Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

Prayer for help in time of trouble


Psalm 13

How Long, O Lord?

{To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.}

(Habakkuk 1:1-4)

1 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

3Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

4Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

6I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

When David was being chased by Saul and having to hide in caves and in the desert, he asked God “How long, O Lord?” Sometimes, when we are going through troubles and hardships it is the same feeling. How long, Lord? How much longer will I have to go through this?

It seems at times that God isn’t listening, but He is. He is just trying to teach you something or show you how strong you are as long as you and I depend upon Him in our weakness. If we try to do things on our own or make it through the tough times without leaning on Him, those tough times may last longer than they would have otherwise.

God’s not angry with us exactly. He doesn’t like the way that we are treating each other and ignoring Him. God loves us. Yet, we don’t care about His Son’s sacrifice nor does much of the world even acknowledge that He is God. He watches over our world and keeps everything going the way it should regarding our life-giving planet.

Satan is the prince of the air here on Earth because Adam gave it to him by disobeying God. Much of the destruction and hatred that we experience is because of Satan and his minions causing havoc all over the world. Not because it is fun but because they are trying to keep as many people from becoming Christians as they possibly can, in order to cause God pain.

Lean on Jesus in your hard times and don’t turn away from Him. Life is too short to be on the wrong side at the end, don’t you think?

Do you preach?


Actually, I do. I was called to be a preacher about seven years ago, and this unique part of the Christian religion is imperative for all of us who believe. Each of us was also given a command to go into the world and tell others about what Jesus has done for you. In this instance preaching and telling about your salvation sound very much alike, but they are different. In many ways they are very different.

Consider this: Jesus came to his disciples teaching and preaching the Word of God. Sometimes He did it with parables, then sometimes He used examples from Scripture. Then at other times, He healed people in ways which couldn’t be explained except by the acceptance that He was and is the Savior, our Messiah, the One Who was to come and save not only Israel but the whole world!

preach-the-wordTelling others about your salvation and what Jesus saved you from is a good thing and we are commanded to tell others when they ask us about our joy in Christ. Preaching is telling others about the good news of Jesus and why He came to save us from our sins and our sinful nature. To change us from the inside out and make us become more like Him in our nature and in our lives. To do the things which He would do if He was here. That is why He came, that is why I preach even when I am just writing it down like I am here!

God loves each of us in a way that we cannot understand because He has loved us from the beginning and even before. We are loved by our Creator even if we don’t return that love and that is what makes it hard for us to grasp. To our human mind, that kind of love doesn’t make sense. But, if you look at the first few days of Creation in Genesis, those days don’t make sense either. God said “Let there be Light!” and there was. He didn’t fashion a star, like our Sun, to make that Light on the first day but Light was there!

All of the other days in that first week of Creation, He commanded the fish in the sea and the birds of the air to come forth and they did! He called forth the plants and trees and all kinds of animals and creeping things and they were there! Then the only creature which God made with His hands was mankind. We were not called forth out of the mud, God fashioned Adam from the dirt and breathed the Breath of Life into him and he became a living soul! If God didn’t love us, why would He get His hands dirty while making us?

Because He is God! He could’ve called forth man from the mud and made male and female like He did everything else…but He did not! Man is special to God and in the grand scheme of things, His plans for us include being fruitful and being married. He also wants us to live to please Him and to worship Him. He doesn’t need us, but He wants us to need Him. God is a Triune being and He and the Son and the Holy Spirit are capable of being and doing anything necessary for the universe to keep going and to create whatever they wish.

Life is a gift from God and every good thing which we have is a gift from Him, even before we come to realize that we need Him. If you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked Him into your life I pray that you will do so soon. Our world is dangerously close to the edge of history which Jesus told John about almost two thousand years ago. Read the book of Revelation and see if some of its warnings don’t sound like the news today. Read Matthew 24 along with the news and see if that doesn’t sound eerily similar. It sounds that way because it is prophecy coming true in our time.

How much more will it take?


In the news, online and on TV or cable, we are hearing about so much violence in our world. There are shooters and suicides, bombs and bombers, stabbings, wars and skirmishes and “actions”. When will all of this come to an end? Will it ever come to an end? I have noticed the news for at least fifty of my fifty-six years and the Vietnam war was going on when I was six. A few years later Martin Luther King was also murdered in 1968 and then Robert Kennedy was assassinated by a white man. There was violence and riots and all sorts of protests going on, about the war and about the murders of those two great men.

