Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

Why should we?


Every newscast seems to be saying the same thing. That Christians are supposed to support and go along with the agenda that is being put forward by a certain lobbying group. Actually, the Bible says that we are to step back away from you and not get involved at all.

What God considers to be an abomination, we aren’t supposed to condone or accept. Why should we? If you can’t accept our beliefs, whether we agree with your lifestyle or not, who is being intolerant? According to our rights as Americans, we have the right to believe and worship any way that we please.

But, today it seems that we are labelled as haters because we actually believe the words contained in the Bible. It is not our opinion about you one way or the other, it is God’s hatred of the sinful life that you want us to accept! How would the Muslims treat you? I have heard that they are killing homosexuals. At least we aren’t condoning that!

I love you as a person, just as God does. But, it is the sin that is in your life and your lifestyle which He won’t accept. He will forgive you, IF you turn away from it and follow Him in repentance. No one can keep sinning willingly and on purpose and serve God as a Christian too, if your heart and soul has been changed on the inside then it will show to the world that you have truly changed.

I don’t think of myself as perfect, I am far from that! Yes, I stumble and fall, and say things or think something I shouldn’t, but my spirit or the Holy Spirit will convict me of it. Then I determine to repent of it and ask forgiveness. God loves you far more than you will ever realize until you come to Him and repent, asking Jesus into your heart to change you into the person that you should be and can be for Christ.

Living Christianity


Thanking God for waking up today, and for the blessings that you have in your life.

The prayer that you say before leaving to go to your job or on other errands that have to be done.

Praying for someone in your family, your church family, or someone who you hear about on the news. Not necessarily for their salvation, but for their comfort or their healing depending upon the circumstances.

Doing something, no matter how small it may seem, for someone that you know. Even if it is just saying a prayer for them.

Give of your money, your tithes to help those who are truly in need and in danger. The Jewish people are not all rich, there are some homeless children and elderly there that need our help. I have been doing this for the past three years or so and even if you can only give twenty or twenty-five dollars will help, even if it is only a one time gift. I am sorry to say that I haven’t been able to give that amount every month but I pray that is about to change for me and for you as well.

Don’t just go to church on the days or nights when there is a service going on. Your faith in Jesus has to be taken outside the church so that others can see Christians as we are supposed to be, reflecting Jesus so that the world can see Him through our actions and in our life.

Don’t claim to be a Christian and go through the motions of being one and not believe in Jesus fully. If you are doing this, you are fooling yourself and you are being fooled into thinking that you are something that you are NOT!

Do as Jesus said to do, “Seek ye the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) This doesn’t mean that all of the stuff that you want will come to you, but the blessings of God will be yours through Jesus. Read and study God’s Word every day! It is imperative that we know what it says so that we aren’t fooled by someone quoting a scripture which isn’t there or out of context.

Be LIKE Christ and be the Christian that He intended for you to be. Many people have died over the years because they would not give up their beliefs or change to go along with everyone else’s opinion and we should be just as stubborn as they were by clinging to our faith no matter what comes!

Love, where does it come from?


Many people wonder about love and today consider that this word is just…a word. It doesn’t mean anything, it has no depth for many people. It is just a simple, four letter word and nothing more. Where does this sort of thinking come from? Why is it so denigrated and down-played from the meaning that it is given in God’s Word?

Mainly because people don’t see love today as the same as what is talked about in the Bible. We have been using the word, LOVE, as a stand-in for lust for so long until it has lost its real meaning. Nobody sees it being acted upon or toward people in the same way that Jesus told us that we are supposed to do. We are supposed to love each other as we love ourselves, but very few people do this today.

Everyone is out to get what they can get and as much as they can get for themselves. Its like the world is populated by millions if not billions of spoiled brats!

I am not saying that stuff is bad but the constant search for and chasing after more toys is idiotic. Nothing that you gain in this life materially gives you much satisfaction except for a brief moment when you are using it for the first few times. Then, just like most children, it becomes old and it just doesn’t fill the void that you wanted filled. At which point you are off to find something else.

