Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

A message of freedom


Jesus came to set the whole world free from the bondage of sin, and yet today people are still seeking to discredit the church and the Bible and even disbelieve in God Himself. Even when there are proofs all around them of God’s majesty and His love toward us. Scientists have proven this with the fact that our solar system is so perfectly balanced in gravity and in the distances of the planets from the Sun.

Yet, there are many in the world who don’t want to see God’s Hand of Design in these things. Even the astronomers and other scientists who can calculate the intricate details which hold our solar system and our galaxy together. They may recognize that without a Designer to put these things together, most of the universe would just fly apart but they don’t want to admit that there is a Creator like the Bible says.

Our freedom from sin and its consequences came to us by the price which was paid by the Son of God and His reward of eternal life is with Him and for those who believe. Yet, most of the world rejects His teaching or even the fact that He existed at all. Why? Because the world doesn’t like the very idea of absolute Truth which is found in the Bible! It is not because the Bible teaches that there is only one way, one path to eternity. It is because the path that is True comes from Judea and from the Jewish people in Israel. Every war and skirmish and terrorist action in the past forty years which has happened in the Middle East is a reflection of this.

In reality, it is a family squabble which has been going on since the time of Abraham. His two sons have been at odds with and at war with each other in some fashion for this whole time. If you watch the news much, the whole world is focused on the conflict in the Middle East in some form or fashion. God is keeping His attention on Israel and on those who bless them or those who curse them in any way. But, the world doesn’t see it this way.

Unless you are a student of the Bible and look at the news through that lens, most of the prophecy about this time is lost. Much of the world doesn’t look at current events and see them as the fulfillment of God’s Word, but those of us who do see a very different picture from what most of the news media tells us. I realize that there will be a few who will read this and ask “Why is this so important now?”; it is important because we are very close to that time which Jesus called “the end of the age”.

Our time here is growing shorter and life will not get any easier for anyone, Christian, Jew, Muslim or any other religion in the world. The birth pains which Jesus spoke of include all of the things which we are experiencing even now and they will only grow more powerful as the time gets closer. When Jesus sends for His church and it is taken up, these wars and famines and other problems will only get worse from that point on until the Tribulation is finished.

Beware that no man deceives you about Who the Christ is during this time, because if they are saying that he is in the desert or in the mountains, don’t believe it. Jesus will return physically to the Earth at the end of the Tribulation and He will do so riding a white horse from the heavens, not on the ground until He stands on the Mount of Olives once more.

Are you expecting Him?


GodISGoodIn the world today many people are not looking for Jesus’ return. It seems that many people have all but given up on His return, even though it is promised. Most of the signs which Jesus told His disciples about have already happened and yet people, mainly Christians, just don’t believe that He is coming back in their lifetime. God’s Word is Truth and since Jesus cannot sin and tell His disciples and by extension us a lie so, therefore, He is coming back. When? I have no idea but it will happen.

The ten virgins were waiting for their bridegroom to come yet half of them weren’t ready when He showed up. Is that going to happen this time as well? Will only half of those who claim to be Christians be taken up when the dead in Christ arise? Nobody knows the answer to that question except God. We will not be given that answer because it will happen in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye. Nothing is impossible with God.

The expectation is the key because when the lame man was healed at the Beautiful gate, he was expecting something from Peter and John. Although he was expecting money, he got a healing. He was expecting to get something and he was likely surprised by what he received from Peter and John. Even though the healing came through the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the man was in an expectant state so he received something because of it.

We, in today’s church, don’t expect enough it seems because our faith is focused elsewhere. We are looking toward our jobs or the government or some other person or vocation which will provide for us. We still don’t put our faith, our expectancy in the only Person Who could provide for us which is Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. We can’t see Him or think of Him as a Person that could provide because we’ve never seen miracles happen. But…they do happen today.

The miracles which God performs today are not dramatic enough to draw much attention but they happen. Cancer shrinks and goes away without much treatment or even any treatment at all. Babies are born with no problems to hinder them in life and although this doesn’t seem to be a miracle it really is. I would venture to say that we are all a recipient of God’s protection in many ways which we may not see at all. But His angels are there protecting us on the road and in shopping malls more often than we think or even imagine.

So, do miraculous things happen today? I think they do. Very likely more than anyone would believe or imagine. It is our belief and faith in Him or possibly His hand guiding us which brings His actions to bear in our life each and every day. His guiding hand in our decisions every day may be what keeps each of us alive in situations where we may not have recognized as being dangerous.

Don’t discount His Presence in your daily life because even though you can’t see His hand or His Presence with your normal eyes, He is always nearby. So make sure of the places you go and the things which you do, because of your need to remember that Jesus is there in the life of a Christian every step and every hour of the day. Think about His Presence which is with you regardless of where you go each and every day.

