Category: Character

So much, yet so little…


godsblessingMaking a paycheck in today’s economy is not a small thing, its a necessary thing that people need. So, what do you do with it? Most of us pay bills with it first, then if there is any left we give a tiny portion of that to God when we go to church. That is not how God structured His economy though and each of us pays for that in the long run. An illustration that we could truly understand would go something like this:

A man or woman brings home a paycheck that they have cashed on the way home. Lets say they got $400 this week. Not a great paycheck but not too bad. On the way home, they filled the gas tank which took about ten percent of the check, $40. They also got a drink while they were at the quick stop, another $2. Now they have $358. The next morning is Saturday so they go shopping for groceries and spend about $100, now they are down to $258, so they deposit the rest in the bank, which won’t be available until next week. If they keep some out for themselves, maybe $25, now they are down to $233 which actually went into the bank. On Sunday morning, they give the church five dollars and they think they are doing pretty good because they gave that much.

Sound about right? Not to God!

God doesn’t need your money, but the church does and He has based your blessing upon the amount that you give and out of which portion that it comes. All of the blessings in the Bible came from the first-fruits of harvest or wealth, not the dregs after everything else is taken care of! Abraham gave ten percent of the first fruits and every other person who was blessed by God did the same thing. It doesn’t matter if you made one hundred dollars or ten thousand this week, before you pay anyone…you should set aside at least ten percent of it for God’s house. I am just as guilty of doing this as everyone else, so I am not standing on a pedestal preaching. I have suffered loss from doing so as well, but the point is that if you give it cheerfully to the Lord, then it will be blessed and given back into your hands.

God loves us and wants to bless us in many ways, whether it is through our health or our paycheck or our family doesn’t really matter, the point is the attitude which we exhibit when we give. If it is given grudgingly, then it wasn’t given in the right spirit and we will not see much, if any, blessing from it! God knows your heart and your thoughts, so you can’t hide from Him nor can you cheat Him because HE can see into your heart and the result of this can be good or bad but it depends upon you and your attitude.

Words….


We write them and speak them every day that we live but it is the spoken word which can do so much in either direction. The Bible says that the tongue is fiery and it can bless and curse almost at the same time. Truly it can and we have all experienced it at some time in our lives. Maybe when we were children and a friend said something which hurt our feelings, even if it was not intentional. Children don’t think about what they say, they just say things which come out of their mouths and many times they are hurtful, mean, and sometimes cruel!

Yes, the tongue can hurt you with words and the attitude which is behind those words are used is another part of the blade which your mouth can wield. So that old saying about sticks and stones is just a lie, because words can and do hurt you. Sometimes the pain caused by words can last a long, long time! Far longer than the bruises from a stone or a stick.

So many times we say things without thinking, even as adults, and we find out later about the hurt feelings that we caused with those words. The problem with words and the pain caused by them is, just like smoke or water, when a word is spoken from your mouth or mine it cannot be recalled. God’s Word is the same. When you read it and re-read it, your soul gets washed in it and by it until your tongue becomes saturated with it too. Eventually, the Holy Spirit will help you get control of it to use it for His Kingdom.

Sometimes, we don’t want to use it that way but when God has a plan for your life which includes preaching, then eventually you will accept your position from Him. Words are what God used to bring the Sun and moon into being and most of creation as well. The only part of the first chapter of Genesis which didn’t use God’s Word was when He made man in His image. He used His hands to mold him into the shape of a man, after scooping up some clay mud from the stream and molding it into the right shape, then He breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life and man became a living soul!

Words and your tongue and mine can have a great impact on someone. Children repeat things that we say, sometimes it is embarrassing but it does happen and everyone who has a child or a grandchild knows it! The tone of your voice is what children and pets pick up on too, and they act or react accordingly. Anger, frustration, and hate can cause far more damage to a relationship between people even when those emotions may not be truly involved at all. If the words that you are saying sound like you are angry, frustrated or seem to have a hateful quality to them then the effect on those around you is the same as if you had struck them with your fists.

Do words and your tongue have this kind of power? Yes, they most certainly do. If you have lived and worked in public you have likely heard it or witnessed it sometime in your life. Seek out God’s strength and provision in your life so that your words don’t cause hurt feelings and damaged lives because many times those can’t be repaired…ever.

Where are you?