Our search for something to fill that void in our lives is not a pursuit which is limited to young or old, rich or poor or middle class. It is something which we feel when we get to a certain age and realize that there is something that is missing. At which point we begin to search for it and depending upon our resources (money), we look in all sorts of places and seek out fulfilment in more and better things.

We will look at new cars or homes or games or guns, then sometimes we seek out new friends or relationships or even new gadgets like an iPad or tablets or phones and computers. Today, the selection is nearly endless yet we still have trouble finding just the right combination or specific person or thing which will fill that void. We will never find it until we begin searching for the One which can fill that place of empty feeling.

That is Jesus Christ. In life, we only have a small amount of time. It could be twenty years or thirty, it might be sixty or even ninety or one hundred years, but when you compare that time with, say one hundred thousand years, isn’t it tiny? God created us all with an immortal spirit or soul and that part of us continues on when this life ends. Your acceptance of Jesus places you on the path into Heaven with Him and that life will never end.

If you choose to hear or listen to a message about being saved by belief in Jesus and then walk away, deciding that you will live the way you want to live because your idea of God would not do that to someone. Your idea of God would not punish you in hell for not accepting His Son as Savior. It won’t be your idea that judges you! It will be God Himself and it is not His decision which will place you in hell, it is yours!

Even a child can understand the Love of God that was given to all of us through Jesus and His death and resurrection, but if you choose to turn away from the offer of grace which God gives you by that love then it is your choice. It will be your choice which condemns you to hell, not God.

Are we any good?


Bad things don’t happen to good people because good people don’t exist.

“There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10 NIV)

I’m not trying to condemn anyone to hell, you do that all by yourself. I’m just trying to show you that it’s not all about you or me, it’s about Him. When your focus is directed at yourself, you forget to leave room for God.

Even though I was acting like a Christian, I was not a good person. To “sin” is to miss God’s mark. Sin is anything opposite of what God wants us to do. Even though everything I did was technically “pleasing to God” I still used it for my own pursuit for happiness. I am still a sinner, the only difference now is that my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus.

If Jesus is our role model then we should try to be Christ-like…right? I mean, that is what Christian actually means you know? Well try to compare your good deeds with what Jesus did. I’m sorry, but it’s an unfair match. People can’t seem to believe that He was able to be human and God too and many Christians don’t believe it, but He was and He is! Jesus’ mother, Mary, was human which we all know something about. His Father is God, so He didn’t have the “sin seed” if you will, which was passed down from Adam.

People do good things, but good people don’t exist. Yes, there are many people who are “playing church”, doing all the accepted things and trying to be “good Christians”. But, on their own and with their own strength they can’t do it, no one can!

Christ set the example for us, and our goal is to be like Him, but we will never reach the likeness of Christ. I’m sorry…but if we became like Christ, then we would consider ourselves to be a god. The only point in your life that you will be truly Christ-like is after you reach Heaven. You can try to follow the Holy Spirit to the best of your ability during this life, but unless you are depending upon Him every minute of every day…every day, you won’t be able to. You can come close, but the fullness of our holiness won’t be bestowed upon us until we are in His Presence.

So that leaves us where we are now. We are sinners, but if you have Christ in your heart then you are a sinner saved by His grace!

Our goal is to achieve Christ-likeness, but Paul says there’s no such thing as a good person. Until we are changed by Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit from the inside out, we are just us, each of us is a sinner because of the sin-nature that mankind inherited from Adam.

God shows us His ultimate righteousness to create an urgency of dependence towards Him. The Holy Spirit deals with our spirit on the basis of holiness and shows us just how unrighteous we really are. That is where we break down and cry out to God.

God made us all equal. Matthew 20:1-16 shows us that (stop what you’re doing and read this parable). Don’t focus on what you deserve. We all deserve the same wage, the wage of death, because we all have sinned (Romans 3:23 & 6:23). You’re a sinner, so am I. No one’s perfect. That’s why I lean on Jesus every day. The trials of my life have already been conquered by Him. We are no longer bound to our sin through Jesus. We are conquerors by His power and the Holy Spirit and we are able to overcome the temptations through Him.

