Category: Choose Christ

Why did Jesus come?


According to the Word of God, He came to Earth in order to die, and He did die for your sins and mine. But…He also came out of that tomb three days later and taught His disciples what they should do and where they should go after He had gone to Heaven. He told them to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit and then they were to go into all the world teaching and preaching the gospel of God!

That mandate has not changed because we have been given a fantastic gift through belief in Jesus and that gift is eternal life with Him and through belief in Him. We can be saved from the penalty of our sins and our sinful life through belief in Jesus. Then we are to take that with us and tell others about Him and what He has done for us and for all people.

Why? Because God loves you and He wants every person to know that He loves them. Jesus came into the world for that purpose to pay the penalty for your sins and for mine, and for every person in the whole world! It is your choice whether you believe in Him or the atonement which is provided for you or not, but if you choose to go your merry way then you may not get another chance to give your life to Jesus!

We are not promised tomorrow. Today is the day of salvation because in hearing the good news of His love for you, then you are responsible for your decision. Once the message is heard and understood by you, if your heart is convicted of the sinful life that you have lived, then it is your choice which sends you either to Heaven or to Hell!

God doesn’t choose to send you to hell, that is your decision and your responsibility and accepting it and believing it is your responsibility because God doesn’t force you in any way. Your eternity is based on your decision to accept or reject Jesus and His atonement for your sins.

There is no amount of work or prayer or money which will do anything toward saving your soul from hell. Only belief in Jesus as your Savior can do that! It has to be a heartfelt belief in Jesus, not just knowing Who He is but accepting Him as your Savior and asking His forgiveness for your sins. Because without accepting Him as your Savior and repenting of your sins, changing your life from what you were before to being a follower of Jesus…then there is no salvation at all.

When you read about Jesus or hear about Him, knowing that you will be in Heaven after you die IF you accept Him as your Savior, then there shouldn’t be any hesitation on your part at all. He is what you have been searching for to fill that empty space in your life that you know has been there but you couldn’t find what fit in it until you hear about Jesus. He is the key to filling that empty space, the longing in your heart that wants to be full but you have searched all over and you have never found what could fill it.

Jesus is the answer to that question. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 )

What happened on Easter?


The story which is celebrated in much of the world has to do with pagan ritual. Eggs and rabbits and things like that. These have nothing to do with our risen Savior.

Jesus told His disciples that He would rise again on the third day. Many people disbelieve that story today, even in the church. I mean, how can you manage to get three days between Friday and Sunday? Going by Jewish calendars and tradition it is simple. A day begins at sunrise and ends at sunset, at least to us. But, to Jewish people who lived in Jesus’ day, the next day begins at sundown on the day before. So, when the soldiers arrested Jesus in the garden on early Friday morning, part of that day had already passed by.

The sunrise brought the priests and the High Priest before Pilate to accuse Jesus and He was flogged, but that wasn’t enough. They wanted a crucifixion and the Sabbath began at sundown. From about the third hour until the ninth hour Jesus was on the cross, that would be 9 am until 3 pm for us. Counting from sunrise to sunset is the timing that they used because the preparation for the Sabbath had to begin at sundown, counting as the next day.

empty_tomb11He laid in the tomb from just before sundown on Friday, all day on the Sabbath, and most of the day on the first day of the week on Sunday. So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are three days!

So…what happened on Sunday morning at around sunrise? A miracle to those who witnessed it for sure! A bright light which was brighter than the Sun in its strength, which pierced even the cracks around the rock which covered the entrance to the tomb. The stone which had been rolled over the opening of the tomb and sealed with the Roman seal was rolled away.

We don’t know what the soldiers saw at that moment. They could’ve seen the risen Jesus in His glory or maybe an angel, possibly two angels who told the disciples and Mary that He has risen just as He had told them that He would. I want to believe that those soldiers who were guarding the tomb saw Him in His glory and likely believed that He was the Savior, the King of the Jews and their Messiah. But, until we get to Heaven we will not know for sure what they saw or what they believed.

Our Savior is alive and is at the right hand of Power on High! There is no other name by which we must be saved to be in His Presence! The only requirement is that we believe in Him and in what was written about Him in the Bible, ask Him for your forgiveness and repent of your old way of life and follow Him daily. That is our job, our responsibility as believers and as Christians! To tell others about our Savior Who died to give them the ability to become Christians and partake in His Kingdom too. No amount of money or work to do to be eligible for salvation, just believe in Him.

Are you a disciple?


This question has haunted me ever since I gave my life to Jesus and I still struggle to answer it. The Bible calls us “saints” although I don’t feel like I fit that description either. I was called into the ministry almost seven years ago, so I actually identify with the description of a disciple more than any other. What about you?

