Category: Be useful for God

Be patient because He is coming back


God loved us first


Ask Him according to His will…


Love the Lord…


Your relationship with Jesus and God is supposed to be based on love. He has loved you since before the world was created, so you and I need to return at least a little of that by loving Him for all of the blessings that He has given to you. Your life, your family and even the breath that you take in and out so many times each day. Your heart was designed by Him as well as all of the chemical actions that take place in your body every second of every day so you can be…well, you!

Consider all of the little things that happen and they HAVE to happen so you can get up every day. Each of them is orchestrated and guided by God, so your life is a miracle during every minute of every day and it is given to you by your Creator. So…be thankful for every second that you have because you don’t know how many you have left.

Live in peace


The Diligent Worker Shall Be Satisfied


The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, But the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied. (Proverbs 13:4)

As I adjusted to the general education system in 6th grade, my mother taught me the principle of working hard. This is something that still resonates with me today, especially with senior year right around the corner.

Now that I am a senior getting ready to graduate high school, there comes the temptation to slack off and blow everything off to the last minute. This temptation is especially going to come with a 3-10 page research paper that all seniors must complete prior to graduating. However, every grade in the gradebook counts, because now you are looking for colleges and universities that demand such high academic standards. For many, Zoom and remote learning has created the perfect opportunity for us to be lazy and shoot for mediocrity.

However, it is the diligent, hard-working person who reaps profitable results. This attitude of diligence is what landed me on the honor roll for five consecutive school years, and what allowed me to earn the Principal’s Award for Mathematics this past school year.

When God sees our work ethic (whether in our academics, our personal responsibilies, our career, or even the way we worship and serve God), we will inevitaly reap good fruit. To be clear: You sow the seed of diligence, while God Himself produces the results.

Today, let us all use today as a day of productivity, not being idle or lax in what we done, but pour out our hearts and souls into each and every task or assignment God gives us. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the wisdom and motivation to work for the kingdom of God, and for those around us. Amen!

Failure…


In life, you can fail at anything. The one thing that you shouldn’t fail at is claiming your salvation. As a pastor and in life, you can fail by trying to please everyone. Preach a message that doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings and doesn’t tell them that they are born a sinner. Tell them that everything will be fine if they are good enough and live by the “golden rule”, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you“. Teaching and preaching a “sermon” that makes people feel good is the way to be a failure if you are trying to “preach” for God but it might bring you success if you are doing it for your own gain financially or personally.

Jesus didn’t preach a message about feeling good or just doing good, although He did that very well. He taught that God loves you and He calls those whom He knows will work with Him and for Him. He taught that your life has meaning and purpose in God’s Kingdom if you follow Him and listen to Him. While the “golden rule” is good teaching that Jesus taught, it is not the only rule. It will not save your soul.

Believe in Jesus as your Savior and accept Him as your Lord, then you shall have eternal life in Him. There are no specific things that you have to do or perform. There is no specific amount of time that you have to give to Him in His service. But…when you realize the complete salvation that He bought for you with His blood and His life on the cross, you will want to serve Him and give Him whatever you can to work for Him. Because when He calls you to become His disciple you need to search the Scriptures and see what He paid for your soul and that’s what will humble you to the point of being His forever.

It doesn’t take a lot of education. His disciples were fishermen except for Matthew. God can use your talents whatever they may be simply because He is the One Who gave those talents to you. He knows what you can do and He will empower you to be able to do what He calls you to do. Having lots of letters behind your name and certificates on the wall doesn’t make you any better than one of the disciples. They learned at His feet and their education was just as good as any college education today. Make sure of Who you are serving in your walk with Him.

Are we all guilty?


Every human after the fall is guilty of the same sin that Adam was guilty of. The sin of disobedience. Those of us who have chosen not to believe in Jesus for your salvation have disobeyed the call of God. If you have felt the call of God in your heart, it doesn’t matter if it was at church or a radio program or on the TV, then you should answer that call. Some people will answer and ask Jesus into their hearts and some will refuse.

So…are we guilty or not? Yes, we are all guilty of being sinners before we come to Jesus for our salvation. Can we be redeemed? Yes, even for the most heinous crimes imaginable and for the least crimes as well. Every sin, no matter how small, is equal in God’s sight! Sometimes we look at these things, meaning sins, with the wrong outlook. Stealing a pen is still stealing. Looking at a woman/girl with lust in your heart/mind is still adultery even if you never touch her. Your mind can conjure up all sorts of imaginings that you may not even be physically capable of doing sexually but it is still a sin in your mind. Our minds are the places where everything that we do and say or imagine comes to pass. That is why we should “capture every thought and bring it under the control of the Holy Spirit“.

