Category: Believe in the One Who saves

So little time


Why the title of “So little time”? Because we are so close to the end of the age that’s why! I am not going to try to predict anything here, but if you pay attention to the events happening around the world, we are getting very close. When will the church be taken up to Heaven? I have no idea. It could be tonight or three months from now or even three years from now. But, in God’s time, it will happen and it will likely happen sooner than most people think it will.

The timing of the “rapture” of the church and its believers and the beginning of the Tribulation are entirely up to God. There are no clues which give the date for these things found in the Bible. There are some prophecies which foretell the things which will happen before that day and many of those are happening right now. But to think that you can come up with a date and time is foolish. God’s Word is not that specific for clues to the Tribulation or the time of the rapture as some seem to think it is.

God cares for the whole human race and He is working to bring as many to a saving grace through Jesus as possible before that day comes. He is the only Person who knows the end from the beginning and He knows the names written in the Book of Life. When those are fulfilled and no more are joining the ranks of the Bride of Christ, which is the church redeemed, then the trumpet will sound and there will be a shout for all of the dead in Christ to rise! Then those of us who are alive will be caught up with them to be with Him forever.

This prophecy is the only one left to be fulfilled before the Tribulation begins. It will begin with the peace treaty between Israel and its enemies all around it, but until then everything will continue on as it has before. Your eternity, whether you believe in God or Jesus or not, will be determined by your decision toward Him. You will enter into eternity by being judged by the actions of your life OR you will be welcomed into eternity by being a redeemed sinner covered by the blood of Jesus.

I know there are some who think that Christianity is a “bloody religion” just because of the death of Jesus on the cross. It could be called that because it is the blood of Jesus which paid the debt for all of our sins, but we are talking about His blood, the Lamb of God, which took away the sins of the world! Whether everyone accepts this or not, and most don’t, it is still part of what God put in place for our redemption. You can choose to believe in it and the Person who died and rose again for you or not, but the fact is that your belief in Him and what He did is the only way to gain access to Heaven.

God provided this and it was put in motion long before the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. As the Bible says, “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world“, Jesus was prepared to die for all of mankind even before Adam was created! Make sure of your eternity and place your faith in Him. Amen

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Coming or going?


Our church is having a homecoming service this weekend, today actually, and I was wondering this morning about whether we are coming or going? Are you going to church or coming home from church? Will you be coming to the homecoming or going to a home-going one day?

What do I mean by a home-going? I am speaking of one of two totally different events actually. Either you will die and awaken in Heaven or the Trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise and those of us who remain will be caught up in the air to meet Him! That is the home-going of which I speak. We are only visiting the Earth for a while and during the times in which we are living, we are very close to that day of which Paul speaks.

When our home-going takes place, the world will be changed dramatically. All of the Christians in the world will vanish, graves will open and the bodies of those who believed in Jesus prior to their deaths will rejoin their Spirits in the air to meet Jesus! The world will be perplexed and wondering what is going on. Many won’t understand,  but some will know because they have been to church many times, they may have gotten baptized at some point in their lives but they never gave Jesus another thought after that.

Those people who have been in church at some point in their lives will know what happened even if they were left behind. Life on Earth will get progressively worse because the Tribulation will begin soon after these things.

Why am I writing this on a day when we are having a homecoming? Because there are many people who don’t know Jesus even if they come to church, that’s why. God loves every person on the Earth, which is why He sent Jesus to pay for their sins, but He knows that all of them won’t give their lives to Jesus and ask forgiveness for their sins. I pray that most of you who read this will consider that God loves you and Jesus died for you, so please ask Him to forgive you and grant you salvation through Him.

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How much more?


How much more will we have to live through in this world? Wars, pestilence, murder, abortions, gangs, and violence of all kinds, perversion of all sorts on TV and on the Internet and it seems to be getting worse! When will the Lord put an end to all of this?

There is an answer to that question. When He returns to rule the Earth with a rod of iron, that is when all of this will end. Until that day comes, people will have to live with it or through it until He comes. His return will happen AFTER the seven years of the Tribulation which will bring hell to Earth and many millions will die during that time.

Not a very good future to look forward to is it?

heaven-or-hell-eternal-destinyIf you are a Christian in your heart and you are taken up when the dead in Christ rise prior to this time, then you don’t have anything to fear. If you are not a Christian or if you have been “playing” church and going through the motions but never gave your heart to Jesus then you will have to endure as far as you can through the Tribulation.

