,

Things which come into all of our lives,

Open your heart and your mind,

To be especially kind,

To those less fortunate or maybe who are just hurting.

These are the times when God’s Wisdom has to come in,

but it can’t enter into a closed mind and heart. You have to

be able to take it into yourself and allow it to change you,

so that others may see His Strength, His Love and His mercy

in you and me.

Some deny it, others await it….


Many in the so-called “liberal”media deny that Christians are right. I don’t mean that we are on the right or the left, but that we believe the Truth of God’s Word! Watching the news, seeing all of the prophecies coming true before our eyes, if you can’t see it then you need to get into God’s Word! Pray about what you are reading so that He will open your eyes spiritually and allow you to see what is there!

Why am I asking many of you who DON’T  believe in Jesus or God to at least try praying for Him to show you the Truth in His Word? Because if you don’t find it out, if you won’t go to a church or read God’s Word, then when you stand before the One that you don’t believe in…uh-oh won’t cut it! Your life will be shown to you in vivid detail down to the words and thoughts that you had. The time for learning the Truth is now, not at the end of your life! Yes, you could be saved on your death-bed, but you may not get that chance.

Ican'tmakeitChristians don’t say these things to scare you exactly, but what if you had a wreck on the way home from the bar or from a meeting. What if you had a heart attack on the way home or in your bed tonight and didn’t live long enough to ask Jesus into your heart and life? We are trying to get as many people to open their eyes to the reason that Jesus and the Bible are REAL! This is not a “fake religion” like so many of them are!

Being religious can get you a ticket straight to hell, being saved by Jesus will cover your sins and allow you to get into Heaven. If you are able to do some things for Christ while you are here, you may have some rewards in Heaven, but the reward that I am looking for is eternity with Him! God in the person on His Son came down and became as we are so that He could provide a way for us to be saved from an eternity away from Him! He planned this long before any of us were born, even before our world or the universe was made by Him!

God loves you! It doesn’t matter what you have done, when you did it or how, all He wants is a repentant heart and your realization that you have sinned and you want Him to come in and fix the broken pieces and make you whole in Christ! Believe me, since He made the universe and mankind in six days, I think He can handle anything that you ask Him for, don’t you?

Do you know Jesus?


Do you know Jesus, the Son of God? Have you come to Him and asked for His forgiveness, because you know that you need it?

What if…what if it were Jesus saying those words to all of you? How would you feel then? Convicted? Ashamed? Indignant? Humbled? UN-worthy?

I write this to show you how far God has brought me from where I was, so that maybe some of you might see that God can use the most unusual things…oops, I mean people, to accomplish His will and His purpose in your life and in mine, to use you to have a positive effect on someone else and their life.

God can do great things, with a thought or by His Word and by just His Breath He gave life to a model made of clay and it became a living, human being with a soul! Then he took a bone, and made a woman who most men would DIE to have on their arms, imagine that!

The point I am beginning with is this, God can do great and wonderful things with very little or a lot. He can also do great and wonderful things with nothing at all! Because He is God! What can you do with nothing? Not very much I would guess, because I can’t either.

Yes, a man and a woman can come together and a child will be born, IF God wants you to have that child. You can’t force it to happen, you have no control over what color their eyes will be or their personality, but God does. He brought you and your wife together because He knew that you complement each other. Not in the sense of, “You sure are beautiful tonight, honey!”, but because your souls and your personalities fit perfectly.

Now, you can ignore that little voice in your mind that tells you that you are marrying the wrong one, but I guarantee you that you will regret it if you do. God loves you and He loves your children, even before you finally find the right woman to have those children with.

Thirty some years ago, I was a very confused and angry young man. I did okay in school, but I was a loner and I didn’t make friends too easily. I kept to myself and kept my mouth shut, for the most part. But, one day I got introduced to whiskey, not Budweiser, but the real alcohol! The kind that didn’t take much to gets you to feeling more oats than you have. The kind that, in today’s climate, would get you killed before lunch break was over.

