Category: Being His is a choice too

Soothing, calming, slow rain


rain-nature-animated-gif-31I live in Mississippi and we have been in a “drought condition” since the last week of July. God has now ended that condition during the last week of November and the first of December and listening to it is so soothing to my soul! It is falling slowly enough to soak into the ground and not flood and run off everywhere, which is great!

So many times in our lives we look around and see things which concern us at times and we get upset about them, but really can we do anything to fix those problems? Many times they are caused by natural processes or some careless individual with a match or cigarette and they are too far away for us to make a difference anyway. All we can do at that point is pray that the right people will be available to help.

Believe it or not, God does care about us and our situation, even though we occupy a small, speck in His Creation. Why does He care so much? Because He chose this speck to be the place where He would have His Presence and His people live. Why did He choose our planet? I haven’t a clue. The only explanation would be that it is His decision because He is God!

He is outside our existence, even outside our universe, but He chose to love and care for us and maybe one day we will understand that…in His Presence. Until then, we just have to muddle along and learn more about Him from His Word because that is the only way to learn about Him while we are here. Have you spoken with Him today? It is a privilege that we have which allows us to talk to Him anytime.

Seek His calming presence each and every day and if you don’t believe in Him, then pick up a Bible and read it. Ask Him, if He is there, to show you His Presence and His grace because He is there, I promise!

Holidays and loss


Many times we think of the holidays as the happiest time of the year but for some that is not the case. Twenty-one years ago my mother died on Christmas day which has impacted my holidays for a while. Some of my friends on Facebook have lost beloved pets just this week. Why do I compare the two? Because pets are part of your family and when their lives come to an end, it is just as heartbreaking as a child’s death or someone else that is close to you.

During the holidays many people are more depressed than during the rest of the year. Sometimes it is because of deaths in the family, sometimes it is because of loneliness or other problems, but the effects come down hard during the holidays. It happens to all of us at one point or another and it is natural to be emotionally drained and depressed when the holidays come around. Why? Because we expect or we are taught to expect this time of year to be happy with family and friends visiting and sometimes those visits just don’t happen.

God loves you dearly and He is always near to each of us. His Word gives us comfort and strength to get through this time. When depression comes to my house and involves me, I get into God’s Word, specifically in Psalms. Sometimes I read a number of them and I have spent three weeks in the Psalms to find my way out of depression or in the attempt to keep it at bay. God will give you strength and the ability to do this along with His Wisdom that you can share with others.

The loss of a family member, whether they happen to have fur or not, is a hard loss but with the wisdom and the comfort that is available from God, you can get through these hard times. Seek Him out for your comfort and for your salvation because both can be found in Jesus! Amen.

Who was He?


greatest-man-in-history

Jesus is the person which the title speaks of, do you know Him? Does He know you? He died to pay the price of our sins, so that we could come to God with a clean slate which was washed in His blood. We cannot add to what He did and we shouldn’t try to because HE did everything needed for us to have eternal life!

All we have to do is believe and submit our lives to Him, humble ourselves to Him and learn from the Word of God so that we can tell others about Him! He is my Savior, won’t you let Him be yours too?

Are you sure about that?


I think many people are asking this question or they are being asked by those who are going to give them something for Christmas. Have you thought about it yourself? There are so many “deals” out there today because it is Cyber Monday and of course last Friday was Black Friday! I try not to participate in either one if I can help it. Go one step farther than just a gift at Christmas and think about a gift that has been provided for us all…and it doesn’t cost us anything!

Jesus came down from Heaven to be born as the Christ-child in a human body and from the very beginning, before the Earth was formed, He was chosen to be slain on a cross to pay for our sins! Blood from animals paid the price before He came, yet they were an imperfect payment because their sacrifice had to be performed each year, every year. His sacrifice was perfect, since He did not have a sin nature and didn’t sin during His life, yet He gave His life to the Father’s will so that we can come to the Father through belief in Jesus the Christ!

As Hebrews 7:27 says:  27 Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.

Jesus gave His life so that we might have eternal life with Him. It is a gift which cannot be bought by us, but it had a high price. The price of the Son of God and His life, death and resurrection to purchase our pardon if we will believe in Him. This is a story which has been told through thousands of sermons over the years since His ascension to be with God, a story which many have believed in and on for their salvation.

Today it seems that we have many who have been in the church all of their lives, hearing this message, sitting in the church week after week, who have not taken the steps to finalize being a Christian! Many believe wrongly that because they have been in the church and heard the message and read the Bible that they are saved. They may even be fine upstanding members of the church, volunteering for all kinds of selfless positions and committees in the church. But…are they saved? Are you saved?

