Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

When you are afraid…


3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.56.3.KJV

All of us are afraid at some point in our lives. We may not admit it and we certainly won’t tell anyone that we are afraid…but deep down we are. It doesn’t matter if you are a police officer or a firefighter or in the Special Forces of the Military everyone feels fear. It is how we deal with it that defines our actions and our reactions in those situations. Courage is the control of our reaction to fear.

God is with us when we are afraid and if you are a Christian you have angels who are with you as your guard in front and behind you regardless of where you may be. So why are we afraid? Fear is one of the emotions that Satan uses to put doubts in our mind about God and His faithfulness. Fear can paralyze you and cause you to run when you should “be still and know that I am God“. Realize that whatever your circumstance and whatever may be causing you to fear something or someone…God is bigger than your fear and the cause of your fear!

God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for your sins and mine so that we could be welcomed into His family. God determined that this would be necessary all the way back in the Garden of Eden, long before any of us were known or thought of by anyone except Himself. He knew that we would need a Savior and that Savior would have to be one of the Trinity…His Son. Jesus came to the Patriarchs as the Angel of the Lord or the Commander of the Lord’s Army. He was also the Rock from which the water flowed in the wilderness and the Bread from heaven that sustained them. In Babylon Jesus saved the three Hebrews who were thrown into the furnace by being the One that was “like a son of the gods” in their trial with them.

God is always with us in our trials, whatever they may be so when you feel fear or you are afraid for some reason…pray a prayer for God’s Presence to be near you and to guard you and give you the strength to face it and move on.

Days…


There are days that I feel fine, then there are some days that I feel like not getting out of bed. Even Jesus had days that He dreaded but He knew that His mission and purpose was to fulfill the will and purpose of His Father. That is the what we, as Christians, should wake up to each day. Sure there are days that feel like a struggle from the moment you wake up, even before your feet hit the floor but God can give you the strength to get through this day and maybe tomorrow too.

He knows where your life ends and on what day that will be and He has planned for it. Have you?

Most of us live our lives as if we are going to live forever here on this Earth but that isn’t so. We prepare for retirement and many years into our future when we don’t even know what tomorrow holds. Only God knows what is going to happen even five minutes from now. We can’t see into the future even that far and that is enough to make me glad that He can see it and He has planned for it.

I was reading Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, his sermon that sparked an awakening of religious fervor in colonial America. The words that he used and the length of his sermon would’ve angered many people today considering the fact that it was about four hours long or more at a time when air conditioning wasn’t a thing. He told of God being angry with us to the point of our lives being compared to hanging from a moldy rope over a boiling pot of flaming oil (his description of hell). Is God angry with us enough to threaten us with this kind of punishment? He is if we don’t choose to give our lives to Jesus and repent of our sinful ways. It is our sins that take us into that pit of hell. It is our decision to reject Jesus as our Savior that sends us to that place. God doesn’t want to send us there but when we reject Jesus we are placing our life and our future on the side of Satan.

Our days are numbered and only God knows how many we will have. Some of us may live a long life and some of us may not see tomorrow morning so make sure of your salvation before the night comes. You might wake up in His Presence and you will need Jesus as your advocate and Savior when you do.

You are chosen!


Each person who has given their lives to Jesus Christ was chosen to be saved by God. Have you ever felt His touch on your heart at a church service or while listening to a sermon on television? If you have felt that at any time in your life…that was when God let your heart know that you have been chosen. Why were you chosen? Because God has something for you to do and it is something that only you can do! There is someone that only you can reach for Him or maybe it is a ministry that He has given you and it is one that only you can accomplish.

God chooses the time of your calling and the way that you are called because He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows when your life will end but He also knows that you can do so many things for His Kingdom. There is some person, maybe a child or a grandchild, that only you can reach…only you can touch their life and cause them to seek out Jesus for their Savior. Why would they do this? Usually it is because of something that you do or say or maybe how you live your life. If God calls you to be a preacher or a teacher in the church then it could be something that you say to someone in your congregation or your class or even how you live your life. It is your testimony that can let people know Who your Savior is.

Each person who has given their lives to Jesus over the past two thousand years was chosen for a specific talent that each of them brought to God’s Kingdom. Some were chosen because of their influence on those around them. Some were chosen because of the message that they would be responsible for and where that message would go. But each of us was chosen because God loves each of us and He calls us to be His messengers to one another. Make sure of your place in His Kingdom while there is time to do so.

