Category: Eternity and God

Easter, the meaning of it…


Today, we look at all holidays as their commercial impacts the world and the economy. But, what about the spiritual impact that the event itself really should have on people? Does anyone really look at Easter today and think about Jesus going to the cross for us, dying for us and then being raised up on the third day in order to complete His work here?

The holiday that we celebrate has nothing to do with Jesus at all. Bunnies and eggs had no meaning to the world at large in Jesus’ day except to pagans which celebrated the coming of spring and the rebirth of life after winter. That celebration has nothing at all to do with Jesus, with the exception of the rebirth which points to the resurrection. We need to look at our Lord as the Creator of all things and believe in His work of redemption on the cross by the shedding of His blood for our sins.

The reason for Easter being the holiday that it is, is because of a pagan spring equinox celebration and that it coincides with the time for passover in late March or early April. This was the time that Jesus was crucified so on that weekend is when we celebrate His death and resurrection. Since the Jewish tradition is to follow a lunar calendar of thirty-day months, dates are never the same from year to year.

So, what is the meaning of Easter, really? The celebration of Life through Jesus Christ and His atoning death and resurrection! That is the true reason for this holiday. If it had not been for this event, we wouldn’t have the hope of a resurrection to eternal life with Him! Our Savior is alive and He is coming back and if the events happening around our world today are any indication of “birth pains”, then it won’t be much longer until the whole world sees Him and knows that our faith and our Savior is real!

Eternity…..


Humanity cannot imagine or even comprehend one million years, at least with any degree of understanding. How can anyone with a life-span of less than 130 years comprehend an amount of time that is so vast? We can graph it on paper or on a computer and simulate its effects on a planet’s ecology and surface with some degree of success. But, eternity is so far beyond even one million years that it is staggering. If we didn’t perceive time in the way that we do, we might understand it better. But linear time like we experience through the seconds and minutes and hours rolling into days, weeks, months and years is hard for us to get into our perception.

Yet, God lives outside of time and can see all of it. From beginning to end of each of our lives. It is hard to place my limited understanding outside of time so that I can make sense of it, but that is where He is. We will know and understand these things when we are there, at least in a limited way we will. Because, taking in eternity and the vast knowledge of God and all that this entails, would require an enormous amount of time. Which I suppose is why our souls are immortal, so we will have the time to learn and understand, even when time doesn’t truly exist for us anymore.

We live here in lives which are fleeting in comparison to even a millennia, yet we try to understand as much as we can. We formulate hypotheses about how things were brought into existence but we can’t even comprehend our own existence or the purpose for which we are here!

By faith, we can see things in nature and in Scripture which give us a hint of our purpose. But for those who refuse to accept faith and Scripture for any kind of explanation, there is only science and reasoning. These are wonderful pursuits and they do help to explain in a limited fashion how things are put together, but they can’t give you a purpose or a meaning to your life every day!

God intended for us to have a relationship with Him, every day, not just on certain days or when we have been hurt or feel the need to “find God”. The original purpose of mankind was a relationship with our Creator and to take care of the place that He had created for us to live. But, God knew that since He had given us a choice in our obedience of His rules or laws that were laid down in Eden, we were destined to question and break the one rule that He had laid out at the time.

Is it any wonder that we can’t live in a law-abiding society today, if our ancestors couldn’t even abide by one rule? While it is true that many people all over the world are law-abiding citizens, the numerous laws that are in effect in the world simply can’t be ignored. They are destined to be broken!

The only requirement for your salvation is acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. Anything beyond or besides that doesn’t grant you access to Heaven or to eternity with God. Just as in the garden of Eden, there is only one requirement, one rule to live by and accept. Your works nor your money will not help, in fact they may hinder your acceptance of Jesus.