For some odd reason, I liked the way that alcohol made me feel. Almost like I could do anything, say anything and live to tell about it tomorrow. Many of us feel that way in our teen years, whether we have whiskey giving us more mouth than we should have or not. Since there was an old man selling to whoever had the money to buy, I usually went to a football game on most Friday nights. That was my cover story at least. I would go and buy a pint or a half-pint of whiskey and before the night was through, I would’ve finished most of it. For a sixteen year old kid who did weigh much over one hundred pounds, to put it simply, I would be crawling home drunk. I had a wreck a few weeks after this began that put me in the hospital for about a week.

When I got out, I swore that I wouldn’t do that again. Well, that didn’t last long, although I didn’t have another wreck. I got drunk or tight as we called it, almost every day at lunch time. Sometimes, I would smoke pot, most of the time I just drank whatever I could get my hands on. I was well on my way to being an alcoholic. My teenage years weren’t impressive at all and since I didn’t live in town, I wasn’t popular at school either.

This is all old news, my past, for some it’s your past as well. But, you know, God can use anyone in anyplace at any time…but only if we are following Christ! Saying so doesn’t work, talk doesn’t work, IF you are going to live into forever you must have Jesus in your heart FOR REAL! This is not and it will not be a well liked sermon, but you know what? The sermons which Jesus spoke in front of the Pharisees and the other religious leaders were not popular, but they were full of the TRUTH!

The truth is that a ball of clay that can be made into a man by our Creator is what we are. The Light of Creation He brought into being with His Word, everything in the first chapter of Genesis was brought into being by the Word of God, but Adam was brought to life by the hands of God! He had a special plan for us, before mankind (and that includes women too), was even molded out of clay or fashioned from a bone like the first woman.

We are special to Him and have been ever since Creation began. His plan has been in place since before Adam took his first steps. God knows you and me and has known us since before Earth was ever formed into the world that we live on. Love like that cannot be ignored, should not be ignored because God does love each of us that much. It is a love that we can’t understand at all.

It doesn’t matter how little that you know about God. It doesn’t matter if you have ever read the Bible all the way through. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is. God loves you! This is the message that Jesus was trying to get across to the children of Israel. They believe that they are special because they are descended from Abraham and in God’s eyes they are BUT that alone won’t get them into Heaven. No amount of good deeds or amount of money or even the time that you have spent in church or on missions will tally up your side of the page so that you can squeeze in the door!

Just having a membership in a church makes no difference whether you get into Heaven, sitting in church for forty or fifty years doesn’t do you any good except it makes you responsible for all of the Truth that you have heard in that time. Did you accept Jesus as your Savior? That is the only “ticket” that will allow you to stand in the presence of God, having Him as your Savior is the only covering which will allow God to see you as Holy enough to come to Him as His child!

It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past, the only way that you can be of any use to God now or in the future is to truly give your heart to Jesus and let Him come in and make a true and lasting change in your life. That change has to be all the way to the core, not just a surface change that lasts until the revival is over. It has to be REAL, the change has to take over your life, your family, your business, your friendships, your finances, EVERYTHING!!!

Why does it have to be that much of a change? Because YOU ARE A NEW CREATURE! You are different, you are not the same person that you were yesterday, your wife is not the same, your children are not the same. The change has to be COMPLETE and totally committed. If you haven’t made this change, this deeply, this far-reaching, then you need to DO IT! Because, unless it has been a heart change, deep inside, the kind that it will offend you if you hear someone take God’s name in vain to be used as a curse word, if it isn’t that deep then it isn’t real and genuine!

Will you make that deep of a commitment to Jesus? We are entering a time in history that has been foretold in God’s Word and if you haven’t made this kind of commitment, you NEED to do it TODAY! If not today or tonight, then please make it soon. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, and if you are going to make a difference then you need to make this change! If that voice or some part of your soul is feeling a call from God to be that person, the one that will stand in the gap, the one who will lead their family and their business and their friends to Him, to Jesus. If you are being touched by Him and by His Spirit please answer His call on your life. Today.

