Category: Be useful to God

Strange times we live in


Well, it seems that the groundhog was right. We are all getting a bit more winter weather even in the deep South. In reality, winter doesn’t actually end until around March 21st anyway but the temperatures that are being felt in the southern part of the United States don’t come to our neck of the woods very often.

Life has a way of throwing curve balls when you least expect them and this happens to be one of them. I pray that when this winter storm moves north it doesn’t carry so much of a punch with it as it has had here. In other ramblings, the time that we are living in was foretold long ago in the Bible. Even the changes in the weather and the unusual way that politics is working in these last few years of the church age. All of it is found in Matthew 24 and in the beginning chapters of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

The truth is this: we aren’t living in the strangest of times, those are yet to come. I pray that most of you who read this have given your heart to Jesus and are reading His Word and learning of Him during these trying times. If you have not but you are curious about Christianity and the promises of His Word, please seek Him in the New Testament and do it soon. There are dangerous days ahead of us especially for those who have not made a commitment to Jesus and are following Him now. When He calls the believers home to be with Him the world for those who are left will be much worse in many ways than it is today.

Becoming a Christian today is not hard if you will answer the call on your heart when you feel it. Sometimes the touch of the Spirit is not very noticeable and sometimes He will call you in a dream so that you know exactly Who called you and that you can’t let it go until you are His. God knows the ones who will answer His call and the ones who will hear it but turn away so make sure that you are in the first group. Eternity is a very long time to live without God at all.

Right this moment we enjoy His blessings, although some people may not see their circumstances as blessings. We have air to breathe and usually a warm place to sleep at night. Food to sustain us and clothes to cover us. Some may not have these “luxuries” and to many people these simple things don’t sound like luxuries but to someone with no food to eat for a week or two just a small serving of fries from McDonald’s would be wonderful. Those of us who live in what is called the “developed” world who are poor in wealth would almost be considered rich in some countries.

God blesses us with far more than we deserve and yet there are so many without the necessities like clothing, shoes, water and shelter that many of us take for granted. Life is hard in many parts of the world that most of us in America will never see first hand. Even if we visited those places we wouldn’t want to stay and help because we cannot understand poverty of that magnitude. God knows each person on this Earth and He sees all of the conditions that they live in. Many of them cry out to Him even though they don’t know His name, their soul cries to the Maker of all there is and He hears their cry. He will repay those who could help but choose not to or are too greedy to help. When this age is over and the work that God is completing is finished they will have their reward or their punishment, whichever He gives to those who have done His will and to those who refused to follow Him and be the “light in the darkness” for this present age.

How powerful is your testimony?


Our witness to the world is found in our testimony. Your testimony and mine does not have to include every deed that you have done but it is supposed to show that God has saved you from your mistakes. All of us have them. Some are worse than others but even those who aren’t old enough to have done as much as others, God can save you from all of them.

Some people tell preachers that they have been too bad or even too evil to be considered as a convert to Christianity. There are no such people! God has accepted those who have been murderers, thieves, drug dealers and drug users, harlots and prostitutes and He will accept you as a child of His through Jesus Christ because you can reach someone that no one else can.

Your testimony is powerful enough to bring someone into the family of God and it is possible that you are the only person that can reach that person. They may belong to another church or they may not go to church but if you can talk to them, God will give you the words that can bring them into the family. It may even be someone who has known you for a long time. They know your past and what you did in years past before God changed your heart to serve Him. That person doesn’t exist if you have put away your sinful life and turned to follow Jesus. You cannot make them see the change, although they may see it but they don’t want that change. Sometimes they will reject your testimony because of pride or anger at you because of some slight or emotional hurt that you caused many years ago.

Ask the Lord to melt their hearts so that they can receive His message for their salvation because it may be that only He and His Word can do what your testimony and your changed life cannot do. Even Jesus could do few miracles in His home town because they looked on Him as the Son of Joseph and they had watched Him grow up with His brothers and sisters. They said “he’s the carpenter’s son, where did he learn these things?”

