Enjoy your life in Jesus Christ!

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/col.3.16/27100

Who gives us our reward?

Many people seem to be chasing after things more and more today. It is almost like everyone is trying to get ahead of their neighbor because they have this thing and I need something bigger. Why? We are rewarded with all of our blessings through God the Father because of our faith in Him and in Jesus Christ. He even gives to each of us, whether we deserve it or not, the breath that we breathe and the home that we live our family lives in. Even those who do not worship Him get their blessings from Him although they probably think that they did it themselves. No man is capable of doing these things alone. We are given our good things in this life in order to give God thanks for all of it…but do we thank Him for them or do we pat ourselves on the back and say to ourselves “You did good!”.

All of the rewards that we are given in this life come from God and we should acknowledge it. But…pride, the original sin, gets in the way. Pride in our education and in the money that we have earned yet it is God that has given each of us the intellect and ability to have everything that we enjoy. In the Old Testament, Solomon was a wise king and God gave him much in all things of this world. He had riches and wisdom and he built the most magnificent Temple that the Jews ever worshiped in but his wisdom showed him that everything that we gain in this life is like a puff of smoke.

Vanity of vanities…Solomon said that all of the work of mankind is only pride and a puff of smoke.We labor for all of our “things” only to die and give them to people who didn’t do the work to attain them. Your only true reward is the one you will gain when you enter into heaven after following Jesus in this life and doing His work while you can. Then your reward will be, “Well done, my good and faithful servant…”. I pray that will be what I hear from my Lord one day and I also pray that you will too.

Save my child…

The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. John 4:49‭-‬53 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.4.49-53.KJV

Jesus Christ comes into our life to bring us to Himself and He does it wherever we are. I don’t mean that you should stay home and worship, because we’re supposed to worship together. Jesus will come into your life wherever you are and in whatever situation you are having to deal with. He loves you. He died to bring salvation to everyone who will accept His gift through faith in Him.

It’s happening all around us…

To most of the world, everything that is happening in the news is unexpected and worrisome. But if you are a Christian, you know that it has been foretold for a very long time. Most of what we see and hear is just the “birth pains” as Jesus said it would be. The news that we hear and see on TV is part of those “birth pains” leading up to the time of the Tribulation, but most people in our nation and around the world don’t want to see it. Most of them don’t want to know that God foretold these things hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

The problem is that we have taken God’s Word out of education and in some churches His Word isn’t preached like it should be either. When you ignore God’s Word, you are leaving yourself open to suggestions from Satan and his demons. If you have never asked Jesus to be the Lord and Savior in your life, then you are being influenced by him and the demons that he commands. I don’t mean that you are possessed and need to be “exorcised” of your demon, but when your mind and your heart have not taken in God’s Word and His Son for your Savior then you are working for the devil whether you know it or not.

God loves you and He has called us to be His and to be part of His family but when we enjoy the world and its pleasures so much that God’s conviction isn’t enough to bring you to Him then we are in a very bad place. Because…you have no guarantee that you will live until tomorrow and if your life ends tonight you will meet God but He will be your judge since you rejected Jesus as your Savior. Our lives are short in comparison to eternity, so make sure of where you would like to spend it before your time is up on Earth.

What would you do?

Jesus said through the apostle Paul that we should love each other and be kind one to another. Is that happening today? I think if you are honest with yourself when you look around you or read a newspaper (if anyone does that anymore), then you know we aren’t being kind or considerate to each other…even in our churches. God knows every word and every thought that goes through your mind, whether you belong to Him or not, and we all will be held accountable for those thoughts and words.

So…what would you do? Would you pay for someone’s groceries or maybe a meal if you had the chance and the ability to do so? Would you do it without drawing attention to yourself? Life is short and many of us may not see another birthday so why can’t we be more like Jesus and treat everyone as if they are our brother or our sister? I don’t mean that we should be like a brother or sister to them, I mean we should be a brother or a sister in Christ to everyone we meet. At work or at the store or the gas station. Every little kindness can make a huge difference in someone’s life.

Today there are so many selfish people that you see and hear on the news and in other places until it looks like our world is getting worse, more evil than good. It also seems that there are more people looking out for just me, myself and I today. It is very sad to see this happening but it is also part of prophecy that points to the time that Jesus will come for His Bride, the church. It also shows that the time for His appearing is getting much closer than it has been.

God loves every person on Earth but He doesn’t approve of the way they are living. Some are living in sinful lifestyles. Some are worshiping “false gods”. Some don’t care to believe in God or religion of any kind but one day in the near future every person will bow before the King of Kings, even Satan himself. Not one person on this world is guaranteed the arrival of another birthday. I pray that everyone who reads this will seek out Jesus as their Savior and Lord because if you don’t do it in this life, there is no second chance when this life is over.

What do you believe?

