When you are tested, seek the Lord ask Him for strength. He will bless you and take you through your trials no matter how much it may hurt. You will come through this stronger in your faith and even more able to stand when another trial comes.
How do you define life? Is it just living from day to day or is there more to it than that?
I like to think that it is much more than just living day to day because that’s surviving, not living life! Jesus Christ came to give us a more abundant life but what does that mean… exactly? There are lots of scriptures that point in His direction but what is a more abundant life? It is a life filled with joy because you have Jesus as your Savior and you are looking forward to eternity and not dreading it or wondering what it will be like.
Sometimes we get caught up in our problems and forget about the blessings we have in Jesus. This robs us of our hope and our joy. But…we can get back into the Bible and get our joy back because it’s not gone for good.
The joy of the Lord is my strength and we can have that joy when we think about the blessings that we have because of our relationship with Jesus. Many people don’t have this joy because they don’t want a relationship with Jesus. They may know about Him and they might attend church but head-knowledge doesn’t bring salvation.
God knows what is in your heart and He gives those who will decide enough faith to decide Who they will follow when they are convicted of their need for Jesus. Does that mean that God is choosie? Yes and no. You have to understand that He lives outside of time so He can see what you will do even before you do it. This is why we sometimes have a feeling that we should go this way rather than the other. That’s God trying to get our attention before it’s too late.
Make sure of what you believe and Who you believe in before tomorrow if possible because none of us are guaranteed to wake up in the morning. If you don’t care about eternity then feel free to ignore this advice but eternity is a long, long time regardless of where you spend it. Myself, I’d rather spend it with friends and family in Heaven.
This is one of the complaints I hear from outside the church, “Why doesn’t the church help more people?”. You know, Jesus went all over Israel during His ministry helping and healing those who were seeking God’s help. He did His job so why does the church find it hard to do those things which need to be done? Too many hands out? Too much red tape or paperwork?
What if Jesus had looked at us and thought the same way toward us?
Well, it seems that the groundhog was right. We are all getting a bit more winter weather even in the deep South. In reality, winter doesn’t actually end until around March 21st anyway but the temperatures that are being felt in the southern part of the United States don’t come to our neck of the woods very often.
Life has a way of throwing curve balls when you least expect them and this happens to be one of them. I pray that when this winter storm moves north it doesn’t carry so much of a punch with it as it has had here. In other ramblings, the time that we are living in was foretold long ago in the Bible. Even the changes in the weather and the unusual way that politics is working in these last few years of the church age. All of it is found in Matthew 24 and in the beginning chapters of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The truth is this: we aren’t living in the strangest of times, those are yet to come. I pray that most of you who read this have given your heart to Jesus and are reading His Word and learning of Him during these trying times. If you have not but you are curious about Christianity and the promises of His Word, please seek Him in the New Testament and do it soon. There are dangerous days ahead of us especially for those who have not made a commitment to Jesus and are following Him now. When He calls the believers home to be with Him the world for those who are left will be much worse in many ways than it is today.
Becoming a Christian today is not hard if you will answer the call on your heart when you feel it. Sometimes the touch of the Spirit is not very noticeable and sometimes He will call you in a dream so that you know exactly Who called you and that you can’t let it go until you are His. God knows the ones who will answer His call and the ones who will hear it but turn away so make sure that you are in the first group. Eternity is a very long time to live without God at all.
Right this moment we enjoy His blessings, although some people may not see their circumstances as blessings. We have air to breathe and usually a warm place to sleep at night. Food to sustain us and clothes to cover us. Some may not have these “luxuries” and to many people these simple things don’t sound like luxuries but to someone with no food to eat for a week or two just a small serving of fries from McDonald’s would be wonderful. Those of us who live in what is called the “developed” world who are poor in wealth would almost be considered rich in some countries.
God blesses us with far more than we deserve and yet there are so many without the necessities like clothing, shoes, water and shelter that many of us take for granted. Life is hard in many parts of the world that most of us in America will never see first hand. Even if we visited those places we wouldn’t want to stay and help because we cannot understand poverty of that magnitude. God knows each person on this Earth and He sees all of the conditions that they live in. Many of them cry out to Him even though they don’t know His name, their soul cries to the Maker of all there is and He hears their cry. He will repay those who could help but choose not to or are too greedy to help. When this age is over and the work that God is completing is finished they will have their reward or their punishment, whichever He gives to those who have done His will and to those who refused to follow Him and be the “light in the darkness” for this present age.
In everything that you do, praise the Lord. Why is this important? Because God is the One Who gives each of us the ability to do what we do every day. From our work to our family life and everything in between, we move and live because God allows it. So… praise Him and thank Him for everything that you can do every day.
In our country and in our communities and in our homes we need the answer to this question. Many of us don’t even know how to finish the sentence though. How can we feed the homeless? How can we get our country back to belief in God and His Word? How can we be a light to the world when we are in the process of turning the lights out in our country?
America has had a responsibility for over two hundred years as a Christian nation and now we are denying that it was ever built on His principles. We are pushing hard to get any mention of God out of our education systems and even out of the public square. So…why would God bless America today when we are pointing fingers and shouting so loudly that we want nothing to do with your religion!
I realize that the last few posts here have had a lot of my opinion in them but if you look around in America and listen to our media outlets all that I’m doing is pointing out the obvious. There will come a time, likely sooner than most think it will happen, when God will withdraw His Spirit from the whole world, not just from America. He will do this because we are rapidly becoming a world like Noah’s world was. The hearts and minds of people are evil, in God’s eyes, continually. We are calling good things evil and evil things good.
So many young people have turned their backs on religion, especially Christianity. Why? Because of its claim of Truth and what they see as restrictions on their lives. No one wants to be told that they shouldn’t do this or that because it is sinful. Everyone sees that their friends are doing these things and they seem to be having a good time so why can’t I do them as well? The only way that I can get most young people or anyone else to realize what they are asking is by asking another question: would you take your Mother or your grandmother with you to see what you are doing? Would you be comfortable if Jesus was there? If the answer to either of those is no, then why would you do these things?
Most would answer: Because I want to do them! It is my life and you can’t tell me what to do!
While it is true that I am not your father or your preacher, God can still see what you are doing. He knows the words that you’ve said during your “fun”. He can see every thought and every action that you are doing which is against what you learned in Bible school or Sunday school. The point I’m making here is that most of you have likely been in church at least once in your lifetime and you’ve heard the good news about Jesus taking your sins to the cross and paying your penalty for them. All that you have to do is believe that He did this for you and know that unless you ask Him to be your Savior and repent of those sinful actions and turn away from them to follow Him you will be lost.
Many of us…in fact most of us shook our fists at God in our youth saying that we were going to do what we wanted and there was no way that He was going to stop us! Some of us were smart enough to not really mean it but only God knows who meant to repent from their sins one day and which of us would not and only He knows your heart’s direction from this point on. God loves His creation, each of us is a part of His creation and He knows your heart and the path that you will take. I pray that you will seek Him out as your Savior and lay aside your sins and your selfishness and turn toward Him and give Him your heart from this point on. Read the books of Romans and John in the New Testament so that you can come to know Jesus as your Savior.
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/gal.6.9.KJV
The Living Message of Christ 