Category: when you feel His call in your heart

God’s love…


The verse that nearly everyone knows, John 3:16, begins with “For God so loved…”. He does love us because we are created in His image. God doesn’t love the sinful ways that we live and show our lack of care and love toward each other. Can we fix this? NO! Not on our own we can’t.

When you feel His touch in your heart that convicts you of the ways that you have hurt His heart by living apart from Him, please don’t turn away. Don’t refuse to listen to that “small voice” that speaks to your soul. It is God telling you that you need to turn your life over to Jesus and allow Him to change your life.

God sent Jesus to live and teach and heal those who came to Him but He also came to die for our sins. He did that and then rose from the grave three days later as He conquered death for us. He made it possible for us to have eternal life with Him one day. Something that we can’t do on our own. We can’t be good enough to not commit sins during our time here. Satan always has the upper hand and can tempt us to do or think about things that we might not do on our own. The problem with our pride is that we think we can master our own selves.

Self-control is something that most of humanity has trouble with every day and has had to deal with this trouble for thousands of years. God knew this long before we were born and He provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only way to be admitted into God’s Presence. Believing in Him for your salvation and giving your heart to Him is the beginning of your eternity but that isn’t all. You need to study God’s Word and learn His will for your life and how you can possibly please God for the rest of your time here.

Becoming a Christian by your belief in Jesus as your Savior is the first step but it is only the first step on your journey to Heaven. Our life here is pitifully short compared to even one thousand years. Thinking of eternity is something our minds cannot conceive of. I pray that anyone who might read this will seek Jesus as their Savior…soon. Because one day the church will be taken up to be with Him and life on Earth will become more like hell on Earth than it has ever been. Make sure of your eternity before that happens.

The immeasurable love of God


“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

God loves each of us so much that HE was willing to give His Son as a sacrifice to pay the penalty of all of our sins. They are paid for entirely, all you have to do is believe in Jesus for your salvation and you will be saved. Like the Jewish people in the wilderness who were bitten by venomous snakes for their disobedience and hard hearts, all they had to do to live was to look at the bronze serpent that Moses put on the pole in the camp. Just look at it and you will live. If they didn’t, they would die. Their “looking” at it was with expectancy and they were expecting God to heal them from the snake bites. We have to expect salvation through our belief in Jesus for our salvation.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is just that simple but many people don’t want to believe that it can be that simple. There must be something that they can do or must do in order to gain their salvation! That is the problem today, people expect that they have to help Jesus save their souls but that is not what is required. Those people in the wilderness couldn’t heal themselves. All they could do was believe what Moses told them about looking at the serpent on the pole and they would be healed. Jesus did all the work that was needed to bring salvation to us and it is up to us and our faith to believe in His work of atonement for our sins and we shall be saved.

There is nothing magical about the verse that nearly everyone knows but the belief in Jesus comes to us when God touches our hearts and we realize that we truly need Jesus as our Savior. I pray that everyone who reads this will seek Jesus Christ as their Savior because the time of God’s grace is coming to an end and the world will soon be in turmoil during the Tribulation. Salvation is possible during this time but it will be harder to achieve and live out during this period. God wants as many as will believe to come to salvation and I pray that you will.

Demons…


There are many “demons” in our world. They don’t look like the movies or even what most of us think they would look like. Some of them are drug addiction or even alcoholism that so many people deal with. Others are the diseases that we have to deal with that cause addiction, to begin with. No one knows how badly it affects people, but Satan knows how to cause people to become addicted.

People don’t really believe that demons or even Satan exist. That is why is it so easy for him to manipulate those who have no spiritual background. I’m not talking about “new age” spiritualism, I’m talking about those who have been to a Bible-teaching church. These are people who attend church but they think they are saved because of the church they attend. Some think that because their family has always been in this church, they are saved. That is not what Jesus said. He said, “He who believes in Me shall have eternal life“.