In our world today, many people don’t want to believe the truth. They would rather believe the lies and deceit of those who tell them what they want to hear. They would rather believe a politician than a preacher who is telling them about the Savior that they need. God loves each of you! He doesn’t like the life that you lead or the lifestyle that you cling to because it is not the life that He designed you to live. We are destined by our Creator for a certain task and we only find out about that task and our ability to fulfill it if we give our heart and our life to Jesus.

Now, some of you might say that “I don’t care about that destiny stuff if it involves going to church all the time!” Christians don’t go to church all of the time! We only go to church when the doors are open. My point is this: your eternity depends upon your decision about your Savior. If you accept Jesus as your Savior then your eternity is sealed and you will seek to do and be whatever God wants you to be in this life and the next. If you choose not to accept Jesus when you feel His touch during a service or at a revival or watching a preacher on TV…that may be the last time you get to choose. None of us are guaranteed to wake up tomorrow morning. We may have a wreck on the highway tonight or we might have a stroke or a heart attack before tomorrow morning.

Does that put fear in your bones? I have been accused of trying to scare people into accepting Jesus as their Savior but that doesn’t work. You have to feel His conviction of your heart that you are a sinner, like all of us are, and that you need Him as your Savior right now…tonight. It is usually a call that feels like you need to do it right now before something happens. If you feel that at some point, please don’t walk away from it. This life is very short compared to eternity and no amount of money or things will buy your way into Heaven. The only currency accepted is that you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and repented of your old sinful life and followed Him for the rest of your life, however long or short that might be.

Bear fruit worthy of Him

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/jhn.15.4/67130

Where would you go?

There are many people in our world today who believe in a beautiful place called Heaven or Paradise, either name works for me. But if there is a Heaven then there is a hell too. Why do I bring this up right now? Because there are many people who think that hell is going to be a party. They think that they will see all of their friends there because they didn’t go to church and had nothing to do with Jesus in this life. Part of that is true. Heaven is the reward for those who have followed Jesus in this life and tried to tell others about Him until the day they were called home.

Hell was originally created as the punishment for the devil and his demons, fallen angels who had rebelled against God and were cast out even before God created the Earth and Adam and Eve. It was never intended for humanity but after the fall in the Garden, mankind became so bad that God had to choose one family to start over with and He destroyed the rest of the world. Satan has caused so much of humanity to worship other “gods” in order to hurt God and attempt to destroy His image in mankind.

Heaven is God’s home and the home of every redeemed person who has accepted Jesus as their Savior. There is no description of Heaven which will do justice to what is there. Some people have been given short glimpses of it during an incident of “life after death”, some have come back and tried to paint it or describe it but, like the prophets and the apostle John, there is no way to adequately describe the complete beauty and majesty of Heaven. The pure, golden streets and the sea of glass (if that’s what it is), everything there is similar to Earth but…more complete and more beautiful than anything you can see here.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Jesus as your Savior soon. Please, don’t get left behind when the church is taken up.

Love gives us strength

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18 KJV https://bible.com/verse-of-the-day/1jn.4.18/256

Are you listening to Him?

So many times in our lives we go to church, we sit through a sermon and then go home. What did we hear? Did you hear His voice or were you thinking about something at work or a problem at home? Many people, young and old, think about many different things while they are in church but God has brought you there to hear His Word preached. Not because your preacher is such a great orator but because there are lessons contained in every word found in God’s Word.

Now, I don’t mean that we have to pick apart the Bible word for word because much of the meaning in God’s Word is only found in the context of the words and paragraphs. When you choose one verse or even one or two words you are taking them out of context and they can be used in ways that can damage those around you. God loves each of us deeply, but He hates the sin that we live our lives in. Of course, if you are a Christian your sins are forgiven but that doesn’t give you or me a license to go back and keep sinning.

The only lasting treasure that we will have is those things that we have done for Jesus in this life. Anything else is just straw and wood which will be burned up by the testing in Heaven. Lasting changes in our lives are made when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and changes us from the sinful creature that we were born as to a redeemed “new creation” who can rise to walk in our new life with Jesus Christ! It doesn’t matter if you have been going to church for your entire life and you were raised in a Christian home, if you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart and change your life then you are just a sinner who has been in church for a long time.

At some point during a sermon, your heart will feel God’s touch and you will know exactly how sinful you really are and you will want Him to come in and change you so you can be His disciple and follower from that point on. You may be twelve when this happens or you may be eighty-eight and if you’ve been in church for your whole life you will have a hard time understanding why you feel the need for Jesus. Rest in the knowledge that God’s call goes out to each of us at the appropriate time, never early and never late but always on time.

If you’ve been in church for a long time and you finally go down to ask Jesus into your heart, your decision will have a profound effect on those who have known you for years. Because you’ve been “doing church” and other people have thought for all those years that you were a Christian. It will have the effect that God wanted it to have and you may not have to witness to anyone about it. Those in the crowd will see your transformation. Don’t push God’s touch away, please seek Him out as soon as possible. Don’t wait because we don’t know how many days God has given us. We may have a couple of years left or less than a week, so make your time count for Jesus.