Category: Believe in the One Who saves

I just want the real thing…


If someone asks you to not tell them about religion or the church, they just want the real thing… what do you say? First, tell them about Jesus and why He came in the first place. How should you tell them? Just tell them about your Savior and His message about forgiveness and love which He came to bring to all of us! This is the story of His purpose and the Good News of salvation!

1545620655183_image.jpgThat is the message that counts. Salvation through belief in Jesus and His atonement for your sins and mine on the cross. It doesn’t have to have doctrine or religion attached to it and it doesn’t have to be all flowery and noble. Like the thief on the cross, believe in Jesus as the Son of God, your Savior, and mine. That is all that is needed. It doesn’t require hours of service in His Name or certain amounts of money or other “works” like teaching or preaching. All of that may happen after you have accepted Him as your Savior but they will be done because you love Him and you know He loves you and died for you.

That is the true nature of knowing and loving your Savior. Just know that He loves you and He came to give you hope of eternity through Him. A child can understand it but many of us as “adults” try to dress it up or add things to our belief which are not needed. We try to make a simple belief in our Savior into a life-long project which we have to help Him bring us to salvation and none of that helps at all!

In fact, it hurts our own belief by adding things which we do or think we need to do in order to have salvation. When all that is necessary is our heartfelt need of Him and our belief in Him for our forgiveness and salvation. Because until we come to that place where we know deep down that we need Jesus…we will not seek Him out as our Savior and Lord.

God provided Him as The Atonement for our sins, but the Holy Spirit has to bring us to the point of knowing that we need Him before we will ever seek Him out. Those who are sinning and have never sought their Savior or heard that they need Him will never go looking for Him. It’s kind of like a man who walks by fountains of clear, cool water every day. Until that man is thirsty enough to notice them and seek one of those fountains for a drink, he will never know how refreshing their water is.

God knew that we needed a Lamb which could take the sins of the world away, but until each of us realizes this and that we need Jesus for our salvation, each of us will walk right by without ever seeking Him to be our Savior. God has placed a Fountain of Living Water for us to drink from and it’s within our grasp, all we have to do is realize that we need Him and ask Him to come in and quench our thirst for salvation and forgiveness.

A world without Jesus…


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A world where Jesus was not born in Bethlehem? Because the Bible is full of prophecies concerning His birth, He had to be born! There is no possible outcome or future in which He did not come! We would not have a world worth living in if He had not been born. Even the Bible itself would be completely in error if He had not been born. A world without Jesus would be one without hope and without the possibility of knowing God…ever!

God loves us and it is this love which determined before the world was formed, that humanity needed a Savior. Our entire world and any hope of eternity would be shattered or rather it would’ve never been if our Messiah, our Savior, Yeshua, had not been born in this world to a virgin named Mary. Why am I posting this question on the very day which most people celebrate the birth of Jesus? It is just an imaginary, theoretical test for those who may read this to see if you can even imagine a world without His influence in it.

I cannot even imagine it in the least!

I can imagine, at least in a small way, how a world might have been without Adolf Hitler or even the attack on Pearl Harbor. The reason that I say this is because both of these have had worldwide consequences, just as the birth of Jesus still has an impact on the world even today. So can anyone comprehend how our world would be if Jesus had not been born?

I am a preacher and a student of the Bible. As such, I know that the Bible itself would be worthless if He had not been born because His coming was foretold as far back as the Garden of Eden. God said the “seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head and the serpent would bruise His heel”.

Since taking Jesus’ birth out of the history of our world would make the entire Bible worthless, many of the laws which are in the world today would be non-existent. Many, if not all, of the laws and even some countries, would not be if that were the case. The hope of eternity would never be a part of our lives and the entire world would be under Satan’s control which God could not and would not allow!

A world without Jesus the Christ in it would be a chaotic and terrible place to live. The lack of the Promise of His coming would not have given the Patriarchs any hope for Israel or their future. We would have no hope for eternity or salvation. This world would be one in which many of us, if not most, would not want to live in at all! Without the Promise of His coming, there would’ve been no reason to dry up the waters of the Flood from the world and there would be no reason to give mankind hope even in the saving of Noah’s family.

To shorten this narrative, there would be no reason to even begin the story of mankind if Jesus was never to be born. Which is why God did decide to intervene in history Himself and come to be born of a virgin, clothed in humanity and to take the sins of the whole world on Himself in order to give ALL of mankind a True Hope to look for and believe in.

The Light that lit the Way


Luke chapter 2  gives us the story of His birth and how it came about in our world. The angels announced it to shepherds and Mary and Joseph were in a stable in Bethlehem because nobody could take them into an inn because of all the people who were there for the census.

