There are always two

It sounds like I’m channeling Master Yoda but what I am speaking or writing about is that there really are two, sometimes more but always 2. In our world the Lord shows us that in every situation there are 2 sides. Dark and light, good and bad, black and white, morning and evening. So how do we navigate in the gray areas that our culture insists on? God doesn’t show any gray areas. You are either in the light or the dark with no gray area in between.

How do we fix this? Truthfully, we can’t. It is a choice that we must make and it is an individual choice, not a collective one. Each of us must choose the side that we feel is the one that God is calling us to. I know that many people don’t believe in God as their Savior, but life requires a choice regardless of your beliefs. Because there is evil in our world and there is overwhelming love and goodness too. You see it and hear about it on the news or on your computer every day. Many people wonder why God allows the evil and the hatred that we see around us? That is where our choices come into the picture.

There are always two choices and just like the cartoon where the little demon was on one shoulder and the angel was on the other, those really are our choices every day. We can listen to one or the other and make a choice and it is that choice which determines how our day or our week turns out. When you look at the world with your spiritual eyes you can easily see that there aren’t any “gray areas” at all. You are either saved through faith in Jesus or you are not. You either believe in Him for your salvation or you just believe that He exists because it says so in the Bible which does not save your soul.

Our eternity stands or falls on one of two choices. Believe in Jesus for your salvation or choose not to believe in Him and go to hell. These choices have to be made in this life today! Why? Because we are not guaranteed a certain number of years before we die. I could die before I finish this or I could live another twenty years or so. With the pains that I have in my hands and my neck now I really don’t want to add another twenty years to it. My point is that we don’t know when our last day is, so choose which way you are going to go now…today.

Life is different today…

What do we do during this crisis? We live through it each day, one day at a time. Some days we even live hours or minutes at a time depending on our health and that of our loved ones. Life is very different today than it was six months or a year ago. We are trying to fight a virus that doesn’t kill everyone who is infected but those who have other “health challenges” such as diabetes or heart disease or COPD may not live through the infection. Sometimes it seems that it is age-related and sometimes it isn’t because there have been many young people who have died because of it.

Why? I think this time in history and the things which we are going through are God’s way of telling us to wake up and seek Him. Get out of your rut and the feeling that you are the only one that is experiencing what is happening in your life! God loves you and He is trying to get everyone’s attention but if you feel that He is calling you…please don’t walk away from it. Yes, life is different today, much different than we have had to endure in the past but God is still in control.

I know the questions: “Why are we being testing with this disease?” “Why does the world have to endure this?”

Because sometimes it takes a little hardship and the fear that comes with the virus to cause each of us to look at our lives and realize that there is more to this life than the self-centered way we’ve been living it. God is waiting to show you what He has in store for you. Not bad things but an abundant life into eternity with Him. God doesn’t place burdens on us that we can’t handle but sometimes we need His strength and His Spirit to get through the problem better than we could ever do it on our own.

We will not be beaten down by this problem regardless of the country you may live in because God is bigger than any problem or disease that we could ever face. Stay close to Him, follow Him and ask Him to be your Savior because He can heal every disease and give you strength to get through every problem in your life here and into eternity!

What will you do?

One day the church, all believers, will be taken out of this world. If you don’t believe in Jesus for your salvation or even in the Bible or God either…you will be left here to go through what the Bible calls the Tribulation. This time will last for seven years and the beginning of it will be a seven year treaty which will be signed by all of the nations which want to destroy Israel. After the church, all believers in Jesus for their salvation, is taken up there will be all sorts of “explanations” for this, none of them will come from the Bible. Many people in the world will actually celebrate the fact that “the church” is gone, or they will think it is.

God will still call some people during this time to give their hearts to Jesus and be His witnesses around the world but they will be persecuted severely. My advice to those who are left here is to find a church and go inside it and locate a Bible, especially if you don’t have one. There may be other literature that will also help you to understand what you read and what it means for your salvation. Take advantage of these resources because the Antichrist and those following him will be destroying any book or building which had a congregation of believers. They do not want you to find hope in Jesus!

