Truth is NOT relative!

Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. So…make sure that you find the Truth in Him! Find the Way to Heaven through belief in Jesus as your Savior! You will find eternal Life through Him into Heaven. The simple way to make sure of your place is to seek Him in your local church or through a Bible study group. When you feel that subtle conviction from the Holy Spirit, you will need to sit down and follow a few steps (but not necessarily in this order).

Lord, I admit that I am a sinner and I need You.
I am asking for Your forgiveness for my sins and for you to save me from an eternity in Hell. (I repent of my sinful behavior)
I believe Jesus died and rose from the grave and paid the penalty for my sins so that my relationship with You could be restored.
By faith, I invite Jesus Christ into my heart and my life. From this time forward I want to live in a loving relationship with Him and I receive Jesus as my Savior and Lord. In Jesus’ name I thank you for all that you have done for me, amen.

God loves each one of us and it shouldn’t really surprise us. I mean, He had a hand in each of our lives even before, long before we were born. He put our DNA together on atom at a time so He knows exactly what your personality is and what you can do. Far better than even we know ourselves! That is the most amazing thing about how awesome God really is! Is it really so hard to believe that the Creator of the universe knows how many hairs you have on your head? Knowing this, is it unusual to think that He has cared and does care for you and everyone else who will come to know Him?

I pray that anyone who reads this will look up a Bible if they don’t have one. If you do, dust it off and start reading in the New Testament from John to Romans and you will find the Lord Who loves you and you will find that you will come to love Him too.

What are you looking for?

Many preachers and teachers today are taking God’s Word out of context and molding it to fit their own “gospel” of wealth and prosperity. Why are there so many people drawn to this type of teaching? Because they want the wealth and the health without the “take up your cross daily and follow Me”, meaning that they don’t want to give up their “old life” for a better one in Jesus’ name. Everyone seems to want to have their cake and eat it too. But that is not what the Bible teaches and it is not what Jesus taught either.

People who teach this are using quotes from Scripture but they are taking them out of context. Jesus said “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The abundant life which Jesus was speaking of is one of spiritual abundance here and now and then you will be given so much more than you can imagine when you are in His Presence in Heaven. Jesus was not speaking of eliminating poverty with wealth here on Earth although many teachers of this “gospel” claim that is exactly what He meant.

Especially in Africa. They see all of the wealth of those of us who live in “the West” and they point to all of the good things which we have been blessed with. Much of the wealth and health that our country has enjoyed is because of the support and defense of Israel in the past 80 or so years. God blessed us because of His people, period. Not because we are or claim to be Christians. In our culture we do try to help others as much as we can and it is that giving nature that points many people toward our countries borders.

America has been a light to the world because of our faith in God and the fact that our laws have always been based upon the laws which God gave to Moses. We should always keep His laws and His message in the forefront of our country and its citizens. I pray than all who read this will give their heart and their life to Jesus so that one day I may meet you in Heaven.

Why did God send Jesus to die?

This is a good question and it is one which many people want to know the answer to. When you look back to the very beginning of the Bible, all three persons of the Trinity are there. The Spirit of God is hovering over the waters of the unformed Earth. What those waters are made of is not told but the Spirit is there. Then God said, “Let there be light!”. Many people, including myself, have wondered where that light came from. Was it the light from the Big bang? Was it the initial spark which started our Sun to shine? Considering that the Sun and the moon were not created yet, I think that the initial light was Jesus and His Shekinah glory, the light which comes from God just as He is. The light which lit up creation before there were stars and galaxies and the Sun and the moon. The glory which made Moses’ face glow after he had been in God’s presence. That was the first Light of the universe.

So, why did God send Jesus to die and pay the penalty for all of mankind’s sins? You need to remember that God doesn’t live in the same “time zone” as we do. He lives outside of time itself because He created time. He can see the beginning from the ending and everything in between. God knew that mankind would try to do things on his own rather than following God’s instruction. He knew that those who came after Adam would be so sinful that He would have to save the most God-fearing family later and destroy all of life on Earth. There is nothing on Earth or in hell which is a surprise to God. He can see and know every person and place and even the thoughts of each of us, so there is nothing which surprises God.

In explaining my title, God sent Jesus to Earth to give us a way to become His righteousness since we could not attain it on our own. Jesus paid the price for ALL OF OUR SINS, but not everyone will accept this because they can’t understand the kind of love and compassion which it would require. If you have ever heard these words in church, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts“. God is not like us at all. He loves us as His creation and as His children because without Him we would not be. It is God Who knit our DNA together in the womb so He knows exactly what our skin color is and how we will react to certain things because it is due to His influence in our creation that we have the personality that we have.