God provided a way to come to Him through Jesus and be accepted into Heaven but if you haven’t given your heart to Him and have just pretended to be a Christian or maybe you think you gave your heart to Him, yet you live just like everyone else then your future may be in jeopardy. This is a hard truth to hear, but it must be said because when the church, those believers who have truly been following Jesus, is taken up with the dead in Christ…life is going to be much harder on the world and living in the world will be more dangerous than it is now!

I am not writing this to say that those who are Christians are better than everyone else, but we are forgiven and made into a new creation by giving our hearts to Jesus. Playing church and acting like a Christian on Sundays because you’ve been a member of a church for many years doesn’t change anything. Unless you have truly been convicted by the Holy Spirit and have given your life to Jesus and changed your ways from what you did before knowing Him, then your life is still a part of this world.

VineandBranchesIf you are still a part of this world, then you are not destined for Heaven. Take the time to examine your life and your heart. Are you doing things which you would do if Jesus were with you? If He came to your home tonight, right now, would He find your lifestyle acceptable or would He need to tell you a parable to get your attention? How much of your life would Jesus approve of?

All of us, even preachers, have something in our life or in our home which would probably not meet with Jesus’ approval entirely because none of us are perfect in any way. We can’t keep the Ten Commandments without breaking at least one every day, therefore we have broken them all at some point. I pray that each of us will seek to walk with and follow Him until He comes to take us home. Amen

I will rejoice in the Lord


Habakkuk 3: 18-19: “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior.  The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

When you get a bad diagnosis at the doctor’s office, rejoice in the Lord. When your day doesn’t go very well for you at work…rejoice in the Lord. When you wake in the morning, rejoice in the Lord!

Why do we need to rejoice in the Lord during times of good and in times of bad things? Because we are to give thanks in everything and rejoice in the Lord Who is your Strength and your shield in times of distress and in good times as well. God is always near to His children and even to those who don’t believe in Him and His goodness. He will be there when you call because He is always near you regardless of your circumstances.

There are some friends of mine and some family members too who are going through treatments for cancer or joint problems or recovery from surgeries or from the loss of loved ones and yet God is present in all of their daily problems or in their rejoicing over a good outcome. He is near to all of us when things are good, even though we may not seek Him in those times. He is also near when things aren’t going so well and in those times we usually do seek His favor and His help.

Regardless of your idea about how you get salvation or even prove your salvation, God is near your heart and He loves you. Jesus died for you and paid that debt, all that each of us need to do is to turn to Him when we feel His touch in our hearts convicting us of our sinfulness. If you haven’t done so, please seek Him out while there is yet time in this life.

You don’t get a second chance after this life is over, regardless of what Satan may tell you, he is a liar and always has been. Jesus has never forsaken anyone but there are many who have turned away from Him because of something that they heard from someone else and they believed them rather than Jesus.

I pray that all who read this will seek Him out in your time of need or in your time of good fortune because it is God Who gives you the strength to live through both.

What is the Truth?


For many people in our world today it seems that the “truth” is relative to your situation, whatever that may be. Relative truth is a truth which changes with your area whether it is your business or your residence or the country where you live. But, why is the truth so flexible today? Is it because people don’t want it to be a certain truth? Or maybe it is because each person wants their truth to be one way and they don’t care what your truth is?

The truth of the matter is that Truth is from God and only if you believe in Him will you accept the Truth from His Word!

Our world today seems bent toward NOT accepting His Truth because it is an absolute and they don’t like the absolute part of it. God loved us enough to send Jesus to pay our sin debt in full so that we could learn about His Truth and His love for us through Him. Yet today, we don’t want to learn that Truth and we try as hard as we can to push it away from our schools and our homes.

Many people want to know why is there so much violence and hate in the world today and it is because we have pushed God and His Wisdom out of our education system and out of our homes as well. Many churches today even preach a more “acceptable” gospel, one which makes everyone feel good about themselves rather than preaching His love and His grace to all who will hear it.

Jesus didn’t pull his punches verbally when He spoke to the priests in the Temple and we shouldn’t water down His gospel when we preach it to those who are listening either. God loves you but He will not accept your sinful life into Heaven. Which is why Jesus and John the Baptist said that we should “repent of our sins and be baptized”. Baptism isn’t required to be saved, but it does symbolize the death of our old life buried with Jesus and resurrected to walk in a new Life with Him!

