Category: Choose Christ

You are a good work…


“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6

Being loved by the Creator is a wonderful feeling, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then you likely think that I am delusional. God is our Creator, belief in this is possible because of faith and today our world is condemning people who have faith, especially if it is faith in Jesus! He is still in control, whether you believe it or not and your lack of belief doesn’t change this!

God loves you. Radical, huh? The Creator loves you because you are part of His Creation and He knows your life from the time the first cells came together to form you in the womb. He knows when and to whom you will be married, if ever, He knows what you are capable of doing for His Kingdom even if you don’t! You are created in His image! We are made specifically to be priests and prophets for Him, in our workplace and in our homes! This doesn’t mean that you have to preach on the street corner, it just means that you are supposed to let others SEE Jesus in your everyday life!

Tell your children about Jesus, if you haven’t already. Tell your family about Jesus, if you know that they don’t know Him (this is the hardest witnessing that you will need to do). Why? Because they know you! They knew you before you became a Christian and the type of person that you have been, so they need to see the person that you have become! The work that God has begun in your life when you came to Him, may have started years ago. You may have walked away for some reason and you have been away from church for years, but He hasn’t stopped. He doesn’t let go. There is still a voice, the Voice of the Spirit within you that has not been completely quieted. Listen to Him, trust in Him, learn more about Him and follow Him because by doing that you can make the demons surrounding your home flee!

The time is nearly here that we truly NEED men and women of God to rise up and be counted in our homes, in our churches, in our states and in our nation because God has been reviled in the news media and in many countries and it is getting worse. This is just the beginning of troubles for the church of Jesus, the body of believers in the world that claim Him as their Savior. Stand firm in your faith, read and study God’s Word, pray about what you read and think on it (meditate) because the time that we are in now is very close to the trouble times. I don’t know when the treaty with Israel will be signed or when the ruler of the world will be brought out into the open, but I don’t believe that it is far off.

Yes, very possibly in our lifetime, it will happen and it will happen because God said so in His Word! Give our God the credit for being our Creator and our Redeemer because that is Who He is!

What is there to say?


So many are against Christians today. Dredging up slights from the distant past, like the Crusades. Yes, it is sad that it happened but the “church” at the time also oppressed and killed many believers too. Just because they had obtained a Bible which was in English and not Latin and they had learned to read it and what it REALLY said. They had put their trust in Jesus as their Savior and they did not have to come to the church to be forgiven anymore! Many were burned at the stake for this belief and for the possession of an English Bible, and they were Christians being killed by the “church”! How sad and horrible!

The world is full of atrocities by different people and religions or by countries which have no religion or conscience it seems. Some are even speaking out about how Christians persecuted people in the past. Many are still doing it, just a bit more subtle than others. So, what can we say about all of this bickering and persecution? Really, not much. It was prophesied to happen toward the end of the age and in my opinion that is where we are right now. No, we are not exactly in the seven years of tribulation foretold in Daniel and Revelation, but we are getting close.

There really isn’t much that can be said except to do what Paul told his protégé to do:  “2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly handling the word of truth.” See that these things are foretold to happen in God’s Word and accept it in faith. He has history, past, present and future in His hands and we don’t need to worry.

Yes, many of us are the worrying type, but don’t do it to extreme. There is nothing that you can do to change yourself or your hair color (without chemicals), your height or anything about yourself which matters. We are not gods, we are the creation of God. We also have no control over our situations in life, good, bad or otherwise. I know, I am stating the obvious but it seems that these topics are part of the conversation on social media sites.

What changes in your life from day-to-day? You may feel out of control in some things, some have lost loved ones due to disease or other mechanisms but, these are part of life and until Jesus comes again it will be this way. Seek Him out in your daily life, through scripture and study of God’s Word. Learn to know Him and love Him every day. He went through many things for our sakes to redeem us to Himself and to God, it seems that we could at least attempt to return the love that He showed toward us!

If you see these things which are foretold in Scripture happening on the news media, then you should realize that we are getting closer to the “end of the age”. Please, seek Him out in your life. Read and study God’s Word so that you can know the One that loves you beyond your own understanding. I will be praying for all of those who come here, even if I don’t know your name or nationality and I thank God for you all.

Torture and anguish


IMG_20150417_213008I thought that might get your attention. Yes, I am speaking of what Jesus went through during His Passion week, although I don’t like that term. He was tried unjustly, whipped mercilessly even though only thirty-nine times, and then crowned with a crown of thorns and crucified with six-inch iron nails in His arms and ten inch iron nails through His feet.