In many ways the first time I felt a call from God was about thirty-six years ago and at that time I wasn’t ready at all! I hadn’t been reading my Bible and I only attended church services a few times during the year. I felt that I wasn’t worthy to be called into any kind of ministry so I did what Jonah did…I ran away from that calling. I ignored it for many years.

Then, I got a call from a preacher who had been teaching a Bible study in a small church close to home. He told me that he needed me to fill in for him on Sunday (He called me on a Wednesday or Thursday, I really don’t remember). Anyway, I didn’t have much time to prepare. I was scared to death. I didn’t like speeches nor standing in front of a crowd to speak and you have to do that every week if you are a preacher.

God got me through that sermon, even though it only lasted about 8 or 10 minutes! I am still preaching there and today I can speak for about thirty minutes, sometimes a bit more. Why am I telling this? Because, as shy as I was in high school none of my classmates would think that I would ever do something like this! But, I have been there for six years and nine months so far. I pray that my sermons are doing some good for the Lord.

That is why I come here to “preach”. I don’t have to stand in front of people and I can write what the Spirit gives me to say so that others might come to know Jesus as their Savior. God loves each of you so much that He sent His Son to take the punishment that you and I should have been given. In many ways, you can see in the news today what is happening in our world with all of the murders and shootings and all of the wars and terrorist bombings going on. All of this is due to people who have made God fit their image of Who He is and what He demands of them.

God doesn’t demand anything besides your obedience once you have given your heart to Jesus and decide to follow His example in your daily life. Living your life through Jesus example is the best way to live because only He could fulfill the Law and the Ten Commandments perfectly. Please seek Him out while you have breath and time to do so because there is no second chance when you leave this life for eternity.

Romans 6:22-23 says this:   22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What would you gain?


This is a question which was asked by Jesus to some who were listening, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Matthew 16:26

God places that much value on you and your soul, but it is hard for us to imagine that kind of wealth. What this passage is saying is this: if you had all of the wealth in the whole world, the entirety of wealth and land and all of it, and you haven’t given your heart to Jesus and had been changed by the Holy Spirit…what would you truly have gained? A huge headache and the ulcers to go with it I would imagine. Because, whenever your life ends, all of that wealth will be fought over by those who are desperate to have it. None of it will go with you to the grave!

When you stand before God after having all the wealth in the world, you will be penniless. God doesn’t look at your bank account because He is the Creator of it all and all of it belongs to Him anyway. Your wealth, regardless of how grand it may have been on Earth, doesn’t mean anything in Heaven where the streets are paved with gold. God places that much value on your soul and your salvation through Jesus the Christ.

Money doesn’t buy you a brick in Heaven because man’s wealth doesn’t follow him to eternity. You are no better or worse than the homeless man who knows Jesus as his Savior, in fact, the homeless man is richer than you are because he had nothing but he gained a place in Heaven through believing in Jesus.

The riches which are given to those who believe in Jesus are the kind which never can be taken away. Eternity awaits you when you accept Jesus as your Savior and that is a far richer and more glorious reward than all of the trillions of dollars of wealth that is here on Earth. When you feel the call of God’s Spirit in your life, don’t turn away from Him. Eternity is the reward for obeying His call and following Jesus daily. Reading the Bible, telling other about your Savior, showing them that God’s Word is True and the reward is eternal life with God!

That is worth more than all of the gold and silver that you could get your hands on here in this life. Why are God’s love and grace worth more? Because those rewards never fade and can never be taken from you! Once you have the Holy Spirit residing in your heart and you follow Him daily learning more about Him in His Word, this reward will make you feel unworthy and humble because of the price paid for you!

God’s love for you is available through belief in Jesus and repenting from your sinful ways. No matter what you have done in your life, God can forgive you and He will, all you have to do is believe in His forgiveness and repent, learning more about Him as time moves on.

16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18

Passing the baton


In racing, passing the baton means that you are handing off something to signify that another person will run a part of the race while you rest for a bit. In life or a family owned business sometimes the responsibility for a family member or the business is passed to the next in line to take over. But, sometimes they don’t want the responsibility or the business, then what do you do?

You can try to sell the business to an interested third-party as is or you can liquidate it and just get out of the business altogether. But, what if it is an aging parent who needs to be taken care of? You can’t just shove them off into some home and forget about them, can you? Unfortunately, many older Americans are treated this way and it is sad.

thereasonforourproblemsMany times it is because the family doesn’t live nearby but often it is because of carelessness and callous feelings toward whichever parent it may be. Whichever it may be, the way we treat our elders will be the way that we are treated when we reach their age or possibly worse. God loves us and expects us to take care of those aged members of society because they raised most of the generation which replaces them!

