Category: Be useful to God

Counting down


Life, as we have known it over the past few decades, is soon coming to an end. The first couple of decades of this century has been pretty hectic and enjoyable to a certain extent. Yes, there have been some terrorist bombings and quite a number of shootings but for most of America, this century has been pretty good. We never did win the war on terror but that is because there are no winners in a war that has religion as its driving force. The main point that I am getting to about the “count down” is that everything is going according to God’s plan.

If you have read Matthew 24 or the book of Daniel and some of the first few chapters in Revelation, you can see most of the prophecies coming true to some extent every day in the news. Why do I point this out? Because there are few people in our nation who are paying attention to the comparison between the news and those books of prophecy that I mentioned. We truly are counting down toward an ending that I believe will arrive much sooner than we are ready for.

Are you ready for that day? When the dead in Christ will rise to meet the Lord in the air and those who belong to Him and are still alive will join them. When that happens, the economies of the world will crash. There will be many who will wonder what happened and there will be a few who will still be here that will know exactly what happened. If you believe that we are in a recession now, just wait until many millions disappear without a trace.

Can you be ready for this when it comes? If you give your life to Jesus and follow Him today and for the rest of your life then you will be ready for that day when it arrives. Is there any other way to get ready for the taking away of the church? NO! Belief in Jesus and following Him as your Savior is the only way. Nothing that you try to add to it will make any difference. God has made this easy but so many want to “help” Him with their salvation. There is nothing that we can add to His work that He completed on the cross and in rising from the tomb.

Our efforts are only useful when we have given our hearts to Him and the service that we do after that only adds to our rewards in heaven. We can’t help God save us or to consecrate our lives more by accepting Jesus as our Savior. Reading the Bible, studying it daily so we will know His voice, and washing our minds with the pure water of the Word every day are the ways that we can become mature in our faith and become more like Jesus.

Seek Him in everything that you do. Look for ways to let others know that God loves them and then show it by your actions as well. Be His disciple daily so people will see Him by your words and your actions so they might want the relationship you have with Him.

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!

TRAA


The Truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement for our sins. Repentance from those sins and an adjusted attitude of becoming more like Jesus Christ! However you spell it or in which direction you read it, our society needs to get back to the truth of God’s Word, the Bible! For more than fifty years our young people in schools and colleges have been without the guiding light of God’s Word in their education. They may get a sermon on the weekends if they attend church, but today it seems that more of that age bracket don’t want to identify with any religion no matter what it teaches.

So…what can we do as a culture or a nation to bring people back to the place where they can get to know their Savior? Pray for a revival among those absent from worship services for the first and foremost action that we can take. The next best action would be for the church to be the church that Jesus intended for us to be, regardless of denomination. What does that mean exactly? Go into your community and find people in need of God’s provisions such as clothing, food, or help with chores around the house. Our society has become so insulated in the past couple of decades until we have forgotten what it means to be Christians and neighbors too.

Life is or should be more than working and coming home to hide until you have to go to work again. When Jesus told the Pharisees about the good Samaritan, He was telling them to go and do likewise. Why can’t we do that? Many of the letters that Paul wrote and those that the apostles wrote also had verbiage to go and take care of those who needed to be taken care of. Jesus said the same thing: “When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me a drink, when I was in jail, you visited me.”

If you have been His hands and feet in this life to those in need, regardless of that need, then you are truly being the Church…the Bride of Christ. As Jesus answered the Pharisees when they asked what they should do after finding out who their neighbor truly is, He said “Go and do likewise“.

God is faithful!


11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. Malachi 1:11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/mal.1.11.KJV

What is the difference?


There are many layers of truth in the word “difference”. A difference between one person and another can be shown to be based on their culture or their skin color or their race as some relate to it. The human race is only one race but the shades of color that all of us share on the surface of our skin have been causing divisions between people for thousands of years. Some of us have very light skin color, some have different shades of brown or tan or even skin with a yellowish tint to our skin and there are others that have very dark skin even almost black. God caused this to be this way to protect us from the intensity of the Sun’s light in the area that we live in. At least that is what science has told us. The culture that we grow up in can cause many problems between people who don’t share the same culture.

Yes, we have many differences and at times it is those differences that cause much of our problems in every country not just our country.

