Category: Choose to follow Jesus Christ

Are you lost?


Today, we enjoyed a sermon about the prodigal son. If you’ve never heard of it or read it, it is about an entitled young man who wants his inheritance before his father dies. Then his father gives it to him and he runs off to a place similar to Vegas. He enjoys his money for a time, but he soon runs out of money and his friends desert him. Leaving him alone and destitute. In the story, Jesus said there was a famine in the land as well and he couldn’t find a job other than feeding pigs. For a Jewish boy, that was at the bottom of the ladder for sure. He became so hungry that he even wanted to eat the food that he was giving the pigs, because his employer wouldn’t feed him.

Then, he had a great idea! He thought to himself, “The servants in my father’s house have more than enough to eat. I will go home and apologize to my father and ask him to hire me as one of his servants.”

But…as he was nearing his father’s house, thinking about his speech, he saw his father…running toward him! He started his speech for his father, but his father wasn’t having it. He told the servants that arrived after him to get his son some new clothes and a pair of sandals and the family ring! He told another to fetch the fattened calf and prepare it for a feast!

Why would his father accept him back as his son after what he did? Because his love for his son didn’t depend on work, or obedience to the rules, only that he wanted to come home and he believed that his father wouldn’t turn him out. Just like we love our sons and daughters, God loves us even deeper than that. He won’t turn us away when we sincerely turn to Him for forgiveness and ask to be allowed into the family. Belief in Him (Jesus) and asking forgiveness is all it takes! God isn’t a tyrant or a bully, He loves us far deeper than we can know because He formed each of us in the womb. He knows every part of us and our personality and He knows when we will come to Him.

Think about your life and seek out your Savior in Him. His forgiveness and His love are available to you. Give your problems and your failures and those pesky slip-ups in your life to Him and He will untangle all of them and make your life better than it was and your eternal future will be in His house. As Christians, we have the right to call God, Aba (Daddy).

God is there, wherever you are


This is a post which should give you peace. Regardless of the problems that we live in and through in our lives, God is there with you. God said it in the Old Testament and Jesus taught that worry is not good and said for us to “not worry about tomorrow”. There is nothing that you can do about what you think is coming, it may not come at all. Tomorrow is not here until after midnight and even then it is not tomorrow at that time. God was/is there before you and He can help you in every good or bad situation because He is there. For those who believe in God and His salvation through Jesus, there is not one day that you are alone.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior…then you do have a problem. Living life without Jesus as your Savior doesn’t work very well. It is like an unsharpened pencil because it is useless and it has no point! Your purpose is found in serving God and believing in Jesus as your Savior. There are people who live their lives with their “version” of God and say that they are Christians. You will hear them say things like: “My God would never send someone to hell”; “My God is forgiving to all people”. God didn’t let the Israelites get away with any transgression, so why do you think that you are so special? Having a “version” of God ISN’T the real God.

Seek Jesus Christ in the Bible. He appeared to Abraham. He appeared in the bush that didn’t burn when Moses was commanded to take of his sandals. He appeared to Joshua before the conquest of the promised land as the Commander of the Lord’s armies. Jesus came to protect the Jewish boys who would not bow to the statue in Babylon and they walked out of the furnace alive and without the smell of smoke.

Life goes much better for those who believe in Jesus as their Savior. It is not without problems, but Jesus is with you through those problems. Your life will not be perfect but you do have the peace of Jesus to comfort you in all of your troubles. Regardless of the trouble, He will give you the strength to get through those troubles. God loves you and He will be with you in all things, place your faith in Jesus for your salvation so that your eternity is secure in Him.

Be slow to get angry


These words should be mounted in BIG letters in Congress and on the walls of every school. Life cannot be about anger and raised voices. I should know. I have a problem with my anger. Not all of the time but…it happens more than it should. Ever since I became a pastor at a small church, God has changed that part of me so that it doesn’t show up nearly as often. My wife has never heard me raise my voice, only my son has heard that part and I’m ashamed to admit it.

I suppose I’m like my Dad in that respect. I remember his raised voice from many years ago. Thankfully he wasn’t violent and he didn’t hit me or my Mom. God gives each of us a spirit but until we surrender our lives to Him, our human nature gets to “play” more than our spirit. Sometimes that is not a good situation nor a good outcome in many instances. Seek to know Jesus as your Savior and let Him change your spirit and your nature so that you will be more like Him rather than being the sinful person that your nature tries to mold you into. God know who you really are and only He can move you into the direction to be the child that He knows you can be.