Why won’t our society care for those who can’t take care of themselves? In today’s world, it is likely because we think that we don’t have time. Many of us take up so much time with work and social gatherings until even our immediate family life suffers because of it. Some cultures do revere the aged population in their country, but today even those are suffering from neglect.

Do I have a solution for this problem?

Sadly…no there isn’t a solution for the entire world which takes care of our aging population, the homeless, those who suffer from PTSD caused by war abroad or a war-like situation in the home. The only cure for any of this will come when Jesus returns to rule our world for one thousand years!

Are you ready for His return? Will you be ready when He calls the “dead in Christ to rise“? There are few who are ready even now. Our country has long cast itself as a Christian nation and many people do claim to be Christians, but there are so many churches closing their doors because nobody is attending church anymore. So why are people leaving the church?

Some believe that it is because of young people and their attitude of “whatever”. It could be that the church hasn’t done enough outreach to their communities or it may be that our country itself is the reason. We have pushed God and the worship of Him into a corner and told them (us) to sit down and be quiet! Silencing the body of Christ here while making other ideas and religions more acceptable. Because as long as we don’t mention Jesus and the love of God for mankind and tell people that the only way to heaven is through belief in Jesus then we are accepted.

But that is not what Jesus told His disciples to do and that includes us! What would the general population think if the courts were suddenly shut down and crime ran completely unchecked in our country? There would be chaos and nobody would be safe. That is essentially what they want the church to do, sit in your church and worship but be quiet when you come out and just leave us alone!

Please pray for our country and the world to come to their senses and realize that they need God in their lives! Jesus is the only Savior that we have and if you don’t or won’t follow Him then the alternative eternity for those will be in hell.

Cliche’


Life is not supposed to be lived while spouting cliche’s almost all of the time. When someone asks you how you feel, don’t tell them “I’m fine” because you know it isn’t true. At least not the way you mean it. I have been in doctor’s offices and heard friends meeting in the waiting room. They ask each other how they are doing and those words are the first that I hear from either of them, “I’m fine”.

NO, they are NOT fine! If they were they wouldn’t be in the waiting room to see the doctor! You know as well as I do that people do this all of the time. We are lying to our friends and we are lying to God as well! Why do I put it that way? Because, if your life is fine then you don’t have any problems, none. Your family is doing great, all of your bills are paid and your credit score is 800!

NOBODY is that perfect!!

Life doesn’t work that way! You know it and I do as well.

God loves you and the only place where life will truly be perfect is when you and I get to Heaven. There won’t be any cell phones or clocks, no disease, and no lottery or sweepstakes to try to win money from. But…until that time and place is a reality, we are all a good deal less than “doing fine”. Do you believe this? I do.

Perfect peace and harmony aren’t possible on this side of Heaven. Even though some fictional shows declare that we can achieve this through technology and by realizing that God is not real. I hate to break it to you but He is real! The Bible and all of those prophecies couldn’t be some fictional book made up by some old men because mankind cannot know the future, especially what will happen hundreds of years in the future.

Cliche’ or twisted words are what the serpent used to get Eve to try the fruit from the tree which God had commanded them NOT to eat of. Truly, cliche’s are words or phrases which are used so much that their meaning is lost. When you twist someone else’s words then you are creating a cliche and that is exactly what the Serpent did in the garden.

There are people who do this all the time, they are called lawyers and politicians. If you don’t believe me, listen to a recording of their arguments in court or the way that their laws are worded in the legislature.

God loves us but telling people that you are doing well or fine is usually a lie in the first place and that is a sin in God’s court. Anything which is beyond the truth is a lie and it doesn’t matter what you call it. A “fib” is a lie, a little white lie is still a lie, any untruth is a lie but Satan tries to tell you and me that they don’t mean anything unless they are really BIG lies! WRONG!! Make sure that your relationship is with God and His Son, Jesus because Satan can disguise himself as an angel since he was one a long time ago. He is very skilled at making people believe things which aren’t true as if they are.

So, make sure of the spirit that you are hearing is actually from God. As the scripture says, “Test the spirits with God’s Word”, then you will be safe when you hear it and listen to it. If it isn’t from God and it doesn’t line up with Scripture, then don’t listen to it and get away from it.

So much needs to be said…


In the days of Noah, he taught his sons about God and His mercies. He tried to preach to those around him about God but they wouldn’t hear the message, not even after a century and more had passed. When God sent him into the ark or boat, whichever you want to call it, the time for repenting was over. God shut the door.

noah-symbolic of JesusOur world is coming very close to that time. There will not be a worldwide flood but when God’s patience has reached its limit, people will know. When believers who have accepted Jesus as their Savior have been taken up into heaven, then the whole world will know. When is this going to take place? I don’t know.

