God holds all things together!
Category: Beauty in creation
Beautiful but deadly
There is much beauty in the ice and snow that covers the trees and the ground but they can be deadly. God’s love is extended to everyone who wants it, see that you seek Him as your Savior while there is time. The creation that is all around us that is sparkling and pretty right now won’t last and the effect that it is having on our country will get better after all of it melts. Yes, it seems like winter is taking a little while longer to go away but it will. I pray that those who have had pipes to burst or have been without power for a few days will get some help to stay warm.
If there was something that I could do for those in need I would but all that I can do is pray and that is the easy part. God will provide for you if you will depend upon Him for your needs and your rescue. Seek Him for your help and for your Salvation and both will come.
Inspirational Song For Today: Reckless Love With Cory Asbury — The Abuse Expose’ with Secret Angel
For all the broken out there, remember that God’s Reckless Love will chase us down and fight till we’re found!! He does not want to leave anyone behind.
Inspirational Song For Today: Reckless Love With Cory Asbury — The Abuse Expose’ with Secret Angel
One small step…
Our Creator placed the “lesser light to rule the night” in the sky many years ago and today there have been celebrations and re-broadcasts of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Fifty years ago. I was seven years old at the time and I remember hearing those words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. I never thought about being alive fifty years later to re-live those moments. I do remember how much we all hoped that mankind would get better at being mankind and better at agreeing about things.
Our problem has persisted for much longer than fifty years though. Most of our so-called “racial” problems and religious problems won’t be solved until Jesus is ruling the world one day. We don’t have the fortitude and wisdom needed to get along. So, regardless of the songs that are written or the poems which are written about peace on Earth and the fictional stories about mankind putting war aside one day, it is not going to happen until Jesus comes back!
He is the only Person capable of bringing lasting peace to our world. No ruler or any man will be able to bring peace to the whole world. He is also very good at bringing peace into your life too, if you will give Him a chance. God loves each of us so much that He gave His only Son for our sins. Jesus took all of the punishment and the separation from God the Father just so we could be forgiven. Isn’t that amazing enough to warrant giving Him your life so you can tell others about Him too?
Please seek Jesus out while you have a chance in this life because there isn’t a second chance after this one is done.
Is there something missing…
Many times when I was much younger, I felt as if something was missing in my life. Since my parents were divorced I always thought it had to do with my Dad not being in my life much. Which was likely since I didn’t see him much except during summer visits and two weeks doesn’t help much when your Dad is working and out of the house even when you are there. Still…I felt that my relationship with him wasn’t really what was missing but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
After high school, I found that the missing part of my life didn’t mean much, at least not yet. So I partied and played around with weed and sex and I still felt empty and confused because nothing that I tried was fulfilling at all and mostly left me feeling empty inside. Even though I thought I had found and accepted Jesus, and I may have invited Him into my heart, I don’t think that I had fully committed my life and my heart to Him at this point.
I didn’t have anyone to teach me how to become closer to God and to come to know Him in a deeper way, so I still felt like I was stuck in a rut and I didn’t know how to get on the right pathway. I don’t know if I am expressing this the best way but that is how I felt at the time.
Why am I opening my story up to you? Because our testimony is the story about how each of us came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior and it is a story that each of us can express in our own words because it is personal. Each of us knows our own short-comings and our failures which brought us to the point of knowing that we need Jesus, because until we came to that point…we didn’t want to know Him.
My actual walk with Jesus began after my son was born. I had been given this gift from God to love and cherish and to be an example to, and I knew that if I wasn’t following Jesus from that point on then he wouldn’t learn about Him either. So, I began by reading the Bible at night while I was working in the lab at the hospital. I would read in between running samples or on my lunch (early breakfast) break.
Little by little, God’s Word began to make sense to me. I still didn’t understand it and even today after reading through the Bible many times I don’t claim to understand it yet, but I am walking with Him on a daily path. Do I stumble? Yes! Do I wander off the path or fall? Yes! But…He is there to help me get back up, ask for His forgiveness when I have failed Him in one way or another and then we carry on toward the goal.
What is the goal? The prize of being in His Presence! That is the ultimate goal of life. The life which each of us lives through and complains about here is just temporary but the Life in Him and in eternity is…well eternal! There won’t be anything missing when we are in His Kingdom and His Presence! The only “missing” things will be the problems which we have here, the time which we never seem to have enough of, our aches and pains and our glasses (if you wear them) or contacts. All of these man-made bits of help and diseases will be left on Earth when we leave this place, praise God!
If you need prayer for any reason or just an unspoken request, please leave it in the comments. I will pray for you in my prayers because I pray that this site and these messages have an impact in the world every day. Thank you for reading.
Amen.
What will you do?
The movie, “I can only imagine“, is in theaters now and the song has blessed the world with its inspiration for a while…but what do you think that you will do when you see your Savior? Will you fall to your knees in worship? Will you be so giddy with joy until you dance in His Presence? How will you express your gratitude when you come face to face with your Savior?
