Category: Believe like a child

When God orders…


“A very poor woman called a Christian radio station asking for help. A bad, evil man who was listening to this radio program decided to make something out of it…. He got her address, called his secretary and ordered her to buy food and take to the woman with the following instruction., “when the woman asks who sent the food, tell her that it’s from the
devil.”

When she arrived, the woman was so happy and she started putting the food inside. The Secretary asked her, ”don’t you want to know who sent the food”?? The woman answered. ”NO , it doesn’t matter, because when GOD orders, even the devil obeys.” The secretary broke into tears.

God is in charge no matter what is happening or what the “news” says about the situation.

Life, what will you do with it?


Since we are all alive if we are breathing, then we are all living right now…today, but have you considered what tomorrow might bring your way? Have you even thought of what will happen or may happen in an hour or two? We are not gifted with that kind of sight, thank goodness! We can’t see into the future even a few minutes from now regardless of where we are or how much we may like to see the future. So, how are you living your life right now, this very instant? Have you ever thought of that or even considered it at all?

Life is something that we live one tick of the clock at a time or one blink of your eyes at a time. Just fractions of a second stand between you closing your eyes in a blink and then opening them again and it only takes a fraction of a second. But, there are times that just that tiny fraction of a second could make the difference between having a wreck in a car or not. But, we can’t stop blinking or driving or walking because that is what we do while living!

Faith in God’s provision brings us through those milliseconds of time when we blink. He will see us through and bring us out the other side. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but consider all of the milliseconds that people experience every day, every month, every year and you realize that we all live faithfully in God’s grace whether we believe in Him or not! Isn’t that great? He loves each of us THAT much regardless of our faith or belief in Him.

Some of us are given much in goods and things that the world sees as our blessing from God. In the eyes of many people of the world, outside America, each person in this country is wealthy. Most of us have a place to live that is warm or cool according to the season, many of us have food on the table or in the house every day of the year, many of us have jobs which pay us a nice wage or if we happen to own a business it may be doing well enough to provide us everything that we need in this life. The problem with looking at our “material wealth” from the perspective of those outside of our homes or our businesses is that they don’t see or feel the loneliness and fear and helplessness that comes with being “well off”.

Many of us don’t even consider ourselves well off in wealth at all. Business owners have payroll and insurance and overhead expenses like utilities and such. Homeowners and those in business have insurance and grocery bills, utility bills, cable bills, dental and clothing bills, tuition bills, etc. So much so that after you take out all of the money for bills and life, there isn’t much wealth left at all! But, to those who live in Africa or India or Turkey or China or North Korea our way of life and the apparent wealth that they see is far above anything that many of them will ever attain.

That is why America and Americans are not on the lists of people who are liked or loved, because we are seen as a culture and a country that has it all. Everyone else wants what we have, up to a point, but they also want to bring us down a notch or two if possible. The biggest realization that the world needs to find out about is that we can’t fill that spot that has always been empty or hollow. No amount of money or stuff will ever fill that empty part of your soul until you realize that Jesus is the One that does fit in that spot! Once you understand that, all of the stuff that most are holding onto for dear life just doesn’t matter! Yes, you still have to have money to pay your electric bill and your other bills, but the i-Pads and the i-Pods and the phones and computers and any other amount of things which this season tries to tell you that you HAVE TO HAVE…they don’t matter at all!

Jesus said that your life is like a puff of smoke and compared to eternity it really is! Your life doesn’t matter much unless Jesus and belief in Him is a part of your everyday existence. No amount of time or effort or money invested or given to any charity will make an eternal difference unless you are doing it with faith and the love of Jesus in your heart.

We have a lot to do….


There are many young people and some older ones who have lived their lives without Christ. WE, as Christians, have to tell them about Him. This is not a request, but it is a command from Jesus written in the gospels. Christians have turned the other cheek and been quiet long enough and the only way that they will know, that many more will find out about their Savior is if we do our part and get the message out to them! I know that today, even in the USA, Christians are being targeted as hate groups because of our beliefs which come from the Bible. This treatment will likely get worse in the near future, but we must push our fear aside and tell others that the Hope that they are looking for can only be found in Jesus.

