Category: Be useful to God

The direction in your life


What sort of direction does your life have? Where are you going? Do you know or have you been on this road so long until it is just a daily walk and you just do it regardless of the way it feels?

I felt that way for a long time myself. I took some different turns during my life into different vocations but most of those felt wrong or at least not quite right. Have you ever done something like this? Most of us have during our lifetime at one point or another. Why am I bringing up “directions” in this blog? Because we are given directions as Christians. We are supposed to go in the direction which Jesus points us in. Not the direction which we want to go in our own prideful ways.

Walking in the path which Jesus walked is not an easy path. It is not a wide and easy pathway like many people do walk through life but it is the pathway which leads to Heaven. Will your walk with Him be easy? No, it won’t because Satan doesn’t want people to help God establish His Kingdom. Your spiritual life, once you have given your heart to Jesus, is one which follows Jesus and tells others about Him and how they can have an eternity with Him too.

Why is that important?

It is important because Jesus said that His disciples should go into the world and tell people about the good news which came with Him. The good news, the gospel of salvation, was foretold all the way back in Genesis. It pointed the way to the One Who was to come to save mankind from their sins. If you are a Christian, that is your direction in life and your purpose. At least it is your ultimate purpose.

So, why do so many people seem to be stuck in their vocations? Sometimes they are in a job which they don’t even like nor enjoy doing but it pays the bills so they stay in it. It is because of economics mostly and because the jobs which are out there may not suit you as well as the one you have. Even if you don’t like it very well. Can we change our calling? Sometimes we can. But, if you are a Christian your calling is telling others about Jesus. Isn’t that different from your purpose or even your direction in life? Not really.

A janitor or a house painter can still tell others about Jesus. A nurse or lawyer can tell others about Jesus. It doesn’t matter which job or vocation you may have or which you are working in, you can use it as a platform to tell others about Jesus. In our politically correct world today it could get you in trouble or even get you fired, so find a way to be vocal about your faith without confronting people directly in your job. Like blogging for instance.

You can tell as many people as will be seeking Him by getting your message, His message, on the Internet. I pray that someone who may be searching for Jesus will find Him or maybe a reflection of Him here. Because I can’t get into the world and into all of the countries which can access this site but God can bring as many as He wants to see and read these messages. I pray that at least one of these will touch your heart and draw you to my Savior and yours, Jesus the Christ.

God is in control!


There is nothing which escapes His eyes and there is no place where you can hide your deeds from Him. So why do people today believe that they can hide from God? Jonah couldn’t do it. Adam couldn’t do it. Even Satan cannot hide his treachery from God. He can see the end of time and the beginning of it too, so what could possibly be hidden from Him?

Nothing is hidden from Him.

Don’t believe the lie that night or some building can hide anything that you do or any thought that you have from the Almighty. He knows us in ways which none of us can know or even understand. I pray that any who read this will seek Him out in His Word and repent of their sins and ask for their Savior to save them from God’s punishment. Our Lord doesn’t punish or send people to eternal punishment but your decisions and your own ways send you there. Making the decision to ignore the salvation offered to you through Jesus is the unforgivable sin which will send you to hell.

Yet today there are many which tell others that there is no eternal punishment but Jesus spoke of it and it is in God’s Word. You can test this if you wish but there is no escape from this place of punishment. You receive your blessings in this life and in your daily walk with Jesus so seek His wisdom and His will for your life and then go and do that which you find. God’s will for us is contained in His Word if we will understand it and if you have trouble understanding it then ask Him for understanding and He will give it.

The salvation of all is available to all if they will receive it into their hearts and live by it. Those who rush in during a sermon and accept the prayers of the church but do not change their life or their ways have nothing to show for their “conversion” except an emotional outpouring. When your life isn’t changed after meeting Jesus then there was no conversion in your heart. You just met Him and then walked away, joyful yes but unchanged which is a sad state which you find yourself in.

Do not turn away without a change in your life because the chance to give your heart to Jesus may not come again. Seek Him in your daily walk and trust in Him for your salvation today because when you breathe your last breath here you will stand before Him. Don’t stand before Him without His Presence in your life.

Trials and troubles…


All of us go through these at one point in our lives. Sometimes they actually help and sometimes the lesson which comes with them is hard to see, at first. As long as we go through them with our hope and our eyes on Jesus, depending on His strength and not our own then the outcome will be assured.

The problem comes to us when we think we can get through our trials without Him. We try to “do it myself”, and we get into a really big mess at that point. True, going it alone is part of the way that many people are taught to do but it’s not always the best option. The thing you need to remember is that God will allow you to go it on your own even though He knows what is best. Then when you do realize that “I messed this all up” you will turn to Him and just like a loving parent, He will guide you back to where you need to be.

