Category: Believe in the One Who saves

Superstition and fantasy


It seems that the entire world is caught up in superstition and fantasy regarding life and also much of their religious views as well. So, what is the Truth of God? It is found in God’s Word and Jesus is the only way to enter into Heaven. Belief in Him and the atonement which He died and rose again to give to us as a gift of the grace of God is the only pathway which leads to eternity.

Even a new Christian who has only grasped a small amount of His Truth, such as “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” but if they walk in that Truth then no more is required as long as they believe it! They will be included in the congregation of those blessed saints and they are true members of the apostles of Jesus. God has not made it a burdensome chore or task to become a Christian nor is it one to remain in faith to Jesus Christ yet many people try to make it so.

There are many who think that if you don’t keep the Ten Commandments during your daily walk that you have failed at being a follower of Jesus. The problem with this type of thinking is that no person on Earth can keep them perfectly on a daily basis! Jesus was the only One Who could, we are to follow in His steps but we are going to fail at least once every day and probably more than once.

TenCommadmentsGod know that we are not able to keep them, that is why the Ten Commandments are there. To remind each of us of our poverty in faith and to show us that since we have the blood of Jesus covering our sins, no matter the size or severity of our sinful ways, if we have given our heart to Him then we are sanctified by His Righteousness. As He told His disciples, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you“.

I pray that anyone who may read this might give their life to Jesus and follow Him faithfully until He returns, because He is coming soon.

Amen

Focus on God!


When you are in your home with your family, sit down and have a Bible study. Even if you only study a few verses or one chapter, this will show your children that the study of God’s Word is important to you. When you are at work, pray about your Bible studies and meditate on it so that your mind is focused on God during your day. You don’t have to do this for the entire day, but even a few minutes will keep your mind free of distractions.

Listen to Christian music during your drive to and from work or to the grocery store. This small thing will also keep God at the forefront of your day, each day. Why am I saying this? Because those who are against Jesus and His people study their “holy books” and writings much more than we do. We should be at least as versed in our Scriptures as they are in theirs so we could bring to mind any verses which will refute any of their arguments against Jesus.

Our life in Christ is given to us through faith which the Lord gives us when He draws us unto Himself. God loves every person, whether they are Christians or not, but He doesn’t approve of their sinful lives. Every person that is touched by the Holy Spirit and convicted of their need in Jesus Christ should give their hearts to Him, but if they do not then their outcome in eternity is on their own head.

By focusing your daily walk on God and His Wisdom you will keep your mind and your thoughts pointed in the right direction no matter what may be going on around you. God loves you and He does want the best outcome for you. The best way to achieve that is to follow Jesus and walk with Him on a daily basis. This will keep the “darts of Satan” away from you and help you to withstand any temptation which may come along too.

Featured Image -- 3119Remember when Jesus walked on the water and told Peter to come to Him? As long as Peter kept his eyes on Jesus he could walk on the water but when the waves and the storm distracted him, he began to sink. That is the kind of focus we should have in our lives every day! Keep your eyes and your thoughts focused on Jesus and His Kingdom and all of your endeavors for Him will work out just fine.

In this picture, Jesus was walking on a fairly calm water but this is just an artist’s rendering of His walk on the water. Peter was walking during a storm according to Matthew’s account, so the waves would’ve been much larger and likely the reason for Peter’s fear. God can carry us through many storms in life if we will just keep our eyes and our heart focused on Him regardless of what may be happening around us or in our lives.

Are you following Jesus?


In the church today there are many who claim to be following Him, but are they really? The path which is required for us to follow is usually one which is narrow and littered with stones and thorns at times. We have to constantly watch our footing while walking the pathway or we will stumble and fall. Does that cause us to lose our salvation? No, of course not, if it is real and true salvation.

There have been many people who have had emotional experiences at a revival meeting or a gathering where God’s Word is preached and they thought that this was a real experience with Jesus. Why do I bring it up? It’s because after a while they begin to live their lives just like they did before, with no discernable change in their behavior.

Bridge2SalvationA real salvation experience begins with the Holy Spirit convicting you of your need for Jesus. Then you act on that need by confessing your sinful nature and asking Him to come into your heart and change you into the sanctified person which God knows you can be. When that change occurs, there is no doubt about the real change which happens. While it may take a while for you to shed your old ways, the Holy Spirit will convict you when you are doing something outside of God’s will for your life. Therefore, you will not go back to your “old ways”, at least not permanently.

Will you stumble and fall off of the path? Yes! It is likely that you will stumble many times, but as long as you get up, ask forgiveness and start again to follow Jesus with prayer and reading the Bible, you will get back on the pathway. It is a process which brings your nature into alignment with the will and nature of Jesus. This doesn’t happen immediately or overnight, but it will happen if you keep seeking His wisdom and praying for His strength in your daily walk with Him.