So much violence and hate seems to be in our culture today. Not just in America but around the world. Fighting about religion or someone’s right to be what they want to be even if it isn’t natural. All kinds of vile words being spewed online through social media sites, causing some people to take their own lives because of “cyberbullying”. How much more can our culture, our nation or even the world itself take?

Is there no way to bring peace to the world?

Yes, there is but it will take turning to God and repenting of our sinful ways and lives. Is it possible today? I’m not so sure actually. There doesn’t seem to be enough people who are interested in saving their lives into eternity, let alone believing in Jesus! The only way to bring peace to the world would be for most of the population of the world to become Christians. Of course then we would start arguing about which doctrine to follow. Likely this would even set off some wars and killings as well, so even that wouldn’t work without the Lord returning to rule for 1,000 years!

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Fear, what does it mean to you?


I read this recently and it does make sense, if you look at it the way the definitions are worded.

Fear has two meanings:

Forget Everything And Run  or

Face Everything And Rise

Which would you prefer? We all have a fear of something, it just depends on how deep that fear is regarding how we will react to it. The circumstances also come into play as well because as you get older your fears change. Some will cause less panic than they did when you were young. Some will cause more panic when they confront you as you get older.

Don’t be afraid of things which you have no control over, such as a hurricane or a tornado. God has your future mapped out perfectly and He knows exactly how and when you will die and where you will be tomorrow. His angels will guard you in every step that your life takes you through no matter what you have to face. You are never alone when you have Jesus as your Savior!

But what if you don’t have Jesus in your heart? What do you do then? If you don’t know or you’re not sure about your salvation, then I would say you need to turn to Jesus for your salvation very soon. Why? Because, He is coming back soon and you don’t want to be caught in the camp of the enemy when He does. If you are, then you will find out what FEAR really means!

God loves each of us and He doesn’t want us to be left here during the time of His wrath on Earth, so the simple solution is…don’t be! Give your heart and soul to Jesus today so that you will be caught up with the church when He returns. Seek Him out and get to know Jesus while you have the time because you don’t know when your time is up!

Bible verses about salvation

The classic hymn Amazing Grace says “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me”. In this post you can read a couple of Bible verses about salvation.

For this is the commandment that the Lord has given us:
‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
so that all the world may be saved.’ (Acts 13:47)

I wait patiently for God to save me;
I depend on him alone.
(Psalm 62:1)

Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:9-10)

Salvation is to be found through him alone; in all the world there is no one else whom God has given who can save us. (Acts 4:12)

I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life. I am telling you the truth: the time is coming—the time has already come—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will come to life. Just as the Father is himself the source of life, in the same way he has made his Son to be the source of life. And he has given the Son the right to judge, because he is the Son of Man. (John 5:24-27)

He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but now it has been revealed to us through the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus. He has ended the power of death and through the gospel has revealed immortal life. (2 Timothy 1:9-10)

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death, you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God; it is by our confession that we are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God. In the same manner Christ also was offered in sacrifice once to take away the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27-28)

I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life. (John 6:47)

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. (John 3:16-17)

 

What are we to do?


It seems that we have been warned in a couple of ways and in prophecy too. But…are we listening? I’m not so sure about that. A little over a decade ago, sixteen years to be exact, our country was warned in the form of an attack by terrorists and yet we decided to build again with “dressed stone” and defy God’s warning. We have had numerous hurricanes since then and we still aren’t getting the message. Two of which are very recent and very destructive but are we going to listen this time?

IamtheWayIt doesn’t seem so.

Why are we being so stubborn about turning back to God? I realize He isn’t politically correct, but God doesn’t have to be! He’s God our Creator after all!

So, what are we supposed to do? Have you ever heard the scripture “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

We need to turn back to God and repent of our sins so that He will heal our land and the problems which we have today. The problem with this is that we won’t repent. We have become a secular nation bent on following our own thoughts and desires rather than the wisdom found in the Bible.

God did not create us to be this way but we have turned away from Him and His wisdom, particularly in the past fifty years or so. What will happen to our world if we don’t repent? The end of the age of grace is closer than anyone knows, except for God of course. When that time is up, the church will be taken to Heaven and the Tribulation will begin.

For a while, there will be relative peace and things won’t look too bad. But when the first 1260 days or 3 1/2 years is done, then the desecration of the Temple (which will be rebuilt) will happen and the last 3 1/2 years will be hell on Earth. Some people don’t believe that the church will be taken first, but according to scripture the church isn’t mentioned after chapter four in Revelation. Which likely means that the church is not going to have to undergo God’s wrath.

If you have ever considered giving your life and heart to Jesus, I am suggesting that you get serious about it today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow and life is so short, particularly since we are living in the last days of the Last Days. Seek Him out while there is time to do it.

