Category: Believe in the One Who saves

Frustration


What frustrates you? It actually sounds like a question of your pet peeves and it could be. Does frustration cause you to get upset or angry, some days my frustration meter is set very low. Then there are other days when I can get a lot done and frustration never even enters the picture at all.

So, why am I concentrating on this emotion of frustration? Well, it could be that there are many more people in our everyday lives who are frustrated and either they don’t recognize it or they just refer to it another way like “I’m pissed off!!!!”.

It manifests itself as many things do in our lives. By hiding or disguising itself as something else. But, why am I bringing this up on this site? Because Jesus was frustrated too. It frustrated Him to find the priests and the scribes who knew the Scriptures intimately and yet they didn’t recognize Him. They didn’t pay attention to the signs which pointed to His birth or that He knew so much about Scripture when He was only 12 years old. They were amazed by His knowledge but they never investigated the particulars of His birth or His family.

They weren’t looking for a Messiah from a family who wasn’t connected or wealthy, so even if they heard and saw the signs they just ignored them. Don’t you think He would’ve been frustrated about this? I do. This is probably why He ran the money changers and those selling animals out of the Temple, not only were they using God’s house as a market but they were doing it without honoring God in reverence.

Frustration can be the spark which lights the fire of anger and then anger turns to rage which can lead to some very nasty consequences today. Even deadly ones if you can’t get control of it. But…what can we do about it? That’s where this gets tricky. Most of us just ignore our frustrations or at least try to, but sometimes the feelings which are brought to the surface with them don’t go away so easily.

That is why we need to keep our minds and our hearts focused on Jesus and His Word. I know this is asking a lot since most of us have a lot on our plates with work and bills and family and school and….the list could go on and on. My point is this: focus on Jesus and your relationship with Him first every day, then much of what comes up during the day both of you can handle it together!

I am not saying that this will end our anger and frustration issues immediately, but having Jesus and His Word present in your daily life every day will give you strength and mostly His strength to get through whatever comes. Whether it is good or bad, it won’t matter because you are walking with Jesus through your day with its trouble and with its triumphs as well.

Do this for a week and see how your week progressed, then do it again and again until walking through life’s ups and downs with Jesus will be second nature and the downs will be fewer than the ups I imagine. Give it a try. I have tried my best to do this ever since I was called to be a preacher, some days I succeed and some I don’t. But it has gotten easier and in the last seven years, it gets easier every day. I don’t mean that I can perfectly do this every day, all the time but I do work at it and I am getting better at it. But…it is a job. As Jesus said: “Then Jesus said His to disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”

We are sinners saved by His Grace!


Not one of us is any more than a sinner who has been saved by Jesus and His Grace from God the Father! Whether you are a bishop or a pastor with a doctorate in theology or you are a pastor who is ordained to preach but has no degree, God has a plan and a purpose for your life. Even if you are a member of the church and have been studying the Bible for many years, God truly has a plan for your life!

When you feel the Spirit speaking to your spirit and telling you that you need to be saved, don’t turn away from Him. There is nothing that you can do in any way to “help” God to bring you to salvation except by believing in Jesus for your salvation! It is God’s gift to you through faith in Jesus for your salvation.

Every Christian is a sinner saved by God’s grace through Jesus our Savior. But there are some who think that because they are blessed with much in the way of worldly blessings, that God has favored them more than others. It is possible that God has given you these blessings but are you using them for His glory or your own? Some of us have managed to be blessed with some wealth and other “blessings” which may have come to you before you were known or touched by God. Then when you become a Christian what are you supposed to do with your wealth? Use it for the increase of God’s kingdom.

In today’s world, giving your wealth away is a sign of charity toward others, but I still wonder exactly who is being exalted when you do this? Are you giving the glory to God or is it being focused on you? We are loved by God and we should try to reflect His love back into the world in whatever we do regardless of how much you might give or what you may do with your life!

When you pray to God and maybe use the model prayer which Jesus gave us, does the first line mean anything to you inside or are they just words?

“Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name”

The word “Father” is Abba in Aramaic. As stated from Dictionary.com, “Abba” is the defining term for father in the Aramaic language, spoken by Jesus and Paul as an intimate term to characterize their personal relationships with God.

So, do you revere or hallow God’s name? Do you think of Him as a close friend or as a stern and cold Father? In many ways, our relationship with our own father will characterize how we view God.

The second line is even more prophetic: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”. This line point toward the Kingdom which Jesus will establish on Earth when He takes the throne of David.