Many people are too stubborn and prideful to allow Him to help them. Sometimes they won’t let anyone give them advice whether it is a friend or a pastor. They would rather suffer in their trials and troubles until one day they realize that they don’t need to do it this way anymore. It reminds me of the parable of the prodigal son. He wanted his inheritance and he wanted to live it up the way he wanted to without his father or his brother getting in the way (or so he thought).

If you have heard the story it goes like this: he went away with his inheritance and enjoyed it tremendously, until he ran out of money. Then there was a famine in the land and all of his new “friends” left him. He began to be “in want”. He got a job feeding swine and he was so hungry that he wanted to eat the food which he was feeding the swine. For a Jewish boy, this was the worst possible thing that he could do. Well to shorten the story, he went home and his father welcomed him with open arms and a party!

Many of us get so far down, just like he did, until there is no way to go but toward our Father in heaven. Which is exactly what the point of the story is. Our trials and troubles don’t define who we are and we shouldn’t allow them to. But in your life walking with Jesus as your Savior, you shouldn’t take your eyes off of Him either. If you don’t know Him as your Savior, the troubles which you have to go through may be His way of bringing you to the realization that you DO need Him in your life.

I hope that all who read this may come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. If you have any questions about being a Christian or want to know more, please don’t hesitate to leave it in the comments. Jesus died to pay the price for our sins and He is coming back soon to take His Church to be with HIm. I pray that you will be counted in that group and in eternity we can get to know one another. In His Love and grace until He comes again. Amen

God gives us…


We have wind and rain. God gives us breath and our health. We are also given the light of the sun to warm us and water from the rain. God has given us all of these good things but we take them for granted each and every day. Some people are living with problems which make their lives miserable, but God is still there with them.

Why do I bring this up today?

Because in the world that most of us live and breathe in, we forget about all of the good things which God has provided for us. Humanists tend to look at the world around them and think that we have destroyed or rather we are destroying this world. The fact is that we are living in a world which has been under a curse since Adam’s fall. Of course, the “world” doesn’t look at things from the perspective of God’s Word. Much of the world and those living in it don’t even believe that the Bible IS the Word of God.

But, that is a story and a sermon for another time.

God is our Creator and He is the One Who takes care of our needs, not our wants. When we look at life and His provision for us in that light then we will see just how His provision is the best of all things. We may not get the best of those things here and now, but His best comes when He deems that we are able to receive it. God gives us talents and abilities in this life to be representatives of His goodness and His love toward the world, the people, around us.

Why? Because we are the only representatives which Jesus has in this world today and in many instances, you and I may be the only representation of the love of Jesus and His mercy that someone may see before the end of their life. Seek God’s wisdom and His direction for your life each and every day. Every decision that we have to make should be prayed over and placed in God’s hands through prayer and reading of His Word. I am speaking of major decisions here, not whether to put creamer in your coffee or not.

Make sure that people can see Jesus in your life and in the way that you live and conduct yourself in this world. Sometimes it is difficult to do, sometimes bills come due for one thing and prevent you from paying another bill. But…you can still honor God in your life and let others know how you are doing and living.

God gives us more than we need most of the time. Maybe not more money but more than we could ask for in regards to our relationships and our salvation through Jesus.

In the Garden


And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

So the man’s days were filled with tending it and keeping it and with naming all of the beasts in the field. But there wasn’t a mate found for him. The Lord made a deep sleep to come over him and took a rib from him and closed up the flesh at the place. Then the Lord fashioned a woman from the rib of the man to be his helper.

Why would God give the man a helper?

Because God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone”. This was done not because Adam was really alone but because he didn’t have someone like himself to be with and to talk to. He walked with God at this time and talked with Him too but God was a Spirit. Surely Adam could see His feet or His back, but being able to speak face to face with another person would alleviate his loneliness which he surely must have felt.

God loved His Creation. Not just mankind but every part of it. He made everything in the universe and called it “good”, but the fall that happened later had an effect on all of creation too. Death began to be evident in creation because of the fall. Not just mankind would begin to die but stars and animals and trees and all other life would begin to die as well. Creation paid the price for man’s disobedience and is still paying the price until Jesus comes back to make things new again.

Jesus is the Savior of Creation. Not just of mankind but He will renew all of the relationships between man and the animals and when the end of days comes, everything will be made new again. See that you will be a part of His Kingdom when this happens because we will witness it and be a part of it from that point on into eternity. Amen

Revelation 21:5 says: Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

Trust God


He is our Creator and our Savior so why don’t more people trust Him? He came to us, clothed in humanity and lived with our limitations for the majority of His life here. He knows the suffering and pain which we experience every day. He got rocks in His sandals and likely even a few bruises on His feet and hands while being a carpenter. Even though He didn’t sin in anything that He did or said in His lifetime, those limitations of being a human being made things a bit hard I would imagine.

