Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

He could’ve but He didn’t


In many ways we are all fortunate to have a Savior Who loves each of us completely and without condemnation. He could’ve cast the first stone at the woman who was caught in adultery but He didn’t. He met the qualifications of having no sin to be the first to cast the stone at her, but He loved her. Every person that He met during His ministry from the disciples to those who were seeking food or a miracle really didn’t deserve His attention but they got it anyway. Why? Because He loved them and He loves us today, even though we don’t deserve His love.

God’s love for us is far more than we can understand in our limited way. Love started with God since He is the embodiment of love. So why do people either disbelieve in Him or choose not to give their heart to Him? My opinion of this is quite simple: they don’t believe and they don’t want to. Some people just can’t see that God’s offer of forgiveness and eternity is as simple as their heart-felt belief in Jesus and the atonement that He bought for us with His death, burial and resurrection. We don’t have to try to add our efforts, our “works of righteousness”, our help in saving our soul or trying to be good enough. We can’t measure up on our own and it is that simple.

Our self-righteousness is as dirty, filthy rags compared to being a forgiven true believer in Jesus and what He did to purchase our pardon from the penalty of our sins. There truly is nothing which we can do which will gain us entry into the gates of Heaven. God owns everything because He created it all, so He doesn’t need our money. We can’t give Him enough time or do enough in our own strength, even if we did it in the name of Jesus because if you are not known by the Savior then your work in His Name is false because He doesn’t know you.

In order to be truly and completely saved each of us has to know our Savior and be known by Him. If you have felt His call on your life, the conviction of your need for a Savior and the knowledge that only belief in Jesus and surrendering your life to Him will bring you the salvation that is only possible by knowing Him as your Savior then you have a decision to make. Give Him your heart and your life and repent of your sins, regardless of the perception of their size, because size doesn’t matter to God. A sin of murder is no more or less than the sin of lying or stealing in God’s eyes. When you break one of the Ten Commandments, even by your lust for a woman and no more, it is still a sin.

You can be forgiven through Jesus’ sacrifice for you and be adopted into God’s family. When Jesus was confronted in the picture above, He told the people who brought her to Him that the one without sin could cast the first stone at her for adultery. They all knew that not one of them could be considered “without sin”. He could’ve but He didn’t come to condemn people, not even one caught in the act of adultery. He came to heal and forgive and provide a way for forgiveness through belief in Him. Which is why He told her that He didn’t condemn her nor accuse her and He said, “Go and sin no more”. Could she live a sinless life even after that encounter? No, but with her belief in Him and the Holy Spirit’s help she could live her life as an example to those around her.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Jesus out as their Savior and Lord because the time is growing short for us in this sick world. Seek Him out while there is time.

Walking in His Presence


I had a dream or a vision one day but don’t ask me to elaborate on the sights and textures of it. I was reading and meditating on part of the book of Matthew, I think, and I could see myself walking on streets of gold. Matthew doesn’t speak of this but heaven is described this way in the book of Revelation. Why would I see gold under my feet? I don’t know. Maybe God was giving me a glimpse of His home? Just a small “blink and you miss it” types of glimpses? I don’t know for sure.

Don’t you think that is what Jesus meant by living a life more abundantly here? It’s possible I suppose. But if you are so spiritually-minded you are no Earthly good then what is the point of being a child of God? If we aren’t going to take our faith and the message that we should be living by out into the world at large, then what good are we doing for God? Jesus told His disciples to take the gospel out into the whole Earth and that means to our workplace and to the dog park or the market and to the mall as well. But if we don’t meditate on His Word and learn from it enough to tell others about it, what are we telling people?

Do you feel as if something is missing in your life? Do you want more than you have or do you want to be useful to God and His Kingdom? We should realize that we don’t have to be missionaries or preachers or even teachers in order to be useful to God’s Kingdom. God does give each of us a gift or a talent. Sometimes it takes us years to find out what our talent or our gift is. Many times it is because we are not searching in the right place. The only place that we can find the truth about us and what He has given us is in God’s Word and by prayerfully reading it and asking God to show you what He has for you.