The rest of that prayer asks God to forgive us of our sins and lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. God never leads us into temptation but will always give us the strength to get out of it IF we will depend upon Him for our strength. The last couple of lines bring a prophetic view to our prayer life; “for Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen”.

All that we do for Him in this life will be rewarded in the next life with Him because we have done these things for His glory and honor and not for our own. Seek Him First while you live in His strength in this life. Be useful to Him in every little thing that you do, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Consider having God’s attention


sunset-over-ocean-mothaibaphoto-prints

Have you considered that each of us has God’s attention? I know this is a very BIG and awesome question to throw out there, but have you ever thought about this at all?

In this picture it is like the light from the sun is following you along the beach. If you are walking on a beach at sunset, you will see an image like this and it doesn’t matter how many people are on the beach, all of them will have the same perspective and that is that the light coming across the water is pointed at each person or couple walking there.

That is the kind of attention which God pays to those who belong to Him. Your life is always before Him, even if you have not given your heart to Him or asked Jesus into your life. Remember, Jesus said that “not one sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s knowledge“. Don’t you realize that each of us is more important to God than a sparrow?

But, in your life, God sees and knows exactly what you have done and even where you have gone and each word which has gone forth from your mouth. God cares about your life and it is God Who sent Jesus to pay the price for each person in this world, so do all get to go to Heaven? NO! God doesn’t call every man, but He knows every man’s heart and whether they will follow Jesus after being called.

Does that mean that there are some whom God calls and some that He doesn’t? Yes. I know that sounds very picky and unfair but God knows our hearts and He knows which of us will walk with Him and do what is asked of him and who will not. So, why call someone to faith in Jesus if they are going to walk away or refuse to be a true follower of Jesus?

God is sovereign in His creation and in His Kingdom and He will do what He will, regardless of our decisions or our failures. He sent Jesus to pay for all of mankind’s sins and our debts have been paid but will every person on Earth give their heart to Jesus and follow Him as His disciples did? Of course not!

But…will you give your heart to Him and be His disciple until He calls you home to Heaven one day? Many people would truly jump at the chance of being His disciple! Why? Because He is the Creator of the cosmos! Doesn’t He deserve more recognition than a football coach or some CEO of a Fortune 500 company? He created everything around you so doesn’t that one fact give Him a bit more importance than even the President of the United States? I think it does!

Take a look through a real telescope one night or look at some of the pictures which the Hubble telescope has taken. God created ALL OF THAT! He did it mostly to watch us go “WOW!!”. Isn’t that neat? Looking out into space and seeing everything that He made as the Bible says, “He stretched out the heavens“; so don’t you think He can use your talents and your gifts for His purposes?

He knows which people can spread His message in the world and do it more effectively so that many more will come to know Him as their Lord and Savior after all God is One in Three Persons. There is God the Father and Jesus the Son and the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit and each of them was present when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river.

Please seek Jesus out as your Savior because there are many things which will need your specific talents and abilities in His Kingdom.

Occasional belief and attendance


Do you realize that while you come to church for certain “occasions”, you are hurting your relationship with Jesus? When Jesus called His disciples, and He did so individually, He didn’t ask them to follow Him on certain days or only on the Sabbath, He just said; “Follow Me”. When we choose to “follow Jesus” only at certain times or for certain reasons we are turning Him into our version of a genie.

We are, in essence, telling God and Jesus that we don’t want You in our life on a daily basis, we just want you on those days when we need you or when we feel the need for you to be in our life. That’s pretty insulting, isn’t it? How would you feel if you or a member of your family told you that? The family wouldn’t remain a family for very long, would it?

Yet, the church is expected to remain a church even when many of its members consider coming to church is something only real, committed Christians do. Who do you think the church is made up of then? Just “sometimes Christians”? Jesus didn’t call sometimes Christians or followers, He called you to follow Him. That doesn’t give you an out on Wednesday or Thursday or Saturday, He meant every day!

Do you think the church would’ve gotten started if His disciples only followed Him when they felt like it or on certain days? NO! The church would’ve died within a couple of centuries or less if that had happened.

God sent Jesus to Judea to bring the good news of salvation to them but also to enable the gospel of salvation to be taken out to the rest of the whole world. Because, Jesus died and rose again to pay for the sins of the world (past, present, and future) not just a few people in Judea. Our idea of Jesus as our Savior is not just an idea because an idea cannot bring you salvation, but a belief in Jesus can and will bring you salvation. Your life and mine are incredibly short spans of time, even in relation to a millennium but a millennium is just a tick on the face of a clock compared to eternity. Don’t throw away eternity with God because of your life here which is but a moment in time compared to eternity!