Truly, I have no idea what I will do. There are times, even now, that I get tears in my eyes just thinking about the mercy and grace which has been poured into my life. I didn’t deserve any of it and I still don’t understand the depth of the love of our Father. I won’t understand it until I am face to face with Him and even then I don’t think that I will completely know the depth and breadth of His love for me…for all of us!
God is our Creator and our Savior because He made a way for us to get to Him in His Word and to be able to come near to Him through the blood of Jesus. It is a good thing that we will have an eternity to be with Him because the understanding of His Love for us will take about that long to comprehend, even with our immortal bodies and minds.
Meeting Him as a saved and sanctified, born-again Christian will be so awesome until I can scarcely imagine even the beauty and majesty of seeing Heaven and our Savior. Truly, I don’t think my imagination could conjure up the images that John described for Heaven. Many of the paintings which I have seen which some artists have painted of their vision of Heaven just show a landscape which is just more than what we have on Earth. More and deeper blues, more vibrant greens, flowers which are dazzling in their beauty and water which is more like “liquid joy” than anything we could possibly find here in this life! This water flows from the throne of God, so there is no way we could find water like this here.
God loves each of us which is why He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. All that we are required to do is to believe in Jesus and His atonement for us…that’s it. You don’t need money and there is no amount of work which any of us can do to deserve to be in Heaven. We can’t save ourselves because salvation is only through the name of Jesus. His name is the only name which will bring each of us to salvation, there is no other!
It doesn’t matter how many gods you serve or the names of your gods, they will not bring you into Heaven because they aren’t there either. This picture shows exactly how your salvation is done and paid for. Your only response is whether you will accept Jesus and repent of your sins or not!
If you accept His sacrifice for your sins, regardless of how many they may be, then ask Him to come into your heart and save you from yourself and your sins. He will honor that prayer and come into your life and your heart, cleansing you from your old life and your old ways and make you a new creation in Jesus Christ! If you have done this, please let me know in the comments section, because I would love to know and hear about it.
Racism and hate
Can we overcome these two demons? It is possible, but not under our own power and motivation. Unfortunately our independence and our ability to choose what we believe or not, on an individual basis, is what grew these two into mankind’s conscience. We are not born this way, but over time and exposure to other ideas and teachings at home or school, we do develop our own version, our own opinions toward others. That is where these destructive attitudes or emotions grow from.
Sometimes, they aren’t very potent in certain individuals but with a bit of prodding from someone who can stoke them and get your emotions involved in the matter then, like a small fire with alcohol or gas poured on it, they will explode. We see this everyday and hear about it on the news, if you can stand to watch it. Pride, arrogance, and greed follow along with these two and all of them together can cripple a country.
Why is it so hard for humanity to get past these kinds of problems? INDIVIDUALITY. We seem to be resistant to being in any kind of real, true relationship with each other. Oh, we may do so with our family, maybe our close friends, but anyone outside of that circle is out of luck. Even…God.
Oh, we may say that we “believe” in Him, but we mostly believe in our idea of God. Why is this? It is also because of our freedom which God allows us to have, because love cannot flourish without the freedom to choose. Many times we look at God’s Word during church and see that God allowed His people to choose many times in the Bible. He didn’t stop them from walking away from Him or worshiping Him, because He loves us.
Love is above hate and bitterness and racism and true love does not allow these emotions to flourish at all. It is mankind’s evil and hatred for other opinions which causes so much strife and trouble in our world today. God didn’t create evil, though He allows it to be. We should seek Him, the God of the Bible and there is no other. His Word is Truth and salvation offered to all who will believe in Him and in His atonement which is offered through Jesus the Christ.
Life, what about it?
When I was much younger, I wondered about the life that we live. Not so much in philosophic terms exactly, but after watching the coverage of the Vietnam war and Dr. Martin Luther King’s murder, even then it seemed that life was cheap. I knew better, but it still made me think a bit. But, I was young and I didn’t think about it long so I went on to school and played with my friends and did my homework.
Now, I am a father and a pastor and I think about life every day. It still seems that to most of the world around us, not just in America, human life isn’t worth much even today. It seems that life today isn’t regarded as being worth more than a thought, if that much! Why have we come to this point in history? Where the life of a baby in the womb is in just as much danger as one on the street! A baby in the womb is even in more danger today because there usually isn’t anyone to speak up for them and defend them.
No, I am not getting on a platform about abortion, I did that a day or so ago. My point here is that we don’t cherish life today, no matter if it is a pet, a baby, or a person. But…life is supposed to be sacred! Human life certainly, but all life in general because it is God’s Creation! It is true that many people claim to be Christian and yet many of them don’t even have a true relationship with God at all! We don’t look at being a human being and being a Christian as anything special, it seems.
