Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

Lord or Judge, your decision


In this life, we have two decisions which have an eternal impact on our future. Both of these decisions have to do with Jesus and our acceptance of Him as our Lord and Savior or our rejection of Him. He came to this Earth in the form of the Rock which gave the Israelites water in the wilderness and as the Angel of the Lord. He was also the Pillar of Fire/Smoke which protected the Israelites from the Egyptian army and went with them on their journey through the wilderness. Jesus, the Living Word, the Lamb of God, Counselor and Prince of Peace…He was all of these and our Savior when He took our sins on Himself and paid the price which we could not pay.

Lord or JudgeSo, what is your decision about Him today? Is He your Savior and Lord or will He be your Judge when you stand before Him one day? Think carefully about this decision because when this life is over, you can’t change your mind then. You must choose.

Jesus arose from the tomb after three days and spent the next 50 days teaching His disciples what they needed to know to take His message away from Jerusalem. He may not have been with them every day of that time, but according to the holidays He was around in different places.

So many times we read the Bible, at least those of us who do read it, and we find one gospel which states just the facts like Mark. Then we read John’s gospel and he focused on the miracles and parables which Jesus taught with. John also made sure that we knew that we needed Jesus and we needed to believe in Him as our Savior. The job which Jesus had to do was to pay for all of our sins so we could be granted salvation through our faith and belief in Him as our Savior.

He tried to bring this knowledge to the Jewish leaders and people but they wouldn’t listen. They considered their own righteousness to be enough without Him or His message. Many of us today consider our “righteousness” will be enough to grant us entry into Heaven because we attend church and occasionally read our Bibles. But the outward appearance of being righteous does nothing for our heart or our soul. As Jesus said to them, “You are like whitewashed tombs“.

The only righteousness which counts is what is imputed to us through the surrender of our life to Him and by living daily by His grace and power. We don’t have the ability to be righteous enough without Him in our heart or our life. Make sure of your salvation before it is too late and you stand before Him just as you are right now.

 

 

Superstition and fantasy


It seems that the entire world is caught up in superstition and fantasy regarding life and also much of their religious views as well. So, what is the Truth of God? It is found in God’s Word and Jesus is the only way to enter into Heaven. Belief in Him and the atonement which He died and rose again to give to us as a gift of the grace of God is the only pathway which leads to eternity.

Even a new Christian who has only grasped a small amount of His Truth, such as “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” but if they walk in that Truth then no more is required as long as they believe it! They will be included in the congregation of those blessed saints and they are true members of the apostles of Jesus. God has not made it a burdensome chore or task to become a Christian nor is it one to remain in faith to Jesus Christ yet many people try to make it so.

There are many who think that if you don’t keep the Ten Commandments during your daily walk that you have failed at being a follower of Jesus. The problem with this type of thinking is that no person on Earth can keep them perfectly on a daily basis! Jesus was the only One Who could, we are to follow in His steps but we are going to fail at least once every day and probably more than once.

TenCommadmentsGod know that we are not able to keep them, that is why the Ten Commandments are there. To remind each of us of our poverty in faith and to show us that since we have the blood of Jesus covering our sins, no matter the size or severity of our sinful ways, if we have given our heart to Him then we are sanctified by His Righteousness. As He told His disciples, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you“.

I pray that anyone who may read this might give their life to Jesus and follow Him faithfully until He returns, because He is coming soon.

Amen

Are you following Jesus?


In the church today there are many who claim to be following Him, but are they really? The path which is required for us to follow is usually one which is narrow and littered with stones and thorns at times. We have to constantly watch our footing while walking the pathway or we will stumble and fall. Does that cause us to lose our salvation? No, of course not, if it is real and true salvation.

There have been many people who have had emotional experiences at a revival meeting or a gathering where God’s Word is preached and they thought that this was a real experience with Jesus. Why do I bring it up? It’s because after a while they begin to live their lives just like they did before, with no discernable change in their behavior.

Bridge2SalvationA real salvation experience begins with the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need for Jesus. Then you act on that need by confessing your sinful nature and asking Him to come into your heart and change you into the sanctified person which God knows you can be. When that change occurs, there is no doubt about the real change which happens. While it may take a while for you to shed your old ways, the Holy Spirit will convict you when you are doing something outside of God’s will for your life. Therefore, you will not go back to your “old ways”, at least not permanently.

