Category: God loves you

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.

False teachers


Jesus said that there would be false teachers that would come claiming to be Him, especially during this time that we live in. It is happening now. They aren’t getting much coverage yet, but they will. I caution you, beware of people, teachers who claim to be the incarnation of Christ or the “new” Christ. If you hear this from someone, especially someone who is acting as a teacher or preacher, RUN!

The angels told Jesus’ disciples that He will come back in the manner in which you have seen Him go. Jesus said that He would come back one day to set up His Kingdom on this Earth, and all will see Him and know that it is Him when it happens. There won’t be a question about it. Read God’s Word and learn from Him, not some person who wants to take your money and live like a “god” because you think that what he says is true.

False teachers are all over the world, not just in America, but it seems that more of them are coming out of the closet to be seen in the news and by people these days. The thing is, it is only going to get worse as the time draws nearer to the time of Tribulation spoken of in Revelation. More and more will show up, claiming all kinds of miracles and some may even perform some which will deceive many people! These are not the Christ, our Messiah, Jesus the Son of God!

His appearance will be seen by everyone without the aid of television or the Internet and it will be evident to all when He comes. Games and virtual reality will not show Him, but everyone will know that He has come! Some will cry because they weren’t ready for His return and some will be angry because of His return. Life will change everywhere in a moment, in the “twinkling of an eye” those who belong to Him will be taken up to be with Him, and those who have already died will be given their bodies as they are raised immortal!

This is not some fantasy, it is predicted by the Son of God and it will come to pass. If you don’t know Him, I suggest that you seek Him out and find out about Him and what it means to be a believer! When the Tribulation begins, it will be harder to become a Christian because of the persecution and because of the hatred toward Christians. Many planes and cars will crash on that day, so there will be many deaths on that day that are blamed on Christians and their God!

Don’t fall into that trap! Seek Him out while He can be found, today!

Living with….


We all have different things which we have to live with on a daily basis. Whether it is arthritis or Parkinson’s or cancer, at some point all of us have to go through life with pain or a condition which makes daily life harder or more difficult. So, what do you do to get through life on a day by day basis?

Some people take pills, some use other drugs such as alcohol or opiates, some use harder drugs than these. Some of us just suffer through with the pain and discomfort or with OTC medication. These coping mechanisms, legal or not, are ways to handle the discomfort and pain on your own. Sometimes they work pretty well, sometimes they cause more problems than they help.

Trusting in God and His Word will help with all of these problems and more. It is true that God will not always take the problem or condition away by healing it, but He can supply you with the strength to get through it a day at a time…if you will listen to Him and follow Him. Don’t try to do things on your own all of the time! We are taught to be independent, but when it comes to your life, God wants to share it with you through all of your good and bad days!

He doesn’t just want to hear from you when things go completely off script and throw you under the bus! When you wake in the morning, thank Him for it. When you get to the kitchen and get a cup of coffee, thank Him for your ability to do so even if you are in pain getting there. Live  life, everyday, with Him by your side and even if the pain is still there, God is with you too.

We have the privilege of having an awesome and mighty God and Creator Who can bless us in mighty ways. Sometimes by giving us the strength to get through a tough time and sometimes by healing us of the problem. It is up to God to decide which. Sometimes, His timing seems off to us, but in His time He will answer your prayer one way or another. Because, He is a good and loving God, Father, Savior and Creator and He says in His Word that “I will never leave you or forsake you“.

Racism and hate


Can we overcome these two demons? It is possible, but not under our own power and motivation. Unfortunately our independence and our ability to choose what we believe or not, on an individual basis, is what grew these two into mankind’s conscience. We are not born this way, but over time and exposure to other ideas and teachings at home or school, we do develop our own version, our own opinions toward others. That is where these destructive attitudes or emotions grow from.

Sometimes, they aren’t very potent in certain individuals but with a bit of prodding from someone who can stoke them and get your emotions involved in the matter then, like a small fire with alcohol or gas poured on it, they will explode. We see this everyday and hear about it on the news, if you can stand to watch it. Pride, arrogance, and greed follow along with these two and all of them together can cripple a country.

Why is it so hard for humanity to get past these kinds of problems? INDIVIDUALITY. We seem to be resistant to being in any kind of real, true relationship with each other. Oh, we may do so with our family, maybe our close friends, but anyone outside of that circle is out of luck. Even…God.