Each of us is special to God because we are part of His Creation and He cares for each of us. When you give your heart to Jesus and believe in Him for your salvation, you become a born-again child of God and you are part of His family. He loves you at that moment and from that moment on just as He does Jesus or any other Christian!

You are special to God because HE has given you talents and abilities which He wants you to use for His Kingdom and He knows what you can do with those abilities! You can do more with them and for Him than you can do without Him or without Jesus. Simple, childlike faith in God is all that your salvation requires.

Giving your heart to Yeshua (Jesus) is a simple decision and you need to realize that His name means God saves.

The Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament was the manifestation of Jesus which appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness. He was also the Rock from which the water came to keep His people alive. He was also the cloud which protected them in the wilderness, the Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire at night. Yes, He was with the Jewish people during the Old Testament days and He fulfilled the prophecies about Himself when He did come in the flesh.

Jesus paid for your sins


God loves you and has made a way for you to have eternity as your future, but have you accepted Jesus as your Savior? He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and HE is coming back soon.

JesuspaiditallWhen He was crucified He wore a crown of thorns and was beaten so badly that only His mother could really recognize Him. But…when He comes back He will be wearing a golden crown and a brilliant white robe with a golden sash. He will be coming to claim the throne of David and HE will rule the world for one thousand years!

The angels who spoke to His disciples told them that He would return to the Earth and in His book of Revelation, it says that He will be mounted on a white horse with the saints of God coming with Him! His rule and His government will be set up and will rule over ALL of the Earth and our world will be restored to its beauty which it was supposed to have from the beginning.

I pray that anyone who reads this will seek Him out and give your heart to Jesus as your Savior because one day soon it will become much harder to make that commitment. When the Christians are taken up from their graves and those who are alive are changed and translated from this world to Heaven, there will be a man who will bring peace to the world and stability too. But he will be the worst dictator that the world has ever seen, but the world will follow Him anyway.

Jesus did give His life as a ransom for all of our sins, but there are only a few in the world who will give their heart to Him and follow Him. Are you one of those who will do this today? Will, you learn of Him and follow Him from this day until He comes for us? I pray that you will make that decision if you haven’t already.

The days grow short in relation to His return and I don’t believe that it will be much longer at all. I won’t speculate about dates because we don’t know the day or the hour but the world will know when He claims those who have given their hearts to Him. There won’t be a doubt in their mind that something momentous has happened but it will only be those who have studied the book of Revelation who will know what has happened.

Make sure of your salvation before then.

 

Are you ready?


So much is happening today and every day in the world until it is hard to understand that it was all foretold many hundreds of years ago. Of course, the world and the media can’t see or understand that the happenings in our world were prophesied by God and that they are ordained to happen. If we pay attention to God’s Word we can see these prophecies coming to pass each time something is reported in the news.

Sometimes it is a small thing that even the media misses but it is reported by other news agencies. It may be a local news item or, a few years ago it would’ve been an actual news event but it doesn’t fit the “agenda” of the day now. Either way, you look at it, the world is drawing closer to the time of the Tribulation spoken of in the book of Revelation.

So my question stands: Are you ready for what is coming? Are you ready for the church being taken away from here and will you be going with it?

These are big questions which have eternal consequences for you and for your loved ones. Are you ready? Do you know Jesus as your Savior and Lord? Giving your heart to Him and believing that He is your Savior is all that is necessary to gain eternal life with Him. Have you made that decision yet?

How can you know that you are saved?

It is possible to know that you are saved because your faith will bring you to the conviction that you are a sinner. You don’t have to be a terrible sinner to be convicted of it, but you will know when you feel it. God’s Holy Spirit will cause you to seek out the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus. When you do, you will want to give your heart to Him and ask forgiveness for your sins. Then you will ask Jesus to make you clean through His Spirit and give you a new heart.

I know, it sounds like a lot but it really isn’t. Truly, you don’t have to do anything except believe that Jesus died and rose again on the third day. He paid the price for all of our sins on the cross and if you believe that and accept Him into your heart as your Savior you will be saved.

Here are some scriptures which will give you comfort in the fact that you are saved:

Rom. 10:9  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Eph. 2:4 But God, being  rich in mercy, because of  His great love with which He loved us,
Eph. 2:5 even when we were  dead  in our transgressions, made us alive together  with Christ ( by grace you have been saved),
Eph. 2:6 and  raised us up with Him, and  seated us with Him in  the heavenly places in  Christ Jesus,
Eph. 2:7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph. 1:13 In  Him, you also, after listening to  the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
Eph. 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of  God’s own possession,  to the praise of His glory.

