Dear America,

Have you considered that we have never looked at our condition religiously? Our country and its people have never actually thought of Christianity as our religion. Specifically, since our government doesn’t endorse or choose any particular religion for our nation. Our people have many denominations and religions in our country and today we also have many who don’t claim any belief in God or religion.

So have you thought about any of this? Is it possible that we truly need religion? There are so many who commit suicide on a daily basis and we have so many who are struggling with drugs and alcohol on a daily basis too. So…what is the fix or the cure for this emptiness which we seem to be dealing with?

Whether our country as a whole wants to believe it or not, the answer actually is a relationship with Jesus. The empty place in all of our lives which we try to fill with all sorts of things from sex or money or careers and even family is only filled by one Person. Jesus Christ. That is the missing piece of the puzzle which we have been searching for all of our lives!

It isn’t a hard thing to do but in a society which prides itself on its independence, individually and collectively, we don’t want to depend upon any one person whether it is a Savior or even a spouse or a friend. Except when you look at the feeling of hope which He brings into our collective conscience. So why don’t we look to Him for our hope? Why can’t we do this so our country can have more hope?

Hope hasn’t died but to look at the news, you would think it has. Hope is in the Person of Jesus, Love is Jesus and He is Love for all of us because He did love us enough to give His life on the cross to pay the debt which we owed because of our sins. Even those of us where weren’t born when He did this still owe the debt if we haven’t given our hearts to Him.

I pray that those of you reading this will give Jesus a chance in your life. If for no other reason than to fill that empty place and give you hope for eternity and a heart full of gratitude for a Creator Who loves you more than you can imagine. Please, seek Jesus out for your soul and for your eternal hope because it is needed in our country today.

You are special

When God called Jeremiah He told him this: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 NASB

OnlyJesuscansaveYou In truth and by His admission we are all known by God in this way. He has a plan and a purpose for each of us but it is up to us to fulfill that plan and purpose in His Kingdom. Why do I place the responsibility on each of us? Because God doesn’t bring us into this world as automatons! We have a choice! His call may touch us in our twenties but, like me, you may not actually answer that call until almost thirty years later!

Oh, you may get saved and ask Jesus into your life before you answer the call on your life but you still have a choice of doing what God wants you to do with your salvation and your life in Christ. Could Saul have chosen not to be the apostle to go to the Gentile nations around Israel? Actually, I don’t think that he could have said no to Jesus because of the way Jesus spoke to him directly. But…we can choose and many people do choose not to be what God wants them to be.

It is kinda sad though because Jesus gave all of His Life for our salvation so you would think that we could at least be thankful enough to give our lives to Him in return! But many people who do give their heart to Jesus do it and then go back to their way of living and that is wrong! It is hard to reconcile the changed heart which Jesus gives us when we truly accept Him as our Savior and then watch someone go from studying their Bible back to living in the world which they were supposed to leave behind.

Some people claim to have done just that but when you ask them if they are you saved, they will tell you they are. Even if they are living with someone or drinking and smoking and even using cuss words, they will tell you that Jesus is their Savior. It is at times like this that I just pray for them and usually I ask God to watch over them because only He knows the condition of their heart and soul. I do not.

We are not to try to judge a person’s salvation because we can’t. That is something that only God knows for sure. If their name is in the Book of Life then that is wonderful, regardless of what their life may be to everyone around them. We may be surprised one day to find many in Heaven who we didn’t think would make the cut and we will be just as surprised at those who will be told: “Depart from me for I never knew you.”

I pray that I am included in the few who will be welcomed into Heaven and hopefully those in my church family and my immediate family will be too. Please, make that choice today if you have not. My words here are not of my own choosing but come from my Spirit and I pray that you are saved and sanctified by Jesus because there are no second chances in this decision. If it isn’t done before your life ends then it is too late.