What do you depend on?


We all have different ways of making it through our days. Some of us start off the morning with a cup of tea or coffee and the paper. Some people get online with a cup of coffee and try to catch up with what is happening. But, who do you go to and depend upon when things go terribly wrong? I don’t mean when you spill the milk or break a nail, I mean when you get a diagnosis which makes you sit down. When someone in your family comes home with a letter that says you are being sued for something, or maybe they are the one that gets the diagnosis which is like a hammer to your head and your heart, what do you do then?

Many people turn to their best friends or even to their church, if they go to one. So, what or Who do you depend on for assurance or hope or healing? Many people look to their doctor if they get one of those diagnoses, some look to him as well if there is a wreck or accident. The Person that you and I and everyone else should be looking to and praying to FIRST, before going to the doctor or anyone else is God! He is bigger and able to handle all of your problems, to give you strength to get through them all and if it is His will to do so, He will heal you of whatever the diagnosis may be. He may do it through the doctor’s skills or it may happen by His power and your faith before your next doctor visit.

Bad days are going to happen. Accidents and diseases are going to crop up in your life and mine, we are human and that is just the way our fallen world is. Good people and bad get these circumstances added to their lives all the time, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how bad you may be. The reality you have to remember is that God loves you and will not forsake you in any of your problems, you must have faith in him and ask Him for wisdom.

You don’t have to accept a “bad day”, God can make a day which seems bad turn into a good day. Love, especially between two people as husband and wife, can make a shack into a home. Expressing your love for your children is something that many people seem to have forgotten how to do these days. Wake up people, they need to know that they are loved by you just as much as you need to know that God loves you!

If you truly want a successful life and a happy home, even if it is in a two room shack with cracks wide enough to throw a cat through, love works much better to bring this about than alcohol or drugs or anger! Where love is anger cannot stay, when you truly love your children and your wife there is no fire too hot that could keep you from rescuing them! God is the answer that everyone is looking for, they just don’t know it yet. Many people say that they can worship God in a fishing boat or a deer stand just as well as they can in church. NO YOU CANNOT! You are looking for a trophy bass or antlers that will strain the wall to hold them up, you don’t go out there thinking of worshiping God!

I used to think that too and I would pray and talk to God while I was out there. That’s probably why I don’t have any trophies on my walls. I would thank Him for His beautiful creation and the sunrise that many don’t get to see. I would praise Him for the beautiful birds and the chipmunks as they scurry around trying to find all the acorns they have hidden for the winter. Yes, praising God and thanking Him for these things is good, but worshiping Him with other believers is more gratifying and humbling than any deer or turkey. Yes, they are God’s creation and He takes care of them just as He does each one of us, but they don’t worship Him. Their instinct tells them that He will feed them so they don’t know Him like we can.

Your Spirit is lifted up and refreshed every time you hear God’s Word preached. Your soul shouts for joy and it is heard in Heaven especially when you find that the diagnosis that you thought you had is just some cells that are causing trouble and making you feel bad. Satan and his followers know how to make you feel this way and will convince you that you are going to die. They can make it so convincing that you will die, if you allow them to take it that far.

We have power through Jesus’ name to renounce the feelings of deathly diagnoses, and depression that makes you want to crawl under a rock, but it does you and me no good at all if we don’t claim the Word of God and tell Satan to back off because I am a child of God! God’s Word and the promises in it are more powerful than any drug or any situation that you have or that you will ever encounter. Don’t forsake the Word or prayer and call on His name because He can heal you of all the afflictions that Satan has placed on you and in your life.

Does it seem that time is going way too fast these days?