Christmas is the celebration of one moment in time when God came to live with mankind in the person of His Son, Jesus, in order to reconcile mankind to Himself by being the substitute for each of us on the cross.

God did this out of His love, not just for the Hebrews but for all of mankind. Jesus was the Light for us to follow and to aspire to in our lives. The Light which lit the way for the wise men was the Holy Spirit which is why astronomers cannot find the “star” in their calculations which led them to Bethlehem soon after Jesus was born.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 tells exactly why this happened and here are those scriptures for you to read:

17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The most precious gift which was given to all of mankind is the love of God given in the Person of Jesus Who came to be our Passover Lamb to die for all of our sins, not just a few people but all people! The only way that we can come into God’s Presence is by accepting Jesus as our Savior Who paid the price for each of us, even though HE had no sin nature because He loved all of US!

We can have the Truth of Christmas and the surety of our salvation through our belief in Jesus and His substitutionary death for all of our sins!

God came to Earth in the Person of His Son so that we can come to His home in Heaven by accepting Jesus as your Savior. God has always loved His Creation and we are all included in His Creation. He knows you better than you know yourself and He created you with your perfections and your faults and He knows exactly what you alone can do in His Kingdom. Nobody else in the world can do the specific purpose which He has placed within your being and by giving your heart and life to Him, you can make an eternal difference in someone’s life, somewhere.

Don’t turn away from His call on your life, become the person that God knows that you can be, Why do I say it this way? Because He placed your personality and your intellect inside you so He knows exactly how you can make a difference and for whom you will make a difference. No matter where it might be or when He can see you doing and becoming the person that He created you to be.

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The Christmas Story


Luke 2:

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) 3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and Angels

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Our Savior, Lord, and King born as a babe to be our Passover Lamb and He will come back soon as our King!

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Pain, heartache, and disease


What in the world could cause me to begin with a title like that? Because there is something that many of us do in our lives which has a direct connection or effect on our lives. It is usually something which we have held onto for much longer than we should have and it can cause all of these in our lives. That something is anger and hate. Granted that is 2 things but many times they go together.

The problems start when we hold onto them for longer than we should. Either one of these emotions can cause pain and disease when we keep them in our lives because many times we treat them as pets. We bring them out and “feed” them our feelings and we try to keep them alive so we won’t forget the reason for them in the first place.

But anger and hatred are like hot coals from a fire. The longer that you hold them the more damage they cause to you…not to the object of your anger or hatred. After a few years or even many years, sometimes the heat of those emotions tends to cool a bit. But, just like a fire, if you stoke them and add a little more fuel to the “fire” in order to bring the heat back regardless of the type of fuel it is.

That is how our country has been fueling all of the anger and hatred and resentment over the past 130 years or so. We have never let the fire go out and we haven’t really tried to get to a point of forgiveness. Each time that there is some reconciliation or healing which begins, there is always an incident which happens to peel the scab off or which puts more fuel on the dying embers once more.

Slavery and the racism which came from it and all of the heartaches and horrible crimes which were committed during that time and since then because it is a part of America’s past, not just the South but because slavery was a part of England and the Bahamas and the Carribean. Yet it seems that we as a country and as a people, regardless of the color of our skin, can’t seem to learn from that past and come to a place of forgiveness and then move on.

So, to answer my first question of why am I writing this now…it is because it needs to be said. If someone in our generation who remembers the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy doesn’t begin to address the issue and seek to move on with forgiveness and healing, hopefully, it may never happen. If dialogue is not sought out in a peaceful way and then used as a step toward healing and forgiveness how can we ever find our way to that place?

If the first step isn’t taken to move toward reconciliation and healing in a country where there has been a division like this for so long, it will never be taken. We will be constantly refueling the fire with more anger and hatred and stoking it until it kindles again. Healing and forgiveness can never come from that and until we at least try to take that step there is no possibility of healing between “white’s” and people of color regardless of the darkness of their skin.

Jesus loves each of us regardless of our color or our culture and we should at least try to accept His strength and His Spirit so that we can make a difference one day in this country. Too many have died because of mistrust and anger over the years and if we can get to know each other as people, not colors, then maybe we can take a step in that direction.

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What does this season mean to you?


The Christmas season means different things in different cultures and religions. For some this time of year doesn’t mean much at all because they don’t recognize Jesus as a Person Who should be celebrated. For others, their religion doesn’t celebrate any holiday regardless of the time of year. For those who celebrate Christmas with food and consumption of it in all of its celebratory ways, it is a time of throwing out the diet and enjoying food for the tastes of the season.

