Category: Be useful to God

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

Walking with Jesus


Each of us who answer His call has to learn how to do this. The Lord does give us an idea of how to do it, but it’s up to us to figure it out. It does take reading His Word and learning from it and this is a lifetime process. Some people think that going to church gives them the key to heaven or maybe reading the Bible gives them a special place in heaven. Those actions have no real bearing on your eternity although they do help you to be the person that you are supposed to be in Jesus Christ those actions do NOT save you!

Faith in Jesus and believing in His atonement for your life, your sins and all of the words and things which you have done or said in this life. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart and you become a new creation from that moment on. We become more like Him by turning away from our sinful lives and truly following Him daily. God called you to be His and it is His call on your life which allows you to be saved because He gives you the faith and the grace to become His child…but only if you answer that call by accepting it and moving toward Him and away from your old life.

But…what if I don’t want to give up my old life?

Then it is likely that you won’t accept Jesus’ call on your life! It is a sad position to be in from an eternal standpoint. If you have felt His touch in your heart and you know that you are a sinner and you need Jesus as your Savior, yet you love your sins and your “regular” life more than you feel the need of salvation…it is very possible that you will just walk away from Him. What would’ve happened to the church if the disciples had turn away from Jesus? There wouldn’t be a church today.

Could Jesus have found other disciples? Of course, He could have but it would’ve been very different from the ministry which He had with the original disciples. People are very different and shepherds or other disciples would have learned from Him in different ways from the 12 which He chose. Even His betrayer would’ve been different, but God knew which men would follow Him and the ones who did were the disciples which were needed.

God knows our hearts and our usefulness to Him, not because He forces us to be His disciples because gratitude and love cannot be forced in any way! We serve God because He loves us and because we love Him in return for everything that Jesus did for us. But, our life with Jesus brings with it a responsibility, and that responsibility is to grow in our faith and our spiritual strength as we go through this life with Him.

Reading the Bible and praying for the Spirit to teach us the meaning of it as we read is part of our life and our walk with Him. It is not really an option and it gives us the ability to resist the temptations and the “fiery darts” which are sent our way as we live in service to Him. If you don’t grow and learn from Him in your daily walk with Him and in reading His Word, then you will be overcome at some point when temptation or trials come your way.

Amen

What are you?


Most of us who write these Christian blogs are or we consider ourselves to be…well, Christians. Most of us likely attend church on a fairly regular schedule and we study our Bibles but there is still a question that we need to be answered and that is: What are we? Are we really the church or do we just attend a service at church?

After Pentecost, the people who had been baptized and had believed Peter’s message had “all things in common” and no one was in need. If there was a need then it was met in whatever way was necessary. So why do most services feel like speeches about being a “good Christian” and there are needs in the community which go unmet? Is it because we don’t know how to be “the church” anymore or are we afraid of being the church?

I am not sure where we, as a group of believers, actually fall in the description of Jesus’ church. We are not perfect people. We are sinners saved by the Grace and Mercy of God through Jesus! Do we make mistakes or stumble in our lives? YES! But…we know it when we do and we confess it and ask our Father to forgive us for the fall or the stumble and then get up and keep going. Being the church is something which Jesus showed His disciples how to do and we have that example in the gospels. All we need to do is go out and live it in front of people every day, one day at a time.

Is it easy to do? I wouldn’t say it is easy, especially when you have just given your heart to Jesus. But, like everything else, it gets easier with practice and study of God’s Word and time. We don’t come up from our baptism knowing everything. We have to learn from God each step of the way, one verse at a time, then a chapter and then a book and then the rest of His Word. Then…read it again and pray about it and learn from it.

Being a Christian is a life-long process. The disciples only had three years or so with Him but they meditated on His teachings and God’s Word for the rest of their lives. So we should follow their example and do the very same thing. Be the church which Jesus wanted us to be, taking care of those in need of food and shelter but also helping them to find their Savior by showing Him to them with whatever our lives can show of our own “working out our salvation” because it is a daily process.