The truth about us is not based on our deeds, our performance, our past, our present, and our resumes. The truth about us is defined by the gospel and our dependence on Him. It’s time to give up our false selfless ambitions and align our hearts with God’s will in our lives. We all need to work on this, I’m learning just as much as you. Keep seeking out God through His Word. Look for Him in your daily life in small victories and big ones. He will give you that victory over whatever is in your life if you will lean on and trust in Him!

I am the Vine


Jesus told His disciples “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5″I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6″If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.… (John 15:4-6)

We are to be the branches depending on the Vine to give us strength and ability to go through our lives with Him so that others might see Him in us and through us. How many churches actually teach this today? There are some, but I would say that there aren’t many. Why? Because of the way that our country has gone, the people have moved away from Christ. We have allowed ourselves to become like the church in the book of Revelation that Jesus said He would spew them out of His mouth.

Why? Because they had light, they knew of Him but didn’t follow Him. They did what was right in their eyes, made the rules for themselves instead of following the wisdom contained within God’s Word. Truly, you can even know His Word, have studied His Word, even preach His Word and yet not have Him in your heart. How this is possible, I can’t say, but it has happened to many.

Seek Him, lean on His Strength and Wisdom, learn to Love the way He does, without compromise or fear and without expecting anything in return. Do things for them that can’t help themselves out of your love for Christ so that others may see Him through you and your actions.

Our Lord needs many workers who are willing to do these things in the world today because there seems to be a shortage of people who are following Him right now. Really following Him, not just saying so and going to church and singing…going through the motions to look like a Christian and be seen as a Christian but deep down they haven’t accepted Him into their hearts. Is it possible to fool people like this? Yes it is. I have read stories of pastors and bishops in churches that have held those positions for years and yet they came under the conviction that they were not saved and finally gave their lives to Jesus.

Your life and mine are just wisps of smoke compared to eternity. The things which we can do are insignificant until Jesus comes into our lives and changes our hearts and our souls. When that happens, the whole world opens up and you can have an impact and make a difference in the lives of people. Not just for their lives here, but for eternity as well. Please, seek Jesus and His story out in God’s Word and give your life to Him. Ask Him to change your life into one that can truly make a difference in this world, even if it is only one person that you influence to become a Christian. That person may become an evangelist which will touch thousands of people, maybe more!

God’s name is in Israel


I have a picture which was taken by a pilot in Israel and the hills close to Jerusalem spell God’s name in Hebrew. This is easy to see, yet I doubt that many people will take this as the warning that it could be. God has claimed this land thousands of years ago fGods name in Israelor the Jewish people and He signed it with His name. This alone should make the world afraid and wondering about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But, of course, many will dismiss this as just a coincidence although I don’t believe that a formation on the hills which forms the name of God is a coincidence!

The land was given by God to Abraham and his descendants as their possession forever, by a covenant which God proclaimed Himself! You know, since the Creator is the One Who gave the land of Israel to the Jews, how can we argue about the ownership of it? How can we possibly act as if we can split the land up and give it to others?

God is God, the Creator of everything and whether we believe it or not. Whether the world will acknowledge Him or not, it is the Truth. He is real just as Satan and his demons are real. Heaven and hell are real and they are places where people will go because of their choices in life, not because of their evil or their sins but because of their choices!

Most will not believe this, but it is only your choices which will condemn you to hell and it is specifically your choice of whether you will follow and believe in Jesus and His atonement for you or if you will follow something or someone else in life. It doesn’t even have to be someone who you worship in a church or mosque or synagogue, you can just choose to not believe or even to place yourself in the position of a god.

How you could do that, I am not sure. The thing is that, when you put anyone or anything in place of Jesus then you are worshipping yourself or whatever may be taking the place of the Messiah! Everyone seems to deny that there is idolatry today, yet it is rampant. Not only in America but all over the world. I will get many reactions from this point of view, but my point is this: we are not gods and cannot be gods! It doesn’t matter how highly you think of yourself or how impressive your body is, if you are a body-builder, you are not a god and never will be! So much hate and cruelty is in our world today because of views on race and violence toward someone who doesn’t believe as you do. Why is that?

