God is always near

Psalm 46: 1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Many people think that the other phrase, “God helps those who help themselves”, is in the Bible but it isn’t. It sounds good but the phrase about God being a helper and being with you in troubled times is the one found in Psalm 46. This is not the only one which tells of His ability to help us when we are in need but it is very true that He is and He will if we will call on Him.

It doesn’t matter what sort of trouble you may be in or how you got into such trouble, if you are a child of God and have faith in Jesus as your Savior He is always with you.

Why do I bring this up now? Because of all of the problems and pain that our country and our world is going through right now. The pandemic of this “new” disease which is even less deadly than the flu and it seems to be the most important disease at the moment. Jesus told His disciples that when He went to be with His Father He would send the Helper (Holy Spirit) to teach them and testify of His message in their lives and their ministry. Every Christian has this Helper living on the inside of them and He is always present in every area of our life whether we are going through something good or bad.

Even when we can’t think of the words to pray with, He is praying directly to the Father for us in words which express exactly what the problem is and the urgency of it. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher, our Helper, and our Voice when we are too emotional or maybe too sick or hurt to pray for our problem. That is why Jesus asked the Father to send Him and when you become a Christian, He comes to live in your heart.

When Jesus was baptized by His cousin, John, all three Persons of the Godhead were there. Jesus was there in His humanity, God spoke to those who could hear and the Holy Spirit came and stayed on Jesus in the form of a dove. So truly we do have “God with us” every day that we live after we become a Christian. I pray that whoever reads this will seek to learn about Jesus and His message, seek Him as your Savior and then live every day as if you are walking by His side because once you have accepted Him as your Savior there is a part of Him living within you from that day forward.

How much and how far…

God has lots of patience with us because He has been waiting for nearly two thousand years. So how much more time do you think we have before His patience wears down or until the last person on His list is saved? How far will He allow us to go with our rebellion and the majority of people on Earth rejecting Jesus as their Savior?

These are questions which I can’t answer and neither can you. Jesus told His disciples that when that time comes the world will resemble the world just before the flood which Noah survived in the Ark. Are we there yet? Well, millions of children are killed each day in abortions all over the world, not just here in America. The number of children killed in America only amounts to maybe 850,000 or so every year. That is not an exact number but it is a number which should bother people but most will fight you for their right to kill their “fetus”.

Today we have so many terrorist groups, home-grown I might add, which are doing much the same as those on 9/11 did except not with airplanes. Abraham Lincoln said that our country would tear itself apart from the inside out one day because we wouldn’t be attacked from outside our borders. We have been attacked from outside our borders but it seems that the attacks which do the most harm are those from within.

None of this is outside of God’s notice because He sees and hears every word and every deed done on Earth. One day we will pay the price for our pride and arrogance. I just pray that many more who read this may find their way to a church or to a bookstore and pick up a copy of God’s Word. Read it and pray that you will be forgiven in Jesus’ name because when the time comes it will be sudden and without warning. Those who are ready to meet Him in the air will go and those who are not will be left here to endure the wrath of Satan and the wrath of Almighty God.

For Biblical proof of what is coming and some of what is happening today, read Matthew 24 and all of the book of Revelation. Then pray that you won’t have to endure those dangerous times.

God is…

Our Creator…the Creator of everything. The Savior of all who will believe. Our God Who sees us as we are and loved us even before we were born. The Father of Jesus the Christ and the Lamb of God Who gave His life as a ransom for ALL of our sins. The One Who named the stars and placed them in their places. He is All knowing and all powerful. The One Who was and is and is to come. He is the One Who defends the helpless and heals those who are blind or deaf or paralyzed. He can soften a heart grown cold from abuse and neglect and make it to hope in the future and see His great love for them. He loves each of us, whether we believe in Him or not, just because He is God. He doesn’t have to have a reason or an excuse to do everything that He does because He is Life, Love, Perfection, Time and everything that is good and holy in the universe.

Since God is all of these things and more and yet He is holy and pure…how could you believe that you or I could stand in His Presence one day and even consider that we are worthy to be allowed into Heaven? We were in His thoughts before the Earth was formed and the moon was hung in its place. He thought of each of us before He hung the stars or our Sun in its place. So how could we be holy and blameless before Him unless we give our lives to learning from His Word and living our daily lives by striving to be more like Jesus? The answer is simple…we can’t! There is nothing that any of us can offer to God or live by on our own that will qualify us to be granted access to Heaven.

Only by believing in Jesus as our Savior can we be in God’s Presence because we loved Jesus more than our own life. I pray that all who read this post will seek to be saved by belief in Jesus as your Savior because the day is coming soon. Don’t be left behind when the church, the Body of Christ, meaning all believers are taken up to be with Him.

