The little things do count

When you read the gospels and the accounts of all of the different ways that Jesus interacted with people and healed some and raised some from the dead or freed them from demonic possession it makes you wonder what else He might’ve done in between all of these. When you read about everything that He did in the few years that His disciples walked with Him and then read at the end of John’s gospel that “if everything that Jesus did were written down the world couldn’t hold all of the books“.

Jesus payed attention to all of the little things. The children that were around Him, the women who were supporting His ministry and were disciples too. He looked at the small lunch which fed over five thousand people and knew it was possible. He noticed so many things around Him in His ministry which aren’t recorded in the gospels. So, how do I know that He noticed these small details around Him? Because He was and is the Creator! An artist notices the color of clouds and birds and flowers and trees so how much more would our Creator notice everything and everyone around Him?

Even if the writers of the gospels didn’t notice it and He didn’t bring it to their attention, He would’ve noticed. Every flower and bird and tree and cloud and the stars at night. He was there during creation so why not take in your creation and truly notice all of the beauty in everything around you? I know I would have and you would too.

Jesus is our Savior and He paid that price for our salvation willingly. His humanity was afraid of the pain and suffering but He knew it had to be done. He is the Author of Life and the Creator and He did all of this for us. So when you feel His call in your heart and you know it is Him, please don’t turn away from that call because that call may be the only one you will hear or maybe the last time you may hear from Him. I pray that all of you who read this will give your heart and life to Jesus and follow Him for the rest of your life.

God is AWESOME!!

God is our Creator and the Creator of everything that you can see. So…why is it so hard for people to understand that He wants the best for you? Is it because we can’t see Him like we can see a friend or our spouse? Possibly. But according to God’s Word, He has always been available to us through prayer and by reading of His Word.

I think that the reason that so many people are hesitant or unwilling to follow God and the few rules which He put into place is that it is too simple. Salvation is so simple that a child can understand it and yet when we become “educated” adults we can’t believe that it is that simple. What we should understand is the same thing that the thief on the cross understood, it is our belief in Jesus which saves us. It is not the church or a preacher or a certain ritual which we have to do in order to be saved.

Just believe in Jesus and what He did for you. Do this in the faith which God has granted you and then walk in that faith so that you will be a reflection of Jesus in your life. Because you may be the only Jesus some people may ever see before the end of their life or yours. Your life has an expiration date and it is only known by God, thankfully. But during the time which we have even the small things which we do that people notice because they know that we profess to be Christians can have an impact.

You may not think that a “Thank you” or a blessing said at McDonald’s over your food could have an impact but it can. You may not know about it before you get to Heaven but someone will let you know that it was that word or deed or some small thing that prompted them to seek out what made you different.

God is understanding and loving toward all of His children even though there are many who are hurting and struggling and it doesn’t look like He even cares, but He does. God is awesome because He created all of this universe and we have been studying it for hundreds of years and we’ve only scratched the surface. We have explored our own planet for thousands of years and scientists are still finding creatures which are new to science.

Why did God make this universe so complex? Because of His power and majesty but also because He wanted us to look at all of the beauty and the awesome size and diversity that is out there and wonder about Him. We would look at the intricate complexity of cells and bacteria and whales and humanity and even into the cosmos and realize that this couldn’t have come into being because of some accidental gathering of dirt and goo. There had to be a Supreme Intelligence behind every atom and molecule and His name is God.

God, where are You?

Have you ever asked God, “Where are You?” It is an apt question, but do you truly want to know where God is? Consider that He is everywhere, whether you believe in Him or not. The problem with us, as human beings, is that we think too much. We look around and see the world and everything in it and we don’t understand how all of the evil in the world could be happening if God cared. The thing is this: God does care and He loves each of us but it is our responsibility to follow Him in our lives. The peace He gives to us comes from knowing Jesus and having security in our salvation.

So, to concentrate on the question a bit more…where is God? He lives outside of our existence but He holds all of creation together by His power and His plans. He is near us all of the time. We cannot feel His touch or see Him but His attention never wanders far from us, even if we don’t believe in Him. God provided for the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years and He does the same thing for us today. He gives each of us talents and abilities to be able to make a living in this world and He places us in areas that He knows we can excel in.

All of these wonderful blessings come mostly to those who do truly believe in Him and trust Him for their salvation. Does He watch over those who haven’t really made up their mind about being His in a personal way? Yes, He does. His call on your life is truly your choice although it takes some of us a little longer to realize that He is calling us. Because it is our decision to choose Him as our Savior. We are not forced into belief because we can’t be, and He knows the beginning and the ending too. He knows the day and the hour that you will accept His offer of salvation, but He doesn’t push it on you.