Many people seem to be wondering this about God these days. You see and hear about disasters and wars and all of the diseases and droughts all around the world and many people do wonder about why they can’t tell if God is even interested in our lives today. He hasn’t gone away and He does care more for the entirety of humanity, those who believe in Him and those who don’t, and He cares enough that He sent His Son to give His life as payment for our sins. Your sins and mine!

God has not moved away from us, He is still on the throne and in His City but He is also near you in your problems and in your trials. He is the One Who strengthens us every day to get up and be about our business in this world and in our life on it. I pray that our nation and this world will seek Him before it is too late.

Why do I say that? Because we are standing at the edge of a dangerous place and time and I fear that the person who is in America’s White House may just tip the scale so that things may spiral out of control toward a economic and worldwide collapse like the world has never seen before. God is still in control, even when this happens but we won’t be able to look around us and tell it. Unless you are holding on to Him in this time and during the days and weeks ahead, the situation will look terribly bad.

God loves us, but just as He used other cultures and nations to punish Israel in times past, He will also do the same with America and the world because we have abandoned His teachings and His Law. You know that it is true because when you turn on any news channel, regardless of the country you live in, the Bible and Christians are being blamed for the problems that we face!

When the REAL problem is actually that we have pushed Him and the Bible out of public view and out of our children’s education and this is the greatest threat to our world because we have turned away from our Creator. We have decided that we know better how to run this world and train our children to seek their own way and their own wisdom rather than His.

The whole of Creation cries out for Him to restore the glory and beauty of what He began in Genesis because in the beginning all of it was perfect and good in God’s eyes. Nothing was out of place, nothing was wrong with any part of it until we, meaning Adam and Eve, chose to do things their way and go against what God had told them to do. Today almost all of humanity has chosen to go their way and do whatever feels right to them instead of learning about and obeying God.

I would rather be in God’s hands than to go against His Word and follow the crowd today. Please, pray with me for God’s mercy and His provision for all of us, because in the hands of mankind is only destruction, pain and misery.

If you will obey…


Have you thought about being a Christian? Are you a Christian in practice and not just on Sunday morning or Saturday or Wednesday night, depending upon when your church meets for services? God seeks people of faith who will obey His commandments and seek Him in all things. Why do I say this? Because God said so!

He told the Israelites to go into the Promised land and destroy utterly all of the pagan nations and people who lived there. Why? Because God knew that they would entice His people to “check out” their religion and their gods, and they would turn away from Him. Which is exactly what happened. But, before they crossed into that land, Moses gave them a sermon on obedience and the rewards that come with it.

I am not going to print the whole text of it but you can read it here. God told them through Moses that if they would obey Him and keep their belief and their faith in Him, that He would bless them mightily but He also said that if they did not obey, there would be consequences.

If you have ever read the Bible, particularly Exodus and Deuteronomy, you know what happened. They would obey for a time, then they would begin to follow the practices of those around them because they didn’t follow God’s command. It is like watching a child of two or three when you tell them not to do something and you go to leave the room and immediately they move toward the very thing you told them to leave alone. Like the cookie jar or some other treat which tastes so good, but you have told them not to eat more than one.

This happened all through the wilderness and it was the very reason why they had to wander for forty years. They refused to obey God or listen to His wisdom. He had told them that He would drive out the people ahead of them if they would obey Him and they were afraid. Only two men out of the twelve would go into the promised land and they were the ones ready to go because the Lord said that He would be with them and fight for them. They were Caleb and Joshua.

All of the others died in the wilderness from the age of twenty on up except for those two men. Caleb took his land away from those who were there when he was 80 years of age. Joshua led the rest of Israel into battle many times and he was 80 when they crossed the Jordan into the Promised land. After his death, the people forgot about how God had provided for them and they began to follow their own ways of living and to follow the religions of people who were living there, just as God had told them not to do.

Even when Israel demanded a king be placed over them, even the king didn’t obey God when he went up against another ruler. The very first battle that Saul fought after being crowned King, he disobeyed God’s decree. He had been told by the prophet Samuel to wait and he, Samuel, would come and pray for their victory over the Philistines. When Samuel delayed in coming, after seven days Saul put the priest’s ephod on himself and offered burnt offerings to God because his troops were afraid.