God has used so many people in the past and He still uses circumstances and problems and people today to get people who have rejected Him to turn back to Him. He used many of Israel’s enemies to chastise them when they were disobeying His commandments. He raised up a ruler in Egypt to oppress the people as slaves so that He could judge Egypt and their gods. God can use your life and your testimony to change people’s lives today as well. It may be something you say or something that you do that could cause them to seek God for their life’s troubles and their salvation. It may be something that you write or a sermon or an inspiring post or link on Facebook that gets their attention and turns them toward God.

Only God knows how you will accomplish His will in your life and it may not happen until your death or afterward but God can accomplish His will through you in some way to bring others to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Can God use me for His purposes?


Working for God and by extension Jesus as well is the most important job and, besides being a parent, is the most rewarding job that you can have. Does it pay well? Not in this life but when you repent of your sins and you’ve given your heart to Jesus, tell others about your Savior! God reward for His apostles and children is eternal life in heaven and being able to walk into a city where the streets are paved with pure gold.

He is the Creator and He knew you and me before we were born. Did He know that we would give our hearts to Him? Yes and He knows what you are capable of doing for Him and with Him in your life. When God knew you in the womb, He knew your capabilities. He knew then and now what you are capable of accomplishing for yourself and for His Kingdom. Just as He knew each and every person in the Old Testament and what they could do and would do if they would willingly follow His directions and do the things that He tells them to do.

God want us to obey His commands and directions and when we become His children by giving our lives to Him we should do this out of gratitude for His love. It was because of His love for us that Jesus came and paid the price for us on the cross. Jesus did this because of His love for each one of us and because He knew that we would be useful to Him and His Kingdom. Why? Because each of us has at least one person that we can reach for Jesus that nobody else can reach. Some of us may be able to tell many people about His love for us and what He did for our salvation.

The point is that in the past God has used a murderer and a pagan idol worshiper for His purposes. He used a prostitute and a gentile woman for his purposes. He used a donkey that spoke to his master for His purposes and He used a fish to carry Jonah to a city called Nineveh so that the people might be spared from the wrath of God. He is the Creator and He can use your talents even if you don’t think you have any.

Give your heart to Jesus and give your life and your talent to God’s Kingdom. He will show you what to do and where to go and it may just be down the street or across the hallway but He knows that you can reach that person and show them that He loves them too.

You can be blessed…


Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.5.9.KJV

Today we see so much violence and hate, but we are supposed to be peacemakers. Show Jesus’ love to those around you so that they will want it too.

What is your destiny?


We are living in a time that is unprecedented in the history of the world. Hatred abounds. True love seems to be absent from most of the places where it was preeminent at one time. The church, the body of Christ has become weak and fewer in number than ever before. The churches that are left are teaching a doctrine that Jesus would not approve of because it is the doctrine and the “wisdom” of men.

What are we supposed to do during this time?

We who are the believers, the born-again believers of this age, are supposed to be taking the message of Jesus and His love to the world around us and to the world at large. We have more available technology to do this than any other generation before us and we must use it. We should be “about our Father’s business” every day…not just on Sunday or Wednesday night during Bible study. God called each of us to be a witness to His love and power and we are to take this message to those who need it the most…our friends and family and also to others who need to know Him.

If we don’t take it to them and tell them about His love for them, then their fate will be on our hands because we are responsible for those who God called us to touch with our lives and the words that God gives us. It is our witness that will bring them back from the edge of hell and back to the loving arms of God. Nobody else in the world can touch your sister or your brother like you can. Nobody can get your son’s attention or your daughter’s attention in the way that you can. If you touch other lives with His message and they change their ways so to become part of God’s family then God is pleased with your efforts.

Are these efforts required to enter into heaven? No they are not! When you feel the Spirit touch your Spirit during a song or a sermon and you know what you should do with your life, don’t turn away from Him. Run to Him, ask His forgiveness for taking so long and ask Him to change your life into the life that He needs you to be. Only at that point can you fulfill God’s purpose for your life.

We are special in God’s eyes. We are not gods and we are not prophets although we as preachers are prophets too. When you are born again, God doesn’t see you and your sinful life anymore. After you have asked Jesus to come in and clean your heart and soul up so that you are a new creation, you truly are a new creature in Christ. Your old ways and your old friends need to pass away from you and you should bring in new friends and new ways. God looks at us and sees the blood of Jesus covering our sins and He sees His Son in us working to do the will of the Father.

