Spinning round and round…

Do you ever feel like you are doing the same thing that your tires are doing? Going around and around and maybe getting somewhere but you feel as if you are in a rut? There are many days that I feel this way and I’m disabled. I don’t go to work every morning and come home at night exhausted and worn out to the point of collapse. Some days, just getting up and working around in the house is enough to do that.

No, I’m not getting into a pity party here it is just a fact for most people who do work one or two jobs. When they do get some time off, they feel like just watching TV and doing as little as possible. I understand that and God does too. Keeping your mind focused on Jesus and following Him every day is hard sometimes, but it is worth it. Because it can lower your blood pressure and impact your health, physically and spiritually, in many ways.

Of course, keeping your eyes focused on Him is how we are supposed to walk through this world and do His will every day. It isn’t a question of should we do this, if you are a born-again Christian it is your duty and responsibility to do so. Just as a soldier in military service does his or her duty, we are in the Army of the Lord and we are supposed to do our duty for His Kingdom until it is time for us to go home to be with Him.

This is not a question of wanting to or not wanting to work for Him. We are commanded to work for the Kingdom and let others see that His Presence in our lives makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us because He is present in our hearts and every decision that we make. God loves each of us which is why He sent Jesus into the world to pay the penalty for our sins. So that by believing in Him and putting our faith in Him for our salvation, we will be saved.

It wasn’t a light thing which Jesus the Son did for us because His human body and mind knew the suffering which He would have to endure before His crucifixion and during the time on the cross. This is why He sweat drops of blood on the night before when He was taken to the priests and “tried” for blasphemy. He committed no crime because He was God and man, but they didn’t want to see or to make sure of His claim of being their Messiah.

I pray that all of us who claim Jesus as our Savior will take Him with us each and every day will do so and live our lives the way that He wants us to do and to live in this world.

Are you afraid?

It seems that we, as Christians, live in fear. Fear of offending someone, fear of telling others about our faith because they might reject us or the message and report it to someone, fear of being apostles like we are supposed to be. Why? Well, in the society which has come into America in the past twenty or thirty years, there seems to be more hostility toward people who profess to have faith in Jesus. Most don’t care if you believe in God because “everyone believes in God”, but if you bring the name of Jesus into the conversation things get a bit tricky. Because they don’t want to hear what He said or believe in Him. Why?

Mostly, because He taught that the hatred of someone is equivalent to murder. He taught that the thought of adultery was the same thing as the sin of adultery. Just the consideration of a sin, whatever it may be but specifically those two, is the same as committing them. That is why, in my opinion, people are so polarized against Jesus and His message. God is okay because His laws begin with the Ten Commandments and nobody could keep those perfectly, right? While this statement is true, they are still commandments, especially the ones about how to treat your mother and father and those which tell us how to behave toward one another.

So, why are we afraid to speak about our faith? Is it because it is our faith which scares others or is it because of the reaction we may get because of our faith if we tell someone about Jesus? Truthfully we shouldn’t be afraid of those around us because we have God on our side. He is in control of the situation regardless of where we may be as long as we have faith in Him to “have our backs” as we walk through this world. Psalm 23 tells us that He is with us through the “valley of the shadow of Death“, so why should we be afraid or live in fear of others? They can hurt us physically but if they kill you, then it was your time to go and you will be in His Presence. Does this give me chills? If I were foolish enough to walk on the streets of a big city after dark, yes I would be afraid, but I would be praying so hard that people would think I was loony anyway so, who cares?

As Christians, born into the family of God, we have His Spirit with us at all times, so why be afraid of talking to someone? One of the Trinity is there with us every step of the way and He gives us the words to speak at the time that we need them. God loves each of us with a love that we cannot understand or imagine and it will be His Presence working through us, protecting us from those of Satan’s army who would try to hurt us wherever we go. So, don’t be afraid of things which go bump in the night because your God is your Protector and your Guide it is He Who will protect you and lead you to the places where there is cool water and rest for your soul.

We do tend to forget…

Judges 2:7-15; Judges 21:25

What happened when the Israelites came into the Promised land? In about forty years they were supposed to conquer all of the inhabitants of the land which God had promised to Abraham. They did conquer most of them, but not all. That is why they are having so much trouble today. Their ancestors didn’t obey God fully. One tribe pushed back this group and another tribe pushed back this group but they didn’t destroy them like God had told them to do.

You can see the evidence of the effect of the “world’s values” on all of the so-called “reality” shows which mock anything that is Christian in origin. You can see it and hear it on the news. They censor God’s Truth and any representation of Him to the point of blocking some images or placing more emphasis on stories that go against Christian values. People today are inventing their own gods. Sometimes they are the god that they worship or turn to in their time of need, but most often when they realize that there is nothing that the doctor or their god can do, they will cry out to God.

