Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

How much longer, Lord?


It has been nearly 2,000 years since the crucifixion of Jesus, yet God is still giving the world more time. Time to turn to Jesus and be saved, time to realize Who He was and Who He is and time for more to come to know Him as their Savior. When you look at all of the prophecies in the Bible you will notice that there are no more which are necessary to be fulfilled before the Trumpet calls those who have died in Christ and those who are living for Him now. We are living at the edge of history and its ending and yet more are still to come to know Him, so we wait for God’s timing.

the-great-tribulation-beginsWe don’t know what else needs doing nor do we know how many more haven’t been written down in the Book of Life but are destined to. But God knows who and when and it is very likely that it will be soon. We won’t know it until it happens and when that happens the rest of the world will know it too. For many, it will be too late, if they cared about it at all.  So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

Why do I ask this question now? Because there are many on the Earth who are asking it as well. God is not short in His time and He knows when the Tribulation will take place. It is our job as Christians to live in obedience to His command and tell others about the gift that we have been given by grace through faith in Him. This cannot be worked for or bought and it cannot be bargained for because it is the gift of God to each of us who will accept it and believe.

Many wonder about this today if or when Jesus is coming back. You can be assured that He is because God doesn’t lie and it is told and foretold in the Bible that there will come a time of retribution and trials and that Jesus will come back to the Earth and reign for a thousand years from the throne of David. I pray that all who read this or who have heard a sermon about the return of Jesus the Christ will seek Him out and give your life and your heart to Him now before these things begin.

Some teachers are saying that the antichrist will come before we are taken up to be in Heaven. I don’t believe this. It seems that the book of Revelation is set up in order for us to discern His coming and the timing of His coming. The end of the age is near and we shouldn’t discount any prophecy in God’s Word. There is no exact date but with all of the upheaval going on in the world and all of the distress which is happening because of wars and drought and fires and natural disasters like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions…I don’t believe that the time is very far off at all.

Tell others about Jesus and His love for them. Seek Him out if you haven’t done so already because when the church leaves, the Holy Spirit will likely be gone from the Earth as well. Then the end will begin and that time is supposed to be so horrendous that all of life would end if this time is not cut short by the return of Jesus. Tell others and make sure that you are teaching from God’s Word during this time because that is the purpose of the church until God calls us home.

Be strong in your faith


There are so many things going on in our world today and every day. So much hatred and bitterness, some of it toward Christians and those who believe in Jesus even in America. In other countries, our faith is persecuted terribly in much worse ways than here. Life for Christians, even in the twenty-first century, is not easy because our faith and the One that we place our faith in is not very popular in the world today.

Many people cannot handle the Truth contained within our Scriptures or rather they don’t want to hear about its Truth, specifically because of its absoluteness. But…we must be strong in our faith and put your faith in Jesus. We cannot lose our faith, not now. Life is going to become harder and we cannot just give up. We must persevere and stay the course until our Savior comes.

God loves you and your life is in Him and in His Son, Jesus. Make sure your faith is in Jesus and is strong in Him. Follow Him, learn of Him, read His Word and pray for the strength to continue to follow Him until that day when the Trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ come out of their graves and head to the skies to meet Him!

Amen

What is your idea of God?


Is He a father figure who gently prods you in the right direction or does He resemble the Greek idea of Zeus with a lightning bolt about to zap you if you do wrong? Many people seem to think of Him as a grandfather figure who is just waiting to pour money and blessings into your hand whenever you ask for them. Some people even think of Him as some sort of “genie” who will answer when called but is indifferent to your life unless you ask Him to be in it?

GOD IS NONE OF THESE!

Yes, He is a Father to us all because He is the Creator of all, but HE is not like a human father. He, God the Father, is not Zeus or Odin. They are mythical beings, God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone for Moses. A mythical being cannot do that! God is not a grandfather but the Father and Creator of all!

According to the Bible, God’s Word, He knew each of us before He created this planet that we live on. In His mind and thoughts you and I were there, along with every other person who has ever lived. He thought of you! Later, when you were old enough to feel His Presence, God the Holy Spirit touched your spirit and let you know that you needed Him. Before we who are alive today were born, Jesus Who is God in the flesh of man, died on a cross, shed His blood for our sins and bought our souls with that blood. He paid the price for our transgressions so that we could cry, “Abba, Father” in His Presence.