The Way to Life


Have you found the path which carries you to Life itself? Some of us tend to get lost while trying to find it when it is right in front of us. Life with a capital “L” is the life which you will have in Jesus and the pathway carries us through this life until we get to the next one. So…what is the pathway? Following Jesus and not listening to Satan’s lies about your life and your ministry being useless and worthless!

Jesus gives our life, here and now, a meaning and a purpose. We are to live each day, each moment striving to be more like Jesus than trying to be like the world around us. Is this hard to do? Sometimes it is. Usually when we feel down and depressed life seems hopeless and you feel useless, like I did yesterday. But Jesus said that “we can live a life more abundantly“! By following His example of living for the Kingdom of God, even though you can’t see it yet.

God loves you and has provided a way for each of us to have a life of meaning and purpose through Jesus our Savior. He is the pathway to life everlasting and He is preparing a place for us to dwell with Him forever. Some people might want to know, “Why would I want to live in heaven forever?” Do you really and truly believe that you will have nowhere to go when you die?

God’s Word says that we all face His judgment when we die so what have you done in this life to give you an eternity in Heaven? None of us, not even one person on this Earth, can be perfectly sinless because we are sinners and we are that way from birth. Jesus came so that we can have a life with Him into eternity but apart from being saved through faith in Him not one of us will get there.

Your life here is like a puff of smoke compared to eternity so why waste it chasing after stuff which rusts and fades away or is given to someone else when you die? Money doesn’t last and neither does gold or any other type of wealth but it seems that in the world today these things are what defines us. Why not define your life by the example of Jesus and His teachings? Live your life as His disciple and tell others about Him and what living for Him means!

Why? Because God values your soul more than all of the wealth in the world! Each individual person that He calls to become an adopted child of God is worth more to Him than all of the wealth that exists in this world! Why is that? Because each of us has a specific purpose ordained by God and that purpose is to reach one other person that only we can reach.

If we tell thousands of people and they turn their lives over to Jesus that is wonderful, but there is one person that each of us can reach that nobody else can. That is the person which God has placed you here to touch and show the love of Jesus to them so that they can come to know Him. There are many people who need to know Jesus as their Savior but until their spiritual eyes are opened and they know that they need Him, they will never seek Him. Live your life in view of eternity because this one is going away but your life in Christ is eternal.

In My Father’s House are Many Rooms

1Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me as well. 2In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”b

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

5“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”

6Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

9Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. 11Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves.

God’s warning shot


The lunar eclipse, which is happening now, is the last one for at least two years. God is not being silent about how He is warning us but most of us don’t seem to be listening. What is He going to do after this “Blood moon”? I have no idea but I do believe that our country and the rest of the world should notice that this is happening and at least try to do better at being believers.

We have had a warning before and it seemed that nobody even noticed. In late 2014 through 2015 there were four blood moons, and a solar eclipse yet few people noticed. So, America is getting one more such warning. Why? Because we don’t take life seriously nor do we sanctify life which is yet to be born. God loves children and He sent them to us for a purpose, His purpose.

They are being killed by the thousands each day and nobody cares enough to put a stop to it. Children are being taken from loving parents and sold into slavery in the sex trade and it seems that we are just becoming aware of it. Yet this has been happening for decades. Those who claim to be Christians and every church member should be rising up and at least writing letters to stop this…but it is not happening.

Will it ever be stopped? Yes, but I hope that we as Christians will do it before Jesus calls us home. It will stop when He comes to rule the world but we should be upset and outraged about this NOW!! Yet the world travels on as if nothing is wrong in the world. I pray that more Christians will stand up for their beliefs and begin to vote or call or write to our Congress to get something done before it is too late.

Boundless love


That is the type of love which God has for each of us. It is not one that we can duplicate in any way because we are not the Creator. He expressed His love for us by all of the wonders and the variety of life and the mystery which abounds in our universe. Why are there stars which would engulf most of our solar system? Because God wanted us to ask that question. Why are there diamonds and gold found in the clouds of nebulae in the universe? Because God wanted it to be that way so we would ask questions and wonder about it.

