If you are a Christian, there are many things that you can do but should you do them? Sometimes you can truly ruin the witness you have by a word or something you do. Because when people see that you are a Christian, they notice everything that you say or do. What do you do when your life doesn’t show the evidence of a change in your life? When you claim to be a Christian but there’s no evidence of it, you are a true hypocrite.
So, how do you fix it? You need to seek the Lord in His Word and pray for Him to show you the Truth of your need for Jesus. If you’re not willing to do that then you will remain lost. Thinking you have Jesus as your Savior but living your life as a sinner proves that you don’t have Him.
If God hasn’t convicted you of your NEED for Jesus through the Holy Spirit, then you might never seek Jesus Christ for your salvation. So… what will you do? It’s all in your court. If you feel the need for salvation, then seek Jesus. If you believe that you don’t need Him then all I can do is pray for you.
Any time that you want a relationship of any kind you have to invest some time in it. Nothing comes quickly that is lasting. Money doesn’t. Friendships don’t. Marriage relationships don’t begin with deep, abiding love. There is affection and hope and a friendship that should develop as well but eventually, love becomes deeper and more meaningful and not so dependent on feelings or things. This is also how a relationship with Jesus grows. By learning about Him in His Word, praying to Him for understanding and wisdom, and learning to follow Him in everything that you do.
A relationship with Jesus doesn’t come from one hour or so on Sunday morning each week. If you don’t seek Him on a daily basis in the Bible and go to church to learn more about Him on a weekly schedule, then you are missing out on so much. The disciples were with Him every day for over three years and even that was just the beginning. Marriage and a relationship with Jesus require the same commitment in your life but many people don’t look at either relationship with regard to a commitment.
You and I are required to be accountable in every relationship but our society today wants to choose whether we should be accountable or not. It seems that most people don’t want to be accountable for their relationships or for their actions on a daily basis. Whether we are accountable in this life or not, we willbe held accountable when we are standing in front of Jesus when we come into eternity. Whether you like this idea or not doesn’t matter, God will hold you accountable for every word and deed in this life. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior then you are still accountable for how you conducted your life after you became a Christian.
While it is true that your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, your witness of Him and the change brought into your life by Him is still a part of your life. We are required to tell others about the wonderful things that Jesus has done for us and if you don’t tell someone when you have the chance you will still be held accountable for how you did it or not. You will have to explain why you didn’t tell someone who may not know Jesus as their Savior. How many people have you been around every day that need to know Jesus as their Savior? How many people have you been in line with or encountered at the store that you might have told about Jesus? Do you even think about telling others about Him?
When Jesus told His disciples to begin in Jerusalem and then take the message to the whole world, this is also our order to take what we have been given to those who need it. God has given us the most valuable gift that we could ever have in this life…salvation through Jesus Christ. Isn’t it worth giving away? The value that God places on each of our souls amounts to more than all of the wealth in the world and it was worth it to Him to sacrifice His Son to save us from eternal death. That gift that we have been given by our Creator and our Savior is worth giving away even if we only give it to one person who will receive it.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:1-6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.23.1-6.KJV
God leads us as a shepherd. Jesus is our Shepherd as well since He is also God. So, why don’t we acknowledge Him as our Master and Lord? Yes, many Christians truly follow Jesus and see Him as their Master and Lord, but why are the denominations split on doctrine and procedures? Why can’t the Christian church of born-again believers get along on doctrine and belief too?
There are so many divisions within the church because of Satan and his influence over the centuries. He has made so many inroads into the church that many things that are believed and taught in the church didn’t come from the gospels at all.
I don’t want to dwell on the influence of our enemy but on the goodness of our Lord. He does provide and care for us even on those days when we don’t feel it or even notice it happening. He gives us peace and He helps to quiet our spirit when the world gets to be a bit too much. God is good to us all of the time because He loves us and we need to notice it every day. Even when things aren’t going exactly as we had hoped, He is still working in the background for our good.
Don’t turn away from Him or the call in your life that He has placed there. He knows that you are the only person that can accomplish that certain thing that nobody else can do. So, be willing to follow Him and allow Him to lead you toward that goal. So much good could come from it and you may never know what happened until you are in eternity with Him.