Why should we do this? Because of God’s love for us, because He gave His Son up to be the Lamb, perfect and unblemished, as the atonement for all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, because all of us fall under that category! There is no one on the Earth now nor has there ever been anyone like Christ! Failing Him and His command is not an option in my being. Like the one who blows the trumpet on the wall to let everyone know about an enemy outside the gate, I want others who follow Jesus to begin to let your friends know, let your family know about Him! We are held accountable for the Truth that we have heard and read in the Bible, therefore we can’t be silent and we shouldn’t be.

If you could save your friend from certain death, wouldn’t you do it if it were in your power? If it were your child or your parent, you certainly would if possible! We are coming to the end of the age of grace, which we have been under for almost two thousand years. Evil is spreading in the world, anti-Christian speech and laws are being passed and reported on around our country and in other parts of the world. The world that most of us grew up in has changed so much in character until it is barely recognizable as the same anymore. It’s not the same as it was, it is much worse!

Television shows and talk shows are bringing up subjects that are occult in nature, much of what is on TV does not fall into the “wholesome” family category anymore. It seems that just in the past fifteen years that it has become harder to find entertainment that is good for the family to watch together anymore. The Internet itself is a place where kids can find anything that they want online, even if mom and dad don’t approve of it. They can bring it up on their phones or their tablet or any connected device available to them.

Even many of the books and games offered on Amazon and other “toy” stores are occult oriented as are many of the games on the Internet. Children don’t think anything is wrong with tarot cards or other occult and witchcraft oriented games or books. Some are innocent to an extent, but if the door to the occult gets opened a crack, many things which you don’t want in your house will have access to your home and to your children.

Read God’s Word and ask for Him to help you understand the wisdom contained in it. Give your heart to Jesus and lead your family in prayer and study of the Bible. The strength and protection that He can give you and your family is needed in these times.

A living Message


Jesus was and is considered the Living Word of God, so our message about Him and salvation through Him should be different for each person. Truly, it is different for all those who seek Him because nobody gets the same message from the Bible. We all get a different meaning and purpose from the words which we read in it and since there are many on the web who are writing about Jesus, all of our messages are different too…at least in some respects.

First and foremost, God loves all of us whether we think so or not. It grieves the Spirit of God when a person dies who has not found Jesus to be their Savior and Lord. Some may not see it this way, but it is true and it says so in the Bible. One of the first instances of this is found here:  Judges 10:16 “And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.”

God loves us far deeper and more intimately than we can understand, so it shouldn’t be unusual for Him to grieve when we go astray or refuse to become an adopted child of His through Jesus. We don’t have to do it and we aren’t forced to do it but your life and mine are so terribly short compared to eternity and yet it is only during our lifetime that we can make this choice of asking Jesus into our lives. God loves each of us even to the point of the parable which Jesus used about the sheep that went astray out of a flock of one hundred. We have all gone astray at some point and some of us haven’t become the sheep that God wants us to be, meaning that He wants us all to come to know Him and His love for us.

We can’t do that walking around in the world looking for something or someone who we feel the need for but don’t know who or what it is that we are searching for. God sees us all wandering around but He won’t intrude on or in our lives until we ask Him to come in and help us with our lives. Just as love for another person can’t be forced or “made to happen”, your love for God can’t be a forced love it has to be one that you initiate. Once you make the step of asking Him into your life, to forgive you of the sins that you feel can’t be forgiven, then He will work in your heart and your mind to help you to conform…help you to become more like Jesus. This is our ultimate goal, to become more like Jesus. Like it or not, that really is your purpose in life because life is the training ground for so much more.

What are we training for? I don’t really know and I probably won’t find out until I get to Heaven. The point is that we are to strive toward the goal of being as much like Jesus as we can, with the Holy Spirit’s help, while we are here. Don’t judge people or look down on them because they have less than you do or more than you do because stuff is not what’s important in this life, people are. We are called to be mirror images of Jesus and for a while our reflection of Him will be a bit blurred but it takes a bit of polishing to work out those rough spots. Getting through the polishing phase is the toughest part that you will find yourself in during this life, because you will feel like God has left you to fend for yourself when He is actually using those trying times to get your faith and dependence upon Him to work together.