Every life matters!

Life matters regardless of skin color or ethnicity

God created all life on our world and He created the different shades of color found in humanity as well as all of the variety of life and colors found in nature. So…why can’t we look beyond our skin color? It has been over fifty years since Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered by a white supremacist and yet those on both sides of this tragedy still haven’t moved beyond the same anger and frustration fifty years later.

Life does matter and it doesn’t matter if it is a black life or a white life or any other skin tone, in God’s eyes ALL of life matters. So why can’t we realize this and find something in common and work from there? I do realize that there are many things that the white “race” has done in the past and in many ways are still agreeing with even today. Even though today we don’t vocalize it for the most part. Our crime of being racist is shown in how we react to the situation that we may find ourselves in. We may think that we aren’t showing a racist attitude toward anyone but our body language and our eyes show something else entirely, even though we may not even realize that we do these things unconsciously.

Is there a way to end the violence and the hatred in this world which has been sparked into a raging fire? I don’t know that we can find one without Jesus coming back and ruling our world. I don’t really believe that we have the ability to place our emotions and our prejudices aside in order to bring lasting peace into our world and keep it that way. Now, I’m not pointing a finger at any government or any other movement in the world. Black lives do matter but so do the police and fire service men and women. The EMT’s lives matter, who try to help those who are injured or shot in any confrontation. The doctors and nurses lives matter because regardless of color or “race” they do their best to put people back together who have been hurt regardless of the circumstances.

Yes, in the past people have treated other people differently because of their skin color or their station in life even, but that doesn’t give you or me the right to go into the street and burn down small businesses and homes and threaten people with harm for no reason other than the color of their skin! When you are doing that you are no different than the ones who did this to your ancestors many years ago. We are living in the twenty-first century but many people are acting as if they are still in the 19^th century. If things keep going in that direction and someone sets an EMP off one day we will be back in the 19^th century in the area that it affected.

God never intended for us to live like this or act in this way toward each other but we are doing it. Satan is the one who hates us and it has nothing to do with your skin color at all. Satan hates us because we were created in God’s Image. It is Satan’s coaxing and prodding which is pushing this movement to be as violent as it is and he doesn’t care if we kill off a few thousand or more because that is fewer than he will have to deal with later. God loves each of us and all of our unique abilities and our outlook on life. Seek to please God and walk with Him in this world so that you can be victorious against Satan and his influence over a world that seems to be crumbling around us.

We are a part of God’s creation whether we like it or not, whether we believe in Him or not, but that doesn’t change the fact that murder is wrong in every instance and it doesn’t matter if the one murdered is old or young, a cop or one of the crowd. Even suicide is wrong in God’s eyes because you are killing yourself and you are also created in God’s Image. He loves each of us and we should try to reflect some of His love back into the world and make it better than it was before…not worse.

Racism or ?

Racism-the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

I have said this before and I am emphasizing it again. God created the human race and we descended from a man and a woman that God created. We did not evolve from apes. God didn’t even use apes as the idea for us because He said, “Let us make mankind in our image”. We are created in His image and we still carry His image inside us.

So….what causes racism? It could be many things but the most likely culprit is in your own family. We see how our grandparents and our parents treat people who have darker skin than we do so the treatment or the thoughts toward those with darker skin are taught and handed down over the generations. It has become ingrained in our white culture just as other behaviors are in other cultures.

Is it hard for white people to talk about racism? Yes, it is. Particularly when some of us have worked with people of color, regardless of the color and yet those of us who are “white” are called crackers, and honky by some outside our friends at work. Why? What did I ever do to deserve such names? Have I been disrespectful to you or someone in your family? My family never owned any slaves. But to hear the “news” today you would think that every white person has been a part of the slave trade from 200 years ago.

The earliest ancestor of mine came over on a ship from England as a servant to someone who could afford a servant. So…what does that make me? I am a descendant of a slave or servant as well, even though my skin is white. God doesn’t agree with slavery or the idea of it but the Bible was used in a very evil way to justify slavery.

Jesus didn’t come to save you based on your skin color because He created all of the shades of color which adorns our human race. Each has its advantages and disadvantages but not in the way that the news media tries to spin it these days. God created us in the way that would be the most beneficial for us to be His disciples so that we could take His message of love to those that we are known by and to some who may not know us at all.

Each of us has a talent or ability which may make an impression on someone outside our comfort zone. Hopefully it will bring them to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord. I pray that our ideas of race and racism will be put behind us one day and one day in His Kingdom it will be. We just have to get there first. Lord, come quickly.

Children are not born racist, they learn this from others.

