Category: Accountability

Some deny it, others await it….


Many in the so-called “liberal”media deny that Christians are right. I don’t mean that we are on the right or the left, but that we believe the Truth of God’s Word! Watching the news, seeing all of the prophecies coming true before our eyes, if you can’t see it then you need to get into God’s Word! Pray about what you are reading so that He will open your eyes spiritually and allow you to see what is there!

Why am I asking many of you who DON’T  believe in Jesus or God to at least try praying for Him to show you the Truth in His Word? Because if you don’t find it out, if you won’t go to a church or read God’s Word, then when you stand before the One that you don’t believe in…uh-oh won’t cut it! Your life will be shown to you in vivid detail down to the words and thoughts that you had. The time for learning the Truth is now, not at the end of your life! Yes, you could be saved on your death-bed, but you may not get that chance.

Ican'tmakeitChristians don’t say these things to scare you exactly, but what if you had a wreck on the way home from the bar or from a meeting. What if you had a heart attack on the way home or in your bed tonight and didn’t live long enough to ask Jesus into your heart and life? We are trying to get as many people to open their eyes to the reason that Jesus and the Bible are REAL! This is not a “fake religion” like so many of them are!

Being religious can get you a ticket straight to hell, being saved by Jesus will cover your sins and allow you to get into Heaven. If you are able to do some things for Christ while you are here, you may have some rewards in Heaven, but the reward that I am looking for is eternity with Him! God in the person on His Son came down and became as we are so that He could provide a way for us to be saved from an eternity away from Him! He planned this long before any of us were born, even before our world or the universe was made by Him!

God loves you! It doesn’t matter what you have done, when you did it or how, all He wants is a repentant heart and your realization that you have sinned and you want Him to come in and fix the broken pieces and make you whole in Christ! Believe me, since He made the universe and mankind in six days, I think He can handle anything that you ask Him for, don’t you?

Does it seem that time is going way too fast these days?


All parents know this and children learn it sooner or later. It just seems that the weeks, especially in the summer, just melt into each other and its hard to tell one week from another. How can we slow things down a bit before our children are gone and the house is empty more than it is full? Fill your time with the talents and the gifts which God has given you. It doesn’t matter what gifts or talents they may be, just get up and outside if you have to and use them. Do some volunteer work for people in the nursing homes or help someone in your community. Little things that we may take for granted and big chores for other people.

Time going by to fast happens when you are busy and sometimes when you aren’t busy enough. It doesn’t matter if you are a parent or grandparent, although our time flies by too fast for us to keep up with it most of the time. Even when you are doing something constructive for someone or maybe even enjoying a hobby or two, time just goes by too fast. That is why Jesus said to take up your cross (life), and to follow Him. Say the things that He would when they are needed to be said.

It just seems that there aren’t enough hours in the day, but the hours haven’t changed. There are still twenty-four of them, eight or so we are supposed to rest or sleep and the rest are for work, whatever kind of work you may do. Jesus said that those who love the darkness love it because it hides what they are doing. We see and hear about the sins which happen every day in and around America and the world and very little of it is good news. As a matter of fact, good news hasn’t been reported on much since a certain newsman died about five years ago. I used to love to listen to him when I could catch his show on the radio and when I was growing up, he even had a small segment on TV.

Those were the last days when we could comfortably go to sleep at night and not have to lock our doors. It seems that it has been a very long time since we could live that way, but it has only been forty years or so.

I have been watching some of the crusades which Billy Graham did years ago, the one tonight was from Dallas, Texas in 1971. I was about nine or ten at the time, but the problems that he was speaking about sounded very familiar. At that particular time, abortion still wasn’t legal in America but drugs and alcohol were and he spoke about the dangers and the consequences of them both. I imagine that Mr. Graham hangs his head if he even listens to the news at all today. If I were him…I wouldn’t watch it at all. I would just pray for America and her soul and all of the souls in America, because prayer can do powerful things, including changing the minds and hearts of people in a country that is on a very wide and slippery slope.

Jesus told those that He preached to that the way to Heaven is by a narrow way and there are few who really find it. This road isn’t as easy or as straight as the broad road, but it leads to Heaven. The rewards that you get on Earth won’t travel the road with you, only those things done for the Kingdom of Christ will make that trip. God loves us all and He has made a way for us to get to Heaven through Jesus, it is only our choices which will condemn us to an eternity of punishment away from Him.