Will you stumble and fall off of the path? Yes! It is likely that you will stumble many times, but as long as you get up, ask forgiveness and start again to follow Jesus with prayer and reading the Bible, you will get back on the pathway. It is a process which brings your nature into alignment with the will and nature of Jesus. This doesn’t happen immediately or overnight, but it will happen if you keep seeking His wisdom and praying for His strength in your daily walk with Him.

When you feel the Spirit touch your spirit and you know that you need Him, God has placed a call on you and it has been there since you were born. You may not feel it or notice it for many years or you may submit to it as soon as you do feel it, whatever your age is when that happens. Each of us has a talent and some gifts from God which He has given to us to perform our role in His Kingdom. We won’t find out about them until we are a part of His Kingdom and He may give us more talents to use after we accept His gift of salvation.

Each one of us is known by God even before we are born and He knows what we are capable of doing and being in His Kingdom because He placed those gifts and talents within us before our birth. I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Jesus and learn of His sacrifice for each of us then ask Him to come into your life and make you into the person which you were meant to be for the glory of God the Father!

Are you ready?


In the parable of the ten virgins, five were ready to meet the Bridegroom and five were not. Which group are you in?

Are you seeking His wisdom and taking Him with you on a daily basis or do you attend church occasionally and only read the Bible when you are there? We are expected to be faithfully working for His Kingdom daily in the faith and the hope of His return at any time. The “works” that we do are not where our salvation comes from but they are the fruit which we should be producing in our lives.

There are many studies which show that our country is not the Christian nation which was envisioned by the settlers who originally came here. We claim to be Christians, at least 70% or a few more do, but when the questions get down to the small degrees of service and reading the Bible, the percentage drops quite a bit. Although, earlier today I read an article which said that even though many are leaving some mainline churches they are going to nondenominational churches and serving God more fervently than ever.

Churches are losing people because of their liberal doctrines and by not following the Bible’s teachings faithfully. God is glorified when we are satisfied and faithful to Him in our praise! Being satisfied with God is the most honoring and happy with God Who has paid for your salvation through Jesus’ blood! Live your life in persuit of Him and His service into eternity because He has sought you out to be His child!

In the parable of the ten virgins, the five who made sure of their lamp’s never being without oil shows a persistence of their belief in the Bridegroom’s coming. They didn’t know when He would come but they made sure that they had enough faith (oil) to carry them until He did come for them. This is exactly what we are supposed to do with our faith today, be persistent in seeking Him in everything that we do until He does come for those who believe in Him.

As Jesus said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you.” By serving Him and having faith in His Word, we show that we are His and He is ours through faith, amen. We are called to be His when we feel the Holy Spirit touch our hearts and when we answer that call by accepting Jesus as our Savior then we are made into a new creation through the blood of Jesus washing our sins clean. Just as Jesus healed the ten lepers when He told them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they went they were made clean. It was their belief that they would receive the healing from Jesus and His willingness to heal them which made the healing possible.

God is our Creator and He is willing for all to come to know Jesus as Savior but it is our stubbornness which gets in the way most of the time. We choose not to believe in Him because salvation couldn’t be that easy or we want to add something to it so that we “help” Him in our salvation and that’s not how it works.

Make sure that you are one which has his lamp full and that you have an extra amount of oil to keep your lamp lit until He comes.

 

What is sin?


The dictionary defines a sin like this: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.

TenCommadmentsGod’s divine law is given in the Ten Commandments: Exodus 20

1 “You shall have no other gods before me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

In some way, each of us has broken at least one of these commandments on a daily basis. None of us are perfectly able to keep even these commandments every day, all day. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

We may not have a graven image of our job or our wife or any other thing in our home but if we place more importance in those than we do in worshiping God, we have created our own “god” from something or a person who can’t fulfill that role. Your position cannot fulfill your life and neither can your home or your car or any person in this world. You can find happiness in your relationship or in your job, but it is not an eternal happiness because your job is not permanent and your wife or husband is not a god.

Placing someone or something on a pedestal and elevating them or it to a position which cannot be true in the sense of being a “god” is foolish, but some people do exactly that. They may not think that they are or they may not recognize their behavior as worship toward a person or some other thing besides the True Creator, but God knows their heart. He knows exactly who it is that they revere and have placed in His position and on His throne but God doesn’t share His throne.

