Category: Believe in the One Who saves

Life…easy or hard?


Life is such that it is at times hard and easy too. On the days when it is hard, we wish that our time would be over soon. On the days when it is easy and we have no worries, we wish that it would continue that way until Jesus comes. So…what should we do in this life of ease and hard work and hard living?

Praise God.

In all things good or bad, easy or hard, wealth or lack of money, we are to give thanks to God and praise Him for the blessings which we have. Some days it may be hard to find those blessings. Some days we may not feel like we are being blessed at all, but if you are a Christian you should live your days in communion with God…daily. Not drinking wine and eating crackers, I mean prayerfully walking with God and reading God’s Word. Learning from your Creator and your Redeemer because He is a lot smarter than you are!

God gives each of us a measure of faith when we come to know Him as our Savior and Lord. Sometimes we feel as if the measure was a little short but that is what we have so we have to use what we have. Does it make it easier to live the Christian life in a world which is against your faith and mine? Not really but we need to keep walking with Him by faith and living our lives with our eyes on the prize of eternity. This world and all of the “stuff” in it like the houses and the cars and the boats and the fancy hunting rifles and four-wheelers and things…all of this is going away one day and none of it will matter.

Your life and what you have done with the talents which God has given you to bless others with and to show His grace and mercy to the rest of the world is all that really matters in the end. Why is that? Because it is only those accomplishments which you have done for Him and through His blessings in your life which will go with you into eternity. Your money and your home and anything else of this world will stay here when you are either taken up or after you die.

So, is life easy or hard today? For some of us it could be an easy day and for some, it may be a hard day. Life goes on in the world and in each community at the same pace and for the same reasons which it was yesterday and which it will be following tomorrow.

Can we make a difference in the world today? Only by following Jesus and listening to His voice and His wisdom. Yes, we can make a difference in our lives and in the lives of other people by giving them the wisdom which God has gifted to us through His Word and by showing them Who Jesus is and by helping them to see why they need Him. Expressing His love in the world each and every day can make a big difference in the world and in the lives of those around us.

So, will you take Jesus with you to work and to school or wherever you go today so that someone will see Him in your actions and in your life? Because for many people in the world, you and your witness may be the only time that they are exposed to Jesus. So make sure that their first impression of Him is a good one so they will recognize that it is Jesus which is a part of your life and that they have benefitted from Him being present in their world today.

Who is Jesus?


Over the last few hundred years, people have asked this question and truly wondered at the answer.  Why did they wonder about Who He was? It was evident in the gospels and in the prophecies about Him and yet they still didn’t seem to want to believe in Him or Who He was!

God sent Him to the world, to Israel, to bring the gospel to His people. He was foretold and so was His birth to a virgin in Bethlehem. But, the reality of His Person and Who He has eluded them because they didn’t want to believe in a prophet who came from Nazareth and was a carpenter’s son. How could the Savior, the Messiah come from such humble beginnings?

Why was it so hard to believe in Him or His Message? Why is it so difficult to believe that He was and is the Messiah?

It was difficult then and it is still difficult for many today because they don’t feel that they need a Savior. Many believe that their righteousness is enough and that it is good enough to get them into Heaven. When the Bible tells us that our “righteousness is as filthy rags“, how can it possibly be good enough to allow us to enter into God’s Presence? Jesus told His disciples that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not enter into heaven“.

Many people don’t want to give up their sins simply because they enjoy them. Even though they feel the touch of the Holy Spirit in their lives they just don’t want to give up those sins regardless. It could be smoking or drinking or looking at pornography and they think that since they do these at home (mostly), their sins aren’t hurting anyone. But they are hurting their relationship with Jesus or the possibility of a relationship with Him.

We cannot be good enough to gain entrance without His righteousness covering our sins and us. There is no possibility for any of us to gain entrance into eternity in Heaven without Jesus!

Bridge2Salvation

What if…


If you only had a week to live, what would you do? Would you travel for that small amount of time or would you enjoy your days with your family and friends?

If I only had a week to live…I would enjoy my family and friends and walk in the woods. I would make sure to tell my neighbors that they meant a lot to me by just being my friends. I would make dinner for each of them if they would allow it or I would try to show some small way that I had appreciated their friendship.

