Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

What does God do for you?


ProsperityPreachingIt seems that for many in the ministry and in churches, God is expected to provide all of our wants in some form or fashion. That is not taught in the Bible though. In many pulpits it seems that people hear about how God wants us to be prosperous (well off), but that is not the meaning of scripture at all, in particular the scriptures which speak of what God provides for us.

Here is one which Jesus taught about: Matthew 6:25-34 – Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

God provides all of our needs in any area of our life, particularly when we depend upon Him for those needs and don’t try to do everything ourselves. By getting ahead of our Shepherd, we can get ourselves into a lot of trouble, which God will allow us to do until we wise up and realize that we put the motor on the front of the boat when it should’ve been God doing the driving! Yes, we have front-wheel driving cars and we have electric trolling motors for boats, but when God is in control it doesn’t matter where the force comes from…we will get where we are going. As long as we let Him drive!

God also gives us our talents in order to make a living in this world. Finding them and using them in the way that gives glory to Him in the process makes our lives so much easier than doing things in our strength and in our way! Seek Him out in all things, especially in your vocation, because when He shows you what you were made to do then you will be satisfied with it and with your life!

It doesn’t take a “self-help” book or coach to tell you how to live your life! The Bible is the best book for that in all of the world! Why? Because, if you have read any of those books and then read through the book of Proverbs or Psalms, you will find most of the wisdom that you paid for in the self-help book is already contained in the Bible!

I mean, come on, where do you think all of the wisdom came from? God gave it to us, most of it is written in our DNA, which is why it doesn’t sound strange when we read the Bible! Especially when we read it with an open mind and with prayer and faith! Without these three ingredients, the Bible is just a historical book with a few wisdom chapters contained within!!

God inspired men to write it by the inspiration of His Spirit. It is our guide-book even though it contains much of the history of the Israelite nation. The growing pains which they went through in becoming that nation reflects all of humanity’s weaknesses and failures. It also shows our hopes and dreams through their hopes and dreams. As long as your dreams don’t get ahead of your hopes and your finances, then you will be taken care of in all things by your Creator and Savior! Depend upon Him and His provision for you and all of life will go the way that He deems necessary!

If you can’t live that way, then I feel pity for your life and its outcome.

The end and the beginning


When you consider that, for a Christian, or anyone who is looking forward to eternal life in Heaven, death in this life is the beginning of eternity. Immortality is something that many people would like to have, but nobody wants to die to get there. But…that is the way this works. We don’t get to sample the “Tree of Life” until we are in Heaven. You can blame Adam for that little mix up if you wish. People for years have tried to blame Eve for it, but truly Adam was the one that God told about the trees in the Garden first so it is actually his fault.

The end of a life lived here on Earth is sometimes very sad for those of us left behind. Mainly because we won’t get to see the person who has gone before us into eternity, at least for a while. Remember that when we are reunited with them, the reunion will be glorious! Not only will we see them, but we will see them in their glorified body. Not the one with disease and aches and glasses and a cane, but a body which will last for an eternity!

There will not be anymore good bye’s, no more missing you, because we will be in God’s Kingdom. We will be together with all of our family and friends and even people we didn’t know in this life but we will know them in Heaven…isn’t that GREAT!! God will give us all of the perfection that He had given to Adam and Eve in the Garden. No more pains, or wheezing or dizziness and we will all enjoy this life forever!

Faith


FAITH

focused – focused on a goal

attainable – possible, practical goals

individual – personal goals

trackable – trackable goal

heartfelt – heartfelt goal

Faith…it is a gift of God, indeed, but one which must be realized and cultivated as any other gift if it is to realize the purpose for which it is given. (A.W. Tozer)

Consider that faith is something which is given to each of us by God through the action of the Holy Spirit to bring our hearts into alignment with His goals and purposes. It is not a magic formula nor is it something unique to Christians. Many people have faith in their jobs or their religion or even in their government..at least to an extent.

Faith is the belief in something which is hoped for yet is unseen at this point. Just as Abraham had heard God tell him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. He knew that God has also promised him that through Isaac a people, a nation would arise. So, he followed God’s command to go to the mountain and build an altar to sacrifice his son upon it. He likely felt that if he did take Isaac’s life, God would raise him from the dead in order to fulfill His promise. God provided another sacrifice in the place of Isaac, but it was by the faith of Abraham that God did that too.

