Category: Choose Christ

God’s warning shot


The lunar eclipse, which is happening now, is the last one for at least two years. God is not being silent about how He is warning us but most of us don’t seem to be listening. What is He going to do after this “Blood moon”? I have no idea but I do believe that our country and the rest of the world should notice that this is happening and at least try to do better at being believers.

We have had a warning before and it seemed that nobody even noticed. In late 2014 through 2015 there were four blood moons, and a solar eclipse yet few people noticed. So, America is getting one more such warning. Why? Because we don’t take life seriously nor do we sanctify life which is yet to be born. God loves children and He sent them to us for a purpose, His purpose.

They are being killed by the thousands each day and nobody cares enough to put a stop to it. Children are being taken from loving parents and sold into slavery in the sex trade and it seems that we are just becoming aware of it. Yet this has been happening for decades. Those who claim to be Christians and every church member should be rising up and at least writing letters to stop this…but it is not happening.

Will it ever be stopped? Yes, but I hope that we as Christians will do it before Jesus calls us home. It will stop when He comes to rule the world but we should be upset and outraged about this NOW!! Yet the world travels on as if nothing is wrong in the world. I pray that more Christians will stand up for their beliefs and begin to vote or call or write to our Congress to get something done before it is too late.

Boundless love


That is the type of love which God has for each of us. It is not one that we can duplicate in any way because we are not the Creator. He expressed His love for us by all of the wonders and the variety of life and the mystery which abounds in our universe. Why are there stars which would engulf most of our solar system? Because God wanted us to ask that question. Why are there diamonds and gold found in the clouds of nebulae in the universe? Because God wanted it to be that way so we would ask questions and wonder about it.

It was God’s love for us which sent Jesus to Earth as a man who didn’t sin and could pay the price for all of mankind. It is God’s love which watches over each of us as we sleep or as we travel on the highways. We are never outside of His love or His gaze and His protection of us as we go through life but He doesn’t force us to give our heart to Him. It must be our choice. How can we understand His boundless love for us? We really can’t, unless you know the love of a parent toward their child. That is the only relationship which comes close to by only a degree to the depth of God’s love for each of us.

Why does He feel this way? Because we are His creation, His children and He cares for us in a way that we cannot understand or comprehend yet He does so without measure. Life is a part of Him, death is a part of Him and every part of our lives is contained in a part of Him as well. Don’t turn away from Him because you are only hurting yourself when you do. Does our rejection of His love hurt Him? I’m sure it does in some way, but how deeply it hurts I couldn’t imagine. Make sure that you learn to love Him before your life ends because once this life is over there are no second chances.

Humanist utopia


This is the very ideal which “Star Trek” was pushing a little over fifty years ago. We are not even close to any kind of utopia at this point, anywhere on Earth, but this is what people would like to see. Will it ever happen? In my lifetime…I doubt it unless Jesus comes back soon and sets up His Kingdom as it is described in the book of Revelation. Humanity is not able to be like those portrayed in the Federation which Gene Roddenberry imagined. There are too many cultural and political differences in our world and in the nations of the world to achieve any utopia without Jesus.

It doesn’t matter how far we go technologically, that advancement won’t bring about a Utopian society because it can’t do away with our differences. We can’t do away with our differences because of our cultural hangups and our own pride which tends to get in the way. While it is true that many of the truths which we hold near and dear to our hearts either can’t be proven scientifically or logically but neither can the theory about evolution. Our only proof of life on this planet is the fact that there is so much of it on our planet.

God placed each of us here with a purpose in His mind which many of us seem to ignore or rather we just don’t care what it is. His purpose for each of us is that we learn to serve Him and His Kingdom by becoming more like Jesus. The problem which most people have with that is this: “I want to do it MY way!”

We are like children who are spoiled and who don’t want to listen to God or learn His ways from His Word, the Bible. Even though Christianity has been around a long time and has survived the many times that it has been outlawed or threatened there are many people in the world today who just don’t want it to be taken as the truth! They don’t want to acknowledge that it is absolutely the Truth because if they did they would have to give a reason for why they don’t live by it!

Humanity doesn’t want any kind of absolute moral compass to guide them. They only want to be their own guide and have their own rules, but the problem with that is that there will never be any lasting peace in the world while each person clings to their version of “truth”. That’s like allowing each person to make up their own laws and only abide by their individual laws, the world would be without rule and utterly without redemption or hope!

It is very true that we like the ideal which states that mankind can overcome his most basic instincts and become better than he is now but it won’t happen. The society portrayed in science fiction was only that way because every person on the planet could use a fictional machine to create as much food and clothing and wealth (gold). While that might bring about more equality between people and countries there would still be the issue of pride and greed.