Are you sure?

Why do I bring this up now? Because, you and I need to be absolutely sure of our salvation! Why? Because, there are no second chances! If you left the church one Sunday morning or evening and just before you get home, you had a terrible accident which took your life. How would you feel standing before God and seeing your life and your opportunities shown before you, yet you are not saved. You didn’t act when the Spirit moved you in the revival meeting or when you felt Him touch you during a service because you thought you were OK. What a terrifying feeling it will be to hear, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”

Your eternity lies before you, but it won’t be an eternity in Heaven. It will be one where you feel the burn of loss and the frustration and anger which can only be turned upon yourself because you thought that you already had something and you really didn’t. Nothing can change that now because your decision was made before your death.

Have you decided which direction that you want to go? Most everyone you ask on the street thinks that they have been a good person and they deserve to go to Heaven. How will you feel if your righteousness is not covered by the Blood of Jesus? Is your righteousness better than that of the Pharisees or about the same?

Think about it and consider doing something about it! If you felt the call of the Spirit and didn’t act, make sure that you do…soon!

Life is worth…Living!


I just finished reading one of the last entries on a blog which was written by an atheist. I didn’t know him personally, but then I read a post from a few days later which his wife wrote and he passed away four days after writing the post that I read. It was…a post which showed the thoughts of someone who was giving up on life. He was depressed and had seemingly decided that it was his time to go. I don’t know for sure if he killed himself, but he knows for sure, where his eternity is. He had asked me before to prove the existence of God and whether the Bible predicted WWII, I told him that I could not prove the existence of God and that the Bible did not predict WWII.

You cannot prove the existence of God because He is. It is a question of faith and if you don’t have faith or you don’t believe anything in the Bible, then there isn’t any proof which would prove that God exists. Even if He came to us today in human form like He did when Jesus walked with His disciples, nobody today would believe in Him except for those of us who already believe. The problem with this is, of course, that He said in the book of Revelation that He would come back as a King of Kings and with the armies of Heaven. Jesus would not come as He did 2,000 years ago.

God loves each of you, and if you can open your mind a little and read the Bible for the history and culture that is there then you will see Him. Although, reading it as a history book is good, that is not all that is in it. There are so many things which God can reveal to you if you will have faith and believe. The problem with this is that there are many people who only read it as a book which has history and poetry and lots of stories in it, reducing it to just words.

The problem with doing this is that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Inspired by His Spirit so that the history and the stories told in it would have a line which winds from the beginning of the Earth to its end. It doesn’t go into detail about every nation or every war which happens, but it does point to your Savior and the only way to salvation and eternal life! Give your heart to Jesus, the Spirit will touch you at some point in  reading His Word, then you have to listen and open your heart to Him.

That place where you have always felt…empty. That is where the Spirit is supposed to live in you! He is the only One Who fits in that space and once you realize this and ask Him into your life, then you will finally feel whole! No more time alone. No more feelings of incompleteness. Satan will come and try to steal your joy at finding this, finding Him, but if you lean on Jesus and seek His strength to get through it then you will!

Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and since life itself is temporary make sure that you ally yourself with the Creator and your Redeemer, Jesus the Christ!!

Give …. a chance!


There are many, many things which could go in that space and I don’t want to even attempt to go over all of them. Today, you could say that our country should go in there or the President-elect, Donald Trump, should be in that spot. There are many more that could go there but my point here is that whatever you place in that blank space, do it!

Don’t just say it, do it! What is the most important part of your life which needs to be in that place? Is it your job or something concerning school or your marriage which needs a chance to work? Is it your relationship with your Savior? Is there a multiplicity of options in your life which needs a chance to work?

We all have things which need a chance to work, in one way or another. For some of us it is a relationship, whether it is one with our Savior or our spouse or another family member, really doesn’t matter. The point is that relationships have to be worked on, taken care of, nurtured if we want them to grow. So much is going on in the world today, and if it was broken down to what the REAL problems are and what or maybe Who would fix it, the choice would be simple.

The problem with that is this: nobody likes a simple solution.

Simple solutions to complex problems involving cultures and religions which have been at odds for centuries are not achievable in our world. Why? Because we are human and our solutions involve other human beings, each of us has their own idea about a solution to a specific problem. When we don’t cooperate with each other to implement a solution, the problem gets bigger and it isn’t solved in the long run.

The point that I am attempting to get across to those who may read this is that human problems don’t have a human solution. Our solution is found in the Bible, in His Wisdom and faith in Him, not in our fallible ways and understanding. I don’t claim to have those answers, but God does. They are found by reading and studying His Word and asking Him for wisdom in our daily lives.