The movie which came out a few years ago tried to show the gruesome details of this, but it would’ve had an X rating for bloody violence alone if it had. I have a copy of a three strand flagellum with the lead tips which have glass and bone and a nail embedded in them. It does a terrific job on a cardboard box, I can’t imagine the damage that it would do to a human body. The damage that you see in the picture is just 1 strike on the box that it came in. Consider that cardboard is a bit tougher than human skin and use your imagination a bit and you can imagine a little of the damage that it might do to a body. Jesus was a man and that is the type of tool that was used on His body before He was crucified!

I truly can understand why He was asking the Father about allowing the cup to pass from Him if possible. But, He told the Father “not my will but thine be done”, what an AWESOME Savior we have. I can’t imagine the pain that one full force hit from this would feel like and I don’t want to experience it, but thirty-nine lashes with it? I imagine most of us would pass out well before that point from the pain.

Jesus truly loves us far more than we can ever imagine or know, until we are with Him in Glory! Even then we wouldn’t be able to describe it or how it feels to anyone alive, this was the problem that John had when he was writing the book of Revelation. The sights and the feelings of Heaven and the majesty and glory of God as well as the pure joy of being in His Presence had to be beyond what words can describe to someone who can’t see it or feel it! The difficulty would be like describing a color to someone who has never seen a color or describing a tree to a blind person. If they can’t touch it or feel it, they can’t understand it.

That is how it is with our faith in Jesus and the wisdom and glory of God. You can’t understand it or know of it without faith and if you don’t have faith it is like you are blind. You are spiritually blind because it takes faith to see and to know about these things from God. Consider what Jesus went through for our salvation and that He did it because He loves us, each one of us, far deeper and more real than any emotion that we can know on this side of Heaven.

Read Romans chapter 8 and Psalms 22 which describes in detail the crucifixion of Christ over nine hundred years before crucifixion was even known or used. Please, realize that you are special to God and that He loves you and that you can come to Him now, where you are by prayer and repentance.

Have you spoken to God today?


Many people laugh at the notion that we can speak to God any time that we wish to. His line is never busy and the reception is great. The problem is with the believer or with someone who isn’t a believer. Some Christians aren’t sure if their prayers get past the ceiling regardless of getting them to God. In many ways we short-circuit our own prayers and our prayer lives. We hold grudges against someone from our past or we are angry and resentful toward a family member or a friend, for whatever reason it might be. Any of these so-called “little sins” will take the power out of your prayer life, cutting the line of communication between you and God.

That doesn’t mean that He doesn’t care about you any more, but you have to repent of whatever it might be which is getting in the way and ask forgiveness for it. God loves you and always has, but just as hurt feelings can injure a relationship here and now, even “little sins” can interfere with your walk and your prayer life with Jesus and God. You have heard the term “quenching the Spirit” before, and that is exactly what is happening when sin comes into your life and blocks your access to be effective in the Kingdom with God.

The thing is, God wants to hear from you and this is what most don’t understand either. But as it says in the first book of the Bible, “God walked in the cool of the evening in the Garden.” While it is true that this was the time that God found that Adam and Eve had sinned and broken the only rule that He had given to them, I feel sure that God had come like this before. After all, He was the only Teacher that they had and since they were formed as adults Who better to teach them about their world?

The same is true for us, although we have many teachers today. We begin life with our parents, then we are in school for such a long time with others (it seems), all the while we are learning from everything and everyone around us. While we should be learning from God’s Word at this point. Sure, it is hard for young minds to understand, especially some of the books in the Old Testament. But, the wisdom is there and the evidence of God’s love is there too.

Don’t discount God or His Word as something that is only for Sunday. Being in His presence every day is what Jesus meant when He said “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you.” It doesn’t mean that we have to read our Bible constantly during the day, but the day seems to go better when you begin the day with it and pray for the day before you start your day.

Consider it, learn about God, seek Him especially when things aren’t going good but also when it is and thank Him for it. Our lives aren’t very long and if we wake today then we have the day to do as much as we can do for God, regardless of what we are doing.

An urgent word from God


“In Satan, the individual follows their own destiny and choices. Satan only asks that the individual uses intelligent action based upon reason, but never faith, and thus the individual will prosper in this life and the next.” —-satanicviews

This was a comment that I got on a post which I had put up about Jesus coming to us and for us. It seems that this is a feeling or sentiment which many people have. It is one which we, as Christians, cannot understand or even comprehend. Satan is not a benevolent being as some seem to think that he is. He and his demons and powers and principalities HATE us with a hatred which even goes beyond any Nazi or communist or even Islamic hatred!

