Category: Eternity

LIFE!


Have you ever wondered what life is really? Life is living in this world and yet it seems so brief, so small, so much less than we should have. What is real life? Living with the Spirit of God in your heart! You are created to live with God in Heaven, yet the sin which came through Adam’s fall and Eve’s too, has separated humanity from God. How can we bridge that gap between ourselves and God?

Seek Him in His Word, learn about Him through prayer and by studying His Word, ask Jesus to come into your heart and cleanse you fully so that you will be more like Him! That’s how you live!! In Him, with Him for eternity.

God created mankind to have a relationship with Him, yet with our free will and free choice we have all chosen to follow our own desires, our own paths. God doesn’t want servants who are like robots! He wants you to love Him because He loved you from the beginning. Not the beginning of your life, but from the beginning of all things! God knew you and me and everyone else from that time until now and He loves us. He is not happy with the things which many of us do in our lives or with our lives, but He still loves us.

Does He condemn us all to hell? No! He gives each of us a choice to know Him through Jesus and we all have this choice, all that we have to do is take hold of Him by faith. He will take you just as you are and begin the change in your heart to make you more like He is. All of your faults and the problems that you have, all of the bad words and the drinking and smoking and drugs, no matter what you may have done…He loves you just as you are…but He will make you better!

Give Him the chance to do this work in your life and it will never be the same, it will be BETTER!!

Amen!

Wants…and needs


All of us have come to this part of life and looked outside of the Word of God for the answer. We don’t want to hear that God rewards a cheerful giver because who is happy about giving away their livelihood? Being a cheerful giver doesn’t mean that you are happy giving away ALL of your money, but don’t be a grudge or a Scrooge when you do give your tithes to Him. God looks at the heart and He knows your reason for doing every little thing that you do. He knows is you are genuine about your faith and about tithes.

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two MITES, which make a farthing. ( Mark 12:41-42 ) A farthing would amount to about a halfpenny worth in the time that Jesus was there. How is it possible that the widow gave more than all the rest? Because she gave to God from her need. Those mites were all that she had, but she knew that God would supply her needs because of her gift in faith.

The rich young ruler which came to Jesus asking how he might inherit eternal life had done all that was required to be righteous as far as the law was concerned but Jesus saw that his money was an obstacle to him. When Jesus told him to give his money to the poor and he would have riches in Heaven, he couldn’t do it. Money meant more to him than eternity.

Why do I bring this up today? Because there are many who look toward riches and having their wants met by having money enough to do whatever they want rather than looking beyond this life into eternity. God can reward you today if he chooses, but nothing that you can have here can compare to your home in Heaven forever!

Consider having enough money to fill a box 3 ft. square with $100 bills. I can’t tell you to the dollar how much that would be, but it would be more than I have ever had! If you had it in the bank, you couldn’t get it any time you wanted. If you had it under the mattress, you would be worried that someone would steal it. If you had a safe at home, it would be full unless it was a very large safe. What could you do with it?

Many people would be afraid to spend it because once you begin spending it, it goes like it is on fire. If you invest it carefully it might grow even larger, then what do you do? If you invested it foolishly, it might disappear in a day or two, then we are back to an empty box.

God has a home for you where your address is on a street made of pure gold! So pure that it is like glass! He formed your dream home from His Word, made not with hands but by His Word. No mortgage, no bills, and all of the time in eternity to enjoy it! What could you do with that! Take eternity one day at a time, the problem is that there is no calendar in Heaven. But, that won’t matter.

God loves you enough that your place is secure IF you have asked Him into your heart, so please consider that and don’t turn away from His call to your heart.

The plans of Satan


I’m reading “The Third Heaven: The Birth of God” by Donovan Neal, Natalie Davis and wanted to share this quote with you.

This quote below is from a speech which Lucifer/Satan was giving to his followers, his fallen angels, regarding how they were to interact with humanity. His plan seems to have worked very well considering how our world is today, don’t you think?

“Follow the pattern that I have set, and make the male dominate the female, set young against old and use their hues and shade of skin to divide them. Raise up among them great ones, and those of low estate plant greed and envy in their ranks. Sow fear and distrust amongst them, that they never see unity of worship to El”

In our world today, there is no “unity of worship” toward God or almost any other religion. We are fractured and broken to a point of disagreement which staggers the imagination. Many divisions in the church such that there are approximately 38,000 denominations worldwide. How is this unity of worship, even though almost all of these are Christian churches? We split on disagreements between friends, deacons and the pastor and many other things it seems, sometimes we split over trivial things.