We are all able to receive His forgiveness and His Love which knows no bounds, if we will accept Him as our Savior and Lord. It is our choice. Even though He has made this easy for even a child to understand, many don’t want to believe it. Why? Because they don’t want it to be that easy. They want to have a part in their salvation through works on this Earth. But, works done without Him and in your own power just count as paper and wood. It is those works done with Him as your Lord which are made of gold and silver and which will endure the fire of His gaze.

God has loved all of us since the beginning, before the world became our home, it is our responsibility to accept Him as our Savior and give our life and our work for Him into His hands. I pray that those who read this and who haven’t given their lives to Jesus will do so today because you don’t know that you will even make it home today. You may not be able to find a pastor or a church to talk to someone about your need for Him, but you can do so right now. Just talk to Him like you would to a friend or your Dad and ask Him to forgive you and to make you whole in Jesus’ powerful name. It doesn’t have to be a fancy prayer or one which you may have heard in church, just talk to Him about what you have done and ask forgiveness for it all.

He knows but He wants to hear it from you. God has never turned away from you even though the world may tell you that He has. God loves you with an awesome love that nobody else has for you but Him!

Why the decrease?


According to a poll done recently, of the nearly seventy percent of Christians who identify as Christians in the United States, only forty to fifty-nine percent of those attend church weekly. The article was on Faithwire so I am giving you the link to it if you want to read it. The United States came in as an outlier in the statistical realm because of our less involved Christians.

Why have participation and participants gone down in the past fifty years in America? I think it is because we have moved away from teaching our children about the moral absolutes found in the Bible. The schools are not allowed to teach it anymore, we don’t have a copy of the Ten Commandments in schools anymore for fear of offending someone. We have taken prayer, compulsory or voluntary, out of schools because of “political correctness” and trying not to offend people.

You know, Jesus offended His people while He was teaching and preaching! He would heal a person on the Sabbath or clear the porch of the Temple because of all the business transactions going on in a worship setting. He ate with sinners of all things! What a disgrace!

Really? Those who are sinners, which we all are by the way, need to hear the message of love and forgiveness more than the people who have been in the church for forty years. Many of those who have been in the church the longest are more like the Pharisees than the tax collector. They may not pray like he did, essentially telling God that He was lucky to have him as a teacher and that he wasn’t like these sinners or this tax collector, but they have ears which have grown calloused to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Many of them are spiritually deaf!

Then, when they go home their children and grandchildren don’t hear any more about Jesus and His teachings until next Sunday for about thirty minutes or so. If you aren’t teaching your children about Jesus during the week then they are listening to those at school about what exactly? Football, basketball, soccer, cheerleading, all of the religions of America which push Jesus into the locker room and shut the door.

Then during the fall there is hunting and more football and its an endless cycle every year. We are letting our children down into a well where Jesus is not and if they don’t find out about Him in time, they will drown in the world’s “religions” and may never darken the door of a church after they graduate. We have allowed this to happen to our children and to society in general. It isn’t some plot from some other religious group or some computer or console game! The blame for this lies directly in the laps of our families because we have failed in our duty to teach the next generation.

If we don’t turn this around and begin teaching our grandchildren and children now, in another generation there won’t be a church in America or the UK. Many are closing their doors each month as it is because no one attends and there is no money to keep the church open, let alone pay a pastor. We are living in the time just before the return of Jesus and the world is running away from belief in Him as fast as possible and it breaks my heart. I know it is breaking God’s heart too watching those that Jesus died for turn away and leave.

“Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 1:3

Sermon from Jude


For Jude, family was not everything. He was the brother of James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem and the son of Joseph and Mary. Being the half-brother of our Lord Jesus he had occasions to watch Him as He grew to manhood, but Jude didn’t come to a saving knowledge of our Lord until after the resurrection. His epistle is meant for the early church but much of it pertains to us today. There were false teachers appearing in the church, just as they are today, telling people one thing which would bring them salvation. But, those “false teachers” were not bold in their speech, they were very subtil in their teaching, containing just enough truth so as not to be recognized.

Jude calls himself “a bondservant of Jesus Christ”, and the brother of James. He doesn’t emphasize that he is the Lord’s half-brother since that would play on the early Church’s devotion to Jesus.