God can and will show you. It won’t jump out of the Bible and it won’t be plainly on a page or in a certain book but by learning about God’s requirements for our lives. Obedience to His commandments is part of it, even though we can’t perfectly follow them. Obedience to God and the surrendering of our life and everything in it to Him is the truth of our lives in Jesus Christ. Not giving Him some of your life or some of your money but giving Him all of it. Does that mean that we are to live in poverty? Absolutely not. You were given so many blessings such as your life and your money and your job or business by God. None of it is yours. Your home, your family, your career, your very life belongs to God but until you realize this and truly give it all to Him…your life will never be as satisfying as it could be.

Your life in Christ is in heavenly places. Your soul inhabits your dwelling place in heaven even if your physical body does not. God’s Word says that we are seated with Him in heavenly places if we truly belong to Him. We are there, in Christ, in Heaven with Him and we must dwell in Him and live our lives as if we are in Him until that day when we are translated from this world to the next. We are saved by His Grace not through any vain thing that we may do but by our belief in Jesus Christ for our salvation, it is this which brings our soul into His presence at the day in which we move from this place to His home.

When you are in a storm…


Remember that you, as a Christian, are related to the One Who created rain and wind and the seas. He commands the elements and the universe itself has to obey. There are some storms which come upon us unexpectedly and there are some which we helped to create, but God is with us in all of them. He is still in control regardless of the news or the numbers which you hear on TV or radio. Whether the storm is natural or caused by mankind, God is still in control and those who doubt this will one day find out for sure. Though one day it will be apparent that He is in control, they will still cry and complain about it until they find that it is too late to change.

The storm that you are in could be financial or just a problem with your health. It could be that you are worrying about your child or how you are going to pay some bills this month. A storm in your life can happen at any time and in an instant your life will change forever. What do you do then? If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior you can call on friends or family to help you but they could be going through their own storm. Jesus is the only Person Who can take care of spiritual problems and health problems and financial problems too. When you give your heart to Him and sincerely repent of your sinful life to follow Him, He will be with you through all of the storms.

Your family and friends won’t be so close during those times of joblessness and cancer diagnosis. They will be with you every day if you win the lottery but when the money is gone, they will be too. God loves you so much that He sent Jesus to take our sins and our burdens and our problems to the cross and nail them to it forever. All that you need to do is believe in Him as your Savior and Lord and your life will be forever changed. I’m not promising that all of your troubles will go away, sometimes they get worse because of your faith in Jesus, but He will provide for you in His time and in His way.

Love makes a difference


Sometimes I have heard people ask in a wondering tone, “Why did Jesus die for me?”. The simple answer is love. As John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.”

It is the love of God which restrains His wrath even now. It is the love of God which calls to those who will hear Him to come to know Jesus as your Savior and you will be forgiven. It is God’s love which keeps our lives and our world going and moving and being in this world where there are many who don’t want His love.

God sustained Adam and Eve perfectly for a time. He sustained them and their offspring even after they disobeyed His command about the Tree of Knowledge. God has sustained the universe and our little speck of a world since creation and He will do so until it is time to change things as it says in the book of Revelation.

Yes, love does make a difference. Whether it is God’s love for us or our love for Him and for each other, true love does make a huge difference. In our lives and the lives that we touch and in the work that we do every day, it is our love which makes a difference now and will make a difference to someone else who sees what we do or say. We won’t know about the effect that we have had on other’s lives until we meet them in Heaven one day.

A kind word, holding the door for someone, paying for their meal when they didn’t ask you to, thanking God for your meal when you go out to eat, all of these things are little things but God can use them in ways that we can’t imagine.

Love is powerful and it does so many wonderful things in the world and in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Love comes from God and perfect love is His to give freely to each of us every day. Make sure that you give some away to your family and to strangers alike because you never know the impact it could have in their life and in yours too.

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound….