Do we do this as Christians? Many times we don’t do it immediately so we have to ask Jesus to forgive us and give us the strength to capture it quicker when it happens again. It will happen because not one of us is perfectly able to do this. Jesus did but He was totally submitted to His Father’s will for His life and there isn’t a person on Earth capable of doing that today. Some may think that they can do it but they are being deceived by Satan.

Each of the Ten Commandments has been broken by preachers, teachers, carpenters and shepherds all over this world. It doesn’t matter what your occupation is but if you consider yourself a Christian and your heart has been changed to the point that you don’t do the things that you used to do…you will still fail in some way. We are human. Yes our heart belongs to Jesus and we read and study God’s Word but our mind can be tricked so easily into thinking something or imagining something that we shouldn’t. It takes prayer, every day, and seeking Him more than just once or twice a week to be successful in your walk with Jesus.

I pray that whoever reads this short message will seek Him out and give their heart to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your life and change you so that your life will be useful to Him from that point on. Then your eternity is secure and your life can be more than it has ever been or even more than you could imagine.

Life is different today…


What do we do during this crisis? We live through it each day, one day at a time. Some days we even live hours or minutes at a time depending on our health and that of our loved ones. Life is very different today than it was six months or a year ago. We are trying to fight a virus that doesn’t kill everyone who is infected but those who have other “health challenges” such as diabetes or heart disease or COPD may not live through the infection. Sometimes it seems that it is age-related and sometimes it isn’t because there have been many young people who have died because of it.

Why? I think this time in history and the things which we are going through are God’s way of telling us to wake up and seek Him. Get out of your rut and the feeling that you are the only one that is experiencing what is happening in your life! God loves you and He is trying to get everyone’s attention but if you feel that He is calling you…please don’t walk away from it. Yes, life is different today, much different than we have had to endure in the past but God is still in control.

I know the questions: “Why are we being testing with this disease?” “Why does the world have to endure this?”

Because sometimes it takes a little hardship and the fear that comes with the virus to cause each of us to look at our lives and realize that there is more to this life than the self-centered way we’ve been living it. God is waiting to show you what He has in store for you. Not bad things but an abundant life into eternity with Him. God doesn’t place burdens on us that we can’t handle but sometimes we need His strength and His Spirit to get through the problem better than we could ever do it on our own.

We will not be beaten down by this problem regardless of the country you may live in because God is bigger than any problem or disease that we could ever face. Stay close to Him, follow Him and ask Him to be your Savior because He can heal every disease and give you strength to get through every problem in your life here and into eternity!

The birds know more…


The bluebird knows it is April, and soars toward the Sun and sings.
–Eben Eugene Rexford (1848–1916)

When you consider the birds of the air or even the fish and other animals in the wild, all of them depend on God for their lives. Their food and their shelter are provided for them by the grace and power of God. Now you can say that it is just instinct or the way that these animals are taught by their “parents” but that doesn’t work for many of them.

Think about sea turtles. They live for many years but they never actually know their mother or their father. They are born from an egg which has been laid in the sand by their mother but when they are born she is not there. They have to frantically race to the sea and many of them don’t make it. Birds scoop up these little ones by the hundreds before they ever enter the sea and even then they are small enough to be eaten by some fish. God provides them with the knowledge to find places to hide and to find food because this is where so-called “instincts” come from.

Why am I speaking about animals? Because God cares for them. He knows when one of them comes to the end of their life and falls to the ground or dies in the sea or anywhere they are. Since God cares for and knows about their death just as much as He knows and cares about each of us. He cares and knows about each of us in a more intimate way because we are made in His image! We are given talents and gifts by Him to use for His Kingdom in this life until our time is up. God knows your day of birth and He knows the day of your death, but in between those times we are supposed to work for Him in every area of our life.

Some of us push Him away for a while because we think that we can do it on our own, but we can’t. Many of us hear His call on our life and just ignore it and we have many problems come up in our life. These problems usually come in the form of sickness or some other problem for which we need His hand or His strength to get through. Sometimes we will turn to Him and follow Him after these things and sometimes we become angry and push Him away. Don’t consider that you can outsmart God, He knew which reaction that you would exhibit. So if you’ve pushed Him away, He will try another one.

God uses every area of your life for His Kingdom. You don’t have to be a pastor or a deacon or a missionary…just be you. God created each of us with a unique gift or ability which nobody else has and He can and will use that gift for His Kingdom and glory even if it doesn’t happen until your last day on this Earth. Each of us has a date with destiny and we will meet God on that day. It is up to you and your decision to give your heart to Him even if you only have a minute to live…don’t waste it.