Category: Eternity

Our Risen Savior!!


empty_tomb11Christian holidays are not meant to bring shame to other religions, but to bring hope! This holiday is about our Savior, Who gave His life on a Roman cross so long ago. He gave it in order to be the sacrifice which was able to cover all of humanity’s sins. Not just for those who believe in Him now, but all the way back to Adam and Eve. So that salvation could be offered to those who looked for the Promised Seed of the woman, but who died in faith knowing that He would come one day!

Christmas is the celebration of His birth, even though He was born at least three months before we celebrate it because we don’t know the exact date of His birth. Anyway, He came to Earth in order to bring salvation to all people. The Jewish people were offered this gift first, but their high priests didn’t recognize Him as the Messiah. So, the gift was offered to the gentiles, everyone else in the world, who gladly accepted Him because of His offer of salvation and because none of us can be righteous enough on our own!

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, His righteousness is imputed or given to you at no cost. It is by God’s grace that we have this gift and all that we have to do is believe in Him and in His atonement for us. It is that belief, even without evidence through faith, that we have our salvation!

It is God’s gift to us, which none of us could possibly afford, that we have eternal life through Jesus and His atonement for us by His blood.

There is no other explanation of Easter’s importance other than His resurrection and His appearance to His disciples to prove that what He had told them about had come to pass! He had told them that He would be crucified and die, be buried and then rise to Life on the third day and HE did just that and more!

It is true that there are many disputes about which day He was crucified on or if there was a High Holy Day (another Sabbath) prior to the weekly Sabbath. It could’ve been, in any case, He spent three days and nights in the tomb before being resurrected, period. Jesus didn’t lie or make anything up, much of the squabbling and error has been introduced by human interpretation and superstition.

Most of us can barely keep up with a work schedule or school schedule let alone figure out which day the actual crucifixion took place on! It is Jesus’ resurrection which gives us a hope of eternity and forgiveness, so to me it doesn’t matter what day or how many days it was, just that He came out of that tomb and He is coming back one day!

Consider this…


We are living in a time of wonder and amazing technology, but it is also a dangerous time with many pathogens and bombs and all sorts of natural as well as man-made problems. What can we do about this? Is it possible for us to fix most of our problems or not?

Consider this:

timeline

 

In the past, life on Earth was segregated. We didn’t have the technology to be close, regardless of where we lived. Even if it was just a few hundred miles away, that was a week or more of travel by horse or camel or carriage. In the past 130 years we began with trains then came automobiles and airplanes and motorcycles, not exactly in that order but you get my meaning.

Most of our “problems” began to be real worldwide problems when we began to have transportation which could move us faster and farther to places that we couldn’t get to in a reasonable time before. Now, I’m not saying that advancing in technology and transportation is a bad thing but it does seem that when we began moving into each other’s back yard more easily, that is when we began to have more and more problems.

Besides, God’s Word predicted that knowledge would increase and with that knowledge our technology increased, just as the timeline shows. Yes, we are nearing the “end of the age”, and it is getting nearer all the time. How soon will the “catching away of the Bride” be, I don’t know. We may see a “new messiah” appear on the stage of the world, who will begin to “fix” things in miraculous ways so as to fool even those who believe themselves to be the elect.

In the days and weeks and months that we have left, I suggest that many of you who read this should be studying the Word of God. It is our most powerful link to the Creator and He knows when and how things will turn out for all of us. Seek His Wisdom, not the so-called wisdom of man because man’s “wisdom” is foolishness to God and God’s wisdom is foolish to mankind because without faith it can’t be understood.

Look up all of the signs that have been foretold in the Bible. See if the “fig tree” hasn’t bloomed again. This is the prophecy of the nation of Israel coming back into its own country after nearly two thousand years. Also, which nation on Earth has been scattered all over the Earth and brought back into its own country which God gave to them thousands of years ago and they are still speaking the language that their forefathers spoke and wrote down? Only the Hebrews and their nation and language have survived so long and it isn’t by accident, it is by God’s grace!

That is evidence of God and His miracle-working power because no other people and their language has ever survived so long as the Hebrews and their language to be brought back into the land which was promised to their father, Abraham over four thousand years ago!

The Word of God


john317At the very first chapter of our Bible, God spoke into the void and into His creation His will, the breath of God filling all of Creation with all kinds of potential life and good and the possibilities of death and evil too. His very voice is the most powerful force in all of nature because He is the Creator of natural laws and nature itself! Because, the energy of every star, every galaxy and any powerful structure contained therein is only there because of God and His Word being spoken into the cosmos!