Father’s Day

Before any of us who are fathers became fathers, God had a plan for us. Being in a relationship with our wives, we were and are supposed to be the religious leader of our household. We are to be the example of being the leader in our own home. Some even go so far as to call us “kings and priests”, although that might get each of us in trouble if we tried to actually live that way at home.

God knows each of us and our strengths and our weaknesses which is why we have our helpers, our wives, to take over in those areas where we may fall short. Which is what God designed marriage for, it is supposed to be a partnership in which each gives one hundred percent to whatever the goal may be. It isn’t a 50/50 agreement.

Fathers in Scripture had a tremendous responsibility. They were the priests of their household, particularly in Job’s case but also in the majority of households in Jewish society. So why don’t Christians live this way and do these same idealistic things which need to be done?

In today’s society even being a Christian, whether you are male or female, is frowned upon. So being a father who is bringing his children up in a Christian home and training them to look to God’s wisdom is also looked down on as well. His children may even be bullied or endure some other form of persecution because of it. Why is this? I think it is because there are too few fathers who actually teach their children about God’s wisdom from the Bible.

In Joshua 24:15 he told the Israelites what they should do and what he and his house would do:

15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

In Proverbs 3:11-12, Solomon wrote these words: 11 My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

We as fathers have a responsibility to teach our children to be Christian men and women. This can be done as a family or just by the father but it should be a family night study where the father leads the family in this. This is not my idea, it is in God’s Word that men are supposed to do and be the religious leader of their household.

If you are a Christian and you neglect to do this then the consequences of your inaction will fall on your children. If you don’t model and reflect Jesus in their eyes, then you are failing them in many ways. Don’t be the father who has not shown Jesus to his family in whatever life situation you may find yourself in.

God expects each of us, as fathers, to do these things which He outlined in His Word. But, many of us today don’t read the Bible enough to know what God expects of us. I encourage you to get started reading His Word and learn what your responsibility to God and to your family really is. While it is true that our responsibility is to be fathers and husbands it is also true that we are to be the priests of our family, the religious leaders in our homes.

God expects us to do this and yet many don’t know what they are supposed to do because, even as Christians, we only read our Bibles or listen to sermons when we are at a church service. This is not the way to follow and know Jesus. Yes, the Bible was written a long time ago but when you study it…God’s Word reads you and your heart as well. His Word gives each of us different wisdom when we read it prayerfully and earnestly. Not as a book but as The Book, our guide to a Life with Jesus.

It is our duty as men and fathers and parents to lead our family by our example and if that example is one based on God’s Word then our future and that of our children and their children will be assured in Christ. Don’t neglect your calling as a father and a husband because we are called by God when we are granted children to raise and they become what they have seen in our lives. If they don’t, then we have failed them and failed in our calling as well.

Be the leader and the father that God intended for you to be, even if it is hard to do, seek out His Wisdom for your life and the advice which you need in this life so that you can lead your family into the next Life in eternity.

Which door will you be taking?

Have you ever considered whether you are on the way to Heaven or hell? There is only one way to Heaven and that is with belief in Jesus and His atonement for us which was paid for on the cross.

DoorwaytoLife

God’s love for us came with the appearance of Jesus and His sacrifice for all of our sins. All you have to do is believe in Him and repent of your old life and your sins. Don’t take the easy way or the way that seems to be the way which everyone else is on. Follow Jesus, ask Him to become your Savior when you feel convicted of your sins, whatever they may be!

There will be many religious people on that broad road and many will be going through the big doorway. Many of them will believe that they have been Christians for years since they attend church semi-regularly, but going through the motions of going to church and giving tithes and reading your Bible isn’t enough. If Jesus isn’t in your heart and if He hasn’t changed your life then all of those things mean nothing!

If it would surprise someone to know that you even attend church then you need to seek your salvation through God’s Word and repentance before it is too late.

Is the Bible true?

There have been archaeological finds which have proven that many of the places and cities which are mentioned in the Bible are real and are or were in the places where the Bible says they were. If this is true then why should we doubt the veracity of Scripture? Do we doubt it because we don’t want it to be true?