The only way that the world will be in harmony and peace will be during the reign of Jesus for the one thousand years which God has foretold will come. Since God cannot tell a lie this will happen but until that day an ideal society with equality and opportunity for everyone will not happen just because we feel that it should.

Seek Him for your salvation while there is time to do so.

Do you need healing?


In many ways, we all need healing in our lives. Whether it is a spiritual healing or physical healing or maybe even both, many of us do need healing on one level or another. So, where do you go to find this healing and how much will it cost me? Well, physical healing from some diseases can cost many thousands of dollars but healing for your spiritual person doesn’t cost you anything at all!

I don’t know how to heal your physical body and I’m not going to claim such a thing but your Lord and Savior, Jesus, can heal you spiritually and physically if it is His will to do so. Sometimes He does both and sometimes He will come into your life and heal you spiritually but you still have to live with the physical ailment that you had before. Many people seem to look at this as a type of curse from God when their physical problem isn’t solved when they accept Jesus as their Savior, but even Paul had to live out his life with a “thorn in his side” because God told him that His grace was sufficient for him.

Healing, whether it is spiritual or physical, takes a lot of faith in the doctor or in God. Salvation heals your soul and that only comes through Jesus and believing in Him as your Savior. That belief can only come through faith and even that is a gift from God by His grace given to each believer! We don’t choose, on our own merits, to be saved or to finally give our hearts to Jesus…He chooses us by His Spirit touching ours through a sermon or the witness of a believer. When we find that we can’t do this without Him, then we seek Him out and give our heart to Him.

That is where our spiritual healing comes from! We don’t do it, no preacher can help you do it or bring you to Jesus unless you are called by the Holy Spirit first. We are not exactly predestined to be saved, but God knows who will accept Jesus as their Savior and who will not. You can call that what you want to, but it is God’s knowledge of us which is at work. Some say that every person who is “predestined” to be saved will be saved whether we tell them about Jesus or not, but if that is true why did Jesus tell His disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel to all who would hear it?

It that were true about predestination then what is the point of telling others about Jesus and His atonement for their souls? The point is that people need to hear about Him and what He did for them so they can be saved and live into eternity with Him. If we don’t fulfill our calling to let people know about the grace of God and the salvation offered to those who will hear it, then we are responsible for their spiritual condition and we will answer for it in some way, at least in my opinion.

One day…


“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Dr. Martin Luther King

So…when will this actually happen? It has been fifty years, but when you look around the world it seems that we are less able to make this happen today than even forty years ago or thirty years ago. Do you think we can do this today? In my opinion, this won’t happen until Jesus begins His Kingdom on Earth. Our determination to be selfish and distrustful of each other as well as dredging up history which just brings back hurt feelings and angst from the past has caused any progress we have made to fade into nothing.

Anyone who has an idea which might work to bring this to the world, please leave it in the comments. The anger and distrust in the world, not just in America or Europe but elsewhere too, has gone so far above what it once was until I don’t see humanity ever fixing this problem by our own understanding. Only God’s Son returning to Earth will make this right and He will do so soon…much sooner than most people believe.

Jesus’ return is foretold in the Bible in more than one place and since God’s Word is the absolute Truth it will happen! Seek Him out as your Savior before His return because the situation in the world will get much worse before HE returns. Worse than it is now? Yes! Much, much worse than it is today. Those who mock the Word of God or their “interpretation” of it will be found out because they do not know the Word of God and they do not have His Spirit guiding their lives today. Jesus was speaking to His disciples about the Kingdom of God in a spiritual sense when He told them that it would be in the world before many of them died.

When Jesus comes back in the clouds with the angels and with those who have believed in His Word there will be no doubt about it! For many people who doubt it today, it is like a weather forecast, it may happen the way they said or it may not. When God’s Word says it then you can count on it coming to be. He didn’t put a date or a time on these prophecies but the evidence is all around us. More earthquakes and volcanoes coming to life, more unrest and disease and all kinds of wars all over the world.

People are not respectful of each other or their different beliefs anymore, whether you are standing on a political platform or in a pulpit. It seems that nobody has any inclination to listen to your beliefs if they are different from theirs and they will attempt to drown your voice or even assault you if you try to be heard. Even if Jesus came as a man the way He did before, He would be shouted down or even murdered again for His teachings today! This is a very sad commentary on our world and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better at all.