Make sure of your worship and your salvation before the time of grace runs out.

Forgiving others


In so many ways, forgiving others is difficult and sometimes impossible without the love of Jesus flowing through our hearts. Forgetting the offense of our friends or family is not nearly so easy as forgiving them. An offense from friends or family is usually a very deep offense anyway and forgetting it takes lots of prayers and wisdom gleaned from the Bible during the time that we spend trying to heal from it.

Of course, Satan doesn’t help either. He keeps bringing up the offense and bringing it up, and bringing it up until it is maddening! I struggled with this after my divorce years ago, but with LOTS of prayers and reading the Bible and more prayers and more reading of God’s Word I have finally forgiven my ex-wife, but there are still times where Satan will dredge a memory or two back up. So, the process is never really over at least in this life.

We are forgiven of our sins through the blood of Jesus and it was shed for every person on the Earth, but it is up to the Spirit drawing you to Jesus and convicting you that you need Him which will convince you to give your heart to Him and ask forgiveness. It truly is your decision to accept it, God doesn’t force salvation on you. Even when you know you need Him it is still your decision and if you decide not to accept Him then if you die without Him, you are responsible for where your eternity is spent.

Forgiving others is part of our walk with Jesus. The Bible says “if you come to the altar and remember a slight against your brother, leave your sacrifice and be reconciled first“; so forgiveness between brothers or sisters in Christ is more important than a sacrifice. Because with unforgiven slights in your heart, you can’t fully serve the Lord in gladness until it is taken care of. We are supposed to allow the Love of Jesus to flow through us toward others even when we feel slighted or hurt in some way. Even if it is something that may be a month or even a year in the past, get it out in the open and ask forgiveness for it even if one party has forgotten the offense, the hurt, and the pain can still be there.

Through the Spirit of Christ and some determination, we can forgive even the most heinous of offenses with time. But that takes a lot of prayer and meditation on the Scriptures and seeking the Lord’s will in your walk with Him. Forgiving is not easy and forgetting an offense can be even harder, mainly because Satan and his cohorts will bring these memories to the front again even when you have managed to forget them for a time.

God loves each of us much deeper and intimately than you can imagine but we won’t truly know the depth of His love for us until we are in Heaven with Him. That is why we must walk with Him on a daily basis during this life so that we can truly enjoy His Presence for eternity!

Wounds which don’t heal…


The little saying which many of us used to say when we were children is not exactly true. Consider it today: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.

TasteyourWordsIn today’s social media and in the news, as well as in everyday life, words CAN cause much pain and hurt. Many times cutting so deep until healing may never completely happen. Not because we don’t forgive but maybe because our mind won’t let go of the hurtful tones, whether it was in a comment on FB or over the phone or even by text.

Healing from a misspoken word or phrase is difficult, especially when the tone of it was harsh even if it wasn’t intended to be harsh. Your tongue is described in the Bible as a fire which cannot be tamed and many times in life that is exactly what it feels like. The damage which a word or the tone of a phrase spoken can cause irreparable pain whether it was intentional or not.

Between spouses, words can cut deeply when anger is involved and at times this can separate a couple and even be the cause of a divorce. The same can happen between friends or even in a congregation in church when there are opposing opinions and an argument over something happens. Words spoken cannot be taken back just as a bullet fired from a gun cannot be halted before injury or death occurs.

The only difference is that the injury caused by a comment or a word, whether spoken or written, can cut so deeply until the injury may never heal unless the Spirit of God gets involved in the healing process. God is a great Healer and He can bring healing to a painful wound from a friend or even an aquaintence.

I pray that I have not written anything which has hurt anyone’s feelings, but if I have caused any hurt feelings in any way, please forgive me. I have been told that I do “open mouth and insert foot” before and many of us do just that and sometimes we do cause pain by our words or the tone of those words. Maybe unintentionally but the hurt and the pain are real and the pain sometimes takes a while to heal, if it ever does. Unintentional pain caused by a word or a tone cuts deeper at times whether it is from a comment on FB or a spoken comment to someone which is overheard or spoken directly to them.

Faith is doing!


That is why it says in James chapter 2, “18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works”. The Hebrew word for faith is Emunah, which is less about knowing and more about doing. The literal meaning of Emunah is “to take firm action”. To look at faith in the light of the Hebrew word is like a staircase, in your mind you know the stairs lead to another level but until you climb the stairs you won’t get there.