Does God care for us?

There is so much evidence for His love for mankind until I would imagine that it hurts His heart when someone asks this. He loved us enough that He created Earth for us. He placed it at the right distance from our Sun so that it isn’t too hot or too cold. He put the right mixture of gases in our atmosphere so that plants and animals of all kinds could grow along with us. Our planet has an abundance of water and the right nutrients in it for all of the life in the oceans and rivers.

God also sent Jesus to pay the penalty of our sin debt so that we could live into eternity with Him one day if we will place our faith in Jesus for our salvation. That is the one gift which we have that no other part of creation has or can understand…the gift of God’s love and His atonement for our sins through His Son, Jesus. This gift from God is by no amount of worth on our part. We cannot earn it nor can we purchase it in any way other than our deep belief in Jesus as our Savior. That is the easiest purchase that we can ever make because we don’t have to spend anything for it. Just believe in Jesus for your salvation and ask Him for your forgiveness of your sinful life before you knew that you needed Him.

God calls us to come to Him through His grace and He gives us enough faith to believe and repent in order to be saved. It has nothing to do with your idea of being saved or your decision of going to church to be saved. When His Holy Spirit convicts your heart of your need of Him, you will respond one way or the other. Choose the right way and trust in Jesus for your salvation. Time is growing short and when He comes for His church you do want to be in the number of those called home to Heaven.

Worry doesn’t help…

Do Not Worry

(Luke 12:22-34)

25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34Take, therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:25-34

Why do we worry about stuff today? We see so much violence and hatred on the news and it causes us to worry about our lives and our children. But…why should we worry? God has the world in His hands and He is in control. Our worry and being anxious doesn’t change anything and we can’t make a significant dent in any of the so-called “news” stories on our own. So, hand your cares over to God and lean on Him for your comfort.

God has told us through Jesus Christ during His ministry that worrying about tomorrow won’t change anything. We should handle what is going on in our day, today because tomorrow isn’t here yet. Your life and mine can only exist in today’s time. Yesterday is over with and tomorrow hasn’t come yet. I know we are all anxious because of this disease which suddenly came upon the world and the economic downturn which happened because of it. Now we have hate and bigotry in the streets which is being shown on the news daily and that has added to our anxiety.

We are living in the last days before the Tribulation begins. How soon that will come about no one knows except God Himself and we will find out when He says for the angels to come and get His bride. You can decide to believe His Word or not but since He doesn’t lie then I believe Him. The thing which we have to remember is that we can’t do anything to bring it on sooner or to influence the outcome in any meaningful way. God is in control and no matter what we do, He will accomplish what He has determined to do.

The only useful thing that any of us, as believers, can do is to study His Word and pray that everything goes according to His plan. Of course, it always works according to His plan because He is God! Thinking about some crazy terrorist or some “alien” encounter which might upset God’s plan is not productive because He knows about them and He will use them, regardless of who “them” is.

Be useful to God’s Kingdom so that He will find you working for Him when He comes. Then you may hear those words, “Well done my good and faithful servant, come into your inheritance and the joy of your Lord.”

That is my reward, I hope, and maybe yours too. Seek to please Him more than men because in eternity it is God’s favor that you should seek through the blood of Jesus.

Your strength comes by faith

In Isaiah 41:8-10 it is written: 8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. 10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness

This promise was given to the people of Israel during a time when they were persecuted and today Christians are persecuted because our faith in Jesus is mocked and ordered to be silent. In truth, we should not be silent because Jesus would not be silent about the atrocities and the killing which is happening because of a group of people who are angry and upset. The reason for their anger is a righteous one true enough but the looting and killing and burning will not help the situation and it will likely make it worse in the long run.

Jesus did not like the Roman occupation of His country and the killing of His people during His day but God had placed them over Israel as a test and as a way to bring them to a point of wanting a Messiah. The problem at the time was that they were looking for a leader and a king like David and Jesus didn’t come into the world to overthrow a government that was put there by God’s hand.

Every President and Prime Minister are placed in power by God’s hand in order to bring about some part of God’s plan. We may not know which part, but the reason will be shown to us at some point one day.

Jesus came into the world in order to bring the good news of His gospel to all men. That is exactly what He did during the time with His disciples. When some of those who followed Him wanted to make Him the King, He removed Himself from them so that they couldn’t force that decision on Him. In Romans 13:1 it says: 1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

God places all rulers, whether they are Kings or Presidents, in their offices for a purpose that only He knows. Sometimes we agree with His choice and sometimes we don’t but we are to follow them and be subject to them while God has them in power. God gives each of us the strength to do the work that He has given each of us to do. We must rely on Him for this strength and wisdom to carry us through each day and every day. We can’t decide to follow Him on one day and then turn away from Him the very next day or until we feel we can’t handle whatever we are facing that day.