There is no love for us because, to Satan, we represent the image of God which we were created in. Another assumption that people like this make is that the next life, especially if they have rejected Jesus, is going to be an eternal party, when the sad fact is that it will be torment and punishment. Satan may help you in some ways to prosper in this life in order to draw you away from and keep you away from any faith or belief in God or Jesus. As long as you are not interested in becoming a Christian, then Satan has no problem with you because you essentially belong to him by default, whether you worship him or not.

In many ways, we are very much like Adam in the book of Genesis. We go about our lives doing this and that, thinking that everything is fine until one day something goes wrong. It may be a disease or a diagnosis or a wreck. Then what do we do? Many people blame God or fate for what has happened to them. If it is bad enough, they may even curse God and yell at Someone they may not believe in thinking that will make them feel better. But, it doesn’t.

Your lot in life, just like mine, is to sit here and take whatever life throws at you right? NO! It really depends upon your beliefs or your un-belief, whichever it may be. Consider the person or power that you believe in. Which one actually cares about you and your condition? Satan HATES all of humanity, because they are created in God’s image. It doesn’t matter if you are the high priest of a satanic coven or not, he will happily watch you float around in the lake of fire just as he will anyone else. Satan will allow you to claim all of the worldly success that you can stand and then some, as long as you are not trying to find God. So, in a sense, he will “provide” you with all that the world cares about including money, cars, a nice home, a four-wheeler and horses, land, all the guns that you want. Then what?

One the other side of the spiritual coin, there is God. He DOES CARE about all of His creation. Plants, animals and especially humanity since we are created for a purpose and in His image. God has given us life to live abundantly for Him and He gave each of us a talent in some area whether it is training horses, being a teacher or preacher, a policeman or woman, a mayor or any other type of politician, a truck driver or a farmer. He gives talents to all of us freely, whether we use them to gather wealth to ourselves or not is our choice. So, what is our purpose within this life that we are freely given?

To choose.

Choose Whom You Will Serve
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15

We have the right and privilege to choose. Not by flipping a “spiritual coin”, but by making an intelligent choice. One that makes sense spiritually and eternally, not one from a point of reason. Why do I put it like that? Because from a reasoning point of view…a scientific point of view, God and belief in Him doesn’t make sense. You can’t touch or taste Him, you can’t put your finger in the wounds of Jesus like Thomas did. Belief and faith go together like PB&J, and you can’t really have one without the other.

It doesn’t matter what the color of your skin or the shape of your eyes or even the type of hair that you have, if you truly believe the Word of God is True and did come from Him then our ancestors were created in Eden by God Himself. We are all children of Eden, of Adam and Eve. We are all of one race, the human race. Culturally we are different, as different as six thousand years give or take will make us, but God can trace all of us back to Noah who is a grandson of Adam. I say is because his faith in God’s promise and his belief that God would save humanity placed him in God’s hands.

Understand that you and I are God’s children and His creation, but you have to choose whether you will serve Him in this life, in order to have true Life in eternity to come. This is not all that there is, working, living, loving your family, smoking, drinking…these are all enjoyable to us now, some more than others. What will you do if you died tonight, if you knew that you would not see tomorrow morning? Would you ask Jesus into your heart?

Would you decide that you would rather take your chances? On what? Have you fed thousands or healed the sick? Can you walk on water? None of us can do those things! We are not righteous in God’s eyes! The only way that you get into Heaven is by accepting Jesus as your Savior, repent of your life’s sinful ways meaning that you will turn from them! Could you do all of this if you were to have a heart attack right now or even on the way home? The time to decide about your eternity is now, not tomorrow, not next week. Make sure that you truly know where your eternity is because this life doesn’t last very long and it seems that the years go by faster every year. Don’t turn Jesus away when you know that you need Him in your life. Another chance may not present itself. Think about it.

We have a testimony!


Regardless of your belief or lack of it, IF you are a Christian you have a testimony. Your life has been changed because you cannot take part of God’s Spirit into your heart and your life without being changed! It just isn’t possible!

Just as those who are possessed by demons are changed and do not act like they did before, we shouldn’t either! God has always been One in Three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! When you ask for Him to come into your heart and your life, the Holy Spirit comes into your spiritual heart and changes you into the person that you are to be from that point on.

The problem is that many of us stay at that point in our Christian lives and never mature. We don’t study God’s Word or really sit down and pray every day about our life or those around us. We don’t do what Jesus said to do, “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all of these things will be added unto you”. Many people don’t understand what the first three words of that actually means. How do I seek Him first? It is so simple and yet profound, pick up your Bible and read it!