It is at this point that God told Samuel to find a King from among the people who had a heart like His. He went to a man named Jesse and chose David and anointed him to be King, but he wasn’t crowned King until after Saul had ruled for a long time.

The point that I am making here is that God requires obedience not sacrifices or outward shows of our loyalty. God doesn’t require a burnt offering but He does require our obedience to Him, but it usually is our pride which causes us to do our own thing and try to serve Him in our own way. If we would just learn from the failures of Israel in the Old Testament we could and would be so much more effective in our lives and in serving God today.

When things go wrong…


I don’t have to ask about this one, because we all have had days or weeks where things have gone wrong in some way or another. The reason that I am writing this is to encourage those who have been impacted by the hurricane on the East coast. I can hear many people saying “They don’t need encouragement, they need money and help getting their lives back together”.
mygodisawesome
While that is true, they do need to look toward God Who is the Creator and the Provider of all that they need. Some may be asking where was God when the storm hit? The answer is, if you are a Christian, He was there with you all through the storm.

Some people may ask why didn’t God push the storm out to sea instead of causing so much damage? Because we need to grow and become strong, just like trees do. If the wind doesn’t blow while a tree is growing, the roots will not become strong enough to hold it upright and it will fall. Everything that we go through in life either makes us weak, reveals our weakness or makes us stronger. Disease can make us weak, the Holy Spirit reveals to us where our weakness really is and when we realize this and pray for God to give us the strength to get through it…He will.

Many times I have gotten to a point in my life where I felt that nothing that I did or said was making a difference in my life or anyone else’s life. It is at this point that Satan will target your faith, especially if your faith has cracks in it and is not complete and whole in Jesus. He will knock a piece of it loose and start chipping away at your faith, your foundation. This is when you begin to doubt your self and God too. I have even asked God to just take my life and end my existence here because I am no good to His Kingdom, BUT God knows better!!

God can see beyond your weakness and beyond your pity party and He knows what you can do and what you will do, that is why He has never answered my prayer for Him to take my life. Your life and mine are part of His design and we all have a purpose in His Kingdom. What we do with that purpose and with our life is dependent upon our faith and our willingness to obey Him and His calling.

Do you know what He is calling you to do or what He has called you to do? Have you answered that call or are you ignoring it, hoping that He will call you for something that you like better? Our calling is our life in Him regardless of the size of the calling or the ministry that we are being called into. Have you accepted your call from God and determined to follow the path laid before you for His glory?

I urge you to do so, because the church, the body of Christ, needs all of its members to work and to do His work until He comes. Regardless of the doctrine you follow or the denomination that you worship in, whether it is Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Catholic, if your heart belongs to Jesus then you are part of His body, the church.

Jesus said, “I am with you…”


jesusiswithyou Have you ever considered why Jesus came down to Earth in the first place? It wasn’t just for Israel, although He had hoped they would recognize Him. His sacrifice of giving His life for all of us and our sins was necessary and He was the only sacrifice which would take care of the Law’s requirements.

We, as Christians, should know that He came to give us strength and a purpose in life. While we are here, whether we are going through good times or bad, we are to glorify God! Give Him praise for our life and the blessings that we each receive every day! Why would we do that? Because it is not by our own strength or our will that our lives are the way they are, it is because He and the Father are directing our lives in such a way that we can and will give glory to God for all of our blessings!

Amen.

What will you do with God?


Introduction:

A young boy came to church one cold winter day to get out of the blowing snow. He had been trying to sell newspapers but not a single customer had passed by because of the weather. He slipped into the back of the church, just hoping to get warm and catch up on his sleep. Though the Sunday crowd was slim, the boy really paid attention to the sermon and was greatly moved by it. When the pastor was done, he called for the offering. The ushers went from row to row, and when the offering plate came to the boy, he stared at it for a while and then put it on the floor. He then did something very strange and very beautiful.

He stood up and stepped right into the offering plate. By then, all the people had turned around and were staring at the boy. When he looked up, he had big tears running down his face as he said, “Pastor, I don’t have any money because I haven’t sold any newspapers today. But, if Jesus gave His life for me, then I will gladly give my life to Him.” The person who has nothing to give but himself is able to give the greatest gift of all.

