What do you know about God?

Some people can claim to know a lot about God. Some claim that they don’t believe He exists. But in the Bible, there are many people who have seen His miracles and His love for them shown in many different ways. From providing food and water for the Israelites in the desert for forty years to making sure that none of them got sick or feeble during that time. Miracles abounding almost every day and yet after they made it to the Promised Land most of them forgot about God within one generation.

Why?

I believe if I had seen the Red Sea split and I walked through it on dry ground, that would’ve been enough. If I had seen the manna and the water from the rock and the quail that piled up in the camp knee-deep…I would’ve believed in Him. When they went into the Promised Land the first city to fall literally was Jericho after their marching around it for seven days and then on the seventh day they blew the trumpets and shouted and the thick walls fell down. This was happening in Exodus and Joshua.

There are so many miracles that happen in the Old Testament and many more in the New Testament and yet there are still people who either don’t believe or just won’t. True, if you don’t believe that the Bible was written as inspired by the Holy Spirit then none of the miracles which happened in the Old or the New Testaments will make a difference in how you know God. But consider this: God created the heavens and the Earth and everything that is seen and unseen in both. Granted, it may take some small amount of faith to believe this and He can supply it. God lives outside of our “dimension” if you will and He can see and has seen everything that mankind has done and will do but He still loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross so that those who will believe would have a chance at eternity with Him.

Does that mean that He knows who will believe and who will not? Yes, but He doesn’t force belief on us. That comes to each of us when we realize that we need Him by faith which He has given to us by the hearing of a sermon or by reading His Word. At that point, we know that without Jesus as our Savior we are going to spend eternity separated from God in hell. We know that if we choose not to accept Jesus as our Savior and we die before we change that, we will be going to hell. It is our choice because we know by faith that we need Him and if we don’t make that choice then our destination is set. If we do, then we will be changed when we repent of our sinful condition and ask Jesus into our hearts and at that moment we are forgiven and brought into God’s family through the blood of Jesus that paid for our sins on the cross.

In the most simple terms, God is the embodiment of love. Unconditional love. The kind that we can do nothing to earn. We just have it because He loved each of us so much that He sent Jesus to pay our sin debt in order for us to be with Him in eternity. We can’t earn it. We don’t deserve it, but it is a gift by the grace and mercy of God through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Do you serve God?

This bit of wisdom from a homeless man got my attention and I had to repeat it here. I read this in a Desiring God email and the man asked: “Is following Jesus hard or easy?”; then he turned around and answered his own question, “If you have given your heart fully to him then following Jesus is easy. If you are split in your devotion and torn between following Jesus and this world, then it is hard.”

When Jacob was working for Rachael in Genesis, he had agreed to work for seven years. But the love that he had for her made those seven years seem like days. Why can’t we serve God in the same way? Life here is not easy regardless of your work or your vocation and for many, many people it is a struggle to even maintain life on a daily basis.

We seem to have the idea that our devotion to God can be an on one day and off one day kind of devotion, but how would you feel if that was God’s view of us and our life on this world? What would happen to us and our world if God just turned the Sun off for a while? The first notable difference would be that global warming wouldn’t be an issue any more. The temperature would drop in the first thirty minutes and it would be so drastic until the oceans would begin to freeze before the news could report on the Sun being dark.

There will be no “freezing of the oceans”, that is just my illustration. It is our devotion to God which can make life much better for us and for those around us. Many of us have a lot of trouble loving Someone without being able to see them but when you consider that God has loved each of us individually long before we were born…shouldn’t we at least try to focus our devotion on Him during the rest of our lives however long or short they may be?

Jesus came to Bethlehem to be born as a human being with His nature as God intact. He came to pay the price for all of mankind’s sins and that is what He did. He did this because of love, especially the love of God, is far stronger than anything that we could do or be. We could not “help” Him to bring salvation to us because it could only come through His sacrifice. Living as His child and being devoted to Him for the rest of our lives should not be hard. Even though you and I can’t see Him, you can look at all of the life and the wondrous beauty of creation and see that the Creator’s hand is now and was involved when creation began.