Amazing Grace! We have been given His Grace toward us and for us. Not because we deserve it, because we don’t. God gave us His Grace through Jesus Christ long, long ago because He loves us! Not because of what we can do for Him but because of what He wanted to do for us. He wanted us to be with Him in eternity to praise and honor Him with glory because we love Him for what He did for each of us while we were still sinners, even before we were born, even before the world itself was made…He loved us enough to come draped in human flesh so that He could reconcile our sins through His death on the cross and then redeem us through His resurrection so that we would be with Him in eternity.

How sweet the sound of the words in the song by John Newton. John Newton, who was the captain of a slave ship for a few years and all the while God was working in him and on him. One day, he gave his heart and soul to Jesus and it changed him so profoundly until he had to sit down and write one of the greatest hymns that the Christian world has ever known. Not because of the melody but because of the words and the meaning behind them. This song is a sermon of love…God’s love for us and our love for Him because He loved us first!

“That saved a wretch like me”; John Newton could hear the slaves singing spiritual songs in the hold of the ships that he was part of their crew before being made captain on another ship. It was those songs and the conviction which came by them that made him write the song that we still sing today. Because God loves us even as wretched sinners and He loved each of us enough that He sent Jesus, His Son, to die on a Roman cross in order for us to live in eternity with Him. He didn’t have to do this but He wanted to do it because it was the only way to pay our penalty totally and completely so that we could be reconciled to Him and by Him.

“I once was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind, but now I can see!” We were all lost. Struggling through this life as sinners and we didn’t know that we were dead already because of our sins. But when the Holy Spirit touched our hearts and broke them so that we could see with our spiritual eyes, we would see just how lost we truly were. Then we would know that we needed Jesus as our Savior and we would seek Him out until we found Him and asked Him to come in and clean our hearts and our minds so that we could be His.

“Through many dangers, toil and snares I have already come. His Grace has led me safe thus far and Grace will lead me Home”; In life we do go through toil and snares which Satan has put in front of us each day, but God’s grace and His Strength will guide you and me through these times and carry us home to Heaven one day. Seek Jesus out for your salvation so that you will be lead home to Heaven one day because He is the only pathway to Eternity. John Newton knew it, Billy Graham knew it, and the Bible tells us about it, all that we have to do is give our life to Him and walk with Him until that day comes when we will be taken home to be with Him.

Is there peace in your life?


In the political and anti-religious climate is it even possible to have peace? Yes, it is! If you place your trust and your faith in Jesus Christ. Many of us today, Christians and non-Christians, either forget where our peace comes from or we never really knew in the first place. Granted, the peace which Jesus brings into your life is much different from “peace and quiet” or a “peaceful, easy feeling” but many people still look for both of those after they have “tried” Jesus and they will tell you that it only gets worse!

The problem with people like that is that they don’t know that you can’t “try out” Jesus and enjoy the benefits of being a true Christian who has given their heart to Him and allowed Him to truly change them from the inside out. There is no trial period before you make a decision to keep Jesus in your life or not. He is the One Who chooses you first, then you feel convicted of your guilt for the sins that you have committed and you know that you need Him in your life!

God loves each of us and He calls you through His Holy Spirit and it is His choice to choose you, not yours. It is your choice to respond to His call on your life and some people do refuse but most people know that their life will never be the same and it will never feel peaceful if they do refuse to accept Him as their Savior. Sometimes those who refuse on the first call will get a second later in their life but if you keep pushing the Spirit away and keep refusing His call on your life…one day He won’t call on you. God will let you go and let you have your life the way you want it, without Him. At that point, you will never feel His touch or His call on your life again.

You don’t get to decide to get saved. If and when you feel Him call you and you respond with a humble heart to give your life to Jesus, it is only then when the reality of being a Christian will come into your life. From that point on you will need to seek Him every day, read the Bible, pray that He will reveal His Wisdom in the Bible to you so you can grow in His Wisdom and knowledge. All of this is not dumped into your brain when you are baptized, you have to study God’s Word to know Him better because He already knows you.