The church which started on the day of Pentecost, is not the church that we have today. Most congregations are more interested, it seems, in the number of people listed as members and the attendance on Sundays, as well as the amount given in the offering plates, than they are in serving the Lord and becoming more like Jesus!

To give you a bit of accuracy and credentials to back this up, here is a definition which will clear things up a bit:

“Denominations. A denomination is defined in this Encyclopedia as an organized aggregate of worship centers or congregations of similar ecclesiastical tradition within a specific country; i.e. as an organized Christian church or tradition or religious group or community of believers, within a specific country, whose component congregations and members are called by the same denominational name in different areas, regarding themselves as one autonomous Christian church distinct from other denominations, churches and traditions. As defined here, world Christianity consists of 6 major ecclesiastico-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions, composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries, these denominations themselves being composed of over 3,400,000 worship centers, churches or congregations.” (Barrett et al, volume 1, page 16, Table 1-5, emphasis added)   (http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/a106.htm)

The church which began soon after the resurrection of Jesus, has splintered into so many pieces which have many differing views and rules and orders of worship, until it seems that it is no longer a unified body of believers at all. While it is true that most of them worship God and Jesus as His Son, some have a different viewpoint regarding exactly Who they are.

Some don’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, some teach that parts of the Bible, God’s Holy Inspired Word, are wrong or that it doesn’t apply to the “modern church”.

God doesn’t change and His Word is true today just as it was at the time that He inspired the writers to write it down. There are no parts of it which are wrong, unless you just don’t want to believe it because it offends you or someone you love. God’s Word is true because God doesn’t change and He gave the words to those who wrote it down, so why is it that people don’t want to believe it? Because, we don’t want to learn the rules or learn about God.

Many don’t want to become a Christian because they believe that the rules will keep them from enjoying their life. Why do you believe this? The rules in the Old Testament about food and the sacrifices needed don’t apply to us today! The Ten Commandments will condemn you because all of us have broken one or two or more of them and they do still carry the same punishment that they did when they were given.

If you won’t give your life to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and change your heart into His, why not? Have you felt a hollow feeling in your life and have never been able to fill it with the things of this world? The reason is because that empty place is made for Jesus to fill and nothing else. All of us have felt that place inside us which we know is empty and we feel like something should be there, but we don’t know what. Some of us go for many years without finding out what fits in that place…well now you know. The Holy Spirit of God fits in there and He only comes when you ask Jesus to come in and cleanse you, making you whole and a part of God’s family.

The third part of the year or ….


We are in a part of the year which is just before the election cycle for this year. If you haven’t made up your mind which candidate you will choose, you don’t have much time. The decision that we all have to make in this election will be an important one, make sure that you pray about it for many days before making your final decision.

We are in a particularly troubling time for our world and for our country. Because of the load of debt that our country has and because of the time in which we are living. Many people don’t see it that way especially if they don’t believe the Bible is true, but I happen to believe it. We may not be in the time period known as the Tribulation, but we are on the very edge of it, at least from all of the signs that we see and hear every day.

The weather is unpredictable in ways that haven’t been seen before. The amount of diseases and problems that are in the world just seems to be growing in number and intensity. We are about to move into the “Fall of the year”, even though it may not cool off for another couple of months and our planet’s history is moving toward the winter of its time.

It is true that some will not believe what I am saying, but if you open your mind and read some of the prophecies in the Bible then you will see much of what is going on around us was foretold in detail at least two thousand years ago. It should not be ignored, regardless of your beliefs, that the signs which are spoken of in the Bible can almost be read like a newspaper today. Much of what was foretold is coming true and has come true in the last fifty years.

I urge you to consider giving your heart to Jesus, if you have not done so yet. Truly, the state of our nation and the world itself cannot be fixed by a person or a candidate or a policy, except by Jesus and His return to this world there will be no lasting solution. Jesus said that if you gained the world, meaning the riches of the whole world, but you lose your soul by not accepting Him as your Savior then you gained nothing. Why do I say this? Jesus said it first.