Love and trust are two important aspects of a relationship with Jesus and God and neither of these can be forced upon anyone. You have to want this relationship and know that it is right for your life because eternity is not possible without Jesus in your life. Jesus came and gave His life to pay the penalty for your sins and all you have to do to claim your eternal life in Him is believe in Him and repent (turn away from) of your sinful life. Then read about Him in the Bible and learn how to be more like Him until He comes again. Living with Him one day at a time and do it every day. That is how you find Him and He keeps you in His hand.

Can you have peace in your life?

You must believe that God is in control of your life and your circumstances, no matter what they may be. Otherwise, you will attempt to gain control of your life and your circumstances and there is no peace in the struggle which comes from each of us trying to gain control of things which we can’t control. Each of us tries to gain control of our lives and our problems even when we know that there is no way that we can fix things. But, that doesn’t stop us from trying.

Does your life or your problems exempt you from asking God to help you to gain control of them? Are your problems too big for God? How can that be when He created the entire universe! He can give you the strength to get through every problem and every circumstance in this life. There is no condemnation in God’s sight toward your unbelief or your problems if you have given your heart to Jesus.

Each of us must believe that His offer of peace for your circumstances is real and be willing to accept His offer in spite of our feelings to the contrary. We should fully surrender our life, mind, will and our emotions to Jesus as our Lord. Because if you don’t fully surrender all of your life to Him then you don’t have Him in your life as your Lord and Savior. If Jesus is not the source of your peace, then what is? Here is the scripture and the promise from Jesus which cements this in His Words:

John 14:27

26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Living your life by the power and the strength of your faith in Jesus Christ is your service and it is the living of it in front of the world around you which is your witness for Him to every person around you. Everything that you do or say is witnessed by those around you, whether you think they are watching or not. If they know that you are a Christian then every little thing that you do or say is part of your witness. If you are a new Christian then your light isn’t very bright yet, but you are still responsible for those who are watching to show that Jesus truly is your Savior. The longer that you are a Christian with years of Bible study then you are more responsible for more of His Light.

Are you perfect? No, none of us are perfectly sinless and we can’t be! Are we going to slip up and mess up your witness to others? Probably. At one point or another, every one of us will make a mistake at some point in our life. It may be a willful sin or one which you decide that you are going to do, even if it misses the mark. Will your salvation be taken away from you? If your salvation was real and genuine with repentance from those sins, then it can’t be taken away. If you just felt a good feeling and said some words that sounded right, but you have gone back to your old way of life then you are likely not saved at all. Do those of us who are saved fail in our living our life for Jesus? Yes, but we feel the failure in our heart and we are convicted of it by His Spirit. We want to ask His forgiveness as soon as we can.

Don’t turn away from His call on your life. When you feel it, answer His call and give your heart to Him because you may not have another chance to do so.

What has love got to do with salvation?

Truthfully, it was love which sent Jesus to the cross to pay for your sins and mine. Love has everything to do with even the possibility of your salvation and your eternity. Without love, there is nothing. Without the Love that God shows to us each day when we wake up and begin a new day, we would not have that day. There are so many in the world who look for love from friends and acquaintances and from their family as well and yet there are many who can’t find the love that they seek. Why is that? Actually, it is because the Love that our soul craves doesn’t come from friends or family or anything that we can buy or get on our own. The Love that our soul craves is the Love of God through Jesus Christ.

Until we find that…until we find Him as our Savior, we feel empty and hollow without hope and miserable in our search. Why? Because, as I said, the Person of God’s Love is Jesus the Christ and until we ask Him to come into our lives and make us into the person which God already knows we can be that hollow, empty feeling will remain. It won’t matter if we gain wealth or fame or anything which the world would accept as proof of our success…if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior then none of that matters at all.

God values your soul more than all of the wealth in the world. In today’s economy that would amount to, as a guess of course, about twenty to thirty trillion dollars. I don’t know the amount of ALL the wealth in the world but that number sounded big enough to me. If you could imagine having that much wealth, what would you do with it? What good would it do if you acquired it today and you died tonight? Not one little bit of good at all actually. Money will not buy the stairway to Heaven and even if it did you wouldn’t have the key to get in.