Our efforts have only produced more chaos and distrust in many parts of the world and in our own country. It will take a massive revival of faith in God and repentance which would be above and beyond the Great Awakening from years past and even that wouldn’t be enough, although it would be a step in the right direction. But it won’t be long until the whole world will see the prophecies come to fruition and for many, it may be too late to make a decision for Jesus. Or will it? Only God knows that answer.

Are you hungry?


Do you truly know the hunger of those who follow the Lord? Are you hungry for His Presence?

God loves you and watches over all of your doings and your daily problems, yet there are many who do not what the Lord asks of you. Why? Because of the substance of our life. We chase after many things in our lives but we do not seek God, we seek out “stuff” which has no substance in God’s Kingdom. So what are the acceptable things which are part of God’s Kingdom? The works which we do because we belong to God and our salvation is from Jesus the Christ. These are works which are not required, but they are works which we feel obligated to do for Him because of the price paid for our freedom!

Jesus paid this price on the cross and it was paid out of love! As the scriptures say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life“. He did this because it was promised from the very beginning of creation since humanity could not keep God’s laws, “the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head and he will bruise His heel“. This was a prophecy in reference to Jesus (Yeshua) many years before His birth in Bethlehem.

This is the very reason which Jesus the Christ came to Earth from God, to save mankind from their sins and provide a way for them to be reconciled to God! It wasn’t for some prideful parade of a future King which came, which was what Israel was waiting for, but He came to redeem His people from the burden and the consequences of their sins! Will He come as their King? Yes, He will come and begin His reign on Earth soon and He will rule over the whole Earth, not just Israel!

Come, Lord Jesus! Amen

Chosen…


According to the Bible, we were chosen long ago by God Himself. Why? Because He knows who will accept and hear His call on their lives. Of course, there are some who may take a little more time than others to make that decision but God still knows the outcome. That doesn’t mean that you are chosen to be a Christian and the person next to you is not, it just means that God knows which of you will act on His touch first! In many ways that could mean that you will have an influence in your neighbor’s life and their choice to give their lives to Jesus. God loves each of us but since He sees the end and the beginning of all things, He knows which of us will turn to Him in repentance and which ones will not.

Does that mean that some people will not be given a chance to become Christians? No! Each person in the world is given the chance but not everyone will accept it. Some will accept it and then decide that being a Christian is not really what they want or the way they want to live. The people who do this were not really intent on being a Christians, they were just trying it out. Trying out Christianity is not the way to go. God loves you and if you feel His touch and His call on your life and your heart don’t turn away from Him!

You can go to church and read the Bible all that you want but the only way that any that either of them will have an effect in your life is when God touches your heart and opens your eyes spiritually to the condition that you are in. You might say to me, “What do you mean the condition I am in?”; when you are outside of the will and purpose of God none of His wisdom or the teachings of God’s Word make sense to you! God’s Wisdom is foolish to anyone and everyone who lives outside of God’s will and living by unbelief in Him.

The wisdom of the world is foolishness in God’s sight. So are we chosen to be useful to God and in His Kingdom? He knows that each of us can be useful for His Kingdom and He knows when you will turn to Him in repentance. Those who do not repent, who will not repent are also known to Him as well and those people break God’s heart. He doesn’t wish to see anyone in hell because of their stubbornness but that is the reason that many will be in hell. Because of stubbornness and pride, they will turn away from Him thinking that they are good enough to gain entrance into heaven.

We are unable to be good enough to gain entrance into heaven without Jesus in our hearts and learning more about God through His Word and living by His wisdom and not our own. If humanity could attain eternal life on our own, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross and be raised again to give us the hope of heaven. God knew this was true and that we are unable to be righteous and sinless in our own strength without His Spirit and His Strength to aid you in becoming more like Jesus.

You can’t do it yourself!


God made this pretty clear during the exodus from Egypt. He saved the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt and it was His power that got them through the Red Sea. Even when He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, no person can keep those on their own. We have to have the strength of the Holy Spirit and follow His leading every day in order to be the best that we can be with His help!

The Truth of God came to Earth one day a long time ago. He was born in a livestock pen because there was no other place for them during the census which was going on. We just finished with the season during which much of the world celebrates His birth, but there are many who do not. Actually, Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles so that would’ve been around October. Anyway, He came to pay for ALL of our sins, past, present and future and He did just that!

He gave you the breath and the strength to get up this morning and see the day and the blessings contained in it. It has always been His mercy and grace which has held you in the good times and the not-so-good times which come in each of our lives. Yet many people don’t want to hear that because they don’t believe it. I would like to stop believing in gravity so I could fly, but that won’t happen. Just because I don’t want to believe in it won’t stop it from killing me. Remember, its not the fall that kills you…its the sudden stop when you hit the ground!