God gave His Word to us as evidence of His love toward us. Yes, there are some harsh words and requirements in the Old Testament, because the Messiah had not come. God was using the world and the religions around Israel to test and to prove their obedience to Him. He knew then, just as now, that given a choice they would “run after other gods”, forsaking His love and His provision and grace, until they realized what they had done and repented. It happened time and time again then and it happens today as well.

People are chasing after money, power, sex, drugs, alcohol, and just stuff which cannot give you any satisfaction spiritually, much less for eternity. Jesus is the Only Way to the Father and Heaven.

Fantastic stories and outright lies


To many people, that is exactly what the Bible is, a book of fantastic stories and outright lies made up by a bunch of old men. That is what the book of Genesis sounds like to some, with people living to be over nine hundred years old and the whole population of the world supposedly coming from a single couple? Then you have a world-wide flood, with a man who is five hundred years old when he begins building a boat that God told him to build in the desert because a flood is coming? At a time when, the book tells us, that it had never rained before?

Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

But, you know God can take nothing and make it into something so those life spans and everything that He told Moses to write down don’t sound so crazy when you consider that God is behind it all, right?

Oh, that’s right, you don’t believe in God or any “supreme being”! All of this just clumped together on its own and somehow all of the chemicals and molecules put themselves together to form DNA and then all of life just showed up on our little ball of mud and rock, right??

You have more faith in puzzles accidentally putting themselves together than I do in a man walking on water!

The “evolution” of the cosmos and of the Earth and of life on the Earth is the most fantastic pile of nonsense that I have ever heard. Yes, I believe that God did all that He said in the Bible! He is God after all.

If you wish to keep believing in evolution and not believing in God or Jesus, that is your choice and I am not going to refute it here. I don’t have enough proof for His Creation, other than my faith, any more than you can prove that we evolved from apes. Just because an organism has two arms and two legs will give them the same general DNA as any other mammal on Earth. Neither can be proven nor disproven, at least to the satisfaction of those who hold one belief or the other.

Yes, this post will likely get the ire of those in atheist and evolutionist camps all stirred up. That is the point. Whether you believe my argument one way or the other doesn’t matter. What matters is that you may read it. The Bible, that is. To many people it is confusing and a load of crap, which is your opinion and you have a right to that opinion.

But, to me it is the Word of God, given to Moses on the mountain when they met over three thousand years ago. Moses was told by God how the world was created and how mankind was created and all of the history up to that point. The amazing part of those first few books of the Bible is that they point to a Seed, the Messiah, Jesus, Who would be born much later and He would be the perfect, sinless Lamb of God that would sacrifice His Life so that we might be able to be forgiven. Each book, no matter who wrote it from Moses on down, has a reference to Jesus in some way. Some of the prophetic books like Isaiah and Psalms even tell where He would be born and how He would die.

The most wonderful part is that He rose again on the third day and six weeks later, went to be with the Father until He comes again. His return has been waited for by many for the past two millennia and the amazing part is that everything is in place for His return. It won’t be another thousand years, it will likely be in our life-time. Study your Bible, borrow one and seek Him and prove Him through Scripture and in history.

Romans 8, Psalms 22, and the book of Revelation will give you more proof than you need. Psalm 22 was written over one thousand years before crucifixion was used, yet it describes it very accurately. Consider the truth found in Scripture, ask God to show you the truth of what you are reading, whether you want to believe it or not, He will hear you and show you what you didn’t know was there. He doesn’t want anyone to go to hell, but your choice of believing or not will send you there, not Him.

God has left the building!


And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. (Isaiah 4:21)

Is this what is happening in our culture and our country today? Is this happening in the world today? From what I have seen on the news and on the Internet, it seems to be happening. The thing is that it was prophesied to happen at this time and we are going through what is called the “falling away” or in some translations it is called the rebellion. In any event, it is the people of the church, who have attended church…some for years and yet when persecution comes or times get hard then they turn away from their faith and rebel against the teachings of the church.