Living by His Word, studying His Word and His wisdom and asking Him to show you and me the way through a problem or around a problem is the best way to live. It isn’t easy because most of us don’t like to admit that we can’t find the solution. It isn’t easy because we don’t really like to study any book, regardless of which one it may be. God’s Word isn’t hard to understand if you ask Him to help you to understand it.

Seek Him out in the Bible, because when you go looking for Him…you will find Him or He will come to you. He hasn’t lost you, but you may have forgotten where to look for Him. Don’t forget that God loves you and has loved you and me since before the world was created. Each of us has a job in His Kingdom, mine is being a preacher, yours may be something totally different. Just like any government in the world, all jobs are important in some way and if someone isn’t doing their job then the rest suffer for it.

Love, where did it come from?


I know, there are going to be people wondering about my sanity now. Trust me, I know where I am going with this.

The honest answer to that question is very simple: It came from God! He wouldn’t have made our world the way that He did if He didn’t love us, all of us! God made the universe itself so that we could look out and see what an awesome God we serve! Why am I putting so many exclamation marks in these sentences? Because the point that I am making needs to be emphasized so people will notice it.

God put all of the planets together in our solar system in the order that they are because of His love for us. How or rather why do I say this? Because Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are all out past the asteroid belt and they scoop up or influence any comet or other body so our planet doesn’t get slammed like the moon or Mercury.

I know that our planet has been hit in the past by meteors which have done some serious damage, but not to the extent of wiping humanity off the face of the Earth. Love came to us through the acts and the intent of God because He loved us before He created Earth. In His Word there are many references to His love for us and we should be able to see it in everything around us every day! If you can’t then there is something wrong.

Why do I say this? It is because of the questions and the angry outbursts which will come after this hurricane. So many people killed and put out of their homes by a storm which moved so slow, couldn’t God stop it? Yes, He could have, but what will come out of this storm? People helping people who have been made homeless, people helping those who are injured by the debris or by walls falling, food and shelter will be given and provided by people who didn’t have to do anything but they were moved with compassion to do something.

What is it that makes us be compassionate in times like this? It is because we are made in the image of God, all of us can see the needs of those who need help and if we can help, we should. Satan has a temporary claim on the rulership of this world, but his time is growing shorter by the day. He knows this and he is trying to cause as much pain and suffering in this world as he can. Not so much to punish us, but to make people question whether God cares for us or not!

God loves us, all of us. It is because of His love that many of us are still here, and those who have been killed by these storms or earthquakes or wars are casualties of Satan’s hatred for humanity! Give your life to Jesus and follow Him because when you look at the signs all around us and the prophecies in God’s Word, you can see that there isn’t much time left for this world before He comes! Amen.

Was God created?


It seems to be a very silly question, yet many people seem to be asking this very thing. It sounds almost like the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

Was God created? The point is when you try to answer it, there is no answer except God.

It seems that this is a question that is asked by people who, for whatever reason, don’t believe in God. Rather, they think of Him as being a created being rather than the Creator! Our concept of God comes from the Bible, it doesn’t come from the church or the opinion of some pastor or other theologians. The very first sentence of the Bible, “In the beginning, God…”, God is there before the beginning and He will be there whenever it is time to come to an end of the universe.

Some people like to think that God is like us and that is false. We are created in His image and the only way that He can be like us is if we make Him that way. This is idolatry, because we are making Him in an image of us, an image which makes us comfortable with His being, with His ways because when we make God in our image we see Him as being like us.

God was not made, He just is, and He lives in a universe which is parallel with this one, but outside of time and our vision as well. This is the reason that our natural vision, which is limited to this “plane” so to speak, cannot see the spiritual forces around us. If we could we would most likely be frightened most of the time! After all, looking outside to see a demon hiding in a bush or one flying overhead would be enough to send plenty of people to church I would think.

The “realm” which God and all other beings like angels and demons are free to move about in, is here with us every day yet it is outside of our limited vision. We can’t see it unless God allows us to see it, which is probably a very good thing. Although, I believe if people could see the things in and around us everywhere, there would be such a massive revival of faith in God until it would undo much of the work of Satan in just a few weeks or months.

God is the Creator and it is He who created all of the beings, both human and angelic, whether they are fallen angels or humans who disavow belief in God, and it is because of this that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for mankind. It is not God Who condemns us to an eternity in hell, it is us! Each of us has a decision to make in life and that one very important decision is whether to believe in Jesus as our Savior or not. If you happen to end up with the “not’s” who don’t believe or don’t want to believe in Him, then you will be placed in hell with the angels who rebelled against God so long ago.

