Category: All in or not

What do you really believe?


It is becoming clear that many people in churches today, regardless of denomination, have no idea what being a committed Christian is. Some think it means going to church when we feel like it. Some seem to think that, just like the rest of the world, if they are good and read the Bible occasionally then God will let them into Heaven. There seems to be quite a few that think that they don’t really have to do anything except to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that will get them into Heaven.

Preachers have told us this for decades, that if you believe in Jesus you will be saved. The apostle, John, says mostly the same thing in his gospel. So, why does it seem that we should desire more of Him than we do? Jesus said that “apart from Me you can do nothing“, truly that phrase has nothing to do with belief. It has to do with our commitment to a daily life with Him.

Reading the Bible, prayer for all of the things that are good and needed in our world, seeking His will for your life in His Word, meditating on His Word after you read it and considering what it means to your life, these are processes which we need to do in our daily walk with Him. This sounds like far too much to do in a day, but it doesn’t need to be. Reading a chapter or two every day and then praying for the meaning of it to be revealed to you doesn’t take long. Thinking about what God reveals to you during the day is your meditation on Him and His Word, but it shouldn’t interfere with your daily life.

Being a dedicated child of God is not as easy as just saying that you believe in Him. It is a daily, sometimes hourly walk with Him through your day, every day. He walked with Adam in the Garden, so why can’t we walk with Him every day? He doesn’t get in the way, and He certainly won’t be a hindrance to anything that we do, unless you intend to do or be in agreement with sinful actions on a daily basis.

Being a Christian is not as easy as it is portrayed because even though becoming one is easy, the process is a daily walk with Him. As Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow Me”, sometimes that means that we have to put something else that we have been holding onto down. For many people today, that is not an easy thing to do. We are addicted to our computers, our tablets, our phones, our games and almost every other distraction imaginable. But, we only come to Jesus when it is necessary or when we have to.

Seeking Him and learning about Him and about our relationship with Him is something which we don’t consider important. We will worry about that tomorrow or next year or when the next revival service is at church. But…what if you don’t live that long? What if you were to die in an hour or two from now? You would be standing at the judgement of your life in front of God without any help at all.

God knows your life and He knows if you will come to Him and when. He is your Creator and He will not turn you away IF you will come to Him with a repentant heart and ask Him to save you from yourself. Ask Him to help you to become the person that you can be in Christ and He will do it IF you are sincere and truthful about your need for Him.

If this is just “lip service”, He won’t even hear you. But, this has to be done in this life. Waiting to take care of this on your death-bed won’t cut it because you may not have that chance. A car wreck, a heart attack or any number of other ways that you can die without any notice, might prevent you from making that last-minute decision. So, what will you decide?

Are you going to keep doing what you have always done, hoping that God will just let you pass? Will you just turn away, like the rich young ruler did because you are having too much fun and you don’t feel that you need Jesus in your life? Maybe you think that being a devoted Christian just doesn’t fit your lifestyle right now. But, if you were to meet Jesus at your judgement and He says that “I never knew you”, how will you feel? Eternity is a long, long time to be outside in outer darkness, away from the Love of God.

Think about it, pray about it if you are serious about your Eternal destiny and then pray some more. Seek Him while there is time, in this life, because when this life is over…your time to be His is up and your eternity begins wherever you are.

Which god do you follow?


This is not the way that I refer to the God of Abraham from the Bible, but many people seem to look at God as just one more to add to the number of “gods”. He isn’t that at all! He is the Creator, our Creator and the God of All things! All created things in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth were made by Him, not some man-made god which came from someone’s imagination.

OnlyJesusThe hypocrisy needs to stop! Many people seem to be trying to merge Jesus and Islam because He is mentioned in the Koran. Some Christians are trying, very successfully, to merge new age thinking and Christian ideals as well. Some of this is even being taught from the pulpit! Why would anyone want to go to a church which teaches man’s wisdom, such as it is, and gives it equal validity with the Bible? Cults do this all of the time and get away with it, but many of their members are so ingrained in the teaching until they can’t tell the difference.

God told the Israelites that this would happen if they allowed their children to intermarry with those who lived in Canaan or the Promised Land. Which is why He told them to utterly destroy the people there and take over their lands, getting rid of all of the idols and groves and things which might draw them away from Him. It is happening in the church today in some countries, particularly in America.