We are all part of the HUMAN RACE! Yes, there are different colors of skin, but just because a horse is black and one is brown or black and white, you don’t look at them as a different “race” of horse! Violence toward someone of a different belief system is another stupid way of persecution toward others too. I don’t care who or what you pray to, as long as you don’t push your beliefs on me especially with violence and killings because I choose to worship differently from you! It is true, that I believe that Christianity is true to the Word of God and is the religion which will lead you to Heaven because that is what God’s Word says. But, I am not going to threaten you with a sword or a gun because you want to believe something different!

That is why God gave us all a choice to believe in Him and His Son or not. People always choose what is most comfortable to them. What they have grown up with to one extent or another. Yet, God has a way of getting His Spirit to intervene in your life at times when you least expect it to happen, even if you haven’t been to a church, Christian or otherwise. If God has a plan for your life, then eventually your life and His plan will run into each other especially if it has to do with your being a part of His Kingdom and maybe having an influence on others too!

Consider that the world right now is on the edge of all of the prophecies which point to the “end of the age”. It is getting close, though I don’t know and no one else does either. Seek Him out in God’s Word, learn about the God Who Lives, the Creator, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace. It is He Who will bring peace to this world after all and to all of those that choose to follow Him.

Themes in the Bible


What is the theme which is carried all through the Bible? One of them is the blood. From the time that God had to shed the blood of two animals in order to create garments for Adam and Eve, through Abraham’s time where God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac, blood was always being shed in some form or another. Later, in Egypt, a lamb was sacrificed in order to anoint the door posts with its blood so that the angel of death would pass over the house of each Israelite. The covenant of circumcision also required the shedding of blood and then later, when Jesus was convicted of doing nothing more than telling the people how they could know God and come into His Presence, His blood was shed during the scourging and then on the cross itself.

In many ways, people in the world today reject our beliefs because they call it “a bloody religion”. What about all the children and parents and grandparents that have been killed by the “religion of peace” in our time? What about the blood that they have spilled? I would call that a bloody religion too, wouldn’t you? It is true that blood has been shed all through the Bible, but what about other themes and requirements?

The most prevalent one that comes to mind that I have seen from the beginning to the end of God’s Word is obedience. All that God ever asked and required of those that He called His was obedience, to His laws and to Him. Starting in the Garden and in every book from that point on, He asked certain people to do as He asked them to. Sometimes, they obeyed but many times they did not. Even before the Israelites had a king over them, as soon as they were delivered from bondage or trouble they would revert back to worshiping other gods and refusing to obey their God.

Even Moses, during the exodus from Egypt, disobeyed God by striking the rock when God had told him to speak to it for water. True, the first time God had said to strike the rock and Moses did, but the second time he was supposed to speak to it and his anger caused him to strike the rock instead. Then, when Israel asked for a king, God gave them one but the first one didn’t obey God like he should have so his kingdom was taken from him. David did as God told him to do, but even he disobeyed God in some things but at least he repented of his sins and asked for forgiveness.

After David’s reign, Solomon did follow God and did as God instructed him for a while, but his wives led him astray to worship other gods in his old age. After his reign, very few of the kings which followed would worship God or do as the prophets told them to do. Many of them desecrated the Temple with strange gods and killed the prophets. Why would God be merciful to a people, even those of us over the whole Earth, when most of us have refused to obey Him and His laws or even to follow His Son?
The next theme which flows all the way through the Bible, from the beginning to the end, is His love for us. He, the Creator of all things, LOVES us! Even when we don’t like or even believe in Him!!

God loves us today, each one of us, enough that He sent Jesus to die so that we could have a relationship with Him. He wants that. He doesn’t need it. God has never needed us, nor does He need the angels in heaven, but He wants a relationship with His Creation, all of Creation. That is why Lucifer rebelled against Him, because he didn’t want the relationship from that point, he wanted to be on the receiving end of the adoration and the love but he didn’t want to give it to Creation or the Creator.

