Category: Believe in the One Who saves

What are you worth?


In our economy of excess people are judged to be wealthy when they have lots of land or cattle and/or a thriving business. Many are looked on as well off when they don’t have any bills or their debts are paid on time. But…this is the world’s way of looking at wealth. While these may give you freedom and peace of mind and it certainly would in this life, what kind of treasure (wealth) have you laid up in Heaven for eternity?

Your “net worth” in this life is only important to those in your family, as long as you have your priorities in the right order. But if you are chasing wealth on Earth to the exclusion of your life with your family, what are you really doing? In reality you are throwing away much of your wealth while chasing after stuff which is temporary and only worth something here and now.

While it is true that income or wealth does help us in this life with our bills and our needs, many look at it as if it solves far more than it really does. Truly, it tends to bring more “friends” into our life than we would normally have. But just as the prodigal son found out, when the money is gone so are those “friends”. Life is full of trials and tribulations both good and bad but when your wealth is anchored in Jesus and in His Kingdom this life and its trouble cannot take your joy from you. Many things could be taken from you such as your car or your job but the rewards of your life of service to God cannot be taken from you.

He is your strength and your shield. He is your buckler and your sword. He provides all that you need to serve Him until that day that you are called home to your eternal reward in His house. Seek Him and pray about your own life and the lives of those closest to you so when that day comes which comes to us all at the end, He will welcome you home to a place that cannot be taken from you.

God knows you so get to know Him.

We have time….


This is the LIE that Satan wants everyone to believe! Even though Jesus may not come back for a few years, we don’t have time to waste. We are not guaranteed any time at all. Today could be your last day or mine. Tomorrow may be the day that you stand before God’s throne. Death comes to each of us when God determines that it is our time. So…we don’t have time to waste, especially if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus as your Savior and repented of your sins.

Have you arranged your eternal life with Jesus? If you haven’t then you need to be working on it. Read God’s Word, especially the books of John and Romans, then seek Jesus in earnest prayer and humility. Read those two books twice or three times if you have to but make sure that you have come to a point that you know you need Jesus as your Savior and then ask Him to come into your heart and save you from an eternity in Hell. God hears a humble and sincere prayer for salvation and I don’t believe that He would turn you away if you are truly sincere in your search and your request for forgiveness.

My Hope is in God!


There is nothing more hopeful than a child and having a child is the purest form of faith that God will make a way where there seems to be no way. God gives us children because He wants to bless us with hope and the faith to see their life come to pass. Sometimes they aren’t with us for very long but we learn of God through their innocence and their outlook regardless of the circumstances they may live in.

No matter their living conditions, most children do try to make the best out of good or bad situations. They can teach us adults a thing or two about life and living it because they don’t have the baggage that most of us have. Adults have bills and car payments and house payments and medical bills and more bills, children don’t have any of that. I envy them sometimes.

Yet, God expects each of us to grow as people and as Christians. When you give your heart and your life to Jesus, you are very much like this little child. You are a brand new Christian and a babe in Christ. You don’t know much about the Bible or His Word but you know that your Savior is God’s Son and for now…that is enough. But when trouble comes along, what then? Prayer and getting into the Psalms is the best place for you and we should be telling others about this resource, the Bible. It is truly God’s love letter to humanity because it speaks of Jesus from the very beginning to the end.

Be thankful and grateful today


For every blessing that you have. From the little patter of little toes and feet, to the food on your table…be thankful. Be grateful for all of the blessings which you have in your life every day. Because some may not be here next year and for some of us there may be one more to be thankful for. Life is full of blessings that we should be thankful for. Some of them have two legs and some have four. Some of them crawl or laugh and giggle all day. Some of them bark or meow when it is time for food and some just sit down and wait for the table to be fixed.

Every part of your life is a blessing so be thankful for it regardless of how bad or good your day may have been today. Be grateful for your Savior and to God for your life today and every day that you wake up because it is by their power and blessing that you live and breathe.

What have you given to God lately?


Many of us seem to think it isn’t necessary to give God anything. We don’t want to give Him our time on Sunday and He doesn’t need our money. Many of us don’t even want Him in our life or our hearts. So why do so many people who feel this way claim to be Christians? Is it because they know Who He is but they don’t want to know Him really? Are they afraid of Him? Possibly. In years past, God was pictured and preached as a vengeful God and a jealous God and He is both of those…to an extent. He is vengeful because He loves us not because He is going to punish us for something that we said or didn’t say. His vengeance is toward those who have wronged and persecuted His people, Israel. He will also avenge the church which grew in the past two thousand years because of the disciples preaching and because of the persecution which Christians still endure.