Oh, we may say that we “believe” in Him, but we mostly believe in our idea of God. Why is this? It is also because of our freedom which God allows us to have, because love cannot flourish without the freedom to choose. Many times we look at God’s Word during church and see that God allowed His people to choose many times in the Bible. He didn’t stop them from walking away from Him or worshiping Him, because He loves us.

Love is above hate and bitterness and racism and true love does not allow these emotions to flourish at all. It is mankind’s evil and hatred for other opinions which causes so much strife and trouble in our world today. God didn’t create evil, though He allows it to be. We should seek Him, the God of the Bible and there is no other. His Word is Truth and salvation offered to all who will believe in Him and in His atonement which is offered through Jesus the Christ.

Relating to….


Have you ever noticed that most of the Bible is about relationships? In the beginning, it is between God and Adam. Then it shifts to Adam and God and the animals, then it becomes a relationship between Adam and Eve. Then there is a broken relationship when Adam and Eve decide that they don’t want to do what God told them. They eat from the one tree which He had told them not to eat from. Out of ALL the fruit trees and other foods which they had, they chose the very one which they were commanded NOT to eat from.

Did they do it because they were mad at God or were tired of His rules? There was only the one rule…not to eat of the tree in the midst of the Garden! It couldn’t have been the rules because there was only one! So, what happened? Satan, Lucifer the deceiver came into the Garden and he wanted to disrupt the relationship which God had with His Son, Adam. So, his lies and deception caused the first couple to sin, to go against God’s rule.

Creation then was like a vase dropped on the floor, shattered into many pieces. The relationship broken and damaged forever…or so he thought.

God knew that this was coming and wasn’t caught off guard. Satan thought that he was doing something to God, his Creator, that would hurt Him. It did, but God used it to work out His purposes and His redemption of mankind anyway. He works in ways that we can’t understand or even comprehend, but God loves all of us and He is in control of all. He doesn’t dictate to us how we live or work but He will work in your life to bring about good things for you and for those around you.

Why is a relationship so important? Because, that is what God has always wanted with mankind! A relationship with Jesus is what is necessary for you to be His child, believing in Him and He Who sent Him. God knows your heart and what is in it, if there is hatred and worldly things in your heart and life and the evidence of it is known by all then your life doesn’t belong to Jesus. He is the Author and finisher of life and our Creator. He is with you whether you believe or not, but He takes pleasure in your life and rejoices when you invite Him in.

He will forgive you because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, but if you aren’t convicted of them enough to repent and turn from them and ask for His forgiveness in order to live with Him daily, then your life is yours and not His. It is necessary for us to come to Him knowing that we need Him and His forgiveness. If you are too proud in your own religiosity and your piety, thinking that you have an “agreement” with God about your life, then you are lost and are bound for punishment because you would not subject your heart to Him.

Learning about God from God


lamb-of-god-passoverIt is something that many of us try to do in our lives at one point or another, but many of us have no idea how to do it? We consider reading the Bible through but just as any “new year’s resolution” we soon push it aside like any other exercise. Then we only pick it up on church days and read with our pastor, and sometimes we don’t even bring it to church with us at all.

How can you cultivate a relationship with the Creator if you don’t get to know Him? Our only outlet, our only way of getting to know Him IS to read His Word! His ways are there for us in black and white on a page or today on an electronic reader of some kind, but He and His Words are available! He is near us and if we are Christians, then He is dwelling inside our hearts and so near that we might as well be living inside His skin! Ewww gross! Don’t laugh, I know that is what many of you thought.

The point of this is that He wants a relationship with us, just as He did with Adam and Eve only they chose to be independent and go their own way. Our world has been damaged terribly by this independence because instead of living inside His Love and His Life, we make up our own version of Him and His attributes. We remake God and His Son in our image…how WE want them to be! Then, when we feel like they aren’t doing it right, we try to take over and we usually mess things up pretty good at that point!

God’s Word and Wisdom is in the Bible and if we will treat it as our Creator Who is actually speaking through the prophets and writers then accepting Him for Who He is will be so much better and easier! Please consider it and think about reading the book, “The Shack“. I am going to see the movie and maybe do a Bible study on it soon. God loves you!

So much truth in the gospel


How much truth do you see in God’s Word? In the gospel? If it isn’t true and there is no Truth in it, then why believe?

