Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

Wisdom or education?


Which is more valuable to you and to those around you? I’ve heard of people who have PhD’s who are working at McDonald’s, so how much is their education helping flip the burgers or fix salads or serve up french fries? I know the problem. Some people with those heavy duty letters behind their name either can’t find a job in their field or they were downsized out of a job. So they had to take a job that would kinda pay some bills. I have a BS degree in Medical Technology but I’m disabled and can’t work in my field. So how much good does all of this education do for our communities or the country?

Not very much good at all.

Wisdom can be learned from the trials that we go through because of our education. Wisdom can also be learned by reading God’s Word, the Bible. Because the wisdom contained in it is wisdom which isn’t bought or purchased from an education system. The wisdom that comes from God’s Word comes straight from the Source of all Life. You might ask “What if I don’t believe in God?” Well, the wisdom contained in the Bible, specifically Psalms and Proverbs, is wisdom which can be used for business and the home as well. The Bible is a book which covers many areas of life experience, so reading it and seeking God’s wisdom can help you in many areas of life.

There is a misconception that the Bible is only for “holy rollers” and church people but it really isn’t. It is the history of God’s chosen people, the Jews, but it is also about human nature and how we tend toward self-destructive behavior in our spiritual life as well as our life in general. We see this kind of behavior in everyday life. On the news, in our own family, in our friends lives, in celebrity’s lives, in politics, you name it, the behavior to destroy our lives is not limited to spiritual people or to those who choose not to believe.

“So how can learning from God’s wisdom help me?” There are many answers to that question. One is it can draw you closer to your Creator and He will draw closer to you. Even closer than He already is! God did not create this world and the human race and then run to some far-flung corner of the universe to retire. He is involved in our world every day. He sees the horrible things that we do to each other. He knows the pain that we feel when someone close to us dies. He cares about you far more than you can imagine.

The Bible speaks about the time that we are living in right now. People will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money. They won’t care about others or the church but will be working to get rid of the church. Why? Because the Truth which is found in the Bible cannot be destroyed or turned away from once you know what it says. The world around us has been on a downward spiral for years but we are coming to the end of what is called “the church age”. It began when Jesus ascended to heaven and it will end when He returns for His bride, the church. When will this happen? God is the only one that knows that answer. It could be tonight or tomorrow or next week or next month but it is going to happen.

If you are not a believer in Jesus for your salvation prior to that day, if you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked Him to forgive you of your sins then you will be left on Earth when that day comes. You will go through the Tribulation described in the book of Revelation and it will essentially be “hell on Earth” during those seven years. There will be death from diseases and wars and demons. You will be forced to take a mark in your hand or your forehead in order to buy or sell anything. If you have become a Christian but you take that mark, God will wipe your name from the Book of Life and you will forfeit your salvation. If you don’t take the mark, they will hunt you down and kill you but if you are a Christian you will just step from this life into eternity with Jesus!

The Bible is a book of history and changes and it is His story as well. Because Jesus is foretold in every book of the Bible. He is the Seed of the woman in Genesis and He is the Alpha and Omega in Revelation as well as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. There are so many names for Jesus in the Bible but the one name that I love the most is “My Savior and my Lord!” Seek Him in the Scriptures, ask Him into your heart and your life and you will never be the same again because when He comes into your heart you are a new creation in Christ!

Confusion and anarchy


It seems that these two words define most of the “news” we hear or read about these days. Both of them cause the other so they just feed off of each other and no improvement is seen anywhere they happen to be. The Bible gives us a clear picture of what it will be like leading up to the time of the Tribulation and it is matching up pretty well. God’s Word doesn’t specifically name countries and people involved but reading Matthew 24 and Ezekiel 9 and the beginning chapters of Revelation they all read as if you are looking at today’s newspaper article (if anyone reads those anymore).