Among Christians, there is only about thirty percent on average who claim to believe that it is the inspired Word of God. These are not Catholics but Protestants, and of those, the numbers go down with the amount of education that they have. The most educated of them only believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God in about ten to fifteen percent of the polls taken.

Why does more education lead to less belief in the Bible? It doesn’t change because you have a Ph.D. or a Master’s degree, so what caused those with graduate degrees to discount the Bible? I think it is because of the liberal education system which pushes evolution theory as fact and all sorts of liberal ideas which contradict the wisdom found in scripture.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Lab Science but that only reinforced my belief in God and His wondrous works! Our cells and the cells of bacteria are so complex until there is no possible explanation for our existence except that God created everything that is here and out in the universe. Look at a drop of pond water under a microscope and see all of the small single cell and multicellular creatures swimming in it! Those did not come about by accident or evolution, they are there because the Creator brought them all into existence when He made our world.

I will not reverse my belief in Him for someone’s idea or theory and I will not discount the truthfulness of God’s Word in the Bible. Why? Because if by some weird coincidence that the Bible is just a “book of fables” then when I die I am just buried in the ground and that’s that…but if what I believe is true then my life goes on into eternity in Heaven and that is where my Hope is. It is in Jesus, the Son of the Living God!

“Absent from the body, present with the Lord“; that is what I believe and will continue to do so until I am in that glorious place with my Lord and Savior. Won’t you join me?

The End times prophecy

OurGodisAble If you are a student of the Bible, you can see these things happening all around us. Their fulfillment may not be earthshaking right now but keep your eyes on Jesus and pray that you will be counted worthy to be saved from the trouble which is coming. God doesn’t want us to perish but those who have ignored the signs and the preaching that they have heard will do so to their peril.

These prophecies are specific, if you believe that the Bible is true, don’t discount their accuracy out of hand. Keep watching and praying that you will be able to bear the trials which are coming soon. It is very likely that we will see some sort of persecution in America prior to our Lord’s call for the dead in Christ to rise, so we all should be watching and praying that our walk with Him is true and our faith is strong toward Him.

Jesus described many of the things which we are seeing in the news to His disciples, although many have claimed that those were fulfilled during their lifetimes. Many other parts of His discourse actually had two prophetic meanings. One for the near future and one part which was for our time.

8 Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and rebellions, do not be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end is not imminent.”

Witnessing to All Nations
(Matthew 24:9-14; Mark 13:10-13)

10 Then He told them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

12 But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. On account of My name, they will deliver you to the synagogues and prisons, and they will bring you before kings and governors. 13 This will be your opportunity to serve as witnesses. 14 So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. 17 And you will be hated by everyone because of My name. 18 Yet not even a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your patient endurance, you will gain your souls.

Many of these things did happen to the disciples before their lives ended but there are some prophecies which have a dual meaning, one for the immediate future and one for a later time and this is what is happening here. Many of these prophecies are happening right now, small though they may be so the media doesn’t notice many of them. We are living in the immediate future prior to the “time of testing” or the Tribulation. I pray that all who read this will seek Jesus as their Savior before it is too late to do so.

Life after death

1 Corinthians 15: 12-20

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not.

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

If we believe in Jesus the Christ and His resurrection then we will be raised to life with Him one day. This is the very thing which Paul was writing to the Corinthian church about because some were saying that there is no resurrection or life after death. Jesus said that there was and He proved it by coming out of the grave like He said He would.

WhereAreYouGoing If there is no life after death or resurrection then our faith in Him is useless and the word which we preach is false. But the Word of God is truth and all of His Words are true so there is life after this one. Whether it is to a heavenly home or to be cast into hell is your choice by choosing to believe in Jesus and His redemptive power for your life or not. It is your choice and it is your decision about this which will determine which eternity you will endure or enjoy…so make the right choice for you.

Don’t turn away from His offer of forgiveness and eternal life with Him because without Him eternity will be punishment and pain because of your own choice of not believing in His redemptive power.