Nothing that we gain in this life will follow you into the next one, no matter how much you may have. You have never seen a trailer following a hearse to the graveyard and even if they did, it would only be to bury the contents in the ground. You can’t take it with you and, if you are like me, I don’t have enough for anyone to fight over. The only real blessing and inheritance that I can give away that will mean anything in eternity is for you to come to know Jesus and give your life to Him.

If you do that, then you will be spending eternity with me and many others who are part of the “body of Christ”, and we will be ruling His Kingdom with Him! Don’t believe the people who say that we will be strumming harps for eternity, although I might want to learn, that is not my job, nor will it be your job in God’s Kingdom. I don’t know what He may have me doing, but I am sure that He will equip me to do whatever it may be.

 

Do you question?


There are many, many people today who have questions about a great many things. So, do you ever question God?

I would imagine that many of us have, although hopefully not in a disrespectful way. Some people have angrily questioned Him in times of trouble wondering why He didn’t save them from what they are in. Questioning God is something which has been done for many hundreds of years if not thousands, but the best way to do it is by asking a simple question. One like, “God, will you save me and cleanse my heart? Make me a new creation so that I can be in your family. Amen.”

If we believe that God is Who He says in the Bible, then that question is settled already if you have sought Him out and asked Him to be your Savior. Questions are good things for the most part because they help us to learn things. Questioning authority by rebelling against it or protesting against it is wrong.

I don’t mean that we should be like sheep and follow our leaders without knowing them and where they are going, but learn about them and know who you are following. Don’t follow anyone who is untrustworthy or someone who is like a wind-tossed wave which goes one way and then another. If you aren’t sure of them and you feel in your heart that something isn’t quite right, then find another preacher, teacher or leader.

Questions are good for learning things and for teaching, but when you use questions as a way to incite violence or stir up trouble then you are following in some dangerous paths. These paths have been trod by demons and Satan himself who questioned God’s motives and His love for us and for the angels. God loves us all. He even loves Lucifer/Satan but his rebellion toward and hatred for God and His rule, especially when Satan said that he would exalt himself above the stars of God, that is what God will not tolerate. It is the sin of pride which brought Satan to his estate that he has now and it is pride which infects all of mankind.

We are as guilty of having more than our share of pride in our lives as he was. Some people even think of themselves as gods, although I don’t think they could create something from nothing as our God did. He loves you and me and all we need to do is seek Him, learn His ways from the Word and believe that His Grace has saved us because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. There is nothing that we can do to help God to make us better, just believe in Jesus and ask His forgiveness for your own pride and your life before you knew Him.

All of Heaven will rejoice when you come into the family, especially God Himself.

Amen.

Barriers, division and fences


In life today, everywhere, we have these. Sometimes they are based on politics, sometimes it is because of religion and sometimes it is because of the boundaries between people and countries. Is there anything that we can do to fix this? One thing which we can do is to stop blaming other people for our problems, regardless of what those problems are.

If the problems are personal, then the problems are yours to handle. That is harsh isn’t it? Not really because the problems may be your problems alone, but you know Jesus is available to help you in all things. Regardless of the size of the problem, like lost keys or shoes or not enough money to pay bills, God is able to help. All you need to do is give your life to Him and ask Him for help in whatever area it might be.

Racial divisions, religious divisions, political divisions are another matter. Yes, God is available to help in all of these areas and He can, but only when you ask. He doesn’t force His way into your life to fix things, He doesn’t force you to live a certain way or be from a certain area or people or “race”.

God loves you and me and everyone else in the world, but He doesn’t love the lifestyles or the sin that we have all done in our lives at one point or another. It may be drugs or sex or murder (Jesus said if you hate your brother, it is the same as murder 1 John 3:15)

We are all sinners even if you have given your heart to Jesus, we are just forgiven because of His atoning sacrifice for us. He did not do this just for a few people, selected or elected or otherwise, He came and went to the cross for all of us! The only requirement is that we believe that He did it and that we ask Him to cleanse us and make our life…be like His. That doesn’t mean that everyone who belongs to Him must be a minister or a deacon or a missionary.

We just need to strive (work toward) being more like Him from the point of giving our life to Him until we stand before Him at our judgement. Ooops, did I say that? Yes, each of us, forgiven or not, will stand before Him in judgement one day. Those who are His will be judged by our work for His Kingdom, those who have not given their life to Him will be judged for their life and for not accepting God’s gift of salvation through Jesus.

