Category: All in or not

What if…


If you only had a week to live, what would you do? Would you travel for that small amount of time or would you enjoy your days with your family and friends?

If I only had a week to live…I would enjoy my family and friends and walk in the woods. I would make sure to tell my neighbors that they meant a lot to me by just being my friends. I would make dinner for each of them if they would allow it or I would try to show some small way that I had appreciated their friendship.

With only a week to live, there really isn’t much you can do that you should’ve been doing before, so why wait until you know that your life is ending? Tell your friends and family how much they mean to you today…NOW! Don’t wait until it is too late because you may not get to tell them at all.

Make sure that your life is a reflection of Jesus even if there aren’t many who see it in you. Those who do see Jesus in your speech or in your life and how you live will notice and God will touch their lives in some small way or maybe even a big way. He can use those seeds which are planted in people’s lives no matter how small they may be or how long they have been planted.

God can water them with His Living Water and His Love and make them sprout in their lives so that they can continue your ministry even after you are gone on to Heaven. All Christians should try to make sure that there are some seeds which are able to be grown by God which are left here by something that you did or something you said. God can use those to make a difference in someone’s life and your eternity will be blessed by it too.

God never forgets us


As much as the world would like us to believe that God doesn’t care about us, the fact is that He does care and He never leaves us alone in our suffering. He restored the world from sin’s embrace when He called on Noah to build an ark for the animals and his family. So if God will do that, He will also be near us in our suffering and our pain in this life as well.

Your family may be going through some sickness or other painful tribulation these days but God doesn’t stray from your side. He is nearby even if you haven’t given your heart to Him yet. Although many in our world see all of the suffering and pain in the world and they think that He doesn’t care for us at all!

Not a Sparrow Falls Verse_thumb[1]That is not true in the least! Jesus told His disciples that, “Even a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground without my Father’s notice of it“. I paraphrased that Scripture but you get my meaning. Since God notices when a small bird falls to the ground how much more does He take notice of you who are made in His image? We are all made in the image of God so He is always watching over us, whether we belong to Him or not. The prayers of an unredeemed person are not heard until the Spirit moves their heart to yearn for Jesus. Then their prayer for salvation is heard and they are changed when that repentance is real and genuine.

Yet, many people claim to pray to Him daily and sometimes their prayers are answered, whether they are Christians or not. How can this be? Satan can answer your requests as well, up to a point, and he will make you think or believe that God answered your prayer when it was him all along. Why would he do this? Because of his deceptive nature. He wants to steer as many people away from belief in God and His Son, Jesus, as he possibly can. So if he can make you believe that God answered your prayer when you don’t belong to Jesus in the first place, then he will do it!

Remember, he can appear as an angel of light because he was one before he was kicked out of Heaven. Some people believe that Satan can only do things which God allows him to do. But that is against a person who already belongs to God. If you are not a redeemed Christian then you are already in Satan’s camp whether you know it or not. Until you are convicted of your need for Christ by the Holy Spirit, you are “at war with God”.

Life on Earth has been in a state of spiritual war ever since the Garden of Eden and it will be that way until Jesus comes back and sets up His Kingdom on Earth. Make sure of your place in His Kingdom before He calls the believers home one day.

God’s names


El-Shaddai: My supply. My nourishment, Almighty God. Genesis 17:1.

Jehovah-Jireh: Provider and my vision. Genesis 22:14.

Did you know that many people do not believe that the history which is portrayed in Genesis ever happened? Also in the schools today much of our history is being played down or not taught as it was forty or fifty years ago. 

So, why did I name this writing, this article as “God’s names”? Because in the book of Genesis God’s names are shown to us and they show different aspects of Who God really is. Jehovah is the covenant name of God so with the -Jireh added onto it then it literally means “God my Provider”. As you can see from the two examples above, God supplies our needs and He is our Provider.