The last book in the Bible is the book of Revelation. In it Jesus told John to write many prophecies down which would only come true after the church, the believers, have been taken away because they are the bride of Christ. It tells of the churches which will be around at the time or just before the rapture of the church, some of which we have today. One will be a church which thinks they are working for God and His Kingdom but they aren’t doing a very good job of it. One church has lost sight of their first love which is Jesus. One church was on fire for the Lord but they have lost that fire and become “lukewarm” in their teachings and their works for Him. In a sense they have watered down the message so that it no longer means what it should mean. We see evidence of that today.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek out your Savior now! Before the church is taken up because the threats of death during the Tribulation and the strong delusion which will come upon those who are still here, even if you have knowledge of the Bible, will cause you to take the mark of the beast. If you do that, your soul is lost and you will be thrown into hell one day…if you survive long enough. The time of the “church age” or the age of Grace is coming to an end, very likely in our lifetime. I pray that anyone who reads this blog will seek out Jesus as your Savior, give your heart to Him and even if it is after the church is taken away keep your faith in Him.

Don’t wander into the belief that the current “savior” is the one. Read and study the Bible if you can find one. Find a place that you can grow your own vegetables and try your best to stay off of the grid if possible. Why do I suggest this? Because without the mark, you won’t be able to buy or sell gas for your vehicle or food or electricity but your soul has a place in heaven! I pray that anyone who may be searching for a Savior will seek Jesus Christ in the Bible and give your heart to Him. God has never left us and He loves you more than you can imagine. Read His Word and seek Him out before the day comes when you will truly have to choose between life with Jesus or death by beheading because you don’t have the mark.

What is salvation?

Well…it depends upon what a person is being saved from? Salvation can be many things to many people. You can be saved from physical death by a seat belt in a car or an air bag or both. You could be saved from a life of being filthy rich by your circumstances or by God’s grace, whichever you prefer. Salvation, for a Christian, is being saved from the punishment of hell that we deserve but by God’s grace our faith in Jesus atones for all of our sins and allows us to come before Him with no blemish of sin on our person. You could receive salvation from drowning by someone throwing a lifeline with a float attached to it.

So you see, salvation can come to each of us in different forms and at different times but the one that most of us are seeking is our salvation from the punishment that we deserve for our sins. God is our Creator and our Savior which is why He came to live as a human for about thirty three years. He came so that He would know the temptations that we experience not to judge us for those but to call us into a life with Him. Sometimes the call that we hear from Him comes when we are young and sometimes we don’t hear it until we are a bit older.

There is one illustration that I would like to give here which points out the reality that our Savior gives to us and to no others in Creation.

“The life of Christianity consists of possessive pronouns” says Martin Luther. It is one thing to say, “Christ is a Saviour”; it is quite another thing to say, “He is my Saviour and my Lord.” The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the second. Resource, July/August, 1990.

To claim our salvation we must come to a realization that we need Jesus in our heart to save us. God does that when His Spirit reaches down and touches your heart, breaks it and re-molds it into a heart that is ready for His gift. Sometimes this is painful but sometimes it is something that we have sought for a long time and in that instance it feels so good to get the burden of years of carrying the guilt and the shame with us all of the time.

Only a Christian can say “Christ is my Savior and my Lord”. If you can’t confidently say that is feel in your heart that it is true then you may want to seek the Lord for confirmation of your salvation. Do you believe it or are you just saying words? God came down as a helpless baby to live as we live so that He could identify with every emotion and temptation that we have. He saw and healed many diseases while He was teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God and that He has healing for every disease if we will believe in Him for our healing.

Some people only say the words. Some people read the Bible but they don’t believe a word of it. Its just a book of stories and the history of the Jewish people. It is so old that it doesn’t apply to us today.

All of the statements in the short paragraph above are false with parts of truth in them as well. “Now, hold on preacher! The Bible is the Word of God, it can’t be a lie!” The Bible is the history of the Jewish people but some people read it like a book. Some just think it is too old to apply to us now, and there are many people who truly don’t believe a word in it came from God.

Why is that important? Because, God inspired the prophets and kings to write the words which make up the Torah, which is our Old Testament. The apostles wrote their accounts of Jesus’ ministry and Paul wrote most of the prison epistles from a Roman prison but even they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit. If the Word, the Bible, is inspired by God and His Spirit, then it is true and there is no other way to interpret it.

Finally, salvation comes to us by faith in the Holy Spirit which convicts us of our need of salvation. Then He points us in the direction of Jesus Christ Who is our Savior and Lord to believe in Him for our salvation to become real and genuine. After that we should read God’s Word to know what we should do with all of this joy and grace that we’ve been given!