These are people who I believe aren’t really Christians at all, they were just going through the motions. The did all of the “churchy” things like being teachers in Sunday school and even being Deacons in the church, some were even pastors, but they had never accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

I don’t understand how that is possible myself. How could you deceive people, and even yourself, into thinking that you are saved and even called to be a pastor, if you don’t have Jesus in your heart? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17; isn’t this the scripture which shows exactly where your heart is and to Whom you belong? If you aren’t a new creation, then how can you possibly act like and perform as if you are, even when it isn’t genuine?

Our lives, in Christ or not, are in God’s hands and if we continue to push Him out of our lives then one day He will leave entirely. He will still be in control, but He won’t be there when you call on Him just as He did when Israel did this. There are many people today who don’t want to believe in Him or don’t want to hear about His message and that’s okay. Not what you were expecting me to write though huh?

The reason that I did write it is because I can’t convince you, all that I can do is give you scripture or some wisdom that I have gleaned from God’s Word. It is your choice to do with it what you will. Take it into your heart and learn about Him, then ask Him to come into your heart and live every day seeking more of His wisdom. That is His desire for us, at least in part.

Of course, you can ignore it and choose not to learn of Him. Deciding that He is an imaginary being from myth. Choose this road for your life and follow it carefully, watching everything along the way. Then when you die one day, and you stand before the One that you rejected maybe then you will see and understand. By that time, it will be too late to change your mind and your eternity will be before you.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15

What is going to happen?


That is a loaded question to which I really don’t have an answer. I can’t see the future except through the prophecies of God in the Bible and from that our future is getting darker. Why? Because of our own natural tendencies. I know, there are many people who really don’t believe in God or in anything that is contained in His Word. That’s okay. You are entitled and able to believe whatever you wish to that might give you some comfort.

We always wonder what is beyond the curve or over the hill and it is the same way we feel about the future. Most everyone wonders about what is going to happen in our life and many times we try to plan for it or make plans for those future days. The problem is that we aren’t given those days until they get here. The only day that you actually have is today, and even that is not guaranteed for the full twenty-four hours.

We are fragile and we do make mistakes, all of the time to some degree or another. Many of life’s problems come to light when we try to do something which is beyond our ability or we attempt something which our common sense is telling us not to do and we do it anyway.

I know, many people especially men think that they are invincible, particularly those in military service but the fact is that it is only modern protection which makes them able to come home. Mostly in one piece. During the wars before Vietnam, the injuries which many of our disabled Vets come home with would’ve killed them or they would’ve died en route to medical help. We look at our lives from two perspectives most of the time…right now and tomorrow.

We want gratification of our wants and desires immediately if not sooner. Sometimes we have the patience to wait until tomorrow for some things, but our country and its culture has become so focused on instant gratification until very few children know what it means to wait from Mom to cook a meal or to go to the library to read a real book.

The future isn’t fixed in stone but the outcome of the future is. God has already ordained what will happen at the end of this age and at the end of the one thousand-year reign of Christ. Those outcomes are not up for debate, whether you believe in God or not you will bow to Him one day and acknowledge that He is God and King. Wouldn’t you rather invite Him into your life and your heart now? So that your eternity will be so much better and enjoyable for you and those that you love?

I know that many will choose to go their own way and follow whatever suits them but in the end, when your life is over and you do find out the Truth, it is too late to change your mind at that point. We are only given this life as a sort of “practice run”, once this existence is over your decisions made here will have an effect on your eternal home. Your soul, that part of you that longs for purpose and meaning, is immortal and your future home depends upon the decisions which you make now, today while you have it. As I said, you aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Seek Him while He can be found in this life, before your eternity begins.

Living life for the hereafter


It seems that many people don’t really believe that there is a hereafter to live for, but according to the Bible there is. God’s Word is the Truth, therefore it can’t be wrong so that means that there is a life after this one. We are supposed to be living this life as a rehearsal of sorts for the next life. How we live this life will affect the next one in terms of where (location) and the comfort of our living through eternity as well. Living your life as if there is no tomorrow is a good thing, of sorts, because you aren’t expecting tomorrow to come. Some might say this is bad because then you just do whatever you wish and don’t worry about the consequences.