Jude  Greetings from Jude
(James 1:1-1)
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called: 2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

God’s Judgment on the Ungodly
(Genesis 4:1-7; Romans 2:1-16)

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

8 Likewise also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

A Call to Persevere
(Hebrews 10:19-39)

17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Doxology
(Romans 11:33-36; Romans 16:25-27)

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, [be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Jude is exhorting the church to stand firm in their faith which they have believed unto salvation and to stand in that faith even when they hear a doctrine which doesn’t go along with what they have been taught before. Stay true to the faith in Jesus Christ whom you have believed!

Don’t turn away from the teachings which you have heard and read from God’s Word during your life as a Christian.

Is this little book relevant today? By all means it is! People don’t want to know the Truth of Scripture because they reject much of the Truth contained in it, not because it isn’t true but because it convicts them of their sins and they don’t want to hear it.

The rest of the letter of Jude speaks toward the church standing firm in their faith, just as the first few verses did. It talks of those who were apostates to the faith in Jesus and who were trying to subvert the teachings in the young church at the time. Jude was telling the believers to rebuke those who were bringing false teachings into the church and leading people off the path of Light and into teachings which would contradict those which Jesus and His disciples were teaching.

It matters to the church today because there are many who are rejecting the Bible outright, not only the teachings found in the New Testament but they are ridiculing the Scripture of the Old Testament, claiming that it has no meaning for today’s church. Yet, every book of the Bible teaches about Jesus in some way. He is spoken of as the Seed of the woman, the Rock, the pillar of Fire and Smoke, the Angel of the Lord, the Good Shepherd, the Son of Man and so on. He is mentioned in some form or type in all of Scripture which means that the entire Bible is relevant and useful for instruction and teaching in our modern world today.

Take the message of Jude to heart and make sure that you are ready to defend your faith if it is ever called into question or if you see or hear someone speaking of a doctrine which is not in the Bible or which sounds like it came from God’s Word but it didn’t.

How do you see the love of God?


Is this even possible in the 21st century? Yes, it is! The love of God shows through the love expressed when a child needs to be comforted for whatever reason. We show the love of God to each other in many ways, sometimes daily. You may be wondering, “How can God’s love be shown where the belief in God is not present?”.

Well, it is a little dangerous for the church, the body of Jesus Christ on Earth, to go to some places where the love of God is desperately needed. But…it is possible. We can show the love of God to each person that we meet. We don’t have to do much or even say much, just pray for them, pray over your food in the restaurant, be a disciple that they can see Jesus in.

God’s love can be shown to others in ways that aren’t overt or apparent to many people, but it is possible. Give away something or do something for someone without regard for payment or getting anything in return. The love of God is shown in the Bible from cover to cover because every action which God did for the Jewish people He also did for every person on Earth!

The love of God is expressed and seen in this verse: John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”.

The Love of God is manifested in the Word of God and the Word of God became flesh and was the Son of God.

What’s inside you?


Have you ever seen a sculptor bringing something beautiful out of a piece of wood or granite? God can see what is inside each of us, even if we don’t know what it is or that it is even there. He knows all about our weaknesses and our strengths because He formed us in the womb. So, what’s inside you?

themissingpieceHave you even thought about what’s inside you that could be useful in God’s Kingdom? Most of us who haven’t given our hearts to God or rather to Jesus don’t think about stuff like this until the day when the Holy Spirit gets our attention in one way or another. Then when we really think about it, the implications of our usefulness to God are overwhelming especially when we are just beginning to learn about Him and read His Word. Sometimes that realization can blow our minds to the point of our stepping away from Him for a while, but God’s purpose for you won’t be denied. He will use you in some way in His Kingdom and His purposes.

Sometimes we will be like Jonah and run from Him but also like Jonah we will be brought back to the place where God is going to use us. It may take a while, depending on how hard or how far you run, but He will bring you back. Because your purpose and your gifts and talents aren’t fully formed until you are in the place where He wants you to be. God loves you and He does have a purpose for your life. Just as He did for Pharaoh and for Moses and for Joshua and every other person that He has used and will use in the future.

Sometimes that purpose is one of rebellion and sometimes it is one which God will use to bring someone to the knowledge of Jesus and His grace. He can use both you know. The point I am trying to make is that God is like a potter or a sculptor. Only He can see the person inside you that He can use to do His will, whatever that may be.