On this day……


There are many websites and news sites which are talking about 9/11 and I agree that we shouldn’t forget what happened and why. But, I am not going to go over where I was or what my feelings were at the time. Yes, there was sadness and anger and frustration at all of the agencies who didn’t or wouldn’t share the information which they had. My point for today is that it is a day we should remember and take the memory with us to learn from it.

The truth of the CrossPrior to 2001, this day was very much like any other day. We get up, either go to work or to church or maybe something else (depending upon which day it falls on). My point here is that until we were attacked on this day, it was just like any other day. Now it is a reminder of terror and being attacked by people who hate us. Understanding the hatred is something which we can’t actually do, even today many years later. The news media and other “talking heads” will discuss and memorialize the day, yet we haven’t actually come to an agreement with those who attacked us and we likely never will.

The religious fervor and anger from centuries ago will not go away because the religion of those who attacked us tells them to lie and do anything necessary to placate the infidels in order to kill them later. We are not going to see an end to this until Jesus comes back and puts an end to it forever.

Jesus loves all people but the time of the church age is drawing to a close. God’s patience for our world and its disregard for Israel and for His Son is drawing to an end. Please don’t wait until the Tribulation begins because even though it won’t be too late to give your heart to Jesus, it will be far more dangerous. You have time today…right now, don’t wait, seek Him out to be your Savior before He returns for the church.

What is the Bible good for?


2 Timothy 3:16-17: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

This is the belief of Jewish scholars today and it was at the time that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy. God inspired the different writers to put down in written word His instructions for us. That is where the Scriptures came from, specifically from the Holy Spirit of God who inspired men to write the words down.

What is the Bible and the Scriptures contained within it good for? Specifically it is for doctrine, for reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness because without it and the knowledge that is contained in it we would know nothing of God! We would also know nothing of Jesus and the Gospel of His life and teachings.

heaven-or-hell-eternal-destinyWhy study the Bible? Because..if you intend to be an adopted child of God through Jesus, then you must get to know Him and the Father. I mean, how else could you know how to do their will in your life or even get to know what that will might be? We are each given a purpose for our life by God when He formed each of us in the womb. The only way that we can find that purpose is to get to know Him through His Word and find our purpose there.

Life can be fulfilling for each of us through our work on this Earth, but it will be much more so if we are working for our treasure in Heaven where we will spend eternity! The only way that we can do that is by learning God’s will for our lives and it really is pretty simple actually. Live your life the way Jesus did, in your business and in your everyday life so that others will see more of Him through you, reflected by your life and not just your ideas and opinions.

Seek His will in the Word for your life and for your reward in eternity because our time is growing shorter by the day. Read Revelation and see the events leading up to the time of Tribulation and you will see that the things happening today are the rumors and the birth pains of Creation leading up to the end times. Don’t wait until it is too late! Don’t put it off because you don’t know if you have tomorrow or not! None of us knows for sure if we will wake in the morning or if we will open our eyes in eternity, whatever that may be for you or me.

We don’t have gods, just One God


Some people think that Christians worship three gods. But..if you look at the passage where Jesus got baptized, He is there (of course), the voice of God says that “this is my Son” and the Holy Spirit comes to Him in bodily form of a dove.

The Holy Trinity in one place at the same time, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit, not three gods but One God in three forms and all of them just as much God as the other! Our Creator isn’t limited to one form nor is He limited in any way that we can understand.

Yet, we try to put limits on Him and believe that He has emotions and the same sort of limitations which we have. We who are His Creation, attempt to make the Creator in our image and in our limited abilities, so that we can understand Him and believe in Him. Do you understand that God is bigger than we can imagine! He created this universe, not just the little ball of mud that we live on.

There are no “gods” in religions on the Earth, those entities who caused men to dream of things and see a form which looked like an angel, they are devils and demons and their leader is Satan! He is the one who brought man to the tree which God told him not to eat of, even so God knew that this would happen as well. Jesus is the “seed of the woman” spoken of in Genesis, the One Who is the Living Word and the Son of God!

The time is coming and will come soon, when many will see the end of the age and the church will be taken from this world. At this time, a man will come into power who is very persuasive in his speech and he will be given more power than any man on Earth has ever held. This is spoken of in Revelation in the Bible and it is not my prediction, but prophecy from God.

PromisesfromGodsWordMake sure of your salvation, seek out Jesus the Christ and salvation through Him, don’t put it off thinking that you have plenty of time. Many who thought this in the storms which have come to America recently thought they had time as well. We have some storms which are coming still and they are worse in magnitude than anything that nature can create from wind and sea.