Time does slip away from us every second of every minute, but after your death here you won’t be able to count the minutes or hours. Time doesn’t have a meaning in that life, it is eternal. Your choice will determine where you spend eternity so choose wisely and follow Jesus.

Feeding your faith and starving your fear!


This is needed in our world today because there is much fear in the world and it seems that our faith in God is dying. Why is that? Maybe because of the wars and all sorts of other troubles going on around us. These things can make us lose heart and lose sight of our Savior. Why not try reading the Bible? Not just as a book of Jewish history or so-called “fairy tales” as some people refer to it but as a Book of Wisdom and one which God inspired his prophets to write! Fear keeps us from living our lives to the fullest and it keeps us from knowing our purpose in life as well.

How does fear have such a powerful hold in our lives? Because we haven’t embraced our life, regardless of how hectic you life is or how miserable it may be. Life is what it is and there is no getting around that, but we do have Someone to give us hope and that is our Savior, Jesus the Messiah! He is always there and available to us to give us strength and hope every day. You can deny it if you wish or even try to argue about this but God is available to you all of the time. Learn this Truth through His Word and find His peace in your life. It isn’t hard to understand, but you have to read and study the Bible to get the wisdom out of it. Just as you do in school when studying for a test, cramming doesn’t work and glancing at it occasionally doesn’t do you any good either.

The Bible is a book full of wisdom which changes because of your needs. That is why it is referred to as the Living Word of God. You can read one scripture verse this month and next month it will have a different meaning for you through faith and believing in the Creator. Without faith in God and His Word, the Bible is just a book with words in it and nothing more. That is why many people have told me that they have read it many times and they get nothing from it. The reason is a lack of faith in what you are reading. If you don’t believe it or won’t believe it, then no book in the world will make sense to you whether it is the Bible or biology 101!

God loves each of us and we should believe in Him, yet we want to believe that every living cell, whether in a bacteria or a whale, came from a pond of amino acids and a few proteins which got struck by a bolt of lightning billions of years ago. Really?!! The amount of faith that it would take to believe that would enable a person to walk on water or point to a mountain and it would fly into the ocean!

Fear of the unknown, and the future is certainly that, is what keeps us up at night and that is the very type of fear that God says we shouldn’t have. Why? Because, the future is something that only He knows about. There is nothing that you or I can do to affect it because the future is out of our reach. Tomorrow is not here yet, today is, so let’s make sure that we take care of the time that we have in front of us. The only “tomorrow” that we can have an impact on is that which comes after our death and that only by accepting Jesus as our Savior. If you choose not to accept Him, then your future is also affected, but you won’t enjoy the eternity that you get if that is your choice.

Where do we go from here?


In the past few years there have been many books and movies about life after death and where we go afterward. It is a touchy subject because some people think that we don’t go anywhere and some think that we do and sometimes it can cause a heated exchange online and in person. Do you ever wonder about this? I used to but since becoming a Christian, I don’t worry about it any more but I do think about what the rest of the world may be looking forward to. Are you looking forward to eternity or do you even think there is an eternity waiting for you?

Some people even think that they will be having a party in hell with Satan, but according to God’s Word there will be no party. In fact, Satan HATES you and me! Specifically because we are made in the image of God but also because God placed us above him and above angels. We will judge angels one day, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and believe in our hearts that He died for us and our sins! Satan is not a god, although he wanted to be above God. He is not omnipotent nor omniscient, but he was a powerful angel at one time and he continues to use the power that he was created with.

Where do we go in our beliefs from where we are? Many claim not to have a religious belief in any being, whether God or Satan, supreme being of any kind. Why? If there is one which some people claim to believe in and follow then there must be the other. Evil and hatred can’t exist without love, they are two sides of an eternal coin, just as light and dark or heat and cold.

God loves us, all of us and has since the beginning of Creation. Satan has been in opposition to God and His plans, whatever they were, ever since the rebellion which got him thrown out of Heaven. Satan is opposing God right now through wars, murders, diseases, and all sorts of acts which mankind is inflicting upon each other through his influence over them. He targets those of us who are serving God by tempting us and causing problems in our lives, some of which God allows to test us and our faith to make us stronger. I know that and am comfortable with it because God will see me through it all.