Jesus told His disciples that these things would happen, that it would be like the days of Noah before the end of the age. Persecution of the church is growing here as well as in other countries. Freedom of religion is being watered down so that it barely gives any freedom to the Christian church. Limits on what can be preached and where our religion is looked on as hate speech in some areas of the country. The country that we grew up in doesn’t resemble the America that you see on the news broadcasts. It has become much worse than I’d ever dreamed that it would and the reality is that it won’t get better regardless of the person in the White House.

We have to look up for our salvation and our Redeemer is drawing nearer every day.

God never says anywhere in the Bible that He hates the sinner. He only hates the sin that they live in. Those sins are given in God’s Word and I’m not going to list them here. Most people who are living in sin know which sins they are committing and they don’t have to be told. So why do so many in the world refuse to accept the mercy and grace that God offers through belief in Jesus Christ?

Partly because of pride in their own beliefs and traditions. Many refuse because of the requirements of their religious training as a child and because they will be disowned or beaten and sometimes killed for giving their heart and their life to Jesus Christ. Then there are some cults in the world that have changed the Bible into something that they can believe in but they have demoted Jesus to “a son” of God. Christians are taught that we should “turn the other cheek” but we should at least try to win our brother or sister or our best friend to Jesus Christ if they will listen. Telling family about Jesus is a very hard thing to do because most of the time the family has been to church together. You and your brother or sister may have been baptized in the church.

The problem is usually something that has been named “cultural Christianity”. Everyone that you know or grew up with has gone to or attended church. Everyone around you has heard the sermons and maybe even been baptized after a revival. The problem shows itself in their lives after being baptized. They live and work as if they’ve never heard about Jesus but they know about Him and God too. Usually they will even say, “The Big Guy and I have an arrangement”.

God doesn’t make “arrangements” with people and He isn’t the “Big Guy upstairs” either. God doesn’t like being represented by a carved image nor does He like being referred to by some made up name. He is God the Father, Elohim, or Yahweh but I wouldn’t give Him a name other than those found in the Bible. He is the Creator of all things and the Ancient of Days but no other name than these.

Living your life out of sync with the Bible and the way that is described in the New Testament after you have been baptized is incompatible with true repentant Christianity and it’s wrong. Why? Because if someone sees you living this way and you tell them that you are a Christian they will think that it is acceptable to go out and drink and do things that you wouldn’t want your Mom to see you doing. The reality is that God knows you and He can see every thought and every sin that you do, regardless of where you are or who you are with.

One message in its pages


Ever since mankind began writing he has recorded important facts pertaining to his history and all kinds of important details of life in the ages past. We have books and written history going back thousands of years at least back as far as the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Hebrew writings of Moses. Some have questioned the authenticity of God’s Word over the centuries but there are more accurate copies of the books that make up the Bible, even the New Testament than there are of other profound works such as Iliad and other Greek tales that no one questions.

The message which is stated in the Bible, from Genesis to the book of Revelation, is about God’s love for humanity. Specifically for the Jewish nation but His love extends to all of the people of the world as well. In the gospels, Jesus says that his disciples will take this message to the whole world and in the two thousand years since His resurrection it has been taken or it is available to everyone who is seeking salvation through Him. That message is that we are loved by the Creator with a love that we just cannot understand on our own.

C.H. Spurgeon said it this way in a sermon and it is more true today than ever:

See what vitality the gospel has! Plunge her under the wave, and she rises the purer from her washing; thrust her in the fire, and she comes out the more bright for her burning; cut her in sunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and like the hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you cut away. She cannot die, she must live; for she has the power of God within her. (C. H. Spurgeon)

The Biblical Illustrator, Electronic Database.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission. BibleSoft.com

In chapter one of the gospel of John he writes:

The Beginning

(Genesis 1:1-2)

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.

The message conveyed in the Bible from beginning to the end is the same one found in John 3:16, 17. Here is the text of those passages:

For God So Loved

(Genesis 22:1-10; Romans 5:6-11)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Anyone who seeks Him will find Him and in Him they will be saved and have life eternal with Him in heaven. The message is simply: God loves you and me and the whole world, that is why Jesus came to live and die and rise again.