As long as we keep our eyes, spiritually on Jesus, then we won’t falter when the going gets a bit rough. We may have to endure some hard times with our children at home or with a disease or a family member but as long as we keep God in the center of our lives and depend upon His strength to get through today and the next day then we will come through just fine. This is what I am having to deal with today. A teenage son that, unfortunately, is just like me at his age and I have forgotten what he is going through. I have to give this struggle to God and let Him work it out because all that I can do on my own is make it worse. Lord, give me the wisdom to keep my mouth shut until he is ready to really talk to me about what he feels.

See, I may have some good advice but I have to take it too.

Where do we go from here?


In the past few years there have been many books and movies about life after death and where we go afterward. It is a touchy subject because some people think that we don’t go anywhere and some think that we do and sometimes it can cause a heated exchange online and in person. Do you ever wonder about this? I used to but since becoming a Christian, I don’t worry about it any more but I do think about what the rest of the world may be looking forward to. Are you looking forward to eternity or do you even think there is an eternity waiting for you?

Some people even think that they will be having a party in hell with Satan, but according to God’s Word there will be no party. In fact, Satan HATES you and me! Specifically because we are made in the image of God but also because God placed us above him and above angels. We will judge angels one day, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and believe in our hearts that He died for us and our sins! Satan is not a god, although he wanted to be above God. He is not omnipotent nor omniscient, but he was a powerful angel at one time and he continues to use the power that he was created with.

Where do we go in our beliefs from where we are? Many claim not to have a religious belief in any being, whether God or Satan, supreme being of any kind. Why? If there is one which some people claim to believe in and follow then there must be the other. Evil and hatred can’t exist without love, they are two sides of an eternal coin, just as light and dark or heat and cold.

God loves us, all of us and has since the beginning of Creation. Satan has been in opposition to God and His plans, whatever they were, ever since the rebellion which got him thrown out of Heaven. Satan is opposing God right now through wars, murders, diseases, and all sorts of acts which mankind is inflicting upon each other through his influence over them. He targets those of us who are serving God by tempting us and causing problems in our lives, some of which God allows to test us and our faith to make us stronger. I know that and am comfortable with it because God will see me through it all.

What about your future? Your eternal future? Not just tomorrow or next month, but after your life on Earth is finished, have you even considered it? If you haven’t, you should because it is by God’s grace that we have our being, our lives, even our next breath. If you were to stand in front of God before the dawn tomorrow, would you be able to give Him an answer to “What did you do with my Son?” Could you truthfully say that you accepted Him as your Savior? Would your Christianity hold up in a court of law today? Is there enough evidence in your life to prove to a judge on Earth that you are a Christian? Because, if there isn’t enough evidence beyond “he was a good man or a good father”, then how will God receive you?

It is something that all of us need to examine in our lives because eternity is a very LONG time and you enter it as soon as you draw your last breath in this life. Whether that is today or ten years from now or even fifty years from now, your eternity will begin that quick. Make sure that you know and are at peace with your choice because you will be stuck with that choice, and it will be because of your choice not because God sent you there.

So many things happening


It seems that every day there is something new happening. It could be a new disease or some decision by our government that is going to change things or it may be something happening in the Middle East. It seems that much of the news every day has something to do with that area and it gets more and more intense each day. Every day more people die from diseases which were eradicated years ago, but now they have come back and are more resistant to treatment. Some of the diseases are not old ones but new ones or even some that are familiar but different in a bad way. Life just seems to be getting worse in some ways for everyone. Of course if you have the money to pay for the treatment, then your problems don’t seem to be so bad.

The problem with the money is that many people tend to use it as their “god” and depend upon it and what it can do for them more than they depend upon God. That is why Jesus spoke these words: “23And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”…. (Matthew 19:23,24) Rich people rely on their riches, their money, more than they rely and depend on God. They don’t think that they need Him because with their money they believe that they can do anything. The problem is that money can’t and won’t take care of you like that. It is just paper and that is all that it is!