Many believe that by belonging to a church and attending services occasionally that they have a relationship with God. How absurd! That is more akin to visiting McDonald’s once in a while and thinking that you know the owner! God does know you and He loves each one of you. But, being known by God and being His child by adoption through Jesus Christ is something totally different.
Jesus died for you in order for you to be God’s child and when you feel that call by faith in Him you can become a part of His family. It isn’t something that you choose on your own, He chooses you first, then you have to answer. If you don’t, then you have pushed Him away. This part won’t be good for you, now or in eternity, because you are telling Him “Not now, I’m busy” and “You’re not important to me”. Hopefully, He will keep trying to bring you into His family but you can push Him away only so many times. There may come a day when He chooses to let you go your way…not good at all.
Why do I say that? Because if you look at how humanity has fared without Him, it usually isn’t very good and depending on how far they move from God it can be very, very bad for all concerned. Even though God said that He would never again bring a flood on the Earth, that is why it came in the first place. Mankind had pushed Him out of their lives and went after their own ways and their own gods. This is why God chose Noah, because he had not gone the way of everyone else. Sometimes, following the crowd has very serious consequences. Think about it.
So much hatred today…
I have seen pictures of animals, dogs and cats, abused worse than anyone would allow a child to be and yet there is very little outrage or even coverage of their suffering. I know that there are slave traders working today, trafficking in children of both sexes and women too, which should be locked 
up but they won’t be. Why? Because their clientele are rich and powerful which is why the trade is not cracked down on, particularly in countries outside the United States. The worst of those clientele, I imagine, actually live in the United States, we just don’t hear about it because they are wealthy enough to keep people quiet and behind doors and walls which disguise what is happening to whom.
Why is our world becoming this corrupt and sinful? Yet, it seems that it is getting worse as the days and years go by and it seems that fewer people even take notice of these crimes anymore. Whether the media is ignoring these crimes or possibly because we have become numb to the plight facing us, I just don’t know. Has our world become so corrupt that we just don’t see what is going on around us? Do we actually care about those who are abused, whether it is an animal or a human being? Some days it seems that we don’t.
Jesus cares about them all, children and adults, and He never leaves them alone even when they feel that they are. He came that they might have life, abundantly, even if the fulfillment of that promise might be in eternity. Your life and mine are important to God and when you cry out to Him, He hears your screams and your cries. He knows your pain and suffering because He is there!
Trust in Jesus to be your Savior. Ask Him to come in and make you more like Him and to turn your heart and your life around, so that you can be useful to Him and to His Kingdom! He will do these and more, if you will ask Him. God doesn’t force Himself into your life or into your heart, because love can’t be forced on anyone! The wisdom of the Bible which is God’s inspired Word comes from Him. It is not words from the men which wrote it down, because there is no way that men could accurately predict hundreds of years ahead of the crucifixion that Jesus would be crucified.
So many prophecies which point to Jesus are contained in books which were written over five hundred years or more before His birth. David penned the 22nd Psalm which describes the crucifixion and the parting of His garments over 900 years before it took place! Read it yourself if you want proof.
Our world today is nearly at the point of where mankind was before the flood of Noah. Cruel, haters of humanity and all things created, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, honestly the list could go on and on, but my point is this: we are very close to the point where God will say “Enough!”. Then, what will you do?
What Child is this?
To many in the church, regardless of the denomination, this Child is Jesus the Savior and our Messiah! But who is He to everyone else? Yes, Jesus has a name in many languages and in every book of the Bible but Who is He to you? See if I count His name in this list and if not, comment it for me…OK?
He is a Priest of the order of Melchizedek and before him. He is the Seed of the Woman and the Righteous Branch of Jesse. He is our Creator and the I AM. He is the Son of the Most High and the Son of Man. He is the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. He is the Captain of the Lord’s Army. He is the fourth Man in the furnace. He is the Rock which gives water in the desert. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
He is the Babe wrapped in cloths lying in a manger Who was born to die on a cross. He is the One Who vanquished Satan’s temptations in the wilderness. He is the One that is greater than all, yet He was humble enough to wash His disciple’s feet. He was the Suffering Servant and the Lord’s Christ! He was wounded for our transgressions and it is by His stripes that we are healed! He is God with us, Emmanuel and our Advocate with the Father.
I have tried to remember most of the names which are given to Him in God’s Word but the one name that we should remember Him by is our Savior. Yours and mine and anyone else’s who will believe that He came here to take the sins of the WHOLE world on His shoulders…and paid the price for them by dying on the cross and then rising to life eternal on the third day! We can have hope in Him because He said that He would be coming again and being God, then He cannot lie! He will return and set the world back to the way it was supposed to be.
God loved us so much until a part of Himself came down to take our sins and the punishment for them on Himself in order to be able to forgive each and every person who would receive His grace and mercy by faith. It can’t be done any other way and there is nothing that you can add to it in order to make it better or more complete. He accomplished it all in those few hours on the cross and what we should do is accept it by faith in Him and then tell others about Him!
The Living Message of Christ 