Yet some are depending upon their money or their fame or even family and their possessions as if those can get you into eternity. Nothing which is temporary on this Earth will be available to do anything for you after this life. In today’s society, it seems that everyone seems to be counting on themselves or the government or in some other form of “feel-good” theology or idea, whether it is another “version” of the gospel which is not the actual gospel or just their “ideas”.

God’s way to Heaven is the only one which works and it is through faith and belief in Jesus and the atonement which He purchased for us by His blood and His death and resurrection after being crucified. There is nothing which our wisdom or our ideas can bring to the cross in order to help Jesus to save us because He has already done everything that was necessary because He was the only One Who could do the job!

The problems in our world today are the same ones which have been happening to the Jewish people ever since Joshua and the generation which came out of the wilderness died. In the last chapter of Judges in verse 25, you can tell that they really had no leadership because it says: 25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. The generation which has grown up in the past forty or fifty years has moved away from the Christian principles which kept their parents going. The generation after that has moved even farther away from the church and the values which are taught there. In another generation, there will be very few, if any, who go to church regularly and read their Bible.

I read a statistic a few days ago conducted by Lifeway and it said that of those who do attend church regularly, at least once a week, only about 32 percent study their Bibles outside of the service. Of the ones who do, it falls in the age group from 55 years old and up.

I pray that there will be a revival one day soon that will, hopefully, stop the church from dying but the falling away is prophesied to happen soon and it will whether we want it to or not. Make sure of your eternal home soon because one day you may not get another chance to make that decision.

When preachers preach from God’s Word, nothing that we say is made up. The ideas and the wisdom which God’s Spirit gives to us comes directly from Him if we are listening as we should. As it says in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

When a teacher, whether it is a Sunday school teacher, school teacher or parent, uses the wisdom and the faith which they have learned and received from God, they are counted among those “men (or women) of God” mentioned in 2 Timothy. Our world needs more teachers who listen to God’s wisdom and use it in teaching their students because if they don’t learn about God and Jesus from you or their parents, the world and the educational system of the world will not teach them about Him at all.

Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him?

This question has been asked by all sorts of people. From Pharaoh on down through the ages until now. Why is it so hard for people to grasp that the Lord is our Creator and our God? He places kings and Presidents in their offices. He keeps governments in place to do His will, even though they may not be Christian in their beliefs. Pharaoh didn’t believe in God and didn’t want to believe in Him until God showed that He was above all of the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh too.

So, why do we either decide that we don’t want to believe in God or His Word or we are so arrogant that we think we are better than He is? Satan thought this and still thinks it, but he is a defeated foe. We, as human beings, are much less powerful than an archangel so how can we think that we might have some sway over God’s decisions? We can’t! God created the entire universe with His Word and formed mankind from the dirt on the Earth…can you do that?

God did all of these things for His glory and to make us see that He is God! Not a carving or a casting of any person or imagination or of an animal or your family or your career! None of those can speak to you in the way that He does and not one of them died and rose from the grave to pay for your sins and mine! Only Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, did that and HE did it because He loved us long before we were born!

God the Father knew each of us before the foundation of the world was laid by Him. Yet, many of us act as if He doesn’t exist or rather we don’t want Him to be real. Why? Because, if God is real then His Word is true and everything that we thought we knew about evolution and science, while they may not be wrong some of it will have to be re-thought a bit. Because many have said that there was no world-wide flood and the Earth has to be more than a few thousand years old. Evolution didn’t happen because God created everything, if His Word is true. Which it is! God doesn’t lie.

Your life is dependent upon many things which God has put into place in our natural world. Many of them govern the way the air and the gases which make up our atmosphere react with one another. Some of these numbers are so precise until a variation between 0.007 up or down by only one thousandth would cause the universe itself to come apart and life would cease to exist. So, don’t say that God has no interest in our lives. Even the molecule of the protein which holds our bodies together, called Laminine, is shaped like a Cross.

**Think about this when you feel like denying that God exists.**

Who is God?

The names and attributes of God the Father are numerous and are described in detail in His Word. So…who is God? First of all, He is the Creator of everything. He is God and there is no other. Creation was thought of by God long before the Light shone through the darkness of the cosmos. Why did I call it cosmos when there was nothing there? Because it was a place where there was nothing yet it was as huge and as large as all of the universe is now or maybe more! God looked at it, even though there was no light in it at the time and He knew that there would be people of many nations and many languages and He loved them, even though they did not exist…yet! They were in His mind, we were in His mind before there was a planet or a moon or an Earth for us to live on. He loved us before the beginning of everything! Isn’t that wonderful?