Your life and mine are not ours anymore. We belong to God and we are His workmen, His disciples to take His message to the world. Even if we only touch one person who comes to Jesus for salvation, the angels in heaven praise God and shout for joy because one more sinner has been saved. Don’t sit on the bench, get up and get into the game so that one more soul can be saved. As Private Doss said in “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Lord, help me get one more. Just one more”. In the night that he said these words over and over, he was the only medic on the ridge and he saved over seventy souls from certain death that night. But…he was not alone in his work as a medic. Jesus went with him every step of the way.

Just one more, Lord….

Do you disciple?


Many of us on this platform tend to write a bit. Some in short, quick reads and some a bit long. But…have you ever thought of yourself helping others along the road to be a disciple of Jesus? You know, He didn’t go out trying to bring out the BIG crowds but they came to Him because of His message and the miracles. They needed healing but many wanted the food which was provided so miraculously because of His thanksgiving. Some only came for the miracles but there were many who came to hear His message.

Then as His ministry was coming to an end, He taught a few lessons that were a bit hard for the crowds to understand and some that they didn’t like at all. The life of a follower of Jesus, a disciple, wasn’t easy in those days and it hasn’t really gotten easier today, although we have many more “things” to cling to than a money purse and a staff. Even when you make your life as simple as you can these days, we are still wealthy by most of the world’s standards.

So how do you make a disciple? Well, you have to get to know the people in your study group. You can’t lead a study group unless you do know them. In today’s culture that is hard to do because many people don’t want to know their pastor or their teacher in a close and personal way. Today with the disease that is running rampant all over the world most people don’t want to be in the same building with their pastor. Not because they think he is sick but just because of the possibility that he might be. We are allowing a virus, a messenger of Satan, to dictate whether we have fellowship in God’s house. The church, that is the people who are gathered, should be faithful enough in God’s power to come together and worship Him in Spirit and Truth!

Being a disciple of Jesus means much more than visiting a church on Sunday morning. It is reading and studying His Word every day of the week so you will know His voice when He speaks. Your life can be much healthier and more productive when you have His Word stored in your heart and when you read it every day it is like eating manna, it nourishes your soul because it is God’s spiritual food for your soul.

Don’t be anxious


Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad. Proverbs 12:25 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.12.25.KJV

The song, Don’t worry, be happy! Is a good representation of this principal from God’s Word. During stressful times it is hard to feel happy and joyful, but by keeping your your focus on the blessings that are yours through Jesus Christ you can feel joyful. Because of the eternal life that is yours because of His sacrifice.

Life and Love


Both of these words are part and parcel of the message which Jesus taught to His disciples. What do I mean by “life”? Well, you are alive and the life that you live every day is a message that others see when they see you on a daily basis. People notice how you walk and talk, especially when they find that you have given your heart and life to Jesus. When Jesus went to different towns during His ministry do you think that He announced His coming? No, the word spread because of what others had experienced because of His life and because of the love that they felt when He spoke to them or preached to them or blessed them.

His ministry was and is the same as our ministry today. We are supposed to go out into the world and let people see Jesus in our daily life. Not being arrogant or boastful about our life but simply living our life with His life as a pattern by everything that we do or say. If a person can’t see Jesus in your daily life by how you speak or your actions then you may not have Jesus in your heart at all.

What about “love”? How do we incorporate that into our lives? According to the apostle Paul, “if we do not have love then we are just a clanging cymbal“. Why would he say something like that? Because everything that Jesus did in His ministry was done because of His love for His people and for each of us. Jesus healed people because He loved them. He blessed children because He loved them. Every action that He took during His ministry, even His death on the cross, was done because of His love for us.

In the culture that most of us live in today, the word “love” has been used and abused so much that it means much less than it should. Even saying “I love you” used to be an endearing thing to say but today love doesn’t carry the weight that it did in the past. There are many words that don’t mean the same today and many of them have been reduced to abbreviations or even emoticons.

God’s love is deeper and more meaningful than we can imagine but many people who attend church today don’t seem to see God in that way anymore. Mostly because very few people even believe that the Bible is the actual Word of God and that it is ALL TRUE! God cannot lie and yet many teachers and preachers will tell you that God didn’t mean it that way or that it only meant that when it was written but today it doesn’t mean that at all.