Do you feel broken?


I do, sometimes. There are days when I feel broken to the point of being depressed. Then there are days when I feel as if I can’t reach out to God. He feels distant, and it makes the day feel empty and cold. The only redeeming knowledge that I can bring to the day is that God is always near me. But, even in knowing this sometimes I can’t shake the feeling of being alone, even when I know I am not.

Many of us feel this way but we don’t know what to do about it. Brokenness is the feeling of being…well not whole. It doesn’t have to be caused by any specific thing or person, it just happens. It happens to people who aren’t Christians as well but their lives are already in a state of being broken anyway. Because there is Someone missing in their lives. It is the absence of the Holy Spirit and Jesus in your life which causes us to feel broken before we become Christians.

We search and seek all kinds of stimulants and sometimes people to take the place in our life which feels empty. The problem is that nobody on Earth can fill that space and no amount of money or drugs or alcohol or sex can fill it either. The drugs and alcohol may give you a whole feeling for a while, but it eventually wears off and the hole feels bigger somehow. It is a vicious cycle which Satan lures us into before we accept Jesus as our Savior.

After we accept Him it is still Satan who makes us feel worthless or alone and even depressed and that is when we feel broken and without God. We need to remember that He is always with us regardless of the situation we are in or even how far we feel from Him. God never loses sight of you nor does He let you out of His hand. When you have given your heart to Jesus for real, not some emotional experience, you can never be taken away from Him. You may walk away from the church and you may stop reading your Bible for a time but He is still near you and only a prayer away from your side.

BeautifullyBrokenGod mends us when we are broken and when He does this we are made more whole than we were before. God has never made a mistake and nothing ever catches Him by surprise. Don’t think that just because you may have made a mistake or thought something or even did something wrong, that God won’t take you and make you better than you were.

Even when your idea of being broken seems to be too bad for anyone to fix, God can. He can take a murderer like Moses or a Pharisee like Saul, who hunted down Christians to be put in jail or stoned, and He can make them into men who were changed into His most useful servants. God can make a universe out of nothing, what can He do with you?

Today is a gift


Don’t waste it on chasing after people or things in this life which will not be faithful in all things. God is our Savior and our Creator. Life is given to us each day when we wake up to see a new day. A new day and a new idea or ability to take into the world and use for God’s glory and His Kingdom.

Your life is a gift to you and to God as well, He can use your talent and ability in His Kingdom because He knows exactly what you can do! We are given so many gifts in life and many talents as well. Some of them are useful for us or our family and some are specific to God’s Kingdom. But, every ability and gift which you have is from God and He knows you can do the things which He has called you to do.

Don’t ignore His call on your life and don’t use His call as an excuse to do something different. Obey Him in your life, doing that which you are called to do and being the person that God intended you to be. Your salvation brings you to the knowledge of God and His Son, Jesus. Don’t turn away from the nudge in your heart telling you that you need Him.

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The unknown is scary


You know, everyone that I know is looking forward to going to Heaven to be with our Lord but nobody wants to die to get there. We don’t know what death is other than the end of this life. We don’t want to know how it feels or even if we feel anything at that point in time. We hear about some people who see Jesus just prior to closing their eyes for the last time, but we aren’t sure that we are ready for that, at least not yet.

Jesus said that He would take us to a place where we would be with Him, so why aren’t we willing and ready to go? We don’t know and really don’t want to know how death or dying feels like. Some say it’s like going to sleep. Of course, none of us really knows how we are going to die. I mean dying in your sleep would be perfect, to me. Go to sleep in your bed and wake up in Heaven. That doesn’t sound so hard or scary or even painful.

But…we don’t really know how or when God will call us home and that is another unknown. The only advice that I have about dying is that you need to be ready and make sure that when that time comes…dying is all you have to do.

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Writing for the Lord


At some point in the past seven or eight years, I have been told to abandon this blogging thing. I was told this by some well-meaning people but I cannot stop doing this because it is as much my job as being a preacher is. God called me to do this and until He stops me, I will continue. Last night, I wrote an article about my early life and it caused me to think about why I do this and who I am doing this for. It is not for myself, it is for anyone who will read and be searching for their Savior specifically. I do this for the same reason that I preach.

God gives each of us a talent or an ability and if we belong to Him, we should use it for His Kingdom and glory. There are many in the world who are using their talents for making money or to push a cause forward that they believe in. My cause is the cause of Jesus and why He came to Bethlehem so long ago. Why am I trying to push this cause out into the world?

Because the world matters to God and each of you who read this matters to God which is why Jesus was sent to die on the cross and rise again! God could look through the ages and see that mankind would need a Savior and the only Person Who could fill that job was One of the Godhead.