Faith is powerful in our lives today because it is by faith that we believe in Jesus and in the atonement granted to us by His death on the cross and His resurrection as our Savior. We couldn’t believe in this or any of the promises from God’s Word without faith. Also, faith in and of itself is not a “magic” word nor is praying in the name of Jesus. Even though you hear it and learn it in church, these words only have meaning in your walk with your Savior. 

If there is no relationship between you and Jesus then your faith and your prayers don’t accomplish much. Walking with Him, reading His Word and using the strength that you find in your relationship with Him to be more like Him is the best relationship that you can have! A marriage with Jesus holding the two of you together is also the best and most rewarding marriage that you can have as well.

God designed each of us to want a relationship with Him but many people try to fill that feeling of emptiness with other people or things and just like a puzzle piece in a jigsaw puzzle, only one fits in that spot. That is where Jesus goes. Don’t let “feel good” preaching tell you otherwise and don’t think of any book, other than God’s Word, as being your guide in this life or as a guide to eternity!

We have God’s Word for a reason. The acronym that best describes it is this: Basic Instructions for Believing and Living Everyday!

Read it, study it, pray about it and through it and live by its wisdom and your life will have a purpose which is given to you and ordained by God our Creator Himself. Living by His Word can only be accomplished by FAITH so make sure that yours is grounded in Jesus and His Word.

Summer….


The season of heat and humidity, at least in the deep South, is coming to an end. It hasn’t yet, but hopefully before November the temperature outside will get to a point of being tolerable. Summer is also the warmest or hottest part of the year no matter what hemisphere you live in or the time of year in which it falls. I never really liked summer because of the humidity and the heat but then I tried a little of it in Arizona a few years back. It wasn’t so unbearable as summer in the South, but hot is hot when you get in a car, with or without the humidity!

13419221_838712436261893_9132633303197040096_nYou may be wondering why I am beginning this post about the hottest part of the year? Well….there are many reasons. Life itself being one of them. We go through periods of learning and growth in the spring of our lives, then we get to the summer season where we are busy and doing things so much until we don’t know which direction we are going sometimes. The fall season is sometimes the best, although it is then that many of life’s problems show up in our health and relationships. Winter is when all of the accomplishments of life come together and we remember, hopefully, the best of those before we reach the end.

Why do I bring this up today? Because, a friend of mine has passed on to the next phase of life…eternity. I am not sure about their salvation, although I hope that he did give his life to Jesus before the end. Life is full of changes. Some of them are good, some are not, but we have to live through them regardless. It is in living through them that we learn and grow into the person that we are to be. For some of us it takes a bit longer, and for some the learning begins with an early realization that God is in control of all things.

God is in control and He does His will through us and without us, but His will is done in all things good or bad. and the good and bad are from our viewpoint. Not necessarily from God’s viewpoint because His purposes will be done regardless of our actions or inaction. Spring, summer, fall and winter are only seasons in the year even though we use them to represent our lives as well. Seek Jesus out during your spring so that the rest of your “year” of life will be productive and in accordance with His will.

What life do you want?


Sometimes you see on social media sites where people seem to be wondering about their lives. Of course, most of us are not philosophically minded so the topic doesn’t go very deep. We feel that following this line of thought is just a waste of time and energy, so we drop it and mostly forget about it. But..if you look at it from a spiritual point of view it really does take on a different tone altogether.

Religion and being religious are good, but you can be religious about playing golf or fishing or any number of things which have very little to do with religion. Having a life of contentment and being content with your life regardless of your wealth is another way of looking at and living your life too. Neither one of those actually has anything to do with your salvation though.

Yes, I am steering the conversation back to the saving grace of God through Jesus His Son. Why do I do this? Because it is my job to do so. I am a pastor and a follower of Jesus the Christ and He did give His followers the command to “go into all of the world teaching the gospel“. That includes all of His disciples and those of us who have recently come to know Him as Savior and Lord as well.

God loves you and me and anyone who may be reading this and the life that you live is important to Him. Living it as a disciple of Jesus is sometimes hard and it can be dangerous depending upon where you live. But it is a very rewarding life. I am not speaking of getting rich from “love offerings” or from being paid a salary at a mega church. I am speaking of the rewards which come from being His servant in all that you do!

God has given each of us gifts to use in our lives. Some of them are for our vocation in life and some are for spreading the message of His Love for us. Some of these gifts are for taking care of others, like the gift of mercy. Some of these gifts are for encouraging others when life beats them up or grief wears them down. Some people have more than one gift and some only have one, but all are useful in living daily with Jesus and walking according to His ways!