What about your future? Your eternal future? Not just tomorrow or next month, but after your life on Earth is finished, have you even considered it? If you haven’t, you should because it is by God’s grace that we have our being, our lives, even our next breath. If you were to stand in front of God before the dawn tomorrow, would you be able to give Him an answer to “What did you do with my Son?” Could you truthfully say that you accepted Him as your Savior? Would your Christianity hold up in a court of law today? Is there enough evidence in your life to prove to a judge on Earth that you are a Christian? Because, if there isn’t enough evidence beyond “he was a good man or a good father”, then how will God receive you?

It is something that all of us need to examine in our lives because eternity is a very LONG time and you enter it as soon as you draw your last breath in this life. Whether that is today or ten years from now or even fifty years from now, your eternity will begin that quick. Make sure that you know and are at peace with your choice because you will be stuck with that choice, and it will be because of your choice not because God sent you there.

Losing our sanity!


Political correctness has gone so far in our country that it is getting ridiculous! We are getting rid of symbols and statues of the Ten Commandments, which many of our nation’s laws are based upon, and keeping a symbol of Satan in Oklahoma. They are considering taking down monuments all over the South and getting rid of all references to the Civil War, just because some nut sat behind a Confederate flag before he killed some people. I suppose we will have to clear off Mt. Rushmore soon since those aren’t PC enough either. Maybe we should bulldoze the monuments in Washington, DC since many of them were built with slave labor and while we are at it, get rid of the White House since it was built with slave labor.

Yes, I am venting a bit today. The past few weeks since the shooting in South Carolina have been crazy in some ways and encouraging in others. The love of God was shown to the boy who committed the crime because of the forgiveness that the families offered to him. There was no violence or looting because of it, but the fallout has been against anything which has to do with the Civil War. There were African-American soldiers fighting in that war too, I haven’t heard anything about that. Some of the slave holders were African-American, you never hear about that on the news either. I invite you to check the real history of slavery in the South, not the redacted version being taught in schools.

You know, God did not condone slavery in any form. Most of the Biblical writings which have anything to do with it say that any slave should be freed in the seventh year and not kept beyond that point unless they want it that way. God loves us, white, black, yellow, or red skinned because it is just a pigmentation in our skin that makes us different. Our cultures make us very different from each other, but inside we are the image of God, our DNA is nearly identical, our blood is no different other than the blood type that each of us has. There is no blood for whites and blood for “others”, God made us special in that regard. If you have blood that is A+ then we can share or give each other blood if needed. Your body won’t know the difference and mine won’t either.

The time that we are living in is so close to the end of the age until things are really getting crazy and it isn’t going to get much better in the coming years. It doesn’t matter who gets elected to office next year, the problems will still be there. God is in control regardless of who is sitting in the Oval office or whether they are believers or not. He will work things out to conform to His plans in His time. We need to be learning about Him, trusting in Him and expecting Him on any given day because it could happen soon.

16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

Celebrations and tears


We all have them at one time or another. We mourn the loss of someone who we love or we celebrate an anniversary or other accomplishment in our lives. Sometimes the tears come during the celebrations, but it is all part of life. How do you live with it or live without the people in your life which have gone on before you? Do you rely on your own strength and that alone or do you lean on friends and family? Many people do exactly that, they lean on others who have gone through the same troubles and heartaches. Is that really how we are supposed to get through our tough times?

The celebrations are easy because they usually involve someone’s accomplishment in some way or another. Maybe you have been married longer than some in your family or friends. Maybe you just graduated from college or even got married recently. Maybe you just had a baby, boy or girl doesn’t matter, it is still a celebratory moment in your life that you won’t forget…EVER!

Time can dim the memories and the pain to an extent, but it never goes away entirely. The loss of a loved one, whether it was your child or your mother or father or one of your grandparents, is a loss to you emotionally, physically and even spiritually. Why spiritually? Because between Christians there is a bond of fellowship, it isn’t one that you can feel emotionally but it is there. When you are absent from this fellowship, your spirit feels it and whether you feel it emotionally or not, God knows how it is affecting you.

The other effects from the loss are more immediate and real because of the pain that is felt and caused by such a loss. Why am I going over this? Because many of you, even though I don’t personally know you, have a loss in your life of some kind. Some are more painful than others, some are like my mother who suffered with pain for years before she died but that did not lessen the pain that I felt at her passing. Even though after so many so-called “mini strokes”, she was still with me for a time she couldn’t enjoy life anymore so her quality of life was far diminished from what it had been. For years I blamed myself because I had asked God to take her and get her out of her pain and suffering, but it wasn’t because of my actions or my prayer that God granted it. It was because He saw that it was time and within a day of my prayer, she was in His arms.