Is being a Christian easy? NO! Jesus was tempted for 40 days in the desert. We are tempted by Satan every day from the time you become a Christian until you die! Why does Satan make it that hard? Because if he can get you to stumble in front of one person who might become a Christian, he knows that they may change their mind and not become a Christian. What makes it so hard is that you don’t know who or where those people might be. It might be your son or daughter. It might be someone you work with. It may be a total stranger in a burger joint, but if you cuss or somehow ruin their idea that you are a Christian then Satan has done his job.

You may never see that person again but they may never believe that anyone is a Christian just because of something you did or something you said. It takes prayer and reading God’s Word and praying about what you just read and making it a habit every day. Because until you are so close to God that Satan doesn’t want to come around you, he will. Work on your witness and your character until he can’t tell the difference between you and Jesus. With the Holy Spirit helping you and your reading and praying about what you read, Jesus will help you to become peaceful in all of your situations in your daily life.

What is in your heart will prevail


There are many things that mankind can do but we do tend to speak first before we think. Many times that fault gets us in very much hot water.

We live our lives in a constant state of searching. When we are very young we are searching for others who will keep us entertained and also the people that we belong to who will feed us, our parents. This really doesn’t change much as we get older and move out of our parent’s house although our seeking does eventually change somewhat. Life and our place in it also changes with the years that we live on this Earth where we were placed. Because, God has always had a plan for your life and mine. Sometimes we listen to His voice and sometimes we drown out His voice because we are enjoying our perceived “freedom” a bit too much.

The only change which comes into our lives usually comes in the form of an event of some importance, usually a change in our status to some degree. We get married or we have a child with someone or both and we sometimes realize at that point that we are responsible for bringing this new person into the world and teaching them how they are supposed to live. Hopefully we will teach them values and precepts from God’s Word. Many times in today’s world and in the 21st century as well, either we will teach them from the Bible or we won’t. Even if we do use God’s Word to teach them, they will have their own ideas once they reach adulthood.

Sometimes their “ideas” will have been influenced by their education once they go off to college and they reject what we taught them. Then sometimes we choose not to teach them from the Bible because we don’t really believe it ourselves, even if we were brought up to believe in Jesus and in His Word. We tend toward unbelief because that is our way, even when we feel that something in our lives is missing. We will search for and try to internalize almost anything except God and His Word…until we get a “wake-up call” one day that reorients our thinking.

It is this reorientation which brings us back into a relationship with God. Sometimes it happens because we have been touched by God during a service in church or maybe at a funeral. Other times it may happen because of something which God allows to happen to us which He uses to get our attention and put our spiritual compass aligned with His purpose for our life.

Does any of this sound familiar?

It should because it happens to all of us at some point in our lives. All of us who feel that spiritual touch or realignment don’t respond in the same way. Some will seek God’s place in our lives and put Him on the throne of our heart. Some will turn completely away from His influence and never darken the door of a church again. Which way you turn is never a surprise to God because He knows which way you will go already, but He was likely holding out a small sliver of hope because He loves you.

You would likely say, “Well, if He knows what I’m going to do anyway then why does He offer salvation to me?”. Because He loves you.Does God really know and see everything even before we do it or act upon it? Yes, He does but the offer is still there just the same. God doesn’t have to wait to see the outcome of your decision because HE already knows the outcome but the offer of salvation is still there. Why? Because we are fickle creatures. Our decision could change almost in the blink of an eye for a reason which isn’t even a thought at this moment.

“But if God knows what we think or imagine in our hearts and minds, why does He offer us salvation when He knows the outcome already?” I can’t answer this question because God does what He does because He is God and we can’t fathom the how or why of His decisions. Only He knows about those reasons and we cannot discern His thoughts. Even if we could we would not understand it still. I pray that there will be more on the Lord’s right hand when He judges the Earth than there are on His left. Make sure of your place while there is time to do so.

What do you expect from God?


You know that most of us are not taught to expect much from the Creator. In Sunday school and during our worship service we hear about what He did in David’s life and we wonder why hasn’t God used me in some way? Granted, we aren’t going to kill a giant like David did but the giants that we have to deal with today are more insidious and even more hurtful than Goliath. There are so many giants today which compete for supremacy over us such as alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction and the list could go on and on.