Yet, there are consequences in the next life. You will not be coming back here as something or someone else, but you will be yourself in the next life. Your eternal life will be a reflection, in a way, of how you have lived in this life. If you have given your heart to Jesus, no matter what age you may have done so, then you will be with Him in Paradise as He told the thief on the cross.

If you did not and you lived even the best life possible for a man or woman to do without Jesus, you are still convicted of a sinful life. A life without the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus, which will still send you to hell. I know, this is one of those topics which you don’t hear mentioned much on radio ministries or television either, but it should be! Why? Because, our God is an Awesome God, but He is Holy and therefore can’t abide sin, no matter how small that sin may be. I have to tell you of the consequences of rejecting Jesus as your Savior because it is my responsibility to do so.

Just as not telling you about a poisonous snake in your path might get you killed, not telling you about the consequences of a life without Christ will also result in your eternal death, as the Bible calls it “the second death”. The problem is that you won’t die in the same sense as you do here, the death will be the separation from God and everything that is or could be good in eternity.

Your life is eternal, the life we live here and now is not. Consider that your life today, no matter how long it may be, actually would be no more than the size of the period at the end of this sentence when compared to eternity.

After that period (.), will be a very long, long, long time to live and serve God in His Kingdom on the New Earth. We have no idea what we will do or where we may go in all of that time, but it will be glorious, of that I am sure! Don’t you want to be part of that rather than being in fire and heat and darkness with the demons and Satan himself? I would and I will. Won’t you consider joining me? Seek out God in His Word, pray to Him about what you read and when you feel His call, answer it. You won’t be disappointed…ever!

Have you come to Jesus in repentance?


You know, there are many people who attend church and some who don’t attend any church who know about Jesus but they haven’t repented of their sinful life or their sins in any way. Many of them think that by being in the church or on a church roll that God will dismiss the things that they have done and forgive them anyway. That is NOT what the Bible says or what any of the gospel writers taught at all! Believing in Jesus is the way to salvation but refusing to repent of your sinful ways is just a slap in His face which will not be tolerated nor forgiven!

Coming to Jesus with a broken heart knowing that what you have been doing is against His laws and commandments and asking for His forgiveness is the way to and the beginning of salvation. Once you have taken that first step by asking Him to forgive you, then you are ready for the Holy Spirit to come into your life and your heart and change you into the person that He needs you to be. As the Scripture says, “you are a new creation, behold all things have become new” and it is true!

Your old life and ways won’t have a hold on your heart anymore. You will want to be more like Jesus and to follow Him every day. Oh, this desire to be like Him and follow Him won’t happen immediately but it will happen when you study the Bible and pray with Him and to Him daily, bringing your problems and fears to Him. Because, Satan will try to derail your walk with Jesus by bringing your old life up and your friends will come around asking for you to go with them to places that you know you shouldn’t be going now. Temptations like these will happen sometimes on a daily basis at first, but once they realize that you belong to Jesus, your friends might just ask you about Him.

That is when some of them will leave and you might never see them again, but some of them will want to know more. Why are you so happy? What has changed about you? Things which bothered you one time, don’t anymore. What is going on in your life that is different? They will want to know and you can tell them. Show them the verses that you have been reading, tell them about the saving grace that God has granted to us all if we will just ask for it with a repentant heart and turn away from our old life.

Repentance is the only way to change your life along with coming to Jesus. Continuing to do the things that you did before, even after asking Him for His forgiveness, shows that you are not sorry that you did those things and that you never intended to stop doing them in the first place. In other words, you lied to Jesus and to God! That is a dangerous thing to do because not only can God just give you over to the thoughts of your mind, but He can also harden your heart so that you cannot lie to Him again. You will never feel the tug of the Holy Spirit on your heart regardless of how good the speaker might be.