Yes, my pain began at that point and continued for many years especially at Christmas because she died on Christmas day. My point?

First…don’t ever pray that kind of prayer unless you are ready spiritually for the consequences of it.

Second…there will be consequences, good or bad, because of a death in your family whether you prayed that prayer or not.

God loves each of us, no matter what we have done or will do in the future, He just doesn’t like the sinful lives that we lead. Especially when we don’t even recognize that we are sinners or that what we are doing is sinful. Some Christians live this way, thinking that their life is fine with Christ and with God because they claim to be Christians and they go to church once in a while. Many of them think that because they read the Bible a few times a year, not all the way through, that they have their way to Heaven in the bag and they don’t need to worry about it.

Analogy: You go to a college and audit some courses, sitting in class and listening and reading the material maybe even taking notes. You might even audit enough courses to actually have enough credits under your belt to get a degree…will you get one? No, because an audited course doesn’t give you credit for a degree, you are just present listening for your own enjoyment so to speak. What good did that do?

The same amount of good that going to church, reading the Bible, praying and singing will do for you…none!!!

You can go through the motions of this and you might even be “led” to get baptized one day because you think that it is the right thing to do but has your heart changed? Did you give your life to Jesus and allow Him to change you from the inside? If you didn’t do that and your life outside of church doesn’t change so that others can tell that something happened, then it was your decision, your feeling and not the call of the Spirit that you answered. When you die, you will be shown that you did all of these things but if you never actually gave your heart to Jesus, the knowledge that you heard but did not hear spiritually will only convict you.

Think about it.

Look for it and expect it


There are so many blessings that we seek and need sometimes, yet we tend toward either ignoring what is around us or we just take most of them for granted. Something that I am just as guilty of doing as anyone else is. Yes, there are days…different times where I take the blessings that I have for granted, such as waking up in the morning or breathing during the night. These things are the very blessings that most don’t truly realize or acknowledge that our breath and our very life itself comes from God!

It is a revelation which is hard for many people to understand. God is our Creator! He cares about us, even though many may think that He doesn’t because of the problems in the world today. Those problems, even though He knows about them, are not brought on by Him. Many of them are because of mankind and our intent toward being hateful toward our fellow human beings. Other problems, such as natural disasters, happen because they were just going to happen.

There are many who will not believe this and that’s OK, but God knows the suffering that is going on in the world. He knows about all of the suffering and He is there with you in it and through it. Our world and everyone in it is being targeted by Satan because God loves us and he knows that the best way to hurt God is to hurt us, whether the ones being hurt are Christians or not. Christians are his primary target and will continue to be until he is put in his place at the final judgement. Until then, everyone will either benefit from his influence in the world or be targeted by it, there is no grey area, no middle ground where things are safe.

This is the beginning of a new month and our time on this Earth is, in many people’s eyes, never going to end. That is not true at all. Yes, it has been two millennia since Jesus ascended into the sky. The church in some form has been around for about that length of time too and has caused much suffering and hardship rather than helped with it. All of this is true and there isn’t any denying it. There is also our penchant for taking the long road in terms of getting things done, and taking most everyday things for granted as well.

As long as God is in control, and He will always be, the Sun will rise in the East and we will have four seasons during our year. Children will be born and die, at times, people will die of age related problems and other means too. These things are the very things that we see and hear every day and we become hardened to them, we don’t notice them much until there is some horrific crime or disaster which yanks our attention around so that we can’t ignore it. Those are the events which sometimes cause people to truly wonder “Where is God?” and “Doesn’t He care about us?”.

The answer to both of these questions is that “He is right here” and “He has always cared for us, no matter what is happening.” Can you see Him? No, but if you are a Christian then you can get strength from knowing that He is with you. You can also get hope in situations which people who don’t have a relationship with Him can’t seem to find! Be thankful for the little things and thank Him for all of them, not just the healing or some other big miracle that you attribute to God. Thank Him for help in getting across town for a job interview, for the car starting in the morning, for the wind blowing when you are hot and sweaty outside, even for your home and your family and their good health if you are so blessed.

He is part of all of these and it is His hand that guides us toward the better outcomes in our daily living, not our own selfish ways or abilities.