The Truth of Jesus’ ministry


There is so much evidence for Jesus and yet there are so many who refuse to believe in Him. There are thousands of historical documents which were written within a few years of His death and resurrection and still people refuse to believe what their heart tells them is true. Why is that? There are many reasons—pride, selfishness, ego, or just plain stubbornness.

Some of it is just plain stubborn pride. Pride in the works of others who didn’t want to believe the Truth. Pride in themselves because they were going to live their life the way they wanted to live it. The problem with that is this: they have no hope. Jesus gives us hope for the future and forgiveness for our sins. So what do you hope in? Who do you place your hope…your faith in? There is only One person that deserves your hope and your faith and that is Jesus Christ the Son of God!

The whole of creation shows us implicitly and without question Who we should believe in. So why do we try to place our hope in flawed human beings? Or in something that another person tells us is the “One”? All of these hopes that we make for ourselves…that we create for ourselves are just that…man-made and they do not have any power or purpose. The reason that we try to make or believe in something that is just another part of creation is because of Satan himself. He is trying to take as many people away from God as he can in the time that he has left and it isn’t much.

The reality of Jesus Christ is that He was with God at the beginning and He came to Earth to live with us and as a human being so He could truly identify with our pains and worries and our temptations. He is also coming back soon to take His bride, the Church, back to the place that He has prepared for her. The believers in the world are the Bride of Christ so you can believe or not, it is your choice. But the day that He calls the Church to His home is coming soon. Make sure that you are one of those who will be called home.

The prophetic blessing


Many churches today seem to be questioning God’s Word and its significance or even its truthfulness. Some are not preaching from the book of Revelation. They don’t preach about the end times or they don’t preach about what it means to be a Christian because they don’t want to offend anyone.

The blessing which God gave to Moses for Aaron to bless Israel with begins in the book of Numbers chapter 6: 22-26: …On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, 24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: 25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

Why is Christianity offensive to some or possibly most people today? Because they don’t like a religion which tells them the Truth and gives them limits or rules to live their lives by. Are we supposed to water down God’s Word during these troubled times that we are living in? Absolutely not!! God’s Word doesn’t become washed out nor are we supposed to temper it with less force where it calls sin a sin so that people will know for sure those things which are pleasing to God and which are not.

The Bible is God’s Word and we are to teach all of it to our children and to those who will hear it. Today it seems that there are many who do not want to hear the Truth found in the Bible and that is sad. What surprises me is that some of the preachers and evangelists of the 20th century like Billy Graham and A. W. Tozer and others were seeing people turn away from sound teaching even sixty years or more in the past. The world around us has grown bitter toward the Truth found in the Bible today. Many churches and denominations have begun “watering down” their messages and that is not what we are supposed to do.

I am not ashamed of the gospel and I will not water it down or change its message to suit others feelings. A preacher should preach the whole Word of God without picking and choosing the parts that please men’s ears. Jesus didn’t back away from telling His critics what God’s Word says and we shouldn’t back away from the Truth found in it either. The whole Bible points us to Jesus Christ and He is our Savior and Redeemer and there is no other way to come to the throne of God except by belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior.

The blessing of God will not fall on someone who doesn’t believe His Word is true. Knowledge of God and His Scriptures is only knowledge and doesn’t save your soul. Believe in Jesus for your salvation and then turn away from your old lifestyle and live your life in service to Him.

God’s Word is True!


