Every day we live we are celebrating the life that God blesses us with. Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s easy but we should celebrate each day. God loves us but there are some things in our lives that He doesn’t approve of. Some of them are things that we do and we don’t think about them. We think about things and do things that we take for granted.
Ask yourself this question: Would Jesus go with me here or approve of what I’m doing? I know that sounds like the WWJD bracelets that were popular for a while but if you are a Christian, that’s exactly how you should live your day to day life.
He said for us to take up our cross daily. That means we are supposed to nail our old way of life to the cross every day and follow Him. Think about it.
Believe it or not, He is coming back for the church and that includes everyone who believes in Him as their Savior. If you’ve only heard about Him or maybe you never gave your heart to Him, I’d suggest seeking Him as your Savior. Eternity is a very long time to be in hell, make sure that you’re not.
You could say that for sure. If you read Daniel 9 and Matthew 24, many of the prophecies contained in both of them can be seen in the news today. Does that mean we’re at that point in history? I believe it is very likely. Will Jesus be coming back soon? Maybe but only God knows that day or hour that Jesus will come for the church. Even if someone tells you that it will be tomorrow, next week, or even next year, don’t believe them. Jesus said it would happen like a thief coming in the night. No one knows when He will appear in the clouds to call the church home.
Are we really at a turning point? In our history…yes, I believe we are. There are too many prophetic points that are lining up and happening all around the world for it to be ignored. Yet, the world around us and most news agencies are ignoring the signs. Why? Because the Bible is spiritually discerned and most of the world looks at the Bible as just some old book. Only Christians who have the Holy Spirit living inside them can understand the signs that are showing up.
I pray that even more people will come to know our Savior before He comes to take the church home. Because the time that comes after the church is gone will be unlike any the world has seen since the flood of Noah. It will actually be much worse than the flood. During the Tribulation, there will be 21 judgments of God on mankind during those seven years. Some people are wondering if the Bible is true because the prophecies of the book of Revelation haven’t come true yet. God is giving mankind more time to come to know Jesus. That is the reason He has delayed His judgment. The time is running out so make sure of your eternity before it is too late.
The Bible foretold that in the last days old men would dream dreams and young men would see visions. It is happening today in the Middle East and bringing people to know Jesus as their Savior. God’s prophecies will not be stopped and His purposes will always perform that job that He intended to happen. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or Jesus because their purpose and will for this world must come to pass.
No power on Earth can stop those prophecies from coming true. Many people today would like nothing better than to be rid of Jesus and His church but that isn’t going to happen either. The only time that the church will leave is when Jesus comes back for it and then the whole world will know that God’s Word is true. I pray that you will seek out Jesus as your Savior if you don’t know Him yet. Because when that trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ rise to meet Him in the air, I pray that I will be counted among that number of saints. That day will be joyous and very sad too because the children who haven’t come to know right from wrong yet will be taken up too.
Don’t be left here after the church is gone because Satan will be turned loose on this world and life will become much harder to live because of his wrath toward the church and the believers whether they have left or not.
I know that I’m not the only person to ever ask this of God. In prayer, out loud, and sometimes even yelling it when no one else could hear me except Him…I hope. Even when God’s Word says in many places that He will never leave you or me, we still feel that He’s silent or absent. The best thing that we can and should remember is that He is always near. If we feel that there is distance between us and God it is because we moved. We have placed the barrier or the wall of fear and uncertainty between us and Him. He has not moved.
God is always true to His Word and His promises because He is God. He doesn’t have our problems or our fears and anxieties although He knows how they affect us and our feelings toward Him. That is the reason He came to live among us so He would be able to truly identify with our weaknesses and our frailties. He is the Creator of everything and He loves you and me. Don’t think that He has the same fears and hangups that we do. He knows about us and our fears but God is above those things.
Seek Him out when you feel weak and afraid because He is close to you and He will strengthen you in all of your trials.
“God will strengthen you” is a phrase from Isaiah 41:10 in the Bible:
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”.
In the original Hebrew, the verb translated as “to strengthen” means “to grow and develop; to prevail; to have or show courage; to seize, grasp, and keep hold of”.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and hope.
Even when it doesn’t seem like God is close to you, He is. You are never very far from Him regardless of where you are. In a penthouse or a slum somewhere, when you seek Him, He is by your side.
Our world has become very secular and evil in many ways. Not because of mankind’s influence but because of Satan’s influence. We have moved away from our collective belief in God and we have taken in the spirit of the Antichrist. I don’t mean to say that we are worshiping the devil but we are “living in his camp”. There are too many evil and disgusting things that are going on in our world today for them to be caused by mankind alone. Satan and his demons are behind all of it and we need to wake up and recognize it.
This world, and all who are in it, is coming to a point in history that has been foretold for over two thousand years. The end of the church age. When will it come to that? I don’t know, and no one does except God Himself when that day will come. The “taking away of the church” is also unknown because the hour or the day is not known, just as the “end of the age” falls into that unknown area.