What I’m pointing out here is this: God is intimately involved in our lives and in creation itself. Every day and in every circumstance, whether it is a sparrow which dies or your child gets sick, God knows it and He is there, waiting for us to humble ourselves and turn to Him for strength and healing and wisdom in every area of our lives. Do we do this? Some of us do humble ourselves and turn to Him for strength and prayer in our time of need. Many of us don’t.

So…back to my first question: Why did God send Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins? Because He values each one of us far more than we value ourselves. God has always had a hand in forming every life, every person on this planet and He wants them to have the chance of knowing Him as their Savior and the chance to be in Heaven with Him forever. Without Jesus’ sacrifice for all of us, that opportunity would not be possible.

This is where many people draw the line though. They want to have something that they have to do to have salvation and the only thing that each of us has to do is be receptive to the call of the Holy Spirit. When you feel convicted that you truly NEED to be saved and the only way for that to happen is through repentance and accepting Jesus as your Savior. Don’t push the Spirit away. Don’t “white knuckle” the pew so that you won’t go down when you know that you need to. One day, likely sooner than many people think, there is going to be a day when a trumpet blast will be heard all over the world and graves are going to explode with people coming out of them and then those who are alive and have given their lives to Jesus will follow those to be with the Lord forever. Make sure that you are included in that day’s festivities and not left here wondering what just happened!

Rejection, fear, and uncertainty

As human’s we do not like even ONE of these. From our family or our friends and certainly not from God. But why would we worry about feeling these emotions from God? The main reason that we feel these emotions in our relationship with God is actually because of Satan himself. God has never rejected us. Why should we be afraid of God? He isn’t going to strike us dead if we don’t do something, right? Feeling uncertain about your relationship with Him is also a tactic of Satan. Jesus said that all we had to so was to believe in Him and in the Father Who sent Him to save us from our sins…that’s it! Believe in Jesus and God the Father for your salvation. No hoops to jump through. No certain number of people that you have to tell about Jesus. He did all of the work on the cross in order to pay for your sins and nothing that we try to do can add value to our salvation.

Satan is the instigator and has been since before Adam or the Earth was created. He was a consummate liar then and he has gotten better at it over the thousands of years since then. Satan can make us believe a lie about God or Jesus or any part of the salvation which is freely given by God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

We don’t have to listen to those suggestions which Satan places in our head and in our mind, but many times we do listen to them. If you look it up and read about God in the Bible, you will see that He may make some people afraid of Him but He only did it because of their hard hearts. They wouldn’t listen to His instructions, His commandments, so He had to get their attention just as He gets our attention at times. He knows that we are hard-headed and stubborn and sometimes it takes more than reading a few scriptures to make us know that He is serious.

For some of us it will take a bit more than reading a scripture to realize what is being said to us. Many times it may take a sickness or a death in the family to really get our attention, but God will use that to His advantage. God loves each of us but He also knows exactly how much it will take to get our attention and to keep it focused on Him. Some people will blame Him and they will move away from Him but that isn’t a surprise to God. He knows exactly who will hear Him and follow Him and who will not. Regardless of our intention to follow Him or not, God still loves us. That is just His nature.

God really loves you!

I found this on my Facebook page and I thought that more people should read this today so they will know that God loves each one of them.

The boy put his winter clothes on for the cold and told his father:

“Ok dad I’m ready”

His Dad, the pastor, said: “Ready for what?”

“Dad, it’s time to go outside and distribute our flyers.”

Dad replied: “Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s drizzling.”

The child looked surprised at his father and said: “But dad, people need to know about God even on rainy days.”

Dad replied, “Son, I’m not going outside in this weather.”

With despair, the child said: “Dad, can I go alone? Please!”

His father waited for a moment and then said: “Son, you can go. Here’s the flyers, be careful.”

“Thank you dad!”

And with this, the son went out into the rain. The 11-Year-old walked all the streets of the village, handing out the flyers to the people he saw.

After 2 hours walking in the rain and in the cold and with his last flyer in his hand, he stopped in a corner to see if he saw someone to give the flyer too, but the streets were totally deserted. Then he turned to the first house he saw, walked to the front door, touched the bell several times and waited, but no one came out.