It is YOU who determines your eternal home, not God. It is your choice, your sins, your refusal to believe in Jesus and the atonement which is freely given IF you believe in Him which will send your eternal soul to hell and the lake of fire! God did not create hell for humanity, but if you decide that you don’t want Jesus then you are in the same camp as those angels who didn’t want to serve God, and you will get the same punishment!

Why do I bring this up today? Because many people need to hear this it seems. If only because of so many choosing to leave the church because they don’t want to believe in a god who would send people to hell, when the reality and truth of the matter is that it is YOU who determines your eternity, by your own choice! God doesn’t send you to hell, you just end up there because of your choice in this life to not follow Him.

Decision time


We have a decision to make. I am not talking about the election, but about Who you will choose to follow. It seems that many people are getting fed up with the church today. In some ways I can understand why, but if you have ever heard a good sermon in church why would you decide that being a Christian is not right for you?

I know most of the excuses which people give and all of them are wrong in one way or another. I mean, all churches are full of hypocrites because at one time or another ALL of us were sinners and still are, the only difference is that when we gave our hearts to Jesus our past was forgiven. Some people don’t like church because it’s too stuffy because in some churches there may be a dress code or it may look like it at least.

There are all sorts of reasons which people come up with for not attending church services. Some of them involve money and fear of being required to give a tithe every week. All of these are valid reasons or excuses for not attending church, but if you think about the length and the depth of God’s love for you…why would you refuse? I mean, God sent His Son, Jesus, to become fully human and have the nature of God so that we could be forgiven because of His sacrifice for ALL of the human race!

This was not an easy decision for God to ask this of Jesus His Son, but they both knew that it had to be done this way and no other sacrifice would do.

Your decision whether to follow Jesus is your decision, there is no pastor who will try to force anyone to join a church or to accept Jesus. It is a personal decision and one which only you can make when you feel the Spirit moving you toward Him. Pay attention to the Bible and the teachers who preach from it. Test their message against God’s Word and make sure that they agree with one another. If they do not, then get away from that church and that pastor!

If you are feeling the call of the Holy Spirit or maybe being convicted by Him about something that you are doing, then you do need to repent and come to Jesus. When the Spirit is moving you, don’t ignore it. If you do and you walk away, it is possible that you may never be convicted enough to come to Jesus again. God only strives with us for so long, ignoring His call is a bad decision. God loves all of us and desires to have a relationship with us, but if you refuse and walk away…well, your eternity will be very different from what it could have been.

Faith, do I have enough?


We all have a measure of faith, whether it is a small measure or a large one, each person has some faith. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed, which isn’t much bigger than a period at the end of a sentence, can move mountains IF we don’t doubt God! God’s Word is full of all sorts of events which happened because of the faith of the people. So, do you have enough?

Of course you do and I do too! Why do I say it that way? Because, our measure of faith is our portion which is given to each person. Some of us have a large measure of faith, which you can see working in a person’s life. Will God use pain and suffering to teach you to have faith in Him? No! He will not! Some preachers teach this, but God loves you and He is a good and just God, so why would He hurt you in some way to make you grow?

God will allow Satan to have access to you and he will test you in one way or another, just as He did with Job in the Old Testament. He lost everything including his health, but he would not blame God for it! He held onto his faith in God’s goodness and God’s provision even when things were not going very well for him.

Have you taken a step in faith? Even when you can’t see the way ahead of you, whether it is a spiritual journey or one in this life every day, God wants us to prove our faith by stepping out in faith so that He can fulfill that part of your life. I don’t mean that you should test God, that is not the same as stepping out in faith.

If you have prayed about something earnestly and in your spirit you feel that God wants you to do something like be a preacher or an evangelist, then step out there and His blessings will follow. Some people use this the wrong way and buy a new house or a car and they justify it by saying that God said so. Maybe and maybe not. If you can afford it and it doesn’t put a strain on your finances then it may turn out to be a good thing.

God doesn’t have to provide the money if you jump out there and buy something that is way outside your ability to pay for. He will allow you to do this because He wants you to realize that you did that yourself, He wasn’t part of the decision. You can convince yourself that you have heard God’s voice telling you to do this, but it is very likely that it is Satan. He will cause you to do something stupid and convince you that it was God telling you to do this and then laugh at you when you can’t pay for it!

Faith is something that God gives you through the Holy Spirit when you have given your heart to Him. Some of us have a lot of faith, some of us have a little, but a little bit of faith can do a lot when it is faith in God. Make sure that your faith is in Jesus and God and them alone because if your faith is in yourself or in your job or money, then your faith is in temporary things.

Think about it and make sure about your salvation, because tonight may be the last time you get a chance to make that decision.