All parents know this and children learn it sooner or later. It just seems that the weeks, especially in the summer, just melt into each other and its hard to tell one week from another. How can we slow things down a bit before our children are gone and the house is empty more than it is full? Fill your time with the talents and the gifts which God has given you. It doesn’t matter what gifts or talents they may be, just get up and outside if you have to and use them. Do some volunteer work for people in the nursing homes or help someone in your community. Little things that we may take for granted and big chores for other people.

Time going by to fast happens when you are busy and sometimes when you aren’t busy enough. It doesn’t matter if you are a parent or grandparent, although our time flies by too fast for us to keep up with it most of the time. Even when you are doing something constructive for someone or maybe even enjoying a hobby or two, time just goes by too fast. That is why Jesus said to take up your cross (life), and to follow Him. Say the things that He would when they are needed to be said.

It just seems that there aren’t enough hours in the day, but the hours haven’t changed. There are still twenty-four of them, eight or so we are supposed to rest or sleep and the rest are for work, whatever kind of work you may do. Jesus said that those who love the darkness love it because it hides what they are doing. We see and hear about the sins which happen every day in and around America and the world and very little of it is good news. As a matter of fact, good news hasn’t been reported on much since a certain newsman died about five years ago. I used to love to listen to him when I could catch his show on the radio and when I was growing up, he even had a small segment on TV.

Those were the last days when we could comfortably go to sleep at night and not have to lock our doors. It seems that it has been a very long time since we could live that way, but it has only been forty years or so.

I have been watching some of the crusades which Billy Graham did years ago, the one tonight was from Dallas, Texas in 1971. I was about nine or ten at the time, but the problems that he was speaking about sounded very familiar. At that particular time, abortion still wasn’t legal in America but drugs and alcohol were and he spoke about the dangers and the consequences of them both. I imagine that Mr. Graham hangs his head if he even listens to the news at all today. If I were him…I wouldn’t watch it at all. I would just pray for America and her soul and all of the souls in America, because prayer can do powerful things, including changing the minds and hearts of people in a country that is on a very wide and slippery slope.

Jesus told those that He preached to that the way to Heaven is by a narrow way and there are few who really find it. This road isn’t as easy or as straight as the broad road, but it leads to Heaven. The rewards that you get on Earth won’t travel the road with you, only those things done for the Kingdom of Christ will make that trip. God loves us all and He has made a way for us to get to Heaven through Jesus, it is only our choices which will condemn us to an eternity of punishment away from Him.

Time does slip away from us every second of every minute, but after your death here you won’t be able to count the minutes or hours. Time doesn’t have a meaning in that life, it is eternal. Your choice will determine where you spend eternity so choose wisely and follow Jesus.

What is it which gives you strength?


Is it your food or drink? Is it your will to do what needs to be done for today, no matter what it is? Our strength comes from our bodies to work and to do what is needed every day and our body gets that strength from our food. The quality of that food and the amount that you need to do your work is what gives you the calories to keep going to finish your work for each day. All of this is known by each of us as we live through our lives every day in the world, but how can you get the strength to do things for God? True, sometimes your food is all that is needed, but most of the time that is not all that you need.

We are spiritual beings because the spirit that we have that is in us, our soul that is immortal, needs to have contact with God the Creator. That contact comes through reading God’s Word and by prayer. Prayer is a direct line to God and His Spirit! Not only are you in contact with Him with your words and your spirit but He is in contact with you, giving you the strength to pray for the things which you need to be able to do. It may be that you are in need of His strength for a problem in your life, whether it is grief or a loss or some physical ailment in your life or a family member’s life but prayer is the line…a lifeline that is a direct transmission line from God to you!Ican'tmakeit He knows exactly what you need and how much, all that He is waiting for is for you to ask Him to do this.

God doesn’t intrude on your life without you asking Him into your heart and your life. Nothing about the walk..the life of a Christian is forced on us by God. We participate in it with Him as our Strength and our Comforter and many times we find that when those days sort of pile up on us, He is exactly what and Who we need to make it through them. Being a non-Christian is somewhat easy because you don’t look to a “higher power” for inspiration or strength, you are your own strength and inspiration.