With only a week to live, there really isn’t much you can do that you should’ve been doing before, so why wait until you know that your life is ending? Tell your friends and family how much they mean to you today…NOW! Don’t wait until it is too late because you may not get to tell them at all.

Make sure that your life is a reflection of Jesus even if there aren’t many who see it in you. Those who do see Jesus in your speech or in your life and how you live will notice and God will touch their lives in some small way or maybe even a big way. He can use those seeds which are planted in people’s lives no matter how small they may be or how long they have been planted.

God can water them with His Living Water and His Love and make them sprout in their lives so that they can continue your ministry even after you are gone on to Heaven. All Christians should try to make sure that there are some seeds which are able to be grown by God which are left here by something that you did or something you said. God can use those to make a difference in someone’s life and your eternity will be blessed by it too.

God never forgets us


As much as the world would like us to believe that God doesn’t care about us, the fact is that He does care and He never leaves us alone in our suffering. He restored the world from sin’s embrace when He called on Noah to build an ark for the animals and his family. So if God will do that, He will also be near us in our suffering and our pain in this life as well.

Your family may be going through some sickness or other painful tribulation these days but God doesn’t stray from your side. He is nearby even if you haven’t given your heart to Him yet. Although many in our world see all of the suffering and pain in the world and they think that He doesn’t care for us at all!

Not a Sparrow Falls Verse_thumb[1]That is not true in the least! Jesus told His disciples that, “Even a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground without my Father’s notice of it“. I paraphrased that Scripture but you get my meaning. Since God notices when a small bird falls to the ground how much more does He take notice of you who are made in His image? We are all made in the image of God so He is always watching over us, whether we belong to Him or not. The prayers of an unredeemed person are not heard until the Spirit moves their heart to yearn for Jesus. Then their prayer for salvation is heard and they are changed when that repentance is real and genuine.

Yet, many people claim to pray to Him daily and sometimes their prayers are answered, whether they are Christians or not. How can this be? Satan can answer your requests as well, up to a point, and he will make you think or believe that God answered your prayer when it was him all along. Why would he do this? Because of his deceptive nature. He wants to steer as many people away from belief in God and His Son, Jesus, as he possibly can. So if he can make you believe that God answered your prayer when you don’t belong to Jesus in the first place, then he will do it!

Remember, he can appear as an angel of light because he was one before he was kicked out of Heaven. Some people believe that Satan can only do things which God allows him to do. But that is against a person who already belongs to God. If you are not a redeemed Christian then you are already in Satan’s camp whether you know it or not. Until you are convicted of your need for Christ by the Holy Spirit, you are “at war with God”.

Life on Earth has been in a state of spiritual war ever since the Garden of Eden and it will be that way until Jesus comes back and sets up His Kingdom on Earth. Make sure of your place in His Kingdom before He calls the believers home one day.

Where are you, God?


GodwhereareYouHow many times have you or someone you know thought this or heard it in a hospital waiting area outside of ICU? All of us have said it or thought it at some point in our lives. Something doesn’t go quite the way we hoped it would or something goes terribly wrong and we do wonder about God’s involvement in our lives. Sometimes we even blame Him for what has happened. Especially if we have lost a loved one or maybe our financial blessings have been taken from us. We tend to look to God and ask Him “What went wrong?”; “Why did this happen to me?”.

We get angry at God during these times but if you seek your answers in God’s Word where another man who had served God went through all of this and then some, you will realize that the ruler of this world is the one who tries to make us blame God and lose our faith in Him! It isn’t God!

The book of Job is said to be even older than the books of Moses but God didn’t do all of those things to Job. He allowed them to happen so He could prove to Satan that Job would NOT lose or give up on God and his faith in God. Yes, God allowed it to happen but He told Satan that you can only go this far and no more. Here is an excerpt from the first chapter of Job to show that God did not take from him but He allowed Satan to do it to prove a point:

Job 1

Job’s Character and Wealth

1There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. 2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yokes of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. 4His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Satan Allowed to Test Job

6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. 7The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Blaming God for your losses in life does nothing about your situation, but praying to God and reading God’s Word will help a great deal. Learning about God and how He works in different situations in the Bible will give you a foundation to stand on which makes your faith stronger, not weaker. Follow Him in all areas of your life and your life will work out in the end so that others will see that God has been with you through the worst parts and the best parts too.