This story which has been on Facebook and in emails around the Internet illustrates the sacrifice of your life to the Lord. Not a physical death, but a spiritual one. Giving up of your whims, your will, to follow Jesus and to be more like Him. That is the essence of salvation, asking the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and make a change which will empower you to do this, every day. It is not something that you can do just once and then run back to your old friends and their ways of living. Yes, you do want to go back to them, but it should be to tell them what Jesus did for you.

Matthew 5-7:

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The Fulfillment of the Law
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Murder
21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

25 “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Adultery
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’[e] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[f] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.[g]

Eye for Eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

What you do after you have heard the sermon on the Mount and heard what Jesus said in it will determine your eternity. Whether you put your own label on God as a BIG God, the One Who created all things, including each of us, or will you put Him inside a box of your own making. Which box and how much limitations will you place on God to make Him conform to your life instead of conforming your life to live a sacrificial life for Him?

Making God conform to your idea of Who He is and what He does in your life or doesn’t do in your life is not the way to live a Christian life. Even God told David and Moses that He couldn’t live in a building made by mankind, let alone a box which we place around Him to conform Him to our life! We are demanded and required to allow Him, His Spirit, to change us and we must determine to do it every day! Unfortunately, that determination is on us, each of us, to conform and live in Him by allowing His Spirit to change us every day!

What I am saying is that even if we ask Him to come into our lives, into our hearts, it is still our choice to surrender to His leading Presence every day in order to allow Him to do His work in our lives each day. If you turn back to your old life, your old habits and friends with no real change in your life that can be seen by others, then you may want to check with God’s Word and see if you really became saved that day or did you just say the right words and maybe get wet in the baptismal waters!

 

Prayer..is it necessary?


Some religions require you to pray a certain number of times each day, but is that enough? Are we praying for the right things or are we just reciting prayers that we learned as children? Prayer is a two-way communication not just a request line! Saying the same prayer over and over again doesn’t work, because you aren’t speaking to God if you are just repeating words which have no substance or meaning.

God is our Creator and He is interested in your life every day, not just when you are in trouble or you feel the need to get in touch with Him. Prayer is like talking to your Dad or your Mom, except that God can actually do something about a problem no matter what it may be!

The reason that I am writing about this is that it seems that many people use prayer as an emergency line. When something happens that they can’t handle, they cry out to God for His Presence right then! God hears these prayers, and He will answer them in His time not yours. He is God, not a bell boy or a genie and He doesn’t do your bidding regardless of how much money you gave to the church last year!

God loves each of us and He hears our prayers, what we don’t understand is that He wants a relationship with us. One that is in communication on a regular basis, not just when something in your life is going wrong! As it says in Numbers and Exodus, when you teach your children His statutes at rising, when you are walking along and before bed. God desires to hear a word or prayer from you when you get up, thank Him for your rest and for allowing you to get up, as your day progresses thank Him for your success during the day and when the day is through thank Him for strength to get through another day.

These prayers don’t take long to say and they don’t have to be complicated, they can even be as simple as “Thank you, Lord, for today” or “Thank you for waking me this morning, Lord.” It sounds like a trite, simple prayer but isn’t that the kind of prayer that you hear your children saying when they are young? God likes those prayers too, even if they are coming from you and me.

Daily problems and an eternal cure


Yesterday was my son’s birthday and we were supposed to go out to eat. He and his mother did, I had sinus problems which caused me to get sick enough to puke and had to stay at home. Ruined my day in some ways, but we had pizza and birthday cake (chocolate) with ice cream for dessert so all around, a pretty good save!

Life goes on regardless of your health problems, good or bad, we all have them. God is there to give you peace and comfort and to strengthen you at those times when you truly need it. My day, yesterday, began in a weird way anyhow. Dreams which were so vivid I felt I could touch them, but I didn’t want to because of the nature of them. It was as if Satan was showing me a video of what is going to be in outer darkness and the parts of hell where the fire is not!

I was, at least, able to call out to God and get out of that situation, but the nausea remained and grew worse. Why am I speaking of my day in this way, particularly here? Because, I need for you to know that I have days like this. I may be a pastor of a small church and a blogging pastor too but my days are not always “on top of the mountain” days. I do have fits and sputters of days and days where I fall entirely into the valley where the demons live. Yet…God carries me through all of those unsavory places with His Strength and His peace.