Finally the boy turned to leave, but something stopped him. The child turned back to the door and began to touch the bell and pound the door strongly with his knuckles. He kept waiting. Finally the door was opened gently.

A lady came out with a very sad look and gently asked:

“What can I do for you, son?
With radiant eyes and a bright smile the child said:

“Lady, I’m sorry if I upset you, but I just want to tell you that God really loves you and that I came to give you my last flyer, which talks about God and His great love

The boy then gave her the flyer.

She just said, “Thank you, son, God bless you!”

Well, next Sunday morning, the pastor was in the pulpit and when the service began he asked:

“Someone has a testimony or something they want to share?”

Gently, in the back row of the church, an older lady stood up. When she started talking, a radiant and glorious look sprouted from her eyes:

“Nobody in this church knows me. I have never been here, even last Sunday I was not Christian.

My husband died a while ago leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday was a particularly cold and rainy day, and it was also in my heart; that on that day I came to the end of the road, since I had no hope and didn’t want to live anymore.

Then I took a chair and a rope and went up to the attic of my house. I tied and one end of the rope to the rafters of the roof; then I climbed onto the chair and put the other end of the rope around my neck.

I then stood on the chair, so alone and heartbroken, I was about to throw myself off the chair, when suddenly I heard the loud sound of the door being knocked.

So I thought: “I’ll wait for a minute and whoever it is will go”

I waited and waited, but the door knocking was getting louder and louder every time. It got so loud that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

So I wondered, who could it be?
No one ever comes close to my door or come to visit me!
I released the rope from my neck and went to the door, while the bell was still ringing and the door was still being knocked on.

When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe what my eyes saw, in front of my door was the most radiant and angelic child I’ve ever seen.
He’s smile, ohhh, I can never describe it! The words that came out of his mouth made my heart, dead so long ago, come back to life, when he said with the VOICE OF CHERUB: “Lady, I just want to tell you that God really loves you”

“When the little angel disappeared between the cold and the rain, I closed my door and read every word of the flyer.
Then I went to the attic to remove the chair and rope.

I didn’t need them anymore. As you see. Now I am a happy daughter of the King.
As the direction of the boy, when he left, was to this church, I came personally say thank you to that little angel of God who came just in time and, in fact, to rescue my life from an eternity in hell. And replaced it with an eternity in God’s presence. “

Everyone cried in the church.

The Pastor came down from the pulpit to the first bench of the front, where the little angel was sitting; he took his son in his arms and cried uncontrollably.

Me, you and Jesus

Paul wrote something very poignant in Galatians 2:20, it says 20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

There is so much wisdom contained in this verse and it applies to every person who believes in Jesus as their Savior and lives it every day. Yet many of us don’t really think about how we are supposed to go about this. What does “crucified with Christ” mean exactly? How can I learn to live daily with Christ living inside my heart? Do I really have the faith that it takes to live like this? The process of living a crucified life is not just accepting Him as your Savior but living His life, His way by the faith that He has given us to believe in Him for our salvation. It truly isn’t as simple as it sounds.

In Luke 9:23, Jesus told His disciples this very principle. It says If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Still a bit confusing, right? Following Christ is what we as Christians are supposed to do but what does “deny himself/herself” mean, especially in today’s world?

Being “crucified with Christ” and “denying” yourself are mostly the same thing. So what exactly does Jesus mean by this? When we are saved, genuinely saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and changes us from the inside. But…our old nature is still present and there will be a struggle from day one over which side will “rule the day” in a manner of speaking. Starting your day with prayer and reading of God’s Word is the best way to start your day, every day. But, then there are days for each of us which has many interruptions in them such as work, school, errands, etc.

You get the idea. Denying your self is referring to the person that you were before your salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which makes a permanent change in your spiritual and your daily life. Some people may find that denying their “old self” is a bit too hard to do but if you just read God’s Word and pray about His work on you, whether it is in the morning or evening, the habit of denial of self will become easier. But doing this has to become a habit and it strengthens your faith and whether you think so or not, it will make your Christian life better. I didn’t say it would make it easier because the devil will keep on bringing up your sins and he knows exactly how to do it.

He will be whispering in your ear (mind) about all of the things that you were doing and enjoying before you gave your heart to Jesus. This will likely happen almost every day, sometimes more than once a day. You will need to be grounded in God’s Word so you will have the faith and the Word to be able to send your temptations and the tempter packing.