When you feel the Spirit touch your spirit and you know that you need Him, God has placed a call on you and it has been there since you were born. You may not feel it or notice it for many years or you may submit to it as soon as you do feel it, whatever your age is when that happens. Each of us has a talent and some gifts from God which He has given to us to perform our role in His Kingdom. We won’t find out about them until we are a part of His Kingdom and He may give us more talents to use after we accept His gift of salvation.

Each one of us is known by God even before we are born and He knows what we are capable of doing and being in His Kingdom because He placed those gifts and talents within us before our birth. I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Jesus and learn of His sacrifice for each of us then ask Him to come into your life and make you into the person which you were meant to be for the glory of God the Father!

Chesed


This is an Old Testament term meaning an oath-bound commitment expressing freely given love. The closest English term for this is devotion. In the Old Testament, it is almost exclusively used for God’s sovereign devotion to His own people. In our modern times, I suppose you would think of a parent’s love for their children as an expression of devotion.Related image

Although, many people today seem to think that God doesn’t care about us when, in fact, He cares very deeply for us! We may not perceive it as clearly and openly as we do with each other, but His love for us is much deeper than we can understand or comprehend today.

God provides for us, collectively and individually, everything that we need. Yet, we worry about things which usually means we are worried about something which we rarely have control of anyway. His love and His presence are available all of the time because He never leaves us, but if we don’t practice our prayer life and being aware of Him we will feel as though He isn’t there.

In your daily life, you can see the evidence of Him all around you. In the clouds and the trees and the wildlife which you see during the day and in the sky with its stars at night! He is present in your child’s laugh and in a baby’s cry. God is in and around you whether you actually believe in Him or not, but He wants you to know Him and He wants to know you better too.

Whenever you feel His Presence, answer His call in your life and in your heart. Why? Because He is devoted to your life and your well being, no matter what you may be going through…even if it is stage 4 cancer or a horrible accident. He is there to give you strength and healing if that is His will for your life. Sometimes He may use your death for a purpose which you don’t know about yet, but if you belong to Him then you will see the outcome when you are with Him. Every good thing in life comes from Him, every bad thing is allowed to happen because there is something good which will come from it.

Just as the time when Jesus delayed coming to Lazarus‘ side when he was ill, there was glory and honor to be given to God the Father because of his death. If Jesus had come before he died, He could’ve healed him of his illness, but a greater glory was shown because Jesus called him from the grave after four days.

John 11: 41-44 KJV

41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go.

Broken relationships


In today’s world, there are many of these. You see them on television shows and on the news and in families everywhere. Many of these broken relationships are in our churches and in schools and in the books which children and young adults read. It seems that we are teaching the next generation that a broken relationship is…well, normal.

Even in the Bible, there are many broken relationships. It even begins in the Garden of Eden where Adam and his wife disobeyed God’s command to not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. But, that isn’t the only time that God and His Creation are estranged. The people that He chose to be His people turned away from Him even after He liberated them from slavery after over four hundred years. Later, when they were in their promised land, they began worshiping other gods and marrying into the other “cultures” around them.

These broken relationships kept becoming more normal in the Bible all through the history of the Jewish people. They would mend their relationship with God, then they would forsake Him again and it became a pattern. Over and over again, all through the Old Testament God would use one king or a nation to punish Israel for a time and then He would rescue them.

Our world today is no different. We seek out relationships with people or a career for a time and then we break that relationship in some way and seek out another. Sometimes we will find one which we can stick with, either by accident or by God’s will and it is usually by the latter. Truly, life has a way of imitating God’s Word in some form, even if we don’t believe in God. But, for many of us who become Christians, God does have a way of working our life around until we have finally “came to his senses” like the prodigal son did.

No matter how broken your life may be or even how broken your relationship may be, God can help you fix it. IF, you will seek His help in fixing the mess you have made. Own your mistakes and realize that it was you who caused the broken and crumbling relationship in your life and between yourself and God. He doesn’t change His mind about how He feels about you because His love for us is eternal. It is usually us who have changed some part of the relationship or even allowed sin to get in the way, between us and our Savior.

Our sin which causes this breach may not be a very grievous sin in our eyes, but any sin is capable of placing a barrier between us and God. The barrier may be small at first, but if left alone it will grow. Especially if you don’t confess it and ask forgiveness for it. If you just ignore it because it was such a “little” sin, the next one will add to the separation and it will get worse. Don’t add to the problem, seek His wisdom and His forgiveness before the separation gets so large that it is hard for you to speak to Him.

Bible-brokenness

Are you ready?


In the parable of the ten virgins, five were ready to meet the Bridegroom and five were not. Which group are you in?