So, what do you do when the strength and inspiration that you have available to you isn’t enough? You have come to the end of your rope, a deadline is only a few hours or days away and you have nothing to bring, the chemotherapy isn’t working and you are in hospice waiting to die…your own strength is mostly gone at this point, so now what or who can you look to or call on for help? Do you just give up and die? What could possibly help in this instance? It’s not a what but a Who. God can help you in every situation and it doesn’t matter whether it is big or small because the Creator of the universe can handle it all! He may not fly in and heal you from a serious illness, but He will give you the faith and the strength to make it through with dignity and when you are taken to Heaven…the pain is gone, your worries are no more, you have an eternal home which is yours FOREVER!

I know that to our small minds dying is not a fix to a situation, but if you have given your life to God and asked for Him to forgive you, then your witness to others during your pain and suffering will be your witness and your sermon. It may not impact their life now and it may be years from now before it takes root in their lives but that seed…that spark that they saw in your life, even if you were suffering, can make a big impact.

God can use the most unusual people to get His point across. Homeless people and those in countries where Christianity isn’t tolerated at all have a very big impact on people because of their faith and their life that they live for Him while they have the time. Christians, since the time of Christ, have given their lives because of their faith in Jesus. This is not a blind faith or a cult, belief in Jesus is belief in the Truth and the Life that is available to you from God! People don’t die a martyr’s death for something which they don’t believe is real, but there have been thousands of people who have been burned at the stake, frozen in winter by exposure, torn to shreds by lions, or mercifully shot in the head because of their faith in Jesus and His atonement for them, even if it was against the “state church” like it was in the middle ages.

God loves you because He has a purpose for your life, no matter when you truly come to know Him. Even if it is at the end of your life, your decision to come to know Jesus will have an impact on someone else’s life and they will make a difference in another person’s life. Like a neatly stacked line of dominoes which expands into the shape of a tree, one person may affect two, they may impact four, they may impact sixteen, those sixteen may impact sixty-four until God has used up your impact but it is never really used up. Because the effect of one person can make a difference in millions of lives, especially today and with God and His Spirit powering the effect that your prayer or your reading of the Bible may have on others, you may be astonished at how many people you find in Heaven who will say that something that you said or wrote or shared online made a difference in their life.

Think about that. I do and I pray that all of you who read this might pass it on to someone else who needs it too.

A living Message


Jesus was and is considered the Living Word of God, so our message about Him and salvation through Him should be different for each person. Truly, it is different for all those who seek Him because nobody gets the same message from the Bible. We all get a different meaning and purpose from the words which we read in it and since there are many on the web who are writing about Jesus, all of our messages are different too…at least in some respects.

First and foremost, God loves all of us whether we think so or not. It grieves the Spirit of God when a person dies who has not found Jesus to be their Savior and Lord. Some may not see it this way, but it is true and it says so in the Bible. One of the first instances of this is found here:  Judges 10:16 “And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”

God loves us far deeper and more intimately than we can understand, so it shouldn’t be unusual for Him to grieve when we go astray or refuse to become an adopted child of His through Jesus. We don’t have to do it and we aren’t forced to do it but your life and mine are so terribly short compared to eternity and yet it is only during our lifetime that we can make this choice of asking Jesus into our lives. God loves each of us even to the point of the parable which Jesus used about the sheep that went astray out of a flock of one hundred. We have all gone astray at some point and some of us haven’t become the sheep that God wants us to be, meaning that He wants us all to come to know Him and His love for us.

We can’t do that walking around in the world looking for something or someone who we feel the need for but don’t know who or what it is that we are searching for. God sees us all wandering around but He won’t intrude on or in our lives until we ask Him to come in and help us with our lives. Just as love for another person can’t be forced or “made to happen”, your love for God can’t be a forced love it has to be one that you initiate. Once you make the step of asking Him into your life, to forgive you of the sins that you feel can’t be forgiven, then He will work in your heart and your mind to help you to conform…help you to become more like Jesus. This is our ultimate goal, to become more like Jesus. Like it or not, that really is your purpose in life because life is the training ground for so much more.