One thief lived even though he died

Jesus didn’t have to save the thief on the cross beside Him but He did it out of love because that was the reason He came for…to seek and to save the lost. Just the same as He does for us today. When you come to church on Sunday if you are not a Christian yet you are likely thinking “What am I doing here?”. Most of us wonder about the reason that we are in church but when God’s Spirit has touched you and let you know that you need Jesus in your life, there is very little which could’ve stopped you from being in church that day.

I don’t mean to say that it is an irresistible call but it truly is. You might skate by this Sunday but one day soon God will get you into a church to hear the gospel preached. Because you will be drawn to Jesus at that time. God didn’t have to send His Son to bring salvation to mankind but He did it because of His love for us. Will everyone be saved? No, because there are many in the world who won’t hear that small voice calling them or they will ignore it until it goes away.

Don’t be the person who has heard God speaking to your heart, asking you to come to Jesus but you didn’t feel like it or you had something else you wanted to do. Sometimes God will keep calling until you answer the call but sometimes it is just too late. An accident or a stroke or heart attack will take you from this world when you least expect it. Not one person knows when their “time is up” until it happens so if you haven’t made your decision yet then it is too late at that point.

Jubilee

How many of these have been celebrated since Jesus went back to heaven? The Jubilee year is the year after the 49th and it is complicated because of the Jewish calendar but for all practical purposes it is the 50th year. If you divide the past two thousand years by fifty you get 40 and if you bring it forward to the year we are in now, 2020, it is 40.4. What does all of this mean? It’s God’s math and I can’t tell you exactly what it means. In 1967 Jerusalem was brought back under Jewish rule. It had been one Jubilee since the Jews had been allowed back into Palestine as it was called and that happened in 1917 at the end of World War 1.

Fast forward to the 21st century and 2017 is a Jubilee year since Jerusalem had been brought back under Jewish control. Forty is a significant number in God’s Word, seven is also a significant number, 49 is a significant number, so where am I going with this? I’m not sure but since scientists usually take an answer out to the second digit past the decimal this year would actually be 40.40. Does that mean anything? I’m not sure but if I were you, I would be making very sure that you know Jesus as your Savior and especially make sure that He knows you!

No matter what you may have heard about God not caring about you, the verse in the picture above shows very clearly that He does love you and me and everyone else. It is our choice to believe in the One Who paid the price of our salvation and atonement or not. I pray that you will seek Him out as your Savior. Thank you for reading this little bit that His Spirit prompted me to write.

Remember…

Today is a day that America can’t forget. Some people do seem to forget about what happened on that morning 19 years ago but when they are reminded…it all comes rolling back into your memory like the clouds of dust and paper and concrete that filled the streets of New York. Many people died that morning. Most of them were at work or going to work. Some were on the planes which were hi-jacked to be used as bombs. No, we can’t forget that day and the horror of it and the fear of what is coming next.

Just like the attack on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning in 1941, those who lived through it could never forget where they were. But the difference between the two attacks, separated by sixty years, is a very dark one. The one which happened at Pearl Harbor was done by a government and its soldiers and pilots. The attack which happened in New York was done by religious fanatics. They didn’t belong to one single government or country. They were united by an ideology of hatred. That is why the war on terror has been going on for so long. There is no specific place or people to look for or to blame other than their religion and the ideology which is taught by it.

I don’t blame the religion of Islam for this because just as they have told us for years, most of them are peaceful. But also God doesn’t want blame to be placed on this religion or that religion. God does love everyone in the world but He doesn’t love the sinful ways that many of them live in day in and day out. God provides a way for you to find peace and joy in life if you will repent from what you have been doing or worshiping and seek your salvation in Jesus Christ. Believe in Him like the thief on the cross, believe in Jesus like a little child because your salvation and your eternity depends on it.

Whether you believe in Jesus or God or not right at this time doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we are not guaranteed tomorrow so the time to seek your salvation in Jesus is now! Today is the day for your salvation. Read the book of Romans and 1 Corinthians because Paul told every person that he met that your salvation and your eternity depend on Who you place your faith and your belief in and that Person should be Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Anger, hatred and violence

What we see on the news today did not begin with injustice on the streets, at least not the injustice that they are claiming started it. It began much earlier than just a month or two ago. Socialist ideas and ideals have been infecting our society for nearly sixty years and maybe more. The downfall of our society began, in my opinion, when the slave trade was in full swing over 200 years ago. Enslaving people to work for others who think themselves above “menial labor” is and always will be wrong!