The key to gain entrance into Heaven is Jesus. If you don’t have Him as your Savior and Lord believing in Him for your salvation then you will be judged for your sins and sent to Hell. It doesn’t matter if you feel you have been wronged or how much money you gave to the poor and needy, if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior before you die then your eternity will be in hell. I ask that you make sure of your destination while you can because there is no second chance after death. Hell is not going to be an eternal party like Satan has told many people. There will be punishment there which lasts forever.

Forgiveness…

What does this mean in our society today? It means that we, as a society, should forgive those who have wronged us in the past. It means that the bitterness and resentment should be forgiven by us first toward those who we hold responsible for a wrong. Forgiveness is the closest that we can come to God before we die and it is an act of will on our part that can take away years of pain and suffering. One word and deed which can change the life of those who have held onto bitterness and anger for so long they don’t remember why they were angry, but with true forgiveness they will feel healing and a peace in their lives which has never been there before.

Our country needs a Spirit of forgiveness to sweep over this land and into the hearts and minds of those living here. It will take God’s Holy Spirit to make this happen and it will take an honest revival in our country before this will happen. Can it happen? Yes, but only if people will stop being so politically correct they aren’t any good to the people around them!

God has never stopped loving you or those who wronged you in the past, but until you forgive them and change the way you feel about them, your health and your life will suffer because of it. That is why it says in the Bible, “if you have anything against your brother, leave your offering and be reconciled to him, then come and make your offering“. Living with anything in your past which is unforgiven and causes you to feel anger or resentment and bitterness will make you sick physically. Healing can only come when the forgiveness is full and real between you and your brother or sister.

Don’t live that way because I have seen this in my family and it truly rips a hole in a family and the relationships in that family. I pray that anyone who reads this will seek God’s will for their relationships with their family member and with Him too.

Which way do I go?

It depends on who you follow in this life. If you are more interested in doing your own thing and just living for today, then your eternity may not matter much to you, at least right now.

If you have felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit at any time in your life and feel that you should give your heart to Jesus regardless of your personal preferences now, then eternity may have a real surprise for you.

Why have I done this post in this way? Because it truly is your decision in this life which determines your destination in eternity. Many people seem to think that when they die, they are buried and that is that. Some people think that they can influence their destination by their own actions in this life. The problem with that kind of thinking is that it is wrong.

According to God’s Word, our works and our influence have nothing to do with which eternal destination will be your home. The only determining factor is whether you have believed in Jesus and His atonement for your sins for your salvation. If that saving belief is not a part of your life at some point before you die, then you may not be in the worst part of hell but you won’t be in heaven.

All of us come to a crossroad at some point in our spiritual life on Earth. Both paths look similar when you are given the choice and at least one path may look easier to follow. The other may look a bit narrower and possibly require a bit more work to follow spiritually, but the choice is still there: which one do you choose? Can I choose one and then move to the other? Sometimes it works that way if you choose the easy path and then find that it is leading you to a place you really don’t want to go. If you aren’t truly sincere about your choice and you choose to follow Jesus on a trial basis then you can move over to the easy path later if you wish.

Why am I pointing out these different choices? Because everyone on Earth comes to this crossroad at some point and it really is your choice today which will determine your eternal home. Why is the narrow pathway harder and more difficult? Because you have to follow Jesus and that requires a commitment on your part. One which is deep and true, like a marriage. Because when you commit to following Jesus, there really shouldn’t be any second thoughts about your decision. You can feel it in your soul and you know that it is True.

Mother’s influence

2 Timothy 1:3-5
3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Abraham Lincoln said, ”No one is poor who had a godly mother.” He went on to say, ”I remember my mother’s prayers, and they have followed me; they have clung to me all my life. All that I am and hope to be I owe to my angel mother.”

With today being Mother’s Day, I want to salute all of the mothers here. Not just because you came to church this morning but because of all of the different roles that you fill in the lives of your children and this church. Bookkeepers, taxi drivers, teachers, nurses, comforters, friends, a stand-in for Dad (sometimes), a leader in the home and at church, but most of all an example to those around you.

All of us are here because of our mothers so we thank you for bringing us all into the world. God knew each of us before we were ever born into this world and He knew the influence that our grandmother and our mother and father would have in our lives. Our family relationships, broken though some may be, tend to shape us individually into the men and women that we become. So whatever you are right now and what you may become is influenced by your mother first and your family second.

Mom has a role to fill and it has always been an important one. Regardless of the amount of “community” help you may or may not need or want in the raising of your children, God has gifted the women who become mothers with many talents.