The limits which you place on your usefulness are weak compared to what God can see inside you. When He calls you into His service then you need to answer that call because it is the Creator that is calling you. Don’t turn away from Him and don’t run from Him either. Whatever His call on your life and for His Kingdom is important enough that He gave you the ability and the gifts to accomplish it, whether you realize it or not.

John the Baptist was called even before he was born which is why he leaped in the womb when Mary called out Elizabeth’s name. Even then he knew that she was carrying His Savior! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could recognize our Savior’s voice when He calls to us like that? Then maybe there wouldn’t be so many people who have an empty place in their lives which they spend many years trying to fill without success until they meet Jesus.

Think about it.

A life changed


FB_IMG_1521382243378In the world today there are so many people who are going through many problems. Health problems, money problems, relationship problems and of course spiritual problems too. So, how can we come out of these places where it seems that there is nothing but problems?

By giving our problems to the One Who can fix them or change our circumstances or in some way have a positive effect on those problems in our lives. The main “problem” that many of us have when we try to do this is that we have a string or a chain tied to the problem and when we leave it on the altar for God to take care of…we usually drag it back off and pull it around like a wagon. Why can’t we leave it there? Because we think that we should take care of our problems.

We don’t really think that God has time for all of our problems and everyone else’s problems too. But when we think like this we are making God into our picture, our idea of Him. We change our perception of Him and think of HIm as being almost as limited as we are! How can our Creator be that weak and impotent? Why would we limit Him in this way?

I think it is probably because we can’t imagine in our minds that He is bigger than our minds can imagine or even comprehend. So we try to make Him fit in a human box so we can relate to Him. That is the very reason that Jesus came to us in human form, not only to be the Savior and the Redeemer of the world, but to show us that God can fit in our lives without us putting limits on Him.

This may be the reason that many people have trouble believing that God will or can answer their prayers. It is hard to imagine God as omnipotent when you don’t see it happening or you don’t learn about His power in the world around us. If you think of God in terms of humanity without belief in Jesus, which limits God’s power, then your unbelief in His omnipotence will limit His power in your prayer life.

ourlovingsaviorExpecting His work and His answer to your prayers is part of your faith in Him, as long as you don’t place a limit on Him in your thinking. So why do people do this? Mainly because there are many who think that all of the miracles happened as the church began. But, miracles are happening all around us every day. In people’s lives which are touched by cancer or when children are born completely healthy with no problems, God has a hand in all of our lives, whether we know about it or not.

LIves are changed all around us each day. Sometimes it is because of prayers, sometimes God is working in those people’s lives even when they haven’t asked for it just because He is God and He has a plan for their lives. God’s plans will always make a difference because His will for you and me and anyone that He has a hand on will never backfire!

Seek Him in your life and for your life because He can and will make a difference in your life for your good and for His glory! Amen

God loves us…


John 3:16-17

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

Some teachers of the past and preachers today say that we should not be preaching that God loves every person on the planet. Why? If that is true, then these verses should never be quoted nor should they be in the Bible!

God did not pick out a few here or there to know His Son, even though God knows which people will give their hearts and lives to Jesus. He didn’t pick them. We pick and choose what we want to believe or not believe in the Bible, but God’s Word is true from every page of the Bible, regardless of translation or version you like.

There are some Bibles out today which gloss over some parts of Scripture or leave out parts of it entirely which is totally against God’s command of not removing or adding to any part of it. But, those are versions of the Bible which mankind has changed because of some verses which certain groups don’t like. God’s Word is true and powerful today and it will be that way for all time.

Okay, off the soapbox, verse sixteen says “For God so loved the world”, it doesn’t say which parts of the world or certain people groups or religions, it says the world! Which means that God loves all of the world, regardless of creed or religion or region or politics! It is our ideas and our convictions which change because of what is politically correct or accepted in the state or nation in which we live, God’s view of sin or anything else hasn’t changed and won’t change because He says, “I change not”.

God loves His creation and we are a part of that. It saddened Him before the Flood that mankind had strayed so far away from knowing HIm and seeking Him and had turned to evil in all of his ways. God felt this way because He had made mankind to have fellowship with Him throughout our lives, yet after the fall in the garden, man drifted away from knowing Him or even wanting to know Him.