Is life perfect? Of course not…at least not yet. It will come as close as possible when Jesus begins His rule on Earth for one thousand years and then when the new Heaven and Earth come it will be perfectly wonderful beyond anyone’s wildest imagination! I can’t give you much of a description because of a limited imagination and the fact that there are no detailed descriptions of our future home. John tries to do it and some other writers attempt to give you a description of it, but from what some reported visitations have said in movies and books, the colors and textures of Heaven just don’t translate well into ordinary language.

Our minds can’t put into words the views and the texture of it and then you have to think of the clarity and the smell of Heaven, it would be like I have written before “like trying to describe blue or red to someone who was blind from birth”! They don’t have a concept of the color and if they haven’t seen it before then a description falls far short of what it is! It is the same with any description of Heaven, those of us on Earth have never experienced a perfect world, one which has deeper, richer colors and textures and even smells than we can experience here.

Life here is limited to our place…where we live, what we are exposed to and our ability to understand all that God has placed in our life. We can’t understand how a person living in Mongolia or the Congo or India lives because “we haven’t walked in their shoes or their sandals”. Even in America, there are many different cities and problems within those cities where we can’t understand the reason for the violence and other problems because unless you live there, you CAN’T know anything about it!

The best part of being a Christian is that we can live here expecting Jesus to come and we will have a home there too. Why bring this up today? Because, we all have problems and there are bad things happening in this world every day but…God is in control and He knows what is happening and why. Could He stop many of the things which are happening? Yes, but what would we learn from life if an angel came to our rescue every time? What would we learn about life and living if we looked for God to give us everything and we didn’t have to do anything for it?

We would be treating Him like many people look to the government today, waiting for their stamps and their money to be put on the card again. There is no need to try to get a job or go to school because the government will take care of all your needs.

Having faith in God to take care of your needs is not the same as Him providing everything for your daily life. He does want us to depend on Him, but if you aren’t willing to live your life as if you are His child then why should He? God loves you so much that His Son took on human flesh to live among us and then die for our sins so that we can belong to His family! If you can’t be bothered with living the way He wants you to, then He might just let your life be like you are living it rather than the way it could be.

So much strife


Today it seems that is all that is on the news, whether it is a cable channel or a national network. Everyone seems to be having truly hard times in the world that we live in. From wars and persecution in the Middle East and Asia to natural disasters like the flooding in South Mississippi and Louisiana. Is there anything or anyone who can help or even cares enough to help?

It seems that the government has taken a holiday since the beginning of the flood in the South and nobody seems to care one bit about the people caught up in it. Is there anyone who will help? Yes, local people and police and fire departments are helping. Some churches and other organizations are helping as much as they can. The national guard has been called up in most of the areas, where the flooding is the worst, to help with rescues and to keep the looting down.

Why do these problems and disasters bring out some of the good and some of the really bad in people? It seems that the bad is more pronounced because of these situations rather than bringing out the better side of people. So what happened?

I am not sure exactly. Many of the people who are looting and doing other crimes are young people who should know better! Why aren’t they being taught right from wrong and how to be productive citizens rather than being people who demand everything be given to them for free? I am sure that our schools had nothing to do with this, because they don’t teach morals in schools anymore because the teachers aren’t allowed to.

What happened? Well, about fifty-three years ago prayer was taken out of schools as well as teaching from the Bible and lately our pledge of allegiance has suffered the same fate because of being politically correct and not being offensive. All of these things have taken pride in your country and the sense of right and wrong out of education. Life isn’t fair to everyone and our progressive government from back then and today has made it harder for those on the lower socioeconomic scale to get out of their situations and make life better.

Jesus came to do the same thing. He did not intend for everyone to share equally in all things, like socialist countries do, but Heaven is meant for those who belong to Him. In Heaven we will all be equal because we will be serving Him in His Kingdom! We will have different jobs to do and abilities to use to do so, but in God’s eyes we are equal but different. Not due to the color of our skin, but because He gave each of us a talent and a purpose before we were even born and we will fulfill our purpose in His Kingdom!

Have you asked Jesus to come into your life and to forgive you of your sins? If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? None of us are guaranteed to see another sunrise, but we have today, right now. If you have felt the Spirit calling you to repent and come to Jesus, don’t put it off. Come to Him, ask Him to forgive you for waiting so long and then make sure that you find a Bible teaching church or at least someone who knows Him and can lead you in studying the Bible.