So…why do people in America and around the world see religion and specifically Christianity as a religion which marginalizes and excludes others? The only reason that they think this is because they don’t like the Book that we use as our Bible, it is God’s Word and the Truth. They don’t like an absolute Truth which can’t be changed because it is absolute!

The Bible is God’s Word and His instruction book to the whole world and it was inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to the men who wrote it down. It is immutable and it cannot be changed nor is it a document which gives us His wisdom for living. Although some have changed the words in the Bible for their own purposes, God has said that this will bring punishment to those who add to or take away from His Word.

This promise is in the book of Revelation, but I believe that the punishment will not be applied to only that book but to the entirety of God’s Word. I pray that all of those who read these words or those from God’s Word will seek Him out as their Savior because He is the only way to eternity in Heaven.kid_reading_bible

Read His Word as a child because His Word is good for instruction and for teaching and for your growth in faith and in the knowledge of Him. Don’t neglect the reading and studying of His Word because it is food for your soul and for the cleansing of your mind.

 

 

 

 

A man named Christian


This is the character in Bunyan’s tale of Pilgrim’s progress so are you on that same quest today? The quest which he was on to find that City of which God is the builder.

Hebrews 12:25 says this: “See that you do not refuse him that speaks. For if those who refused him that spoke on earth did not escape, much less shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from the heavens.”

Hebrews 10:38 says this: “Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”

In the story, Christian was told by one of the characters which he met to turn aside from the path which he was on and essentially “take the easy way”. That is not the way to salvation, it is the world’s way but not God’s way. If we listen to the world’s wisdom which isn’t wisdom at all, we will always get off the path which leads to salvation. As long as we keep our faith in Jesus and keep our eyes trained upon His ways and not our own, we will be saved from the wrath to come. When we think that our religiosity is good enough to make it to heaven, that is when we fail and fall on our own pathway.

pilgrim_s_progress__unburdened_by_douglasramsey-d7dm2ixGod’s Word shows us the way and as long as we don’t create a “savior” of our own making and in our image which makes us feel good about our sins, we will make it to that City which is not built by human hands! God loves us and He gives us the choice to follow Him and His wisdom or to follow our own. It is when we follow our own ideas and our own wisdom that we fail to reach Him and we fail to truly follow Him because we are following our “god”.

Jesus said that the way is broad which the world follows and many will find that path but the pathway which leads to Life eternal is narrow and few find it. But for those few who have found it the glories of God and His Kingdom awaits them in eternity. We are loved by God and it is His wisdom which we should follow in this life which leads to Life eternal. Don’t follow the “wisdom” of the world around you because most of those who are following that “wisdom” haven’t got a clue where it leads.

Jesus Christ paved the narrow way to Heaven with His blood and it is only by belief in Him and what He did for you and me that we will find that pathway which leads to Heaven. Don’t let someone with smooth words and convincing speech tempt you into going along with them on their journey. Stay the course and follow Jesus into eternity because it is there that your true reward and your eternal life waits for you.

Give your heart to Jesus, follow Him and He will lead you to your home in Heaven. When you finally come to the cross and give your heart to Jesus, your burden will be lifted and you will be saved.

Have you broken God’s heart?


Many of us do this on a daily basis or at least a weekly basis and don’t even realize it. When you worry about something, anything, you are telling God that you don’t trust Him with that area of your life. When you do this you are breaking God’s heart. You are throwing everything in His face that He has ever done for you, no matter what it is. You are telling Him that “In this area of my life, I will worry about it because I don’t think You can help me with this!”.

How would you feel?

God, Who is the Creator of the universe and all of the physical laws which govern it, and you are telling Him that He can’t handle your problem so you will worry about it. Come on, our problems are not big enough to even cause God to think about them in order to solve them. Many of the problems which we worry about are those which we can’t fix even if we want to.

The problem with worrying about those problems, whatever they might be, is that it makes us into a practical atheist. We worry about things because we don’t think God will take care of it. The problem with that is this: He will take care of it only if we give the problem to Him completely! Not a portion of it for Him and then we will take care of the rest. Give the pain and sorrow to Him totally so that He can take it and do what He does with problems! He turns them into opportunities for His glory and for your good!