We are coming to the end of the church age so I hope that everyone who has not made a decision about their salvation will do so and soon. We don’t know what day He will call the church, those who have given their hearts to Him, to come home to heaven but it could be any day now.

Seek the Lord and His goodness!

Wisdom is what we need…

The Cross…

God knew how to put us together because He had done it before. Every cell, whether it is a muscle cell or a nerve cell is there for a reason. Just like each of us who have a purpose and so do each one of our cells. This molecule is the “glue” which holds our cells and our body’s systems together. God’s Word points us in this direction because it says so.

Freeze!

This past week has been cold all over the United States. Why would I celebrate this cold and dangerous time in our country? Everything in our country can’t always be good and equitable for everyone. Life always has ups and downs. Good days and bad.

God loves each of us and offers us eternity with Him so why do people refuse His offer? We go through trials and trouble and problems with our bodies and at our jobs and even with our relationships. Sometimes we depend on God for our help with these things and sometimes we tell Him that we can handle it even when we know that we can’t. Oh, we may not actually tell Him that we will handle things but when we don’t seek His help with whatever it is then we are telling Him to His face that we can do it. He will let us try and usually we will fail. Then, if we have any conscience at all, we will seek His help to fix the mess that we have now.

After all of this ice and snow melts we will have really mushy yards and mine is already on its way to being that way. It is pretty when it falls and stays for a while but it is a pain and so muddy when it is melting and going away. That is another way of looking at our life with or without Jesus in it. I’m not saying that becoming a Christian will solve all of your problems immediately because it won’t. Satan will still attack you on many fronts and try to take your witness away or at least mess it up so that people who don’t really know you will just dismiss your witness as fake.

That is why when the ice storms and the hail and sleet come into your life as problems and pains and broken hearts, make sure that you turn to and lean on Jesus. He can strengthen you and give you the faith and ability to get through all of these problems. Some people will scoff at this but God does care about each of us and He will be near you in all of your problems IF you give your heart to Him and repent of your sins. Don’t expect Him to comfort you if you don’t belong to Him. That would be like expecting a total stranger to comfort you and take care of your needs. Some people might but not all.

God has always been close to humanity because of Israel and the Jewish people. He always has His attention on us and if you are a believer He knows you more intimately than anyone.

You are blessed…

In all of the days that we need Jesus, He is there. During the times that we think we don’t need Him, He is there. At the time that we truly need Jesus, He is as close as a prayer and right next to us. He never leaves us alone.

Troubled times

God is always near regardless of where we are. If you are a Christian, you are never truly alone. He’s always by your side. Depend on His strength to get you through today and tomorrow.

Add a little spice

Now don’t get crazy with your imagination because of the title. If you really want some spice, see how long you can read through the Song of Solomon. It has many verses in it that would bring steam to your glasses and possibly embarrass you if you were preaching from it. This is why there are very few who have preached from it in church.

God designed the human body and He ordained sex as a way for married couples to populate the world. So why shouldn’t Solomon write about it? He did have 700 wives, not a very wise man in my opinion but I’m sure he found out a LOT about women!

God really did spice things up when He had to. Most of the time the spice that God added in the Old Testament had to do with getting Israel’s attention back on serving Him. Many times they would for a while but they were just like the rest of us today. When things are going good we don’t want to know God or even feel that we need Him…but when things aren’t going well at all we do cry out to Him because we know He can help!

Even people who don’t believe in God will cry out to Him when they feel helpless and there is no other possible help available. God has loved humanity ever since He created us and it is His grace and mercy which sustains us even on those days when we forget Him or refuse to acknowledge Him for all of our blessings. Jesus would not have given His life for us if it weren’t for the love that He felt then and still feels for us today.

Your life in Christ is assured if you repent and give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to be your Savior and Lord.

We are coming to the end of the church age. Likely much sooner than most will admit or even consider. I pray that all who come here will give their life to Jesus because when the Trumpet of God sounds and the dead in Christ rise your choice will be much harder than it is today. In service, until He comes.