We love him, because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.4.19.KJV
God has always loved us whether we know that He exists or not. His love for you began thousands of years before you were born, so make an effort to get to know Him while there’s time to do so.
The past few weeks…basically since the election, I’ve not been writing as much here. I have also been a bit distracted because of having to have a colonoscopy done. That’s as much information as I’ve giving here on that.
I have been studying my Bible although not as regularly as I was. Why am I slacking off? Truthfully…I’m not sure. I’ve noticed during the last few years that my holiday writing and studying drops off a bit. Maybe it is a little bit of the so-called “holiday blues”. It feels as if I am having to put out more effort each day to study the Bible and get the Word, the wisdom that God wants me to understand for my life, to make sense to me. Sounds like I have a real problem.
My problem is easy to pinpoint when I look at it that way. Even so I have to consciously bring my mind into subjection to His Holy Spirit so that I can write and understand that what I’m writing may bring someone who is looking for Jesus will find Him and not me. I cannot make the change in their life, in your life that will give you an eternity in heaven. Only Jesus Christ and your belief in His atonement for your sins can do that. God loves each of us so much that He sent Jesus to Earth to live as one of us and then die for all of our sins.
The only veil separating you from eternity is God’s love and He knows when you will come to know Him as your Savior. Some say that we are immortal until that day that God touches our heart and lets us know that He is waiting and all we have to do is accept Him as our Savior. Some people say ” Now wait a minute, you said that I have to believe in Jesus Christ for my salvation and now you are saying that God loves me enough to wait for me to give my life to Him!” Which One of Them is my Savior? They both are.
Jesus is the Son of God but He is also the Second of the Trinity which makes the Godhead. This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or Ghost if you prefer. All of them were present on the day that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist if you will read it in Matthew. So what is my problem these days? Satan.
Just because I am a Christian and a pastor doesn’t mean that he leaves me alone. In fact, he attacks me harder when I am about to write here or when I am working on my sermon or just studying the Bible. Why? Because as long as he can keep my mind occupied with bills and surgery and medical tests and my medication then I won’t be thinking about the work that I should be doing while there is still time to do so…to tell you and others about my Savior and what He will do for you. He doesn’t bring us wealth or fame here on this Earth or in this life but consider that no one on Earth can give you eternal life! What is wealth here compared to being in heaven with the Creator and my Redeemer? I mean the streets of New Jerusalem are paved with gold! How fantastic is that?
There isn’t a rich man on Earth that can pave his driveway with gold bricks because they would be stolen during the night. Nobody would spend thousands on a brick of gold and then place it in the dirt or in concrete to pave even a driveway. But God does. God doesn’t care about the gold and diamonds and pearls, each of the gates of the city in heaven are made from one gigantic pearl and there are 12 gates! Each one made from a precious stone like diamonds or sapphires. Can you imagine a door 12 feet tall made from one gemstone or pearl?
No amount of money impresses God…He wants your obedience and your love to be focused on Jesus and His life. We are supposed to be reflections of Him in our lives so that others can see Him in and through our lives because for some people you and I and the lives that we live in front of them are the only example of Jesus’ love that they may ever see. Live your life as close to Him and be as close to His example as you can with the strength that He gives you through the Holy Spirit because that is the only way that you and I can do this.
Many people, it seems, are more than willing to turn their back on the Bible just because someone can make a case against its accuracy. But if you pick up a copy or two you will find that most translations do agree with each other. So why do we turn away from the book that has shaped civilization for at least the last five centuries?
Mostly it is due to our own idea of what Truth really means to us today. Some people who have turned 30 or even younger are turning away from the Bible and the churches that teach from it. Truth is not relative or individual. God’s Word is True and it is the Truth. Like it or not it was given to the Jewish people first but salvation comes through Jesus Christ and belief in Him alone. Each of us has to have faith to believe in Jesus and in the Truth of the Bible and God is the Author and Finisher of our faith but you won’t hear that from a church that doesn’t teach and preach from the Bible.
The refusal of people to believe God’s Word is a far more dangerous tone to take than what is happening in regard to our healthcare and the election too. God is not some fairy tale and His Word has been proven to be true. The prophecies have all come true except for the taking up of the church, those who believe in Jesus for their salvation. When that prophecy finally happens the whole world will know that God is real but whether the news will report the truth about it will be another “spin” which will hurt more people for eternity.