When you are in a relationship with someone, you don’t go on dates for a few days and then get married. Usually, you see each other for a while and get to know them a little bit first, sometimes this takes months, for others it may take a year or more. The point is this, if you REALLY want that relationship, then you seek to know that person better. You want to know their favorite color or song, the type of food that they like to eat or their favorite shoes or hobby that they might have or enjoy.

The same is true when you become a Christian, or at least it is supposed to be this way. You want to learn more about God and Jesus. Who they are, what they like or don’t like, everything that you can learn about them is precious to you even if you can’t see or touch them right now. This is the relationship that we are supposed to mature into and the way to do this is by getting to know them through the Bible and by prayer, asking God to show you His ways, to help you understand His wisdom and His grace.

Our lives are brief, usually only seventy or eighty years although some live a bit longer. When we truly find someone who we love and want to spend the rest of our life with them then we are truly blessed in that relationship. It is the same when we come to a relationship with God through His Son, except…your life will not end and neither will the relationship or the fellowship! Eternity is a span of time that we can’t fathom, yet when you are His that is the life that you have to look forward to. It will not be a waste and it certainly won’t be boring.

God has a plan for each of us. That plan is for us to be His adopted children and for us to do His will while we are able in this life. Then, when we enter into eternity we will be ready for the next step in our life with Him. Learn all that you can about Him through prayer and study of His Word in the Bible. Grow into the person that you can be in Christ and then when you walk through the door into eternity you will be ready to know Him even better than you thought possible.

We are in between….


What do I mean by that? Simply put, just what I said. We are in between the time of Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension around Pentecost forty days later. Yes, I do realize that we live in the 21st century and it has been about two millennia since He was around, but what other person in history has had such an impact on the world?

The Bible itself has had a tremendous impact because many laws that are in many different countries are actually based upon principles taken from Scripture. Then, Jesus came and changed many things so much that the priests of the day wanted to get rid of Him. Mainly because He was cutting into their profits and His teachings gave power to the people and took it away from them. That kind of change was just blasphemous!

Even today, many who don’t want to change rebel against any sort of teaching that comes from a church. It seems that many people think that they can do it themselves. They think that they are responsible enough to handle all of life’s problems and they don’t need Jesus or God, so they choose not to believe in them and choose science and reason instead.

That is fine for now, but what will you think when you come face to face with Him and instead of welcoming you into eternity, He is your judge showing you why you don’t get to spend it in Heaven. At this point, there will be nothing for you to do except bow and say that you were wrong. Many people even think that they will argue with Him, but you won’t because it was and it is your choice in this life and it is this choice which will condemn you to hell, not God.

So, believing in Him is something that many already do especially the demons and Satan himself. Whether you choose to or not is your choice but don’t blame God for your eternity, because He gave you a choice of believing in Jesus for your salvation. The work of your salvation didn’t and does not depend upon anything that you do except that you must come to Jesus in faith. If you hear the truth of His grace to you and you may have read the words in the Gospels, then the choice is yours.

No one forces you to become a Christian. There may be a feeling in your heart that you need Jesus, but if you interpret it as something else then you might miss it. Seek Him out while you can. There are Bible’s available, there are resources in your library although I am not sure that is the place to look for a Bible.

Read the New Testament, in particular Acts and Romans, because these two books chronicle the beginning of the church itself. Pray about what you read so that God can reveal Himself to you in His Word. Time is growing short, be watchful and pray.

Consider….


Consider life and how it flows through time.

Consider your life and where it may go in time.

Consider love and what will become of it in time.

Consider our society and what it will become…in time.

Consider your family and what will happen to them…in time.

Consider your nation and what it may look like in time. Will it still be a nation?

Consider the world and what may happen in it in the future of our time.

Consider your future. Where will you spend eternity at that time?

Just…consider the possibilities for all of these, then decide if there is one of them that you can have an influence on.

The last one on the list is the only one that you can really have an impact on and it hinges upon one decision. That decision is whether you believe in Jesus and His atonement for your life and sins and whether you have accepted Him as Savior or not.

That’s it.

Live your life …


image

An image of your DNA from the end. As intricate and complex as it is, God created each of us with His image as the template and your purpose as the outcome. But, I have seen some people speaking about the life of Jesus or rather that His life never was. Your belief or lack thereof is your own and I respect that, but it is my right to believe what I believe.