Could He have done things as God in the flesh? Of course, He could’ve but He didn’t because “showing off” as God would’ve been a sin. He could’ve given His parents every advantage in life as He grew into manhood but that would have been favoritism as well as a sin. He couldn’t do this because He had to go to the cross as a sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He was tempted in every way that we are and yet He was true to His nature as the Living Word.

If you are searching for freedom which can only be found in Christ then believe in Him for your salvation. Satan and his demons believe in Jesus because they know Who He is but they won’t serve Him as disciples or “slaves” as some writers put it. They know in their mind and in their heart that Jesus is the Holy One of God because they said so when He sent them into the swine.

God has made a way for anyone who is seeking salvation to find it IF they will seek out the Source of Life and the Author of our Faith, Jesus the Christ. I pray that all who read this will seek Him out while there is time. Don’t condemn your soul to hell just because you can’t humble yourself and repent of your sins and ask Jesus to make a new heart in your soul.

Ask Him to come into your life and change you from the sinner that you are to the saved son or daughter that you can be!

Human wisdom?


There have been many “wise men” in history and we have their speeches and their wisdom to prove it. Some of them truly are inspirational and many of their ideas and sayings are very wise, especially by today’s standards. But…have you ever considered the fact that our wisdom is foolish when compared to God’s wisdom? I used to wonder exactly what that meant until I found out that when God told Abraham to circumcise his son after 8 days and there is a medical reason for doing so, because it proves that God is our Creator and the One in charge of all things.

A baby doesn’t have platelets to clot blood until the 8th day and if God had not told them which day to circumcise any child on, the boy would’ve bled severely or possibly have died. Abraham couldn’t have known about the platelets in the child’s body and very few at the time would’ve known about it otherwise. What is my point? Only the Creator knows things which we don’t. God told this to Abraham thousands of years before any “doctor” found it out.

Human wisdom is almost a joke today because wisdom just doesn’t seem to be a part of our culture anymore. Much of what is taught in schools is human “wisdom” and thought. Very little of it is actual history and the ideas which are taught in science class and in math class are not much better. Some, I will admit, are actual science and math but there are other concepts which are hard to accept.

The real truth of wisdom is contained within God’s Word and since we have tossed it out of the curriculum of learning these days, there seems to be very little wisdom in our society anymore. Wisdom in the book of Proverbs is characterized by God’s Word because it is said to have been part of the creation process by which He founded all of Creation upon. It truly was part of it because His Wisdom was His Word.

Regardless of what the world thinks about the Bible and the Truth contained within it, the fact is that it is God’s Word and He can’t lie! Whether you think it is His Word or not doesn’t change the fact that it is. The prophecies which are in the books of the Old Testament have all come true with the exception of those which pertain to the time of Tribulation. The nation of Israel being born in a day and the Jewish people coming back to their land with their ancient language intact were both foretold a very long time ago. Those two instances are miracles from God since no other nation or people has ever done such a thing.

God’s Wisdom is complete and comprehensive and there is no denying its Truth or its power in the world or the universe itself. If you are looking for a Savior then you don’t need to look any more, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father in Heaven except by believing in Him for salvation and choosing to walk with Him until that Great Day!

What do you feel?


Have you ever wondered aloud about how God might feel about the state of the world today? What do you think He would say if you could ask Him? You know what? You can. Prayer is powerful and He does listen to all of them, but He also answers you back. Sometimes you will get His answer by the Holy Spirit and sometimes it will come to you by reading the Bible.

God’s Word is powerful and to the point in many ways which most of us don’t pay much attention to. Usually, it is because we don’t read it. Most people who go to church read scripture when the pastor tells them to and most of the time they only read the verse which he reads. So, how are you going to know how God feels about any subject if you don’t read what HE says about it?

I know there are some Christians who do read their Bibles regularly and it would be great if everyone did but the condition of our world and our society just doesn’t bear the evidence which comes from doing so. If we are going to ever have a world which reflects God’s kingdom, then we need to live every day as if we want to be a part of His Kingdom.

Truly, life is hard at times but with God on your side it is bearable. Don’t turn away from the love of God because He never turns away from you. So, how do you think God feels about the times when He really would like to hear from you…about anything but you’re too busy? You don’t have time to pray to God or you don’t feel the need. God is not a man and He is also not like us with our selfish ways. He is our Creator and He is holy, so we are to strive to be more like Him.

But in our culture and our society, most of us tend to place Him in a box or we try to squeeze Him down to our size, to be more like us so we can relate to Him better. What if God were like you or your best friend? What if He were more like your enemy? Then how do you think the world would be?

Thankfully, God is not like us!