Are you seeking His wisdom and taking Him with you on a daily basis or do you attend church occasionally and only read the Bible when you are there? We are expected to be faithfully working for His Kingdom daily in the faith and the hope of His return at any time. The “works” that we do are not where our salvation comes from but they are the fruit which we should be producing in our lives.

There are many studies which show that our country is not the Christian nation which was envisioned by the settlers who originally came here. We claim to be Christians, at least 70% or a few more do, but when the questions get down to the small degrees of service and reading the Bible, the percentage drops quite a bit. Although, earlier today I read an article which said that even though many are leaving some mainline churches they are going to nondenominational churches and serving God more fervently than ever.

Churches are losing people because of their liberal doctrines and by not following the Bible’s teachings faithfully. God is glorified when we are satisfied and faithful to Him in our praise! Being satisfied with God is the most honoring and happy with God Who has paid for your salvation through Jesus’ blood! Live your life in persuit of Him and His service into eternity because He has sought you out to be His child!

In the parable of the ten virgins, the five who made sure of their lamp’s never being without oil shows a persistence of their belief in the Bridegroom’s coming. They didn’t know when He would come but they made sure that they had enough faith (oil) to carry them until He did come for them. This is exactly what we are supposed to do with our faith today, be persistent in seeking Him in everything that we do until He does come for those who believe in Him.

As Jesus said: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you.” By serving Him and having faith in His Word, we show that we are His and He is ours through faith, amen. We are called to be His when we feel the Holy Spirit touch our hearts and when we answer that call by accepting Jesus as our Savior then we are made into a new creation through the blood of Jesus washing our sins clean. Just as Jesus healed the ten lepers when He told them to go and show themselves to the priest and as they went they were made clean. It was their belief that they would receive the healing from Jesus and His willingness to heal them which made the healing possible.

God is our Creator and He is willing for all to come to know Jesus as Savior but it is our stubbornness which gets in the way most of the time. We choose not to believe in Him because salvation couldn’t be that easy or we want to add something to it so that we “help” Him in our salvation and that’s not how it works.

Make sure that you are one which has his lamp full and that you have an extra amount of oil to keep your lamp lit until He comes.

 

What is sin?


The dictionary defines a sin like this: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.

TenCommadmentsGod’s divine law is given in the Ten Commandments: Exodus 20

1 “You shall have no other gods before me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

In some way, each of us has broken at least one of these commandments on a daily basis. None of us are perfectly able to keep even these commandments every day, all day. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

We may not have a graven image of our job or our wife or any other thing in our home but if we place more importance in those than we do in worshiping God, we have created our own “god” from something or a person who can’t fulfill that role. Your position cannot fulfill your life and neither can your home or your car or any person in this world. You can find happiness in your relationship or in your job, but it is not an eternal happiness because your job is not permanent and your wife or husband is not a god.

Placing someone or something on a pedestal and elevating them or it to a position which cannot be true in the sense of being a “god” is foolish, but some people do exactly that. They may not think that they are or they may not recognize their behavior as worship toward a person or some other thing besides the True Creator, but God knows their heart. He knows exactly who it is that they revere and have placed in His position and on His throne but God doesn’t share His throne.

Make sure of your worship and your salvation before the time of grace runs out.

Forgiving others


In so many ways, forgiving others is difficult and sometimes impossible without the love of Jesus flowing through our hearts. Forgetting the offense of our friends or family is not nearly so easy as forgiving them. An offense from friends or family is usually a very deep offense anyway and forgetting it takes lots of prayers and wisdom gleaned from the Bible during the time that we spend trying to heal from it.

Of course, Satan doesn’t help either. He keeps bringing up the offense and bringing it up, and bringing it up until it is maddening! I struggled with this after my divorce years ago, but with LOTS of prayers and reading the Bible and more prayers and more reading of God’s Word I have finally forgiven my ex-wife, but there are still times where Satan will dredge a memory or two back up. So, the process is never really over at least in this life.

We are forgiven of our sins through the blood of Jesus and it was shed for every person on the Earth, but it is up to the Spirit drawing you to Jesus and convicting you that you need Him which will convince you to give your heart to Him and ask forgiveness. It truly is your decision to accept it, God doesn’t force salvation on you. Even when you know you need Him it is still your decision and if you decide not to accept Him then if you die without Him, you are responsible for where your eternity is spent.

Forgiving others is part of our walk with Jesus. The Bible says “if you come to the altar and remember a slight against your brother, leave your sacrifice and be reconciled first“; so forgiveness between brothers or sisters in Christ is more important than a sacrifice. Because with unforgiven slights in your heart, you can’t fully serve the Lord in gladness until it is taken care of. We are supposed to allow the Love of Jesus to flow through us toward others even when we feel slighted or hurt in some way. Even if it is something that may be a month or even a year in the past, get it out in the open and ask forgiveness for it even if one party has forgotten the offense, the hurt, and the pain can still be there.