We have been trying hard and succeeding at getting the Bible and its teachings watered down and taken out of educational settings, particularly in the past fifty years or so. It’s really not a stretch to see why our world is so crazy today because of the influence of the world and the culture which pervades our everyday life. Can it be fixed? Not by us!

We need to pray and get God and the Bible back into our culture and our country! Our laws were based on the Ten Commandments in the Bible, but our judges and our government have watered them down and changed words around so much, that most of our laws bear little resemblance to the ones that were put into the constitution in the past. God’s Truth and His laws are the only way to get our world back on the right path. I am not saying that we need to be a theocracy, but our world needs Christ not just America! I know, I am offending some by saying this but it is the truth!

One day in the not too distant future, people will wake up to a world where all of the Christians have gone missing. They are no longer working or flying planes or driving their cars, and their disappearance will happen while people are asleep in some parts of the world, but in others there will be wrecks of all kinds. Planes falling from the sky because there are no pilots, people missing from buses and trains, cars crashing because their drivers just vanished. I don’t know the date, no one does except for God. The world is going to be a very messed up place at that time, because many who have been in church but have never given their hearts to Jesus are going to know what is going on. It will frighten many people to the point of suicide, many will be going to churches and trying to find the answer.

It isn’t too late at that point, to come to Christ, but you will have missed the rapture of the Church. Life will not be easy for Christians because they will be blamed for all of the deaths in the world. Persecution will increase everywhere. If you become a Christian after the rapture, then you may need to go into hiding, but never give up on your faith in God. He will strengthen you and carry you through this time, even if it means that you have to give your life or have it taken from you, you will live in eternity with Him. Our redemption draws near. Seek Him in Scripture, pray and attend a Bible teaching church, ask Jesus to become your Savior before this time comes upon the world.

Shifting Christianity


In an article titled “Trends in Christianity”, the author writes “Today the majority of the world’s Christians live in the southern hemisphere, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Christianity in these regions tends to be very conservative and traditional.” At one point in our past, America was the evangelizing arm of Christ. Our country and Great Britain took the leading roles in telling the world about Christ. It seems that we have done a good job of it in the past two hundred years since our Christian base has dwindled and those of other countries have bloomed.

There are other disturbing trends in Christianity as well, like the “new age” type of worship service where the old traditional hymns have been replaced with praise songs and choruses that repeat a phrase over and over again. Then, there is the trend of huge mega-churches where few people know the people with whom they are worshipping because of the size of the congregation numbering into the thousands.

We look around us at all of the problems in the world and our own problems and we can’t see any way to fix them. Jesus said, “Why do  you worry about your clothes or what you will eat? The flowers of the field are more beautiful than anything that Solomon in his riches could wear, and the birds of the field never worry about their food because God feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than the grass or the birds?” Granted, I paraphrased that a bit, but you get the idea. We shift from one belief or doctrine from year to year at times, looking for a church or a preacher who won’t step on our toes too hard, when we should be looking at our own beliefs and our own hearts.

Christians and those who claim to be need to examine themselves more closely and try to divine whether we fit in with Jesus’ disciples or not. Are you a doubter like Thomas or a loud and brash person who speaks before thinking, like Peter did? Is your faith little and weak? Mine is, but if you have a grain of faith THAT IS ALL THAT YOU NEED!!! Our God is AWESOME! He placed the stars in their orbits and the galaxies too, so don’t you think your problems are smaller than the universe? A universe which He spoke into being in less than six days!!

He is bigger than your problems and your emotions and your bank account or your mortgage. God loves you enough to take care of it all, if you will give it and yourself to Him. This is the very heart of the problem though, many people think that when they give their hearts to Jesus all of the fun in life will end. That is a lie from Satan! The fun doesn’t stop, it begins. It’s just the type of fun that you have after becoming a Christian changes. It is fun, to me, to make Satan uncomfortable by getting online and telling people about Jesus. I don’t go out and get drunk or high like I did many years ago, but I do enjoy telling people about my Lord and Savior!

God loves us with an overpowered love that we can’t fathom because we can’t imagine anyone as awesome as God! Our imagination just doesn’t go that far because there is nothing in the universe, let alone here on our little planet, that is as powerful or as awe-inspiring as God is. To put it another way, “It would bust your head wide open to try to imagine God, so don’t!”.