I know that many of you don’t really want to take the time to read the Bible on a daily basis but it helps a lot when it comes to resisting temptations that will come. There is no guarantee of any sort which says that Satan will not tempt you unless you don’t belong to Jesus in the first place. Why would he bother if you don’t belong to God in the first place? Even if you have spent most of your life in the church but you have never asked Jesus to come into your heart and save you, Satan doesn’t need to try to make you fail at being a Christian because you aren’t one anyway.

Is it possible for someone to be in the church that long and never give their heart to Jesus? Unfortunately, it is possible. There are many who have grown up in the church from the time they could walk until adulthood but they have never felt the need or the conviction to seek Him as their Savior. Taking up your cross, as Jesus said, is part of being a Christian. Living your life with Him and denying your old self so you won’t be tempted or at least you won’t fall for the schemes of Satan to cause you to fall into temptation.

Living this way is not something that just happens when you accept Jesus as your Savior. You have to learn His wisdom from the Bible and practice it each time a temptation comes along. Most of us aren’t told this bit of information before we accept Jesus or afterward. We are expected to learn it but if you don’t know what you need to learn how can you go about it? Read John’s gospel and the book of Romans because they are the foundation of your Christian life. Both of these books have good information on how to walk with Him and learn from His Word.

How foolish are we?

God’s Word says in Psalms 14:1: The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, [there is] none that doeth good.

The wisdom of God is foolish to a man who has not given his heart to the Lord. This is a paraphrase of this scripture which the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: 1 Corinthians 2:14 – But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. There is no man who can understand God’s wisdom from His Word without the Holy Spirit dwelling in his heart. So why do some men in our world today seem to think that they have God and His wisdom all figured out? Mankind cannot understand God’s Word without Him and there are so many who either don’t want to know Him as their Savior or they are following a religion which has blinded them to the actual Truth which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Life is hard enough without living it foolishly and without Jesus Christ as your Savior is a very foolish way to live. Why is this true? Because we do not have a promise of a certain number of years that we will live. We don’t even have a promise of waking up in the morning. So, what will it take to get away from the foolishness of our sinful lives and turn toward God, toward Jesus, and save our eternal soul?

Are we actually foolish enough to believe that we are good enough to get into Heaven without Jesus? I hope not. Because the Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags in God’s sight. We are not righteous unless we are forgiven under the blood of Jesus and that is our covering because He purchased our soul with His blood and unless you truly believe in Him and His sacrifice for you, then you have no place in Heaven. Is it hard for us to give our heart to Him? Sometimes it is, but when God convicts you of your sins and you realize that you truly need Jesus as your Savior, it is then that you find that it is simple…believe that He did this for you.

Even if you or I were the only people that Jesus could die for and save…He would’ve done it anyway. God loves us enough that if there were only one person that would been saved because of His sacrifice, He would have come to Earth and gave His life for us even if that “us” was only one person. God’s love is hard for us to comprehend and it is likely that we will never truly understand it, even when we are in His Presence but He did it for all of us.

I pray that we will not be foolish in thinking that we can gain entry into Heaven on our own. The only door to eternity in Heaven is by Jesus Christ and belief in Him alone. Amen

The Word will accomplish it’s purpose!

Your life, if you are a Christian, belongs to God. His Word will accomplish those things which He desires. It is His purpose which will be done and which should be your purpose because you have given your heart to Him. Live as a disciple and a witness of God because of the great love that He has shown toward you and in your life. If you aren’t sure about His love for you, consider that it is God Who allowed you to wake up this morning. It is by His purpose that you walk and breathe and do the things which you are able to do. God knew you before the world was formed and He has already made a way for your life to be useful in His hands.

All that you need to do is realize that and seek Him for your salvation. Your life is not your own, it belongs to God and it is His to do with as He will. Some of you who read this will deny that God has a place in your life, but He has the power to stop your heart in the next sixty seconds if He chose to. I’m not trying to scare you by saying that, it is just the simple truth. God wove your DNA together and He knows exactly what you are capable of accomplishing in your life and for Him. If you have felt the call of God on your life at any time in the past or even now…don’t push Him away. Lean into Him and ask for His strength and His forgiveness of your sins. Ask Him to take the old you and mold him or her into the person that He knows you can be.