How can God use me? I am not perfect and I’m not always in His will for my life. The thinking that we have that follows this line of thought is wrong. No one besides Jesus could be this way. God loves us regardless of our flaws. He knew us long before we were ever born and He still determined that we would be useful in His Kingdom. That is why you were called to become a Christian in the first place.
Becoming a Christian is not something that happens because you decide to do so. You only get to the point of knowing you need Jesus because God has placed enough faith in your heart to show you that you need Him. All of us have to live our lives on a daily basis and it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit that shows us that we can’t live the Christian life without Jesus as our Savior. It has nothing to do with our weaknesses because there isn’t a person on Earth that can live a real Christian life and follow Jesus without the Holy Spirit.
All of us have cracks and flaws and warts, spiritually, but God never called perfect people! He always called normal, everyday people like Peter, James, and John. His disciples weren’t superstars. They were normal people like us but when the Holy Spirit came into their lives they became bold witnesses of Jesus and His message and they began the work that He had told them to begin after He left and went to be with the Father.
None of those who have believed in the past could’ve had the witness that they did without the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Even the so-called “super preachers” of the last 150 years could not live and be the person that God called them to be without the Holy Spirit working through them. Their preaching would not have had the same impact that it had and they could not have been as successful with their ministry without Him. God can use even the most unlikely of people and circumstances to bring His will to pass.
Can you be used in God’s Kingdom in a mighty way? Yes, if you will surrender to His call in your life and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and through your words and your witness so others will see Jesus rather than you. This is what Jesus meant when He told the disciples that they would do greater things than He had done because the effect of their preaching would be more far-reaching than He could do in only three years.
The time that this world has left is growing short so I pray that you will give your life and your heart to Jesus if you haven’t already. Follow Him daily, reading His Word and praying because one day soon He will come for His bride.
Can you be useful to God when you feel broken? Many of us are actually broken in some way. It may not be a brokenness of spirit but it could be because of personal tragedies. So…could you be useful to God’s Kingdom even though you are broken?
Most of us could even if we don’t feel like being useful. Most of the time, when we are broken, our spirit is broken and our emotions feel all mixed up during this broken time. God refers to us as vessels of His Spirit and vessels should be useful but if they are cracked they can’t hold much. The vessel will leak.
Whenever God calls you and you feel broken would you answer His call? You are being called by God so the task can only be accomplished by you. If you are feeling like you can’t do it because something is missing in your life or in your walk with Him…God can fix that part and give you the ability to accomplish the task at hand. Your emotional baggage and your depression and brokenness should bring you closer to God.
All of us are broken in some way and it doesn’t take a genius to know this in our world today. With the pandemic and the wars and all of the other problems like inflation and high fuel prices, how could we NOT be broken in one way or another? So much uncertainty and anxiety about all kinds of problems that most of us can’t fix in our daily lives can cause even more of the same. It just keeps repeating.
Compounding the problems around us is the media’s ignoring signs that life is not getting better but more complicated. Then there is all of the social media drama that keeps cropping up about one thing or another that has no real meaning in the long run. Life at the point that we are living in right now has more than enough “drama” without the nit-picking stuff that shows up on Twitter or Facebook.
There are days that I would like to go back to the days when we had AOL and email and that’s it! No cell phones, no Twitter, no Facebook, no TikTok. Granted, the generation that has grown up since 2007 could not handle being without a cell phone. But, we could truly do without most of the social media that it seems everyone obsesses over today. All of the angst that people have to handle from life itself is enough without adding to being socially acceptable and not hurting someone’s feelings.
Consider the day when the Trumpet sounds and the church is taken up to be with Him in Heaven…social media won’t matter at all on that day. There isn’t a single story or tweet or post of any kind that will be taken into Heaven and your status or how many “friends” you had on Facebook or Twitter won’t matter one bit.