Why can’t we get back to believing the Bible and teaching from it because it is the Word of God? I believe it is because we have compromised for two or three decades, maybe more, and we have become too tolerant of lifestyles and sins which our grandparents would not have allowed in the door of their church. “But, didn’t Jesus associate with sinners and others?”; yes, He did, but He didn’t agree with them or their lifestyle. He didn’t tolerate their beliefs, He told them that they were to “worship God and serve Him only”, it is true that in this particular instance Jesus was talking to Satan, but the Scripture that He quoted came from Deuteronomy 6:13.

Jesus also said that “the sick need a doctor, not those who are well“, and He was referring to those who were sinners needing Him rather than the Pharisees and the Scribes who didn’t think that they needed salvation. The point of this is that Jesus does love and care about all of humanity, but He doesn’t agree with our sinful lives nor our behavior. We are to seek Him out and come to Him for our salvation, not go to man-made religions and “gods” who are NOT God at all!

I pray that all of you who read this will see that I am not judging any sin or person, rather I write this to point you to the One Who can save your soul from the second death of being in darkness and away from God forever. Thank you for visiting.

Responsibility


nots in your lifeAre we responsible for our actions? It seems that many people don’t want to be. Seeking safe places where their feelings won’t get hurt or disregarding laws and officers of the law seems to be a national pastime, at least according to the news. Being responsible for your moral decisions and actions seems like an old-fashioned idea that many don’t want to subscribe to anymore. Why is that?

Could it be that our society is living with a sense of entitlement today? I think so. The past couple of generations have gone from being brought up in the church to visiting it once or twice a year on certain holidays or on Easter and Mother’s Day. That doesn’t say much at all toward proving that our nation is the Christian nation that some polls say that we are. What happened to being responsible for yourself and your actions? Is that also a quaint idea that needs to be swept under the collective rug?

I was told once that I shouldn’t judge people, especially those who are addicts to drugs or alcohol. I don’t claim to know the depths that those addictions take you to. I was a drunk in high school every Friday night, occasionally on other nights depending on how I felt. I have used drugs although none of the so-called “hard drugs”, until I began having some really bad nerve pains and bone pains in the last couple of years. I don’t like the way hydrocodone makes me feel at all which is why I haven’t had it refilled in almost six months.

Responsibility needs to be taught to young people and some older ones and soon! Why? Because in a decade or so we won’t have anyone who will take responsibility for their actions!

God loves you and you knew that I was getting back to this. There is no substitute for His love and compassion for you. It doesn’t give you a high feeling nor does seeking His wisdom give you a euphoria that you want to come back to until you can’t get enough of it. Giving your heart and life to Jesus by believing in Him will get your sins forgiven IF you will turn away from them, with His strength, and become a follower of His on a daily basis. He gave His Son for you to have access to eternal life and forgiveness, the only thing you have to do is accept it.

It is a gift of God. It can’t be earned, bought or bartered for, but it can be accepted if you will repent and seek Him out in that repentance. He can take away the cravings for alcohol and drugs and give you a desire for His Wisdom and His purpose in your life. God does love you, whether you know it or acknowledge it or not. Whether you will follow Him is already known by Him, yet it is still your choice to do so or not. He will not force you to be a Christian just as nobody can be forced to love someone. Seek Him out today, learn of His ways in the Bible, pray for His wisdom to come to you when you read it and He will answer all of these prayers and more.

Next


Weird title, huh? Mostly, to get attention but there is a good reason. Time itself is winding down according to prophecy…so what is next?

Read the Book! I am not saying this lightly because of the prophecies contained in God’s Word, the times which we are living in are there. It doesn’t say names or places exactly but the descriptions of the happenings in it sound very much like all of the troubles in the news today.

onebreathawayIt seems that many people are ignoring this today, mainly because there are many who don’t believe in God or His Word and the Truth contained within it. So much is told of this time until when you read parts of Daniel and Ezekiel and the book of Revelation, when you think about what you have read it sounds very much like the news that we hear weekly.

Yet, the churches and the news and the Pope don’t mention any of these things in their media clips talking about this time. Why? I believe that it is because of the amount of time which has transpired since the ascension of Jesus. Even though He said that He was returning, so much time has transpired until no one believes that it will happen in their lifetime.

Every day, week, months and years are going on just as it always has been, so why should anyone be expecting the end time prophecies to take place? As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes “there is nothing new under the sun“; so why should anyone worry that it will be different tomorrow or next week? God has given the whole world a grace period of almost two thousand years to learn of Him and to turn to Him in repentance and humility, yet they have not!

