In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Luke 10:21-24 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.10.21-24.KJV
Category: Believe in the One Who saves
What do you believe?
Some of us believe in a “god” that someone in the past or even in the recent past just made up and embellished to make it sound good. Some people during the time before Jesus was born listened to the people around them who were worshiping “gods” that were actually demons who followed Satan. In all of these scenarios can you pick one and show me a hospital or an orphanage or even a charity that any of these false religions created or started that has helped people?
I don’t know of any.
Believe in God and the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation and you will be saved. “Saved from what?” you may ask.
That is a long story but when Satan caused the fall in the Garden of Eden, he became the ruler of this world. Not like a king but he could influence humanity to follow his suggestions and be far more evil than they would be without his influence. God loves us and the angels enough that He gave all of us the freedom to choose. God doesn’t want mindless automatons but willing servants and the freedom to choose to follow Him and serve Him out of love.
Not one of the false religions can claim this. Oh, some do corrupt the Bible and change some words and therefore the meaning of the books in it. It is because of this that many people don’t want to hear from God’s Word because they believe if one version is corrupt then all of them are. This just is not so. There are many old copies of many books of the Bible that are accurate to the word. Many Hebrew scholars have copied the Torah over the years and even the most ancient copies are accurate to the word and the punctuation. God has made sure that His Word is true and accurate and is not corrupt.
Jesus came to bear the sins of the whole world and pay the debt for them on the cross, then three days later He rose from the grave and over the course of forty days He appeared to many people to prove that He had risen from the grave. He ascended to the Father and it was witnessed by His disciples. Angels told them that “this same Jesus will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go.”
We are waiting for His return very soon. Some do not believe it will happen. Some say that it won’t happen in our lifetime but Jesus said that after “the fig tree blooms”, referring to the rebirth of Israel, that generation would not pass before His return. Israel became a nation again in 1948 and 80 years from then is 2028. Possible? Yes. No dates or hours but possible. I pray that all who read or hear this will seek to know Jesus while there is still time.
Which is the REAL God?
Once upon a time in the distant past there was a man named Elijah who was a prophet of God. He lived during a time when Israel was confused about their relationship with God. They didn’t know if they wanted to trust God and follow Him or follow the god of their queen and king Ahab. One day there was a declared “competition” ,of sorts, on Mount Carmel. There, Elijah had requested that all of the people come and see which God was real and for them to choose which one they would serve.
The “competition” started early one morning and the prophets and priests of Baal set up their altar with the bull on it and began chanting and praying for Baal to accept their offering and burn it up, to show that he was the god for Israel. Nothing happened. They kept chanting and cutting their skin and dancing, begging him to accept their offering. Still…nothing happened. This went on for many hours until most of them had passed out from exerting themselves so much or because of blood loss and still no sign that Baal was going to accept their offering.
Then, Elijah took his turn. He built an altar and killed the bull, placing it on the altar. Then he does something very odd. He digs a trench around the altar and asks for water to be poured out on the wood for the fire and the offering. Then, he asks for more to be poured on it. Three times he asks for water to be poured on the altar until the whole thing was saturated and the ditch was full of water.
Then…he prayed.
36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. 37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
God showed His power in a mighty way and He left nothing, even though it was soaked with water. His fire even consumed the water from the trench! God is still on His throne and one day soon, Jesus will return for His Bride, the church. I pray that you will be in the number of people that are taken to Heaven to be with Him forever on that day. God loves each of us and has a place for us all that we need to to is make a place in our heart and our lives for Him.
If you need something, give yourself
This is not a “prosperity gospel” post. When you give yourself freely and unashamedly to the Lord as His disciple there is no greater gift that you can give beyond that. God sees your worth as being far above any monetary amount that you could come up with and remember…Jesus didn’t go around asking for donations. He went looking for disciples to learn of His ministry and its message and when the time was right to take that message to those who would receive it.
God has never changed His position on being able to use each of us and our talents for His ministry. God doesn’t need your money, He already has wealth beyond our imagining. I mean just think about it. He paved the streets of Heaven with gold, pure gold! The doors are made with one single pearl and the foundation of Heaven is made from twelve different precious stones including amethyst, garnet and diamond. Why would He need a measly fifty or one hundred dollars?
God can bless you beyond your ability to contain it, so get into His work, do His work, and then see what comes into your life after that. Your reward could be far more than you could imagine.
God’s glory declared!
All around us, below us, in the ground and under the sea, out in space and across the sky…His majesty and glory are declared every day! God is THE Creator and our Savior. Theories and theorems and ideas from the mind of man have no effect on God because He did all of His work on His own time and at the pace that HE wanted it to happen. God’s love is shown and proved toward us because of the wonderful properties of light and sound and gravity and heat and cold that we experience on Earth to show that He is God and there is no other.
Seek the Lord and His goodness!
We hear but do we act on it?
This is one of the complaints I hear from outside the church, “Why doesn’t the church help more people?”. You know, Jesus went all over Israel during His ministry helping and healing those who were seeking God’s help. He did His job so why does the church find it hard to do those things which need to be done? Too many hands out? Too much red tape or paperwork?
What if Jesus had looked at us and thought the same way toward us?
The Cross…
God knew how to put us together because He had done it before. Every cell, whether it is a muscle cell or a nerve cell is there for a reason. Just like each of us who have a purpose and so do each one of our cells. This molecule is the “glue” which holds our cells and our body’s systems together. God’s Word points us in this direction because it says so.
God placed the stars in their places
Freeze!
This past week has been cold all over the United States. Why would I celebrate this cold and dangerous time in our country? Everything in our country can’t always be good and equitable for everyone. Life always has ups and downs. Good days and bad.
God loves each of us and offers us eternity with Him so why do people refuse His offer? We go through trials and trouble and problems with our bodies and at our jobs and even with our relationships. Sometimes we depend on God for our help with these things and sometimes we tell Him that we can handle it even when we know that we can’t. Oh, we may not actually tell Him that we will handle things but when we don’t seek His help with whatever it is then we are telling Him to His face that we can do it. He will let us try and usually we will fail. Then, if we have any conscience at all, we will seek His help to fix the mess that we have now.
After all of this ice and snow melts we will have really mushy yards and mine is already on its way to being that way. It is pretty when it falls and stays for a while but it is a pain and so muddy when it is melting and going away. That is another way of looking at our life with or without Jesus in it. I’m not saying that becoming a Christian will solve all of your problems immediately because it won’t. Satan will still attack you on many fronts and try to take your witness away or at least mess it up so that people who don’t really know you will just dismiss your witness as fake.
That is why when the ice storms and the hail and sleet come into your life as problems and pains and broken hearts, make sure that you turn to and lean on Jesus. He can strengthen you and give you the faith and ability to get through all of these problems. Some people will scoff at this but God does care about each of us and He will be near you in all of your problems IF you give your heart to Him and repent of your sins. Don’t expect Him to comfort you if you don’t belong to Him. That would be like expecting a total stranger to comfort you and take care of your needs. Some people might but not all.
God has always been close to humanity because of Israel and the Jewish people. He always has His attention on us and if you are a believer He knows you more intimately than anyone.
The Living Message of Christ 