In the Bible, God expressly says that it will happen but only He determines the time and the hour when it will occur. Just as He did when it was time for Noah and his family to be saved from the flood, we will be saved from the Tribulation. God has provided a way for us to be saved yet there are still many who either don’t want to believe it or they think they have plenty of time.

God sent His Son to take the punishment which all of humanity deserves so that some could be saved if they would believe in Him. The apostle John writes it so clearly in his gospel, telling anyone who reads it that salvation is possible if you only believe in the One Who provided it.

Repentance is necessary for us to belong to the family of God, yet many do not want to repent. Because it means that they will have to forgo their sinful ways and many do not think they are living a sinful life. The world is being deceived by Satan and his principalities, but they don’t want to believe that he even exists. Which is exactly what Satan wants us to believe. If we deny the deception that many are under today, we will be part of the ones which deny Jesus as the Christ as well.

Life is in Jesus and we need to learn this truth. The whole world has denied that the Bible and its truth is the whole Truth of God because they, meaning the unbelieving world, refused to accept His Word as Truth. God has always sent prophets to bring His Word to those who are perishing, yet most of those who heard them didn’t believe their words even when their prophecies were proven true.

Our job, as Christians and believers, is to let the light of Truth and our Savior’s grace toward all to shine through our lives so that others would want what they see in us. The big question is this: Do we live our beliefs in view of others or do we keep our salvation and our beliefs to ourselves?

God has made our world perfectly capable of being our home forever, yet we are fighting over crumbs and squabbling over doctrines of men! If we could only live as God commanded us to, the whole world would be a much more peaceful place, but we haven’t been able to bring about this utopia. Why? Because we can’t do it on our ideas of good intentions. Mankind has always been incapable of being without greed and malice toward others simply because we want what someone else has.

If it were only coveting the peace of God then we might be able to talk in a civil manner and bring about peace on Earth. But, our greedy, covetous ways extends to many more things than just the peace which is found in Jesus. Pride and vanity, along with greed and a host of other nasty sins drag many into places where God’s influence isn’t felt at all. In most of these places bringing the Truth of God into contact with their way of living causes even more pain and suffering because they can’t stand the Light of Jesus and the Truth of God!

Please pray about your relationship with Jesus and seek Him out because the time which we live in is grievous and coming to an end soon. Don’t ignore the prompting of the Holy  Spirit on your heart, seek Jesus for your salvation.

How BIG is God to you?


Remember that God told Moses, “I am Who I AM”; He did not say, “I am who you want me to be”. In our world today, many people look at all of the sufferings in the world and say things like, “My god would never allow that to happen”, to which I would like to ask “What god are you talking about?”. Life, as we live it on Earth or in whichever country we reside in, is sometimes hard. But…God is still in control. He always has been.

Much of the suffering in our world is because of lack of rain or wars or famines and poverty. Does God allow this to happen? Yes, He does, but He is not the cause of it. Can God do something about these things? Yes, He can, but our sin and our unbelief limit Him in the ways that He can work. Just as when Jesus went to His hometown of Nazareth, He could do no great miracles there because they knew His father and His family. Nobody believed that He was a great prophet, let alone the Messiah!

When we imagine God or Jesus as smaller than they are, trying to make them more like us, then we limit our belief and our faith in what they can do. We put them in a box of a size that we can handle. We make God smaller and more manageable to our minds so that we aren’t overwhelmed by how awesome He actually is!

There is a star, a sun like our own, a few thousand light-years away, which is so much bigger than ours until it would boggle the imagination and the minds of us mere humans. Yet, God made that star too. Here is a link to an article about this LARGE star. Here is an image which may give you an idea of how much bigger this star is than ours:

Sun;_VY_Canis_Majoris_and_UY_Scuti_size

That tiny speck at the bottom of the picture is our Sun, at almost 1,000,000 miles across, yet it is tiny in comparison. God is much bigger than we can imagine but when we limit Him in our own minds we also limit what we believe He can do in our lives. Don’t make that mistake.

God loves you and me enough that He provides for our needs every day, but we don’t acknowledge Him or His part in our daily lives. We wake up from sleep and go about our day as if we have control over every part of it. But have you considered just how much of your day is actually under your control?

If you are not working for yourself, then you get up in time to be at work on time. You take your lunch break when you are allowed the time for it and you get off work when your day is finished. Then you drive home, eat something for supper or dinner whichever you call it, watch some mind-numbing TV shows and go to sleep and then repeat the process tomorrow.