In those two millennia, mankind has seen fit to create for himself idols and ideas of “god” which do not fit Him as He is in the Bible. We have made Him into our own “gods”, even if we don’t have carved images of Him or our idea of what He is like. We worship those “ideas” of “god” which are not God. We have placed Him into a box which we like with things like, “my god wouldn’t send people to hell for this or that because he loves everyone” or “my god doesn’t condemn people because of their sexual orientation, he includes everyone in his church”!

Many churches and pastors today teach on these very topics and this is WRONG!! It is not Biblical at all! God hasn’t changed to allow sins and sinful people into His Presence and He will not change because God said that “I am the Lord and I change not“. Just because it is your opinion or idea that God is this way or that doesn’t make it so. God is god and His timing will bring about the end of the age whether you think it is coming or not!

Be ready in that day because when the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ rise, then those who remain will be caught up with them to be with the Lord forever.

 

Romans 8


Romans chapter 8 has been called the most wonderful chapter in the Bible, mainly because it begins with a sentence saying “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus’. Why does this make a difference? Because by belonging to Christ, we are not condemned under the Law, and this applies to Gentiles and Jews.

Romans is a letter of Paul’s to the church in Rome to give them encouragement and to strengthen their faith in the One that they have believed in, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God and our Savior. A believers freedom from the Law comes from Jesus’ incarnation and His sacrifice for sin and by the Holy Spirit’s operation in providing life. Jesus, being the Second of the Trinity and the Son, took on humanity. He did not cease to be God but took on human form without sin and became the perfect offering in order to fulfill the law’s demands in His life and death which broke sin’s power in the flesh on the cross.

Through the Spirit, a believer’s life can now be lived in a new way of life by loving as Christ did, through Christ, which fulfills the Law. Paul describes our struggle with “the old man”, which is our old nature and the “new man”, which is two different mindsets which we struggle with daily, sometimes with different outcomes. Depending upon which mindset you choose to follow on any given day.

Unregenerate people, those who haven’t accepted Christ, being hostile toward God and unable to submit to His law because they lack God’s Spirit, which makes submission possible. Christians live in a new realm because they have God’s Spirit dwelling within them. His Presence is the mark of Christ’s ownership. Your physical body will die because of the effects of sin, unless the Lord returns before your death. The pledge and promise of the Spirit is that He will raise us as He did Jesus, providing everlasting Life and righteousness.

Our freedom in Christ brings with it an obligation to subdue the sinfulness that is in the flesh because we have been changed by the Holy Spirit, decisively submitting the flesh to God as a living sacrifice to live daily in the spirit.

The leading of the Spirit of God is His providential sanctification. It is common to all adopted sons and it is constant. It will bring a believer to glory.The leading of the Spirit is not some mystical direction or ecstasy. It is the Spirit’s empowerment for mortification of our fleshly desires.

The Holy Spirit does not act as a spirit of bondage, but it is the means of our adoption into God’s family. By the Spirit we have a consciousness that God is our Father. It is a mark of a Christian to cry out to our Father in our prayer. The Spirit also gives us assurance of our salvation and our status in the family of God. We are joined to Christ in suffering by also in future blessing and destiny in Heaven. As He is in glory so will we be glorified with Him.

In verse 18, Paul wrote that our “light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

All of creation groans and has since the fall, but all will be restored in the regeneration. When we receive our freedom, the entire world will be changed. Christians only have a pledge of what is to come. We groan because of our fallen nature which is at war with our regenerate nature in Christ, which we have to conquer daily through Christ. One day our resurrected bodies will conform to the same glorification as Jesus’ glorified body.

In our weakness, we have the strength of the Holy Spirit and His intercession for us when we can’t say the words. Our Spirit agrees with the Holy Spirit and with groanings which are above words agrees with the Father on our behalf, saying things and asking for those things that we need even before we need them. The Spirit is also in agreement with the will of God for us and those prayers are always answered.

Who are those who love God? Those who have been called according to His purpose, the called are all Christians. The promise of this verse is that God orders everything for us so that all of life’s experiences work together for our ultimate good. Whether it may be good in and of itself, but God uses all of our circumstances for our good. Jesus taught that God’s sovereign care for and guidance of creation covers even the death of a sparrow and the hairs on our heads.

If God looks on even those minute details in our lives, don’t you think that He is interested in the things which many of us deny Him access to in our everyday lives because “we don’t think He needs to be part of it”?

