Are you certain?

Do you know for sure, without a doubt, that you are saved and sanctified by the blood of Jesus? Have you read through the gospels and wondered if any of this was real? When I was younger, I wondered if the Bible itself was real or was it just some fantastic book put together a long time ago. The more I studied it and read it and then read it again, I came to realize that, especially when I read about the martyrs and how they died for their faith in Jesus, this book and the stories in it had to be real! Because people would not die for a lie!

God loves each of you so much that He sent His Son to the Earth clothed in humanity’s flesh to be the sacrifice for ALL of our sins! It doesn’t matter if you are black or white or Asian or Turkish or from Kenya or Norway or Australia…God loves you!

There is no secret formula to become a Christian, other than believing in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins and giving your heart to Him in repentance of those sins. That’s it! Then, walk with Him daily for the rest of your life so that others might get a chance to see Him in you! Christ died for you and for every other person in the world. He paid the price for your sins so that you could have eternal life through Him.

Why did He do this? Because of God’s LOVE for you, that’s why! God did not pick and choose who was going to be saved and who wasn’t, the choice is up to you! When you feel that conviction in your heart and know that if you died today or tomorrow without Jesus, you would go to hell. Make a commitment to Jesus as His disciple from this moment on so your life will have a true meaning and a purpose now and into eternity!

God loves you and wants the best for you in His Kingdom so make sure that you are serving Him in your lifetime.

GodsBlessing

How do we know?

How can we know that we have been saved? Can we know for certain? The Bible says that “our spirit communes with God“, even when we can’t pray our Spirit is constantly speaking to the Father in utterances which we can’t say. God knows about all of your needs and pains and trials and is there with you in all of them. When you read and study God’s Word and ask Him to show you His grace through the reading of it, He will.

God desires fellowship with us, just as He had with Adam and Eve in the garden. The only way that He can have that fellowship is when we have repented of our sins and asked Jesus to cleanse us of our old ways and make us into a new creation in Christ! God wants this relationship with His creation, particularly those of us made in His image. But, it seems that many of us have turned away from Him and His Word.

We have gone after strange gods and strange religions which are not of any real god at all. Many of them are religions which are “man-made” which is to say they are the imaginings of mankind. God is patient and loving enough that He hasn’t punished us for this, but He is keeping His anger in check until the time of Tribulation, which is yet to come. The world will know that there is a God, the Creator, Who is in control and Who is going to show the whole world Who He is!

How can you escape the punishment coming during that time? By giving your heart to Jesus and living as a disciple of His until He calls us up to Heaven one day soon. The church is the bride of Christ and will be taken up from Earth before the trials which will come on the whole world.

Although, at that time most of those who are here during those trials will not know that it is God Who is bringing the punishment on the world because they have refused to accept Jesus as their Savior. The few who realize why they are left behind may be turning their lives over to Jesus, but life will be very dangerous for them at that time. The world will be against most, if not all, religions in the world but especially Judaism and Christianity.

The best defense against Satan and the world that will be against your faith is to give your heart to Jesus now and serve Him until He does return for His bride. He is coming back soon, just as He said before He returned to take His seat next to the Father. Don’t discount the length of time that has elapsed since the day of Pentecost, we have been living in the age of grace, the church age, and when He calls His faithful followers home the rest of the world will know it.

If you truly are sincere about getting to know Jesus and to make sure of your salvation, follow this link and begin reading your Bible and serving Him today.

How can you be sure of your salvation?

A thought for today and every day

FaithisKnowing

God thinks fondly of you!

Jeremiah 29: 10-13

10 For thus saith, the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

God loves you deeply and He proved this when He sent His Son to die and rise again in order to pay for your sins and mine! Some people think that God chooses a certain number of people or just certain people to be Christians and some to be sent to hell. That is wrong! The Book of Life which our names are written in when we come to faith in Jesus is not already written!

God writes our names into it when we come to know Jesus as our Savior. John wrote this: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17

Your story as a believer and your life in Jesus is NOT written in stone. You can come to know Him as your Savior and all you have to do is seek Him diligently and ask Him into your heart. God loves each of us, He just doesn’t love the sinful lives that we lead when we aren’t Christians and our heart is still a slave to sin! I pray that anyone and everyone who reads this will come to the knowledge of Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

Don’t put off the most important decision in your life! Our lives are extremely short compared to eternity. It’s like a drop of water in the Pacific ocean, your lifetime is the drop and eternity is the ocean. Make sure of your destination in eternity before your life ends because this is the rehearsal for that eternal home which is promised in God’s Word. So make sure of it before you get in your car or get on an airplane or walk down the street because you don’t know if you will arrive at your destination.