Knowing this, why do we worry? Because God doesn’t fix our problems when we want them fixed, He fixes them on His time and in His way.

Are you feeling broken?


Are you broken? Do you feel broken sometimes?

We are very much like the pottery which God’s Word tells us about.

In Isaiah 30: 14-15

14 It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
15 For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel has said: “By repentance and rest
you would be saved; your strength would lie in quiet confidence — but you were not willing.”

In Jeremiah 18

The Potter and the Clay
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal My message to you.”
3 So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6“O house of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? declares the LORD. Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

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God can do, with us, as He pleases. He can do some things without our consent in our lives but the most useful we are to Him is when we are submitted to Him and obeying Him. Can He break us in order for us to be more submitted to Him? Yes, He can. Will He do this? If He has to He will but I don’t think it is His preferred way of working with us.

God is not a tyrant in that He has to be mean to us in order to get us to do something. He would rather work with us in conjunction rather than having to allow things to happen in our lives which will force us to fall to our knees in submission to Him. So, does God break us sometimes in order to get our attention? I believe He does this sometimes, but it isn’t because He is mean, it is more likely because we are being stubborn and not listening to Him.

God loves His creation and He cares for each of us and He wants the best for us but during the time which we are feeling broken, we may not feel like He cares for us. Sometimes it is during those broken times when we feel down or depressed that we feel that the only way to go from there is up. We should be looking up and keeping our spiritual eyes on Jesus so that the time spent in those low places doesn’t last very long.

Make sure that you are centered in Jesus with Him as your Savior because the times in which we are living are unpredictable and we are not guaranteed tomorrow. So make sure of your eternity while you still live and work here in the present.

 


Seeking Jesus


Are you seeking to know Jesus?

There are so many things which the Bible tells us about God and His love for us, and yet those bits of information aren’t enough. We seem to see some things about Him in the Bible but many of them actually take a great amount of faith in order for us to truly believe them. So…why don’t we believe these words considering they are the Word of God given to mankind?

I believe that we can’t understand the ideas and the word pictures about God because much of it is too fantastic for our minds to comprehend. I mean, a bush which is burning which doesn’t burn? A pillar of fire by night and a pillar of smoke by day, parting the Red Sea so that Israel can cross on the dry ground, stopping the sun and the moon so that they can defeat their enemies when they are taking the Promised Land…all of these miraculous things are hard for modern man to believe without actually seeing them happen.

But consider that God cannot lie and if you have faith that God is truthful and just in all of His ways and these miracles make sense. He had to do some fantastic and wonderful things in order for the children of Israel to see and understand that He was taking care of them like He said He would. Today it is hard for me to understand how they could see these things and know that they happened and then turn away from worshipping God to worship idols. I just don’t get it.

I mean mortal man creates an idol out of molten silver or gold or wood and then he bows to it as if it was a god? It is a piece of metal or a carved piece of wood for goodness sake!! How can you possibly think that this thing is your god??!

The manna in the desert and the water which came from a rock to take care of the whole nation of Israel in the desert..just those two miracles would be enough to convince me!

Satan has a way of blinding us to God’s Truth and making our mind only see part of what is going on which brings us to the point of questioning God and His love for us. The church today is losing many to this phenomenon as we speak. While there are still people who are following Jesus and giving their hearts to Him, many more are walking out of the church and decide to never return.

God’s Word tells us that there will be a falling away of the faithful when the time is getting close to the Tribulation and it seems to be happening even now. So how much longer does the world have? I don’t know. I am not going to try to spin some lie about the time and the day because God doesn’t tell us, in His Word and we aren’t supposed to know ahead of the time anyway.

