Are you searching?

I’ve noticed that many people do seem to be searching for the Reason for Life. Who is the Author of Life? Jesus Christ! He is the Creator and a part of the Triune Godhead along with the Holy Spirit and God the Father. How can I say that many people are searching for something or Someone? Because of the number of people who have visited my little website which God led me to write years ago. Also, because of a search for Bibles on Amazon or any other retail location on the web. Many editions, regardless of translation, are in short supply.

The Holy Spirit is moving in our world today drawing as many people as He can to come to know Jesus as their Savior. The only real way to do this is from reading God’s Word or by attending a Bible teaching church or website. Learn about Jesus and seek to know Him as your personal Savior because He will be that and more. Don’t turn away from Him, especially if you are at the end of your life and you feel God touching your heart. If it is because of age or by reason of some disease which is bringing you to this point, don’t let your life end without Jesus being your Savior. Asking Him to forgive you and make you a child of God is the easiest decision you can make and it is the one which will impact your life far more than you will know on this side of heaven.

We truly are living on the edge of Revelation and if you have ever read this book, the problems which are described in the first few chapters sound exactly like the news broadcasts today. Life is not going to get easier from this point forward, in fact its going to get worse. Because the intolerance of the rest of the world against Christians and their so-called “intolerant” religion is ramping up in intensity and approaching dangerous levels of persecution. In some countries Christians are being hunted down and killed just because of their beliefs and for no other reason. We are being targeted in America because of our “intolerance” but the same thing could be said of their opinion and intolerance too. We are preaching the truth of God from His Word but nobody wants to hear it.

I pray that anyone who reads this post, regardless of the country you live in, seek out a Christian if you can. Ask them about their Savior and pray that your heart will be changed by Him so that your eternity will be with Him in Heaven. The alternative for eternity is unthinkable. Because, whether you believe the Bible and its Word about Heaven and Hell or not. now is the time to make the decision which will impact your eternity and that is a lot longer than your life here.

God is GOOD!

Psalm 34

Taste and See That the LORD Is Good

A Psalm Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the LORD;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9 Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!
10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

11 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

How can we come to the Father?

John chapter 14 verse 6. ”Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father, but by me.’‘ This verse tells a lot in a little space. Truly, it tells about the way to be saved through Jesus and by belief in Him. It also tells about the way to come to the Father, God Himself, through Jesus in prayer. Because without faith in Jesus your prayers just don’t cut it. A sinner can pray and ask Jesus to forgive him of his sins and repent, turning from his ways to become a new person in Christ. But, your prayers don’t go very far if you are not a believer except of the one prayer which brings salvation into your life.

There is a hymn which has a line in it which goes like this, “O, come to the Father through Jesus the Son and give Him the glory, great things He has done”. We cannot truly come to the Father with our problems and our petitions unless we come through Jesus first. Life as a Christian is a walk with Jesus, did you know that? You can’t do one without the other. You can’t be a Christian without the Christ in your life. It is just that simple.

But, people do try to be things which they aren’t all of the time. Our so-called “politicians” have been practicing their lies for so long until they actually believe they are telling us the truth about the good that they are doing. But when you look at the state of the world today, you can see clearly that they haven’t been doing a very good job of what they say.

Jesus is the Son of God and therefore is our Savior but He is so much more than that! John says in chapter one that He is the Word made flesh. He is the I AM. He is the Creator and the Son, the second of the Trinity. He laid His divine life down to take up the flesh of humanity to live and be tempted and tried just as we are so that He could pay the penalty for our sinful nature. No other creature or person could do this except Jesus and He was destined for this from the very beginning of Creation. The only way for a sinner to approach God’s throne is by Jesus and through Him only. He had to pay the penalty for your sin, which was death, so that you and I can have eternal life through Him.

It sounds pretty harsh for God to put His Son through this but He knew that there was no other way for fallen man, to be justified and sanctified except through faith in Jesus and by His blood we are redeemed. The sins of mankind were placed upon Jesus so that He could endure the wrath of God in our place because without Jesus we would be destroyed as a consequence of His wrath. You cannot come to the Father except through the Son, Jesus.

We can quit some of our sinful ways on our own, sometimes, but that doesn’t bring us into a right relationship with God and we aren’t sanctified unless it is by the blood of Jesus which we have asked for when we seek Him as our Savior. When His blood is sprinkled over our sins, they are washed away. Yet, we can’t live our lives as if we can get washed this week and then go get dirty in sin again. If you are doing this, then your heart and your life hasn’t changed at all. Your “salvation” is just words and nothing more. Living as a sinner but claiming to know Jesus as your Savior is normal because we are all hypocrites. None of us is capable of living a sinless life, even after we have given our hearts to Jesus.

