Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

What do you feel?


Have you ever wondered aloud about how God might feel about the state of the world today? What do you think He would say if you could ask Him? You know what? You can. Prayer is powerful and He does listen to all of them, but He also answers you back. Sometimes you will get His answer by the Holy Spirit and sometimes it will come to you by reading the Bible.

God’s Word is powerful and to the point in many ways which most of us don’t pay much attention to. Usually, it is because we don’t read it. Most people who go to church read scripture when the pastor tells them to and most of the time they only read the verse which he reads. So, how are you going to know how God feels about any subject if you don’t read what HE says about it?

I know there are some Christians who do read their Bibles regularly and it would be great if everyone did but the condition of our world and our society just doesn’t bear the evidence which comes from doing so. If we are going to ever have a world which reflects God’s kingdom, then we need to live every day as if we want to be a part of His Kingdom.

Truly, life is hard at times but with God on your side it is bearable. Don’t turn away from the love of God because He never turns away from you. So, how do you think God feels about the times when He really would like to hear from you…about anything but you’re too busy? You don’t have time to pray to God or you don’t feel the need. God is not a man and He is also not like us with our selfish ways. He is our Creator and He is holy, so we are to strive to be more like Him.

But in our culture and our society, most of us tend to place Him in a box or we try to squeeze Him down to our size, to be more like us so we can relate to Him better. What if God were like you or your best friend? What if He were more like your enemy? Then how do you think the world would be?

Thankfully, God is not like us!

He is perfect and holy and cannot look on sin in any form, so He can’t be like us. Jesus was more like us because He was born of a woman but He had the nature of His Father, God. It is that nature which makes a difference between us and Him. Human nature can be good but it has to really try to do well most of the time. It is easier to do bad things. When you give your heart to Jesus and learn to live like He taught His disciples to do, then those bad things which were easy are not so easy anymore.

Seek Him out while there is time to do so because none of us have been guaranteed a certain number of days. We don’t know when our last day will be, so seek out the One Who can make your days better and lead you into eternity.

Love…


Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and for many, it is a day to show their love for those who they love. Whether it is by giving candy or a flower or a bunch of flowers or even a card, it is a day that we are supposed to express our love for those that are the love of our lives.

What about when Love came to Earth for us to know Him?

Jesus is God’s Love expressed toward us and for us and He did this because He loved us! Not because He had to but because He wanted a relationship with all of us who would accept Him as Savior. God had that relationship in the beginning but it was taken away when Adam and Eve, together, disobeyed God. No one can place the blame on one or the other because God had placed Adam in charge and had given him the commandment about the tree of knowledge. But the blame game still goes on today.

God loved mankind then and He still does today, although with all of the things which we are doing which He doesn’t approve of today I don’t think that He likes our choices very much. He blessed all of us with love by giving us a home and a world which is mostly compatible for us and our lives. We have a sun and a moon which don’t overpower the Earth with heat or cold. Yet there are many today who believe that the least little thing can have an effect on our planet’s comfort level.

God loves you and cares for you. Seek Him out and know this before your life ends because if you don’t believe in Him now for your salvation, it will be too late when you meet Him at your judgment day. You will stand and give an account for every word and deed, well-intentioned or not because the Bible says you will! I pray that all who read this will seek Him out as soon as possible because in our world today there is no way to know if you will be alive to make the choice on Sunday or even tomorrow.

Amen!

Come…


Jesus sought out disciples with a simple request, “Come, follow Me”. Sometimes He chose to say it a bit differently depending upon which disciple He was seeking but essentially it was just “Come, follow Me”. Even today when He touches us and we feel His call in our heart and our lives the request is still “Come, follow Me”. Why is it so simple? Because, when you are speaking to a child, that is what you say and we are all His children.