The differences between religions meaning what or Who they worship or what they believe has caused so many divisions between churches even in the same denomination. Sometimes a church has even split over the color of the carpet on the floor! We have so many options and different ideas that can get in the way of our living the way that God has called us to live. All that we have to do to be His children is to believe in Jesus and follow Him for the rest of our lives. It sounds easy doesn’t it? But following Jesus every day during your life is not easy. Remember what Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow Me”. Your cross is where you nail your old way of living to it every day!

You have to choose to put your old problems, your sins, your addictions, your fears, your family or your career on that cross and give it to Jesus. Leave them on the cross and don’t take them back. Walk with Him, learn from Him because He doesn’t care about your skin color or the culture that you come from but He does care about your eternal soul and where your eternity will be spent! God doesn’t care how famous you are or how much money you have. He doesn’t care about your politics or your previous life but He does care about you. Give your heart to Jesus, ask Him to come in and change you into the person that He knows you can be. The Bible says that when He comes into your life and changes you, then you are a new creation. Your old life and ways are in the past and everything from this point on is new!

The change that comes into your life when the Holy Spirit comes and changes you makes your whole outlook different from what you had before. You are not the same person. You look the same from the outside but your heart is more like Jesus’ heart and it will become more like Him if you feed your mind on the Word of God every day. It sounds boring, I know. But when you have been changed like this, your mind is changed as well. The Bible won’t seem like an old boring book. It will be full of wisdom and stories about God and His power and creativity and His love. Ask Him to show Himself to you while you read His Word and He will do it!

There will be a difference in your life that people can see and it won’t have anything to do with the color of your skin or your culture or the church that you attend. It will be a reflection of Jesus that is shining through you and it will get brighter every day as you learn more and study more about Him in His Word.

Who is God to you?


Who is God to you? Is He your Savior, your Creator, and a friend that you can turn to when things go wrong? Do you realize how awesome God really is or do you just think of Him as a genie or some “Santa Clause”? God can come to your aid when you need Him and He will but realize that He is with you all of the time.

We tend to put God in a box that is the size of a small book so we can handle being around Him. We don’t like to think about Who He is because our brains can’t comprehend Him! What do I mean by that? If you have ever read an article about astronomy, do you remember how truly huge our universe is? Astronomers tell us that it is approximately 14 billion light-years to the edge of the universe. Each light-year is approximately six trillion miles! I’m not going to multiply that number to find the distance in miles to the edge of the universe but God’s Word says that God stretched out the fabric of space like a sheet or a scroll!

Think about that…God stretched out space like a sheet! He is bigger than those trillions of miles and yet a part of Him resides inside your heart if you truly belong to Him. He is everywhere and yet we still try to squeeze Him down to a manageable size so that our mind can handle Him. Why would you do that? Because we can’t truly comprehend God, but we don’t have to. Just live your life as a Christian and follow Jesus. He said for us to follow Him and we should. Read the Bible every day, think about what you have read, and pray to the Writer (Who is God) of it so you can understand it and His message for you.

Each person has a purpose that is ordained by God and we are supposed to look for that purpose in His Word. Your purpose is in there but it takes time and study to find it. Your purpose won’t jump out of the page or the chapter and hit you in the face, but with study and prayer, you will feel it in your Spirit. His Spirit is present in every true believer because it was His Spirit that got your attention when you gave your life to Him. God loves you and He has a purpose and a plan for your life and He will equip you to accomplish it.

Will God make your life easy? No! Will He give you everything that you want? No! Jesus said that we would have trials and troubles in this world during our life as a Christian and a follower of His! Some people think that being a Christian is easy but it isn’t. If you depend on God for your provision it may seem to be an easy life to someone outside your home because the “drama” doesn’t happen the way it does for everyone else. Seek Him first when you wake up in the morning…begin your day talking to Him first, thank Him for another day that you have to be used by Him for His Kingdom.

God is close to you if you are a Christian. He is even closer than your own skin because He is in your heart so you are never alone. Prayer is your lifeline and your connection to your Savior and your Creator and that connection never fades. It grows stronger as you study His Word and get closer to Him each day. Don’t neglect your relationship with Him. Treat your Bible like your phone, take it with you everywhere. Even if you can’t read, get a copy of it on CD or USB and play it in your car or on your computer or TV. After a while, you will have His Word in your mind well enough to bring it to mind whenever you need it.