The Ten Commandments are still commandments and God meant every word. The Bible, Old and New Testaments, was inspired by the Holy Spirit and since He can’t lie then every word is true and was meant to be taken as absolute Truth then and now. Some people try to water down or change some words so that the message is skewed or changed to have a different impact on people today. In other words they don’t want to offend people. I don’t remember Jesus backing away from His critics or changing His message so that they wouldn’t be offended.

Live your life as a reflection of Jesus so that others will see Him in your words or your actions and maybe they will want the Savior that has come into your life and made such a change in your life and the way you live it.

Changes are happening…


This entire year has been about sudden and rapid change. Beginning with this virus and all of the chaos that it has brought to the entire world. Society has changed so dramatically that very few countries have been spared. Societal change and personal changes have happened so rapidly until we can’t get a grip on what reality really is. Which side of an argument is the right one? Who is doing the right thing and for the benefit of which part of society and culture will it affect? Hard questions. Questions that the world shouldn’t have been asking in such a short period of time. We can barely keep up with what happens during a normal year, even a normal election year in America’s case. The entire world…every country has gone through so much this year. Things that no person on the planet was prepared for. Their economies ruined because of quarantine measures which placed so many businesses in jeopardy and many of them haven’t recovered and some may never recover.

What are people blaming this pandemic on? Some are blaming it on our President and some are blaming it on China because they were the first to be hit by it right after their New Year celebrations. I think it is likely that this was sent to us by God just to make us see that we are not in control of this world. The problem with this is that many people in this world will blame God to the point of not wanting to have anything to do with Him or the Christian religion!

Is there a way out of this? Yes, seek God and His wisdom to find the truth of where this came from and how to stop it. Will our world do this? Not likely. The reason is that many “religious” people are running many churches today and some of them really don’t believe the sermons that they get up and give to their congregations each Sunday. Mainly they don’t believe in the God inspired Word that their sermons should come from. Of course if that is what is wrong then they really don’t believe in their Savior, Jesus Christ. Because if you don’t believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God then how can you believe the story in God’s Word? Jesus was foretold in Genesis as “the seed of the woman” and in every other book of the Old Testament He shows up in some way to help or teach His people.

This “pandemic” may get worse because we are entering the flu season soon and they both affect the lungs and the body so how could you tell them apart? Many tests and trials of different medicines that might work or might not. Life goes on as it does each and every day and people who have other medical problems will die because they have contracted this virus or the flu or a mutated strain of either. Taking your request for healing to God is the best way but it is not the only way. We should be relying on our doctors and nurses and the treatments that they recommend. God will heal all of those that He wants to heal.

Be thankful that you don’t have this virus and if you have had it, depend upon Jesus to heal you with the medicine that the doctor orders for you. Then…make sure you give credit to the doctors and the nurses and to God as well because if He had not led those who developed the vaccine to do so then we would not have a vaccine.

What can God do about my problems?


Have you ever wondered about that? Do you realize Who it is that you are talking about? God is the Creator of everything! Your problems are nothing to Him if you will place your faith in Him to take care of them. Except many of us, in fact most of us won’t do that. When you read the book of Exodus in the Bible it tells you how He managed to get the Israelites out of slavery and out of Egypt by ten miraculous plagues. But before they crossed over the Red Sea (not some reed sea like some are trying to say today), His people were doubting God’s power already. Even after seeing the water turn to blood and the flies and the frogs and the darkness and all of the other things which scientists are trying to explain away today. The people of Israel still didn’t believe that He could deliver them to freedom. So let me clear this up right now!

God didn’t remove the Red Sea, He parted it. God didn’t bring rain, but He provided water from a Rock. God didn’t strike Goliath dead, but He aimed the rock that did. God doesn’t always remove your problems, but He will make a way for you to get through them. If you will depend on Him and believe.

God is not magic, He is our Creator. He is not some genie but He is our Heavenly Father. God sent Jesus to Earth to live as a human so He could know our troubles and our pain. He also came to be a spotless Lamb to give His life to pay for all of our sins in order for us to be able to come into the Father’s house forgiven and adopted as a child of the King! He came to give you eternal life if you will believe in Jesus for your salvation.