Then…there are those who just love to buy all kinds of “toys”, from those for children to the ones for children who haven’t grown up. Most of us actually fall into this last group. We see so many problems, financial and otherwise, which come from our consumption of this “stuff”. So what should we do with our lives because of this season? Do you even see this season as one which we should celebrate the birth of One Who came to be a Savior for all?

This celebration has been with the Christian church for nearly two thousand years at this time. Some celebrate it as such and some do not because they do not recognize Him as their Savior. God brought about His works in this time not to glorify Israel or Himself but to show His love for all of mankind and His work was to bring Jesus into the world as its Savior.

The world chose not to recognize Him then and most of the world chooses the same even today which is why we, as His servants, should tell them about Him and stress that the time grows short for making a decision about Him. While it is true that some have many days still, there are some who do not have much time to decide if they want an eternity with Jesus or with Satan.

All of us have an eternity to bear but it is the type of life in eternity that is at stake. An eternity with Satan in Hell is called the second death because you are separated from God, the Author of Life. Why am I bringing this up during this season of joy? Because it is necessary for people to hear it and because some have heard it and many more have not, and yet there are many who have chosen not to receive Him.

These are in need of a Savior and are the reason for which He was sent to us. Not to begin a season of gift-giving, although that is a good thing, or even to bring hope for a fallen world but to bring to each of us the hope of an eternity with Him and the possibility of being redeemed from our sinful lives. That is the message of His coming as a babe in Bethlehem, God dwelling with mankind to redeem us all through His teachings and His death on a cross and His resurrection so that we could be with Him one day too.

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He is our Savior and Redeemer. Amen

Do you believe?


Jesus said that if we believe in Him we will be saved. But what about the rest of God’s Word? Do you believe what it says? You know…you can’t pick and choose which parts or which verses or books to believe although many people seem to do just that these days. Being a Christian means more than believing in Jesus although that is the beginning of your faith. Living as a Christian daily means living by God’s Word. Not just the New Testament or the parts about Jesus and His ministry but by living and believing ALL of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation.

There are no areas of the Bible which are gray areas when it comes to faith. You either believe all of it or you actually believe only parts of it and when you do that you have invalidated ALL of it. By choosing to believe some parts of it and not others it is you who makes God’s Word of no effect!

Being a Christian, heart, and soul, is not a life of choosing what you will believe and then throwing out the parts you don’t like. Except in our world today, this is exactly how people want to read and believe or not believe in God. They want to choose which parts that they can live with and leave out the parts that they don’t like or those which make them feel guilty of their sins.

Jesus did not soften His sermons because there were people in the crowd who didn’t like what He was saying. He taught what the Father told Him to teach and to bring those in who would believe. If there were some who would not listen or believe that His teaching came from God then so be it because it was their choice to reject His teaching.

God had been trying to reach them ever since He liberated them from slavery to the Egyptians. But as soon as three days into their freedom, they began to grumble and it never really stopped, even when they reached the land which God had promised to them and conquered those who were living there. We are the same way today. We want the blessings of God and the promise of eternity in Heaven but we want to live our lives our way…but that isn’t how it works!

In our world or living by God’s rules, it is either one or the other, you can’t have it both ways!

That is why in the book of Joshua they were given a choice and we are as well: “Choose you this day whom you will serve“. You will either serve your own selfish desires and live like the rest of the world does or you will serve God and follow His ways and live in the footsteps of Jesus.

The women in Jesus’ family line


Matthew 1:1 and following:

Berean Literal Bible
The Genealogy of Jesus
(Ruth 4:18-22; Luke 3:23-38)

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
2 Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah and his brothers.
3 And Judah begat Perez and Zerah out of Tamar, and Perez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram. 4 And Ram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon. 5 And Salmon begat Boaz out of Rahab, and Boaz begat Obed out of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, 6 and Jesse begat David the king.
Next:
David begat Solomon, out of the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon begat Rehoboam, and Rehoboam begat Abijah, and Abijah begat Asa. 8 And Asa begat Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Uzziah. 9 And Uzziah begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Ahaz, and Ahaz begat Hezekiah. 10 And Hezekiah begat Manasseh, and Manasseh begat Amos, and Amos begat Josiah, 11 and Josiah begat Jechoniah and his brothers
at the time of the carrying away to Babylon.
12 And after the carrying away to Babylon: Jechoniah begat Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begat Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel begat Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor.
14 And Azor begat Zadok, and Zadok begat Achim, and Achim begat Eliud. 15 And Eliud begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Matthan, and Matthan begat Jacob, 16 And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, the One being called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Of the different women in the lineage of Jesus, there was at least one who “played” at being a harlot and one which was a harlot and two Gentiles, Rahab and Ruth, and one pregnancy outside of wedlock (of the Holy Spirit). Why did God use these women in the lineage of David and Jesus? Mainly to show His compassion and His redemption of those who needed it and because it suited God to do so.