Remember, we are more than conquerors through Christ! Once you have given your heart and life to Jesus and asked the Holy Spirit to take up residence in your life and your heart, there is NOTHING which can separate you from His love or from Him. Believe in Him and you shall be saved! Not maybe, not sometimes, but every time and for all time! Amen!

This is my sermon for tomorrow morning, I pray that it touches your heart and draws you closer to Jesus.

What do you choose to be like?


A.W. Tozer once said this:

“We can choose to be like the Old Testament Israelites and look upon the pagan world with admiration and even envy, or we can choose to examine Christ and place all our admiration on Him. Either way, that which we admire most reveals who we are and who we want to be.”

Most of us don’t know most of the time what we would choose to follow or admire in today’s world. Many of us seem to follow the most talked about celebrity or sports figure or some other person or whatever that may be catching everyone’s attention today or maybe this week. It doesn’t seem to matter whether they are shallow, egotistical, or even in their right mind!

I know, I’m exaggerating a bit on some of that, but you get the point. We tend to be distracted by tweets and posts on FB and all sorts of other media these days, especially youtube, but real life is not part of these media outlets agenda! Your life is meant to be so much more than media consumption and tweets! This is not the type of life we were meant to have, particularly at the end of the age which we are coming upon.

What you choose to follow or be is your choice of course, but God made us to be more than what we are ready to do for Him. Today, we see and hear all sorts of things which get our attention and cause us to focus our attention on something or someone other than Jesus. When this happens we admire “those people”, whoever they may be or whoever they may be following, for their dedication.

Why can’t we be dedicated to Christ? There are so many who are fanatically following someone or some religion but Jesus is our Savior and He is worthy of our praise and our worship and we should be dedicated to Him! The number of truly dedicated Christians in America is far less than it should be. Many people claim to be His, claim to be Christians, but from the answers they have given on questionnaires they prove themselves to be “head-knowledge” Christians rather than changed heart Christians!

Knowledge of Jesus, even knowledge of God’s Word is great but if you haven’t repented of your sins and asked Him to come into your life and change you from the heart outward, then without a real change in your life, I don’t know if Jesus knows you or not. A repentant heart, one that is truly sorry for the life and the sins that they have been part of, will seek out the only One Who can cleanse it and make it completely new.

All of the stuff which we try to put into our lives and our heart in order to feel right on the inside just doesn’t work because it doesn’t fit! The only person that fits in that part of you is Jesus! No amount of work or money or sex or drugs or anything of this world will do, only Jesus fills that space and when He does then you will feel it and you will know it for sure.

Jesus in the Old and the New Testaments


God saysTo show how much God wanted us to see His Son in Scripture, just look to the Psalms:


1. The Messiah will be rejected by Gentiles (Psalm 2:1; Acts 4:25–28).
2. Political/religious leaders will conspire against the Messiah (Psalm 2:2 Matthew 26:3–4; Mark 3:6).
3. The Messiah will be King of the Jews (Psalm 2:6; John 12:12–13; 18:32).
4. The Messiah will be the Son of God (Psalm 2:7a; Luke 1:31–35; Matthew 3:16–17; Hebrews 1:5–6).
5. The Messiah will reveal that He is the Son of God (Psalm 2:7b; John 9:35–37).
6. The Messiah will be raised from the dead and be crowned King (Psalm 2:7c; Acts 13:30–33; Romans 1:3–4).
7. The Messiah will ask God for His inheritance (Psalm 2:8a; John 17:4–24).
8. The Messiah will have complete authority over all things (Psalm 2:8b; Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 1:1–2).
9. The Messiah will not acknowledge those who do not believe in Him (Psalm 2:12; John 3:36).
10. Infants will give praise to the Messiah (Psalm 8:2; Matthew 21:15–16).
11. The Messiah will have complete authority over all things (Psalm 8:6; Matthew 28:18).
12. The Messiah will be resurrected (Psalm 16:8–10a; Matthew 28:6; Acts 2:25–32).
13. The Messiah’s body will not see corruption (natural decay) (Psalm 16:8–10b; Acts 13:35–37).
14. The Messiah will be glorified into the presence of God (Psalm 16:11; Acts 2:25–33).
15. The Messiah will come for all people (Psalm 18:49; Ephesians 3:4–6).
16. The Messiah will cry out to God (Psalm 22:1a; Matthew 27:46).
17. The Messiah will be forsaken by God at His crucifixion (Psalm 22:1b; Mark 15:34).
18. The Messiah will pray without ceasing before His death (Psalm 22:2; Matthew 26:38–39).
19. The Messiah will be despised and rejected by His own (Psalm 22:6; Luke 23:21–23).
20. The Messiah will be made a mockery (Psalm 22:7; Matthew 27:39).
21. Unbelievers will say to the Messiah, “He trusted in God, let Him now deliver Him” (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:41–43).
22. The Messiah will know His Father from childhood (Psalm 22:9; Luke 2:40).
23. The Messiah will be called by God while in the womb (Psalm 22:10; Luke 1:30–33).
24. The Messiah will be abandoned by His disciples (Psalm 22:11; Mark 14:50).
25. The Messiah will be encompassed by evil spirits (Psalm 22:12–13; Colossians 2:15).