Through the Spirit of Christ and some determination, we can forgive even the most heinous of offenses with time. But that takes a lot of prayer and meditation on the Scriptures and seeking the Lord’s will in your walk with Him. Forgiving is not easy and forgetting an offense can be even harder, mainly because Satan and his cohorts will bring these memories to the front again even when you have managed to forget them for a time.

God loves each of us much deeper and intimately than you can imagine but we won’t truly know the depth of His love for us until we are in Heaven with Him. That is why we must walk with Him on a daily basis during this life so that we can truly enjoy His Presence for eternity!

Wounds which don’t heal…


The little saying which many of us used to say when we were children is not exactly true. Consider it today: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.

TasteyourWordsIn today’s social media and in the news, as well as in everyday life, words CAN cause much pain and hurt. Many times cutting so deep until healing may never completely happen. Not because we don’t forgive but maybe because our mind won’t let go of the hurtful tones, whether it was in a comment on FB or over the phone or even by text.

Healing from a misspoken word or phrase is difficult, especially when the tone of it was harsh even if it wasn’t intended to be harsh. Your tongue is described in the Bible as a fire which cannot be tamed and many times in life that is exactly what it feels like. The damage which a word or the tone of a phrase spoken can cause irreparable pain whether it was intentional or not.

Between spouses, words can cut deeply when anger is involved and at times this can separate a couple and even be the cause of a divorce. The same can happen between friends or even in a congregation in church when there are opposing opinions and an argument over something happens. Words spoken cannot be taken back just as a bullet fired from a gun cannot be halted before injury or death occurs.

The only difference is that the injury caused by a comment or a word, whether spoken or written, can cut so deeply until the injury may never heal unless the Spirit of God gets involved in the healing process. God is a great Healer and He can bring healing to a painful wound from a friend or even an aquaintence.

I pray that I have not written anything which has hurt anyone’s feelings, but if I have caused any hurt feelings in any way, please forgive me. I have been told that I do “open mouth and insert foot” before and many of us do just that and sometimes we do cause pain by our words or the tone of those words. Maybe unintentionally but the hurt and the pain are real and the pain sometimes takes a while to heal, if it ever does. Unintentional pain caused by a word or a tone cuts deeper at times whether it is from a comment on FB or a spoken comment to someone which is overheard or spoken directly to them.

Is God your pursuit?


Do you run after God? Do you seek Him daily? If you don’t know Him, you should.

Many of us who are Christians get to a point where we feel comfortable in our spot. We feel like we have our salvation and we’ve learned and studied a good bit of the Bible and after X-number of years, we feel we should just cruise until we are called home to Heaven. Are you so knowledgeable about the Bible and its wisdom that you don’t need to read it or study it anymore?

I don’t think any pastor, evangelist, or layman should ever feel that they know the Bible so intimately that they can lay it down and never study it again. I have only read the Bible through about seven or eight times since I became a pastor seven years ago and I learn something new and fresh every time I read it. If I try to take a break from my Bible studies for a few days or even a week…I feel out of touch with God and I feel as if I have lost something precious.

If I do take those “days off”, I actually have lost something precious. My lifeline to our Creator and the wisdom which I can glean from His Word and from fellowship with Him on a daily basis. Can you take a break from learning from God? Yes, you can and the longer the break or the pause is, the more you are missing. Life is not the same when you have put your Guidebook down and that is exactly what the Bible, God’s Word, is for us!

GodNeverFailsLiving with His Word on a daily basis, studying it and prayerfully asking Him to reveal Himself to you in His Word is the Christian Life and once you get used to having His Presence in your life daily you will truly miss Him and His Word when you don’t read it. Some people would say that it has become a habit, but it is a relationship. Consider this: you wouldn’t marry your spouse and then only visit them once or twice a week would you?

Well, the relationship that you are supposed to have with God and His Son is supposed to be at least as important to your life as a Christian as your relationship with your spouse! That is the very reason why Jesus said for each of us to “take up his cross and follow Him” daily. Your cross can be your burden of studying His Word or it can be taking Him into your business or your workplace, but reading the Bible and prayer should be a part of your life every day regardless of your circumstances in life.

Being a daily Christian is very different from being a person who attends church occasionally such as weddings or funerals or just for specific holidays. God loves each one of us so much that He sent His Son to give His life for our sins so that we can have a real relationship with Him. A relationship which doesn’t end when your life does but continues into eternity and it becomes a deeper relationship in eternity because you are in His Presence.

I pray that you will give a relationship with Him some serious consideration because none of us know when our life will end and it is only during this life where we get the chance to change our life by asking Him to come into our hearts and change us. This decision will change you into the person, the son or daughter, that God knows you can be so don’t put this decision off, make sure to take care of your eternity today.