We are only human


In today’s society, it seems that when you are a pastor of a church you are held to an almost god-like standard. One which penalizes you and calls for your resignation when you fail or when you fall like everyone else does. It’s like walking a tightrope, one misstep and you will fall to your death unless there is a forgiving net to catch you. I have felt the stares of people, watching me because they know that I pastor a church. It doesn’t matter if it is a small church or a huge church, the standard is the same. Just because we are preachers, proclaiming the gospel of Christ and His forgiveness, we are not perfect! Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, so God has forgiven us, but when you see us sin and fall from that pedestal the forgiveness doesn’t seem to follow.

People, humanity has a very long memory when it comes to its teachers and preachers. Nobody is forgiven it seems, when the sin is made public. It is more akin to being tarred and feathered in the public square and then having that picture put up on Facebook or Instagram where it will never go away. On the other hand, if you are a politician or a lawyer or maybe a football star your sins will be overlooked and forgotten in a few hours or days.

Why are we held to such a high standard? Because we are telling you about the love and the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ and that you can have it for the asking. It isn’t a magic formula or a potion that you have to buy, it has been paid for through the blood of Jesus. All that you have to do is believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins, just like the thief on the cross. He couldn’t get baptised and there was no way that he could tell others about Jesus, but he could believe and he did! Jesus told him that “today, you will be with me in Paradise”, if that isn’t an affirmation of being saved I don’t know of one!

The apostles and all believers were given a command to go and tell the world about the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Telling is what preachers do and it is up to you whether you believe the good news and ask Jesus into your heart or not. Do we fall sometimes? Of course. Do we say things that we shouldn’t? Yes, we are human. The difference is…we are forgiven. All that we have to do is to repent and ask forgiveness for the slip or the fall that we got into. You can too! Grace, love, hope, peace and forgiveness are all offered to you from God through Jesus. It is your responsibility to ask for forgiveness and repent of your sins, not just lip service but real honest repentance!

Why do I say it that way? Because, that is what I did for many years. I would go down and feel sorry for my sins and pray and even get baptised. Then, I would attempt to read and understand the Bible for a while, but I would eventually follow a friend to a bar and get drunk, or take a girl home for a night and I would be back in my same rut again. Some call it back-sliding, but I don’t think I was true to the repentance that I professed so it wasn’t real. I was just going through the motions, doing all of the things to “look good” when I was still just as lost as I was before.

Think about it and seek God in His Word, then pray and ask Him to show you what you need to do to truly become a child of God and a Christian.

Celebrations and tears


We all have them at one time or another. We mourn the loss of someone who we love or we celebrate an anniversary or other accomplishment in our lives. Sometimes the tears come during the celebrations, but it is all part of life. How do you live with it or live without the people in your life which have gone on before you? Do you rely on your own strength and that alone or do you lean on friends and family? Many people do exactly that, they lean on others who have gone through the same troubles and heartaches. Is that really how we are supposed to get through our tough times?

The celebrations are easy because they usually involve someone’s accomplishment in some way or another. Maybe you have been married longer than some in your family or friends. Maybe you just graduated from college or even got married recently. Maybe you just had a baby, boy or girl doesn’t matter, it is still a celebratory moment in your life that you won’t forget…EVER!

Time can dim the memories and the pain to an extent, but it never goes away entirely. The loss of a loved one, whether it was your child or your mother or father or one of your grandparents, is a loss to you emotionally, physically and even spiritually. Why spiritually? Because between Christians there is a bond of fellowship, it isn’t one that you can feel emotionally but it is there. When you are absent from this fellowship, your spirit feels it and whether you feel it emotionally or not, God knows how it is affecting you.

The other effects from the loss are more immediate and real because of the pain that is felt and caused by such a loss. Why am I going over this? Because many of you, even though I don’t personally know you, have a loss in your life of some kind. Some are more painful than others, some are like my mother who suffered with pain for years before she died but that did not lessen the pain that I felt at her passing. Even though after so many so-called “mini strokes”, she was still with me for a time she couldn’t enjoy life anymore so her quality of life was far diminished from what it had been. For years I blamed myself because I had asked God to take her and get her out of her pain and suffering, but it wasn’t because of my actions or my prayer that God granted it. It was because He saw that it was time and within a day of my prayer, she was in His arms.