While it is true that some of those who held slaves were African-American free men, it still doesn’t make the practice any less barbaric. Should anger over this injustice and the injustices of today make people angry? Yes, but burning cars and looting stores and tearing down monuments which were erected to honor those who fought against slavery does nothing to stem the violence and continued hatred and bitterness! Kinda like a wound that you keep pulling the scab from, it takes a lot longer to heal unless that is what you want to happen.

When prayer and the reading of God’s Word was taken out of public schools in ’63 and ’64 our country began a radical change. I’m sure that the Civil Rights movement would’ve come and made its mark with or without that omission but the riots and the activism which flared up in the latter years of the 1960’s might not have been as violent as they were if students were still learning from God’s Word. So many of the problems that we faced all through the decade of the ’70’s might’ve been avoided if the education system had stayed true to their roots and kept God’s Word as an elective at least.

Why do I pin the problems of the latter half of the 20th Century on this one decision? Go back and look at the SAT and ACT scores prior to banning the Word of God. Check the statistics of teenage pregnancy before and after the removal of God’s Word and prayer from schools. The entrance scores started to go down on the standard tests and the number of teen pregnancies began to go upward from the point where God’s Word was removed from education. You can find articles which verify this online.

God’s Word and the wisdom that it contains has always been a part of education, at least until the theory of evolution came around and educators began questioning its validity. So, why am I bringing this up in this post? Because most of the educators who are in our colleges and universities now are the same ones who were protesting back in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. Refusing to allow people to learn from both sides is wrong but that is what most educator’s and the system that they work in are doing.

God loves us. Regardless of how you may feel toward religion or God or even Jesus Christ, you are loved by the Creator of the universe. That is why we should’ve kept His word, the Bible, in schools and in our education system. Not because we are trying to indoctrinate anyone but because of the wisdom contained within its pages. Giving your heart to Jesus and becoming a Christian is a personal choice and when you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you to accept Him as your Savior…don’t turn away from the opportunity. Because it may never come again. We are not given or promised the next hour of our lives let alone tomorrow or next week. When the invitation touches your heart I urge you to accept it.

Wisdom or education?

Which is more valuable to you and to those around you? I’ve heard of people who have PhD’s who are working at McDonald’s, so how much is their education helping flip the burgers or fix salads or serve up french fries? I know the problem. Some people with those heavy duty letters behind their name either can’t find a job in their field or they were downsized out of a job. So they had to take a job that would kinda pay some bills. I have a BS degree in Medical Technology but I’m disabled and can’t work in my field. So how much good does all of this education do for our communities or the country?

Not very much good at all.

Wisdom can be learned from the trials that we go through because of our education. Wisdom can also be learned by reading God’s Word, the Bible. Because the wisdom contained in it is wisdom which isn’t bought or purchased from an education system. The wisdom that comes from God’s Word comes straight from the Source of all Life. You might ask “What if I don’t believe in God?” Well, the wisdom contained in the Bible, specifically Psalms and Proverbs, is wisdom which can be used for business and the home as well. The Bible is a book which covers many areas of life experience, so reading it and seeking God’s wisdom can help you in many areas of life.

There is a misconception that the Bible is only for “holy rollers” and church people but it really isn’t. It is the history of God’s chosen people, the Jews, but it is also about human nature and how we tend toward self-destructive behavior in our spiritual life as well as our life in general. We see this kind of behavior in everyday life. On the news, in our own family, in our friends lives, in celebrity’s lives, in politics, you name it, the behavior to destroy our lives is not limited to spiritual people or to those who choose not to believe.

“So how can learning from God’s wisdom help me?” There are many answers to that question. One is it can draw you closer to your Creator and He will draw closer to you. Even closer than He already is! God did not create this world and the human race and then run to some far-flung corner of the universe to retire. He is involved in our world every day. He sees the horrible things that we do to each other. He knows the pain that we feel when someone close to us dies. He cares about you far more than you can imagine.