Why are they useful in our world when people don’t want to hear about Him? Because even if you don’t speak about Him to others, many will see Him in the way you live or carry your burden through this life. Regardless of what that burden may be, give your life to Jesus and live as He would as much as possible for us, being human. Yes we will fail on some points and we will fall on others, but read His Word and live like it says in all ways. Pray that you will have the strength given by His Spirit to be able to walk in His ways daily because it is only by His Spirit that we can do this.

VineandBranchesOur own strength and power is just not up to the task of walking in the steps of Jesus. Regardless of what your coach tells you or your family tells you, we just don’t have it in us to be like Jesus without the Holy Spirit giving us that strength and ability to do so. I am not putting anyone down by saying this but Jesus says that “you can do nothing apart from me“. Seek Him in the Word of God, learn about Him from its pages and make sure you are in a Bible teaching church so that you can grow in your faith.

Who is God?


The Prayer of Dedication

22Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven. 23He said, “O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart, 24who have kept with Your servant, my father David, that which You have promised him; indeed, You have spoken with Your mouth and have fulfilled it with Your hand as it is this day. 25“Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You have promised him, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way to walk before Me as you have walked.’ 26“Now therefore, O God of Israel, let Your word, I pray, be confirmed which You have spoken to Your servant, my father David.

27“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! 28“Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today; 29 that Your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which You have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ to listen to the prayer which Your servant shall pray toward this place. 30“Listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place; hear in heaven Your dwelling place; hear and forgive. (1 Kings 8:22-30)

God is the only Creator and Redeemer that we have to turn to in life. There is no man or beast or any created thing which can take His place. Anyone who thinks themselves to be “god of their own life” and they believe that God does not exist, then let them tell Him that He doesn’t exist. How do they believe that this will be possible?

Not believing in God doesn’t make Him or His power and majesty of no effect. Neither does it cause Him to allow you to enter into Heaven, since you are determined not to believe in the One Who created you. Atheist’s have determined in our country to get rid of any mention of God or His Word or anything which might be seen as pointing people toward becoming believers. Why?

They do not have anything against any other religion, nor do they keep other religions from telling people about their religion. Why so much hostility toward the Bible and the God mentioned in it? Because they know that this is the truth and the only Truth available to grant salvation to anyone who believes, that is why they don’t want it in schools or police stations or government buildings. If there were scriptures from the Koran or any other religion present in those places, nothing would be said about that.

The reason for this is that the Bible and its wisdom is absolute. There aren’t any flexible decrees in its pages. The world, whether they are religious to one degree or another or not, hates absolute Truth. They can’t dispute it, yet they cannot deny it either. Water is wet, the sun is hot, gravity works very well…all of these things they can “explain” with science. But when a disease is cured for no explainable reason or someone recovers from a horrific accident or comatose state and doctors can’t explain how or why…it makes people nervous.

If you feel any need at all for God in your life, I urge you to seek Him soon. Our time on Earth is coming to an end. The rest of the world doesn’t see this, many have not read the book of Revelation and realized that it is prophecy which is being fulfilled almost on a daily basis. Don’t wait until the Anti-Christ and the World Order takes over and requires an implant or mark on your hand or head to buy food! Seek Jesus and give your life to Him while you can and before the Bible is banned as a hate filled book!

Why do you believe?


There are many reasons why people have their different beliefs about…religion, sexuality, occupation, money or a host of other things in life. I am not going into all of them here. Your belief in religion could get you into an eternal hell. Why? Because it isn’t the religion which brings you to salvation! Jesus does.

IamtheWayIt isn’t a hard thing to believe in Jesus because He did come to Earth and die for all of man’s sins, past, present and future. Whether we accept it and believe it as the Truth of the Bible is another matter. Many don’t believe it, mostly because they see Jesus as He was…a man or a prophet. They don’t see nor do they recognize Him as the Son of God. Why? The Bible tells the story of His birth, most of His life after He began His ministry, and His death on the cross and His resurrection. The Bible is God’s Word, so why not believe it?

It’s words are inspired by the Spirit of God and since He cannot lie, all of it is true, so why not believe it? Because most people really don’t want to believe it nor do they expect it to be true. The facts are these: since it is God’s Word, inspired by Him and attested to be true by proofs of His majesty and power, there is no reason NOT to believe the prophecies or the history within its pages. You can choose to ignore parts of it or to decide that you will not believe in the things which it says, but that doesn’t change the fact that God’s Word always accomplishes that which He wants it to do.