I once read that if a woman was paid a wage for all of the jobs which she has in the home and in raising her children, their salary (which few could afford by the way) would be in the six-figure range. No matter how hard it may have been when you were growing up or even how hard it is today,

Mom always seems to find a way to make the ends meet and to make a good meal out of whatever may be in the kitchen or the fridge. So, let’s give thanks to God for our mothers and make sure that they know how we feel about all of the things, big and small, that they do or have done for us.

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for our mothers because without them we wouldn’t know how much You love us. We would not have an example of the love that you instill in them which is a reflection of how You love each of us every day and all of the time. We can’t say enough about our mother’s love and compassion and how it has influenced our lives in so many ways. You placed each of us in her care so that we would learn and grow into the people that you knew we could become and without her influence in our lives, we would’ve likely turned out very different. I pray that you would bless all of the mothers here and elsewhere and help their children to know and appreciate all of the good things which they have because of their mother’s influence. Amen

Gone astray…

There are many parables which the Lord told to His disciples, but none was as poignant to me as the story of the prodigal son. He sounded a lot like myself, in some ways, except that I never had a father who could give me anything to “go into the far country” with. The church today sees this story as a representation of the forgiveness of God toward sinners and it does reflect that aspect of God since you could see God as the father who accepts his son back into the home after he has gone out partying for a while.

The practical part of this story is that all of us, Gentiles and Jews, have gone astray in some way or another. Whether we have asked God for our inheritance or not we have been blessed with life and with the talents and abilities to gain wealth (a wage by which to live). Are we all wealthy? NO! But if you see that God is generous toward those who love Him and only this, then you are missing His grace and His love for all of mankind.

God has never stopped loving us because we are sinners. He does exactly the same as some of us, as parents, do. He waits for us to “come to our senses”. When we finally figure out that we have gone astray and it is our own doing, realizing that we really need to repent and turn away from our destructive behavior then He is there waiting for us. Just as the father was waiting for his son to return home. Do we actually repent and go to Him in repentance today? Sometimes we do but there are still many in our world who just seek to “fill themselves with the pods” which everyone else is eating.

God gives us so many chances, just as He did with Israel in the wilderness, and yet we still turn away from Him eventually. Many times we will turn to Him and “repent” for a time, at least until things get better, and then we will maybe thank Him for getting us out of that jam and go right back to what we were doing before. Just as during the time of the Judges of Israel, every man did what was right in his eyes. The problem with doing that is that by being our own king or judge we are using our “wisdom” to live by and that is not what God intended for us to do.

We are supposed to walk with God each day of our lives. Begin the day with His Word and in prayerful humility, seek Him in everything that we do. Learn to have a spirit of thankfulness so that every good thing, no matter how small it may be, will move you to thank Him for it even if it might not feel like a good thing at the time. Thank Him anyway, because we can learn from the good and the bad lessons in every day of our lives.

“and to dust you shall return…”

God created Adam from clay, sculpted him and then gave him the Breath of Life, so why did he mess up so soon after? It wasn’t because of Eve, although many people do blame her. It was the tempting words of Satan and the seed of pride which was placed in his mind by Satan. Pride itself is the tap root of all sins, regardless of what sin it may be.

All of us are susceptible to the lure of pride and all of its children. No one is immune from sin’s touch or the consequences of it unless you belong to Jesus and you have His Spirit in your heart. I don’t mean that you will be able to live a sinless life because only He could do that. But you will have His strength to help you resist the sin which you are tempted with, if you will acknowledge Him as your Savior and lean on Him during those times when sin comes to pull you toward something that you know isn’t right.

Adam could’ve resisted but he didn’t and so could Eve, but she didn’t. It’s in our nature to be susceptible to sin but we don’t have to give in to it again and again. Living a successful Christian life is possible if we stay grounded and connected to Him daily! Not just once in a while or on Sundays, it has to be a lifestyle of living in the power of Jesus every day. When you get up, thank God for another day. As you go through your day, ask Him to strengthen you as you face your trials and temptations throughout the day. Then as your day comes to a close, thank Him for getting you through it and ask Him to strengthen you for tomorrow.

Do I do this every day? No, I’m not as faithful as I should be but I do thank Him for each victory during my day regardless of the nature of it. Some days I do better than others, some days I do forget to thank Him for the problems that come my way to test me. But, usually before the day is a total waste I do thank Him for His blessings on my family and for all of the good things which He has prepared for me, even if I didn’t see them today.

Unless we are called up to heaven before we die, all of us will return to dust but until that day comes I will praise the Lord and you should too.