Category: Believe like a child

Wisdom, where does it come from?


Some people say that wisdom comes with age, but I have seen some older people do some strange things that don’t seem to bear this out. I am not giving any examples here, but I think you know who you are. Some novels contain some interesting wisdom or at least some sayings which people like to quote or post on Facebook.

But…the greatest wisdom that I have ever read is contained in the Bible. Yep…that’s what I said, the Bible! In many ways most of our “wisdom” has come from God’s Word at some point, whether we heard it from our grandparents or parents. Sometimes, they don’t ever realize that much of their sayings are actually re-worded quotes from the Bible.

Why do I say that wisdom comes from God? Because He is our Creator, so don’t you think He is wise beyond our measure? He lives outside of time and space and He can see all parts of your life and mine from beginning to end.

We can’t understand Him, except by reading and studying His Word and even then we won’t understand Him even as much as we can each other. God is far above us in all ways, yet He loves us so dearly that He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. Why would God do this? Because of His love for us that is why. Trying to reason out God’s ways with the wisdom of man doesn’t work.

His wisdom is only gained by reading His Word and by faith in Him. To the world and to those who have not accepted Him as Savior, God’s wisdom and His Word is just foolishness and can’t be understood. Without faith and belief in Him, it can’t be but God only asks that we believe in Jesus as our Savior and the faith which brings us to that point will allow us to see the wisdom in His Word. In this life, we won’t understand it, but we can at least live our lives as His servants and help the rest of the world to know Him.

Is Satan a real being?


Satan was an angel or as the Scripture puts it “a covering Cherub” at one time. Now, cherub in this sense does not mean one of those fat little angels that flits around shooting people on Valentine’s Day. Lucifer was and is still a very powerful being who is described as a dragon, a serpent, a liar and a murderer in Scripture. He is also described as a roaring lion looking for those he can devour here on Earth. What does all of this mean?

The King James version of the Bible gave Satan the name of “Lucifer” in Latin meaning “light bringer” in Isaiah 14, but the description of him in Ezekiel begins by calling him the king of Tyre. Although the description cannot be of a human being because of the attributes being described.

Jesus spoke of watching him fall from Heaven and he tempted Him in the wilderness after His 40 day fast, so yes Satan is real and he is alive here on Earth now. We see his influence and his activity every day on the news when evil is killing people all over the world for no apparent reason. All of the diseases that Jesus healed people of, or at least many of them, were attributed to demons as the cause. These demons were the angels who had followed Satan when he rebelled against God and was cast down.

Is Satan real? Yes! The world is paying the price for not thinking that he is or rather by placing him in positions of power over it by worshiping money, drugs, witchcraft and other things in this world instead of our Creator, God. Those who are doing these things believe that they are getting ahead in life because of their efforts, when it is likely that he is pulling some strings to get things working for them. Why do I say this?

Because, if they are successful then they won’t go searching for God! Satan and his followers are all about keeping as many people from becoming Christians as possible. He is trying to hurt God in this way because he can’t hurt Him any other way. Is Satan real and do demons and principalities really work for him or with him? Yes, this is true but if you want to investigate it please don’t invite them into your life or your home! Check out news about possessions, which will not be in regular news. Read about Haiti and the voodoo which goes on there, which is powered by Satan and his cohorts.

You can choose to ignore him or his influence if you want, but seek out Jesus in your life. Eternity is a long time and regardless of what your “friends” may say about Hell, it will not be an eternity of partying. Life everlasting in Heaven is much preferred over that!

Apathy is catching


It seems that many church members and those who previously attended church are becoming apathetic about their faith and what they believe as well as whether they need to go to church or not. Is this happening elsewhere, all over the world or is it just here in the USA?

Specifically the area where I live, in central Mississippi, the apathy is catching on to the point of some churches serving food just to get people to come to church on a Sunday morning or night. This is happening in what is called the Bible Belt! Mississippi even has the distinction of being one of the most religious states in the America.

I painted a painting that I called “Creation” this past Sunday. I had told about this at least four or five days in advance of the sermon on Sunday morning. One family showed up to watch and listen besides my own wife and son. I know, I shouldn’t take it personally but painting is like a performance and the reception was far less than what I had hoped for.

creationpaintingHere is the painting which I did while I was preaching about Creation and the Fall of mankind:

The white at the top is not supposed to be clouds, it represents the Host of angels watching as Creation unfolds. I know that I am not a “performing artist”, I am just a pastor, but it seems that this could’ve been something to come see. The only audience I had were children who really didn’t believe that I was painting it to begin with.

The love of God is so pervasive in our world, yet people ignore it and don’t recognize it when it does show up, even in small doses. As Jesus stated, “a prophet is without honor in his own hometown“, and it is very true.