Why do I defend the Bible like this? Because if it isn’t true…then God is a liar and that is something that He cannot do. The life that is in the universe and that which we see every day on Earth could not be here if it weren’t for God and His Son keeping the little things and the big things in balance. There are so many documents which prove that the Torah and the Prophets are true and have been copied accurately down through the years. There are more than five thousand copies of most, if not all of the New Testament.
Please go to a Bible teaching church, pick up a copy of the Bible if you don’t already have one and begin reading it. So much of the Bible backs up the New Testament because Jesus and His disciples only had the Old Testament to read and go by. We benefit from Paul’s letters which were written mostly from prison due to his preaching about Jesus and His sacrifice for our salvation. In fact, Paul wrote almost half of the New Testament himself so if it weren’t for his letters we would have a much smaller New Testament and Bible.
I urge everyone who reads this to tell others about it especially if they don’t go to church or if they don’t know Jesus as their Savior. He came to give us eternity with Him and save us from an eternity in hell. Make sure of your salvation because not one of us is guaranteed to be here tomorrow.
How did the universe get so big in six days? How did God make some stars HUGE and some that are just the right size to provide warmth and life? Why did God create people who can be so cruel and who will reject Him as their Savior?
These are just a small sample of questions that have come through my mind in the past few weeks, but I still don’t have an answer to any of them. I probably won’t get an answer to any of them until I meet Him in eternity one day. I pray that my life and the decisions that I’ve made in life will at least get me inside the door to Heaven. It will not be my life or any of the “works” that I have done which will bring me to heaven’s door. What will get me in will be the fact of my salvation by my belief in Jesus and His atonement for my sins.
The question of the universe and the stars which God placed in it is actually answered in Genesis. The “how” God did it part was by His Word. Everything that God created was spoken into existence with the exception of mankind, the man and his wife. God sculpted him from the clay or mud if you like it that way and then He breathed His breath of Life into the man and he became a living soul. When God formed the woman, He put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and formed her from that.
Mankind was formed by God’s hands. Everything else was spoken into existence, even the fish and the birds and the animals and trees. God wanted a special relationship with mankind which is why He formed him from the clay like a potter but I’m sure there were no imperfections in His creation at all.
Why was mankind created in this fashion? Because God wanted to have an intimate relationship with us and for a time He did have that relationship. But…when mankind disobeyed God’s rule about the tree in the midst of the Garden, he was cast out of the Garden and into a world which suffered because of his disobedience. Death wasn’t spoken of at all until the Fall and then even the stars and the planets and the animals and everything else that God had created felt the sting of the disobedience and the fall. God cursed the ground so that Adam would have to work hard to make things grow to support his family.
Life had been as close to heaven as possible before mankind disobeyed God’s rule about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is where all of the evil in man’s heart began and we have made it show in many ways over the thousands of years since then. God had seen that man would not be able to resist the temptation to give in to enticement from Satan or from any other source. Which is why He told the woman that one day the “seed of the woman” would conquer the sinful ways of man and pay the price to redeem everyone and bring them back into a relationship with God again.
Jesus was that seed and He did fulfill that prophecy because nobody else in humanity would be able to live a spotless, sinless life in order to pay the price for all of mankind, past present and future. The sacrifices of goats and sheep and birds and bulls in the Old Testament were just a foreshadowing of Jesus shedding His blood to atone for all of mankind’s sins. They could not wash away man’s sins because they were only temporary substitutes for Jesus Christ’s blood which would take all of our sins away.
I pray that all who read this will take it to heart and believe in Jesus for your salvation today! Because you don’t know when your days may be over
Many times we think we hear or feel a small voice or something that is telling us that we are not doing what is right. We may call it our conscience, but whatever you call it I believe that it is the voice of God by the Holy Spirit. Touching your spirit with His words of wisdom and caution in our time of spiritual need. Sometimes we listen to it and sometimes we just push it aside and forget about it for a while.