In the gospel of John, the very first few words tell what is believed about Jesus, the Word made flesh:

John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus was and is the Living Word of God, so it is by Him all things were made and through His power all things, including you and I and every other living being on Earth, live and have their being even now. It is by God’s Grace that we are here to do His work and His will in this life while we yet live. Not the grinding away that we chase after money and fame and family, but living for Him and to spread His Word and wisdom in this cold world that doesn’t know Him.

That is the will of God for all believers and whether you embrace it or not, it is still true. God intended for us to have a relationship with Him and through Him in this life into eternity. We should be receptive of that grace and His gift because it is something which we can’t afford in any way, yet it is given. We are loved by Him enough that He gave Himself, His Son, to pay the debt that we cannot. A debt that He didn’t owe but He knew that it was the only way to balance out the debts owed by all of humanity.

By giving His life, His blood and the suffering which went with it, that debt was paid for all of us. When the Spirit convicts you that you are a sinner in need of Jesus, then you will and you should seek Him out at all costs, even your life. Because He is the Pearl of great price and the lost sheep that was found, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He is your Savior and mine, all we have to do to receive His grace and the gift of eternity is to believe in His work and in Him. Like a child believes her father will catch her, we should believe in and trust Him.

Please, take the time to read about Him and learn about Him because He is the ONLY way to be forgiven and to obtain that which cannot be bought…eternal life with God.

Easter…did it happen?


empty_tomb11We celebrate Easter by doing some strange things like dying eggs and watching for the Easter bunny, but those things have nothing to do with Christianity. So why are they and this holiday part of our religion? Partly because the early church wanted to bring pagans into the church, so they adopted the spring festival that the pagans used to celebrate the renewal of life in the spring as the holiday to represent the resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus’ resurrection did not occur in the way that many people think, at least not according to the Easter celebration. Yes, Jesus was raised to life after three days. Yes, He walked out of the tomb with a new body, but still bearing the scars which He kept because of His sacrifice for us on the cross. Those from the scourging that He bore, were gone. None of the gospel writers tell of any of those scars being seen, which is interesting because the prophecies and some historians of the time said that He was unrecognizable from them.

God can and does heal any disease, even today, and those scars were healed because He bore them for us. God hasn’t stopped healing people and it confounds our doctors today because they can’t understand how someone who was so near death could show no sign of cancer or any other disease, without treatment. The love which God has for us is a type of love which we can’t understand with our mortal, human minds. But…God can work through our prayers and by our faith in Him and His power to work things in such a way that we can’t explain it.

That resurrection morning, when Jesus came out of the tomb, the stone was rolled away by God’s power. It may have been an angel who rolled it away, so that Mary and the disciples could see into the tomb, but it was still the power of God that worked through it all. Your sins and mine were taken away with that resurrection and the work of Jesus Who gave Himself as a Perfect Lamb and sacrifice for all of humanity’s sins. All that we need to do is to listen to the Voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us and when we hear it, we should respond in faith.

When you do that, your heart is changed into a new creation and you are too. You are no longer the same person who came to church or was reading the Bible and felt the touch of God on your life. You did not do anything other than believe in what you heard or read and the Holy Spirit touched your spirit, your heart, and you accepted the greatest Gift that has ever been given to us! Each of us who have accepted that Gift never have to worry about our eternal reward, because it is sealed in the Blood of Jesus!

When you know that you have given your heart to Him, then the only testimony needed is your baptism. It is a symbolic of your death to sin and then rising to walk in the newness of Life with Jesus. Is it necessary for your salvation? No, but it is a testimony to others of what has happened. Then, read God’s Word and pray about what you read so that He can teach you from it and reveal His Truth to you. While you do that, tell others about Him and what He did for you.

Because, God loves you and He did all of this for you and for me and for everyone who has given their lives to Him through faith. Seek Him out in His Word and at a Bible teaching church, learn about your Savior because He already knows you better than you know yourself.

What will you do?


Jesus_Loves_UWhat will you do on the day that Jesus comes back? What about the day that the trumpet sounds and many people in the world vanish? Will you be one of those who vanish or will you be left here wondering what happened?

What will you do? How will you feel about being left behind?