Bridge2Salvation

In Romans 1:16 Paul wrote this: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”, and neither should anyone else who believes.

How much longer, Lord?

It has been nearly 2,000 years since the crucifixion of Jesus, yet God is still giving the world more time. Time to turn to Jesus and be saved, time to realize Who He was and Who He is and time for more to come to know Him as their Savior. When you look at all of the prophecies in the Bible you will notice that there are no more which are necessary to be fulfilled before the Trumpet calls those who have died in Christ and those who are living for Him now. We are living at the edge of history and its ending and yet more are still to come to know Him, so we wait for God’s timing.

the-great-tribulation-begins We don’t know what else needs doing nor do we know how many more haven’t been written down in the Book of Life but are destined to. But God knows who and when and it is very likely that it will be soon. We won’t know it until it happens and when that happens the rest of the world will know it too. For many, it will be too late, if they cared about it at all. So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

Why do I ask this question now? Because there are many on the Earth who are asking it as well. God is not short in His time and He knows when the Tribulation will take place. It is our job as Christians to live in obedience to His command and tell others about the gift that we have been given by grace through faith in Him. This cannot be worked for or bought and it cannot be bargained for because it is the gift of God to each of us who will accept it and believe.

Many wonder about this today if or when Jesus is coming back. You can be assured that He is because God doesn’t lie and it is told and foretold in the Bible that there will come a time of retribution and trials and that Jesus will come back to the Earth and reign for a thousand years from the throne of David. I pray that all who read this or who have heard a sermon about the return of Jesus the Christ will seek Him out and give your life and your heart to Him now before these things begin.

Some teachers are saying that the antichrist will come before we are taken up to be in Heaven. I don’t believe this. It seems that the book of Revelation is set up in order for us to discern His coming and the timing of His coming. The end of the age is near and we shouldn’t discount any prophecy in God’s Word. There is no exact date but with all of the upheaval going on in the world and all of the distress which is happening because of wars and drought and fires and natural disasters like hurricanes and volcanic eruptions…I don’t believe that the time is very far off at all.

Tell others about Jesus and His love for them. Seek Him out if you haven’t done so already because when the church leaves, the Holy Spirit will likely be gone from the Earth as well. Then the end will begin and that time is supposed to be so horrendous that all of life would end if this time is not cut short by the return of Jesus. Tell others and make sure that you are teaching from God’s Word during this time because that is the purpose of the church until God calls us home.

What is your idea of God?

Is He a father figure who gently prods you in the right direction or does He resemble the Greek idea of Zeus with a lightning bolt about to zap you if you do wrong? Many people seem to think of Him as a grandfather figure who is just waiting to pour money and blessings into your hand whenever you ask for them. Some people even think of Him as some sort of “genie” who will answer when called but is indifferent to your life unless you ask Him to be in it?

GOD IS NONE OF THESE!

Yes, He is a Father to us all because He is the Creator of all, but HE is not like a human father. He, God the Father, is not Zeus or Odin. They are mythical beings, God wrote the Ten Commandments on stone for Moses. A mythical being cannot do that! God is not a grandfather but the Father and Creator of all!

According to the Bible, God’s Word, He knew each of us before He created this planet that we live on. In His mind and thoughts you and I were there, along with every other person who has ever lived. He thought of you! Later, when you were old enough to feel His Presence, God the Holy Spirit touched your spirit and let you know that you needed Him. Before we who are alive today were born, Jesus Who is God in the flesh of man, died on a cross, shed His blood for our sins and bought our souls with that blood. He paid the price for our transgressions so that we could cry, “Abba, Father” in His Presence.

We are all able to receive His forgiveness and His Love which knows no bounds, if we will accept Him as our Savior and Lord. It is our choice. Even though He has made this easy for even a child to understand, many don’t want to believe it. Why? Because they don’t want it to be that easy. They want to have a part in their salvation through works on this Earth. But, works done without Him and in your own power just count as paper and wood. It is those works done with Him as your Lord which are made of gold and silver and which will endure the fire of His gaze.

God has loved all of us since the beginning, before the world became our home, it is our responsibility to accept Him as our Savior and give our life and our work for Him into His hands. I pray that those who read this and who haven’t given their lives to Jesus will do so today because you don’t know that you will even make it home today. You may not be able to find a pastor or a church to talk to someone about your need for Him, but you can do so right now. Just talk to Him like you would to a friend or your Dad and ask Him to forgive you and to make you whole in Jesus’ powerful name. It doesn’t have to be a fancy prayer or one which you may have heard in church, just talk to Him about what you have done and ask forgiveness for it all.