I am not sure if any of you have read Foxes Book of Martyrs but if you get the chance to do so, you will see through the descriptions from history how Christians have suffered for their beliefs. Truly, these people wouldn’t have suffered through this torture and persecution if their faith was in a lie. True, their faith may have been misplaced if He didn’t live BUT the Word of God is the absolute Truth so He did live and He still does.

The intricate and complex composition of our DNA is not something which came about by accident as some believe. God is the Architect of the Universe as well as our Creator. He is the Artist which placed the stars in their places and He put the nucleotides together which make up each one of us. He knows you and me much better than we know ourselves and better than our parents too.

God knew you and me before He set the foundation of our world and what our life would be too. Since He lives in an area which is outside of Time itself, He can see the beginning and the end of Time at the same instant and He knows what is happening and why. Regardless of your belief in Him or not, He is God just as gravity or light exist without your input or belief so does He.

The part that I think which gives people a hard time is belief in something or someone who they cannot see or touch. The problem that I have with that is that Satan, Buddha and Muhammad are all dead (with the exception of Satan) and you can’t see or touch any of them, yet people believe in their religions and never get offended by them it seems. But, when you mention that you are a Christian and believe in Jesus and His resurrection and forgiveness for all it seems that everyone gets offended before you say anything else!

God gives each of us a choice, just as He did for the angels in Heaven. They are created beings just as we are and they have a choice to serve Him or not. Thousands of years ago, some of them chose not to and were kicked out of Heaven during the rebellion of Satan against God.

It is our choice of whether we will be servants of Christ or choose to serve our own selfish wants and needs which condemns us to separation from God. It doesn’t matter what sins that you have done in your lifetime, how many people who you have hurt or killed or any other sin which comes to mind, the act of turning away from the gift of grace through Jesus and choosing not to accept Him as your Savior is the ONE sin which places you in the company of demons.

Good Friday, what is good about it?


At some point, I am sure that some have asked that very question. What is good about this day? What makes it “Good Friday”? First, it is the belief that Jesus was crucified on this day, although how you fit three days between today and Sunday for His resurrection I am not sure. Why would the crucifixion of our Savior make a day good? Another point to answer that would be that without His crucifixion, there could be no forgiveness of sins extended and offered to the whole world because of His death.

Why was His death necessary? Because He had to be resurrected from death in order to conquer death and the grave. I mean, you can’t come out of a grave unless you have been put into it, right?

All of this came to be, not because of a rebellion that Jesus started, not because He was inciting people to revolt against Roman rule although many wanted Him to do just that, it didn’t even happen because priests were afraid of Him and His power although that did have a part in it. The whole plan had been put into place at the point where Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. When God told them that “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15
Jesus’ life and death was foretold that far back in order to take care of the sin that had come into the world and many other prophecies between that time and Good Friday happened as well. The “woman” in that first prophecy was a symbol of many things. Not only was it a symbol of a mother, but she was a symbol or type of Israel and the Jewish people too. She also symbolized humanity, because God was not speaking of a serpent as a snake, He was speaking to Satan who had inhabited the snake to entice her and tempt her. Satan hates humanity simply because God loves us, that is where the enmity comes from.

Anything which he can do to destroy or hurt us, as humans, he will do. Whether it is by violence, war, diseases, famines, murder or any of a number of ways that he and his cohorts can bring to bear on us in order to hurt that which God loves, he will do it. Especially if he can keep us from accepting Jesus as our Savior, ultimately that is his number one goal!

Christ conquered death, hell and the grave as well as paid the price for all of man’s sins with His death and resurrection. God offers us the grace through Jesus to accept Him as our Savior to become joint heirs with Him in God’s Kingdom. It is a gift offered from God, all we have to do is ask for it and accept it in order to have it! What makes that so difficult? If someone offered to pay off all of your debts and give you ten million dollars also, would you refuse it just because you didn’t have to work for it? Of course not, so why do we refuse to accept the gift of eternal life with Him when we are given the option?

We don’t have to do anything to get it. Though, in return we do work for Him after we truly accept who we are in Christ. Nobody forces you to do anything, but it is not cool if you have accepted Jesus at one point in your life and then turn back to your sinful ways of living. Yes, you can do this but it is wrong. Why? Because you are witnessing to people with your life and telling them that you can get a free ride into Heaven. Just accept Jesus and then go on with your life as if you had not accepted Him. Wrong!!

If your heart is changed by Him, really changed, then you won’t go back to your old way of living as a sinner. you will be grateful for the pardon that you received from God and then tell as many people as you can about Him! Pray about this, read God’s Word and ask Him to show you what to do and then DO IT!!!