Remember, the thief on the cross gave his heart to Jesus through his belief in Who Jesus was. He couldn’t be baptized and he couldn’t tell people about his belief, but Jesus said that “Today you will be with Me in Paradise“.

I pray that all who read this will be encouraged to give their hearts to Jesus by believing in Him for your salvation. Don’t turn away from His call on your life because you may not get another chance to be a child of God and you can only do that by making the choice when the Holy Spirit prompts you and convicts you that you need Jesus as your Savior!

Bridge2Salvation

In the beginning…


The Bible begins with these three words and it is the beginning of everything. God starts with nothing except darkness and then brings forth everything around us, including each of us. The world around us today doesn’t want to believe that God’s Word is the Truth or even that any part of it is true at all. So, what are we to do with a book which nobody believes is true?

The Bible is God’s Word written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the authors of the Old Testament and the New Testament. How can the Bible be true? If you read it and take notice of the actual story which is being presented, meaning the salvation of us and Who it is that will be our Savior…even though it was written by many authors and over many centuries, it still points to the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God!

Can you think of how you could get about forty men or women to write different books and yet point to the same Savior in those stories? There is no possibility that even two people could do this let alone forty writers separated by centuries and yet pointing to Your Son, Jesus as the focal point of all of their writing! Without it being inspired by God’s Holy Spirit the Bible could not exist at all so the truth of it is without question.

It is God’s Word and wisdom for us to live by and it’s an example of how we should live and believe in order to even have a chance at living in Heaven for eternity.

God placed these words in the minds of those writers so that they could write them down and pass them on to later generations. His Word came into our world so that we could get to know our Creator and our Redeemer. It is not a rule book to beat someone with when we do wrong. It is a guidebook for how to live our lives, how to pattern our lives around His wisdom and it gives us strength when we feel weak, that is what the Bible is.

Is it true? Yes! Emphatically true! The prophecies contained within it have all come true in the past and the ones which have not are the ones which are yet to happen. When will they come true? The Bible doesn’t give exact dates but if you read the book of Revelation and some of the prophecies pointing to the end of the age, you can see things happening all around us right now. There isn’t much time left. How much time is left? Only God knows that answer.

The very next thing which is foretold in God’s Word is the catching away of those who are believers. Some call it the rapture, but since that word isn’t in the Bible I like to use “caught up or catching away”. The church is not going through the Tribulation because that is the wrath of God poured out on the Earth and those who have refused to believe in Jesus as their Savior.

If God has begun a work in your life, He will always keep you in Him. He will finish the work which was begun in you for your sake and for His glory!

Faith is powerful!


Acts 3

1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

Peter had preached the sermon on the day of Pentecost just before this healing event occurred but what made this healing special? The lame man had faith. He didn’t know Jesus, but he was expecting something from Peter and John. It is that expectant faith which brings the miracles of God into our lives! Some of us who have given our hearts to Jesus and asked Him into our lives and our hearts have faith because without it we wouldn’t have felt the pull on our hearts to come to Jesus.

But many times our faith is tested in ways that we don’t recognize as a test and we don’t expect anything from that experience. We go through it and we may pray for God to give us the strength to get through whatever it may be, but we don’t expect a miracle from it. But…we should!

While the lame man was actually expecting money from Peter, it was that attitude of expectancy which brought his miracle into his body. He expected something, anything from Peter and when Peter said “in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk”, he did! He expected something and he got more than he expected from the encounter.

So, why don’t we get miracles today? Some say it is because miracles only happened at the beginning of the church age. I think it is because of our stubborn hearts and minds which have been “programmed” to discount things which science can’t explain. But miracles do happen today. Some of them are part of a medical treatment or surgery which God uses to bring a miracle into that person’s life. Which allows doctors to see that their treatment works in concert with prayer and faith.

Some of the doctors may not see the recovery as a miracle but there are times when a healing happens and the doctor can’t explain it because it happened through his treatment but not because of the treatment. In other words, the doctor wasn’t expecting a healing in this instance but the patient and their family were and God honored that. I imagine that many of these miracles happen more often than we realize. They just happen in the background and unless there is faith involved the healing might not have happened at all.

What does the Bible say?


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Photo by John-Mark Smith on Pexels.com

Oh is that a loaded question or what? The Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is the Son of God and the Word made flesh! So, in essence, when we read the Bible and study the Bible we are learning about God through Jesus the Living Word! When He was teaching His disciples the only Bible was the Old Testament because the New Testament hadn’t been written yet. But, Jesus is present in every book of the Old Testament and is revealed and explained in detail in the New Testament.