Yes, my pain began at that point and continued for many years especially at Christmas because she died on Christmas day. My point?

First…don’t ever pray that kind of prayer unless you are ready spiritually for the consequences of it.

Second…there will be consequences, good or bad, because of a death in your family whether you prayed that prayer or not.

God loves each of us, no matter what we have done or will do in the future, He just doesn’t like the sinful lives that we lead. Especially when we don’t even recognize that we are sinners or that what we are doing is sinful. Some Christians live this way, thinking that their life is fine with Christ and with God because they claim to be Christians and they go to church once in a while. Many of them think that because they read the Bible a few times a year, not all the way through, that they have their way to Heaven in the bag and they don’t need to worry about it.

Analogy: You go to a college and audit some courses, sitting in class and listening and reading the material maybe even taking notes. You might even audit enough courses to actually have enough credits under your belt to get a degree…will you get one? No, because an audited course doesn’t give you credit for a degree, you are just present listening for your own enjoyment so to speak. What good did that do?

The same amount of good that going to church, reading the Bible, praying and singing will do for you…none!!!

You can go through the motions of this and you might even be “led” to get baptized one day because you think that it is the right thing to do but has your heart changed? Did you give your life to Jesus and allow Him to change you from the inside? If you didn’t do that and your life outside of church doesn’t change so that others can tell that something happened, then it was your decision, your feeling and not the call of the Spirit that you answered. When you die, you will be shown that you did all of these things but if you never actually gave your heart to Jesus, the knowledge that you heard but did not hear spiritually will only convict you.

Think about it.

Do you have everything that you need?


Many in the world’s countries don’t, at least from the world’s viewpoint. You notice that I put in the title “everything that you need“? I did not say anything about stuff that you want!

Wanting things and more things doesn’t give you anything but a storage building that you didn’t need but it is necessary because of the stuff that you wanted. So, now what will you do with it all? Store it in a building? What good does that do you?

What about the garage with status symbols in it that cost you more than your house payment every month? You have to put a hundred dollars worth of gas or diesel in those every week at least to keep them going. You have to replace the tires on them at about two hundred dollars apiece every so often. I know that they are necessary for you to go to work or maybe you use one of them for your job, and that’s fine. They are useful, but some stuff just isn’t and it gets your money and barely any notice after that, at times.

Our needs involve food, shelter, clothing, and health. I am not speaking of having more of any of these than others but just what you truly need. The best is good as long as it doesn’t cost you more than you can afford. Enough food is great for anyone, but more than you need is bad for you. Everyone knows this, but there are many who don’t seem to care because they want more.

Did you also notice that in your needs list, I didn’t have wealth. Why is that? Because in order to have your needs met you don’t need more money, you only need enough to take care of your needs. Wealth is for those who want to do it all and have it all and it is a good thing for some people. But, Jesus said that is would be “harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”. Why is that? Simply because a rich or wealthy person doesn’t feel that they need Jesus, because they have every “thing” that they want and they have money to get what they need if that need arises.

Wealth can’t buy happiness or health though. Yes, you can pay your bills so it makes the stress level go down somewhat, but that isn’t happiness. If your health takes a turn toward the cancer ward or something happens to your child, your money can help you to have the best care that money can buy. But, what if that isn’t enough? What if there is no cure or amount of medication which will take care of the problem? Money’s just paper at that point.

Your needs, your life, your happiness, and your health are all important to God because He created you for a purpose. He cares for you and loves you far more than you even love yourself. I am not saying that all of your needs will automatically be taken care of if you trust in Jesus for your salvation. Your bank account won’t suddenly swell up with cash after you become a Christian (although that wouldn’t be a bad thing as long as you give God the glory for it). But, the love and the peace which comes with knowing Jesus and His Father will make even a diagnosis of incurable cancer bearable because you now have eternity in Heaven to thank Him for His love and grace for you. No amount of money or fame will ever fill that void in your life unless Jesus fills it.