He knows but He wants to hear it from you. God has never turned away from you even though the world may tell you that He has. God loves you with an awesome love that nobody else has for you but Him!

Sermon from Jude

For Jude, family was not everything. He was the brother of James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem and the son of Joseph and Mary. Being the half-brother of our Lord Jesus he had occasions to watch Him as He grew to manhood, but Jude didn’t come to a saving knowledge of our Lord until after the resurrection. His epistle is meant for the early church but much of it pertains to us today. There were false teachers appearing in the church, just as they are today, telling people one thing which would bring them salvation. But, those “false teachers” were not bold in their speech, they were very subtil in their teaching, containing just enough truth so as not to be recognized.

Jude calls himself “a bondservant of Jesus Christ”, and the brother of James. He doesn’t emphasize that he is the Lord’s half-brother since that would play on the early Church’s devotion to Jesus.

Jude Greetings from Jude
(James 1:1-1)
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called: 2 Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

God’s Judgment on the Ungodly
(Genesis 4:1-7; Romans 2:1-16)

3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort [you] that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

8 Likewise also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

A Call to Persevere
(Hebrews 10:19-39)

17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 And others save with fear, pulling [them] out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Doxology
(Romans 11:33-36; Romans 16:25-27)

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present [you] faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, [be] glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Jude is exhorting the church to stand firm in their faith which they have believed unto salvation and to stand in that faith even when they hear a doctrine which doesn’t go along with what they have been taught before. Stay true to the faith in Jesus Christ whom you have believed!

Don’t turn away from the teachings which you have heard and read from God’s Word during your life as a Christian.

Is this little book relevant today? By all means it is! People don’t want to know the Truth of Scripture because they reject much of the Truth contained in it, not because it isn’t true but because it convicts them of their sins and they don’t want to hear it.

The rest of the letter of Jude speaks toward the church standing firm in their faith, just as the first few verses did. It talks of those who were apostates to the faith in Jesus and who were trying to subvert the teachings in the young church at the time. Jude was telling the believers to rebuke those who were bringing false teachings into the church and leading people off the path of Light and into teachings which would contradict those which Jesus and His disciples were teaching.

It matters to the church today because there are many who are rejecting the Bible outright, not only the teachings found in the New Testament but they are ridiculing the Scripture of the Old Testament, claiming that it has no meaning for today’s church. Yet, every book of the Bible teaches about Jesus in some way. He is spoken of as the Seed of the woman, the Rock, the pillar of Fire and Smoke, the Angel of the Lord, the Good Shepherd, the Son of Man and so on. He is mentioned in some form or type in all of Scripture which means that the entire Bible is relevant and useful for instruction and teaching in our modern world today.

Take the message of Jude to heart and make sure that you are ready to defend your faith if it is ever called into question or if you see or hear someone speaking of a doctrine which is not in the Bible or which sounds like it came from God’s Word but it didn’t.

How do you see the love of God?

Is this even possible in the 21st century? Yes, it is! The love of God shows through the love expressed when a child needs to be comforted for whatever reason. We show the love of God to each other in many ways, sometimes daily. You may be wondering, “How can God’s love be shown where the belief in God is not present?”.

Well, it is a little dangerous for the church, the body of Jesus Christ on Earth, to go to some places where the love of God is desperately needed. But…it is possible. We can show the love of God to each person that we meet. We don’t have to do much or even say much, just pray for them, pray over your food in the restaurant, be a disciple that they can see Jesus in.

God’s love can be shown to others in ways that aren’t overt or apparent to many people, but it is possible. Give away something or do something for someone without regard for payment or getting anything in return. The love of God is shown in the Bible from cover to cover because every action which God did for the Jewish people He also did for every person on Earth!

The love of God is expressed and seen in this verse: John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”.

The Love of God is manifested in the Word of God and the Word of God became flesh and was the Son of God.

How do we make a difference?

Making a difference in the lives of those around us and for those who might be searching for what makes Christians different is the real reason which the church is still here. Yes, there are many in the world today who don’t like the message, regardless of which church or denomination it comes from, but if we could just show the love of Jesus in everything we do then hopefully it would make a difference.

God’s love for all of us is deeper and more alive now than it ever has been, not because there is more sin in the world but because the time is growing short. All of the prophecies in God’s Word have come to pass except for those which happen in the book of Revelation. We should be speaking to those that we know about His love for them and His offer of grace and mercy through Jesus and your belief in Him.

You may ask “Why?”; its simple…because God loves you!