We cannot know the mind or the thoughts of God in His choosing of the women who would be in the bloodline of His Son, but He can use anyone to bring about His purposes. Even a small church in Coxburg, MS. A word or something which is done that people may associate with your faith in Jesus can make a big difference in someone’s life.

You may not see it while you live, but one day in heaven you will see someone who tells you that a word or a deed influenced them to seek out Jesus as their Savior. Even the life of your children or grandchildren may be touched by something that you do or say. God can use a murderer or an apostle or a child in His service just as well as He can use a preacher or a teacher. In God’s Kingdom, all of us are equal to the task which He gives us to do because He will give each of us the talents and abilities needed to do His will.

Whether we possess those qualities in this life or in the next one will be up to Him alone. But He will make us equal to the task which needs to be done regardless of its complexity or its ease. God can use any person or situation to extend His favor or His compassion toward those which we come in contact with each and every day that we live according to His purposes. This is why there are some unusual people in the lineage of Jesus, prostitutes, Gentiles, men who have not always followed God’s will or purpose in their lives but God used each of them for His purpose regardless of their shortcomings.

Even the men which Jesus called to be His disciples were ordinary men. They were not priests or of the “ruling class”. They were fishermen, mostly, and each of them was used in a specific way to take His message to those who needed to hear it. Each of the disciples had a gift or a way to teach which would bring the message of God to those who would listen and hear it with their spiritual ears and not just hear it and walk away as many do today. So, the women and men in the lineage of Jesus were all part of God’s plan and purpose for the world and for the message which He would bring to the world.

Jesus removes our chains


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All of the problems and persecution we face, whether it is something as small as being un-friended on Facebook or even sickness or being imprisoned because of your faith. God loves you and watches over you in this life and He calls those who will be useful to Him.

We have all been offered the chance at eternity through Jesus but few will accept it because of their prejudice or their hatred of the Jewish people or Christians in particular. God loves all of us and made sure that each of us has the chance for eternal life with Him, but each of us has to accept it and believe in the One Who provided the way.

John 3:16-18

16 For God so loved the world that He gave the only begotten Son, so that everyone believing in Him should not perish, but should have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one believing in Him is not judged, but the one not believing already has been judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

What Child is this?


For many years we have sung this song at this time of year but I have often wondered if anyone actually searches for Him or His real identity?

The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she would bear a Son Who would be called Immanuel and to name Him Jesus (Yeshua). For a teenage girl, this was fairly upsetting particularly since she was betrothed to Joseph at the time. Without going over the entire story of Jesus’ birth my only revelation is this: He was NOT born on December 25. He was born, according to the Jewish calendar, during the Feast of Tabernacles which is around late September early October.

JesusfitsinyourheartWhy is this important? Because the word used or translated “with” when the meaning of Immanuel was translated also means “to tabernacle with”. God came to live with mankind, at least for a time and physically be with His creation. Ever since the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has lived with each believer from the time that they asked Him to come into their hearts. He dwells with us!

Isn’t that a wonderful and powerful message and the best part of it is that one day soon we will be with Him too! Your life and mine will not have to end with the death of this “tabernacle” which is walking around with pains and problems! We will be with Him forever. God loves His creation enough that we will be in His Presence for eternity. No more pain or sickness or death. That is the message and the hope that we have all been given by His grace and mercy.

So why would you want to keep this glorious and life-changing news to yourself? When we are baptized into our new life with Him and we come out of the water we are like the Hebrews who were escaping from Egypt after going through the Red Sea. We are not supposed to just sit down on the shore and not move until Jesus comes and they didn’t either. They complained and whined about being in the desert but God provided for them and He does the same for us too.

We have been given a new life to live in Him and through Him because of His love and grace toward us and we should make sure to walk in that grace until He comes again. The fact that God came to live with and redeem mankind is the most wonderful act of compassion and love that can be imagined. Don’t turn away from Him just because of your idea of how your life should be. Seek Him out and find the life which you can live through Him!

The story of His birth and how we celebrate it has been handed down and changed over the years to coincide with other traditions and celebrations but the story and the message only come from the gospels. That is the story which we should be hearing and clinging to for our salvation because He, the baby in the manger, is our Savior.