Your old life is what you were convicted of when the Holy Spirit touched your heart and let you know that you were sinful and you needed to be saved through the blood of Jesus. Place your old life, whatever it was, on the cross and leave it there to die. Then ask Jesus into your heart for your creation into a new Creature in Jesus! From that day on, walk with Him, read His Word and pray about what you read so your mind will be renewed along with your Spirit!

Jesus said “seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened” because no person is turned away if they are sincere in their search for salvation. God wants all to come to know Him, but there are few who will make that commitment to Him. Walking every day in the newness of Life which Jesus gives to us is not an easy walk or task. It takes discipline and commitment to walk as He did and learn from Him each day. Which is the reason that it is a pathway or a stairway to Heaven when following Jesus. The way that many people find is the one which they feel comfortable walking and it is not leading them to Heaven, even though Satan makes them think so.WhereAreYouGoing

Jesus is my shield


His Word is a sharp sword and a defense against Satan. As long as I belong to Him, my salvation is sure and my hope for eternity is sure. God loves each of us, whether we believe in Him or not. So, when hard times come and trouble is all around you it is time to trust in the Lord and lean on Him for strength because He will uphold you with His mighty and righteous arm.

God created the entire universe to amaze us about His power and glory and yet we don’t revere Him and give Him the awe and glory that He deserves. God named the stars and placed them in their places so that we can see that He is THE Creator of all things!

Psalm 18:1-6

1 {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,} I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. 4 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. 6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

God is our shield and our fortress, He is our Commander and our Savior, He is not the “man upstairs” or “a higher power” as some think of Him! In their minds, they may be thinking of God when they say those things, but they are not giving Him the respect and honor that He deserves when those words are spoken. God is the I AM and the Alpha and Omega and He is all-powerful! It is time that we started preaching Him in that way and not as a weak and ineffective deity which will punish you when you do wrong!

themissingpieceGod loves each of us, which is why Jesus came to give His life and His blood as a ransom for ALL of humanity! The price was paid for everyone, even though there are many who will not accept His offer of forgiveness and repent of their sinful lives. Forgiveness is there for everyone, like a bank account full of money but it is only going to do something in your life if you use it for His good and His purposes!

Does God care about you or your children? Of course, He does! He created this entire universe to cause us to look up in awe and wonder and see what a mighty and awesome God He is! We aren’t supposed to worship those stars or check our “horoscopes” just to see if we should go outside today! Read your Bible and pray to the One Who hung those stars in their places, Who calls each star by name and makes sure that they are doing their part in His creation!

THAT IS THE GOD WHOM I SERVE AND WORSHIP! Make sure that He is your God and fortress and Savior too!

What happens in between?


God knew when you would be born and He already knows when you will die but what will you do with the life between those two? We don’t know when we will die and I am thankful for that, but what will you do with your time on this Earth?

Jesus told His disciples to go and tell the entire world about the gospel and to bring salvation to many, shouldn’t we do the same? This is exactly what our life is for. We are to live our lives in such a way that other people will hear Jesus speak in our words or see Him in our actions during our lifetime. Is that asking too much? I don’t think so!

He came from Heaven and gave His life to pay a debt that He didn’t owe for people who might not want to know Him! But, He did it anyway. God is amazing in His love for us even when we don’t care about His love or maybe don’t acknowledge Him as God at all.

In between our birth and the day we die there are many things going on. We learn how to talk and walk and how to tie our shoes. We go to school and learn many things that we should and some things that we shouldn’t learn at all. We get a job and maybe get married and have a family and hopefully, we take them to church to learn about our Savior. But…what if we don’t know Jesus as our Savior? What do you teach your children then?

In some families, they teach them how to cheat and lie and steal, but the lying part we know from the time we are toddlers. They also teach them that their only way to make it in this world is to work hard or steal from others or maybe be ruthless in their business dealings regardless of the cost. Living life as an unbeliever is sometimes, not so easy but occasionally Satan will reward you with money and power but then what? Money and power don’t bring happiness in this world.

Most people who have had lots of money have found that the only happiness comes from giving their money away to good causes or charities. But, they are still empty if they don’t know Jesus. Without the Author of Life in your heart, life itself has very little meaning regardless of your wealth.