God is True…


3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. Romans 3:3‭-‬4 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/rom.3.3-4.KJV

Praise Jesus!


20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20‭-‬21 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/eph.3.20-21.KJV

Be thankful


If you are reading this, be thankful for your eyes and your ability to read.

Life and living is something that we mostly take for granted but we shouldn’t. In the climate-change oriented world that we live in there are heat strokes and all sorts of problems out there every day that can change your life or even end it, so be careful and thankful for areas of shade or slightly cooler temperatures. The world around us has all sorts of viruses and disease-causing “bugs” that can kill without the proper treatment. Some scientists have even found viruses that we haven’t had exposure to in thousands of years and they found them in the ice of Antarctica. These could be very deadly since humanity doesn’t have any immunity to them.

Be thankful that God froze them for this length of time and hopeful that they won’t get out into our population anytime soon. God cares for us…all of us, and we should be very thankful for that. He is the designer of our solar system and if He had not placed those gas giant planets out away from us, it is likely that some comet or asteroid would’ve wiped Earth of life more often than it did.

Be thankful for all of the wondrous advances that we have access to today but keep God’s Word close to your life and your heart. Why? Because we need Him! He has provided all of the advances and the Way to salvation…essentially everything that we need for our lives. Be thankful for everything that He has provided for your family and for our salvation if we will accept it.

Have faith…


6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/heb.11.6.KJV

Amen

Place your hope in God!


13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/rom.15.13.KJV

Amen

One day…


God brings us to each day with a fresh outlook so we can enjoy it by following Him. Some of us do and some don’t, but we muddle through our day making mistakes and asking Him to give us the wisdom to get through another day. As the song says, “one day at a time, sweet Jesus” and that is what we should be thankful for.

Each day that we have is a day to be His disciple and maybe someone will see or hear something from us that may point them toward a relationship with Him. We may never find out about it until one day in heaven, but I suppose we could find out while we are here too. It just depends on how Jesus wants it to work out. Today could be your “one day” to tell someone about your Savior and what He has done for you. Tomorrow may be the day or it could happen next week.

What’s the point of this?

The point is that you never know when your opportunity will come so you need to be ready. It could happen tonight or tomorrow or next week or some day during next month. Each of us has a day to enjoy life then if God wants us to have another day we will. If you have given your life and your heart to Jesus then you are His disciple and you are supposed to be telling other people about Him. After all, He gave His life to pay for your sins and mine, so telling others about Him and His love for them is the least we can do.

Be still…


In our busy world today it seems almost like a joke when someone asks or tells you to “Be still!”. We want to say, “I don’t have time to be still, I have too much to do!”. Many of us think it, some of us may blurt it out but this is very true today. Our world, whether it is in a developed country or a third-world country or a war-torn country, is very busy, constantly moving in some direction regardless of whether it is the right one or not. When God says, “Be still and know that I AM God“, He is speaking of being still in your Spirit. Sometimes it does involve being still physically because many of us can’t focus on Him if we aren’t being still.

Can you be still? Many people are so busy running here and there trying to get things done yet most aren’t successful at getting the most important things accomplished. We do many little things during our day but many times we don’t get around to the really important decisions. “What is a really important decision?”; how about the decision to make Jesus your Savior so that your eternity is sealed with Him?

We live our lives and our careers so focused on “getting ahead” and “making sure our retirement is comfortable” but many people don’t consider their eternity. We live seventy or eighty years and spend maybe fifteen or so “enjoying” our retirement years by going to doctor after doctor. It doesn’t sound very enjoyable to me. Some do go on vacations and trips, then spend a month or more recovering from them. Consider eternity for a moment though. Even a life that lasts for a century is but a puff of smoke in comparison to ten thousand years and ten thousand years is only one tick toward one million years. Eternity is beyond our comprehension, so why not get prepared for spending it with the One Who loves you the most in all of the universe?

God sent Jesus to pay our penalty for every sin for every person from the beginning of Creation to the end. All that we need to do is believe it, repent of those sins and accept Jesus as our Savior and our eternity will be sealed with Him. Don’t believe the lie that you have plenty of time to make that decision because not one of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Just as the rich fool who built more barns to enjoy his wealth but God said “your soul is required of you tonight“, you or I don’t know when our time will be up! So, prepare for your eternity and make the decision to follow Jesus because not making that decision will send you to a place where you will regret your lack of decision for eternity.