Mankind, then and now, is predisposed to sin in some form in this world. We are hard-wired this way because of the sins past down through the lineage of Adam. Whether you believe that we are created in God’s image or not makes little difference. The point is this: our ancestors rebelled against the way that God had set things up. Even though they had everything at first, they were tempted to seek a way that put them in charge rather than God. We have been doing this ever since then.

Why? Because we are stubborn and like little children, we want to do it our way.

God knew this and He saw it coming. Although He could’ve put a stop to it He didn’t. People have been asking why for thousands of years. The only reason that I have been able to grasp from my Bible study is that God has always allowed a choice to His creation. Even the angels had a choice of serving Him. But why did God do this? Because of His love for His creation, that is why.

Taking “choice” away from angels or humanity would make us and the angels more like animals living by instinct than created beings with a soul. God has always wanted fellowship with His creation and that is something that only comes by voluntarily worshipping Him. Make sure of your relationship by seeking Him today because He is waiting for you…patiently.

I don’t know you…


What does this mean? “I don’t know you!” It is a putdown from some today and an eternal sentence from God. There is another way which Jesus put it in His teaching in Luke 13:27. He said this: Jesus answered, 24 “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’

The Sheep and the Goats

31 When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, 36 I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’

40 And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ 41 Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

God can use you if you will obey Him. Not acting like a Christian or going through the motions to appear to be a Christian. The disciples walked with Jesus and they still had trouble believing Him until He rose from the dead. When He came into their midst after they had seen HIm flogged and whipped and crucified and then buried…then their faith exploded! From the day of Pentecost onward the church was persecuted mercilessly but their numbers still grew!

Why? Because they knew that the disciples wouldn’t believe in a lie. They would not preach a lie and you couldn’t be healed by a lie. That is what the church today needs to see in faith and then walk in that faith!

A love note from God


Romans 8: 31-39

God loves us so completely and totally without reservation until He sent His Son, One of the Trinity, to pay for ALL of mankind’s sins. Not just those which had been done by Israel or those from centuries in the past, but for ALL of mankind until the end of the age of man. Love is the factor which brought God to Earth in the form of a man, Jesus the Christ.

We receive His grace every day with our life as we wake in the morning when we are bound to Earth by the gravity which God placed into creation or when we breathe the air given to us by God and recycled by the plants and trees and chlorophyll-laden plankton in the ocean. God provides for us in so many ways until we have come to take all of them for granted as if we have a right to them.

We do actually, as long as we are in love with Him too. But when we burn the forests down or pollute the oceans and streams which He gave to us to manage but not destroy, God doesn’t look kindly on us as part of His creation, which was made in His Image, while it destroys other parts of creation.

God tells us in His Word, the Bible, that He loves us. He does this so many times until it should register with you and me without it being pointed out by a preacher or someone who has taken the time to chronicle the number of times it shows up in the Bible. The numbers are not exactly staggering but they do show that God wants us to know that He LOVES us!

It depends upon which version/translation that you use to track the number, but if you use the King James Version there are 310 times in which it appears. Some translations use the word in ways other than what love should be used for but the fact is that God expressed His love for all of us through His grace and mercy and all of the blessings which we have in our lives.

Yes, we do take most of them for granted today and most of the world doesn’t notice any of them as being given to us by God at all. The air we breathe, the water we have to drink, the food which we have are all part of our inventiveness and our own work. Much of the world doesn’t attribute any of our accomplishments to God at all! It has all been done by the ingenuity of our minds and our talents.

Who gave us our talents and our intellect and ingenuity? God did. Yet, we treat our talents and our intellect as ours, as if we had a part in bringing it to bear in our lives. God gave each of us unique talents and abilities which only we, as individuals, have in our possession. While a degree or a talent for music may be shared in the general population, each person has some unique talent or ability which no other person in the world has.

So why do we seem to think that “natural selection” made such a difference in the world? Because of the scientists and legislators who have pushed God and any mention of Creation out of their curriculum. That is the reason most colleges graduate people who have no concept of God because He isn’t allowed in the classroom! So why would God bless our country so much when we have pushed Him out of schools and out of our government or public life? There is really only one reason which explains why He has not taken His blessings away from America.

He blesses the land which has blessed Israel and our country has done that. While it is true that a few others have blessed the land and the people that God holds dear in His heart, America has done it for the longest amount of time.

God is still active in Creation, whether we recognize His hand in it or not. The world is His and everything in it is His to do with as He pleases. So, forget the political processes and the parties, the Ruler of the universe is truly in charge of each facet of life here and we should be following Him as closely as possible every day.