My point is this: we need to be telling people about Jesus and what He has done for us and for them. God loves us which is why Jesus came to pay our price of the sin debt which all of us have. We are not righteous enough to gain entrance into Heaven without Jesus and more people need to know that…and soon!1536161349743_image.jpg

Today is a gift


Don’t waste it on chasing after people or things in this life which will not be faithful in all things. God is our Savior and our Creator. Life is given to us each day when we wake up to see a new day. A new day and a new idea or ability to take into the world and use for God’s glory and His Kingdom.

Your life is a gift to you and to God as well, He can use your talent and ability in His Kingdom because He knows exactly what you can do! We are given so many gifts in life and many talents as well. Some of them are useful for us or our family and some are specific to God’s Kingdom. But, every ability and gift which you have is from God and He knows you can do the things which He has called you to do.

Don’t ignore His call on your life and don’t use His call as an excuse to do something different. Obey Him in your life, doing that which you are called to do and being the person that God intended you to be. Your salvation brings you to the knowledge of God and His Son, Jesus. Don’t turn away from the nudge in your heart telling you that you need Him.

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Is there a lying spirit in church?


What?!! Where does this come from?

In some churches, there are different spirits from the Holy Spirit and many times they are lying spirits. Rather, they are referred to as “spirit of Jezebel“. Controlling spirits, the kind which makes suggestions and which bring up ideas to influence the leaders of the church by manipulation.

They do it very discreetly and subtly, just as the serpent did with Eve and Adam in the garden. In many churches today there are good people who are being influenced by these and their ideas will sound good at first but they are being used by a spirit which is sent from Satan.

God talks about these spirits which are present today and they were present in Israel and in the early church too. Some of these can be in the form of very respected people, pillars of the community and the church, but they are being used through pride or other means to bring separation or trouble in God’s house. So how can we as a church do anything about this? Mostly through prayer, I think.

You don’t want to confront the people directly unless they are a real disruption problem in the church. For some who may be spreading hints here and there about something they don’t like or something which a preacher said, it may be very hard to tell exactly who is causing the problem.

If there is a problem and it can be felt in the church but it is very quiet and subtle, then it will take a lot of prayers and seeking the Holy Spirit’s help in finding the problem and hopefully ending it.SpiritofLies

Writing for the Lord


At some point in the past seven or eight years, I have been told to abandon this blogging thing. I was told this by some well-meaning people but I cannot stop doing this because it is as much my job as being a preacher is. God called me to do this and until He stops me, I will continue. Last night, I wrote an article about my early life and it caused me to think about why I do this and who I am doing this for. It is not for myself, it is for anyone who will read and be searching for their Savior specifically. I do this for the same reason that I preach.

God gives each of us a talent or an ability and if we belong to Him, we should use it for His Kingdom and glory. There are many in the world who are using their talents for making money or to push a cause forward that they believe in. My cause is the cause of Jesus and why He came to Bethlehem so long ago. Why am I trying to push this cause out into the world?

Because the world matters to God and each of you who read this matters to God which is why Jesus was sent to die on the cross and rise again! God could look through the ages and see that mankind would need a Savior and the only Person Who could fill that job was One of the Godhead.

Mankind, then and now, is predisposed to sin in some form in this world. We are hard-wired this way because of the sins past down through the lineage of Adam. Whether you believe that we are created in God’s image or not makes little difference. The point is this: our ancestors rebelled against the way that God had set things up. Even though they had everything at first, they were tempted to seek a way that put them in charge rather than God. We have been doing this ever since then.

Why? Because we are stubborn and like little children, we want to do it our way.

God knew this and He saw it coming. Although He could’ve put a stop to it He didn’t. People have been asking why for thousands of years. The only reason that I have been able to grasp from my Bible study is that God has always allowed a choice to His creation. Even the angels had a choice of serving Him. But why did God do this? Because of His love for His creation, that is why.

Taking “choice” away from angels or humanity would make us and the angels more like animals living by instinct than created beings with a soul. God has always wanted fellowship with His creation and that is something that only comes by voluntarily worshipping Him. Make sure of your relationship by seeking Him today because He is waiting for you…patiently.