He is perfect and holy and cannot look on sin in any form, so He can’t be like us. Jesus was more like us because He was born of a woman but He had the nature of His Father, God. It is that nature which makes a difference between us and Him. Human nature can be good but it has to really try to do well most of the time. It is easier to do bad things. When you give your heart to Jesus and learn to live like He taught His disciples to do, then those bad things which were easy are not so easy anymore.

Seek Him out while there is time to do so because none of us have been guaranteed a certain number of days. We don’t know when our last day will be, so seek out the One Who can make your days better and lead you into eternity.

The Lord is my Healer and Savior!


Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/jer.17.14.KJV

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2 Timothy 4:2‭-‬4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/2ti.4.2-4.KJV

Both of these have come to pass, even today the prophecy from 2 Timothy is coming to pass but many don’t see it that way. Some people seem to think that if a preacher is preaching from the Bible then his sermon is from God’s Word. That is usually true but not all of the time. Many sermons are put together by a program on a computer or even come from the preacher’s own “wisdom” with a verse or two of Scripture thrown in to make it sound like it should. These are the sermons which don’t tell us of our sins and weaknesses but they do tell us how good we are.

God doesn’t see us that way unless we are saved by the blood of Jesus the Christ! Our “goodness” isn’t part of the equation unless it is imparted to us through Jesus by our salvation through His blood. If you are not saved by your belief in Jesus and your acceptance of His sacrifice for your sins then your so-called “righteousness” is as filthy rags in the sight of God!

We cannot claim salvation on our own merit or the works which we may do!

You and I cannot just decide to get saved one day, it is God’s Spirit which touches us and brings us to the point of knowing that we need Him that causes us to seek Him out and confess our sins, asking that Jesus cleanse us and make us in His likeness. Although many people seem to think that they have that much control over their experience of salvation, it just isn’t true! It is God Who calls to your Spirit, your soul and brings you under conviction to know that you need Him. At that point each of us is given an amount of faith to truly believe that Jesus can save us, so we do and He does!

Some people tend to feel this touch in their lives, whether at a church or from a sermon on TV, and they do feel a need for Jesus in their life…but Satan whispers in their ear before they walk down and speak to the preacher. Then they will either grip the pew in front of them and refuse to accept Jesus or they may even walk out of the service altogether. They don’t want to give up on their comfortable, sinful life.

Even though prior to Christ changing our hearts and our minds we didn’t want to quit our sinful life either. Why? Because until Jesus and the Holy Spirit reveals your sins and what those sins will cost you in eternity, we don’t think that we need Him at all. Let’s face it, all of us who are Christians now were sinners at some point in time. I hear so much talk about “hypocrite churches” because there are people in there who used to do this or that!

We have ALL done this or that at one time or another!

Own your past life and leave it in the past so you can walk in the newness of Life with Christ into eternity!

Gifts of the Spirit


In Galatians 5:22 Paul writes this: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

If each of us who are living as Christians has these fruits which are evident in our speech and in our lives every day then others will see them and know that we belong to Christ. So, how can we show these fruits to others? Notice the very first one is love, without this in your heart which Jesus placed there because He loved you and me first none of the other fruits will grow in your life at all.

The second fruit is joy and it is expressed not by being happy all of the time but by knowing the joy of being loved by God! Knowing this there is nothing in this world which can get to you and get you down. Oh, there will be days and sometimes weeks when something or someone will get you down but if you will start your day with a prayer and thank God for another day to serve Him then He will lift you up!

God will not allow you to have a really bad day if you start it with Him first! Just as the Feast of Firstfruits blesses the rest of the harvest when we bring our “firstfruits” to God, beginning the day with Him does the very same thing. Thank Him for another day to serve when you wake up, or soon after, and the rest of the day will be blessed. Does this mean that nothing will go wrong if you do this daily? No, it is not a guarantee of a perfect day every day, but it is a step in the right direction.

Peace and patience come with the other gifts and fruits but never, ever pray for patience! You will learn the lesson but you will not enjoy it. The peace which we know through Christ is the peace which we have knowing that our future in eternity is sealed! Kindness is a fruit which goes along with love and patience and all of the other fruits which the Spirit gives to each of us when we are made into “new creations in Christ“. Of course, even as believers, we are still at war with our “old nature which has passed away“, even though it (our old nature) is conquered in Christ it still is used by Satan to try to make us stumble and fall and doubt our salvation.

All of the fruits of the spirit are available to us but every believer will not show all of them. Some will have one or two, some will show all of them as they mature in their salvation through prayer and learning from God’s Word. Just as God gives us gifts through His Spirit, He also gives us our fruits of His Spirit so that others can see that we belong to Him and want what we have. So, if you are a child of God, seek out your gifts and your fruit and give some away to others. Amen