God does speak to people today, maybe not from a cloud or a burning bush the way He did when He called Moses, but He does speak every time you hear a message from His Word. When you read the Bible you are hearing His voice from its pages because He inspired the writers to pen those words. Why do I point this out today? Because the Bible was written many thousands of years ago by over forty writers separated by geography and time as well and yet it contains a coherent story line that points to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Hearing God’s voice today is harder than it has ever been. Not because He isn’t speaking but because of all of the other competing voices that get in the way. Our jobs, our family, our own self-interest gets in the way and many times shouts louder than God ever would. We are too busy to go to church. We have a game or a recital to attend. We need to visit our parents and grandparents this weekend. All of these and more get in the way of our discipleship to Jesus Christ. We allow these important, to us, “busyness” events to take our attention away from God and from our education by the Holy Spirit. Most of the time we don’t even pay attention to the fact that is drawing our attention away from our walk with Him.
One day it will make more sense to those who know Him and it will be a terror to those who are not known by Him and for those think they know Him but do not. I pray that all who read this will make sure of their relationship to Jesus and their belief in Him or not before His return for the church. Will you be able to accept Him as your Savior during the Tribulation? Yes, but the consequences will be much more severe and immediate at that time, but if you do accept Him your eternity will be much better than it will be if you don’t.
In one of my favorite movies the computer is trying to teach Mr. Spock all that he should know in order for him to take his place on the bridge of the Enterprise. He answers all of the questions correctly except this one: How do you feel?
The computer repeats the question and his mother comes in to find him with a quizzical look on his face. She tells him that the computer knows that he is half human and it wants an answer. An answer that he doesn’t know how to give or even how to phrase correctly until the ending of the movie when he tells his father to tell his mother that he feels fine.
How do we feel in this world of contradictions and confusing twists that seem to show up in the news and in other places as well. Particularly in reference to so-called “sexual preference” or “sexual orientation”. These are states of being which our society today is telling us that we are born that way and we are not. God created each of us male or female. There are no third choices or choices of any kind when it comes to how you live your either are what you were born as or you aren’t. But how are you going to answer that question in front of God?
You will stand in front of Him as the person that you were meant to be not the one that surgery and chemicals caused you to look like someone else. Live your life as God made you to be not what your parents or society would choose for you.
God considers every person to be unique and special and worth the life of His Son to save your soul from hell. So regardless of how you may feel right now, today, God loves you. Don’t forget that.
So many claim to be Christians today but because of fear and misinformation very few are attending church services. So, what is coming next? In our time and in the next few weeks we will be voting for a President to continue his second term in office, if it is God’s will for that to happen. Many of us will get a flu shot or a COVID-19 shot and hope that it helps for a season. But…what about after that? What should we look for after all of this?
The news media and social media will tell everyone that our world is doomed whether our choice of candidate gets elected or not. Many people may even begin to go into survival mode and hoard more toilet paper and canned goods. Can we be certain of anything that we see or hear in media broadcasts today? If it is reported by a news organization or any media company I would have to say…NO! So what are we supposed to do about this uncertainty? Truthfully there is nothing that we, as individuals, can do except pray.
If you are a believer in Jesus and you have given your heart to Him then read His Word because most of the things which we are seeing and hearing on the TV or the Internet were foretold long before it started. The rise of knowledge and technology, which we have seen in the past century has happened. Israel became a Jewish nation again seventy-two years ago and now we are seeing so many people claiming that our history needs changing because it “hurts some people’s feelings”. How can we cope with all of this uncertainty? Read God’s Word! It will show you that God is not surprised by this. He knew thousands of years ago that this was coming.
Read the prophetic books like Isaiah and Daniel and Ezekiel. Then read in Matthew 24 and in the book of Revelation about how God will deal with the world that has been against Israel for so long. The best part is that the church, those who believe in Jesus for their salvation, is not punished during the Tribulation because we are not here! The world will be in a constant state of chaos and it will get worse as the months and years go by but only for seven years. Then Jesus will return to the Mount of Olives and He will end the Tribulation with the Word of God which will destroy the enemies of Israel. God loves Israel and those in the world who have believed in Jesus for their salvation.
God will not leave us and He hasn’t left us at any time. This trouble that we are going through now is just a way of testing the faith of the church. To see how much we are looking for Him and keeping our faith in His promises. I could be wrong but it seems that we, as the Church, are being tested. How long will this last? I don’t know but God does. Seek Him in all that you do and pray that He will convict you to become a Christian or to reaffirm and strengthen your faith during these troubled times. The test could be over in a few minutes or it may take a few years but by whatever time measurement you use, God is the only One who knows precisely when Christians (the church) will be taken home to be with Him.