We have been created by God to reflect His Son because we were made in the image of God and by reflecting Jesus in our daily lives others can see Him in us. If we will obey His commandments and live by the Word of God throughout our lives. God sent Jesus to be the Savior of mankind because of the failure of the first Adam and to take back that which Satan stole from God. Of course, Satan doesn’t look at it as stealing. He sees it as taking back something which was his, except God didn’t give Satan the Earth to be the ruler of.

We are creatures which God blessed with a soul so that we can be in fellowship with God into eternity. We had that relationship in the Garden and we chose to do it differently, so now that Jesus has paid the price for our mistake. We can get our relationship with the Father back IF we will repent of our sinful ways and ask Jesus into our hearts. That doesn’t mean that we can get saved and then go back to sinning again! When the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts we are a new creation and we are not the same as we were before.

It’s kinda like working in an oil field all day and coming home with oil and grease all over you and your clothes and in your hair. Then you get into the shower and wash all of that stuff off of yourself and then put on some really nice white shoes and pants and a white shirt and tie and a jacket. Are you going to go back to the oil field in that? I don’t think so!

When we accept Jesus as our Savior the Holy Spirit comes in and cleans out all of the old stuff and freshens up the place. He gives you a new purpose and a new heart which is aligned with God’s purposes for your life. But, some people come out of the baptistry and then think that “I can go back to my old ways now, I got some fire insurance now.” That is not the way this works. You didn’t have anything to do with your salvation. You only accepted Jesus as your Savior when you realized, because of the Holy Spirit’s conviction, that you needed Jesus!! 

If you hadn’t been convicted by faith, which God provided for you, and by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then you never would have felt that you needed salvation at all. So why would you get all cleaned up, inside and out as a born-again child of God, and then go back to your old life with the “old buddies” which drank with you and got drunk with you and laughed when you fell face down in the mud!

God loves you deeply and He doesn’t want you to be placed in torment with Satan and the angels who were stupid enough to be followers of a created being who wanted to be God! God has a better place in eternity for you and for me and it is in Heaven. Choose to follow Him, Jesus, for the rest of your life here so that you can have eternity with Him there! Because this life is short compared to eternity and our time is running out.

Are you one of the called?


In today’s society, we get calls all of the time. From telemarketers and scams and bill collectors and salespeople and from friends and family. All during the day and into the evening these calls come. Thank goodness for caller ID!

Have you been called by the Holy Spirit recently? Has He touched your heart and caused you to feel that Someone is missing in your life? If you have felt His touch or His call in your spirit, then you need to answer that call, that touch, that knock on your heart’s door so to speak. Because God uses His Spirit to call those who are needed in His service. Each of us has a place and a purpose for which only God knows that we can perform it and nobody else can. That is why Jesus called Saul to be His apostle to the Gentiles, That is why each of the Christians in the past two thousand years was called into their ministry.

Some of them were called to be witnesses or even preachers but many of them were called as Christian leaders in their home or community. Nothing world-shaking, no fantastic ministry spanning the globe. Just people who God knew could make an impact on those around them and cause some to come to know Jesus as their Savior. That is the ministry that some of us have been called to do.

Why would God use flawed, sinful human beings like us? Because we can relate to other flawed, sinful human beings! In the past, God has used different ways of getting His message heard or understood and today He uses us because the message is for humanity! God can get the message to us in a number of ways, but the easiest way to speak to people is through other people.

Will your words be heard by hundreds or thousands of people? It depends on whether you are called to be an evangelist who speaks to many people at a time or if you are a Christian father or mother who teaches their children and grandchildren about Jesus. God used a burning bush to speak to Moses and He used a donkey to speak to Balaam so He can use us in many different ways to get His message to those who need to hear it.

Even when those we are speaking to don’t want to hear it.

God can get their hearts to hear whether their ears are tuned into the message or not. Since God is in control of all things, the human soul is the spiritual heart and ear of each of us and He can use it to bring us to conviction and salvation. The thing that many of us don’t realize is that our salvation is based on our belief and our response to the conviction of our heart.

If someone told you that you had a fortune in gold available to you and all you had to do was to believe that it was real and take possession of it, wouldn’t you? But, when someone tells you that you can have your sins forgiven and also have eternal life with Jesus in Heaven if you will believe in Him and walk with Him daily by studying His Word and being a disciple of His…will you take that step of faith?

Seek your salvation by the name of Jesus and believe in Him for your salvation and serve Him in your daily living.