Being let go by God is a sad thing because you will never have the chance to repent again…to come to Him and ask His forgiveness. I know, some of you will say that God is supposed to love us and He wants to save us. Yes, He does but we are given free will to be and do whatever we want to do. Many of us do this to the extreme and some of us push the limits of everything that we do. What do I mean by this? Well, for instance we push against God and His laws, just as we do against our parents when we were growing up. We rush right up to the limit of the sin, whatever it might be. Some of us pull back and repent. Some of us, keep right on going because we enjoy whatever it is that we are doing, even when we know it is wrong.

 

God’s creation is beautiful!


Have you ever noticed a butterfly or a hummingbird? How wonderfully made they are and the beauty in their creation and God made them that way. Just as He made each of us beautiful in our own right and also as He intended for us to be. Adding to our bodies or taking away from them, doesn’t really change us because the person that each of us really is happens to be the one that God sees. The one that our soul or spirit is inside our hearts, not the one that is on the surface for the world to see.

Also, when we decide to become a Christian by asking Jesus to come into our hearts, the change is miraculous and on-going…until we reach our perfect home and place in Him which is in Heaven.

You know, there are times that we all see and feel things differently from day-to-day, but creation is still the same. It is all around us and we are part of it but most people tend to ignore it and take it for granted. Why? Because the sun comes up and goes down and the moon rises at night and sets in the morning. Everything that is going on around us has been going on for hundreds, if not thousands of years in one form or another. Granted, the newest technology might not have been there, but even in the days of pharaoh they had messengers to take messages across the kingdom, even if it wasn’t instant like it is today.

Your life today, regardless of whether you believe in Jesus or not, is in God’s hands. If you have felt His calling on your life or your heart and have not answered Him, why not? Just because some teacher or philosopher tells you that “God doesn’t exist, He is just a way for primitive man to make sense of his world”, don’t believe that! If you wish to, I can’t stop you. But, the point is this: Jesus came  and died for your sins, whether you wanted it or not! The only way to get to Heaven is to ask Jesus to come into your life and your heart and cleanse you and make you whole.

Some people might ask me, “What do you mean, “make me whole”? Well, you know that little feeling that you have had like something was missing and you couldn’t quite figure out what it was? It is Jesus. That empty feeling inside that you have had…some of you for a long time, is the place where He is supposed to be. Ask Him to complete your transformation into His image and bring His grace and goodness into your life. Because if you don’t, that empty feeling won’t go away and it might feel even bigger at times. If you reject His call on your life long enough, He will just let you go on with your life. Jesus doesn’t push or force you to do anything, He wants and needs for you to come willingly to Him and ask Him to come in with you.

God has loved you from the beginning of time because He has known each of us from the beginning. He knows what we had for lunch two years ago last Friday and He knows when you will die. There is nothing hidden from Him, no matter how dark the place where you “hide” might be. He loves you and is waiting for you to decide to come with Him on the rest of your journey. The trail that He travels on is not very wide, but He is able to take care of you all along the way, all that He asks is that you follow Him. Don’t step off the path, just follow Him. Please consider your life not just as you are now but in the eternal life that you can have with Him in Heaven.

God’s children


Who were the first children of God? Many people think that Jesus was the first, but He wasn’t. Adam was the first human son of God and Eve was His daughter. Have you ever considered that? When God told the creation story to Moses, we aren’t told how long they existed in the Garden. The best part about it is that God came down and walked with them in the cool of the evening. We aren’t told what they were discussing, but I am sure that they had plenty of questions just as we do when we are young. We all ask “why is this the way it is?”, and I am sure that Adam and Eve did the same.