I cannot go into all of the attributes of God and His awesomeness in this small article but one of those attributes was Jesus the Son. God existed as a triune being as God the Father, Jesus the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Each of these is God but each of them does different things in creation and in our world. Jesus is the Living Word of God and He was part of the Creator because the Word of God brought all of creation into existence just by His Word. The only part of creation which was not brought about by His spoken Word was mankind. God formed mankind from the clay, the dust of the Earth and later He formed woman from the rib of the man. Formed suggests that God has a personal part in creating us. Isn’t that wonderful?

When you read God’s Word you are studying His speech, His thoughts, His feelings, even if men wrote them down. The Holy Spirit inspired those men and taught them those words and His thoughts and commands that He intended for them to write down for a purpose. To teach us how to live, how to love, how to deal with problems in life. God’s Word is the best textbook in the world because it did not come from the mind of man, but from God Himself! The wisdom contained in it surpasses all of mankind’s wisdom, not because it is better but because it is truthful and it is the absolute Truth.

God’s Word teaches us how to be more like Him. Are there some aspects of God that we can’t be like or live out in our life? Yes, because He is God. We can’t create life from nothing. We are His creation and we will never be “God”. Let no one tell you that you will be and if they do, run! Your life is not just this existence, which is about seventy years or maybe up to one hundred years. That is but a moment in time when you think about eternity. God’s Living Word, Jesus Christ, said that we will either accept Him as our Savior or we will reject Him. There are only two choices. One of them will bring you into God’s Presence in Heaven and rejecting Jesus will send you into hell because you chose to reject Him. It is your choice…so choose wisely because after your last breath comes the judgment and your choice determines your destination.

Remember, God so loved the world (every person in the world), that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him (for salvation) will have everlasting life. ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him [as personal Savior and Lord] is not judged[for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation]; but the one who does not believe [and has decided to reject Him as personal Savior and Lord] is judged already [that one has been convicted and sentenced], because ^[b]he has not believed and trusted in the name of the [One and] only begotten Son of God [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, the One who alone can save him]. John 3:16-18 AMP.

Eternity, are you ready?

This is the most important decision that anyone can make in their life.

Most people don’t seem to worry much about life after death. They look at it as a fable or a myth that they’ve heard about at church or maybe read about in the Bible but it isn’t clear to them in any way. Until they have something happen to a friend or a family member that brings death and its consequences a bit closer to home.

Jesus did come two thousand years ago and He lived a perfect life, which we cannot, and then He gave His life on the cross for each one of you and your sins. He paid the price for all of our sins so that we wouldn’t have to IF we will believe in Him for our salvation, repent of those sins and then follow Him for the rest of our lives. That is the purpose of all Christian lives. To live our lives through His strength and power and by His atonement for our sins we are to tell others about Him so that they can know Him as their Savior.

That sounds a lot like being a missionary or a preacher? Yes, it does, but that is the command that He gave His disciples and once you have given your heart to Him and are saved through His blood, then you become His disciple and you are just as bound by that command as they were. Even if you don’t tell but one or two people what Christ did for you, if they give their life to Him and become His disciples then maybe they will tell two each and so on. Sooner or later there will be many people who have heard about Him and have given their lives to Him because you told a couple of people.

Does becoming a Christian make all of my problems go away? Not likely! Many of them may multiply because when you become a Christian, Satan now looks on you as the enemy. Before, you didn’t know Jesus and he wasn’t too worried about what you did or said to anyone. But once you begin telling others about Jesus and those people begin listening and changing their lives, now you have become a problem. Satan sees you as part of the enemy’s camp now and he may try to hurt you or your family but all you have to do is rebuke him in the name of Jesus and tell him that no part of your home or your family is his and that he should leave you and your family alone!

God loves you far more than you know or can even imagine which is why He sent His Son to pay the penalty for your sins. Then you can join His family and be with Him in Heaven for eternity, and that is a very long, long time. Much longer than our little sixty or eighty years on Earth. Make sure of your salvation before the day is through because we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow.

All of us have sinned

As it says in the book of Romans, “all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God“. Living in the world as we do, even if you are a Christian, it is impossible to keep from sinning. We are human after all. But while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us long before we were born so that our debt in our sin was paid by Him. Being a Christian isn’t an easy job but with God all things are possible.

Jesus came and gave His life as a ransom for ALL of our souls and it is by His stripes and through His blood that we are healed and have eternal life, if we believe in Him for our salvation. Did He do this willingly? His humanity didn’t want to go through the pain and suffering which is why He sweat drops of blood in the garden, but Jesus the Son came to ransom us because He loved us, all of us. Whether we accept His gift of salvation when we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit or not is up to us, it is our choice to choose Him as our Savior.