Your belief in Him or His Word has no effect on whether it will be true and will come true or not because God will cause all of the promises and prophecies to come true in His time and at the appointed time for them. Our belief or lack of belief has no effect on His purposes. They will come to fruition…because God loves us.

It is because of His great love for us that He sent Jesus to pay our debts on the cross. We need to understand that our responsibility is to love Him and serve Him with all of our mind, soul, body and strength in this life, regardless of our vocation or our financial ability. God will make you into a real messenger for His Kingdom, if you will give your heart, mind and soul to Him.

Our world would be so much better than it is IF we would commit to doing this every day of our lives. If you have not given your life to Jesus, please consider doing so. Nobody knows when your last breath will be and the end of the age is approaching faster than most realize. Don’t wait…seek Him out for your eternity today!

What shall we do with Jesus?


WomanbytheWellSome people see Him as a great prophet. Some claim that He is the Son of God. Christians believe that He is the Son of God, foretold in Scripture, born of a virgin, fulfilled the Law of Moses in His life, Who taught His disciples that belief in Him is the way to Heaven. Then after three years of a miracle-filled ministry, He was taken into custody, condemned as a heretic and a rebel toward Roman rule and crucified.

Yet, God confirmed His place and His claims by raising Him from the grave three days later. He then taught His disciples for fifty days until His ascension to the Father.

Do we have proof of this? Only that there is an empty tomb where He was laid and our faith through the Holy Spirit confirming that God’s Word is true!

So, what will you do with Him?

themissingpieceThe Bible, particularly the New Testament, says that we should believe in Him. Archaeology has proven many, if not all, of the historical books in the Old Testament to be true and accurate. Science has proven that God’s rule of circumcision on the eighth day to be medically accurate because a baby’s body doesn’t have clotting factors until that time. There are many other proofs of the Bible which I won’t go into here.

My point in this post is to encourage you to learn more from God’s Word, seek Him out in it and make sure of your salvation! Jesus came to specifically save and sanctify each of us who will believe in Him. The next time He comes, He will be coming to take this world as His Kingdom and to prove to all that the Bible is true and that He is the One that He claimed to be when He was here the first time!

There is no denying this point, unless you just refuse to believe the Bible as the true Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to us to point us in the right direction. If that is what you choose to believe, then there may be no way of convincing you otherwise. I pray that anyone who reads this or any other blog about our Savior will at least give the Christian faith the chance by reading the Bible with an open mind. I am not asking that you believe something just because, say Billy Graham believes it. But, don’t dismiss it out of hand either.

Particularly if you have ever felt the Holy Spirit speak in your heart, your soul and haven’t acted upon it yet. Don’t put this decision off because it truly is of eternal value to you! There is a life after this one, but living through eternity without God would be…well the only way that I could describe something similar on Earth would be like a prisoner in a dark cell with no light, no air moving, and yet you couldn’t die. Even if you never got any food, you would be in that cell for years, decades, even centuries. No contact with anyone. Most people would go insane in a situation like this.

Except, in hell you can’t go insane and there will be heat and a lot of it. What else will be there? I don’t know except to say that anything like water or food, anything which would give you a chance at Life, will not be present. Don’t test this out to see if you might like it, because once you are there, you won’t get out. It isn’t temporary and you can’t be “prayed out” or bought out. Jesus is the only way out, but you have to accept Him before you die, not after.

Seek Jesus while He may be found and accepted into your life while you are here, please?

 

Is He your Savior?


Our Savior, Jesus, the Son of God is the Him of which I speak. He shed His divinity to come to Earth, be born of a woman, live the life of a man of Jewish descent, perfectly fulfilling the Law (which no normal human could do), teach a group of disciples so that they could carry His teachings to all parts of the world, died on a cross on the day of Passover and then rose again on the third day!

john_3_16_17_scripture_memory_card-raf7013e639264b87b918bea9971565b3_vgbaq_8byvr_540Yes, a long sentence to tell of the life of Jesus the Christ. A short version of His life, death and resurrection, but a story which has significance for so many around the world! Some of whom believe that He is our Savior and Lord, some  do not believe He was anything other than a prophet.

Do you know Him? You can get to know Him if you will believe in Him and follow Him. Learn about Him through reading of the New Testament and do the things which His disciples did…tell others what He has done for you! Why? Because they need Him too.

 

So what are you reflecting?


 

are-you-a-reflection

Are you a dull mirror which barely reflects your God and His Glory which is in you? Or are you a mirror turned toward itself, which only reflects itself into infinity? Which are you?

Think on this the next time you go to church or read the Bible.