The last ten references to Psalm 22 refer to His arrest and crucifixion, this Psalm was written many centuries before crucifixion was ever used as a form of torture and death, but it describes it very literally. The Holy Spirit gave this Psalm to David and I am sure he wondered what did all of this mean. What it means to us is that God had already planned for this before the birth of Jesus or Mary or Joseph.

Nothing in our world happens without His hand in it or knowledge of it. Does God cause all of these bad things which happen to people, good or bad? No, but HE allows them to happen to bring His Glory into people’s lives as they turn to Him for answers! Satan’s time is running out and he knows it, so all of the evil and vile things that people are doing to each other and the torture which is going on in areas of the Middle East is all caused by or prompted by him and his demons and spirits.

God allows it to happen because it is part of the prophetic time-line which He saw thousands of years ago and He has known about it from even before the world was created. These things will happen without our involvement, including the melting of ice in the Arctic or the Antarctic as well as the storms and earthquakes which seem to be getting out of control…like things are coming apart.

Seek out your Creator and He can save your soul because He has already paid the price for you, all you need to do is believe in Him, in Jesus, and your eternity will be much better than the alternative.

What about today?


 

Today I woke without much pain.

Today, I thanked God for this blessing and for my friends and family.

Today, I will read God’s Word and learn from the Source of Truth.

Today, I feel His Presence all around me.

Today is the day that I will die to self and live for Him.

This is a poem, not designed to impress anyone or cause anyone to think about themselves. It is only for a daily walk with God. The words speak of a daily acknowledgement of God and His Presence in your life and mine. Some days, the first line may read like this: I woke up hurting all over, and I thanked God that I am alive to serve Him one more day.

Decide what your day will be like and how you will live it with Him, because you may only have today to do so.

I am adding to this on the last day of April, just as I wrote this on the first day. Time and age happen to us all, some of us feel it a bit more than we should or rather much earlier than we should. But, that is the way that it goes almost every day. One hour at a time, one minute at a time, life and time move at the same rate no matter who is doing the counting.

So, what is your time like today? Your life? Is it what you thought it would be? For many of us, our thoughts and dreams are far behind us now and very likely will never come to pass. The golden age of dreams for many in America was during the ‘50’s through much of the ‘70’s. Although it was also during those years that many conflicts arose in the culture of America.

Between races and even between men and women and their rights as separate but equal partners in life. The decision of allowing legal abortions also came through the Supreme Court of our land and has been a blight on life ever since. It doesn’t matter what your stance on this decision might be, it falls on the wrong side of life itself. Why do I say this? Because it is wrong to kill another human being, especially when it is a child that isn’t even out of the womb yet and can’t defend itself!

This so-called “right” is defended in the name of giving a woman a choice with her life, such as whether she wants to raise a child or not. If that were the case, then why is the child always referred to as a “clump of cells” and not a child or a baby? Consider what you are doing before causing this life to grow within you the way that God designed it to do!

God does love each of us and He is the Author and finisher of our life and our faith. Our choices in this life also affect our eternity for good or for evil and it is your choice which sends you in one direction or the other. God doesn’t toss you into the lake of fire or “allow” you into Heaven because of your good works in this life or what you did wrong in this life. It is your decision of belief in Jesus and His work, and His atonement for you which decides your eternal destination.

Today make that choice of learning to follow Jesus, learn more about Him, seek Him out in God’s Word and ask Him to come into your life. Because it is only in this life, while we are breathing, that the decision can be made. When your life is over, the decision is sealed and so is your fate and destination.

Kneeling in prayer


There are many places in the Word of God, where a man or a Savior, bends their knees and gets down to the business of faithful prayer. It is something that many in the Church seem to have forgotten about. We stand and pray, we sit and pray, some of us bow our heads with eyes closed, some don’t close their eyes during prayer.