There is always a way which seems right…


You hear it many times on the television and radio that what someone in power is doing is the right thing to do. It may be at the time, it may be for that situation, but our leaders don’t seem to look toward the future anymore. Many of them don’t look much farther down the road of time than the next election or the end of their term in office. Then the “problem” becomes someone else’s responsibility and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

In Proverbs 16:24-26 the Bible says: 24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. 25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. 26 A worker’s appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.…

Many times in the past one hundred years out leaders, not just in America but all over the world, have made decisions which would have a lasting effect on many people for years and even decades to come. Some of those decisions were good, some not so much, and we are still paying the ransom for the bad decisions and our children and grandchildren and in some cases great-great-grandchildren will be paying for what has happened in our governments.

Many of these things can’t be undone by the next administration or even succeeding administrations for the next century…but at the time, “it was the right thing to do”. Is there a way for us to fix some of these deplorable conditions? Actually…NO! We can’t do it because human weakness and greed won’t allow it to be done!Politicians know this, that is how they make their fortunes! Once they have their future secured, their selfishness prompts them to finally “retire” on our tax dollars, for life and many of them could not care less.

Yes, I do rant about our country and its debt problem and I do apologize for that. As the verse above states, “there is a way that seems right” and many times that is what we do instead of consulting with our Creator on the best decision or action for us or our country. We as a people and a nation, as well as many all over the world itself, tend to follow our own wisdom thinking ourselves to be wise enough to do what is right.

For a time, that which we do may be right for a while but years down the road that may change. Wisdom and the idea that we are wise is like a two-sided coin. On one side there is your ideas and your wisdom that you have gained in your lifetime, on the other there is what should be done according to what is right in God’s wisdom and that comes from prayer, seeking His counsel and His wisdom. The world sees a three-sided object in this situation though and the third side would be “what’s in it for me?” What will I get out of the deal? Selfish so-called “wisdom” which does nobody any good except the one who gets the most out of the consequences.

I cannot give you the answer to the world’s problems or the answer to America’s problems. The answer lies with God in all cases and we all need to seek Him in our life and in all of our decisions, those which affect others and those which have an eternal effect on us in particular.

Seek Him first in all things, big or small, buying a house or finding your keys. He is there and with faith in Him comes understanding and wisdom. Don’t fall back on your wisdom or your teacher’s wisdom because we are all human and we fail, sometimes spectacularly and miserably. Seek out Him Who doesn’t fail, but Who works for the good in all things, that which glorifies the Kingdom of God. Amen!

Have you spoken to God today?


Many people laugh at the notion that we can speak to God any time that we wish to. His line is never busy and the reception is great. The problem is with the believer or with someone who isn’t a believer. Some Christians aren’t sure if their prayers get past the ceiling regardless of getting them to God. In many ways we short-circuit our own prayers and our prayer lives. We hold grudges against someone from our past or we are angry and resentful toward a family member or a friend, for whatever reason it might be. Any of these so-called “little sins” will take the power out of your prayer life, cutting the line of communication between you and God.

That doesn’t mean that He doesn’t care about you any more, but you have to repent of whatever it might be which is getting in the way and ask forgiveness for it. God loves you and always has, but just as hurt feelings can injure a relationship here and now, even “little sins” can interfere with your walk and your prayer life with Jesus and God. You have heard the term “quenching the Spirit” before, and that is exactly what is happening when sin comes into your life and blocks your access to be effective in the Kingdom with God.

The thing is, God wants to hear from you and this is what most don’t understand either. But as it says in the first book of the Bible, “God walked in the cool of the evening in the Garden.” While it is true that this was the time that God found that Adam and Eve had sinned and broken the only rule that He had given to them, I feel sure that God had come like this before. After all, He was the only Teacher that they had and since they were formed as adults Who better to teach them about their world?

The same is true for us, although we have many teachers today. We begin life with our parents, then we are in school for such a long time with others (it seems), all the while we are learning from everything and everyone around us. While we should be learning from God’s Word at this point. Sure, it is hard for young minds to understand, especially some of the books in the Old Testament. But, the wisdom is there and the evidence of God’s love is there too.

Don’t discount God or His Word as something that is only for Sunday. Being in His presence every day is what Jesus meant when He said “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you.” It doesn’t mean that we have to read our Bible constantly during the day, but the day seems to go better when you begin the day with it and pray for the day before you start your day.

Consider it, learn about God, seek Him especially when things aren’t going good but also when it is and thank Him for it. Our lives aren’t very long and if we wake today then we have the day to do as much as we can do for God, regardless of what we are doing.

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.