Life on Earth is going to get hard and very dangerous for anyone who decides to become a follower of Jesus. Especially after the “new” messiah shows up.

The time to decide to follow Jesus and ask Him into your life is today! There is more persecution and problems for Christians today than it has ever been, and the time is running out. Now, I don’t know when He will come for the church and I am not going to speculate, but you can see the prophecies coming true today. There are more wars, small though they may be they are still wars and many of them are because of religion and religious reasons.

Although, the wars which we hear about are not because of Christian beliefs. The conflicts which we hear about in the news are from parts of the religious spectrum which are usually against Christians entirely. They are persecuted, killed and some are put into prisons. Some are burned alive, some see their children killed because of their faith, but they don’t give up their faith.

God doesn’t cause these problems in their lives, the world just can’t handle the Truth of His Word and His offer of Grace and mercy. Therefore the world punishes our brothers and sisters all over the world, regardless of the country they live in. We may not hear about their suffering because it isn’t in the Middle East or maybe it isn’t part of someone’s agenda right now, but that doesn’t mean that their suffering is any less. Those Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa are being burned out of their homes and many of them have lost their families because of the hatred that others in their country have for “Jesus followers”.

We don’t hear about it because it isn’t sensational news, it won’t bring in the ratings, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

Is there anything that we can do to help them? We can pray if we can’t do anything else! Pray for God to protect them or to help them to escape their circumstances. If you can give money to a reputable organization which can help, then by all means do so! The things which are happening today are the “beginnings of sorrows“. Jesus said that we should be watching for these signs and be watching for His coming and be ready for it.

When the believers are taken up one day, the world will wonder what happened? They will be searching for answers and of those that are still here, only the ones who have read God’s Word and heard it preached but chose not to believe will be the ones who have the answer. But, most of the world will not listen at that point. Many theories will be put forth on the news for the violence and the disappearances and the many deaths which happen when a pilot or a bus driver vanishes.

This time is coming. Seek Jesus and His Truth in God’s Word! Pray that you are among those who vanish because afterwards the world will blame Christians and God’s Word for all of the hate and the deaths and the broken families who are left. The hatred toward those who believe after this will be very violent. Look into the Bible for your Savior now, because tomorrow or next month or next year may be too late.

No physical marriage


In Heaven Jesus said that we are not given in marriage nor does our marriage continue as it was on Earth. So, no sex in heaven for He said we would be like the angels. What could we do with our bodies in Heaven? We will be like the angels and like Jesus, with glorified bodies which are immortal. We will reign with Him and be His representatives on Earth and in Heaven.

There have been enough abortions on Earth in the past 44 years that Heaven is full of children who were sent back to God without ever being known by their parents. We have committed a very great sin in our country and around the world because of the ruling on abortion and “women’s rights”. God is going to hold us accountable for this because it was our generation or the one prior to us which allowed this to happen.

Regarding marriage in Heaven, the Church will be married to the Groom which is Jesus at the marriage supper of the Lamb. If you are trying to bring any other definition into eternity then you will be sorely mistaken and disappointed.

We are intended to be part of the group in the marriage supper, the Church, not individuals being married to each other. Eternity will be a time when we can see and know all of the things which we have always wanted the answers to, but those answers are reserved for our life in eternity, not here on Earth. So many people are looking for answers here and now to make the “transition” into eternity more enticing. Why? Having the Grace of God give you eternity through your belief in Jesus and His atonement on the cross for you should be enough!

Just having eternity ahead of you with no pain, no limitations on your body, no problems like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. should be enough of a reward for all of us to expect and be thankful for! Seek out Jesus and His Kingdom through reading the Bible and going to a Bible teaching church. The eternal rewards of having a relationship with Jesus far outweigh anything found here in this life.

Walking in faith


If you have ever been in a church service which preaches from God’s Word, then you have heard this phrase. But was it ever explained to you?

It isn’t some fanciful way of living or some magic way of doing things, but one of submitting yourself to the Spirit of God and Jesus in your everyday life. Being thankful for all that you have, whether it is good or bad, because God is bigger than all of our problems. He Who created everything, takes care of you and me and all who are on this world…not because He has to but because He loves us. On those days when you feel that nearly everything that you do is going wrong, He is still there to give you strength and help you get through it.

madewholeinHeavenDuring the days and nights of those who have to spend time in treatment for cancer or an accident, He is there. In the hospital or the ambulance or on the road going from one place to another, He is with you.