The point I am trying to make about the “unknowns” is that God determines the timing of everything. Your birth and your death as well as anything that has been prophesied about this time in history are all under His control. Your eternity is at stake and if you are concerned about where you will spend it then you need to seek Jesus as your Savior and do it soon. We don’t know the day or the hour and it may be sooner than anyone thinks, so make sure of your eternal destination.
Most of us want many things in this life. A really nice house or a prestigious job. But… what will those give us? Bills? A headache? Ulcers from the stress?
The peace and joy that comes with life when you have given your heart to Jesus Christ is priceless and it doesn’t cost you anything. God has provided it through faith and grace when you believe in Him. All of this is worth far more than you can gain from your own efforts. Seek Him as soon as you can because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow.
Have you ever considered or thought about the Incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God? From a medical perspective, it happened in the same way that each of us has come into the world except that His Father was God the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t brought about with “sperm” but the egg of the girl was implanted with the essence of the Son. No “sin-nature” from a man was involved at all. Thank goodness.
God the Son, Who had created stars and galaxies, was placed into the womb of a girl of about sixteen years of age, betrothed to Joseph and of the family line of David the king of Israel. Jesus became a human being not for the reason of ruling over us, although He will one day, but He came to experience our life and its troubles. God came because He said He would come so that the curse of sin would be lifted from all of humanity and creation itself. We could be freed from sin’s curse if we would believe in Him and His mission. That belief must be felt in your heart, not just in your head.
He lived in her womb just as we do before we are born. In amniotic fluid, listening to her voice and the voices of those around her but likely not comprehending at this point. If there was laughter or sadness, He felt it although as an embryo it wasn’t understood. Think of it…God was a baby being carried by a young girl who had no idea what raising a child would be like. Especially the Messiah, the Son of God! The concept is mind-blowing today! Just imagine how Mary felt if you can.
All of this was before she even realized that there was a life, the Life, in her womb. The proof came to her when she visited her cousin, Elizabeth, who was carrying the child that would be John the Baptist. John would be about six months older than Jesus but as the prophecies said he would be the “one crying in the wilderness to make the way straight for the Lord” (paraphrased). When the sound of Mary’s voice came to Elizabeth, the baby in her womb leaped for joy and she was filled with the Holy Spirit!
Their families were devout Jewish families and since Jesus was born about six centuries before the Muslim religion ever came to be, He was not a Muslim. At the time of His birth, Israel was not separated like it is today so even though Bethlehem, Galilee, and Nazareth would be in Gaza in the future, there was no separation into a “strip” like it is now.
Seek Him to know Him and make sure your heart belongs to Him because one day He is coming back for His followers and it won’t be long.
I have noticed that all of my posts are pointing to and about the same thing. Why? Because God gives me the words to put on this site and He makes sure that my message is about Jesus and what He did for me and for all of us. You might want to ask me, “Why did Jesus die for us?”. God the Son came to Earth to live as one of us for a time so He would know our pains and our weaknesses and the sorrow that we feel in all areas of our lives. He did this because He wanted to do it and because it was the only way to pay the penalty for our sins completely. He also did it because He loves you and me and every person on Earth with a love that we can’t understand.
Just as God gave the words of His Word, the Bible, to the men who wrote it, He gives me the words to write here. No, these words are not in any way equal to His Word but I am writing here to point you to Jesus and the saving grace that God gives to you when you hear His call in your heart. I don’t claim any holiness except that which Jesus gave me when I accepted Him as my Savior and He is still working on me to make me more like Him. Sometimes His work in my life isn’t comfortable or enjoyable but I know that He will complete the work that He began in my life one day.
Your life can be so much more enjoyable than it is because of the joy you will have knowing that your eternity is sealed and you will be going to Heaven one day. Will it be an easy life? Not likely. I don’t say this because becoming a Christian will fix all of your problems. It won’t do that and you will gain a few new problems. Satan has not bothered you before you became a Christian but he will put a target on you now. He, the devil, may have helped you in life to do some things that made your life easier and more enjoyable but he was doing it to keep you from seeking God. I mean if you have enough money and your bills are paid and your family is healthy what do you need God for?
Seek to know God and His Son, Jesus, because it is only by knowing Jesus and Him knowing you that you will have a home in paradise. If you think about it and decide that being a Christian isn’t for you right now that’s okay but are you certain you will have a chance to become one later? Neither of us is guaranteed to be here tomorrow morning. So…what will you do if you die and are standing before God asking to be allowed into heaven? What could you or I possibly do or have done in the past to be good enough to walk into heaven? According to Isaiah “our righteousness is as filthy rags” in the eyes of God. You have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and believe that HE alone can save you and make you clean enough to enter into heaven. I pray that you will do this soon before it is too late.
The Living Message of Christ 