God’s names


El-Shaddai: My supply. My nourishment, Almighty God. Genesis 17:1.

Jehovah-Jireh: Provider and my vision. Genesis 22:14.

Did you know that many people do not believe that the history which is portrayed in Genesis ever happened? Also in the schools today much of our history is being played down or not taught as it was forty or fifty years ago. 

So, why did I name this writing, this article as “God’s names”? Because in the book of Genesis God’s names are shown to us and they show different aspects of Who God really is. Jehovah is the covenant name of God so with the -Jireh added onto it then it literally means “God my Provider”. As you can see from the two examples above, God supplies our needs and He is our Provider.

So…why do people in America and around the world see religion and specifically Christianity as a religion which marginalizes and excludes others? The only reason that they think this is because they don’t like the Book that we use as our Bible, it is God’s Word and the Truth. They don’t like an absolute Truth which can’t be changed because it is absolute!

The Bible is God’s Word and His instruction book to the whole world and it was inspired by the Holy Spirit and given to the men who wrote it down. It is immutable and it cannot be changed nor is it a document which gives us His wisdom for living. Although some have changed the words in the Bible for their own purposes, God has said that this will bring punishment to those who add to or take away from His Word.

This promise is in the book of Revelation, but I believe that the punishment will not be applied to only that book but to the entirety of God’s Word. I pray that all of those who read these words or those from God’s Word will seek Him out as their Savior because He is the only way to eternity in Heaven.kid_reading_bible

Read His Word as a child because His Word is good for instruction and for teaching and for your growth in faith and in the knowledge of Him. Don’t neglect the reading and studying of His Word because it is food for your soul and for the cleansing of your mind.

 

 

 

 

God’s love casts out fear


There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.4.18.KJV

The great equalizer


In life, we are unequal in most respects no matter how much we like to think that we have equality. Only a few have money and are wealthy enough to live without much fear, yet even they worry about losing it in some way. Some others have “rights” to be equal in most respects to others who have seemed to have “rights” which others wanted. These rights extend to women as well as men, those who are of dark skin or some other “race” rather than Caucasian. The great equalizer in our world extends his reach to every person, whether of great wealth or poor, to those of dark skin pigment or light. His name is Death.

All of us die at some point or another and there is no one who will escape this appointment. Some of us may die at a young age and some may live a long life even past their one-hundredth birthday. But eventually, Death will find you. We don’t like to think about death and yet it will come to each of us at some point because it is the way of things and it is part of life. We are born, we grow, we live and we die. In this, there is no argument.

So why do we try to cheat death when we reach a certain point in our lives? We run and exercise and eat healthy (but bland) foods, we go to doctors who can tighten our skin so we don’t look as old as we are. All of this is foolishness. Why? Because your body is the age which it is and there is no changing that. Regardless of how you look on the outside, your cells and the rest of your body are the age which you are and there is no turning back the clock.

Death still comes.

Unless you have the hope of eternity with Jesus as your Savior. This physical life will end unless Jesus takes you home before you die. Which could happen sooner than most people realize. When will it happen? I don’t know but according to the Bible, it will happen. In 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17 Paul writes these words:

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

This is the only “escape” from death that will come one day. If you are a believer in Jesus as your Savior. If you haven’t accepted Him as your Savior and repented of your sinful ways then you will have no part in being taken up to be with Him. I pray that all who read this have given their hearts to Him and if you haven’t, please don’t wait. Death doesn’t notify you ahead of time when your time is up, so make sure of your destination before he comes to call on you.

What is most important to you?


There are many, many answers to this question and they are not the same for everyone. Some of these would include our family or our children. Other answers may be more generic like world peace or just to live a good life. But when you get right down to the “brass tacks” of what is actually most important to you…in today’s politically charged world and in our culture, most people really wouldn’t know the true answer to that question.

If you were held at gunpoint and your life was threatened could you come up with an answer which makes sense and is the actual truth of your life? I honestly don’t know if any of us are that certain about what or who is the most important in your life. I have been thinking about it since beginning to write this and I just don’t know for certain. Isn’t that a little weird?

I have been married to my wife for twenty-six years and a few months but is she the most important person in my life? What about my son? Is he the most important person in my life right now? Even if I changed the wording a bit and asked: Who is the most important person in your life? Would that clear the water a bit? For some of us it might help but for others, I’m not so sure.