If you don’t know Jesus the Christ, then your life is in turmoil even if it doesn’t seem so right now. Why? Because you are living in the camp of Satan and the world itself. You are doing those things, good or bad, which please you and you alone without a thought to who may or may not be watching. God sees all that you are doing and if you are not His, it breaks His heart but He won’t force you to come to Him. Love and devotion cannot be forced and cannot be given without love in return.

Faithful living and living thankfully toward God for His grace and mercy is something which can’t be done without Jesus in your heart. You can fake being a believer by acting good in front of others and attending church, you can even practice it well enough to be a Pastor of a church and be perceived as righteous…but God knows your heart.

When you die, which all of us will one day, you will stand before God and you will do it with the righteousness of Christ’s blood to cover your sins or in your own righteousness without Him. In the first your life will be an honor to God and you will be welcomed into His Presence, if you stand under your own cloak of self-righteousness then there is no grace and no amount of goodness which will save you. You are without Jesus and His Grace and your every thought and word and deed will be laid bare, without forgiveness. You will be cast away from the Presence of God into the hell which was prepared, not for mankind but for Satan and his demonic forces.

Think about this before you decide to live your life on your own terms and not with Jesus in your life. Without Him we have nothing to boast of but with Him we have everything!.

Three words in Scripture


There are three words which contrast the grace of God toward us and they are seen in all of the Old Testament and the third one is mostly in the New Testament. These three words are “but God” and “therefore”.

Have you ever wondered why there are statements like that? Mainly, both of those statements are to show us that God is not lacking in love toward us because when you see these words, He is about to change something or do something which will make a difference in many lives! When you see “therefore” in the New Testament, it means simply that whatever follows is done, period.

Why do I claim this for either of these statements or words? Because my claim is accurate and true. How can I say that since I am just a man and not God?

Here are a few proofs:

Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Genesis 31:42
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.

Genesis 50:20
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

1 Samuel 23:14
David stayed in the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of Ziph. Day after day Saul searched for him, but God did not give David into his hands.

All of these examples show that God cares for us, not just the Israelites but the whole of humanity! Why? Because, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus to die in our place, to suffer the scorn and the abandonment upon the cross if He did not love us!

Why do you think that Jesus said to His disciples, “Suffer the little children to come unto me”, because children don’t need a “why” or a reason to believe…they just do! This is the kind of faith that we seem to lose as adults. We get so caught up in life and in our living until we can’t or won’t believe unless we can touch it or feel it in our hands. This is why there will be so many “Christians” in hell one day! Many of them think that they know Jesus and that they believe in Him, when they really believe in the idea of Him and His love for them. The “idea” won’t save their souls!

We have to shed our veil, the curtain which we have been seeing Him through and look at Him as our Creator and our Savior and see Him as a real and living person, not as a “quaint idea” that is spoken of in the Bible and at church. Many times during my life when I thought that I was a “Christian”, I prayed and I read a few verses of scripture. But, I never did get into the Temple. I never crossed the threshold of the outer court, let alone come into the Holy Places where God is. God enjoyed a relationship with Adam and Eve for a while, yet we don’t know how long it was. They were immortal at that point, so it could’ve been a long time. This is the sort of relationship that He wants with His church, His people….today.

Do we come near to Him? Do we visit with Him every day or do we just visit for an hour or so on Sunday morning, then go home and don’t think about Him again until next week? How would you feel if that were your relationship with your spouse? Kinda cold isn’t it?

God loves you and me and everyone else on this world that He created for us, but we seem to forget that He is there. We don’t want to acknowledge Him unless we need Him for something, usually urgently…like RIGHT NOW!!

God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit don’t work like that! The Spirit comes to you when you become a Christian. He doesn’t come as a drip at a time, but as the whole package. Jesus saves you and you are to become more like Him as you mature in your walk, daily, as a Christian, studying the Word of God and learning from Him. God watches over you and me and everyone else and makes sure that all things work to our good and His glory IF we belong to Him.

The church needs to understand that since we are the “body of Christ” until His return, we need to mature into people who are as priests in His Kingdom. We shouldn’t be acting like little children who don’t know better or who don’t know how to act like Christians who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. We act as if reading the Bible and singing a few songs on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday night and listening to a preacher or elder in the church expound on scripture is all that we need to do!

