Category: By faith

B-I-B-L-E


“That’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.” This is from a song taught to young children about the Bible in Bible school and in Sunday school too. Although, today was the first time I heard it.

The point is that, as young children, we believe the words of the song and the Bible as well. As we grow older and are taught in schools and in college that it isn’t true, we tend to walk away from that “child-like faith”. As we become adults we “just don’t have enough time” for the Bible and its teachings. Why?

Mostly, it is because the world around us doesn’t have time for it and the teachings of the Bible don’t correspond with the “values” of the world. In other words, “life gets in the way of our belief in God”, at least until we feel that we actually NEED Him. Growing up causes us to lose our child-like faith or rather it gets trampled by all of our “education” to the point of being forgotten until God gets our attention in some way.

The Bible didn’t come together as a collection until the Council of Nicea in the fourth century. A printed Bible with both the Old and the New Testaments wasn’t printed in English until the 1600s. So for 1200 years the Bible was written or printed in Latin and only the “clergy” was allowed to read it and tell their congregations what they should hear and know about God and His commandments and laws. If you don’t believe me, look it up.

My point is this: God gave every book and every letter of the Bible to mankind as our textbook to learn more about Him. It is not just an “instruction” book or a book of rules to live by. God’s Word is our guide but it is so much more than that. His Holy Spirit can make every book in it come alive and be instructive to you and me in ways that a book off the shelf can’t. But the Holy Spirit can only teach you through His Word if you are a Christian and have Him living inside your heart. If you don’t believe in Jesus as your Savior and have the Holy Spirit as your Teacher, then the Bible is just another book and it makes very little sense to you at all.

Read the book of John in the New Testament and ask God to show you what you need to know and Who you need in your life. Then, read the book of Luke and Acts and go from there to the end of the New Testament. Once you have finished that, then go back to the book of Genesis and read the whole Bible, asking the Holy Spirit to show you, Jesus, in these books that were written many hundreds of years before Jesus was born. He is there and your life will never be the same again.

Fear not! God is in control


The end is coming


Ominous beginning, huh? The title is the truth of history and prophecy. God’s Word says that this is going to happen and all of the signs have already happened except one. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and you have given your heart to Him, it won’t be long now. For many who do not know Jesus as their Savior life will go on as it always has…until that day when the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ will explode from their graves, wherever they may be. I say explode because they will have glorified bodies and will meet Him in the air. Then, those of us who are alive and remain steadfast in our faith will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to meet them and our Savior in the air. Oh, what a glorious day that will be!

All of those who have believed in Jesus for their Savior and their eternal hope will be taken from the Earth, from the first century saints until the day of His calling all of us to be with Him. It will be a massive amount of people in the air and unless it happens at night, everyone in the world will know that it happened! I pray that if you don’t believe in Him for your salvation, I hope you won’t be on a plane with a Christian pilot. If you are then unless the co-pilot can take over quickly, the plane will fall. The entire world will be in even more turmoil on that day than it is today. Because many won’t have a clue about what is happening, although there will be quite a number who do know but have not given their heart to Christ. They will be left to mourn over their indecision.

God loves each of you and He does want you to be saved but it is up to you to act on the call of the Holy Spirit when you feel that you need Jesus as your Savior. God doesn’t force His will upon anyone so when you hear a sermon or feel His call in your heart for you to turn to Jesus as your Savior, please don’t turn away as if you have many more years to make that decision. Not one of us is guaranteed even to make it through today, so please seek Him because He is seeking you if you have turned away even once don’t put it off again. Give your heart to Jesus and be saved from the time that will come after the church is taken away.

When your heart is most like His


He is everything to me!


God gives liberally


I know that once you read this you will wonder where that fits in?

In the book of Job, God actually brags to Satan about “My servant, Job”. You know when God is bragging about you you’re doing something right. But, Satan counters with “it is because of the fence you have around him and the blessings that you have given him”. So, God gives Satan permission to afflict Job and take his blessings but not his life.

On the first day that Satan attacks him and his family and his wealth in his cattle and livestock, Job loses everything. Even all of his children were killed that same day. That would be enough to cause anyone to question God’s goodness and His blessings. But…Job doesn’t blame God for any of it. He questions the reason for his birth and for everything that he had to be taken away but he doesn’t blame God for any of it.

I had a “desire of my heart” taken from me this past week. Something that I had been looking forward to for nearly a year but because of some ill-timed financial obligations in the past, I wasn’t able to get this thing. But…I don’t blame God for that either. Having financial difficulty has been a part of my life for most of my life so I’m not a stranger to it at all. I was never taught how to manage my money properly so it started many years ago. In the last few years I have learned my lesson about money but when the damage is done it doesn’t go away easily.

My point in this post/article is that we can’t blame God for something that we caused whether we did it accidentally or just by ignorance. God is not to blame. He sees what you are doing and He knows the outcome but He won’t divulge that information unless you seek Him first. Preferably before you get into trouble. This is something that happened time and time again for God’s people and it is still happening today.

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end, he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh, I will see God;
27 I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19: 25-27)

Amen!


https://www.godreports.com/2022/04/jesus-rescued-former-church-kid-at-11th-hour-from-satanic-baptism/

This link tells the story of a church kid that was saved. Please read it and have a blessed day.

Encourage each other


Living with the Spirit


Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from God. The Holy Spirit is the One of the Trinity that gives us boldness just as He did with the disciples. He teaches us and guides us to be able to do the things that God is calling us to do. If you belong to Jesus and you have truly been clothed with the Spirit then you live with a Person of the Trinity every day. Think how wonderful that truly is! He is part of the Godhead and He teaches you about Jesus and helps you to understand the truths found in God’s Word.

Without the Holy Spirit’s influence, you wouldn’t have come to realize that you needed Jesus as your Savior. You didn’t make that decision on your own, it was God’s Holy Spirit that touched you and caused you to realize that you are a sinner. This is how every person has ever been led to the Person of Jesus for their salvation. Once you accept Him as your Savior, the Spirit comes to dwell inside you to teach you more about who you are in Christ and how to be His on a daily basis. We can’t walk as His children without the Holy Spirit guiding us every step of the way. Until we learn this and take it to heart in our daily lives, we are walking as if we are in the dark. We are trying to do “Christianity” in our own power and strength and we can’t do that.

Will God allow us to be this way? Yes, He will. Until we surrender our hearts and our life, taking up our cross every day, we will be living and trying to do His will on our own. It can’t be done that way. God will allow it until we realize that we aren’t getting it and then He will help us get back on track.

Grace for all


I wonder at times if Christians realize what a wonderful gift God has given us? His grace comes to us through the work of Jesus and it is because of this grace that we have hope in Him. We don’t deserve it and we have no way of earning it but God gives it to us freely when we believe in Jesus as our Savior. What a wonderful and loving Creator is He who loves us enough to extend His grace to each of us through Jesus the Christ!

Reading God’s Word allows us to learn of His love for us more deeply and completely because His love is not just for one race of people but for all. Learn of God and His grace and His love by reading the scriptures and seek Him as your Savior because the day is approaching that the whole world will see the Truth of God coming for His Bride. When that day comes and is done, the time of Tribulation will come upon the whole world. I pray that everyone who is looking for a Savior will seek Jesus soon.