Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

Time enough to grieve


When the holidays are over we tend to be saddened by the passing of the feelings of togetherness and love that we experience during the holiday. The gifts, the joy that getting a present brings, the look on children’s faces as they open their gifts, these are all precious and will never be repeated exactly the same way again. For those who may have lost a loved one during this time of year, it is especially hard because the joy of the season is tamped down by the grief and sadness.

Unfortunately, those feelings don’t really go away with time like everyone says, they become a little less bothersome but that is all. The good news is that God knows exactly how you feel and is there with you to carry you through it, no matter how deep the sadness goes or how long it lasts. He never leaves you and He won’t forsake the friendship that you have.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the sadness will be terrible and deep and you may feel that you can’t bear it. For some, this is a reason to “get off the wagon” and get back into a bottle or go back to their habit of taking drugs to ease the pain. This is a really bad idea! Jesus can strengthen you and help you through this, if you will let Him!

He told us in His Word that we would never be alone, if we have accepted Him into our lives. He loves us much more than we can ever imagine or believe and if we will just trust in Him, we can gain the strength that we need to make it through the days and weeks ahead. The death of a marriage or a family member is a hard lesson in life and it is one that many of us have gone through, especially me, but Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace and He will be with you through this if you will ask Him into your heart and life.

Grief is a natural part of life and death and there are many stages to it, but the most devastating is the depression and anger. We feel anger because we weren’t ready for our loved one to leave or for the marriage to end or whatever it may have been. We are depressed because of the loss of our loved one by whatever means that has taken them away and we know that we may never see them again. Cheer up, if you have Christ in your life and they did too then it is only a temporary separation. They are in a more wonderful place than you can imagine and they are with Jesus!

Their salvation could lead you in that direction if you will allow it to. Grief and loss for a Christian are not permanent but temporary because Jesus conquered death and the grave! You will see them again if you decide to give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life. Once you have done this, your life and that of those around you will never be the same because of the change in you that they can see.

What is on your mind?


In the times that we live in today, many of us have so much on our minds until we can’t isolate exactly what is on our mind at any one time. Isn’t that strange? I have days like that even though I don’t work at a regular job anymore. How about you? Do you have days that have many things running into each other trying to get them done? You probably feel like you will run into yourself one day trying to finish everything, don’t you?

It is a day like that that this is dedicated to. For one thing, we all need to s–l–o–w d-o-w-n. Not only in our working lives, but at home as well. We tend to have so much for our family to do until we seem to forget that we are really, first and foremost, a family! If your workday ends on Friday, but you hardly have any time to spend with each other over the weekend, then it doesn’t really qualify as a “week-end” does it?

Even Jesus spent time with His friends and His disciples when all of the healings were finished and the bread was broken. He didn’t just walk away and not tell people that He didn’t have time for them. He created time so He could have as much as He needed. The problem was that He took the time to take the time with them, regardless of the amount of time that He had. Now, we can’t create time and He didn’t either while He was on Earth, but the point is that we need to control our time.

I know that time management is a course that is taught in college and it is usually found to be useless once you finish it, but your most important relationship here is your family and they should come first, behind God, but our jobs and obligations usually get in the way. But they don’t get in the way unless we allow it to happen, do they? I know, there are some obligations which come with our jobs, whatever they may be, that can’t be put on hold or put off until after the game or other family get together, but we should at least try to put family and Jesus first in our everyday lives.

Ask God to help because believe me, He can and will do it! Many of the reasons for people not seeing God at work in their lives is because they didn’t ask for His help in the first place! Then, after we do ask for His help we don’t or can’t wait for God to act! I have said it before and I am going to say it again because I have heard this advice from other Christians and other pastors as well: don’t ever ask God for patience! You will learn it, not get it, but you won’t enjoy the wait at all!

That being said, don’t hesitate to ask God for help in any area of your life. He is always there and always ready to help in His way and His time. Jesus is always there, waiting for people to call on Him to come into their lives and change them for the better, because when you become a Christian you are not the same as you were, you are forgiven and whole in Christ. You are not better than the person beside you, but you are forgiven which makes a difference! You are not sinless, yet you are forgiven through His blood and His sacrifice for you and everyone that you know! God sent Jesus to do this so that we could all come to Him through the atonement found only in Jesus. Come to Him and let Him show you how to order your life on a daily basis toward Him and His Word, to learn from Him one book at a time so that you can take it with you wherever you go.

Think about it during the next few weeks and give your life to Jesus. It is the most important and life changing decision that you will ever make!

Live, love and persue happiness


The life that we have been given and the love that has been shown to us through Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us, is a gift of immense proportions. Unfortunately, many people miss this gift and don’t realize just what they have been given until some trial comes along and shows them what they have and what they could’ve had. Also, we tend to miss it because we don’t want to believe any of this because of Who He is! Many people don’t want to know Jesus because Christianity and Jesus Himself said that He was and is the Son of God.

God is love and this is part of the message that Jesus brought to the world and to His disciples. But, we should be trying to live like Jesus did and love the way that He did and if we did that then happiness would follow. We also should be letting Jesus live through us so that others will see Him and not us, so that they will see the love of Jesus in our words and our deeds. That is the gift that we need to be giving to others during our time here.

It is true that during this time of year, we are looking for gifts from our family and friends, our boss, our wife or husband, our parents, but you have already been given the most valuable gift that could be given…that of the Christ, your Messiah, Jesus. He made the sacrifice that could not be done by anyone or anything other than the perfect Son of God. Why do people reject Him and His gift? Because they don’t believe in Him or in Who He is, plain and simple.

Most just think that He is a prophet or he was and he was crucified and died,  and that is it! Many don’t think that the story of His resurrection is true or that He is the Son of God, but He is! Jesus is the only Man of God that is almost always spoken of in the present tense, not in the past tense. “Why is that?” you might say; because He sits at the right hand of God right now! He is not dead, but alive and waiting for you to ask Him into your life. He will not force you to accept Him, neither will He ask you to kill someone who doesn’t accept Him. That is not His way.

He was born to a virgin, by the will and actions of God through the Holy Spirit to become the Son of Man Who is the Son of God. No contradiction exists in this and He is the only One that could fulfill all of the prophecies concerning Himself from the Old Testament, which He did at His birth, through His life and with His death on the cross and His resurrection! He fulfilled them all, no mere man, prophet or not, could accomplish that!

Give Jesus a chance in your life and in your heart. You won’t regret it and others will see Him through your actions as well and may turn their life over to Him because of the changes they see in you. Wouldn’t that be wonderful! To know that even one person came to Christ because of something that you said or did, although you may not even find it out until you get to Heaven, won’t that be a great blessing?

Think about it!