So why are so many of His children, who claim to be Christians and followers of Jesus, NOT following Him or His teachings? There are so many who do know of Him because of things that they have been taught by parents or in Bible school or Sunday school but are they truly followers of Jesus? Do they know Him as their Savior and Lord? Even the demons in hell know Who He is but they don’t serve Him. Satan knows Who Jesus the Son of God is and can quote you every scripture which points to Him from either the Old or the New Testament but he doesn’t serve Him nor will he ever.

One day every knee will bow to Jesus as King and Lord but not all of them will do it willingly, especially Satan. God knows this to be true and there are many people in the world today who will not ask Him to be the Lord of their life, not because they don’t need Him but because they are too proud. They look at Christians and weak because we submit our lives to Him willingly. Do we fail at serving Him? All of the time! Many of us “lose our religion” on multiple occasions during one day but we are forgiven and all we have to do to claim it is confess and ask for His forgiveness.

Will we fail again tomorrow? At some point during the day, we will. We won’t do it willingly or on purpose but at some point, we will think a thought which we know we shouldn’t. God knows we are human and that our will and ability to serve HIm can only be accomplished through the strength which we get from Him! Because, trying to live the life of a Christian is impossible without faith and without Him in your heart and a mind which has been washed in the Word of Truth and by His saving grace.

Being a disciple of Jesus is an ongoing process because it is a life of surrender to our Risen Lord and Savior. Submitting our will to Him every day, reading His Word and studying it is something which we do because of His love for us. This is the love which sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay for our sin debt, every one of us, just for the privilege of being His. We don’t become Christians just by our decision or by anything which we do. We feel God’s touch in our heart giving us the faith which carries us from today until tomorrow and then the next day and the next until we know that we NEED Him in our lives. When we come to that point we will know and seek Him out!

I pray that you will seek Him out for your own salvation because one day soon I will be gone and this site will only have enough information to point you in His direction. Seek Him while you can because when the “world order” is taken in by the man who claims to be our Lord, many people will follow Him but they are on the wrong side. God wins.

Amen

Believe…


As it is written in God’s Word, “all you have to do is believe“. There are numerous instances of this specific word or one which has the word “believe” in it such as “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness“. Why do I bring this word up again on this site? Because it is needed and necessary for all who are looking for and seeking Jesus to believe in Him, not that He existed but believe in Him for salvation!

Even the demons and Satan know about Jesus and that He is the Son of God. But knowing about Him and believing that He existed doesn’t bring salvation. Consider this: if someone told you that you had been given one million dollars and that it was available to you, would you believe them just by their word or would you have to see it and know that it was there? Take that a bit further. You know it is there and it is yours but you never claim it, is it doing you any good at all? Not even a little bit.

That is the same place that many people today are in concerning their salvation. They have heard a sermon telling them that it is available and that it is free to claim. All they have to do is believe that it is theirs and claim it by asking Jesus for their forgiveness and that He should come into their lives and make them whole. The problem is that even though many know that salvation is available to them just as easy as the million dollars in the previous paragraph, given a choice they would rather have the money.

Why?

Because, in the world that we live in, money is immediate and useful. Salvation only means something to you if you are looking toward eternity rather than just looking at tomorrow. The problem with this type of thinking is just like the prodigal son, once the money is gone you are worse off than you were before. Money is like your life. It is a puff of smoke and it is gone in an instant of time but salvation takes you to an eternal home where life never ends and it only gets better.

Consider that and seek out the One Who can provide you with salvation and an eternal home too.

God is still in control!


The sun is still shining and the moon is still in its orbit. If they had actually been around 4.5 billion years, the moon would be a bit farther away from us than it is. There has been some research into the stars in our galaxy and the number of supernovas which have been counted and it doesn’t add up to the number which would be present if the amount of time suggested by the Big Bang is true and correct.

The universe was designed by God to support life and God is Life. Regardless of how out of control your life may feel at times, our Creator is still watching over you. Specifically, if you are a Christian and believe in Him for your salvation. Now, I am not saying that God doesn’t care about His creation outside of those who are Christians because He does. But, He knows which person will give their life to Jesus and which ones will not. That doesn’t mean that He chooses which people will be saved and which ones won’t but it does show that God knows your heart and which choice you will make.