You might say, “But…that might hurt!”. Change in any form hurts sometimes, but it is needed at times to. When you exercise by running or lifting weights your muscles get sore for a time because you’ve pushed them to do something that they weren’t or hadn’t done before. When you begin serving God, you will have to change and His Spirit will change you gradually or drastically, depending on how much change is needed. It may hurt because some of your family and friends won’t understand where this new person came from. They may not recognize the person that you care becoming, but God knows who you are and He can and will change you into the instrument that He needs you to be.

Jesus brought a message that God loves us and He wants us to be His children every day of our lives. He told those who would listen about this and some received it with gladness. Others thought His message was foolish but Jesus kept telling those who would listen that He was bringing the Kingdom of God to them. Some heard Him and believed but others thought He was crazy. The fruit that we are supposed to produce is peace and love and joy through Jesus Christ our Lord! Not this message you hear about today which says “I can do all things myself and I don’t need God!”.

When you hear someone say that they don’t need God, ask them if they can make a flower bloom? They will probably laugh at your question but if they think that they don’t need God then they are declaring that they are like God. They are delusional in this of course. Ask them if they can change their hair from gray to whatever color they had in their youth? Ask them if they can make themselves taller? If they can’t accomplish these things, then they need God badly in their life. Nobody can do these things except God but some of the “new age” religions are telling people that they can do these things.

God lit the stars and He can put them out. He brought the life to this world in the form of trees and animals and fish and birds just with His Word. Can you do that? Of course not. God loves you and He knows you, even if you don’t know Him yet. One day we will all bow before Him and I hope that you will know Him and that He will know you as well because those that He doesn’t know will be taken to a place of torment because they had the chance to give their life to Him but they chose not to.

You are special in God’s eyes

Did you know that? He knew each of us before we were even born. He knows how many hairs are on your head (and how many have fallen out). He knows the color of your eyes and how much sleep you got last night. God knows you better than your own parents do because He formed you in the womb and knit together the molecules of your DNA. He knows everything that you have done and what you will do, even before you do.

To give you a bit of an idea just how much God values the soul which resides in each of us, think about what Jesus said to His disciples: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26 When Jesus said this, the context of His statement is that if you had all of the wealth in the world but you don’t have salvation through Him to save your soul from hell then you have nothing. Think of it…God values your soul more than ALL of the wealth in the world! Trillions of dollars, I have no idea how much it would be, would not be enough to equal the value of your soul.

God sent His Son to pay the debt for our sins, everybody’s sins, just to make it possible for us to enter into eternity with Him. Isn’t that an awesome and humbling thought? The Creator came to Earth in a human body so He could pay for all of humanity’s sins, past, present and future just because He loves each of us more than His life. Yes, God does value each of us that much. It is hard to understand from our perspective and we may never really understand it, even when we are in heaven.

If you have never given your heart to Jesus and asked Him to come into your life and change it so you can be a follower of His, then I ask you to truly consider it. If you have felt His touch in your life or your heart please don’t turn away from Him. This life is all that we have in which to make an eternal decision so don’t throw away eternity for the few years you have here and the life that you have lived without Him.

How is your PAD today?

I am not speaking of your home or your home away from home (workplace). What I am writing about today has to do with your emotional state: Pride, Apathy, and Depression or Doubt. Why are there two different emotional states for the D in this? Well, we all have each of these at one point or another in our lives but some of us live in them quite naturally. There are times when I have all four states going at the same time which is one of those days when very little gets done or I just go through the motions like a zombie or a robot. It gets done but not with much passion or fire. Sometimes these days coincide with a day that I’m at home with our Dachshund for company but that isn’t really a bad day because I enjoy my time with her.

Apathy and doubt usually go well together but when you mix pride into the pot with them it can be an explosive combination which can bring in anger and rage, that hard to control cousin of anger. Why am I concentrating on emotions and the trouble that they can cause? Because our churches and our immediate family usually get the fallout from these emotional states. It may happen after your PAD has been simmering for a while or if anger and rage are in the mix, it could just blow up like a bomb at the dinner table or at a business meeting at church.

Whenever you have a day like this or if it feels like its going to be “one of those days”, get into the Psalms and pray. Talk to your Father in Heaven about whatever is going on. Regardless of how small you think it is, He wants to help and He can! But you have to open up to Him. He knows what is going on already but just as our father or mother would like to help, God knows exactly how to help and where to point you in His Word. But you need to read it and pray to Him about it and then be willing to listen to the wisdom that you get from His Word or even from Him directly.

God can help you when you are feeling this way but only if you will let Him.