Category: God’s Love for us

What is your passion?


A friend asked me once, “What would  you do if you could make more money?”. My answer was, “Pay off all of my bills.” The problem today is that I am disabled and can’t work at a regular job, so I write on this blog. It doesn’t pay me anything, at least in this life, but I am hoping that some of you get a lift from it or from the words that God gives me to write.

Your passion is usually something which you are, well passionate about! For some people it is their job or making money, for others it may be conservation or community projects, still other people may just be passionate about their immediate family and their well-being. Then there are the sports fanatics and others who are passionate about their teams or whatever. Today, many people seem to be involved in online gaming and for some this is a bit too much.

The point that I was making in the paragraph above is that we sometimes put more of ourselves into something which has no future at all. It doesn’t provide us with any tangible reward other than the enjoyment of our passion, but outside of that, what do you get from it? In truth, many people don’t really care about getting something from it, they just enjoy it period.

Writing does that for me. Sometimes, the words that I am given are inspirational and sometimes they are uplifting or even critical. The reason behind my writing is something which we can’t experience yet and that is eternity. We all have it ahead of us in one form or another. Some think that they will be buried in the ground for an eternity and that is it, others think that when you die, that’s the end of everything like turning off a light.

I write here to tell you that you and I have an eternity ahead of us because that is how God created us. We have a part of us which will live on, our soul or spirit, and depending on our choices in this life will determine where and how our eternity will be spent. Your life, compared to even a portion of eternity like one million years, is pitifully short like a puff of smoke in the wind. It is gone in an instant, like the snapping of fingers.

That is the amount of time that we have here to make a small difference in our lives and in the lives of others. How we accomplish this depends upon Who we choose to follow, God or our own desires. Following our own desires is what we do to begin with and for a while we feel okay with it. But, when you feel something from the Spirit of God usually like an empty feeling like something is missing. Then, you want to fix it as if something just isn’t right.

We try doing this by experimentation with all sorts of “feel good” things. The problem is that they don’t work, at least not in the long-term. They are temporary just like our life. The only real fix is seeking out the Creator, Jesus, Who will fill that empty spot with Himself and then your life will be totally changed. Your passion won’t be the same any more, the hunger that you felt for other things will change.

Following and learning from Jesus is a journey and it is one which doesn’t end, until we are in His presence. When we are there, we will know as we are known. At that point, it won’t matter because our eternal life will be in front of us and all of those friends that we know now who are Christians, we can have fellowship with them for eternity. Although, I am sure our experience will be far above what we can experience here on Earth.

Determine your destiny, seek out God’s wisdom in His Word, seek Him out by prayer and learning of Him because until you find Him and His purpose for your life, you will feel as if something is missing that you can’t put your finger on. That something is Jesus, the missing piece to all of our puzzles.

What is wrong with this world?


Exodus 33:19,20:
“And He said, I will make all of my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 And He said, Thou cannot see My face: for no man shall see my face and live.”

God is Holy, Righteous and Steadfast. He doesn’t change neither does He sleep, and yet people in this world think that He doesn’t see what is going on around us. He does and He knows who is responsible for it, Satan. Because Satan hates us with an utmost hatred that cannot be fathomed by man. We are here enjoying whatever we have in life, not because of the graciousness of Satan, but by the grace and the love flowing from Almighty God!

If God’s presence were not here, with each of us, everyday, then Satan would unleash his hatred upon the Earth and the inhabitants of the Earth. Jesus said that “if those days were not shortened, no one would survive”. This is the first part of the Tribulation times which are coming to us soon, Satan will be loosed and all of the Earth, not just humanity, will groan under his hatred. No one will be saved from it except for those who are God’s children. I am not speaking of the Jewish people, I am speaking of the Christians who may still be here at this time.

God loves all of us, even those who don’t know Him, but He will not tolerate the sinful lives that people live today. Living together, lying, stealing, murderers, those who practice homosexuality, idolaters, and those who exploit and use children for sex and other crimes. It is the sin that God hates, not the sinner.

Repent and ask Him to cleanse you and bring you into the family of God. Believe in Jesus and be saved because the time is coming when it will be hard and almost impossible to distinguish between the Anti-Christ and the real One, because of the spirit of deception which will be released into the world. Yes, Satan is powerful BUT he is a created being like you or I am, God is in control!

The world which we see every day is being attacked, spiritually, by Satan and his demons. They cause disease and death all around us and incite hatred among religious people and different religions. All of the conflicts which are going on in the world have his hatred of us as the cause, in one way or another. The reason for this is that Satan hates everything that God loves. The people here on Earth but specifically the nation of Israel and the Christian church.

This is why he masqueraded as an angel of light to bring false religions to this world, from Mormonism to Islam. God loves each of us, but when we follow a god of this world, which is a demon or Satan himself, then we are on the wrong side. Unless you repent of this and accept Jesus as your Savior, then you will suffer the same fate as Satan.