We don’t become Christians by osmosis, we become Christians when the Holy Spirit convicts our Spirit that we need Jesus as our Savior and we believe in Him for our salvation. It is our choice but it is also a daily walk with Him. Prayer and reading God’s Word DAILY, not just on Sunday, is where you engage Him on a daily basis and learn from Him every day. The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us about Jesus when we are doing our part by reading the Bible every day.

Many people would say that they don’t have time to read the Bible every day, but God gives us the same amount of time every day. We make time for things that don’t mean anything to our lives but we won’t do the very thing that will help us to live according to His Word. God loves us and He knows what is in your heart. Make sure of your walk with Him and your Salvation because the time of the church and this age of grace is coming to an end. What day that may be no one knows but God Himself but if you compare today’s news with the prophecies you can see that our world is coming to the end of our time.

It could be a few years or maybe a decade but I don’t believe it will be more than that. I pray that everyone who reads this will seek Him for your salvation because not one of us is given more than today to seek Him.

A good Samaritan


Luke 10:25 and following where Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

27He answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

29But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30Jesus took up this question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

31Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

32So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side.

33But when a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, he looked at him and had compassion. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

35The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return, I will repay you for any additional expense.’

36Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37“The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

In the world that we live in today, there are many people who are like the man who was robbed and beaten. They are left on the side of the road or wherever they may be and others just walk by hoping that someone will help them. Some even take pictures with their phones but nobody seems to want to get involved. Why? Is it because we are afraid we might be responsible for this person? Are we more afraid that we might be charged with the crime of assault if we help him or her? There are as many reasons for people to not help others as there are people who just walk by and do nothing more than look.

Jesus said that we are supposed to help our neighbor regardless of the situation or circumstances but how many of us do this? Life is hard enough without trying to help everyone you come across but what about those who truly need the help? Don’t they deserve a helping hand? God loves them just as much as He loves you and for you to show His love to others by helping them is the least that you can do to show that you are following Christ.

Does this show that people are not showing the love of Christ to others today? Yes, because you rarely hear of any “good deeds” that are done for others without asking or seeking something in return. When news gets out of someone doing something like this it is treated as an aberration, totally out of character for a human being. We need to become more like Jesus today than we are, but there are so many who seem to be running as fast as possible in the other direction. Our world would benefit greatly if there were even ten percent of all of humanity who would do things for other people without expecting anything in return. What a wonderful world it would be.

Pray and sing to Him!


Who are you?


That is the title of a great song. To answer the question that is being asked would take many words. It is safe to say that none of us are who we thought we would be when this time came. Some of us think that we know who we are, but do we really? Since you were in grammar school life’s experiences have made changes in you and in the person that you are right now. Some of those changes are good and some…not so much. What is my point? We are not genetically disposed to be this way or that other than being either a male or a female. Your genetics also control your eye and hair color and to some extent your personality and your skin color too.

But much of our everyday persona is learned behavior. We learn it from our parents and our friends and from everyone that we are exposed to in school. When we were in junior high school we would change our ideas almost daily just to be liked by those we aspired to be like.

So…who are you?

Each of us is the sum total of all our life experiences, good or bad. In many ways, it is hard to believe that we haven’t blown each other up long before now. We are still here, not because humanity is getting better, but because God is not finished with us yet. There are still some prophecies that need to be fulfilled including the state of Israel and its people recognizing their Messiah.

Cultures around the world are very different from each other because of their “life experiences” and most of our wars would never have happened if we were all more like Jesus. But we can’t be that good, at least not on our own. One day soon, we will see the Son of God. and the church will be taken up. When that happens, the whole world will know that the Bible was true. I pray that many more will seek Him out as their Savior before then.

Obedience…


In the Bible, we read that God commanded the sacrifice of animals and the shedding of their blood to atone for the people’s sins. This was at a time before Jesus came and paid for our sins collectively. Why did God ask for the sacrifices in the Old Testament? In many ways, it was to show the people that they couldn’t be good enough to be redeemed. At least on their own, they couldn’t.