Are you kidding? Reading the Bible is great because you are learning more about God and His ways, but just reading a few verses once or twice a week is not enough! We need to read chapters and verses and books because we can’t understand His ways and His way of doing things until we get into the context of Scripture. The context can’t be discerned by a verse or two, it has to be pulled from a chapter and a book and the only One Who can do that is the Holy Spirit. He can help you to understand God’s Word and the context in which it was meant to be learned.

 

Is listening so hard?


Sometimes it seems that we just can’t listen to each other’s problems or to our preacher’s sermons. Listening to each other is the best way to get along with each other, yet there are so many problems between couples and countries all over the world. Most of those problems could be solved if we could put our pride and our attitudes on a shelf and sit down like adults and talk and listen to each other!

This would solve many if not most of the world’s problems, but it seems that when pride gets in the way and our attitudes become broiled in the juices of envy and hatred, then our ears and the ability to listen to each other becomes cut off or stopped up. Believe me, Satan has his hand and his followers all in the middle of these conflicts, whether it is between a man and woman trying to make their marriage work or between political parties in a country!

Our ears, spiritually and physically, become muddled to the point that we don’t hear what we should and we hear only part of what we shouldn’t. Which causes more misunderstandings and problems and it just gets worse from there, like a wet snowball rolling downhill. Pretty soon the problem or the snowball is so big that it can’t be fixed or stopped by just one person!

Jesus listened with His ears and with His heart and that is something which the church in general seems to have lost the ability to do, especially in the times that we live in today! The problem that we have is that we can’t understand the problem today because we aren’t really listening with our spiritual ears, our heart. We listen with our ears but we try to use psychobabble to “take care of the problem”, or make people feel good about themselves, or try to work around the issue.

In truth…all we are doing is putting a band-aid over a large cut or rather we are bandaging it but we aren’t helping in the healing of it. This kind of “help” is not helping at all, it only makes the problems worse! Like putting used tires on a car every six months, they wear out sooner and will still go flat easier than new ones, even if they are cheaper it is not helping.

Making people feel better about themselves is good, but spiritually it is suicide and murder. If you smooth over people’s sins and make them feel okay about them without telling them about salvation through Jesus, you are not a preacher…you are acting as a psychiatrist and that won’t do anyone good for eternity! PREACH FROM THE BIBLE! Tell the salvation and healing story of Jesus and His atonement for all of us from the gospels!

People need that today more than they know! John 3:16 is so powerful that it is a sermon in itself! Please, the Church needs to wake up and be the Body of Christ that this world needs NOW! This world will soon be in more of a situation than anyone alive has ever seen or experienced and the only rescue is through Jesus!

What can we do?


There are many paths to enlightenment in the world today, philosophically speaking, therefore, which one is the correct path for all concerned? Few I’m afraid….actually there is only one.

Philosophy and enlightenment are pursuits which give us knowledge but that will not enable you to be a part of God’s Kingdom. Even knowledge of the Bible and all that it contains will not get you into Heaven without belief and faith in Jesus! Reading and studying the Bible until you know it by heart will do nothing for you spiritually unless the Holy Spirit opens your mind and heart so that you can see Who your Savior truly is and accept Him.

Knowledge and degrees and meditation are wonderful for their own purposes, but the experience of God is found through faith and belief in Jesus. If you don’t have that, then the Bible is just a book of historical figures and facts written by men. God did not give us His Word, the Bible, to be just a book. It is the revelation of Himself and His Son from beginning to end and it doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t see it that way!

The Sun shines whether you have any faith or belief in it or not. Gravity still works whether you believe it exists or not. God and His promise through Jesus the Christ will accomplish everything written down by His apostles and prophets because He is God, whether you believe in Him and His Son or not.

Life, love, greed, hatred, envy and fear all exist as part of our emotional lives in one way or  another. We cannot change this because we can’t change the character of the entire world and every person in it. All of this boils down to one Truth and that is: Jesus came and died on a cross for your sins and your father’s sins and your friend’s sins. He paid the price for all of them, each and every person past, present and future. Whether we believe it or not doesn’t change the fact that it happened and it won’t change anything about the future which was foretold in the book of Revelation.

Seek Him by believing in Him. Read His Word and ask Him to show you the wisdom that you need to have so that your eyes will see Him as He is. The Savior that you need for healing, strength, and hope for eternity, because Jesus is the Savior that we all have been searching for.