There is a big difference between knowing which direction you will take and forcing you to take it because God will not force you to make one decision over another. Consider that the decision to follow Jesus is one based on faith and on the grace that you realize you have been given. Each of us who have given their hearts and their lives to Jesus knows the love which God has poured into their lives because of the gift of salvation. In the Bible, you can read about the depth of God’s love toward us and know that returning that love is not enforceable, it is made by decision of those to whom it has been given.

Giving love back to the Author of Love only makes it better and makes us feel His love for us even more. Sometimes it is a small gesture of love toward someone you may not know well. Sometimes it is a prayer or a hug to a friend who is going through a hard time. Being the hands and feet of Jesus in a world that is truly DESPERATE for the Love which He embodies is the kind of mission and ministry which all of us should try to be a part of. Sometimes it is only through prayer that we can make a difference or even through a post like this one which may bring hope to someone who feels that they don’t have any.

Each person who is a Christian knows someone who isn’t or maybe they have been away from the church for a long time. Invite them to church or to a Bible study, have coffee or hot chocolate ready to warm them up on a cold night. Because it is the little things that most people notice about us who follow Jesus, not the big show of the service or how beautiful the sanctuary is. Jesus didn’t preach in a beautiful church. Most of the time it was in a field or even at the beach and He was sitting on a boat. It was the love which He showed toward those who had little or none in their lives that got the most attention.

Are you His?


I ask this type of question because people, in general, don’t believe in God or the prophecies in the Bible. While it is true that there are many in the world who claim to believe in God, the “God” which they believe in is just a generalized idea of the real God and Creator of the universe. Even Satan knows Who God is because it was God Who created him! My question is in reference to your salvation or lack of it. Are you His and do you truly know Him?

The most important part of this is does He know you? Your eternity depends on the answer to that question. Granted, your soul is eternal and if you do not choose to serve Jesus and accept Him as your Savior, you will be in eternity one day but your eternity will be in punishment. Why? Because you have refused the offer of grace and mercy when it was offered to you.

I truly pray that more of you who read this will seek Jesus as your Savior because that is the ministry which I was called to. I was called almost ten years ago to be a voice telling others about our Lord and Savior, hoping that the Holy Spirit would draw at least some of you to Him. This is not a light nor easy ministry because there are so many who truly need salvation. I am not able to go to those places which this medium can reach, but I do pray that He will reach you.

God does love each of us but it’s up to us to love Him enough to ask Him into our lives and our hearts. He doesn’t force us in any way to come to Him because love and devotion cannot be forced, they must be given willingly and humbly by those who know that they don’t deserve the grace that they have been offered. The most well-known verse from God’s Word says it all:

John 3:16

Amen!

The Lord is my Healer and Savior!


Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/jer.17.14.KJV

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2 Timothy 4:2‭-‬4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/2ti.4.2-4.KJV

Both of these have come to pass, even today the prophecy from 2 Timothy is coming to pass but many don’t see it that way. Some people seem to think that if a preacher is preaching from the Bible then his sermon is from God’s Word. That is usually true but not all of the time. Many sermons are put together by a program on a computer or even come from the preacher’s own “wisdom” with a verse or two of Scripture thrown in to make it sound like it should. These are the sermons which don’t tell us of our sins and weaknesses but they do tell us how good we are.

God doesn’t see us that way unless we are saved by the blood of Jesus the Christ! Our “goodness” isn’t part of the equation unless it is imparted to us through Jesus by our salvation through His blood. If you are not saved by your belief in Jesus and your acceptance of His sacrifice for your sins then your so-called “righteousness” is as filthy rags in the sight of God!

We cannot claim salvation on our own merit or the works which we may do!