It was God’s love for us which sent Jesus to Earth as a man who didn’t sin and could pay the price for all of mankind. It is God’s love which watches over each of us as we sleep or as we travel on the highways. We are never outside of His love or His gaze and His protection of us as we go through life but He doesn’t force us to give our heart to Him. It must be our choice. How can we understand His boundless love for us? We really can’t, unless you know the love of a parent toward their child. That is the only relationship which comes close to by only a degree to the depth of God’s love for each of us.

Why does He feel this way? Because we are His creation, His children and He cares for us in a way that we cannot understand or comprehend yet He does so without measure. Life is a part of Him, death is a part of Him and every part of our lives is contained in a part of Him as well. Don’t turn away from Him because you are only hurting yourself when you do. Does our rejection of His love hurt Him? I’m sure it does in some way, but how deeply it hurts I couldn’t imagine. Make sure that you learn to love Him before your life ends because once this life is over there are no second chances.

Are you far away?


The Parable of the Prodigal Son

(Luke 15:11-32)
Then He said, “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me now the share of the property that I will inherit.” And he divided to his substance between his two sons. And not many days after, having gathered all together, the younger son went away into a far country, and there wasted his property, living dissolutely. “Now when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he longed to fill himself from the carob pods which the swine were eating; and no one gave to him.

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father have more than enough bread, and I am perishing here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. I am no longer worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.”

“And he arose and came to his father. Now while he was yet far distant, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him repeatedly. “Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son.” But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring forth quickly a robe, the best one, and put it on him; and put a ring upon his hand, and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill It, and let us eat and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again, was lost and is found.” And they began to be merry.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he was coming and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And calling one of the servants to him, he inquired what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Thy brother has come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf because he hath received him back safe and sound.”

“Then he was angry, and would not go in. Now his father came out and entreated him. But he answered and said to his father, ‘Behold, so many years have I served thee, and I never transgressed thy commandment; and to me, thou didst never give a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this thy son, who hath squandered thy substance with harlots, came, thou didst kill for him the fatted calf.”

“Then the father said to him, ‘Son, thou art ever with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we ought to make merry and rejoice; because this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was lost, and is found.”

All of us have been here at one point or another in our lives but many times we don’t want to admit it. We want to live the way we want to with nobody to be accountable to but we will be accountable to God one day. He will hold you accountable for your actions and your words especially if you are living without Jesus in your heart. Even with Him in your life and you attempting to live according to His Word, you will be accountable for what you do with your grace and the knowledge which you have. What did you do with it? Did you tell others so that they can be saved? Has your life been a beacon for them to compare their life with yours and does it cause them to want what you have?

We are accountable to God whether we believe it or not or even if we want to live without Him in this life! Eternity is ahead of you regardless of whether you are saved or not. Punishment is there if you have not given your heart to Jesus and it will be eternal punishment. If you belong to Jesus and you are living your life one day at a time with Him then you will be responsible for what you did with your salvation. Life does not end when your life here is over, there is an eternity ahead of you. So, which eternity would you like to live eternity in?

You surely don’t want to live in hell because the punishment never ends and it never lets up at any point. Living in heaven is the eternity which we should all be striving toward because there will be no more pain or suffering and we will always have a place to live and Life everlasting.

Do you need healing?


In many ways, we all need healing in our lives. Whether it is a spiritual healing or physical healing or maybe even both, many of us do need healing on one level or another. So, where do you go to find this healing and how much will it cost me? Well, physical healing from some diseases can cost many thousands of dollars but healing for your spiritual person doesn’t cost you anything at all!