PrayerPrayer..is talking with our Savior and our Creator, if you don’t revere Him enough to close your eyes and bow your head then I am sorry for you. God loves you more than you realize, but He expects some respect and reverence from His Creation.

When he had thus spoken, he knelt down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.

And they accompanied him unto the ship.  [Acts 20:36-38]

They took him down to Caesarea and by journey to Jerusalem—his last visit to that city in which he was arrested, imprisoned, and taken to Rome in trial for his life. But the word that describes this last meeting with the people in Ephesus is most poignant and meaningful. “And when he had thus spoken, he knelt down and prayed with them all.”

What does this say about Paul? He desired that they would continue in the faith that he had taught them before his arrest. Paul knew that his time there was over. He knew that he may not see Jerusalem again, so he knelt down and prayed with them all. What did he say? We likely won’t know until we can ask him face to face in Glory! The point is that, as Christians and ministers of Jesus Christ we should pray for our families and our country. We should pray for our friends and our students and those who need God’s healing touch.

Prayer can bring about many things, good and bad. It just depends upon who is doing the praying and what they are praying for. In a parched, drought-stricken land, they may pray for rain, in a world on the brink of war they might pray for peace, even if it would take a miracle for that peace to come. Once there was a man who believed in prayer in our country and you may have heard of him. His name was George Washington. Here is a small picture of something that he did early in our history whenever it was called for.

There was a visitor to the Continental Congress of the American Republic from Great Britain.  And as he stood in the chamber of that august assembly, he turned to the man standing next to him and said, “Which one is General George Washington?”  And the man standing next to the visitor turned to him and said, “When Congress goes to prayer, the one who kneels will be General George Washington.”  Kneeling in prayer.

It happened that this was the way that Congress used to begin each meeting and some say that they still do this…but are they truly sincere about what they are saying and to Whom they are praying? In our society today I doubt it.

Daniel knelt and prayed for God to show him the meaning of his dream and although it took three weeks for the angel to come and give him the meaning, Daniel still prayed. In the eighteenth chapter of 1 Kings, Elijah said unto King Ahab, “Get thee up…for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”  So Ahab went up.  And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, “Go, look toward the sea.”  And he went up and looked and said: “There is nothing” [1 Kings 18:41-43].  And Elijah said, “Go the second time, the third, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh.”  And it came to pass, after Elijah had prayed, down on his knees for the seventh time, that the servant said, “Look, there is a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.”  And Elijah said unto Ahab, “Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.”  And it came to pass… that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain [1 Kings 18:44, 45].

Elijah was the prophet who had prayed for the drought and he prayed that it would abate as well and his faith was rewarded to the glory of God.

There are many other times in Mark and Luke where we read that “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” (Luke 5:16, Mark 1:35)

Why do I bring this up at this time? Because we are at the doorway of a time that has not been in history before. We are at the very threshold of the prophecies of the book of Revelation! This is the time that we should be on our knees in prayer every day! Not just for our country or for the person who may be elected to be the next President, but for the entire world and its collective salvation.

I pray that all of us will be in prayer for our world and those in it, especially those who have sickness or may be dealing with treatments for cancer or surgery or the recovery from either. There are also many who are living in areas where there is very little to eat and no clean water to drink, so be in prayer that someone can bring them food and clean water soon. Life outside of America is hard but there are also people here who live in poverty and wonder where their next meal will come from. If you can help them, even in a small way, I am sure it would be appreciated.

God loves all of His children even if they don’t love Him or show His love to others, but that doesn’t mean that He will not hold them accountable for any suffering or pain that they may cause to others.

Quiet time with God


Have you ever thought about having real, honest, quiet time alone with you and God and His Word. No distractions, no television or radio, no children or pets or spouses to interrupt your time with the Father and your Creator! Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Jesus made sure that He did this regularly during His ministry.

The Leper’s Prayer
(Leviticus 14:1-32; Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45)

12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. 14 And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Jesus did this not because He had to, but because when He communed with His Father, He would be told what to do and where to go next. He would also, very likely be refreshed through the Spirit and His time with His Father. Just as we can be, if we make this a part of our life every day. Prayer and reading God’s Word can be a refreshing time, especially if it is done on a daily basis and in a solitary place.

God walked with Adam in the garden, Jesus prayed and sought the Father’s guidance during His ministry so if it is important enough for Jesus to do it almost daily, it should be for us as well.