God’s Word was given to us for learning, correction, wisdom, and salvation because of Who it points us to. We are not supposed to change it or edit it in any way because God’s words and His wisdom is above every human perception. If any changes have been made in the translation of God’s Word it must still contain the same message and point to the same Savior, Jesus Christ. If there are any ambiguities or confusion causing language in the book you are using that is supposed to be God’s Word then you need a new Bible. God is Jehovah and He has many names which tell of His glory and His provision for mankind. Jesus Christ is the Son of God Who came to be the spotless Lamb of God to redeem mankind once and for all. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher and the Comforter and the third Person of the Trinity that is God. He is with you and everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ as their Savior. Seek Him for your salvation today because you may not have tomorrow to do it. He loves you and if you are convicted of your sins, don’t turn away from His touch.

Little things…


There are days that little things don’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. Such as how you feel in the morning or when you have your coffee, if you drink coffee. Some days, little things don’t seem to matter a lot but we all have those days in which even the little things can cause problems or even compound the problems that we are having on that day. So can we do anything about them? Most of the time we really don’t have much, if any, control over the little things. The bigger problems which come along from week to week are the problems that we usually don’t have control over.

In light of thinking about this, Jesus tells us in the gospels not to worry at all. Because God the Father knows what you need and He will supply it at the proper time. Of course our humanity usually causes us to ignore this advice and worry anyway but when you think of worry as “practical atheism” Christians shouldn’t do it at all. By worrying we are telling God that we don’t think that He can or will handle this problem so we need to worry about it and find an answer to it on our own. Why is this a problem? Because when we take the problem into our hands by worrying about it and trying to find our solution to said problem, God will just step back and allow us to work on it ourselves. Then when our “solution” fails He will come in and let us know that we should try it His way the next time.

Problems, big and small, can cause anxiety in our lives if we allow it to. God tells us that we don’t have to endure this anxiety if we would just give Him the problem to solve and let Him solve it. Few of us can do this because we think that we need to help God with our problems. God created the universe out of nothing so what makes us think that He needs our help? Just as He told Job, “Where were you when I hung the stars in their places?”. Since He can do all of the things in the book of Genesis without any help from us, I believe that God can handle our little problems in this life.

Our problems seem to be BIG to us and the longer they stick around the BIGGER they seem to get. But God is bigger than all of our problems and He can handle them all by Himself if we let Him. It is hard to believe that we could take something from God but we can. Simply by worrying about it and telling God that we’ll handle it and He doesn’t have to do anything for us is one way to take back your problem that you were seeking a solution to. He can see the outcome of that path even before we head in that direction but if we insist on taking our problem back, He will allow it.

I’ve repeated myself in the paragraphs above because it needed to be repeated, like in the Bible. If you are a young Christian (one that has just come to a saving knowledge of Jesus), you may not have this problem. Most new Christians will give their problems to God and they seem to have more faith than Christians who’ve been acquainted with Jesus for a long time. We’ve grown comfortable in our relationship with God and Jesus and we think that we can handle certain problems and we will let them have the BIG problems in our life. God wants to be involved in your life in every way and in every decision whether they are big decisions or little ones.

Faith…do you have it?


Without faith it is impossible to please God. So…do you have any faith in Him? In Mark chapter 9 there was a father who had come to Jesus’ disciples first because his son had a demon who afflicted him. This boy had this going on for many years and the apostles could not cast it out. When his father saw Jesus he said something that you don’t hear or read in the Bible very much. The father told Jesus that his son had been this way since childhood and he said “If you can….”.

Mark 9:14-29  14 When they came back to the disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. 16 And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it slams him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth and stiffens out. I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it.” 19 And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me!” 20 They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. 21 And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 “It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” 26 After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. 28 When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, “Why could we not drive it out?” 29 And He said to them, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”

The boy’s father didn’t know Jesus very well at this point but he did ask Jesus to heal his son and help him with his unbelief. God can do all things as long as we believe in Him and don’t doubt that He can. But, mustering up enough faith to see something done that you have trouble believing that it can be done is something else entirely. Yet, God can help you with your faith in ways that you don’t reallize at first. Our God and Savior is AWESOME so don’t consider for a moment that He can’t do something that you ask of Him because He can!

I pray that everyone who may be in the path of the storms in our country and all over the world will seek His strength and guidance in these troubled times.