There is just a thin line which each separates those who have accepted His gift and His love and those who have not. Because you either accept Jesus as your Savior or you don’t, there is no middle ground, no gray area where you are a Christian sometimes. There is no part of being a Christian where you turn your back on Christ and never come back. Yes, you may still belong to Him IF it was real to begin with, but if it was and you go back to your old life and back into a sinful life, then your reward in Heaven will be affected.

Treasure…


john317Many people don’t realize that they are searching for it. Many will never find what they are searching for, yet it does exist. You and I are given a treasure beyond imagining and it doesn’t cost us anything. How can it be that a treasure which is not measured can possibly cost us nothing? It must be some worthless trinket or talisman.

This treasure is something which many today reject and many more are angered by it or at least by the Person which brings it to us. The treasure of which I speak is salvation. Our salvation, every person’s salvation was paid for by Him on the cross with His blood. Many times we see that people learn of wisdom from some very different places and people.

“Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”  Captain Jack Sparrow

“Not all treasure is silver and gold”, it is the most profound bit of wisdom that I have heard from anyone let alone someone in a movie made in Hollywood.

Treasure from God is something which many cannot see nor can they make sense of the grace that is poured out upon us. We have been given a gift of salvation that we don’t have to work for. A gift which we cannot buy, but one which by proclamation from Jesus Himself we must give away. It is a gift of immeasurable value, but also one which God intended for all if they will accept it and believe.

Aside from Captain Jack, many people don’t seem to realize what REAL treasure is today. It isn’t money in any form. It is eternity and salvation provided through the grace of God for us even before we were born. The qualifier is that we must realize that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we have asked one of the Trinity to live in us because the Holy Spirit is part of that Trinity. If you have placed a priceless pearl in a clean vessel, then why would you put the dirt of your old life back in there?

I am not saying that we will never sin after becoming a Christian, but turning away from the church and willfully sinning and never going back or even trying to be a Christian is WRONG!! Asking forgiveness is good at this point, but if you aren’t going to repent of the sin, what good is the forgiveness?

Some scriptures which may help with this are these:

Everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. (1 John 2:29); Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4); Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7); Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1); Everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning. (1 John 5:18)

These may make you wonder if you are saved at all, particularly if you haven’t been a real believer who turned away from a life that you would be proud to show Jesus.

1.No one who denies the Son has the Father. (1 John 2:23)

2.No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:6)

3.No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9)

Even the tolerance of sin is an agreement with it. It is not something which will sit well with your heart, especially if the Spirit abides in your heart. Although we aren’t to judge people, we can bring their sin to their attention and if they don’t want to do anything about it, then leave it to God.

 

So much pain…


There are many people who live with pain in our world today. Some of it is because of disease of one kind or another. Some of it is due to the loss of a loved one, but we all have pain in our lives at some point. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is just not right. Then it is your job to find out where the pain originates and if there is a way to lessen the pain or cure the cause of it.

Spiritually, pain comes into our lives through the loss of someone or by God’s Holy Spirit making us aware that we need Him. Grief is painful, sometimes it is terribly painful to the point of making us feel sick and without hope. When that happens, we need to turn to God’s Word and seek Him and the comfort that He gives to us. HE is the only cure for pain that deep. Other so-called “fixes” do nothing but put a mask over the pain or dull it for a while, and when it returns it may be worse than it was before.

Pain, physical and mental or spiritual, is something that we all experience but God gives us the strength to get through it and come out stronger. Seek out Jesus and His strength so that you can be strong enough to stand in the presence of God and not be ashamed of your life. He is righteous and Holy and we cannot stand in His presence without the Blood of Jesus covering our sins.

God loves each of us because we are His creation, and He doesn’t wish for any of us to be in torment in hell. Which is why He provided the grace and the payment for our sins through Jesus’ sacrifice. All that we have to do is believe in Him and His atonement for us and we will be saved. Not belief like from reading it from a book or just hearing it from someone, but a firm belief like a child knowing that his father will catch him when he jumps. Book knowledge and hearsay don’t work by themselves, it has to be backed up with real faith.