The Trinity has existed as three in One…as God for a very long time, long before we or anything else in Creation existed. How can we so arrogantly believe that God sent His Son to die and then abandoned Him there? The Holy Spirit was there, God was there and Jesus was on the cross, so He wasn’t abandoned at the cross exactly…He just felt that He was. His humanity felt that way!

The same way that His human heart and His brain told Him to be afraid and anxious before the scourging and the crucifixion. It was His humanity which made Him feel alone, scared and helpless on the cross, but He wasn’t. Our truth is relative today because as psychologists put it, “your truth is not my truth”. This is a very clever lie from Satan. God loves each of us far more than we could ever know or comprehend, until we are in His Presence of course.

You have the freedom to believe in Him and His Word or not, because it is necessary. Love doesn’t come to anyone unless it is free to be given in return as well as received from the other person. Yes, we are free to refuse His love for us if we choose and to live our lives in complete self-righteousness, thinking that we are good enough without Jesus. That we deserve to be allowed into Heaven on our own merits.

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it is totally WRONG!! Until you give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to come in and fix the problems which you caused and to show you what real love actually is, you will always feel empty and without hope. This is what God wanted to save us from in the first place…ourselves. Because ever since the Fall, we have all been born with a seed of sin in our hearts. Toddlers will lie to you without even knowing what they are doing, so that proves that sin is there.

God loves us anyway!! He created all of us and He knows the desires and needs of our heart even when we weren’t born yet. From the moment you were conceived until your death, God knows what you will do, when you will do it and why. He doesn’t force the decisions on you, but He knows what those decisions are or will be, and until you give your life to Him, He will watch you and be with you regardless until you figure out that you really need Him.

Seek Him out before it gets too far or before your life gets out of control! He is there and always has been, so make sure that you know Him before your life is over and your chance to know Him as Savior is gone for good.

Where is God?


Don’t read the title and wonder if I have lost my mind, you have wondered the very same thing from time to time! I have too and it does vex me at times to think of all of the evil and pain in the world and wonder about Him. He is right next to each and every person who is in pain, in duress from a multiplicity of reasons, or who is just lonely. God is as close to you and I as our next breath or even as close as our heartbeat. He is always closer than we can imagine or comprehend and He cares more than we could possibly know or understand!

Jesus said that “not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father knowing it“, now that is my paraphrase of the actual scripture so don’t think it will be worded the same. But…if Jesus said, which He did, that a sparrow doesn’t escape God’s attention, don’t you think He pays attention to the rest of us as well? We can’t touch Him or feel His Presence all of the time, but He is there and He feels your pain and your sorrow and your joy.

12804782_1044929828955942_1233315242139204553_nAs a Christian we can feel Him near us, maybe not all of the time but if you are listening to His voice like you should then you can’t miss it. He is always there and as a Christian you and I have part of Him living inside our hearts, so He can’t get much closer than that can He?

For someone who is not as close to God as they should be or even someone who hasn’t given their life to Him, then the Presence of God may not be felt but that doesn’t mean that He isn’t nearby. Especially if you are being called into His Service! He will not let you get too far away from Him and He will bring you back in order to do His Will in your life and for His Kingdom. He doesn’t force you to serve Him, but when you realize what He has done and is doing for you and in your life, you will want to work for Him.

Paul did and he was persecuting the Way as it was called. He was called Saul at the time, but Jesus changed all of what he had been doing to make him into the greatest missionary of the New Testament church! If he can change and become one of the most successful disciples of Jesus, then you and I can do it too. We have to learn from God’s Word what to look for and how to understand His commands and His Voice in our lives and you can only learn that from prayer and reading the Bible.

So, where is God? He is everywhere! My best guess is that He is where you are and I know that He is where I am too! Give your heart to Him, learn about Him and His voice from the Bible, then you will hear Him and know that He is God and He is in your life, regardless of what may be happening, He will never leave you!

What is in your heart


Is it fear or anger? Is it insecurity or selfishness? Could it be some emotional baggage that you have been given by your parents? For many who have lived through being children of divorced parents, all of these are true. We grow up with things inside us that we don’t understand or comprehend. Sometimes, this emotional baggage will cause a person to implode or explode depending upon the way they are raised and who is raising them.