We can only come to the throne of grace by having Jesus as our covering and our Savior. Without Him, we are dust. As Isaiah wrote, “we are as filthy rags in God’s sight”. Our “righteousness” is nothing without Jesus and anything that we do in service to Him and for His Kingdom means nothing unless we have the Savior as our righteousness and not our own.

What do you believe?

From Acts chapter 16 starting at verse 29:

29 Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. 33 At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds. And without delay, he and all his household were baptized. 34 Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them. So he and all his household rejoiced that they had come to believe in God.

It is our belief in Jesus and what He did for us, all of us, that brings salvation to us. It has nothing to do with our gifts or our abilities or even the church that we may belong to. Your salvation and mine depend only on the work which Jesus did on the cross and by His resurrection from the grave! Anything which we attempt to add to His complete work for our salvation is covered in pride and it does nothing to elevate us in the eyes of God.

Believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God and you will be saved. Repent of your sinful life and its ways and follow Him until that day when you go to be with Him. Because He was raised from death to Life then we have the Hope of eternity as well through Him.

My God is able!

Have you ever doubted that He would do something, anything for you when you pray? If you did doubt Him or His ability to accomplish what you were asking Him for…why should He do it? Doubt is the seed which Satan sows in your mind toward God’s power so that when we are in need and we ask for God’s help, we still doubt if He will do the thing which we asked for. Do you understand what that looks and sounds like from God’s perspective? It goes something like this: “I know that you will supply all of my needs but…”; “I know that you said that you would heal me by His stripes but…”.

Do you see a pattern forming here? There is a “but” getting in the way and it is caused by your doubt towards God and His power. You really don’t believe that He will give you this or heal you of that or even provide for you in your time of need. You say it with your mouth and you may believe it with your head but it isn’t deep down in your soul belief! It isn’t unwavering belief which is shaken but not torn down by the winds of doubt and fear. God is able to do ALL things which we can ask or imagine, if it is His will for us and our ministry to give Him glory!

There is no power on Earth which can stop God from giving you that which will accomplish His work in you and through you but you have to believe in Him and in His ability to do what He said and that He will answer your prayer. Will it be the answer you want? Maybe, but if it isn’t then God may have something better planned for you, He just hasn’t showed it to you yet. God loves each of us and He is able to do all of the things which the Bible says that He can do, the promises and healings and the blessings. But, when you doubt Him you are telling Him that you don’t think or believe that He will do those things. Maybe not in words but God knows your thoughts and your heart so there is nothing hidden from Him.

Trust Him and believe that He can and will do the things which you ask IF it lines up with His purpose and His will for your life. Trust in God and His purposes for your life and put that faith to work for Him and through Him you will be blessed. Amen

Use the gifts given so that more will be added to your life.

What we hear isn’t true all of the time

On the news and on Facebook and other media outlets there are many so-called “news” stories which are true but there are also many which are fabricated to inflame emotions and add to the fear in our world. God is still in control regardless of what you hear on television. He allows things to happen not so much to punish people but to try to get them to open their eyes and see with their Spirit. Each of us has a spiritual person inside of us but they are not fully realized until we accept Jesus as our Savior. It is only at this point that our Spirit begins to grow and mature. God’s Word, the Bible, is the only nourishment which can give us the strength to get through our life with any certainty.

Yet, in many countries and in our own nation, schools can’t teach from the Bible. In some schools it isn’t even allowed in or on the school grounds. Why do people fear this book so much? Because it is the absolute Truth and it came from God Himself, the Creator of all things! Those who hate this Book know it and where it came from, even Satan himself knows Scripture and he fears it as well. He will quote it to you, but he will twist it into something that isn’t exactly like God said it just as he did in the Garden of Eden.

Some people are asking why preachers don’t preach on hell and the consequences of sin any more. The real reason is fear. They don’t want people to be scared away from their church. It looks bad when people begin to leave. The actual problem is that people don’t really want to hear that there are consequences for their sins. They want to hear that they will go to heaven anyway. The Holy Spirit told Timothy through the apostle Paul that people would be this way close to the end of the age. “They will seek out teachers who will tickle their ears“; the people don’t want to listen to the sound doctrine which was given to us by the Holy Spirit through those who wrote down His Word.