In many ways, we are rebelling today because we want to get the love but we don’t want to be required to give it. You know what? You aren’t required to love God at all!! But, when you realize what He really did for you so that you have the choice and the ability to love and be loved by the Creator, then you actually do want to! If you can’t make that leap into God’s lap as you would into your dad’s or your mom’s lap, then you will miss out on it. You will miss out on the true, loving, whole relationship with God, the Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a feeling which cannot be described to anyone who hasn’t felt it.

The closest way to describe it from me to you would be how a mother or a father feels when they hold their first child for the very first time. If you can imagine being the recipient of that love and then multiply it thousands of times to the point of it overwhelming you….that is what it has felt like to me at times. It is a feeling which can’t be described because the actual feeling is beyond description. Similar to the problem of telling someone what the color blue is or maybe the color purple. If they have never seen it, you just can’t tell them about it at all.

Until you can get into the Word of God and come close enough to Him that you can feel His Presence, then I can’t describe it at all. Then, consider that the river of Life runs through Heaven and it is like liquid joy!

You know, I started this sermon off talking about the blood, then I spoke about obedience, then lastly there is Love, and just as first Corinthians says that “the greatest of these is LOVE”. It really is True! Love is the reason for all of this, your life and mine as well as for Jesus coming and dying on the cross and being resurrected. God’s Love for us! The least that we could do would be to give back some of that Love to Him in the form of our life and our love because He loved us first, isn’t that a wonderful way to look at Easter?

Bad things happening to good people


I always wondered why this happened. I thought that God always brought good from bad things for those who love Him? Yet, bad things still happen. Why is that?

In many ways, the world itself is the cause of the “bad things”, and they are allowed to happen so that others can see how a Christian reacts to those things which happen so that God can get the glory! I know, it sounds crazy but those bad things are usually caused by Satan or his demons because of something that a Christian is doing in their life. They may be making a difference in the world. Maybe not in the world at large, but just in the world immediately around them.

They might be having an influence on some of their family members or some of the people in their community. This is what is getting Satan and his demons upset, so they cause bad things like cancer, wrecks, infections, broken bones from a fall or an accident. It is not your fault or your Christian family member’s fault, it is what they are doing that is causing the demons to cause these things to happen in their lives.

If you are truly working to tell people about Jesus and to bring others into the Kingdom of God, then Satan will attempt to stop it one way or the other and it doesn’t matter if he has to kill you or your friends to accomplish this. If a death, regardless of whose death it is, will stop you from spreading the Gospel then he will do it!

The apostle Paul said it clearly in Ephesians 6:12, we are at war in heavenly places, with powers and principalities that we can’t see but they can influence our lives and the lives of those around us. Whether you believe in him or not, Satan and his demons and powers have you in their sights. Especially if you are actively working for Jesus and His Kingdom.

Pray for God’s angels to watch over your church and your family because prayer is our most powerful tool in this war. Praying scripturally and reading the Bible gives you more power too. Seek His wisdom and knowledge in all of your readings in the Bible. Pray and thank God for all of your business and life successes and ask that He would show you how to give Him the glory in your daily walk with Him.

Satan knows that his time is short and will be heating the world up with persecutions and other ways of destroying the church and God’s people. Pray for strength and wisdom through Him. Watch and pray.

Regarding God


Yesterday, I reblogged a post about an African church and it tells how they praise God in their worship. It very likely doesn’t do them justice, but it does tell some of what they do. In our churches today, in America in some places around the world, we tend toward restraint and dignified worship. Why do we do this? So we aren’t perceived as “those crazy Christians” maybe?

David worshipped God with dancing and singing, so much so that it embarrassed his wife. Why don’t we worship God with all of our being and our strength? Maybe we don’t want to look ridiculous to others? What difference does it make?