Resist the Devil…


Resist the devil. What does that mean?

Any temptation that comes into your mind or your sight that tempts you to do something or want something that you shouldn’t have. Those come from the devil and his minions. Temptation comes in many forms but most are from things that God wouldn’t approve of. Jesus went through temptations when He was in the wilderness after His baptism. We see things, such as beautiful cars or trucks that we can’t afford and it is tempting to finance it, especially if we can’t afford it. It is a temptation to get what you desire rather than what God wants you to have. Resist these temptations and pray that God will show you what you should have and ask Him to help you to get it. Walking and living in His will is not hard to do, but you have to do it deliberately.

Jesus said…


The gospel of John


If you have ever read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you know that John’s gospel is very different from the other three. John focuses on a few specific miracles that Jesus did. He doesn’t write so much about His genealogy or that He is descended from David. John focuses on Who Jesus is and on the miracles that point you toward belief in Him. At the very end of his gospel, John tells the reader that “if all of the miracles and signs were written about Him, the world could not contain the books“. So, he only focuses on the important ones.

John tells about Who Jesus is in the first sentences. The Word made flesh. He was there in the beginning, He came to live with His creation and to bring the Love and Light of God to the world. John doesn’t embellish his gospel, he just tells what Jesus did in seven different miracles. Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life. He also changed six pots of water into wine for a wedding feast (His first miracle). Jesus said He was the good shepherd because His sheep know Him and are known by Him. Jesus cured a man of leprosy. He also brought sight to a man who was born blind.

Only God can do these things and Jesus is God the Son. He stopped a storm and walked on water, yet He gave His life for our sins because He is the only perfect Lamb that could pay for humanity’s sins. John introduces Him to us as we read his gospel. Jesus is not introduced as some kind of genie but as our Creator and our God Who cares for all of His creation. He knows when a sparrow falls dead and He cares about the animals as well as humanity. He created all of the various forms of life on Earth. According to science, there are millions of different species on Earth. Some haven’t been found yet because it seems that new species are being found in the ocean and in rain forests many times during the year.

God created all of the universe and He knows the stars by name, trillions of them.

Why do I bring this up on a site that shows the love of God to everyone? Because God loves all of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful ways that we live. The Bible gives us a plan and guidelines to follow for our lives. But many people don’t care to read it or to know the God found in the Bible. I heard a man in a video that I watched last week say that it doesn’t matter what God wants or what is found in the Bible, he had decided to live his life the way he wanted to.

Why am I writing this today? Because eternity is a long time and one day all of us are going to die and then we will face God as our judge. I wonder how living your life your way is going to feel then? When you are faced with an eternity of life yet you lived on Earth and chose to exclude God and His teachings from your life…what will you have to stand on then? Your idea of a good time? Your rules about what is right or wrong? You will be judged by God’s Law not your idea of it. Outer darkness and the lake of fire for eternity don’t look so good when you will live and feel the pain of your decision for all time.

Christ makes you alive


God sees all


I am God…


Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Isaiah 46:9‭-‬10 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.46.9-10.KJV

Growing up broken…


I never discussed how I felt about our family situation during my childhood. It never really came up because nobody asked me. I know that I’m not the only person to have gone through this but it is part of my testimony so here goes.

In kindergarten, my life seemed to be fairly normal but at the age of five, my parents got divorced. I won’t go into the reason for it because I didn’t learn about it until much later in life because it isn’t relevant here. As I grew up I went through a lot of periods where I tried different things like Eastern philosophy and meditation. I didn’t know what I was doing but I was trying to find some meaning for life itself I suppose.

When I felt the call from Jesus, I could barely believe that He wanted me. Why? Who would want me, especially Jesus? He chooses each of us for His Kingdom and for the message that we can tell others about what He has done for each of us. Your ministry comes by telling your story, your personal story. Each of us has a story to tell. It is our example, our witness because of what we have lived through. God calls us because of our humanity. Sometimes our humanity causes us to feel like we are less than others but sometimes it is our weaknesses that God uses to show His strength and power through us to others.

Weakness shows the strength of the Holy Spirit which is your helper. God loves us enough to make us able to endure the trials that will come upon us. I pray that if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, please seek Him as soon as you can. Not one of us is guaranteed to be here tomorrow, so make sure of your salvation today.