No matter what you believe in this life, when it is over you will meet God. It may be a good meeting or it may not be but that is your choice. Your eternal soul hangs in the balance until that day and your destination also hangs in the balance. Make sure of your decision while you have the chance to make one because a car wreck or an airplane crash or even a clot could end your life before you finish reading. If you ignore God’s call on your soul and His touch in your life and your life ends before you make that decision, it is your fault for your destination. God doesn’t send people to hell but He will allow you to go when you won’t accept Jesus as your Savior.

We do not decide to get saved, it is God’s Spirit which touches our heart and our soul. He gives us the faith to believe in Him and His Salvation for us IF we will accept it. Just because you have the faith to believe doesn’t mean that you have to believe, it is still your choice. Don’t put it off. If you have never believed in Him or given your life to Jesus for your salvation, I pray that you will do so because one day soon He will call the church home. When that happens there will be chaos in the world because there will be no bodies to bury only empty cars and homes with clothes and watches and rings on the floor where a Christian was when it happened.

Make sure for your sake that you know where you are going before that happens.

Would you follow Jesus?


Would you follow Him as a disciple or a follower or just interested in Him and the “good feelings” which you get when you are attending a meeting? It is not unusual actually. Many of His followers during His ministry did follow Him for the food or for healing or just to hear Him preach because He taught with authority which no other person could claim.

In today’s religious climate whether it is in America or elsewhere in the world, people tend to look down upon Christian beliefs and our faith in Jesus as the Son of God. So do you think that people would follow Him today? Some people would but in large part, I think that many more would either try to get Jesus arrested or killed, just as they did almost two thousand years ago.

Why has nothing really changed in all that time?

Well, Satan is still at work. In the church and in society as well as in every part of every government all over the world. So, the Adversary is very good at what he accomplishes and he is still doing that very thing inside the church, regardless of the denomination!

My question still stands…would you follow Jesus as a disciple or just someone interested in hearing Him speak but not really interested in the sermon itself or the Person bringing the sermon? God does care about each of us in this world but His timing is coming to a close and when the Trumpet sounds for the church to leave, where will you be? Will you be in the company of those taken up into heaven or will you be here watching the news and trying to figure out what went wrong?

There are many who really don’t believe that this will take place. Many people on newscasts and on social media have expressed their views about the Bible and the God of the Bible is a myth or a fabrication and that most of the books of the Bible are just the writings of a bunch of old men and nothing more. If you have studied the Bible as a book of tales and fables I can understand where this kind of thinking comes from. But if you have ever been in a church and heard the sermons and prayed with those in attendance then you know that the Bible is God’s Word.

Since many of its prophecies have come about in history, right up to the reclaiming of Jerusalem in 1967 then God’s Word can’t be “just a book”. It is the Word of God and He cannot lie. I pray that you will seek Him out while there is still time to accept Him into your heart because after the church is “taken up”, it will be harder and much more dangerous for anyone to give their heart to Jesus and live as a Christian during those times.

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Jesus learned from Joseph


When the high priest heard Jesus acknowledge that He was the Son of God, he rent his cloak. In the Old Testament, if the high priest did this in his priestly robe (the one which had no seams), it effectively removed him from office according to the Torah.

We have been celebrating the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, but consider the time of His crucifixion and when He said, “It is finished”. The veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. God’s Presence was in the Holy of Holies so it was God Himself Who tore (rent) the veil of the Temple from top to bottom giving mankind access to Himself from that point on through the substitutionary death of Jesus as the Passover Lamb and the fulfillment of ALL of the feasts which God had instituted from the time of the exodus from Egypt to the giving of the law of God on Mount Sinai. In particular the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Firstfruits.

Jesus fulfilled all of the feasts and their meaning, not just as the Lamb of God but as our Savior and Lord and our High Priest Who went into the Temple in Heaven to put His blood on the altar to atone for ALL of our sins.

