Category: By faith

Have you encountered your Savior?


What kind of question is that? What do you mean?

I don’t mean have you heard about Him or even accepted Him as your Savior. I do mean, “Have you had an encounter with Him?”

We go through life every day passing by people on the road and on the sidewalk…but we don’t know them. We may never know who they are even if we pass them for many days or weeks or even years. But, what about Jesus? Do you just pass by Him in church? Hearing messages about Him but not really getting to know Him. You might ask me, “How am I supposed to get to know Him?”. By surrendering your heart to Him and reading the gospels about Him and what He did. That is the best way to get to know Him and actually have an encounter with Him.

Some of you might say, “I don’t need Him. Not right now, I’m too busy to worry about my salvation”. Do you truly believe that you have many more months or years ahead of you? Not one person on the Earth knows if they will wake up tomorrow morning…not even you or me. So, how can you just push Him or even the experience of Him away so easily?

We are living at the end of the church age. Jesus could come to take the church, those who have given their hearts to Him, at any time. He has loved all of humanity since the very beginning, although He has not loved their sinful ways. Can you say for certain that you will be a part of the church, the Bride of Christ when He comes to take her to His Father’s house? If you are not sure, then you need to make sure.

Jesus looked at those He ministered to with a love that we can’t understand because it didn’t require anything from those He was ministering to. He didn’t need money or jewels or a home. He already had access to all of that and more. God doesn’t require anything from us except our obedience and our devotion. No amount of work is needed for us to be saved from hell. Only our belief in Jesus and our repentance, turning away, from our sins. Why does an encounter with Him seem to frighten people away?

It could be that the price of following Him is too high. How could that be? He doesn’t require you to spend your entire savings to follow Him. All He asks for is your heart and your belief in Him to be His disciple. Then go and tell others what He has done for you. It’s not required but your testimony to others will show how much He has done for you and maybe they will want Him as their Savior as well. The blind men that He healed only asked for their sight back and He healed their blindness. He also gave them “spiritual eyes” to see Who He was and to know that they needed to follow Him and they did.

With everything that is happening in the world today, we need a Savior in more ways than we know. The Savior that can give you an eternal place in Heaven is Jesus Christ. Seek Him while there is time.

When will You show up?


We want to ask this especially when we are going through a tough time. The bills can’t be paid because the money isn’t there. You can’t buy groceries, again, because of no money. You get a diagnosis that frightens you and surprises you at the same time…so when will You show up in all of this, God?

The days that we are living in and through today bring questions like this to mind. We may not voice them aloud but they are there. There is something that we need to remember in all of this: God is always here with us. He knows when a sparrow falls, so don’t you think He knows when you are having trouble? Even if you haven’t given your life to Him yet, He still knows and He is never more than a prayer away.

God loves every one of us. He loves us even more than we think anyone could and He does. So, why do we feel alone and abandoned at times? Don’t blame it on Him because He hasn’t moved. Most of our loneliness comes when we either push Him away or we don’t invite Him into our problems. We think that He isn’t interested. Realize this: If God knows how many hairs are on your head, don’t you think He cares about every other part of your life? God knows you and me far better than we know ourselves.

Your life is precious to God and He wants to treat you as such but when most people don’t believe in Him as their Savior why should you receive any help from the God that you don’t believe in? Many of us have made “god” in our image and that is the god that we worship, even in church. He is not judgmental. He doesn’t require us to do anything for His Kingdom. We have created an idol with our idea of who god is and we have placed him in a box to be brought out when we want him and need him. That is not God the Creator and Father of Jesus.

We have to follow our Savior, Jesus, every day. Make sure you read the Bible so you will know exactly Who you are following and why. God loves you!

Give thanks


What will it take?


There have been hundreds of sermons preached in America and around the world, maybe even thousands since the time that Jesus Christ was here. How much more preaching will it take to get people to realize that God’s Word is true? God inspired the men of Israel to write the books that they wrote and yet we think that the Bible is just some old, dusty book and nothing more.

Consider the parable of the pearl. A merchant found a pearl. Perfect in all of its dimensions and without a flaw. He sold everything he had in order to purchase this pearl. This is exactly how God views each of us. Our soul is worth more to Him than all of the wealth in the entire world and in today’s economy that would be in the trillions of dollars. I’m not speaking of the human race, I’m talking about your soul or my soul. God values each of us that much. So much in fact that if I had been the only person to be saved by the death of Jesus on the cross…He would’ve still died just for me or you or any one of the billions of people on Earth.