One small step…

Our Creator placed the “lesser light to rule the night” in the sky many years ago and today there have been celebrations and re-broadcasts of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Fifty years ago. I was seven years old at the time and I remember hearing those words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. I never thought about being alive fifty years later to re-live those moments. I do remember how much we all hoped that mankind would get better at being mankind and better at agreeing about things.

Our problem has persisted for much longer than fifty years though. Most of our so-called “racial” problems and religious problems won’t be solved until Jesus is ruling the world one day. We don’t have the fortitude and wisdom needed to get along. So, regardless of the songs that are written or the poems which are written about peace on Earth and the fictional stories about mankind putting war aside one day, it is not going to happen until Jesus comes back!

He is the only Person capable of bringing lasting peace to our world. No ruler or any man will be able to bring peace to the whole world. He is also very good at bringing peace into your life too, if you will give Him a chance. God loves each of us so much that He gave His only Son for our sins. Jesus took all of the punishment and the separation from God the Father just so we could be forgiven. Isn’t that amazing enough to warrant giving Him your life so you can tell others about Him too?

Please seek Jesus out while you have a chance in this life because there isn’t a second chance after this one is done.

Give it away!

A missionary by the name of Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” He was killed taking the gospel to the Amazon Indians but later those who killed him came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Jesus said that we were to go and tell all of the world about Him and the salvation offered to them by belief in Him. When you are free from the burden and the heavy toll of a sinful life through the power of Jesus the best thing that you can do is to tell others about it. Give it away!

Because once you have that freedom you can’t lose it so the best thing to do is to give it to someone who needs it. Jesus came to tell the Jewish people about God’s enduring love for them and through His disciples work after He went back to be at the Father’s side they heard it and much of the world, at the time, heard it as well. Many people down through history have tried to stop Christianity from being preached and spreading but it can’t be done.

Remember, we are chosen by God and we were chosen even before the foundation of the world itself. “You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit” ( John 15:16). God has known each of us because He knows who will choose to follow Jesus and who will not. It is because He knows your heart (soul) and because He is our Creator, we are never forced to choose Jesus as our Savior but He knows each person who will choose to be a follower of Him. It is still our choice, but regardless of how long it takes, even the most stubborn of us will choose to follow Jesus even if it is on our death bed.

God wants us to know how much He loves us and by the sacrifice of Jesus to pay our debt from sins He did show everyone just how deep that love goes. So when we become Christians and repent of our sinful lives, following His example from His Word, the best gift that we can give anyone is to give away our best gift which is our Salvation through Jesus Christ! It is worth more than all of the gold and silver in the world and we should give it away, one person at a time.

When you pray…

Do you just sit there and ask God for stuff or is it an actual, heartfelt prayer? Is your prayer mostly for yourself or for others? Praying for others deals with selfishness because its not really about you, because nothing in this life is. Your Christian life should be about caring for others, whether it is family or not.

Jesus did not say at any time “if you pray…”, He said “when you pray…“. Prayer is a part of your life as a Christian. It is your lifeline to God and your emergency contact point with Him. Prayer can accomplish more in your life and in the lives of those you pray for than any number of doctors or lawyers or anyone else. Just as you enjoy being able to contact your parents or your children, God is our Heavenly Father, our Creator and He enjoys it when His children contact Him for our needs as well as the needs of others.

Prayer is your Spirit crying out to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, Who can do all things in your life in His will for your life. He doesn’t fulfill your list of things that you want like a grandfather or like Santa. God takes care of our needs when we are living and working in His will for our lives. Asking for a Corvette or a million dollars is not the way to pray! Prayer for yourself should be according to the will of God to strengthen and enable you to work more effectively for His Kingdom and His glory. Would a million dollars do that? Maybe but not likely. Would a Corvette? No.

Prayer is necessary for our life and for our work which God has called us to do, even if you only have one day left to live. If you have more days ahead that is wonderful because you can do more for God each and every day! It doesn’t matter how much pain you are in or how much money you have or don’t have, God can use you in His Kingdom. God’s Word is the most useful and valuable possession that you can own. It is more valuable than a mountain of gold because the words contained within it came from the mind of our Creator and our Father. No amount of human wisdom can match the wisdom contained within its pages.

I truly pray that anyone reading this will search the Bible for the needs in their life because if they don’t have a relationship with Jesus…that is the greatest need that they will ever have. Why? Because without Him, eternity will be lonely, miserable and painful in hell. Why? Because it is a decision that you make when you know that you need Him and if you don’t accept Jesus as your Savior then that is where you will be.