Many people know me in the area where I live. I went to school with many of them and I have lived here for about fifty years, so they have seen and heard many things about me whether they were all true or not! Even when they were true, that is not the man that I am now but it seems that I am still painted (no pun intended) by the reputation that I have had for years before I became a preacher.

I suppose that may be the problem, to some degree. But, I am not moving. I can’t afford to move away just to be a preacher. So, here are my words and my painting, like it or not, it does represent Creation and the Beginning of all things.

 

Reflections


Are you reflecting Jesus or are you reflecting your idea of Jesus? Many people today seem to create their own version of Jesus or God. Not so much as an idol outright, but they don’t like the way that either is portrayed in the Bible or the obedience that is required of them that is also part of God’s Word. These people want to pick and choose which verses in the Bible that they will believe.

are-you-a-reflectionIf you wish to do that, its fine with me, but…what about your eternity? You can choose to believe or not believe that there is a hell even though Jesus says that people will got there. God doesn’t lie, it is not in His nature. So when the Bible says that there is a place where people will be punished for not believing in Jesus and giving their lives to Him, I would take that as the Truth.

When you are the first-born son, genetics usually plays a role in which of your parent’s you look most like. Sometimes you will look like your Dad but have your Mother’s temperament or complexion. Sometimes genetics will skip a generation and you will look like your Dad but have some characteristics of your grandfather, like hair and eye color. God’s Son has His Character in that He can’t lie about anything and He is part of the Trinity so He has the same ability as God the Father, in all things.

Your life and mine, whether you are talking about this life or eternity, are in God’s Hands. He is in control but He allows us the freedom to choose our own fate. You can refuse to give your life to Him and follow Him in your daily life, but your eternity would be most unpleasant. Or you could give your heart to Him, learn everything there is to know about Him from His Word and live daily in His Presence and your eternity is assured to be in Heaven with other believers and with Jesus Himself.

God loves you enough to give you that choice because you can’t force someone to love you, no matter if you are the richest man in the world or if you are God! Love cannot be forced it can only be given freely. Seek out the One Who loves you and Who is Love, perfectly and completely, then you will know real freedom.

Hope and ?


No, I am not posting about hope and change, we have had the first dashed to pieces in the last eight years and the changes in some areas are almost unbearable. Enough soap boxing. (Jedi mind trick–forget what you just read, it isn’t important).

Hope is a cousin of faith because both of them run together. You can’t have much hope without faith and faith without hope isn’t expecting much. Abraham expected (hoped),with faith in God’s ability to fulfill it, that he would have an heir just as God had told him. How it was going to happen wasn’t important really, he had faith that God could do it even at his age and his wife’s age as well. Would doctors today recognize this birth as a miracle? Absolutely, in light of it being one because there was no way it could have happened without God’s intervention!

Faith is important to our life in Him because we were never meant to live apart from Him. Though, now we need faith to do so because He is just outside our limited human vision just as the beauty of His Creation is as well, although we will see it one day. Amen. God loves each of us, whether we belong to Him yet or not. He has a plan for our lives in His Kingdom if we will accept our place in it!

52050-my-hope-is-in-youHope is where we should put our faith and our trust totally in the Lord. God loves you with an everlasting love that never dips up or down. He doesn’t love you today and hate you tomorrow! We and everything around us, every person, every animal, every star and planet are His Creation and He cares for all of it!

We are not special because we live on Earth, we are special because God loves us! He know what you can do and what you did yesterday or last week or even last year, but He loves you anyway! Why? Because He is God and He is Love perfected! There is no darkness or shadow in Him, He is Light and the Giver of Life itself!

Satan cares NOT for you, in fact he HATES YOU!! You and I are made in the image of God, he hates God, so you are hated by Satan and his demons. That is why there is so much war, so much disease, so much cancer attacking children and older people, because of demonic influence in your life, against your life in Christ, trying to turn you away from God by getting you to blame Him for your problems!

That is the way of our world because he, Satan, is the ruler of the air on Earth…but only temporarily. He knows that his time is coming to an end and that is why problems are getting worse, wars and more intense, diseases are harder to cure. He knows that he has already lost, but he is going to try to take as many people into Hell with him as possible. Not to have a party, but to torment them for eternity because they were offered a way out of Hell through belief in Jesus and they chose not to believe in Him

So much truth in the gospel


How much truth do you see in God’s Word? In the gospel? If it isn’t true and there is no Truth in it, then why believe?

The Trinity has existed as three in One…as God for a very long time, long before we or anything else in Creation existed. How can we so arrogantly believe that God sent His Son to die and then abandoned Him there? The Holy Spirit was there, God was there and Jesus was on the cross, so He wasn’t abandoned at the cross exactly…He just felt that He was. His humanity felt that way!

