Trust in the LORD, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; Trust also in him; And he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, And thy judgment as the noonday. Psalm 37:3-6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.37.3-6.KJV
Category: By faith
Fear of the Lord…
God cares for you…
Sometimes, in life, we feel that we have done so much that He wouldn’t accept us. But…when you read God’s Word you find people that He has used in His plan who were murderers, killers, adulterous, liars, harlots, even some who were not Jewish and a few who were people that God condemns completely, yet they were all used in the family line leading to Jesus. I know that was a very long sentence but to give you the backstory of all of them is just too much.
Why did I include all of the different people in the paragraph above? Because, when you begin to think about Jesus or even if you are thinking that He can’t use me or even why would He want me? God used a donkey to speak to Balim when it was needed. He knows you down to your molecules because He created you in every way by knitting your DNA together and giving you your talent and your personality. Why am I telling you this? Because there are so many people who think that God doesn’t exist or that He doesn’t care about us or more personally…me or you!
Jesus came to take your place on the cross. It was your sin and my sins that He came to pay the price for and it was those sins that nailed Him to the cross. So in the most intimate way, God loves you. He knows each of us more deeply than we know ourselves and He wants a relationship with us. He wanted this relationship in the beginning with Adam and Eve and for a while, He had it with them until Eve started talking with a snake.
It only takes a second for you to realize that you need Jesus in your life. Sometimes, that second that you say, “Jesus help me!” is all that you will have. If you know that you need Him in your life, I pray that you will make that decision soon before it is too late.
Your heart is important
Commandments, not suggestions
Have you noticed how much people want to get rid of any mention of God or Jesus and especially their laws? The Ten Commandments were never “suggestions”, they are commandments and we should obey them.
The first four commandments tell us how to obey and worship God. The other six tell us how we are to behave toward each other. That is why Jesus said that “we should love the Lord with all of our hearts, all of our souls and with all of our strength and all of our minds and the next commandment is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves”. Jesus didn’t dilute them, He just made ten into two but the two that He told the Pharisees about ARE the essence of the TEN.
Why can’t the church live by these commandments today? It seems that much of our problems in America could be fixed if these were taught in our homes and in our churches too. Life would be so much better if this was what we taught in schools to the children, but there are too many people worried about lawsuits and the separation of church and state. Teaching these is not an endorsement of any specific “religion or church”, it is teaching our young people the way they are supposed to act when they become adults!
Praise the Lord!
Your true self
In my walk through life, as I’m sure there is in everyone’s journey, I have discovered that every part of your past has had a part in shaping you for today. Are there things that I would’ve liked to avoid? Of course, but as I have been a student of the Bible for the past eleven years, every wobble and misstep has a purpose. God used so many things in people’s lives to bring about something good and glorious for each of their lives and Himself as well. He did it in the book of Genesis and He did it all the way through the Bible, right down to the book of Revelation.
Some of you might remind me that most of the book of Revelation hasn’t happened yet. Hang on, it’s coming. Every detail and every curse that is foretold in it will come to pass and I don’t believe we will have to wait very long to see it. Most of you who have denied the truth of God’s Word will see its Truth come to light when the church is taken away from the Earth. There will be many “explanations” for why people vanished but the only one that will be based on fact is the one found in the Bible. God’s facts, not mankind’s ideas or fabrications.
Each part of your life and mine has been a part that shaped each of us into the person that is here today. You read on social media about “what would you tell your younger self if you could”, even knowing what I know today there isn’t anything that I could tell my younger self that would make any real difference. Because if anything was changed in my past life, I wouldn’t be the same person that I am now. If I had stayed in the Air Force my future would be entirely different from what it is. My family would have been different, and my outlook on the world would be altered from what it is now if that one change had taken place.
God knows the person that we are and when He has a plan for your life in the future, He will make sure that you are that person at the appointed time.
You might ask “Does that mean that I’m not in control of my destiny?”. Well…the answer is more of a yes and no when it comes to your destiny. If God has a plan for your life but you choose not to listen to His voice and go off doing your own thing then the answer is yes, you are in control of your own destiny. But if you have given your heart to Jesus and then decide to go your own way for a while, then God will bring you back in line one way or another. When I say “given your heart to Jesus”, I mean truly repenting and turning away from your old life and following Him, at least for a while. Totally refusing to listen spiritually to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and going your own way is rebelling the way that Satan did. That is where freedom of choice comes into play.
God gave the angels and humanity the freedom to choose because He never wanted us, all of us, to be obedient because we didn’t have a choice. He wanted us to love Him and choose to obey Him because we loved Him because He loved each of us first, even before we decided to love and follow Him.
Nail your old self to the cross of Christ
Who is Jesus?
The apostle, John, wrote in the first few lines of his gospel that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So, John sees Him as the Incarnate Word of God.
In Mark 8 we read:
Peter’s Confession of Christ
(Matthew 16:13-20; Luke 9:18-20; John 6:66-71)
27And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Who do men say that I am? 28And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say Elias; and others, One of the prophets. 29And he saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ. 30And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
Jesus came as the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, and being fully God, He put on the humanity of man when He was born as a baby to a virgin, Mary, who was the wife of Joseph. Jesus was born in the flesh of humanity so He could feel what we feel during His life here. He had to experience pain, hunger, sorrow, and fatigue and truly identify with all of our limitations. The only thing about Him that was truly different from any other man was His nature because He was also fully God as well.
He could heal the sick, cast out demons, calm the seas and the wind and raise people back to life. As John wrote that He was the Word of God incarnate. He was and is our Creator and our Savior.
So…why does belief in Jesus for your salvation cause so much trouble in the world? Is the idea of being saved from an eternity in hell so bad? I could understand if the pain and suffering only lasted a second or two but your eternal body is going to feel that pain forever and it is your decision that sends you there. God doesn’t, you do! When you refuse to believe in Jesus for your salvation, you are condemning yourself to that place.
Please don’t send yourself there. Jesus paid the price for you to be able to enter into heaven, all you have to do is believe in Him for your salvation and repent of your sins and follow Him for the rest of your life.
Give thanks to Him!
The Living Message of Christ 