Happy New Year!

This year is one which will see a lot of things happen. Many of those will be ignored or not even reported in the news media but they will be important nonetheless. God is working and will be working behind the scenes while we go about our lives.

You may be wondering why I started this year in this way. The reason is that God has spoken to me and He has given me this mission. Just as all the previous years when I began this endeavor. This is my witness to all who might read this. Not bragging or trying to bring attention to myself but to get your attention focused on the Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the only way to gain entrance into heaven. There is no other way except by believing in Him and giving your heart to Him as your Savior and Lord.

Will we see the works of God this year? Some will see them and some will just reject them as natural phenomena in the world. Do not mock God’s working in this world because one day every knee will bow before Him and declare that He is Lord.

God loves each of us even though He doesn’t agree with the way many of us live. Humble yourself before Him and ask for His forgiveness of your foolish behavior. Seek to know Him as your Savior and follow hard on His steps until the day when He calls us home. For some that may be sooner than they know, but all will come to know Him as Lord and King one day. I pray that this year will be filled with miracles which can’t be explained away except by the power of God. Seek Him while there is time and learn of His goodness and mercy. Give your heart to Him because He loved you before the foundation of the world and He sent Jesus to pay for our sins because of that love.

In Jesus’ name I pray that all of you will come to know Him as your Savior this year.

What should you do for next year?

We aren’t there yet but it isn’t far off. Many people make resolutions to lose weight or get out of debt but the problem with either of those is that most have gone into more debt for Christmas just a week ago and losing weight is something that most of us just don’t have the time nor the energy to devote to it. Can it be done? Sure, but if you don’t get serious about it and keep your eye on the prize of losing X-amount of weight, just like a smoker who hasn’t really decided to quit but they try…and they fail. Not because it can’t be done but because they weren’t truly determined to do it! Losing weight and getting out of debt are the same, unless you are focused on the end goal and keep your focus tight on it until it happens…it won’t happen.

Why do I sound as if I’m picking on those of us who make these resolutions? Because I’ve done it myself and failed miserably every time. Now, I’m going to ask you about your life spiritually. Where are you in your life with believing in Jesus as your Savior? If you have already decided that this person who wrote this is nuts and I’m not going any further in this post, then be on your way. But if you are interested in the possibility of an eternity that many of us have heard about but maybe we were afraid if we went to “that church” and even got saved, people would talk about us. What’s wrong with that?

If they are asking you about what you experienced and how you feel about your salvation, then tell them! That is exactly what Jesus said to His disciples when He was about to “go to the Father”. Tell every person about the good news, starting in Judea and then go to the whole world. That is why I’m using this medium to tell others. Because I don’t have the resources to go into all of the world! The world on the Internet can find my witness here and that is the best I can do. God will use the words which He gives me to write here to touch those who are truly in need of His saving grace.

Please consider seeking out Jesus as your Savior this year. Not one of us is guaranteed to even be alive tomorrow let alone this time next year. Be sure of your eternity and your destination in it because while you are here and alive you can change your destination. Once your life is over, the decision has been made and there is no second chance after death. You will face either a welcome or a judgement by Jesus, there is no area of “if”. You are either saved or you are not and it is cut and dried, black or white and no gray areas at all.

Before…

Before you complain, think about what you have. Before you look at someone with a critical eye, turn your gaze on your own life first. Before you come to the end of your life, make sure that dying is all that you have left to do. Life is too short to live it without enjoying it first. But the enjoying of life for some people means that there is sin in their lives. They don’t think that you can enjoy being a Christian. Enjoyment doesn’t seem to be part of their thought processes when they think of serving God or even being a Christian.

King David, the author of Psalms, enjoyed the Lord. He praised the Lord and danced and sang while he praised God. That doesn’t sound like a joyless person. That is not a depressed and sad person because God brings joy into your life. Think about the blessings which Jesus brings into your life when you are saved! He forgives ALL of your sins, He gives you a new heart for serving Him and others, He changes your outlook on life because of the blessings that you receive when you become an adopted child of God!

Those blessings in this life are not the only blessings that you get from Jesus and from knowing Him as your Savior. Your eternity and your destination in it has changed as well. When you were a sinner, and every person who has come to Jesus (including myself) is a sinner, your eternity would’ve taken you into an eternity of torment. The only difference between your sinful life and the one you have now is that you have Jesus in it. Some theologies say that we are not put in the lake of fire like Satan will be, but being separated from the love of God and His Presence for eternity would be punishment enough. There will not be anything life-giving in hell. No water, no food, no cool streams of any kind and God’s Presence will not be there either.

Remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Lazarus was taken to Paradise with Abraham and the rich man was in hell. He asked for Lazarus to bring him just one drop of water because of the agony that he was in. But Abraham told him that there is a gulf between us that no one can cross over. He even asked if Lazarus could rise from the dead and tell his brothers to repent and not come to this place, but Abraham said no, they have the Prophets and the Law. They wouldn’t repent even if someone were to come back from the grave.

Your life before giving your heart and soul to Jesus is very different from the one you will enjoy after bringing His Presence into your heart. That is the reason for leading a joyful life after Jesus has saved you and made you into a new creation, different and precious to Him and to the Father. Serve Him in joy because with God all things can be joyful regardless of how the world may look at them. He will give you the strength to get through every obstacle and every pain and your life will be a beacon of hope to someone until you go to be with the Lord.

When I consider…

All of the wonderful things which God has provided for us, which are given to us by God. We have no control over our health, for the most part, but He gives us our portion anyway. We do not have any control over how many days or weeks or years that we will live, but God does and He gives them to us anyway. Even when we are disobedient to His calling in our lives, He is faithful to give us the necessary things to get through each day. Even when we don’t acknowledge Him in our life, especially for the blessings which we have each day like the air that we breathe and the energy that we have to move from one place to another, God is still faithful.

Consider how we show our faithfulness. Some of us don’t go to church but we are blessed by God anyway. Some of us don’t honor the Sabbath by praising Him for our life through Christ, but God is still blessing us each day. Some days we wake up with more pains and other afflictions which hinder our lives and we blame Him for those days, but God is faithful to bless us with His healing in our lives anyway. When we blame Him or shout our frustration to Him in our prayer time, He hears it and He still gives us blessings which we may not notice.

Would you consider being in a relationship with someone who treated you in the same way that we treat God? I imagine that we would write that person off and never speak to them again, but God isn’t like that. He is not as we are. He is patient and kind toward us even when we aren’t. He gives us the air to breathe and the food which we put on the table. He gives us the ability to go out and work so that we can have food for our families. Everything that you have comes from His hand not yours. We should be grateful and thankful for each drink that we take and for every morsel of food that we eat not just on Thanksgiving but every hour of every day.

God is always faithful to His promises toward us so why aren’t we faithful to Him in our lives? When things are going wrong such as a diagnosis that says we don’t have long to live most of us run to His throne begging to be healed and spared from this. Then when the illness is healed we thank the doctor and the hospital staff and we go about our business as if nothing happened. We forget that it was God working through those people in our lives in order to bring our healing to fruition. But when the disease, like cancer, comes back with a vengeance we blame God for it rather than giving Him praise for His power to heal.

Be mindful of your relationship with God because He is always caring for you when you don’t even know it. Make it a habit to read His word and claim His promises each and every day so when those days which plague all men come upon us you can praise Him anyway, thank Him anyway and get through them anyway because He never leaves you nor forsakes you. Even when we are fickle in our faith toward Him, He is not. Praise the Lord for His mercies endure forever.

Who is Jesus to you?

Is He the child in the manger wrapped in swaddling cloths? Is the He the Living Word of God? Is He God Who came down to us in order to bring salvation and the forgiveness of sins? Is He the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? I could go on and on with the titles which He came to be on this Earth but my point is this: if Jesus is not the King of your life…then who is? If you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked Him to come into your life and make you whole and complete, then what or who is in that place?

Jesus is the real reason for the season whether we like it or believe it or not. There are many in the world today who don’t believe the Bible is the Word of God. They think it is just a book and nothing more but it is SO MUCH MORE. The main reason that I say this is because if one part of it is not true then the whole text of the Bible isn’t true. God gave the words of His Book to those who wrote it down so that all of us who have access to it can learn from it and be saved from the consequences of our sin. Which sin are we talking about? The only one which matters to God: belief in Jesus as your Savior. If you don’t believe that and ask Him to come into your heart and your whole life and allow Him to change you then you just wasted your time.

Without Jesus, without the Christ in your life and your heart all you have is “book knowledge”? Even if you have been attending church for your entire life and you’ve read the Bible in Sunday school and during the sermons for fifty or sixty years but you haven’t asked Jesus to come into your heart and save you then all you have is knowledge of Him without the experience of His power in your life.