Pain is something which gets our attention, but faith knows that it is only temporary. Put your faith in Jesus and all of your problems will fade with His grace and mercy. Because, He will give you the strength and the ability to make it through all of those problems.

How do you live?


Are you a Christian? Do you believe in Jesus’ atonement for your life? Have you walked with Jesus or did you just get baptized and go on with your life?

Do you deny that Jesus is real? Do you believe that He was “just a prophet”?

If you believe and you accept Him as your Savior, then the first sentence should apply to your life, but are you living your life according to His will for you? It is a question that needs to be answered by all of us. Have you “given your life to Him”, but then walked away from the church and never went back? You are denying Him.

If, on the other hand, you fall into the group of people who don’t believe in God or Jesus at all, then who do you believe in? Yourself? Satan or Allah? Mohammed? Can you change the color of your skin or your hair by thinking about it? Of course not, you and I are not going to be gods and we can’t do anything like God can.

Has Satan appeared to you in a robe of white with wings so bright you couldn’t see? He can you know. Mohammed is dead and he isn’t coming back until God raises him up one day to pay for what he did in his life.

Satan can appear as an angel of light and he can tell you that he is Gabriel if he chooses to, but that doesn’t make it the truth. Mankind is easily deceived and especially when it comes to the master of lies who has had many thousands of years to perfect his deception. One day there will be a man who will appear to be our savior and he will be able to do things that will look miraculous, like Jesus did, but he will be a false savior. Many people will be taken in by him and his words and power that he shows, but he is not the Son of God.

All of those words that I wrote in the past couple of sentences are foretold in Daniel and in the book of Revelation. It is God’s Word and it is True. It will come to pass. I don’t know when, but with all that is happening around the world I would bet that it won’t be much more than a decade or so away. I could be wrong, of course. The point that I am trying to make is that when this person shows up and everyone seems to think he is so wonderful, that should cause a bell to go off in your mind. Remember what you may have heard or read in the Bible or in Sunday school.

Don’t just follow someone blindly because they seem to be more than they are! Many false “Christs” have appeared in the past, but they all died. Many things are going to happen in the near future which will cause many people in the church to leave their faith behind. When all of this begins, take notice and get a Bible and read it. If you have lived a life which wouldn’t have been acceptable to Jesus, then you should repent and ask for His forgiveness.

Why? Because if you see all of these things happening then the end is getting very near. When the peace treaty between Israel and all of her enemies is signed and the Temple begins to be built, take note of who is brokering that deal. All of these must happen before Jesus comes to get the elect, His church, His Bride. Make sure that you are part of that number. In the picture there are many promises for His elect, if you have repented of your sins and given your heart to Him and asked for His forgiveness.

Origins and beginnings


It seems that many in the scientific community and the world at large are more concerned with the beginnings of everything in the cosmos than they are about what is happening around us. Life, the kind of life that we all deserve, is dependent upon our position on Jesus, our Savior.

One day, we will know about all of God’s cosmos because to those who belong to Him, He will give the knowledge about His creation. But, until then we should be working toward being more useful for Him while there is time to do so. God loves all of us and yet many try to disprove His existence or just decide that they don’t believe in Him at all. This is a very dangerous position for someone to be in.

Why do I say this? Because, we are finite beings and our time in this life isn’t guaranteed! We live and breathe at the discretion and mercy of God. He knows when your time is up, but thankfully we don’t. That being said, my time may be up soon or I may have another twenty years to live in this body. Nobody knows when or how long they will live, so if you say that you don’t believe in God or Jesus then you are going to stand before them one day. Without the salvation provided by your belief in Jesus and your surrendering to Him, you will be condemned to exist in eternity apart from God’s presence.

I know, describing hell in that way doesn’t sound so bad but the presence of God is all that is keeping our world and all around it working the way it should. Satan and his demons chose to rebel against God and they will be cast away from Him into hell for eternity. Consider that hell was not created for us, it was created for Satan and his demons but if you reject God’s grace and forgiveness, then you are in the same condition as they are…lost.

The only person who can save you and make you into the person that you are supposed to be is Jesus. He paid the price for all of our sins, all we need to do is to turn to Him and ask Him into our hearts and ask Him to forgive us for our way of life. Ask Him to help us to live for Him and to tell others about Him. Why? Because it is the best and most valuable gift that you have available to you and you can give it away and it costs you nothing.