The pain of change


Growth can be painful. Whether it is by working out or by any other exercise, muscles become painful when we use those which have not been used for a while. Sometimes the pain lasts for days, but if there is no pain then strength is not gained.

Just as the pain comes upon us when we exercise, we must also go through some pains while being a Christian. Because when we become Christians we are but babes. We are just beginning to learn about our salvation in Jesus and need to grow in grace with God. It is painful, to begin with as a Christian because we are still at war with our old nature as a sinner. Learning to be a Christian is a process and even though we receive Jesus and His Spirit when we have given our heart to Him, it does take some time to grow and mature in our faith.

Sometimes this growth is painful because we are not like we were before and we have moved toward God and away from the world. Our old “friends” are still in the world and they cannot understand the change which has come upon us. Is it painful? Yes, it very likely is painful when they want to do something which goes against your new faith. You would feel torn between serving Jesus or going with your friends. Some people choose to go with their friends and compromise their faith which causes pain to our new heart.

If you do this enough it will soon become easy to ignore the pain or not notice it at all. Some Christians claim that even though they are living in the world and not growing in their faith that they will still have a place in Heaven one day. While that may be true, your eternity will be different than it would’ve been had you listened to your heart and the Holy Spirit. Your rewards will be fewer and your life in Christ will be dull and lacking in the power to resist the temptations of the world around you.

Life has many times which are painful. Some of them come upon us because God allows them to, some of them come upon us because of our lack of growth and faith in Him Who saved us. We bring much of our pains into our lives because of our lack of growth in our faith and learning of God and His ways. Because there are many who think that once they have given their heart to Jesus and done the things which point toward a new life in Him, many of these so-called “carnal Christians” just wait until the day when they get to go into eternity.

The problem with this thinking is that if there hasn’t been a true change of heart which brings you to a true saving faith in Jesus, then you aren’t a Christian at all. You think you are because you do all of the things which a Christian does, mostly, but you still go back to your old life and your old habits. Without a change in your heart and a true repentance from your old ways, you can’t be seen as any different from the person you were before.

Without a broken heart knowing that your sins were part of the nails which placed Jesus on the cross, there will be no change. Because if you aren’t broken in your heart and your spirit knowing that you are responsible for Jesus’ death, you won’t reap the benefits of a resurrected heart as a child of God!

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The futility of man’s understanding


For those of you who have been to college, have you ever noticed just how much you find out that you don’t know? Even with degrees in the clinical sciences and chemistry, I find that the world around us still fascinates me by showing me things that never made it into those lecture halls or the books I studied. We are ignorant in comparison to the knowledge of the cosmos or any branch of study that you wish to pursue. When I was a teenager I read every astronomy book and magazine I could get my hands on.

I never owned a real telescope during my life of searching the meaning in the stars. I had one of those cheap dollar store type “telescopes” which you couldn’t get to focus on anything, so when I went to college I took astronomy as an elective. I didn’t know I was going to get a chance to look through some 12-inch and 14-inch telescopes and boy did that make me go “Wow!”

Yet, even with the Hubble telescope today and all of the information on the Internet, we still don’t know much about how we became who we are. We cannot pinpoint anything which leads us to a point where we can say that our knowledge bank is full. The point is that we are living in a futile existence. We only have a small amount of time in this life where we can pursue knowledge and truly learn things about the world around us. Yes, we live seventy or eighty years, but how many years of that span are truly productive and learning years?

We still cannot understand the workings of painkillers or how our genes code for eye color or personality. We cannot tell anyone how to speak to whales or dolphins and our best computers cannot make sense of the multitude of frequencies contained in the squeaks and clicks of the voice of a dolphin. We know how cells divide to make more of themselves but we don’t know when a “clump of cells” becomes a human being. (Hint: it happens even before the heart begins its first thump).

God has placed within us the knowledge of the infinite and our need for HIm in our lives but we run around for years trying to fill that place with lots of other things besides Him. God knows us from the moment we are in the womb because He placed us there. He gives us the knowledge for our life and the ability to learn more if we need to, but for our understanding of everything that we learn…it takes patience and seeking His knowledge first.

Why do I say that we need to know Him first? Because He is the Creator of it all. Who better to teach you about cells and biology and astronomy and chemistry than the One who made all of the life around you? He placed the stars in their courses. He placed the whales and the other life in the sea in their specific places. He created mankind to be an eternal being and at least part of us does live into eternity.

All of the knowledge that we can learn is but a small drop compared to His knowledge of everything. Even if you had five Ph.D.’s in many different disciplines, your knowledge would only be a small fraction of God’s. This is why the scientists in the years prior to the 19th century learned about their studies in order to prove His awesome glory!

Seek Him out during your few decades here on Earth so that you can spend eternity with Him doing things that you never thought possible.

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