Life is changed and altered by the things which we experience during our childhood. Good or bad, it sticks with you regardless of the outcome. Sometimes each of us can overcome it by our own perseverance, if we recognize it for what it is. Sometimes…it is the over-comer.

Feelings of helplessness and despair can cripple you while growing up, especially when you feel like you aren’t wanted or loved. Many of us have felt these feelings as we grow up, either due to a so-called friend’s remark or a family tragedy such as the death of a parent or a divorce (which amounts to the same thing). Many family members will tell you that you will get over it, in time, and that may be true but the scar is still there and sometimes it doesn’t heal completely.

The only cure for this condition, regardless of its cause, is to seek out Jesus and ask Him to come into your heart and your life so that He can heal the wound that is there. He is the only Physician Who can do this, there is no other! Drugs only make things worse, alcohol fits in the same bucket with drugs, all other “things” which people chase after are also temporary and really don’t help in the long run.

Jesus can heal those wounds and He will fill that empty space which is there. It doesn’t matter if that empty space was caused by drugs or a divorce or a death in the family, Jesus can heal all of those wounds. It may not be instantaneous but with time and prayer and reading God’s Word, the healing will begin and it will heal. One day as you are reading His Word, you will notice that the pain and emptiness are gone and in its place the Holy Spirit of God has placed peace and joy!

Joy that can’t be explained without faith in Him. Joy that makes no sense to someone who hasn’t asked Jesus to come in and heal their heart and the pain which has lived there for so long. God love can do amazing, glorious, miraculous things in your life and in mine. We can’t explain it to someone who doesn’t know Him, but they can see the difference in our lives and in our personality. Jesus came into the world to save it from itself, and when He does this to your life, others will notice.

Pain, suffering, and all of the ailments which go along with them may not completely go away, because Satan will bring them back to hurt you, to put a stone in your path or to trip you up in your walk with Jesus. Cling to Jesus and His Word because it is the only eternal Rock which will bind your wounds and be able to carry you when life gets rough.

What is in your heart? God knows and He will give you the strength and the ability to fill it with Himself and will begin your healing, if you will allow Him to.

Life, what about it?


baby developmentWhen I was much younger, I wondered about the life that we live. Not so much in philosophic terms exactly, but after watching the coverage of the Vietnam war and Dr. Martin Luther King’s murder, even then it seemed that life was cheap. I knew better, but it still made me think a bit. But, I was young and I didn’t think about it long so I went on to school and played with my friends and did my homework.

Now, I am a father and a pastor and I think about life every day. It still seems that to most of the world around us, not just in America, human life isn’t worth much even today. It seems that life today isn’t regarded as being worth more than a thought, if that much! Why have we come to this point in history? Where the life of a baby in the womb is in just as much danger as one on the street! A baby in the womb is even in more danger today because there usually isn’t anyone to speak up for them and defend them.

No, I am not getting on a platform about abortion, I did that a day or so ago. My point here is that we don’t cherish life today, no matter if it is a pet, a baby, or a person. But…life is supposed to be sacred! Human life certainly, but all life in general because it is God’s Creation! It is true that many people claim to be Christian and yet many of them don’t even have a true relationship with God at all! We don’t look at being a human being and being a Christian as anything special, it seems.

Many believe that by belonging to a church and attending services occasionally that they have a relationship with God. How absurd! That is more akin to visiting McDonald’s once in a while and thinking that you know the owner! God does know you and He loves each one of you. But, being known by God and being His child by adoption through Jesus Christ is something totally different.

Jesus died for you in order for you to be God’s child and when you feel that call by faith in Him you can become a part of His family. It isn’t something that you choose on your own, He chooses you first, then you have to answer. If you don’t, then you have pushed Him away. This part won’t be good for you, now or in eternity, because you are telling Him “Not now, I’m busy” and “You’re not important to me”. Hopefully, He will keep trying to bring you into His family but you can push Him away only so many times. There may come a day when He chooses to let you go your way…not good at all.

Why do I say that? Because if you look at how humanity has fared without Him, it usually isn’t very good and depending on how far they move from God it can be very, very bad for all concerned. Even though God said that He would never again bring a flood on the Earth, that is why it came in the first place. Mankind had pushed Him out of their lives and went after their own ways and their own gods. This is why God chose Noah, because he had not gone the way of everyone else. Sometimes, following the crowd has very serious consequences. Think about it.