What is my point with this question? For one thing, it is to get us to think about it because we rarely do in today’s world. We are so busy running around doing things, going places, getting things done or going to the doctor’s office until we seem to be in a continual spin cycle. We never really settle down long enough to think about who or even what is most important to us or to our family while we have the time to think about it.

And really, if you sit down for about ten or fifteen minutes you will realize exactly what I am talking about. We don’t sit and talk much anymore. We are texting each other or liking a post or a picture or something funny which we share with our “friends” on Facebook. What did all of that accomplish? What does our electronic “friends list” actually mean in our lives? Do you really know these people or did you accept their request because you both have a friend in common?

What about taking one day every week and spending it with actual friends while learning more about our Savior at church. No pushing to make a change in your life. No asking for money that you don’t think you have to give for the work of the church. Just friends meeting at church and listening to a study of God’s Word for about an hour or so. God loves you and me and everyone else in this world but He also knows which ones will spend time with Him whether it is daily or weekly or just occasionally.

How would your friends feel if you only spent time with them on special occasions? How about once or twice in a month? How would your family feel if you did this? God loves each of us more deeply than our family members do and yet many of us don’t give Him or His Word much time at all in our lives. Many of us don’t spend as much time reading the Bible as we do liking pictures on Facebook each day or even in a week’s time!

There would be a massive revival in America if we could get off of Twitter or Facebook and pay attention to God’s Word at least as much as we did to those social media pages!

If we read God’s Word as much as we read social media in our country, the world around us would be impacted in ways that we cannot imagine right now.

God should be more important to each of us than our “friends” or even our family because He made it possible for us to have eternal life with Him. Eternity without Him is a pointless existence but it will happen if you leave Him out of your life until you die and then its too late to change that outcome.

Think about it while you can today…right now in fact because you don’t know when your time is up.

Is God in control?


First and foremost, God is sovereign. Nothing that happens in the whole universe is a surprise to Him. Not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father’s will (Matthew 10:29).

So, why do we look around at all of the tragedies and the aborted babies and think that God either has a part in it or He doesn’t care about them at all? God does care and one day soon the whole world will see this and understand. They may not like what they see or how they come to understand that He is in control…but they will come to that conclusion.

Is our life in His control as well? Not in the sense that He makes us do things in our everyday lives, but He does cause things to work together for our good in the trials which we face. We may not see that this is happening and it may not feel that way at the time but God is in control. Whether the outcome is good or bad or better than we expected it to be, it is He that directs our path and the outcome as well.

There seem to be more people in America who think that they know better than God about how to live their lives, especially when it comes to being “moral” or “good”. God is still in control and always has been yet people want to argue with Christians about the “mythical” book which is the Word of God. There are too many archaeological proofs which have been found all over the Middle East which point to verses in the Bible. Proving that a city or a place which was mentioned in God’s Word actually exists.

In America, it seems that since our country has always been identified as a “Christian nation” many people here seem to take the message of Jesus for granted. We don’t seem to put much weight in preaching or learning about Jesus or about our own sinful condition which He came to save us from. Also, it seems that nobody looks at or even cares about where their eternal destination may be, even though that is what most of the New Testament was written to prepare us for!

Our lives, as short as they are by comparison to eternity, are the spiritual proving ground for that life which we enter into after this one is done. The problem in America seems to be that nobody wants to learn about it (eternity) and they don’t want to hear about their own sins or how to live righteously while going through this life. I did not say that we could live without sin, but living a righteous life is possible even when we fall and make mistakes in this life.

Living a righteous life is actually what we are called to do as a Christian. By prayer and telling others about Jesus, essentially showing the fruit of the Spirit in your life and in your walk with Jesus every day…that is living a righteous life in Christ!

Image result for fruit of the Spirit

Jesus, our Redeemer, and our Shepherd knows His own and He can see the fruit which we produce in our lives and in the lives which we live through Him while we are walking with Him in this life. Is it easy to be fruitful as a Christian? That depends upon your priorities. If you place more importance on life around you or your career or your family then this life is going to feel like a burden. Some people even treat it as a hindrance to your happiness, but when you do this you are only thinking of this life and not eternity. Live with eternity in your mind so that the life around you doesn’t get in the way.