In the book of Kings, God told Saul that He desired obedience more than a sacrifice. Why is obedience more important to God than sacrifice? Because He asks us to do something for Him and since He is God it is expected of His children to obey. If you are a Christian, you have been adopted into God’s family. He asked Jesus to take on the sins of the world and pay the penalty for those sins so we would not have to pay it. Since we are children of God, shouldn’t we obey Him in all things…every day?

The blessing that we have been given through Jesus is not something that we have earned, it is given to us through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for us. We must believe in His sacrifice and in order to believe in it and place our faith in Him we were given the grace and the faith to believe. We didn’t conjure it up on our own, it was given to us through God’s mercy and His grace toward us because of Jesus.

God saw each of us down through time and He knew that we would need Jesus at a certain point in our lives. Then, He provided us with the faith to recognize that we were sinners in need of a Savior so we would seek Him out. I know that some people don’t like the idea that they didn’t have anything to do with their salvation other than to believe in Him and accept it but that is how God works. When you feel His touch in your life regardless of where you may be at the time, respond to Him and accept His gift of grace. The opportunity may not come again.

Time…


How much time do you have? How much time does our world have?

The only One who knows this answer is God. I have been on this Earth, in this body for 21, 900 days. That sounds like a lot of time but it’s not. Six decades is only enough time to live through marriage and raising a child and seeing them grow up and become adults and maybe even a grandparent. It is enough time to make it through high school, college, and a career and come to a point where you are considering retirement if that is an option.

Our days are numbered and God knows exactly how many days you and I have left. He has known this all along but we don’t need to know it. The time that we are living in is at the end of the age of grace. If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, I suggest you begin seeking Him to be your Savior soon. The church will be taken away and when that happens it will be even more difficult and dangerous to become a Christian.

God’s Son has already paid the price for your salvation, all you have to do is seek Him out and claim it to become a Christian and an adopted heir of salvation.

Influence


Who has the most influence in your life? Is it your friend? Is it your parents? Is it your wife or your mother? For most of us, the answer is our wife or our mother, or both. We learn many things from our mothers while we are growing up. Whether we are home-schooled or not. We see how they handle situations. We hear their opinions and their advice, whether they intended for us to hear it or not. Some of us learn from our fathers and our grandfathers some important lessons. Sometimes they are good lessons and sometimes they are lessons that we would rather forget about, but they are learned nonetheless.

Occasionally, the lessons that we learn are from life itself. Schoolmates and friends teach us things. Some of which we shouldn’t have learned but in some ways, these “life lessons” help to make us who we become later in life. Then there are those lessons that we learn by trial and error. These lessons also teach us and make us into the people that we will ultimately become.

I’ve often wondered if God has a hand in all of these “teachable moments” and in the last decade I’ve come to realize that He does indeed have a hand in guiding us through them whether we know Him as our Savior…yet, or not. Especially when He has a plan and a purpose for your life that you may not know about yet. I mean, He does place kings and Presidents in their places because He is working through them to bring about His will for our planet and the people on it. So, why wouldn’t He have a hand in each of our lives even when we haven’t come to the place where He is our Savior and Lord?

Sometimes we go through some dark times in our life so He can show us the way out of the darkness. I went through a time of depression while I was a pastor of a small church. Brought on because I wasn’t sure that my message was making any difference. But God brought me through it and gave me a message to put out there so others could find it and hopefully find Him as well.

Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened, ask and it shall be given“. Don’t go through life without Him. When you feel that you need His help and you don’t know where to find Him, pray. Seeking Him through prayer will allow you to find Him and then ask Him for your salvation and your strength will be given to you as well. Will your life become easy and wonderful from that point on? No, because when you belong to Jesus, Satan will try to ruin your witness in front of your family and friends. So keep seeking Him every day and you can overcome those hard times that Satan is throwing your way.

Work as for the Lord