The Bible speaks about the time that we are living in right now. People will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money. They won’t care about others or the church but will be working to get rid of the church. Why? Because the Truth which is found in the Bible cannot be destroyed or turned away from once you know what it says. The world around us has been on a downward spiral for years but we are coming to the end of what is called “the church age”. It began when Jesus ascended to heaven and it will end when He returns for His bride, the church. When will this happen? God is the only one that knows that answer. It could be tonight or tomorrow or next week or next month but it is going to happen.

If you are not a believer in Jesus for your salvation prior to that day, if you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked Him to forgive you of your sins then you will be left on Earth when that day comes. You will go through the Tribulation described in the book of Revelation and it will essentially be “hell on Earth” during those seven years. There will be death from diseases and wars and demons. You will be forced to take a mark in your hand or your forehead in order to buy or sell anything. If you have become a Christian but you take that mark, God will wipe your name from the Book of Life and you will forfeit your salvation. If you don’t take the mark, they will hunt you down and kill you but if you are a Christian you will just step from this life into eternity with Jesus!

The Bible is a book of history and changes and it is His story as well. Because Jesus is foretold in every book of the Bible. He is the Seed of the woman in Genesis and He is the Alpha and Omega in Revelation as well as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. There are so many names for Jesus in the Bible but the one name that I love the most is “My Savior and my Lord!” Seek Him in the Scriptures, ask Him into your heart and your life and you will never be the same again because when He comes into your heart you are a new creation in Christ!

Confusion and anarchy

It seems that these two words define most of the “news” we hear or read about these days. Both of them cause the other so they just feed off of each other and no improvement is seen anywhere they happen to be. The Bible gives us a clear picture of what it will be like leading up to the time of the Tribulation and it is matching up pretty well. God’s Word doesn’t specifically name countries and people involved but reading Matthew 24 and Ezekiel 9 and the beginning chapters of Revelation they all read as if you are looking at today’s newspaper article (if anyone reads those anymore).

Jesus told His disciples that these things would happen, that it would be like the days of Noah before the end of the age. Persecution of the church is growing here as well as in other countries. Freedom of religion is being watered down so that it barely gives any freedom to the Christian church. Limits on what can be preached and where our religion is looked on as hate speech in some areas of the country. The country that we grew up in doesn’t resemble the America that you see on the news broadcasts. It has become much worse than I’d ever dreamed that it would and the reality is that it won’t get better regardless of the person in the White House.

We have to look up for our salvation and our Redeemer is drawing nearer every day.

God never says anywhere in the Bible that He hates the sinner. He only hates the sin that they live in. Those sins are given in God’s Word and I’m not going to list them here. Most people who are living in sin know which sins they are committing and they don’t have to be told. So why do so many in the world refuse to accept the mercy and grace that God offers through belief in Jesus Christ?

Partly because of pride in their own beliefs and traditions. Many refuse because of the requirements of their religious training as a child and because they will be disowned or beaten and sometimes killed for giving their heart and their life to Jesus Christ. Then there are some cults in the world that have changed the Bible into something that they can believe in but they have demoted Jesus to “a son” of God. Christians are taught that we should “turn the other cheek” but we should at least try to win our brother or sister or our best friend to Jesus Christ if they will listen. Telling family about Jesus is a very hard thing to do because most of the time the family has been to church together. You and your brother or sister may have been baptized in the church.

The problem is usually something that has been named “cultural Christianity”. Everyone that you know or grew up with has gone to or attended church. Everyone around you has heard the sermons and maybe even been baptized after a revival. The problem shows itself in their lives after being baptized. They live and work as if they’ve never heard about Jesus but they know about Him and God too. Usually they will even say, “The Big Guy and I have an arrangement”.

God doesn’t make “arrangements” with people and He isn’t the “Big Guy upstairs” either. God doesn’t like being represented by a carved image nor does He like being referred to by some made up name. He is God the Father, Elohim, or Yahweh but I wouldn’t give Him a name other than those found in the Bible. He is the Creator of all things and the Ancient of Days but no other name than these.

Living your life out of sync with the Bible and the way that is described in the New Testament after you have been baptized is incompatible with true repentant Christianity and it’s wrong. Why? Because if someone sees you living this way and you tell them that you are a Christian they will think that it is acceptable to go out and drink and do things that you wouldn’t want your Mom to see you doing. The reality is that God knows you and He can see every thought and every sin that you do, regardless of where you are or who you are with.