I pray that all who claim to know Him are known by Him when this time comes. Amen
Life is supposed to be lived with your eyes front. Looking forward to what lies ahead of you. But do we live this way or is it just a fond saying that we hear or maybe learn at some point in our life? Eyes front! is a command that I remember hearing in basic training a few decades ago. So what does it mean to us today?
The better part of it is that we shouldn’t be looking behind us and we should be making plans for the life that is ahead of us. The present, which is today, is something that we can’t plan for because we got up this morning living in it. The “present” is today and it should be used as a way or a pathway to get to our future…tomorrow.
Jesus said: 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Look toward tomorrow but do not fret about it. Keep your eyes on the work that Jesus has given you to do and the days will take care of themselves.
Our world is paying the price for pushing God out of the schools and our government too. Not only are we paying for our ignorance but the rest of the world has been put on notice for the same iniquity. Some people may wonder exactly who is doing this? It is our Creator, God. God is in charge of the universe and everything in it, especially our lives. We may not acknowledge Him for it, but you breathe in and out and your heart beats because He wills it so. Does He control us or you like an automaton? Of course not! He created us to love Him and serve Him because we want to not because of instinct or because we have to. Love can’t be forced on anyone.
So why do we push Him away from our lives? In today’s culture it is because we want our lives and the truth that we use on a daily basis to be more fluid and flexible. God’s Truth is not flexible. That is the major reason that most of the world’s religions have no absolute truth in their holy words. God’s Word is the absolute Truth because it came from Him by the Holy Spirit Who inspired the writers of the Old Testament and the New Testament to write it as His Word because it actually IS HIS WORD!
In the book of John it begins at the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God“. Then, when Jesus came to Earth to live with His creation He was and is the Word become flesh. Believing in Him for your salvation because He is the only way to salvation is the Truth that many don’t want to listen to or believe but if they don’t…if you don’t believe in Jesus the Christ for your salvation then you will pay an eternal price because of it. Make your most important decision while you still can in this life because after your life is over, there is no way to change your choice. No choice is a choice.
This entire year has been about sudden and rapid change. Beginning with this virus and all of the chaos that it has brought to the entire world. Society has changed so dramatically that very few countries have been spared. Societal change and personal changes have happened so rapidly until we can’t get a grip on what reality really is. Which side of an argument is the right one? Who is doing the right thing and for the benefit of which part of society and culture will it affect? Hard questions. Questions that the world shouldn’t have been asking in such a short period of time. We can barely keep up with what happens during a normal year, even a normal election year in America’s case. The entire world…every country has gone through so much this year. Things that no person on the planet was prepared for. Their economies ruined because of quarantine measures which placed so many businesses in jeopardy and many of them haven’t recovered and some may never recover.
What are people blaming this pandemic on? Some are blaming it on our President and some are blaming it on China because they were the first to be hit by it right after their New Year celebrations. I think it is likely that this was sent to us by God just to make us see that we are not in control of this world. The problem with this is that many people in this world will blame God to the point of not wanting to have anything to do with Him or the Christian religion!
Is there a way out of this? Yes, seek God and His wisdom to find the truth of where this came from and how to stop it. Will our world do this? Not likely. The reason is that many “religious” people are running many churches today and some of them really don’t believe the sermons that they get up and give to their congregations each Sunday. Mainly they don’t believe in the God inspired Word that their sermons should come from. Of course if that is what is wrong then they really don’t believe in their Savior, Jesus Christ. Because if you don’t believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God then how can you believe the story in God’s Word? Jesus was foretold in Genesis as “the seed of the woman” and in every other book of the Old Testament He shows up in some way to help or teach His people.
This “pandemic” may get worse because we are entering the flu season soon and they both affect the lungs and the body so how could you tell them apart? Many tests and trials of different medicines that might work or might not. Life goes on as it does each and every day and people who have other medical problems will die because they have contracted this virus or the flu or a mutated strain of either. Taking your request for healing to God is the best way but it is not the only way. We should be relying on our doctors and nurses and the treatments that they recommend. God will heal all of those that He wants to heal.
Be thankful that you don’t have this virus and if you have had it, depend upon Jesus to heal you with the medicine that the doctor orders for you. Then…make sure you give credit to the doctors and the nurses and to God as well because if He had not led those who developed the vaccine to do so then we would not have a vaccine.