I don’t know how to heal your physical body and I’m not going to claim such a thing but your Lord and Savior, Jesus, can heal you spiritually and physically if it is His will to do so. Sometimes He does both and sometimes He will come into your life and heal you spiritually but you still have to live with the physical ailment that you had before. Many people seem to look at this as a type of curse from God when their physical problem isn’t solved when they accept Jesus as their Savior, but even Paul had to live out his life with a “thorn in his side” because God told him that His grace was sufficient for him.

Healing, whether it is spiritual or physical, takes a lot of faith in the doctor or in God. Salvation heals your soul and that only comes through Jesus and believing in Him as your Savior. That belief can only come through faith and even that is a gift from God by His grace given to each believer! We don’t choose, on our own merits, to be saved or to finally give our hearts to Jesus…He chooses us by His Spirit touching ours through a sermon or the witness of a believer. When we find that we can’t do this without Him, then we seek Him out and give our heart to Him.

That is where our spiritual healing comes from! We don’t do it, no preacher can help you do it or bring you to Jesus unless you are called by the Holy Spirit first. We are not exactly predestined to be saved, but God knows who will accept Jesus as their Savior and who will not. You can call that what you want to, but it is God’s knowledge of us which is at work. Some say that every person who is “predestined” to be saved will be saved whether we tell them about Jesus or not, but if that is true why did Jesus tell His disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel to all who would hear it?

It that were true about predestination then what is the point of telling others about Jesus and His atonement for their souls? The point is that people need to hear about Him and what He did for them so they can be saved and live into eternity with Him. If we don’t fulfill our calling to let people know about the grace of God and the salvation offered to those who will hear it, then we are responsible for their spiritual condition and we will answer for it in some way, at least in my opinion.

One day…


“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Dr. Martin Luther King

So…when will this actually happen? It has been fifty years, but when you look around the world it seems that we are less able to make this happen today than even forty years ago or thirty years ago. Do you think we can do this today? In my opinion, this won’t happen until Jesus begins His Kingdom on Earth. Our determination to be selfish and distrustful of each other as well as dredging up history which just brings back hurt feelings and angst from the past has caused any progress we have made to fade into nothing.

Anyone who has an idea which might work to bring this to the world, please leave it in the comments. The anger and distrust in the world, not just in America or Europe but elsewhere too, has gone so far above what it once was until I don’t see humanity ever fixing this problem by our own understanding. Only God’s Son returning to Earth will make this right and He will do so soon…much sooner than most people believe.

Jesus’ return is foretold in the Bible in more than one place and since God’s Word is the absolute Truth it will happen! Seek Him out as your Savior before His return because the situation in the world will get much worse before HE returns. Worse than it is now? Yes! Much, much worse than it is today. Those who mock the Word of God or their “interpretation” of it will be found out because they do not know the Word of God and they do not have His Spirit guiding their lives today. Jesus was speaking to His disciples about the Kingdom of God in a spiritual sense when He told them that it would be in the world before many of them died.

When Jesus comes back in the clouds with the angels and with those who have believed in His Word there will be no doubt about it! For many people who doubt it today, it is like a weather forecast, it may happen the way they said or it may not. When God’s Word says it then you can count on it coming to be. He didn’t put a date or a time on these prophecies but the evidence is all around us. More earthquakes and volcanoes coming to life, more unrest and disease and all kinds of wars all over the world.

People are not respectful of each other or their different beliefs anymore, whether you are standing on a political platform or in a pulpit. It seems that nobody has any inclination to listen to your beliefs if they are different from theirs and they will attempt to drown your voice or even assault you if you try to be heard. Even if Jesus came as a man the way He did before, He would be shouted down or even murdered again for His teachings today! This is a very sad commentary on our world and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better at all.

Our efforts have only produced more chaos and distrust in many parts of the world and in our own country. It will take a massive revival of faith in God and repentance which would be above and beyond the Great Awakening from years past and even that wouldn’t be enough, although it would be a step in the right direction. But it won’t be long until the whole world will see the prophecies come to fruition and for many, it may be too late to make a decision for Jesus. Or will it? Only God knows that answer.