Our lives, with all of the stuff which we put so much of our life and our energy into, are pitifully short on this Earth, particularly in reference to eternity which awaits us. Seek out God and His Son for your salvation because you do not know when your last day may be. We are not given a set number of years to live. No one knows that they will be alive, even in the morning after tonight’s sleep. Please make sure before the time of testing comes on this Earth because it will affect the whole of the population not just a few million but everyone who is alive at the time!

Living on borrowed time


Life is given to each of us to live in a way that seems right in our own lives, at least that is what we think anyway. God places each of us here so that we can fulfill part of His plan for our lives. The problem being that we have to find out which part and how to do it. Sometimes we don’t come to know Him early enough in our lives, but I imagine that is part of His plan too. Then there are times when we push Him away or we don’t agree with Him on our part and how it is to be done.

We seem to act as if we are the ones being inconvenienced by God’s plan when it is His plan which is being placed on a back burner so to speak. Although, God can work around our stubbornness too, it just may take a bit longer but His purpose will be done by and by. Why did I pick this topic or subject to write about today? Because a wonderful songwriter died today. Don Williams.

I am not going to get off topic and spout how wonderful his songs were or what a melodious voice he had, because if you have ever heard him sing you already know it. It’s just that our world is near the end of the age and many of those who influenced my life are already gone on before me. I makes me kinda nostalgic a bit for the days of youth when we all thought we had as much time as we would ever need.

The problem with that thinking is that each of us soon finds out that our time is getting shorter almost on a daily basis. The older we get, instead of slowing down so we can enjoy it, time seems to speed up and get faster as we age. It also seems to be happening to our world too. Most of the prophecies concerning the time prior to the Tribulation have already come to pass. All of the “little details” like the weather going crazy and other nonsense which is supposed to be happening around us, you see and hear that on the news every day.

I don’t mean that we should jump up and down in the street shouting “The end is near!!”, “Repent while you can!”, but honestly the world will soon find out that every word and every punctuation mark in God’s Word will be fulfilled whether you or many millions of others believe in it or in Him! The problem today is that the world and those in it don’t want to hear how God’s Word is coming true before their eyes if they would just recognize it, but even when Jesus was standing in front of them the religious leaders didn’t recognize their Messiah.

If you feel that you need Jesus, please seek Him out soon and learn as much as you can about Him. Give your life to Him so you won’t be left to endure the horror which is coming.john317

So much, yet…


It seems that in our culture today, we have so much and yet we still complain. Now, I am not saying that we are similar to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, but they complained about a lot of things too. We have so much in the way of possessions and stuff but it is all disposable and we still want more! Why?

It just seems that we are never satisfied with what we have. God has given us a planet that is moderate in its temperature range, we have gravity to keep us firmly on the ground. There is air to breathe and our days are split between night and day so we have time to work and sleep too. So why do we complain about life and the stuff that we have or don’t have?

We should be thankful for our family and our health, if we are enjoying good health. If you have a job, be thankful for that. Life and living for Jesus is so much more than…stuff! Living for the Lord and with Jesus in your life is so much more than things that we see and have to deal with each day. But, it seems that we are never satisfied with life, particularly our life if we have given our hearts to Jesus.

We look around at all of the stuff that others have, some of whom we think are not followers of Jesus and some who are. We question God, like Job did in his time of testing, and we ask “Why can’t we have xxxx car or this huge house and a bank account to go with it?”.

The answer is the one which Jesus gave to His followers about the rich man. “It is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.“; my quote is a paraphrase but you get the meaning of it. I qualify this by asking a couple of questions: Does a wealthy man need anything? He can have anything that he desires, so why would he want God in his life? Is a wealthy person ever hungry or thirsty? Not unless it is forced upon him I’d wager, so why would he or she ever hunger for Jesus and the freedom that being a Christian affords?

Wealth and so-called privilege can give a person much that the world has to offer. But, being a Christian and living your life as one who is a follower and a disciple of Jesus is not something that the world nor the wealthy would desire. Until, somehow, they are brought to a point of true and desperate need which their money cannot give them. Or if they grew up in poverty and became wealthy later in life and they knew that it was the blessing of God which brought their wealth, which they cheerfully gave to help others in need.

Because, until someone gets to the point of realization which shows them Who they truly need, it doesn’t matter if you have money or not, you will not seek out Jesus for your salvation. Until you know that there is nothing which you can do for salvation or healing or whatever you may feel that you need, not in this life but to bring you into God Presence, you will not seek out any knowledge of God nor will you look for salvation in Jesus.