God is jealous, not like a lover or a husband, but because the “other” gods which mankind has created for himself are not gods at all. They are just figments of our imagination and our idea of how “god” should be. Humanity tends to try to squish God down into a more relatable god that we can understand. God cannot be put in a box or be made smaller so that we can relate to Him and feel comfortable with Him.

But we still say things like, “My god wouldn’t send anyone to hell.”. God doesn’t send anyone to hell either, that is your choice. God has made it possible for everyone to be saved but there are those who just won’t accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord. When you reject Him and turn your back on His offer of grace to be saved, then you have condemned yourself to hell and unless you accept Him before you die…that will be your eternity. Our spirit is immortal and we will be given a new body for eternity, one which cannot die unless we refuse God’s offer of grace. That is why hell is called the “second death”. There is no Life outside of God and that is where you will be if that is your choice.

God loves every person but He doesn’t like some of the things that they are doing with their lives. Just like parents, He loves His children but sometimes He isn’t happy with their choices in life but He does allow us those choices even if He doesn’t agree with them. Jesus came and paid the price for your sins regardless of their “size”, even though there aren’t really BIG sins or little sins, although the killing of children or babies would likely rank a little worse than a lie any day.

What does God want from each of us? Our love and our heart. Be thankful for His grace which has given you all of your talents and the blessings in your life. Be useful to His Kingdom and for His Kingdom because each of us who have been called to know Him were called because of our influence in someone’s life that He knows that you can reach better than anyone else.

God’s Word is real in our time


What in the world do you mean by “God’s Word is real….”? According to the apostle John, Jesus was and is the embodiment of God’s Word. He was alive and He is alive today. But…do you believe that He is the Son of God? If you don’t then your faith is too weak or you don’t have any to begin with. God is the One Who gives us faith to believe in Jesus for our salvation. We don’t just decide to become Christians, He has to touch our heart and draw us to Himself. Some people think that they can help God save them but we can’t. Everything that is needed has been done through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, your Messiah if you will believe in Him when you feel His call in your Spirit.

Some people think that they don’t have a “spirit” but if you are alive and reading this you do! God placed His spirit inside you to remind you of Him and to lead you to Him one day when He touches your life and you realize that you truly do need Him as your Savior. Now some people get really good at ignoring that “small voice” which speaks to them in their time of temptation and need and that is not a good thing. Ignoring the Spirit of God is much worse than ignoring a teacher or your Mom or Dad. Why? Because His call on your life can mean the difference between a living eternity or one which is called “the second death” because you will be separated from God forever. He is the giver and sustainer of Life and when you are sent to Hell because you chose to refuse His call then that is where you will spend eternity.

You don’t get sent to Hell because of a sin that you committed although refusing to listen to God’s voice could be a sinful and disobedient act on your part. You are sent to hell because it was your decision to live your life the way that you wanted and not the way God had planned for you. That is what caused the Fall of man in the Garden and every other sinful act since then. The root of all of these sins is pride. Pride in what you think and how you feel and how you act. Pride has caused many kingdoms to fail and many people to fail until they realize where that “pride” will take them.

I’m not saying that pride is bad though. Being proud of an accomplishment or of your child’s accomplishment in school or work is a good thing as long as the pride doesn’t go too far. When pride is misplaced in a person or their accomplishment and it grows out of proportion to what they have done, it becomes the doorway to many sins. God’s Word says that “pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall“, so listen to His Wisdom and not your own. Remember, He formed you in the womb and He knows what you are capable of doing, even better than you do or even better than your parents.

Tradition doesn’t save you!


It seems that there are so many people who love their church traditions, but they don’t want to give their hearts to Jesus. You either have Jesus in your heart or you don’t, and celebration of Communion without Him is a sin. Communion is not a bad thing but celebrating and taking part in it is only for those who are saved by His sacrifice for them.

God loves each of us but He looks at the traditions of men which are used as substitutions for Him and He is not pleased. No, tradition or the “good” things that you do in His name won’t save you from Hell. Only belief in Jesus and repenting of your sins can save you. So think about this during this holiday season and give thanks to the One Who truly deserves to be thanked for His sacrifice for your soul and mine.

Give thanks to the Lord, always…


In Ephesians 5:20 Paul writes: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

During this time of year when we give thanks for the blessings of God which we have received do we think about why God has given us those blessings? Do we think about all of our needs that have been met, at times without us even asking for them?