You and I cannot just decide to get saved one day, it is God’s Spirit which touches us and brings us to the point of knowing that we need Him that causes us to seek Him out and confess our sins, asking that Jesus cleanse us and make us in His likeness. Although many people seem to think that they have that much control over their experience of salvation, it just isn’t true! It is God Who calls to your Spirit, your soul and brings you under conviction to know that you need Him. At that point each of us is given an amount of faith to truly believe that Jesus can save us, so we do and He does!

Some people tend to feel this touch in their lives, whether at a church or from a sermon on TV, and they do feel a need for Jesus in their life…but Satan whispers in their ear before they walk down and speak to the preacher. Then they will either grip the pew in front of them and refuse to accept Jesus or they may even walk out of the service altogether. They don’t want to give up on their comfortable, sinful life.

Even though prior to Christ changing our hearts and our minds we didn’t want to quit our sinful life either. Why? Because until Jesus and the Holy Spirit reveals your sins and what those sins will cost you in eternity, we don’t think that we need Him at all. Let’s face it, all of us who are Christians now were sinners at some point in time. I hear so much talk about “hypocrite churches” because there are people in there who used to do this or that!

We have ALL done this or that at one time or another!

Own your past life and leave it in the past so you can walk in the newness of Life with Christ into eternity!

Gifts of the Spirit


In Galatians 5:22 Paul writes this: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

If each of us who are living as Christians has these fruits which are evident in our speech and in our lives every day then others will see them and know that we belong to Christ. So, how can we show these fruits to others? Notice the very first one is love, without this in your heart which Jesus placed there because He loved you and me first none of the other fruits will grow in your life at all.

The second fruit is joy and it is expressed not by being happy all of the time but by knowing the joy of being loved by God! Knowing this there is nothing in this world which can get to you and get you down. Oh, there will be days and sometimes weeks when something or someone will get you down but if you will start your day with a prayer and thank God for another day to serve Him then He will lift you up!

God will not allow you to have a really bad day if you start it with Him first! Just as the Feast of Firstfruits blesses the rest of the harvest when we bring our “firstfruits” to God, beginning the day with Him does the very same thing. Thank Him for another day to serve when you wake up, or soon after, and the rest of the day will be blessed. Does this mean that nothing will go wrong if you do this daily? No, it is not a guarantee of a perfect day every day, but it is a step in the right direction.

Peace and patience come with the other gifts and fruits but never, ever pray for patience! You will learn the lesson but you will not enjoy it. The peace which we know through Christ is the peace which we have knowing that our future in eternity is sealed! Kindness is a fruit which goes along with love and patience and all of the other fruits which the Spirit gives to each of us when we are made into “new creations in Christ“. Of course, even as believers, we are still at war with our “old nature which has passed away“, even though it (our old nature) is conquered in Christ it still is used by Satan to try to make us stumble and fall and doubt our salvation.

All of the fruits of the spirit are available to us but every believer will not show all of them. Some will have one or two, some will show all of them as they mature in their salvation through prayer and learning from God’s Word. Just as God gives us gifts through His Spirit, He also gives us our fruits of His Spirit so that others can see that we belong to Him and want what we have. So, if you are a child of God, seek out your gifts and your fruit and give some away to others. Amen

Walking with Jesus


Each of us who answer His call has to learn how to do this. The Lord does give us an idea of how to do it, but it’s up to us to figure it out. It does take reading His Word and learning from it and this is a lifetime process. Some people think that going to church gives them the key to heaven or maybe reading the Bible gives them a special place in heaven. Those actions have no real bearing on your eternity although they do help you to be the person that you are supposed to be in Jesus Christ those actions do NOT save you!

Faith in Jesus and believing in His atonement for your life, your sins and all of the words and things which you have done or said in this life. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart and you become a new creation from that moment on. We become more like Him by turning away from our sinful lives and truly following Him daily. God called you to be His and it is His call on your life which allows you to be saved because He gives you the faith and the grace to become His child…but only if you answer that call by accepting it and moving toward Him and away from your old life.