If every person in the church was clapping and singing and dancing in the aisles, what difference would it make? To others, who were doing the same thing, it wouldn’t matter. Someone who had never seen this kind of worship, would either run away or join in on the fun! Would that be so bad? The one that ran away might think that all of us are crazy, but God wouldn’t.

Worship can be as dignified or as rambunctious and care free as it needs to be. Why would you want to go into God’s presence with a face that looked as if you had a lemon in your mouth? Jesus laughed I am sure of it and we should be happily praising God regardless of our situation in life.

Just as Jesus told His disciples: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5″I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6″If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.… (John 15:4-6) We are to do the same. Abiding doesn’t mean just sitting there like a lump on a log. A branch grows and produces fruit, and so should we and we ought to be happy and joyous in the process!

God is our Creator and our Judge when that time comes, but when you have accepted Jesus as your Savior then He is your Father too. He doesn’t judge you anymore because you are covered by Jesus’ blood and your sins are forgotten. You may falter and fall occasionally, but you are still forgiven. His sacrifice was a one-time gift to us all and the only thing which we have to do is to accept the gift from God as it is, by faith. There is nothing that we can add to it and we can’t tarnish it by not doing anything after we get it, but you will. A grateful heart will do something for God.

You may think that what you do is small, but God can use even the smallest gesture or word to plant a seed in someone’s life or maybe to open someone’s eyes to the Truth. You may not think that what you said or did will amount to anything, but God can use it in ways that you might never imagine. This blog can make an impact in someone’s life and I pray that it will.

Peace in our time?


“Since its inception in the 7th century, Islam has used the sword to advance its territory. It goes on to this day. The goal is to bring the world into submission to Sharia law. This is what motivates all these “terrorist” groups. ISIS is getting a lot of attention, but what is going on with Boko Haram against the people of Nigeria today is just as horrible. This practice of using force to compel conversion is a distinctive to Islam compared to the world’s other major religions.” (borrowed from another site afa.net)

Our world here in America and elsewhere is becoming much more dangerous, especially to Christians. Why? Because we don’t believe the same as other religions. Yet, people in America want tolerance from Christians toward everyone else’s beliefs and their lifestyles, but they can’t stand our beliefs. Talk about a double standard!!

It seems that people can’t comprehend the reason that Christians believe the way that they do, and I don’t understand this at all. The Bible, which is our guidebook and our Holy Book, is available almost everywhere. Most of it is part of Jewish belief as well since their Torah and much of our Old Testament are the same. Even Islam recognizes the Book and the Patriarchs and Jesus, although they don’t give them the same reverence that we do.

Peace in our life-time has been a common theme that many have tried to bring about for many hundreds of years, yet it is something which is either fleeting in its brevity or almost impossible due to cultural and religious differences. Is it possible? Yes, but it cannot be done through force and it will not come at the hands of a man, it will come about when Jesus returns and rules from Jerusalem.

Why do I say it this way? Because it is a fact. God has prophesied it in His Word and therefore that is the way that it will be. There is no argument and there is no other way that it will happen. Many people will fight against it and they will fail in the end. Like it or not, that is the way the future will be.

Christianity is not forced upon you. You will and always have had a choice to follow Jesus or not, but peace on the Earth will only come when He is ruling from Jerusalem. I am not speaking of the Anti-Christ, but the real Messiah, Jesus.

Yes, I know, many who might read this will not agree with me which is fine. I don’t expect nor require anyone to agree. I am just stating something which is prophesied to happen and it is going to happen. Whether you believe that I am delusional or not really doesn’t matter at all, I have been called worse.

God knows the hearts of men, regardless of their religion or their doctrine, and it is He that will judge each of us according to our faith and that which we have done or not done in this life. The things which have been done for His Kingdom will last, anything other than this will be destroyed. Your possessions and your money are all part of this world and it doesn’t matter how much you have of either. When  you die, regardless of the manner of your death, your “stuff” will be here for someone else to sell or enjoy. You will be in eternity and your decisions in this life for or against Jesus will determine where that eternity will be. So make the right choice.