We go through some trying times and many of us actually blame God for those rather than thanking Him for the strength to get through them. Yet, we are supposed to give thanks to Him because it is a commandment…not a suggestion. God loves each of us and whether we realize it or not we should give Him the glory for all that He has given us. Although many of us look at what we have and we think that we are the ones who got this thing or that thing when it is really God Who has given us the ability and the knowledge needed to do our jobs and be able to provide for our family.

Being thankful for everything is not hard to do, but it is difficult to give thanks to the right One Who provided for us. We have grown up in a world that teaches independence and individuality so we look at what we have as our accomplishments and not as gifts from God. Living in the world as it is today we look around and see that the world is so focused upon what each person wants and their personal idea of the “truth” and what is right in their eyes until any idea of looking at the bigger picture is lost. To many people, it seems to make no sense. Why would they want to consider their actions having an impact on the lives of many people in the world?

If they aren’t hurting others with the way that they live then why should they care about someone in another country having air pollution problems or problems growing enough food? We have become so individualistic until we live selfish lives and look at the world around us and we just don’t care about anyone less fortunate than we are. 

Being thankful to God is actually the secret to a happy and productive life. So why can’t we live thankfully all the time rather than on just one holiday during the year? Paul wrote in Ephesians that we should be “thankful always” and that is why we seem to have trouble with this. Give thanks to God for your home and your family. Give thanks for your retirement or your job. Give thanks for your spouse and your children and your grandchildren and for their continued health. 

Thanksgiving is coming soon and we should truly give thanks to the One Who provides for us every day. Psalm 68:19 says: “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation”. Every day each of us gets a fresh basket of benefits such as the air we breathe, the food we have to eat, and the clothes we wear so we should never pray or do anything without thanking God for everything. 

Consider this: why should God give you anything else if you don’t even thank Him for what He’s already given to you? We should be leaving out some of our complaints in our prayers and be adding in more thanks for those good things which we enjoy! Like having food on the table and a warm place to sleep and clean linens and clothes to wear. We take many of these things for granted but in other parts of the world, not very far from where we live, there are many who would love to have even the things which we throw away.

In the Old Testament book of Exodus, Moses had to put up with all of the Israelite’s complaints and their whining about all sorts of things…but they weren’t slaves anymore. Many of them even wished to go back to being slaves because they didn’t like the conditions of their freedom. Moses had to plead with God many times to redeem the people from His wrath or they would’ve been wiped out by the God Who had saved them. They weren’t thankful for the manna which fed them every day. They weren’t thankful for being set free for very long. 

We should be thankful for our freedom which was given to us through the suffering of Jesus on the cross. We are free from the burden of sin and it’s consequences if we have given our lives and our heart to Him. Yet, many times we begin our Christian life with Him and we are thankful for the burden being lifted and for a time we are very thankful. Then when temptation comes back and we slip or we feel that we are being wrongfully tempted we blame God for it. He didn’t tempt us but we want to blame someone and it is either Him or the Devil.

Be thankful for your life and all of the good things and the bad days that you have since many of our bad days would be welcomed by other believers who are in countries where they are persecuted much more harshly than we are.

He came for you…


He loves us as the Father loves us…completely and more deeply. Why did I write this in the present tense? Because Jesus is ALIVE and He still loves us just as God the Father loves us today! He didn’t die. At least, He didn’t stay dead. He was placed in a tomb but three days later He came out in the power of God and the proof of Who He truly was and is. Jesus came to bring salvation to everyone who is drawn to Him by the Father. To everyone who will hear and listen and believe in Him because He paid the price for your soul. The message which Jesus brought to the world is simply “repent and believe in Him” for your salvation.

All of creation testifies…


The majesty of God’s creation points the way to Him every day!

Everything in creation testifies of God’s glory and goodness every day. From the giant Sequoia trees to the smallest moss on the ground and the Blue whale in the ocean to the krill that it eats for food, God is glorified because of the diverse and wonderful differences that we can see in our world. When you look at the heavens through a telescope and see the Orion nebula or the Pleiades in all of their splendor, you are seeing the handiwork of our Creator. Why would God create all of these beautiful and diverse wonders for us to behold?

Because He is God and He enjoys creating and allowing us to enjoy His creation, not for vanity but because it brings wonder and awe into our lives and it makes us wonder about the Mind of God and why He would create all of this. Are there other worlds out there with life on them like us? Maybe but He didn’t give us that answer in His Word, He only tells us what we need to know. If you can’t accept that or you won’t accept it, then I’m sorry. God doesn’t owe you or me an explanation for how He does things.

He is God and there is no other like Him.