God gives each of us some talent or acumen that no one else has, yet many of us don’t pursue using them. Sometimes we are afraid to use them because we think that we won’t be accepted. So, should we use our talents for God’s glory or our own? The best advice I can give is to pray about it and listen for His answer. When we find out what our talent or God’s calling is on our lives some of us don’t like what we know to be His will. Then we strike out on our own and attempt to live our life the way we feel is the right way. Will God let you do this? Of course He will. He let Jonah do the very same thing but He turned Him around. So, when things begin to go wrong in your life and you know that you have been walking and living your way instead of His way, you will remember this.

Do we expect anything from God? In today’s church, I don’t think that there are many people who believe that God is even listening or even interested in us at all. Yes, there are some who read and study God’s Word diligently but most seem indifferent to what it says, let alone meditate on it.

If you are expecting anything from God, then you need to know Him and be known by Him. God loves each of us and truly wants us to know just how much. But if He doesn’t hear from you or see that you are trying to get to know Him better why should He answer when you pray? Seek Him out when you feel convicted that you need Him. If you don’t do so, you might not get another chance.

Do you know God?


A strange question for sure but do you know Him? Many of us who attend church and claim to be Christians claim to know about God but knowing about Him is not enough. Even when you read it on a fairly regular schedule you will miss a lot if you aren’t praying your way through it. The Bible is a book and sometimes we tend to read it like a normal book and it is NOT a normal book. God’s Word, which is what our Bible is, is His love letter and a guidebook for a person to find out Who our Messiah really is!

Jesus is the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament and He is known by some other names too. Usually with the name capitalized such as the Commander of the Lord’s armies, or “a fourth man who looks like a Son of God” when He visited the three Hebrews when they were thrown into the fire. God makes His entrance into humanity’s life in many ways but when you read the Bible without prayer and an attitude of seeking Him, you miss out on the message contained within.

God is the true Author of the entire Bible because it was through His Spirit that all of the writers, from Moses to John, were inspired to write and were given the words to write down so others would be able to learn about Him. From the first mention of “the Seed of the woman” until we read about the birth of Jesus there are pictures in words of Who Jesus would be and what His mission would be as well. Every prophecy about Him was fulfilled during His ministry and His death, burial and resurrection. The only one which hasn’t come to pass is His return which will happen, likely in our lifetimes.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Him in the Bible not only to get to know God and His Son but also to be transformed by Him and then take His message of hope and salvation to those that you come into contact with. The time is growing short for us to get His message out, so don’t put it off. Seek Him while there is time to do so.

and three iron nails.

Woe to those calling good evil…


Isaiah 5:15-21

15 And the mean man shall be brought down and the mighty man shall be humbled and eyes of the haughty shall be humbled. 16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 18 Woe to them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope; 19 That say, Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it! 20 Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

We are living in this time right now even though this prophecy was written 2800 years ago. There are many who are doing exactly the things which are described in the verses above. Why are we going through this today? Because this was foretold to happen before the end of the age. If you pay attention to the news you can hear these things coming to pass right now. Good is being called evil and evil deeds are taught in schools as the right thing to do.

How much is known today from God’s Word? Even in America which calls itself a “Christian” nation, the media and the news report of things in a backward fashion and very few give any respect toward the Bible and its Word. Most don’t know more than one or two verses from God’s Word and they don’t know or understand the context of that which they do know. These are the prophecies which we should be looking at for some clarity in these days, not the writings of a man from Europe even if some interpretations of his might have come to pass. All of the prophecies of God’s Word have come to pass so I think I would give more weight to those prophecies which have already come to pass.

Granted the prophecies in the Bible don’t give dates or times but all of the prophecies have come true with the exception of those concerning the Tribulation in the book of Revelation. They are yet to be fulfilled but all others have come to pass. This is the very reason that I believe God’s Word as being accurate and true since no one but God could know these things ahead of time. I pray that all who read this will do so with an open mind and seek out Jesus for their salvation.