What are we training for? I don’t really know and I probably won’t find out until I get to Heaven. The point is that we are to strive toward the goal of being as much like Jesus as we can, with the Holy Spirit’s help, while we are here. Don’t judge people or look down on them because they have less than you do or more than you do because stuff is not what’s important in this life, people are. We are called to be mirror images of Jesus and for a while our reflection of Him will be a bit blurred but it takes a bit of polishing to work out those rough spots. Getting through the polishing phase is the toughest part that you will find yourself in during this life, because you will feel like God has left you to fend for yourself when He is actually using those trying times to get your faith and dependence upon Him to work together.

As long as we keep our eyes, spiritually on Jesus, then we won’t falter when the going gets a bit rough. We may have to endure some hard times with our children at home or with a disease or a family member but as long as we keep God in the center of our lives and depend upon His strength to get through today and the next day then we will come through just fine. This is what I am having to deal with today. A teenage son that, unfortunately, is just like me at his age and I have forgotten what he is going through. I have to give this struggle to God and let Him work it out because all that I can do on my own is make it worse. Lord, give me the wisdom to keep my mouth shut until he is ready to really talk to me about what he feels.

See, I may have some good advice but I have to take it too.

Where do we go from here?


In the past few years there have been many books and movies about life after death and where we go afterward. It is a touchy subject because some people think that we don’t go anywhere and some think that we do and sometimes it can cause a heated exchange online and in person. Do you ever wonder about this? I used to but since becoming a Christian, I don’t worry about it any more but I do think about what the rest of the world may be looking forward to. Are you looking forward to eternity or do you even think there is an eternity waiting for you?

Some people even think that they will be having a party in hell with Satan, but according to God’s Word there will be no party. In fact, Satan HATES you and me! Specifically because we are made in the image of God but also because God placed us above him and above angels. We will judge angels one day, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and believe in our hearts that He died for us and our sins! Satan is not a god, although he wanted to be above God. He is not omnipotent nor omniscient, but he was a powerful angel at one time and he continues to use the power that he was created with.

Where do we go in our beliefs from where we are? Many claim not to have a religious belief in any being, whether God or Satan, supreme being of any kind. Why? If there is one which some people claim to believe in and follow then there must be the other. Evil and hatred can’t exist without love, they are two sides of an eternal coin, just as light and dark or heat and cold.

God loves us, all of us and has since the beginning of Creation. Satan has been in opposition to God and His plans, whatever they were, ever since the rebellion which got him thrown out of Heaven. Satan is opposing God right now through wars, murders, diseases, and all sorts of acts which mankind is inflicting upon each other through his influence over them. He targets those of us who are serving God by tempting us and causing problems in our lives, some of which God allows to test us and our faith to make us stronger. I know that and am comfortable with it because God will see me through it all.

What about your future? Your eternal future? Not just tomorrow or next month, but after your life on Earth is finished, have you even considered it? If you haven’t, you should because it is by God’s grace that we have our being, our lives, even our next breath. If you were to stand in front of God before the dawn tomorrow, would you be able to give Him an answer to “What did you do with my Son?” Could you truthfully say that you accepted Him as your Savior? Would your Christianity hold up in a court of law today? Is there enough evidence in your life to prove to a judge on Earth that you are a Christian? Because, if there isn’t enough evidence beyond “he was a good man or a good father”, then how will God receive you?

It is something that all of us need to examine in our lives because eternity is a very LONG time and you enter it as soon as you draw your last breath in this life. Whether that is today or ten years from now or even fifty years from now, your eternity will begin that quick. Make sure that you know and are at peace with your choice because you will be stuck with that choice, and it will be because of your choice not because God sent you there.