Following Jesus and God’s wisdom and listening to them every day is a practice that we have to get up and determine that we will do this today and then do it again tomorrow and the next day until it becomes as natural as breathing. God loves each of us and will not keep back any blessing for those who are following Him in this life but in order to “take up your cross”, you must decide to do it every day. It isn’t something that can be taught in Sunday school, it must be learned by doing it until it is something that you don’t think about you just do it. The strength to do this comes from Him through your faith in Him. It is not something that you get from a sermon but you do get it by reading and studying His Word daily.

He is with you!

In John 14:16 the apostle affirms this promise: 16 And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.

The Comforter which Jesus was speaking of is the Holy Spirit which all believers have living within them to teach them and guide them in their service to God. It is only by His strength that we can fulfill the position of a believer in His Kingdom. We can’t do it in our own strength but with the Spirit of Truth living within our hearts we can!

The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity which makes up God Himself so we have a small portion of God living within us when we become believers. Some of us don’t live as if we have Him living within us and it is to those who think they have something that they don’t have that this is being written. I am not trying to judge your heart because only God can do that but I am trying to spare you from a fate which will come upon many on the day of judgment.

Those of us who live in America have been blessed immeasurably by God just to be where we are. But our place of birth has also lead many to think that they are saved from hell just because of a family tradition or a prayer whispered when they were young and never considered again. We live in a culture that claims to believe in God and many do but so does the Devil himself! That is what is so damning for many of us. Culturally we believe that we are Christians because we have been brought up in the church. We have attended Sunday school and Bible school and may have attended church services on a regular basis.

But attendance doesn’t make you a Christian. Belief in God doesn’t make you a Christian. Knowing some scriptures and even attending revivals doesn’t make you a Christian. It is your heartbroken conviction that brings you to the cross and to the place where you know that you NEED Jesus as your Savior and you ask Him to come into your life and change your heart so that you can be a Christian.

Satan knows that Jesus is the Son of God and so do all of the demons in hell but they won’t serve Him. Knowledge of Him and attendance in church doesn’t make you a Christian. In the past one hundred years, our country has heard and seen many evangelists who brought the message of salvation to radio and television many times but superficial knowledge of God or Jesus doesn’t change your life. Even owning and occasionally reading a Bible at home doesn’t make you a Christian. It is the conviction of your heart that brings you to Jesus, asking to be made into a new creation, forever changed into a Christian

I pray that all who will read this will give their hearts to Jesus and ask Him to make them into His true disciples so that others may hear from your point of view how Jesus changed your life.

The pathway is narrow

The Narrow Gate

(Luke 13:22-30)

13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Our pathway is very long and narrow but with Jesus as our guide we can make it. One day at a time, keeping prayer on our lips and our eyes on Jesus as we travel this road. Why is the pathway narrow? Because it is not an easy path to walk. There are trials and temptations and problems which come into every person’s life and it is by faith alone that we can endure until the end. Because when the end arrives and the Trumpet sounds we shall be taken home. Then the whole world will know that the Christians and the Jews were right to believe in their Holy Book and in the God Who inspired the writings in it.

Many who have heard sermons from God’s Word will know what is happening or what is about to happen but since the church, the body of true believers, has been taken away that is the only sign which will confirm it. There will be many who won’t believe it or possibly just brushed the revelation of it away as a fairy tale.

You would be wise to seek to know Jesus now, today. Because once the church is gone the riots and the collapse of governments will bring much chaos. Even more than is happening today. The pathway is narrow because it takes diligence and patience and faith to keep your feet on the path. The easy road has always been there and it has lured many people to believe that they are following the right way when in fact they are headed for hell.

Doing good works or being a good person is a wonderful accomplishment but those actions won’t save your soul. Only belief in Jesus as your Savior can do that. Some think that a socialist society and government would be better for our world today. But if everyone is getting paid by the government where does the money come from to pay each person a wage? Free healthcare and education are wonderful goals but again where does the money come from to pay for those?

Your life, your soul is worth more than the world to God and He loves you. I pray that anyone reading this will seek to find Jesus as your Savior. The church age is coming to a close. I don’t know when it will happen but it will because it is foretold in the Bible and God cannot lie. Seek Him as your Savior and tell others about Him while you can. I don’t believe there is much time left before this happens. Be watchful, read the books of Daniel and Ezekiel and Revelation and pray about what you are reading. Ask God to give you the wisdom to understand the prophecies contained within them. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He convicts you of your sins and repent and ask Jesus to cleanse your heart.