God is always near you whether you believe it or not. Whether you have accepted Him as your Savior or not, He still knows where you are and what you are doing at any time. You cannot hide from Him or get away from His sight, so it is best not to try. Give your heart to Him when you feel His touch on your heart, repent of your sins and follow Him as the disciples did. That way your eternity will be secure and safe in His home which He prepared for you.

Jesus came and died for the sins of all mankind. Whether you accept His offer of salvation through what He did for you or not is still your choice. It is not God who sends people to hell but it is your own choice about believing or not in the One who died for you which will send you to heaven or hell.

Consider your life

Have you ever really sat down and thought about what has happened in your life? I know that most young people may not think about their lives much, but as the years add up you owe it to yourself to do so. Why do I say this? Because you don’t know when your time may be up that’s why.

We can be good people, morally and spiritually at least in our own estimation. But, will that be enough? Will that be good enough to get you into Heaven? According to God’s Word, no it won’t be enough. Why? Because morality and righteousness on our own terms are not enough and it’s not good enough.

God made a way for us to be acceptable and forgiven through faith and belief in Jesus and what He did on the cross almost two thousand years ago. Which does not require anything of us including works of any kind or money, just accept it through faith and believe in Jesus and the forgiveness which was paid for in His blood.

Pathways As the Bible says there is a wide road and a narrow road, some are traveling by one or the other. Many of those on the wide road attend church but they haven’t given their hearts to Jesus. They are just going through the motions of being “Christians” in their own minds but not in their hearts. I pray that most of those will wake up to their mistake before it is too late.

God extends His love toward all which He proved with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The debt of sin has been paid but if you don’t heed God’s call on your life and accept it then your eternity will be much different than what you think it may be. Make sure of your salvation before your time on Earth is up because we never know when that time might be. If you have felt the prodding of the Holy Spirit in your life, seek Jesus out in Scripture and repent today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us even if we have made plans. God may have different plans for us.

Seek salvation through repentance and giving your heart to Jesus while you can. When your life is over here there are no second chances.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God…..” because He is a gracious God and a merciful One and will forgive you for your sins if you will repent and seek Jesus in your life.

RomanRoad2Salvation

Make sure of your salvation before it is too late. Amen

Be thankful

Happy-Thanksgiving-Quotes Thank God for waking you this morning.

Thank Jesus for paying for your sins.

Thank Him for making it possible for you to enter into Heaven one day.

Be thankful that God doesn’t punish our sins immediately when we forget to ask forgiveness.

Be thankful for His grace and mercy which is poured out for all of us each day.

Be thankful for all that you have and for the unanswered prayers that you thought you needed but didn’t.

Be thankful for the sunlight and the rain and the cool fall breezes to come.

Be thankful for the food that God gives you through His Word and from the garden.

Be thankful for the Living Water which flows from His Word which refreshes your soul and renews your mind as you read it.

Thank you, Lord, for all of the wonderful blessings which we receive from your hands each day…even when we take most of them for granted and don’t thank you for them like we should.

Thank you, Lord, for being our Shepherd and our Savior and our King.

Amen

Life…

Your life and mine is a path which we follow all the days of it. Walking in Jesus’ footsteps is the only sure way to Heaven, any other path may be easier but it will lead you astray.

Seeking to find your own way to Heaven will only lead you to an eternity of pain and suffering if you have not followed Jesus in your lifetime. Even if your life here was comfortable and filled with many good things, like the rich man you will burn in hell if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior.

Our good deeds in this life are useless compared to being saved and sanctified by Jesus. Because the works which we do, like giving money and time to charity and helping those who are in need, are useless unless we are doing them in the name of Jesus and with His Spirit loving those that we are helping. Without His love working through us in this world, there is no amount of money or anything else which can make a difference into eternity.

Make sure that you seek Him in all things while you are here because when this life is over and your work for Him is done, eternity awaits you. Make sure of your salvation in Jesus.

Amen VineandBranches