All of us need to realize that when we have been adopted as sons and daughters when we accept Jesus as our Savior. We are not outside the family! We are adopted and accepted as sons and daughter of God if you have truly accepted Him as our Savior. God’s love is extended to each of us just like His Son, Jesus. If you are seeking your Savior, trying to fill that space that has always been empty, then Jesus Christ is the One you’ve been seeking.

What is the best gift you’ve been given?

If you are a Christian and believe in Jesus as your Savior then your greatest gift is Jesus and the atonement which He purchased with His blood. It is a priceless gift and one which cannot be duplicated nor returned. This gift is found in the heart of every Christian who has truly given their life and their soul to Jesus and asked His forgiveness for not doing so sooner!

God knows your heart and He knows exactly when or even if you will turn to Him for your salvation. Some of us take a bit longer to learn that we need Him far more than He needs us. He is our Creator but He wants to be your friend and your guide in this life so you can move to the next life with Him. When you feel His call on your heart, please don’t turn away like many people are doing these days.

This gift of salvation doesn’t cost you anything unless you just can’t leave your drinking buddies or those that you hang out with every day. If that is more important to you than your eternity then stay with them. But if you know that this life doesn’t go on but for a few years and that those “friends” won’t be with you for your entire life then I advise you to seek out the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. He can fill that space which has felt empty for so long. That space which you can’t seem to find the exact fit for it and it keeps feeling as if it stays hollow regardless of what you try or who you may try it with. Jesus is the piece which fills in that space and makes you whole and complete.

Why are people leaving?

In Luke 2 the angels tell the shepherds that the Person who was born in Bethlehem is the Savior, the Messiah. The first four books in the New Testament are called the Gospels. What is the gospel? Its definition is this: the teaching or revelation of Christ.: “it is the Church’s mission to preach the gospel”. synonyms: Christian teaching, Christ’s teaching, the life of Christ, the word of God, the good news, Christian doctrine, the New Testament

People are leaving the church in droves. Some are young and some are even preachers. Some are older, parents and grandparents even. What has happened? What is happening?

Is it because of how the church has treated people over the centuries? Are people today looking at the history of the “church” and not really seeing the message of Jesus reflected in the people who belong to the church? Actually…I think that both of these are true and it’s unfortunate for the church and for the people who see the church this way. But it’s not because of their view of the church it is because of the way that the church is seen in the world and in the media today. All of the bad parts are showing and they are being highlighted more and more. So much so that people can’t see the good which the church has done.

It’s kind of like a beautiful white shirt or a pair of pants that have been stained with blood and mud and dirt and oil and it seems that it will never really be clean again. The outline of the stains will still be there even if you use bleach on it. People have used the Bible to justify horrible things like slavery and subjugation and that has nothing to do with the message which Jesus taught. Just like the life of a man, it doesn’t matter how many good things he did in this life. If he slipped just once and did something bad, it will be that one mistake that will be remembered.

It is the same with governments or politicians and the church. One slip up or word, even if it was unintentional and not meant in the way it was received, will cloud the perception of those who hear it or have seen it. No amount of apologies or restitution will ever make things right again. This is the reason, in my opinion, that people in the past twenty years or so have turned away from the church and Christianity.

In Philippians 2, Paul begins with this: If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others.

The church, meaning the people in the church, should exemplify this teaching in the world today. Not showing the hate which has been associated with some in the church but exemplifying the love which Jesus taught about God.

Is it pity or praise?

Many people in the church look at their lives and say “woe is me”. They are having a pity party and they want more people to join them. Their actions and how they live show that they don’t believe that God has always taken care of their needs, even though He has. They look at their old car or their drafty old house and think that God doesn’t love them because they don’t have the nice things that other people have.

God doesn’t have to reward you for pitying yourself and your life and He won’t. God doesn’t have to give you wealth and prosperity because He doesn’t have to do anything. There are no magic words or phrases which will grab God by His money-belt and make Him respond to your request…because God doesn’t respond to us in that way at all! Living in a pity party doesn’t help your situation at all, in fact it may make it worse.

Remember this and commit it to your memory: God is NOT a genie! He is God and the Creator of everything in the universe. He has trillions of tons of gold and silver in the cosmos and He doesn’t need your money. Our pitiful trinkets of gold and silver are used for paving streets in Heaven, especially the gold, so our money doesn’t truly mean much to God. Our intentions and our willingness to follow Him touch God far more than any amount of gold or silver. Because God knows the heart and soul of all men and He can discern exactly what your intent is.