The same way that His human heart and His brain told Him to be afraid and anxious before the scourging and the crucifixion. It was His humanity which made Him feel alone, scared and helpless on the cross, but He wasn’t. Our truth is relative today because as psychologists put it, “your truth is not my truth”. This is a very clever lie from Satan. God loves each of us far more than we could ever know or comprehend, until we are in His Presence of course.

You have the freedom to believe in Him and His Word or not, because it is necessary. Love doesn’t come to anyone unless it is free to be given in return as well as received from the other person. Yes, we are free to refuse His love for us if we choose and to live our lives in complete self-righteousness, thinking that we are good enough without Jesus. That we deserve to be allowed into Heaven on our own merits.

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it is totally WRONG!! Until you give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to come in and fix the problems which you caused and to show you what real love actually is, you will always feel empty and without hope. This is what God wanted to save us from in the first place…ourselves. Because ever since the Fall, we have all been born with a seed of sin in our hearts. Toddlers will lie to you without even knowing what they are doing, so that proves that sin is there.

God loves us anyway!! He created all of us and He knows the desires and needs of our heart even when we weren’t born yet. From the moment you were conceived until your death, God knows what you will do, when you will do it and why. He doesn’t force the decisions on you, but He knows what those decisions are or will be, and until you give your life to Him, He will watch you and be with you regardless until you figure out that you really need Him.

Seek Him out before it gets too far or before your life gets out of control! He is there and always has been, so make sure that you know Him before your life is over and your chance to know Him as Savior is gone for good.

Where is God?


Don’t read the title and wonder if I have lost my mind, you have wondered the very same thing from time to time! I have too and it does vex me at times to think of all of the evil and pain in the world and wonder about Him. He is right next to each and every person who is in pain, in duress from a multiplicity of reasons, or who is just lonely. God is as close to you and I as our next breath or even as close as our heartbeat. He is always closer than we can imagine or comprehend and He cares more than we could possibly know or understand!

Jesus said that “not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing it“, now that is my paraphrase of the actual scripture so don’t think it will be worded the same. But…if Jesus said, which He did, that a sparrow doesn’t escape God’s attention, don’t you think He pays attention to the rest of us as well? We can’t touch Him or feel His Presence all of the time, but He is there and He feels your pain and your sorrow and your joy.

12804782_1044929828955942_1233315242139204553_nAs a Christian we can feel Him near us, maybe not all of the time but if you are listening to His voice like you should then you can’t miss it. He is always there and as a Christian you and I have part of Him living inside our hearts, so He can’t get much closer than that can He?

For someone who is not as close to God as they should be or even someone who hasn’t given their life to Him, then the Presence of God may not be felt but that doesn’t mean that He isn’t nearby. Especially if you are being called into His Service! He will not let you get too far away from Him and He will bring you back in order to do His Will in your life and for His Kingdom. He doesn’t force you to serve Him, but when you realize what He has done and is doing for you and in your life, you will want to work for Him.

Paul did and he was persecuting the Way as it was called. He was called Saul at the time, but Jesus changed all of what he had been doing to make him into the greatest missionary of the New Testament church! If he can change and become one of the most successful disciples of Jesus, then you and I can do it too. We have to learn from God’s Word what to look for and how to understand His commands and His Voice in our lives and you can only learn that from prayer and reading the Bible.

So, where is God? He is everywhere! My best guess is that He is where you are and I know that He is where I am too! Give your heart to Him, learn about Him and His voice from the Bible, then you will hear Him and know that He is God and He is in your life, regardless of what may be happening, He will never leave you!

So many claim Him, yet so few follow…


You have seen and heard about the number of “Christians” in America. Our country, in most polls, claims to be over 80 percent Christian. If that were true, there would be no abortions, there would be no city which has over 250 murders in a year’s time. If that were true and all of them were true, devout believers there would be fewer homeless people, Veterans or otherwise.

If that were true we would be building more churches than prisons and every one would be full on Sunday morning. So, what happens to everyone when any sort of test of faith comes into your life? We give in to what the rest of the world wants to hear or not hear. We become PC Christians. So many claim to be Christian, but when the least bit of resistance pops up in your life or mine, we fall into our “politically correct” mode of coping.

If the apostles had done that, there would be no church today! If other brothers and sisters had done that, we wouldn’t have the stories of the martyrs that stood proudly, boldly declaring Jesus as Lord while they were burned at the stake or beheaded! Some in countries around the world today are being killed or imprisoned for their faith, but they have not given their Savior up or backed away from their faith.

So many claim to know Him, yet there are few who will boldly say it. Our problem isn’t knowledge of or about Jesus it is possession of Him in our hearts and our lives. Just as an engagement ring isn’t much without a diamond in its setting, we aren’t much without Jesus in our hearts! Knowledge of Him and doing works to please Him are all good, but without Him in your heart and the change that comes with it through the Holy Spirit, you will walk right into hell with your “holy bible” in your hand.