In our world, people prepare (at least some do) for their retirement but there are very few who are preparing for their eternity. Most don’t even seem to think that there is an eternity waiting for them on the other side of death. There is and you need to prepare for it now because there are no second chances. If you choose not to believe in Jesus and not to believe in God and His Word then you have chosen to be in eternity with Satan because no choice is a choice. Seek out Jesus and His doctrine and His Wisdom through the books of John and Romans because it is in these two books that all of the gospel is contained and explained. God doesn’t want anyone to perish in hell because it was created to punish Satan and his followers but if you choose to not believe in Jesus for your salvation then you have chosen to be with the demons in hell. Consider an eternity with once angelic beings who hate you because you were created with the image of God.

The end of the age

Living at the end of the age

I always wondered what it would be like to live during the last decade or so before Christ’s millennial reign begins. Why do I place that time limit on this age? Because, I don’t believe our world and its system has much more time than that. This is just my opinion, so don’t get the idea that there is some time-table for this because only God knows when the day and the hour is.

For some in the world, whether they are Christians or not, life at this time is not a very enjoyable prospect. There are wars and uprisings and hatred toward those who believe in Jesus, even if they aren’t actively telling people about their Savior. Just the knowledge that there is a “Christ-follower” or a “Jesus follower” in a village is enough to bring persecution to their families. In America, the hatred and resentment toward those who believe in Jesus as their Savior is building and it is getting worse. It hasn’t gotten to the point of our government locking up people or stopping us from worshiping but the threat is implied. It is very likely that before the next six years or so is past, there will be some limits placed on religious freedom, especially of the Christian faith.

Why the persecution of the Christian faith? Because of the truth which is God’s Word, the Bible, which is our guidebook for life. God gave it to us through those apostles and prophets which His Spirit moved to write His wisdom and His words down for everyone to learn from and live by. It is not a book of “man-made” wisdom and knowledge because there is a complete story and purpose which each book points to from the beginning in Genesis all the way through the book of Revelation. This fact alone proves that it is an Holy Spirit inspired book because it was written over a period of 1500 years by over forty different writers. Without the Holy Spirit’s involvement, the story would’ve been lost, the outcome and the prophecies would not make sense.

Abraham, one of the main characters in the Genesis book of the Bible, is the father of two different people and two different faiths as well. Judaism and Islam. Christianity is also the outcome of the prophesied Messiah of the Jewish faith Who came to “take away the sins of the world”, but the entire Bible points toward His coming and His message and His crucifixion and His resurrection. There is no possible way that forty different writers over 1500 years could’ve made up stories which were perfectly synchronized in order to prophesy His coming and His crucifixion even before it was a form of execution. God could see all of these things from His point of view outside of time and He knew when and where and even who to use at certain points in time so His purposes would be done in the way that He wanted them done.

God is Sovereign and rules the universe and it is His purposes which will prevail regardless of what mankind wants or doesn’t want to believe. One day soon, the whole world will see that He is the Savior and King because He is coming back. When that happens there will be no doubt about Who Jesus is or that He is real but there will be many in the world who don’t know Him because they chose to reject Him as their Savior. Then it will be too late to change your mind, especially if you have taken the mark of the Beast during those last seven years when God’s wrath has been poured out on those who would not believe.

Make sure of your salvation while there is still time to do so. Seek Jesus through reading the Bible, specifically the books of John and Romans because they both give good examples of His life, His death and His resurrection and also His love toward mankind so that you can know Him and He will know you too.

Are we supposed to be holy?

The Bible says that we are supposed to be holy because God is holy. So what is the definition of the word “holy”? It is this: dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred. In another way of saying this, we are supposed to be set apart from the world and its ways but we should try to teach those around us about His ways. If not by our words then by our life and our actions. Being a Christian is supposed to be exactly that…holy and set apart to do the work of God while we can. So why aren’t many who profess to be Christians acting like Christ?

It is a good question to ask but I’m afraid the answer would be too laborious and it would require too many specifics. Why do I say this? Because there are many who profess Christ but they don’t possess Christ. Their Christianity is only genuine to them because they believe in Christ and they attend church occasionally but He hasn’t made a change in their lives because He was never invited in. They are a believer just as well as Satan is. He knows Who Jesus is and he knows that He exists but he chooses not to serve God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit in any way.

Knowledge of Jesus and God is a good thing but if you haven’t given your life and your heart to them so that you are changed by them, then your knowledge does your eternal life no good at all.

If you belong to Christ and He belongs to you, then your life will reflect Him and His character far more than it will reflect your ideas and your ways. If others can’t see Jesus in what you do and say, then it is possible that He doesn’t live in your heart just in your mind.

Are any of us really OK?