Not only does God value us that much but He loves each of us that much. It doesn’t matter if you are Jewish or a Gentile, God still loves you that much. Just think about that for a moment. Is there anyone that you would give your life for like that? I can think of a couple of people but to do it for someone I don’t know…I don’t think so. The thing that we have to remember is that God knows each of us and He knew us long before we were born. He knows each person intimately enough that He doesn’t wonder what kind of person we will become because He already knew that long before we were born.

I pray that each person that reads this will think about this for a few minutes. Consider how much God cares for you and that He would’ve died for you even if you were the only one that could be saved by His death on the cross.

Love each other


Don’t hide your light


Which way should I go?


We are given all kinds of choices in life. Do you eat cereal for breakfast or a bagel and fruit? Should you eat eggs and bacon or some fruit and a veggie “sausage”? Every day we make choices about what to eat and what to wear, so why do we have such a hard time making the decision of whether to follow Jesus or not? If you work for a company you usually plan for and save for retirement. You invest it and try to make sure that you don’t have to depend on just Social Security, which is what I’m living on right now. It isn’t impossible to live on that but you do have to watch your bills and your spending.

Anyway, why don’t we plan for eternity in the same way as we try to plan for retirement? Is it because we don’t care where we spend eternity or maybe it’s because we don’t really believe that there is eternity past death? Some of us may hang on to the idea that “I’ll get around to that later”. How do you know that you will have a “later”? No one is guaranteed even tomorrow. All of us think that we will live a long life when we are young, but today that is definitely not guaranteed. Other people not paying attention on the road are a hazard. Not getting enough sleep can determine how well you are paying attention. There are many hazards in our world today and they are not getting any easier to handle.

Just going downstairs could be hazardous to your health, especially if there are children in the house.

Eternity is a very long, long time and our tiny lifespans don’t even begin to help us to realize that. Consider how long Methuselah lived, 969 years. If he has been born in the last thousand years, he would’ve been born in 1053 AD. He might die this year but can you imagine how much change he would’ve witnessed in his lifetime? He would’ve been around before scientists even “discovered” that the Earth revolves around the Sun! The Catholic church would’ve burned you at the stake if you declared that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. Not to mention all of the advances from that point on to this year. His lifespan would only amount to a fraction of a second compared to eternity.

Seek out your salvation in Jesus Christ if you don’t already know Him as your Lord and Savior. He is the only doorway to gain entrance into His Father’s house. Today we hear of “many ways to be saved” but that is not what Jesus taught. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light and no one comes to the Father except through belief in Him. Then you have to learn more about Him by reading God’s Word and praying for understanding. If you don’t do this, you might miss His voice speaking to you because you won’t know what He sounds like. Why am I saying that you need to seek Him now? Because we are living at the time of the end. He could come back to get His Bride at any time so if you aren’t ready you will be left here to go through the trouble that is coming to the Earth. Get ready, the King is coming!

Forgive others…


Is your crown bent?


I have fallen and gotten back up so many times in my life. Mostly because of alcohol and just plain stubbornness. The fact that I am writing here is a testament to God’s faithfulness that He will not let go of us even when we try to get away. Jonah found this out and I did too. God called me to become a preacher in 1983 but I didn’t want to. I knew who He was and I knew about the salvation that was offered through belief in Jesus but I didn’t want to proclaim it as a preacher.

I felt that I had done too many things wrong in my teenage years. Everyone in my school knew about the drunk that I was. I had wrecked two cars that my Mom had allowed me to use. I had spent many days recovering from those injuries in the hospital during different school years but still…the effect on my “reputation” was the same. I knew that I could not preach salvation in our community because my crown was bent in more than one way.

The thing that I didn’t realize about Jesus was this: He doesn’t require us to be perfect. He changes us so we can be His representative wherever we are. Even if the people in your community know how you were or what you did, He can change you so that your message is fresh and meaningful to those who hear it. God has used so many flawed people over the years and He can use your witness regardless of how deeply you stepped off of the path to Him. It doesn’t matter how far you got from Him, He can bring you back to the pathway that He needs you on.

Give Jesus a chance and He can make you into His disciple and His missionary to whoever He needs you to talk to. It may be only one person that you can have an influence on but He knows that you are the only person who can do it.

Our God is our Rock!