Jesus came that we might have Life and have it abundantly, meaning that we will be in eternity with Him not that we will have more money than we need here. Consider this: you will be living in a heavenly Jerusalem with streets paved with gold so pure that it looks like glass! That is the life abundant which God has planned for those who believe and have asked Jesus into their hearts for their salvation. Don’t turn away from His call on your life.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

5 “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

Who is God?


Well, that is an easy and a hard question to answer because God is God! He told Moses that He was I AM. So how do we make sense of that? In some ways, most of us try to put Him in a box or we try to see God as being like us or maybe like our father or grandfather. While picturing God and your father or grandfather is flattering to them, it puts limitations on God and it gives Him some very human characteristics which God does NOT have!

We think that God is mean or hateful or maybe He really does love us but He expects a lot from us which we think we can’t accomplish. God’s ways and thoughts are so much above ours until we are all like little children to Him. He is not a human being although Jesus did come to live as a human for a time, so God does know the limitations and our temptations through the life of Jesus.

God is our Creator, meaning that He created everything in the universe including you and me and anyone who will be born in the future or who was born in the past. God is everywhere because He exists beyond our dimension of time and space. He can be wherever He looks or thinks or even whenever He wants to be. God is indescribable because we have no point of reference to know His nature or His face except for the descriptions of Jesus in the gospels.

When Jesus walked the Earth, He was the embodiment of all of God’s nature in human form. So, as we read about the things which He did and said we can get a glimpse of God in the flesh of His Son. Reading the Bible is the only way to know the mind of God because it is inspired by the Holy Spirit so all of it has come from God’s wisdom and has been imparted to us through the writers who made sure to get the words right.

God is the only god in our universe yet many believe that there are others. These “others” are the demons and fallen angels who followed Satan in rebellion who have deceived mankind to make them believe that they are gods and are not. To know the mind of God and to know Him you must read and study His Word, the Bible. The letters and books which are within its pages are all that we need to know Him.

Seek Him out while you have time in your life to make sure of your eternity in His Presence because there is no second chance after your death.

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What will you do?


Many are preaching about our history today. About service and honor and the sacrifices made by those who have served in our Armed Forces and I agree and commend those sacrifices which were made, some of them were the type of sacrifice which required their lives in service to our country. God watches over all of them whether they were or are believers or not.

My sermon this morning has to do with honoring them by telling of our Savior and His sacrifice for us.

He gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty and the debts owed for the sins of the world! He also was raised to life and conquered death and the grave so that we could have the hope of eternity with Him one day. Isn’t that a wonderful and marvelous reward to look forward to?

There are many references to scripture which tell us about our wonderful and awesome Creator and Savior, Jesus. So, let’s go to a few of them.

We are a people of God’s own possession (1 Peter 2:9), chosen before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), destined to be like the Son of God (Romans 8:29), bought with divine blood (Acts 20:28), acquitted and accepted before the court of heaven (Romans 5:1; 15:16), a new creation on the earth (2 Corinthians 5:17), indwelt by the Creator of the universe (1 Corinthians 6:19), sanctified by the body of Jesus (Hebrews 10:10), called to eternal glory (1 Peter 5:10), heirs of the world (Romans 4:13; 1 Corinthians 3:21–23), destined to rule with Christ (Revelation 3:21) and judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). In church, there is a gathering of people who are like-minded in their belief in God and their faith is in Jesus for their salvation. No other religion besides Christianity can boast of this in any way.

When Romans 8:29 says that we will be like the Son of God, it is referring to having an immortal and glorified body. We will not be gods like some believe. God is the only God and He reigns supreme in the universe. Eternity is ahead of us, regardless of which place we spend it in so I would suggest that you make sure of where your eternity will be while you are yet alive because there are no second chances. This life is the precursor to eternity so make it count.

We are bought with divine blood, the blood of our Savior. Who came from heaven and lived as a human in order to know the trials and temptations that we know and yet He overcame those temptations. Now, some will say this “Yeah, but He was God in the flesh, of course, He could overcome the troubles of life!” While this is true and He did have the nature of God rather than the nature of mankind, He still faced those temptations. He also paid the price for your sins and mine through the shedding of His blood and bought our salvation with His suffering on the cross and His resurrection.