What can we learn from their story, their lives? One very important lesson is to experience God’s presence every day, not just on Sunday morning! God wants us to talk to Him about what is going on in our lives. He loves you because He is LOVE, perfect and holy. It doesn’t matter about your faults or failures, God knows about those but He loves you anyway. So, will you give Him some time in your schedule every day? You know, we don’t really grow up until we graduate from this life to our eternal home, right now we are just practicing.

Can you see the beauty of the creation around you? The strength of a horse or a cow and how wonderfully they are made. The strength of an oak tree and how it bends and sways with the wind, yet it remains strong as long as its roots are planted in God’s earth. That is where we draw our strength from, only when we are planted in the Word of God and cling to Him every day do we draw strength from Him and His wisdom. Our wisdom is foolish and futile because it is finite, God’s is infinite. He knows what you said last night and what you said or even thought this morning. Going fishing instead of going to church is not a worship experience. You are in the world that He made, but you are not worshipping Him. Hunting instead of coming to church is the same, you see the majesty of His handiwork all around you in the trees and the animals but unless you are there to worship God you are just hunting.

We all tend to hunt for things and stuff that satisfy for a while, but will that trophy or that ribbon be with you when you appear before God? No, everything that you have now, will be left when you stand before Him. None of your things will accompany you unless maybe your family is there, because showing them the way to Jesus will allow them to be there too. The fruit of your salvation, those who you have shown Jesus to, will follow you to paradise with Jesus. That is the only reward that will be worth having in Heaven. Those that have heard about Jesus from you or from someone who you might have told about Him, that is the fruit which will follow you or arrive before you into Heaven.

Think about how wonderfully you are made. We all have something about us that maybe we don’t like, but God put it there for a reason. It doesn’t matter what it is, God put it there to make you unique and special because you are. Each person on this Earth is unique, no two are alike exactly, not even twins. They may be similar but as any mother of twins can tell you, they are different too. Personality and differences in temperament are evident regardless of how much they look like each other.

Think about this today and ask God to show you what is special about you. It might surprise you.

Consider the names of God


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

God is all of these. He has been for eternity and will be for eternity. We do not have to wonder if He is because…He is. God is able. God is the Holy Spirit. God is Adonai…our Master and Lord. All of these are true, but do we accept them when we become Christians? Do we truly realize exactly Who we are dealing with or even praying to?

In our daily lives, whether we are Christians or not, do we ever come to grasp that it is this Presence, this Person Who came and died for each of our sins and then rose from the grave to conquer death and prove that we will also? If we allow Him into our lives and into our hearts so that He can cleanse us from our previous Earthly selves and change us…each one of us into a new Creature in Christ. This is the message that Jesus wants us to take to the world. This is the testimony that we have to let others know about by telling them in some way, because if we don’t tell them…who will?

Sure, there are books and Bibles and tapes. There are DVD’s and CD’s that people can listen to, but did you listen to them? Did you hear or see those messages before your heart was broken into thousands of pieces? Did you want to know God prior to His touch…His call on your life? I doubt it. You did just like the rest of us hypocrites, you went about your life doing the same things day in and day out with no more thought about eternity than your thoughts about the economy or even what you would eat for lunch!

But, you know, when your heart got a crack in it….when something got your attention to come around to see that there was more to life than hunting and football, then you began to look for a meaning, for a purpose. You felt that things wouldn’t be enough, stuff wasn’t important any more just because you had more expensive stuff than someone else! This life…this time that we have only has meaning and purpose when you give it to the One that Created it, so that He can make you into what you were…what you ARE supposed to be. You can’t do it alone. You can’t be “the one” in your life or anyone else’s life until you allow the One into yours!

Yes, today is today and tomorrow is still yet to come but if you give your heart, your life to God and ask Him to make you into His idea of what or who you should be then your tomorrows will never end. Even if your life here does, the effect that your words, your actions, your character had on even one person may go farther than you ever could to make an impact on more people than you will ever know on this side of Heaven. Consider that and think about His Names.