There are so many things wrong with our world today. The stock market is up and down, the debts which our country owes are coming down but not fast enough, the debt which many of us owe to credit companies is out of this world. Are we really doing OK? In many ways, we really aren’t doing very well at all! The debts that we owe on money we don’t really have are only the beginning of our trouble. Then there are the sin debts which many of us still carry around with us, even though they have been forgiven or at least paid for through the blood of Jesus. Whether you or I have accepted His gift of forgiveness or not is up to us and many people still refuse it.

We go through life as if we are guaranteed a certain number of years and even though the Bible does say that we are allotted three score and ten (70 years) or possibly four score (80 years, by our strength), these are not guaranteed! We come within two feet of dying every time we get on the highway, regardless of which city or state you live in! We pass each other going at least seventy-five miles per hour and we are usually as close as 24 inches when we do pass each other. That doesn’t even count for early morning and late day rush hours! At those times, we are usually so close to each other until we could hand a cup of coffee off to one person and it wouldn’t hit the ground for two miles or more. We are truly blessed just to get home without any scrapes or paint missing from our cars or trucks!

Most of the time we don’t even think about these close calls we have that we somehow survived. We just look at it as if it were ordained that we would get home each and every time we go out on the road. The only real guarantees in this world are death and taxes. So why do we live as if nothing can ever or will ever go wrong? We do it when we are young, in our teens and twenties, and we continue to do it until we finally wise up and look around and some of your friends are dying before you. Some of them because of cancer or a heart attack, some of them because of a car wreck or even being robbed or shot while being robbed for something that someone else wants that you have. Are we OK?

It is a good question which really doesn’t have a great answer. Some of us are cruising along and doing pretty well, some of us are dealing with pains and other ailments and some of us are just waiting to die. Then there are some who just don’t care one way or the other, as long as they are doing pretty well they don’t really care what is happening to the rest of the world. There are even a few who can’t forget wrongs which were done, intentionally or not, many years ago. So, how do we get to a point of seeking the One Who can bring us out of this place where we find ourselves?

First, by listening to your conscience and the leading that you get from the Holy Spirit, whether we call it that or not. When you feel led to seek out God and truly find the answer to the problems which plagues mankind, then you will find His Peace through Jesus the Christ, your Savior. There are many times when we feel Him leading us toward a better idea or to search for Something or Someone that we don’t know or don’t have a relationship with but until we find that One, there is an empty place which can’t be filled with anything that we try on our own. That is the place where Jesus belongs and that is why anything other than Him just doesn’t satisfy and it doesn’t feel right until we surrender to His calling and ask Him to come in and fill that space.

Being just “OK” is not what we were made for and God never intended for us to be satisfied with that. God calls to your heart through the Holy Spirit and it is up to you to answer His call for your life. It is your decision to give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to change your life into the life which you were meant to live! If you feel that pull, that call on your life and you ignore it and keep ignoring it then one day you may never feel that pull on your life again. You will wonder what happened for a little while but you will continue on with your life as if nothing happened and in fact, that is what happened. Nothing. Don’t live your life for nothing, live it for Jesus and tell others what He has done and is doing in your life because nothing is scary when it is all that there is for eternity.

Are you prepared for what’s next?

We tend to think of this life as being the end, at least when you get to the end. Some of us know better though. Life, regardless of whether you believe in Jesus as your Savior or not, does not end when you die. There is a place where you will spend eternity. Whether it is an enjoyable eternity or one of punishment for wrong decisions is YOUR choice. I hear many people say that “A loving God would not send people to hell for eternity!”; in fact, you are right…our God loves each person on this Earth and He would rather not condemn people to hell. It was made specifically for the punishment of Satan and his fallen angels because of their rebellion and their role in leading mankind away from God.

The problem is that there are many people in the world who either don’t want to believe in God as their Savior through Jesus the Christ or they are serving a false religion or a false god. When you are in this group of people then you are in the same “camp” as Satan and his demons are. You are living in rebellion against God’s law and His grace. He has extended His grace to each of us but it is still our choice which determines our salvation or not. If you have felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit and then refused to give your heart and your life to Jesus, God won’t turn away from you. But, if you keep turning away from Him then one day you may not feel the conviction of the Spirit again even if you are at a revival or a church service. When that happens, God has turned you over to your own beliefs.

Sometimes it may not take that long. You may feel the conviction and turn away and your life may end before you ever feel it again. Then you will be standing in front of God at your judgement day. When your life ends here, you will stand in front of Him to be judged on your choices in this life and it will be those choices which send you to hell, not the God Who loves you. It is your choice in this life about Who your Savior is which determines your eternal destination. Make sure that you make the right choice before you come to the end of your life.