The only friendship that will matter is the one that you have with Jesus. If you don’t know Him as your Savior and He doesn’t know you, then you won’t be taken up into the clouds. Knowing about Jesus will not save you. Being a member of a certain church won’t provide entry into Heaven. Only belief in Jesus as your Savior and a life that reflects a change in your heart will make a difference. So, if you don’t know Him yet I suggest you need to search Him out in the Bible, pray and ask Him to come into your heart and repent of your sinful life today! Not tomorrow or next week because none of us is guaranteed even to wake up in the morning. Make sure of your salvation before it is too late.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:10-12 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/eph.6.10-12.KJV
There are many times in a Christian’s life that we feel like we’re being targeted by Satan, at least I do. Sometimes he will target people who are not Christians too but the point is that without faith and prayer and our knowledge of God’s Word, we have no real weapons to fight him with. God gives us faith when we are convicted of our sins and turn to Jesus for our salvation. Sometimes we feel that it isn’t very much faith but even a little bit can go a long way if we use it without doubting that God can bring us through our problem whatever it may be.
Why is the church today so ineffective in reaching out to people? It is because the body of Christ, the church, isn’t using His Word effectively and defending itself from Satan’s attacks. God has given us a way to triumph in every situation that Satan can throw at us but until we use the spiritual weapons that we have access to we will fail every time. We are able to be victorious in the fight as long as we have faith in Him and use that faith to call on Him to fight for us. God doesn’t leave us defenseless against the enemy.
But, like any weapon, if we don’t use it correctly it doesn’t help us. A gun can’t kill people unless there is a person behind it aiming it and pulling the trigger. In the same way, the weapons that we can use against Satan are useless if we don’t know how to use them. An excuse for not knowing that we have them will not help us. Just as not having a life preserver won’t keep you from drowning if you don’t have it. We don’t have an excuse for not having faith if we are Christians. We have faith but we don’t know how to use it.
Learn from God’s Word about the weapons that you need before you need them because getting them after being attacked will not help you at all.
Can you keep these completely? Have you considered that God wrote these on stone tablets and gave them to Moses? Have you ever considered that GOD is the Creator of EVERYTHING? That is the Person that you pray to and worship every Sunday morning! When we pray we are speaking to our Creator and most people just shrug their shoulders like it’s no big deal. Why?
Jesus came because He wants a relationship with you, me, and everyone who will give their hearts to Him. He knows when you will follow Him but why do so many of you wait? You don’t know if you are going to wake up in the morning! None of us knows how many days we may have left and it is only in this life that we can come to know Jesus as our Savior. Once you die, that’s it! You don’t get a second chance.
Once, I was accused of trying to scare people into giving their hearts to Jesus and I’ll admit that I tried but only God can bring you to the point of knowing that you NEED Him. The Holy Spirit has to touch your heart and bring you to the knowledge of your sin and that without Jesus as your Savior you will go to hell. Some of my friends from years ago, when I was a firefighter, said they would have the fire put out by the time the rest of us got there. No, they won’t! There is no light in hell, only heat and an absence of God’s Spirit and presence. There is no way that there will be a party in hell the way many people used to say. There is no water in hell either!
Remember the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man asked Father Abraham to let Lazarus come and just dip his finger in some water and put one drop on his tongue to cool it in the heat. Hell was made for Satan and his demons because they wanted to rule in Heaven. It was not made for mankind but Satan likes to trick people into thinking that it doesn’t exist or that they have plenty of time to make peace with God. The only peace you can make with God is by accepting Jesus as your Savior!
Your life here is short compared to even one thousand years. Imagine living in your eternal body in hell. Your body can feel the heat and the separation from God and at that point, you know that you can’t get out of hell. The pain that you will feel will be from the separation from God but it will be from the heat of the lake of fire too because your body cannot die even though you will want the pain to stop.
The only remedy that will keep you from going to hell is by giving your life and your heart to Jesus. There is no other path and no other remedy for your sins. Jesus paid the price to buy your soul with His blood and He paid for all of your sins with it as well. All you have to do is accept Him as your Savior and repent of your sins, then follow Him until He comes again. The period of grace for this world is drawing to an end and His coming could be at any time. Don’t wait until it is too late.
Can you keep these completely? Have you considered that God wrote these on stone tablets and gave them to Moses? Have you ever considered that GOD is the Creator of EVERYTHING? That is the Person that you pray to and worship every Sunday morning! When we pray we are speaking to our Creator and most people just shrug their shoulders like it’s no big deal. Why?
The Living Message of Christ 