That is the type of faith which the church NEEDS today! Faith in Jesus which moves us toward doing His Work in our daily lives! Not the intellectual knowing of or about Jesus but the kind of faith which carries us from the sermon out into the real world so that others might see Jesus working in us and through us in our lives!

What kind of change needs to happen in your life today so that your faith is defined by what you do instead of what you know?Faith

Is God your pursuit?


Do you run after God? Do you seek Him daily? If you don’t know Him, you should.

Many of us who are Christians get to a point where we feel comfortable in our spot. We feel like we have our salvation and we’ve learned and studied a good bit of the Bible and after X-number of years, we feel we should just cruise until we are called home to Heaven. Are you so knowledgeable about the Bible and its wisdom that you don’t need to read it or study it anymore?

I don’t think any pastor, evangelist, or layman should ever feel that they know the Bible so intimately that they can lay it down and never study it again. I have only read the Bible through about seven or eight times since I became a pastor seven years ago and I learn something new and fresh every time I read it. If I try to take a break from my Bible studies for a few days or even a week…I feel out of touch with God and I feel as if I have lost something precious.

If I do take those “days off”, I actually have lost something precious. My lifeline to our Creator and the wisdom which I can glean from His Word and from fellowship with Him on a daily basis. Can you take a break from learning from God? Yes, you can and the longer the break or the pause is, the more you are missing. Life is not the same when you have put your Guidebook down and that is exactly what the Bible, God’s Word, is for us!

GodNeverFailsLiving with His Word on a daily basis, studying it and prayerfully asking Him to reveal Himself to you in His Word is the Christian Life and once you get used to having His Presence in your life daily you will truly miss Him and His Word when you don’t read it. Some people would say that it has become a habit, but it is a relationship. Consider this: you wouldn’t marry your spouse and then only visit them once or twice a week would you?

Well, the relationship that you are supposed to have with God and His Son is supposed to be at least as important to your life as a Christian as your relationship with your spouse! That is the very reason why Jesus said for each of us to “take up his cross and follow Him” daily. Your cross can be your burden of studying His Word or it can be taking Him into your business or your workplace, but reading the Bible and prayer should be a part of your life every day regardless of your circumstances in life.

Being a daily Christian is very different from being a person who attends church occasionally such as weddings or funerals or just for specific holidays. God loves each one of us so much that He sent His Son to give His life for our sins so that we can have a real relationship with Him. A relationship which doesn’t end when your life does but continues into eternity and it becomes a deeper relationship in eternity because you are in His Presence.

I pray that you will give a relationship with Him some serious consideration because none of us know when our life will end and it is only during this life where we get the chance to change our life by asking Him to come into our hearts and change us. This decision will change you into the person, the son or daughter, that God knows you can be so don’t put this decision off, make sure to take care of your eternity today.

God is in control


31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. 34 And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. Luke 22:31-34

Job 1:8-12 

8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that [there is] none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? 10 Hast, not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. 12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath [is] in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:1-6

1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. 2 And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. 4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. 5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. 6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life.

I have placed these scriptures here because many people, it seems, do not believe that God is in control of our world today. It seems that there are quite a number of people who believe that if God created the Earth, He has left us alone in it and He has nothing to do with our lives today. The passages above prove that is NOT true. Satan wants to hurt and even destroy anyone who is a follower of God or a servant of Him, but God is in control of him even though Satan rebelled against God.

In these instances in the above paragraphs, Satan had to ask permission to afflict any sort of hurt or trouble on Peter and on Job. Jesus prayed for Peter to be able to withstand the temptation but He added; “when you are converted (restored, changed) strengthen thy brethren”. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him and that it would break his heart. But, He also knew that after His resurrection Peter would be stronger in his faith than ever before!

Christians are watched over by God and Jesus even closer than any other people on Earth because of the temptations which Satan and his demons and principalities can inflict on us, especially young (new) Christians. Their faith in their conversion and in their Lord is not very strong because they haven’t studied His Word enough and learned how to stand in their faith on a daily basis!

Why do I mention that we have to stand in our faith on a daily basis? Because your faith grows and you become stronger in it as you learn more about God and His love for you. I will continue this post in a separate entry under the same name but continued.