He knows if you are giving your tithes with a cheerful heart or if you are putting it in the offering plate wanting change back for your twenty dollar bill. So why would He give us money and riches as His blessing for us when we are going to spend it on “stuff” which doesn’t edify the church or bring glory to Him? Truly, God loves each of us but He will not reward us with wealth unless He can see that your heart is in sync with His. I’m not saying that He will give you wealth if you do have your heart in sync with Him but He is more likely to reward you in some way if you are walking along the same pathway with Him.

Your reward may be a long life to tell others about His goodness and His mercy. It may be a life filled with many blessings which many of us don’t recognize as being given to us by God. The miracles of God and His blessings come our way because of His love for us and our willingness to be useful to His Kingdom. Sometimes they are tangible but sometimes those rewards and blessings are laid up for us in Heaven not here on Earth where people can see them.

Live a life of praise toward God and give Him thanks for your life today. Walk with Him and seek His wisdom in your walk so that you might pass some on to someone else. Be attentive to the Holy Spirit and His voice by reading God’s Word and praying about all of those promises that you have seen fulfilled by Him in its pages. Thank Him for your life and your family and the health that you are enjoying, even if you get up with a pain in your neck or your back. Thank Him for giving you the strength to get out of bed anyway. Thank God for allowing you to be saved by the power and the majesty of Jesus and His atonement for you on the cross. God loves you and He has a purpose for you so seek Him out and ask Him what it is and how can you be closer to Him so you can fulfill His purpose while you are here.

The baby in the manger…

The angels told of a child born in Bethlehem, the city of David, Who was the Savior of all the world. They even made sure that they told the shepherds about His birth first. So why don’t we follow Him and try our best to walk in the way that He did so many years ago? Why are there many in the world today who claim that He didn’t exist or that He wasn’t Who He said He was?

Those who claim that He wasn’t the Savior or the Messiah are the ones in our world today who want all kinds of social programs and an easy life. This is not the way which Jesus taught His disciples. He told them that the world would reject their teaching about Him and that they would have troubles and trials in the world. Particularly when they were doing what He had told them to do. Why does our walk with Him bring trouble into our lives? Because Satan doesn’t like it when we are doing God’s will and working for Him in this life.

God loves each of us and we can choose to follow Him and do His will or not but the end of the story is this: what did you do when you felt His touch in your life? Did you answer His touch and give up your old ways and follow Him and learn what His will is or did you tell Him to go to hell and leave you alone?

Unfortunately, many people do exactly what the second part of that question point out. The problem with that answer to God is that you may end up in the lake of fire with Satan…for eternity. No party, no 70 virgins, no having fun with the devil in hell because he doesn’t rule there, God is still in charge regardless.

Make sure of your destination after this life BEFORE this life is over because there are no second chances once you have taken your last breath here.

Father, I am sorry.

There are days when I don’t live spiritually close to my Savior. There are days when I don’t feel His closeness and His love for me. Why do these days keep coming at me during this time of year? This attack comes from our adversary. The adversary which stirred up those who were jealous of Jesus and His teachings. Satan is his name and his followers go out and try to tear down our faith and wear us down to the point of not being effective in our witness and our life of being a Christian. Do many of you have days like this? I imagine there are more people who have days of feeling defeated and useless to God than there are those who are serving Him joyfully and with gladness in their spirit. Why?

Because Satan knows if he can cause more Christians to either doubt their salvation or feel useless in their walk with Jesus then their witness will be dimmed to the point of being non-existent. When that happens they can’t reflect God’s love toward others and nobody will see Jesus in anything that they do. So how can we live in our calling and in our spiritual walk with Jesus day by day?

We have to get up that day and determine that we will walk with Jesus today. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next day until it becomes as natural to us as breathing. The problem will return though. Because when Satan sees you walking in the Spirit and with Jesus every day his attacks on you will increase because you are a problem to him. We need to pray every morning that Jesus would put a hedge around us with angels guarding our moves every day so the enemy can’t sabotage what your life and your witness can accomplish.

God loves each person and especially those whom He has called into His service. Sometimes we don’t feel that we are worthy of His call, like Moses, but He is our Creator and He will give each of us the knowledge and ability to accomplish those tasks which He has given each of us to do. God doesn’t call those who have degrees and lots of letters behind their name although He does use them at times. God qualifies those who can do that which He requires them to do after He calls them. Give your life to Him and see what He can qualify you to do in His Kingdom.