Who is Jesus Christ?


This is a question which has been asked ever since His ministry began over two thousand years ago. How can I answer this question? According to God’s Word He is our Savior and the King of Kings. He is also the seed of the woman. He was the cloud by day and the pillar of flame by night to guide the Israelites in the wilderness. When they finally crossed over into the Promised land, Joshua met the Captain of the Lord’s Host with His sword drawn. That was the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ.

Our Lord can be our Savior if we invite Him into our hearts and believe that He is our Savior. So many times when the Israelites were going through the Promised land they turned away from God and went after the gods that those around them were worshiping even though these “gods” were not gods at all. They were a generation which had not seen the miracles of God which brought them out of bondage in Egypt. They may have heard about them from the priests or their grandparents but it is likely that they didn’t believe them.

Later, when Israel had been taken to Babylon, it was demanded that all of the people would worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar . When some would not, he had an oven made hotter than it had ever been. So hot that when he ordered the three to be thrown into the fire, the men who put them in were killed by the heat as they pushed Shadrach, Meeshach and Abednego into the furnace. Then the king looked into the fire and saw four men and one of them looked like “a Son of God”, and he called them out of the furnace. Their hair was not burnt, their clothes didn’t smell like smoke and they were not harmed because Jesus showed up in their fiery trial.

There are many other names and places where Jesus showed up in Scripture. Sometimes in a human form and sometimes He was there in the circumstances. Our Lord and Savior comes to us when that need is there. He is there during our hardest time and in our best day. If you believe in Him as your Savior then the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart and He will teach you about Jesus and be your strength when you don’t have any. He will be your friend when you can’t find any. He is our Provider and our Shelter. He is our Deliverer and our Protector. He is the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Great “I AM”. He is the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the Son of David and the Son of God. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the Commander of the Lord’s angels. He is Jesus Christ now at the right hand of God the Father.

Seek Him and you will find Him and He will fill that empty place in your heart and bring peace to your troubled soul.

Who is in charge?


In our society today even those who are supposed to be in charge have doubts about who is really in charge. Some aren’t sure of their ability. Some are blocked from doing what needs to be done by those who want to see them fail. Some people just want to find someone to blame for their problems and they don’t care what they do or say about someone to switch the blame to someone else. In our country and our world at large it seems that nobody acknowledges that God is really the One Who is in charge.

In Colossians chapter 1 Paul writes this:  16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 

Our Creator, Redeemer and Savior is God and also Jesus Christ in whom we live and have our life now and into eternity. If you have given your life to Jesus and follow Him then your Spirit lives in Him and through Him. God’s love for us and especially the Jewish people is a love which cannot be measured by any human measure. We cannot understand it. He is above us and yet when Jesus came to live among us, He personally lived as a man so that He would know our weakness and our frailties and would be able to identify with each of us in a personal way.

Some people foolishly think that we are able to “rise above the human condition” with no help from anyone. If you look at the history of every country in the world, you can see that it just doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t matter what political system is involved, mankind will be the animal that we think he is. While it is true that humanity can be and do good things for a while, historically it won’t last very long.

We can be more like Jesus Christ if we live according to His Word and teachings. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and changes your “condition” so that we are able to rise above but we must live in His Word. Reading it, studying it, praying about it and what we can do through Him to be more like Him. Without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. Our “natural inclination” is to be selfish and seek pleasure for our own purposes and do whatever it takes to “get ahead” in life. But by reading and studying God’s Word, not man’s rules and ideas, we can move toward being better than we could be on our own IF the Holy Spirit is allowed to work in and through us.

Don’t be the animal that “evolution” says that we are. God did not design us by using an ape, we are made in God’s image! More people need to see Jesus in and through our actions and our lives so that they will want to know Him too. The future of humanity is written in God’s Word and we should be living through Jesus and He should be working through us to bring the whole world into the future that God has prepared for it.