Does that sound like you really control your life and the time spent living it? It doesn’t to me. Seek out the Creator of everything and be in awe of His grace and love for you. Give your life to Him and ask Him to help you to learn more about Him from His Word. You won’t be disappointed at all…ever!

The Book of Life


What is the Book of Life? I am writing about the Lamb’s Book of Life, written from before the foundation of the world. God has placed each person’s name there who will accept Jesus as their Savior. Because He knows who will and who will not accept Him. The offer of salvation is given to all, but God knows who will accept it and who will not.

God has always known the names of those who will accept Jesus as their Savior. Now, I know that some of those who read this may not believe in something called “predestination”, I don’t either but God still knows which of us will accept Jesus. The big words and doctrines of our denominational associations actually are not written in Heaven. Those are man-made ideas and “laws” of which few are found in Scripture.

IamtheWayWhy am I writing this today? Because it is needed! You and I and anyone else who reads this blog need to know that God has always known which person will accept His way of life and who will follow Jesus. None of your ideas or doctrines which are written in the bylaws of your church are written in God’s handwriting! Many of them are based on what we think we have learned from reading His Word, but you don’t find all of them in the Bible.

While it is true that the word “predestined” is in the writings of Paul, the meaning of that is what God said years before Paul ever put it down. In the book of Jeremiah God told him that He knew him before he was born and before he was formed in the womb. He also said that He (God) had ordained him to be a prophet at that time. God determines who will be His prophets or His disciples and He knew us before the Garden was created!

It is the same with the Lamb’s Book of Life! He has known for many thousands of years whose name would be in it and those who would not be in it. Even though Jesus came and  paid the penalty for ALL of us to receive salvation and have access to eternity, God and by extension, Jesus already knew which person would accept Him as Savior. Our Creator is in control and He knows your heart and mine before we even realize Who He is.

God wants all of humanity to know Him as God, but many outside of the organized church just don’t want to know Him. They have their own idea of who their god is and it doesn’t fit with the God of the Old or New Testament. I am not speaking of any specific denomination in reference to an “organized church”, but those who do not attend church it seems they refuse to listen or attend a service. You will never know Who God is until you read His Word and feel the conviction of His Spirit in your life to know that you are a sinner according to His holiness.

One lie, one thought, just one is all that it takes to separate us from God but the absolute sin which will keep you from Heaven is not accepting Jesus as your Savior. All of the sins of the world are sins as far as God is concerned, whether you consider them to be significant or not. The ONE sin which condemns you to an eternity in hell is not accepting Jesus as your Savior and repenting from your old ways and follow Him in your life from that point on!

How are we blessed by God?


Anything that falls into the category of an expression of God’s goodness and love toward us. In many ways we may not feel blessed by God, sometimes I don’t feel blessed by God. The apostle Paul likely didn’t feel blessed when he was flogged or put in jail because of his obedience to God, but he was.

How was he blessed?

Look at it the way that Paul did. He said that he was always pressing toward the goal. Paul was looking toward the goal of being in the presence of God. Well, don’t you have to die to see God? Yes, but death is just a stepping stone from this life to our eternal life. Your address changes, just as Billy Graham said about his death, his address changed but he is more alive now than he ever was!

I know, we look at the idea of blessings as being blessed in this life. Why should God give us the best in this life? Do you obey God in all things, every day, all day in every decision that you go through? No, you don’t and I don’t either. I try to obey God daily, but we all fail in some way, even if it is a small way. But, even a small detour or a small wiggle away from God’s will in your life is disobedience.

Can we obey Him in all things in our life? We can try. We can ask Him to give us the wisdom and the strength to obey His will and purpose for us and then listen to Him through the reading of His Word. The blessings which we are given are not the ones which we would choose or even ones which we expect, but they will be something which God has deemed you worthy of receiving right now.

Do you realize that God’s blessings are irrefutable and permanent, even into eternity? They are the only things which we will be able to take into Heaven with us when this life is over. We only take our eternal body and the blessings which God has blessed us with. Nothing which comes from this Earth like shoes or clothes or rings or watches will go with you into Heaven, but those blessings which God has given you in this life will. 

I am not speaking of money or fame or cars or anything which this world sees as part of your success. I am speaking of the joy which you feel in worshiping God, the love that you feel when you read His Word, the knowledge that God has given you a purpose in this life to do that which He has given you to do and accomplish for His Kingdom. Those are the blessings which the world outside of His Kingdom don’t understand and don’t even recognize as blessings.

Psalm 24: 1-5

The Earth is the Lord’s

1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.