But…what if I don’t want to give up my old life?

Then it is likely that you won’t accept Jesus’ call on your life! It is a sad position to be in from an eternal standpoint. If you have felt His touch in your heart and you know that you are a sinner and you need Jesus as your Savior, yet you love your sins and your “regular” life more than you feel the need of salvation…it is very possible that you will just walk away from Him. What would’ve happened to the church if the disciples had turn away from Jesus? There wouldn’t be a church today.

Could Jesus have found other disciples? Of course, He could have but it would’ve been very different from the ministry which He had with the original disciples. People are very different and shepherds or other disciples would have learned from Him in different ways from the 12 which He chose. Even His betrayer would’ve been different, but God knew which men would follow Him and the ones who did were the disciples which were needed.

God knows our hearts and our usefulness to Him, not because He forces us to be His disciples because gratitude and love cannot be forced in any way! We serve God because He loves us and because we love Him in return for everything that Jesus did for us. But, our life with Jesus brings with it a responsibility, and that responsibility is to grow in our faith and our spiritual strength as we go through this life with Him.

Reading the Bible and praying for the Spirit to teach us the meaning of it as we read is part of our life and our walk with Him. It is not really an option and it gives us the ability to resist the temptations and the “fiery darts” which are sent our way as we live in service to Him. If you don’t grow and learn from Him in your daily walk with Him and in reading His Word, then you will be overcome at some point when temptation or trials come your way.

Amen

Death…


This is one of the least prepared-for parts of our lives. Death is one thing which nobody can escape yet everyone seems intent on putting it off as long as possible. Even though it happens to be the doorway to eternity, nobody is willing to step through it nor are they ever truly ready for it. But in today’s culture, it seems that many people are fascinated by it except that they want to choose how they die. This is one of those choices that most of us really don’t have the will or the ability to choose how we die.

So, what should we do or is there even something which we can do about this? Can we live a life of purpose and meaning and then, when we come to the end of our life, have a “good death”? It is a question which is perplexing and troubling at the same time. How do you have a “good death”? It depends upon your life and the quality of it, I think. A Christian will look at death as a doorway to eternity, regardless of how the person dies. Others will look at it from their perspective of religion or belief or the lack of belief which the person had.

If it is an unexpected death we look back at the life of the one who died. If it is the death of a loved one who died of cancer, then hopefully it was not a lingering death and one which was mostly free of pain. Hopefully, it will be a death which the person who is dying will choose not to prolong the process nor to hasten it by the use of drugs or other means.

Life is given to us by our Lord and our God and we should cherish it but when the end of our life comes around, regardless of how that may happen, we should accept it and help those of our family to accept it as well. Those who are surviving us will grieve and they will feel the loss of our life but we should try to help them to do so if we can. Remember, death is a part of life it just happens to be at the end of it, hopefully.

So, why am I writing about this today? Because, at any given time in the world, there are many who are experiencing the death of a loved one. It happens much more than we realize because the media tries to hide this fact from most of us unless it happens to be someone famous and well known. All of us have to experience the loss of a spouse or a child or a parent at some time in our lives. Some of us don’t have to experience it until later in life and some experience it far too soon in our lives or in the life of the one who has died. Their death may come due to accident or disease and it could come too early in their life for them to truly have lived, which happens too often in our world today.

God is still there with them and beside you to comfort and to strengthen you in order to help you bear the loss and the pain. Some of us tend to blame Him for a loss which was too sudden or unexpected but He knew when their day was and how it would happen long before we find out about it. God loves us and He does care for each of us whether we die in our old age or if we die in the womb, of natural causes or for convenience. God loves you, so don’t look up and blame Him when a life comes to its end because He already knew the day and the hour. But many times He wasn’t the cause of their death unless it was His mercy toward them and you as well.