In the world, whether it is at a college campus or a big city or even a small town, people don’t like to hear the absolute truth because today the “truth” is said to be relative. What is true for you doesn’t necessarily mean that it is true for me. That only works with opinions and ideas.

The Truth of God’s Word is true regardless of your ideas and opinions, just as the laws of physics govern how gravity and light work (which God put those laws in motion as well). Gravity and light behave the way they do because God ordained it to be this way. Your opinions or beliefs about them have no effect on their actions or performance. God’s Word is the Truth and it is the Light of the World which guides all men who are seeking Him to come to Him. Your individual belief about it or opinion of it doesn’t change that.

God did send His only Son to change the world one person at a time. Not a radical change for all of mankind, but an individual change which begins at the heart of each person who is seeking God for whatever reason. Jesus came as our Savior and as a Servant to His Father to do the will of the Father and make it possible for each person to move closer to God because of their lives being changed and to show the rest of the world that it is possible to be His through Jesus Christ.

We are not condemned by God if we obey His Word and have given our lives and our hearts to Jesus to do His will for our lives in this world. If you reject this and live your own way without Him, even though you may do many good things in your life, doing so will bring judgment upon you when you die because you “did many good works in your Name”. But if He didn’t abide in your heart then you did those good works on your own without His blessing, even if they were done “in His name”. Seek Him in all of your daily walk and your life will be blessed because His Spirit resides in you and empowers you to accomplish these good works in His Name and in His Spirit as well.

How do we make a difference?


Making a difference in the lives of those around us and for those who might be searching for what makes Christians different is the real reason which the church is still here. Yes, there are many in the world today who don’t like the message, regardless of which church or denomination it comes from, but if we could just show the love of Jesus in everything we do then hopefully it would make a difference.

God’s love for all of us is deeper and more alive now than it ever has been, not because there is more sin in the world but because the time is growing short. All of the prophecies in God’s Word have come to pass except for those which happen in the book of Revelation. We should be speaking to those that we know about His love for them and His offer of grace and mercy through Jesus and your belief in Him.

You may ask “Why?”; its simple…because God loves you!

Nothing in the Bible happened because of God’s hate because He doesn’t hate people, He hates the sins that they are living in! God loves the whole world, not just a small part of it or a certain country or people group! Yes, He chose the Jewish people as His people but during all of the Old Testament He tried over and over again to bring them to a place of loving Him and of following His laws and they would for a while. But eventually, they would turn away from Him and go in their own direction.1533312427253_image.jpg

The Old Testament is a reflection of all of humanity, not just the Jewish people and not just Israel either. All of us, whether we have given our heart to Him or not, we get disillusioned and we stray from the path. The good news though is this: we are the ones who have moved, not God. He is still patiently waiting for us to realize that we need to come back to HIm and when we do and we ask forgiveness for our stubborn streak…He forgives us and we can start again.

Making a difference in the world begins with one person. You or me telling the story of Jesus’ love and compassion for every person in the world. Giving your life to Him and living it out in front of those who see your witness, not just hear what you say but see how you live it out day by day. That is the greatest sermon and the greatest witness of all. Show people, family, and friends, that Jesus loves them with their warts and their faults and their struggles too. Jesus came to bring salvation to all!

God knew that this was needed and necessary for the whole human race, not just a few here or there. But, it is usually our pride and our stubbornness which gets in the way of every step that we think we are taking for Jesus and those steps turn out to be steps that we are taking alone. Especially if we have been in the church for most of our lives! We have been in church services and heard about all that Jesus did for us and what God tried to do for Israel.

Then sometimes we will begin thinking that we can forge our own path and that God will approve of our efforts. Those efforts which we are attempting will not succeed until we are following Jesus’ path and not our own. The thing which many people don’t understand is that God will let you think you are doing His work, even if it is by your own decision and strength until you fail. Then you will wonder “What happened?”!

The biggest problem in our world today is that if God isn’t in it, Satan may be. He will try to help you be successful just to show God that he can bring someone down by letting them succeed. You may not fail in this life and you may live luxuriously by your “success”, but at the end of your life when you stand before God you will find out that your “religion” was based on a lie.

We have to tell people about Jesus’ love for us so that they can tell the difference between fake religion and faith in Jesus Christ.