Can we know what it is to be like Christ? No, not in our mortal bodies but we will be in glorified bodies in Heaven if we have given our hearts and our lives to Him while in this life. Your belief in His work on Earth is the key to heaven for you. We are sanctified in Him if we believe that He did the work for us as it is written in the gospels.

But, what if I don’t really believe? What if I read those things and listen to sermons but I consider them just stories and nothing more?

Well…until you feel convicted by His Spirit and search for the Truth in Scripture and believe it, you will go to hell when you die.

Unbelief is the one sin which will send you to hell and there is no way to undo this after you have died. Seek out the truth and search for Him while there is time to do so.

In the book of Revelation, it says that we will judge angels in Heaven. That is a task which I don’t understand and likely won’t understand it until we are there. I mean, angels are divinely appointed messengers in the Old Testament so why would they need to be judged? They followed their Lord’s commands, at least the ones who did not rebel against Him.

We are also destined to rule with Christ during His one thousand year reign on Earth. What does that mean? Well, I am only guessing but I think it means that we may represent Him in places where the knowledge of Him is lacking in the world. He will be ruling from Jerusalem physically so we will likely be governor of those areas and consult with Him on things we need His advice on. This is all speculation of course, but you get the idea.

So, to conclude, we will not be sitting around on clouds strumming on harps as so many paintings like to portray. We will be doing something for our King and our Savior and we will be doing it for eternity so it will not be boring. The poor souls who chose not to believe…well they will be in torment forever and they won’t even have the time to consider having a party like so many believe.

God’s Word is the Truth and the Life, so if you haven’t given your heart to Him and trusted Him as your Savior then I suggest that you “git ‘er done” before you stand before Him one day.

Are you free?


This weekend in America, we are celebrating our Veterans and the sacrifices which all of them have given in the cause of freedom. From those in the Revolutionary War all the way to the war which is ongoing against terrorists today. Every man and woman who has served in a conflict of one type or another should be recognized for their service. The question remains, even today, are you free?

We believe that we are and have freedoms which few in our world have but do you truly enjoy your freedom from tyranny and persecution and the freedom from a possibility of war coming to your country? In my country, there are no guarantees anymore. Granted, war is not likely to break out any day but there are still criminals with guns, even in places where the laws are very tough on ownership of guns. Freedom today in America comes with a sense of anxiety sprinkled in because wherever you go someone may not like the car you drive or the clothes you wear and decide to shoot you just for fun.

No, freedom is not free. Our military men and women have paid the price for what we enjoy and Jesus paid the price for our freedom from the burden of sin as well. It was a high price to be paid because He paid for the sins of all, not just from the day of His crucifixion and resurrection. He paid for the sins of the entire world which came before His birth in Bethlehem as well as for all of the sins since then up until the end of the world!

God sent His Son to do this so that we could find freedom through Him. Not the freedom to sin and then be forgiven of it over and over, but when your heart is changed completely and you realize that you are a sinner in desperate need of His grace and mercy, this burden of sin is lifted and frees you to become the person that God intended for you to be from before the world was formed!

There are many who think that they are “saved” because they walked down the aisle at church one day and said a few words and then submitted to a baptism. But…performing a ritual of motions like those will NOT save your soul, only by believing in Jesus can you be saved! The belief which I am speaking of is the deep and heartfelt belief that He came to give His life for your soul. Not the feeling of “I need to get saved because my friends are doing it”. You are only following the crowd when you do this and it doesn’t really change anything.

When your heart is broken because of the sin that you have lived with for a very long time and you realize that God can’t let you into Heaven because of it, then and only then will you fall to your knees and know that you need Jesus in your life and your heart. If you don’t do this or if you think that you have some sort of arrangement with God about your soul, I can assure you that you will go to hell when your last breath is taken on this Earth.

Only the belief in your soul that you are a sinner, unclean and bared naked before God, will bring you to the point of giving your heart to Jesus! Only this action will save you and if you have not given your heart to Him fully and learn to walk with Him daily, then you will stand before God and before your “imagined” Savior and you will be judged as a sinner who remains unclean and is destined for eternity in hell.HELL-105818653518

The smoke of their torment rises for eternity. That is a long, long time to know that your eternity could’ve been so much different. Make the right choice before it is too late. Give your heart and your life to Jesus and ask Him to make you clean and whole in Him.