Knowledge of Jesus and God is great, reading the Bible from cover to cover is wonderful, but if that Book hasn’t changed you in any way that others can see…it means NOTHING!! God inspired the writers of His Word so that we can learn about Him and His Creation, but He also gave us His Word so that we could come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!

Is it possible to read the Bible and not come to a saving and believing knowledge of Jesus? Yes, I have heard that many people read it as a book of history and nothing more. Without faith, hearing the Word and believing it whether you are reading it or not, it will do you no good at all. If you are not open-minded enough to give God’s Word and prayerful read, then why bother? Yes it is a history book in some ways, particularly of the Jewish people, but it is also His story!

Your life will have far less impact on those around you unless you read this book with an open mind and with a prayerful attitude of “Show me Who you are, God!”. If you will do that, honestly and prayerfully, then He will show you Himself in all of its pages. If you don’t want to know about God and His provision of grace and salvation for your life, then just read a Bible like any other book. Don’t ask questions and don’t expect any answers, if you can.

God has a purpose for all of us, no matter whether we have believed in Jesus from a young age or if we are fifty or more before He touches our life with a moment of clarity bringing Jesus into focus for us! Be willing to give Him a chance in your life, because if you don’t one day you will regret that choice and after your death that choice can’t be undone.

Consider….


Faith, religions, Christianity, and church, to some people these are all lumped together in one big mess. We bring religiosity into the church and create some doctrine around a couple of verses then go around telling others that our way is the only one. How arrogant and stupid is that? Religion is what crucified Jesus. Self-righteousness is what makes people act the way they do toward other religions.

Consider this too..God loves each of us whether we know Him, believe in Him or worship Him. Your salvation and your eternity depend upon your belief not on your actions or anything that you do in this life. The work was already done by Jesus, you just need to realize that you need Him and come to Him in humility asking for His forgiveness. No amount of money or donations or building projects or evangelism for “your church” will get you any closer to Heaven, only your belief in and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior can do that.

Life is hard and depending upon where you live it can be brutally so. God loves you and cares for you regardless of your location or your circumstances. This is why He sent Jesus to pay the price for ALL of humanity’s sins, not just a few. Seek Him out in your life and in your situation, even if He doesn’t change your situation now, your eternity will be assured and you will spend it with God! Place your faith and your trust in Him and let those other “gods” go, since they can’t save you or help in your situation now.

God’s Promises


This is the day that the Lord has made for you and for me. What will you do with it? Do you wake up with an attitude of “Oh no, not another day!” or do you thank God for waking you up so you can have another day?

This is the life that we are given, daily, and we should be walking with Jesus but are you walking with Him or maybe someone else?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
God promises many things in the Bible but most of us either don’t understand that we are entitled to those promises or we haven’t read the Bible enough to know what those promises are! God loves each and every person on the Earth, which is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice which could pay the debt which everyone owes. Why didn’t I put that in past tense? Because we are all still committing sins regardless of our status as Christians or not, the only difference is that those who have given their heart to Jesus know they are forgiven.
They will be convicted of that sin, no matter what they do and they will ask forgiveness for it. Anyone who is not a Christian will not because until the Holy Spirit convicts you enough that you seek Him out, or you won’t do it at all. Truly, God does love you more deeply that you know or even realize but unless you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit and become convicted of your sinful nature, you will not seek Him.
God intended for mankind to have an intimate relationship with Him and, before they ate from the forbidden tree, that is what He had. What happened? Adam and Eve did not obey God. It wasn’t the fruit or the tree that caused the sin of disobedience, it was the disobedience which caused the rift between man and God. The curse which was placed on mankind and all of creation was because of his disobedience and we still haven’t learned from it yet…because it is still going on!
People go against the rules, the Ten Commandments, all of the time. Murder, rape, stealing, incest, disregarding parents and grandparents, all of this and more happens every day. The only cure for our world’s problems is obeying God, the True God of the Bible! Not the one in the Quran or any other “book”, but the One Who created everything and everyone. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One that we need to be listening to and following!
Seek Him out in His Word because His Spirit prompted and inspired the writers to write down His Words. The Bible is not made up by man because the prophecies that it contains would not have come true if that were so! The birth of Jesus was foretold down to Him being born of a virgin and in what town He would be born in. This was written at least six hundred years or more prior to His birth!
The same goes for the Psalm which David wrote almost one thousand years prior to His death by crucifixion. A type of punishment which wasn’t even being used at the time that David wrote Psalm 22, but it describes it perfectly even to the soldiers gambling for His garments. Give the Word of God a chance to change your life for the better and you will never be the same again!