Nothing in the Bible happened because of God’s hate because He doesn’t hate people, He hates the sins that they are living in! God loves the whole world, not just a small part of it or a certain country or people group! Yes, He chose the Jewish people as His people but during all of the Old Testament He tried over and over again to bring them to a place of loving Him and of following His laws and they would for a while. But eventually, they would turn away from Him and go in their own direction.

The Old Testament is a reflection of all of humanity, not just the Jewish people and not just Israel either. All of us, whether we have given our heart to Him or not, we get disillusioned and we stray from the path. The good news though is this: we are the ones who have moved, not God. He is still patiently waiting for us to realize that we need to come back to HIm and when we do and we ask forgiveness for our stubborn streak…He forgives us and we can start again.

Making a difference in the world begins with one person. You or me telling the story of Jesus’ love and compassion for every person in the world. Giving your life to Him and living it out in front of those who see your witness, not just hear what you say but see how you live it out day by day. That is the greatest sermon and the greatest witness of all. Show people, family, and friends, that Jesus loves them with their warts and their faults and their struggles too. Jesus came to bring salvation to all!

God knew that this was needed and necessary for the whole human race, not just a few here or there. But, it is usually our pride and our stubbornness which gets in the way of every step that we think we are taking for Jesus and those steps turn out to be steps that we are taking alone. Especially if we have been in the church for most of our lives! We have been in church services and heard about all that Jesus did for us and what God tried to do for Israel.

Then sometimes we will begin thinking that we can forge our own path and that God will approve of our efforts. Those efforts which we are attempting will not succeed until we are following Jesus’ path and not our own. The thing which many people don’t understand is that God will let you think you are doing His work, even if it is by your own decision and strength until you fail. Then you will wonder “What happened?”!

The biggest problem in our world today is that if God isn’t in it, Satan may be. He will try to help you be successful just to show God that he can bring someone down by letting them succeed. You may not fail in this life and you may live luxuriously by your “success”, but at the end of your life when you stand before God you will find out that your “religion” was based on a lie.

We have to tell people about Jesus’ love for us so that they can tell the difference between fake religion and faith in Jesus Christ.

What do you deserve?

Spiritually we don’t deserve any favor or forgiveness from Almighty God. What? Are you kidding me? God doesn’t owe you anything!

Scary, huh? God doesn’t owe you anything except punishment, especially when we have not repented of our sinful lives and given our heart and our life to Him to live for Him during our life here on Earth! I don’t think many people even consider this issue unless they are convicted of their sins by the Holy Spirit at some point.

Think about the definition of grace and mercy, here are the plain definitions of those words:

Grace: (in Christian belief) is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. … There was nothing we could do to earn this salvation for ourselves. Mercy: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.

So, considering that God is Perfect and Holy, what would He require of you to earn your salvation? Nothing. Why? Because, since we are not perfect and holy we can’t accomplish the requirements which are necessary for our sanctification! God loves every person on Earth and He wants to have a relationship with each one of you. The only Person Who could pay the price for ALL of humanity’s sins was Jesus, God’s Son.

Jesus came to pay that price for every person and it doesn’t cost us one cent to believe in Him and in His sacrifice for each of us. We cannot pay the price for any part of our salvation because the cost is more than we can pay. We are not worthy to be saved but through your grace and mercy, the gift of salvation is offered to us as a gift from you to them. If they will believe that You did this for them and accept it in Jesus’ name, they will be saved.

The concept of being given this tremendous gift, which we really don’t deserve, is hard for some to understand but the manner in which we can have it is easy…simply believe in the One Who provided it for us. Believe that He did it, not out of obligation but because He loved us enough that He wanted to provide a way for us to be with Him throughout eternity!

We, meaning all of humanity, have all been given this wonderful gift by our Creator. A gift which we do not deserve and could never repay Him for because of the pain and the suffering which Jesus went through and which God shared in, yet it is a wonderful gift. The gift of God’s Love through Jesus for all of us! That is the gift we have been given. Along with the grace and mercy which poured from out Savior’s veins and the cuts and the nail prints and the suffering which He endured because of our sins, which had to be paid for so we could have a relationship with God, face to face one day in eternity.

None of this would be possible for us to attain through any effort of our own. God is the Creator and there is nothing in the universe that He doesn’t own already. So, there is no amount of gold or silver or jewels which we could offer for our entrance into Heaven since He owns all of the gold and silver and jewels in the entire universe! According to some theories, it may rain diamonds on Neptune so how many other planets could this be happening on? The treasure of one person or the entire wealth of the Earth doesn’t compare to the worth of our souls in the eyes of God.

LetitbeJesus