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The list below comes from a very good book which is speculative, but according to Scripture as much as possible. The name of the book is “The Forgotten Man of Christmas“, check it out if you are interested:

  • Jesus came into a world where the ruthless exercise of power turned the pages of history, but His way was the way of love and peace.
  • He wasn’t an academician, but Jesus challenges us to develop our capacity to love God more, and in His name, thousands of schools and colleges have been funded.
  • Jesus never wrote any of His teachings down and no book bears His name as the author, but His teachings are universally known and quoted and have shaped the course of human history like no other.
  • He was a carpenter by trade and He never built any objects of note, but we choose to honor Him through the beauty of cathedrals, churches, and chapels, all built to His glory.
  • Jesus never held any political power nor any monetary wealth or social prestige, but no one has ever altered the human scene or our understanding like He did.
  • Jesus healed a relatively small handful of people during His ministry, yet the foundation of modern medicine bears His imprint even today.
  • Jesus knew nothing of art, other than the joining of wood and stone in His trade, but His spirit ignites the creative spark in humanity and many galleries are graced with expressions of Who He was and Who He is.
  • There is only one of His sermons which is complete in the gospels, yet the words of that sermon are the cornerstone for our human reality and the Magna Carta of our human spirit.
  • Jesus never owned anything of value to the world, yet when He was on the cross soldiers gambled for the only article in His estate, the seamless robe He wore; and in every place where His teachings are embraced, the standard of living is lifted, and where His name is claimed, no one can sit idly by while people go hungry or the lonely are in need of a friend.
  • Jesus spoke more of service than of rights and privileges, but where His message is heard and heeded, the value of each individual is exalted and the rights of all are protected, especially those who are weak, worn, forgotten or unborn.
  • Jesus lived only 33 years before His Earthly life ended, but He changed everything, even the way we date history. Surely we can agree with Paul that “His name is above every name.”

Many of these traits He learned from the example of His Earthly father during the years before He was found in the Temple at the age of 12. During the years leading up to His Earthly father’s death, Jesus kept learning the lessons that Joseph taught Him and I believe that Joseph modeled God for his Son as much as anyone could have. Many of the attributes of God are what we are supposed to model for our own children and anyone else who might see Jesus reflected in our lives.

Being like Jesus was in this life is our goal as Christians but He learned much of how to live and be like His Father, God, by learning it from His Earthly father…Joseph. A Jewish Boy could learn from no better teacher than the man who raised Him and that is exactly where Jesus learned how He treated the people around Him, men and women alike.

God wants a relationship with each one of us and it doesn’t matter where you live or if you have any money or not, He just wants a real, personal relationship with you. In God’s eyes and in His heart He sees each of us as unique individuals, which we are, but God sees and knows so much more about you. He can see your ambition and your guilt. He knows your weaknesses and your strengths and He cares about you.

Many of us go here and there trying to gather more goods or to be more productive, yet what good are we doing by accomplishing this? If you aren’t doing these things for God and His Kingdom then the benefit is for who exactly? God doesn’t need your money or your things, He wants you and your talents because He gave them to you to do His will in this life. Collecting things in this world has nothing to do with your service in God’s Kingdom because not one of those “things” will be with you when you stand before God.

So, why did God choose Joseph to be the Earthly father of Jesus? First is the fact that he was a descendant of David and of the tribe of Judah so this would fulfill prophecy regarding the Messiah. That is the fulfillment reason why Joseph was the one who raised Jesus. So what other reason would cause God to allow His Son to be raised by this man? The Bible says that he was a just man and honorable but you can also see kindness in his dealings with Mary as well. Jesus learned all of these human qualities from Joseph even though the Bible seems to write him off as the husband of Mary and a descendant of David.

God knew Joseph’s heart because he was a devout man and a carpenter. Why is that important? Because he could show Jesus the importance of building relationships and how to treat others. We, in the West, tend to look at Jesus as the Son of God which He is but He is so much more than that. He was a carpenter and the Messiah. He was a teacher and a healer. He was a rabbi and a student of Life. He was the Son of God and the son of Mary and Joseph, fully God and also human and it was His humanity which He learned from Joseph.

Did Jesus know all things as God in human form? Yes, He did, but He had to learn humanity and all of its problems and frailties from His human parents and that is what made Him the Person Who loves children and those who are hurting from sickness and grief and suffering in ways which we can’t imagine. It was Jesus’ humanity which He learned from His Dad while He was living with Him. We don’t know what happened to Joseph because the last time we hear about him was when Jesus stayed at the Temple while His parents left and headed back home. Jesus was about 12 years of age then. but during those years Jesus learned many things from Joseph and He may have had Joseph for a few more years but we just don’t have a record of it.

My point is this: Jesus learned about humanity from Joseph and his work as a carpenter and all of the people that his father in the Jewish community. He taught us how to be His disciples through His ministry and parables and His healing of those that He came in contact with that we have in the gospels. So go into the world around you and be more like Jesus and His human father, Joseph, because I believe that we see and learn more about being a follower of Jesus from Joseph because we can see the way that Jesus acted during His ministry. He would’ve learned from His Father all about being God in human form but He learned everything about being one of us from the man God chose to raise His Son.