Lots of stuff happening


Many times and in many places today, people are not sure of what is happening in our world. Oh, they see the news and read it on the Internet and in newspapers and magazines, but much of the stuff that we read and hear about is truly hard to understand. Why are people so angry and frustrated in our world today? Why can’t we just get along with each other? What happened in the past few decades, when we apparently weren’t paying attention, to make our world the way it is now?

All of these questions are asked by people all over the world, yet very few people can give a rational explanation for any of them. Why is that? It is because of a lack of faith and a lack of trust in Almighty God for one. We have become so dependent upon technology and instant gratification until we can’t seem to take a step back and take a breath in order to learn the awesomeness of God Himself! Someone today would ask, “Why should I learn of someone who I don’t believe in? He has no control over my life, and I won’t give him that control.” If that is the way that you feel toward God, then I pity you, whether you accept my pity or not I don’t care.

God is the Healer, not the doctor. God is the Comforter, not your pills. God is the Father of all, not Darwin or Dawkins or whoever you have heard that is preaching the religion of evolution!

God loves you and all of those around you, like it or not, but He doesn’t force you to follow Him or worship Him or even do the things which are written in the Bible. Why not? Because anyone who is forced to do something, hates the person or the system that is forcing them and God wants your love. That is why we have a choice. That is why we are able to choose to obey, to follow, to learn of Him. It’s because of love. Jesus was not forced into submission, He did it willingly because of love. John 3:16 is a verse which almost everyone knows whether they believe it or not, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.”

We were created to have fellowship with God, not because we have to but because we should want to. Think of it this way, if you were found guilty of a crime punishable by death, not just a death but one which would go on and on throughout eternity in pain and agony. Then some person came forward and said that they would pay your debt, wipe clean your slate and take the punishment in your place, without anything that you could give them for this or anything that you might add because you have already been condemned. What would you do? What would you say to them? Would you be grateful beyond measure? Or would you just walk off and say, “Better you than me!”? It seems that in our society today, many people would do just that. Why?

I can’t answer that. My love for God and for His Son doesn’t allow me to understand that sort of callous, cold heart. I know that some people feel that way, because years ago that would’ve been me. Consider that Jesus didn’t have to do any of the redemptive things which He did, but because He loved the Father and the Father, God Himself, loves each one of us, Jesus did fulfill all of those things which had been prophesied about Him. Out of love and compassion for us, Jesus willingly gave His life so that we might have an eternity to look forward to. Some think that they are going to have an eternal party with Satan in hell, without interference from God. It will be an eternity, but it will not be a party!

You get this life to work out your relationship with God, as short or as long as your life may be. None of us knows how many years or days we have left, so the idea that you can wait until you are old is just stupid. You might be involved in a severe car wreck tomorrow and never wake up from it, until you are face to face with God. You may have a stroke or a heart attack tonight which may put you face to face with God. The point is that, whether you believe in God’s existence or not, you will face Him one day. He doesn’t punish you by sending you to hell, you are the one who has made that choice and it is your choice! By sending Jesus to take the punishment for all of us on the cross, God provided each of us a way to be reconciled to Him, all that is required of us is belief in Jesus and asking Him to forgive us for waiting so long.

Satan’s plan


The church is being deceived by Satan and his fallen angels and was so long ago and they are still at it today. Oh, for some it is a very minor deception, mostly of pride and arrogance which has been nurtured by working in the minds of clerics and priests as well as in bishops and preachers. The deception is so subtle until it is hard to spot, until the damage is done but it creeps in like rust on a steel bridge. A little weakening here and there, a bit of dodging around the scriptures in ways that seem “right” but changes their meaning just a bit. This has been his way all along, just as he did in Eden when he asked Eve about what God said. “You will not surely die! You will be like God knowing good and evil. Twisting words a bit, appealing to humanity’s pride, because pride has been the root of mankind’s sin that gives rise to all kinds of things like rebellion and vanity just as it did when the rebellion happened in Heaven.

Satan and his fallen angels will do whatever is possible against the church and its members in order to take as many with them into hell as they can. They are the instruments of disease, death, persecution and temptation in our world, especially against the church and those who claim to know Jesus. They also empower some church leaders to gain so much wealth that the message becomes twisted and weak and in the end, the body of Christ becomes weak and pitiful, alive but just barely.

In many ways, this is exactly what the world sees in the church today, regardless of the denomination or the leader who is taking his flock on a very broad road to hell with the assistance of Satan himself. As long as he can injure or take down the effectiveness of the church and the message, then he and his fallen angels will do just that, regardless of how much damage it does. He hates man with a passion which goes beyond human understanding and he hates the church even more!

The church has seen much deceit and division with people caught in lies and extortion and with the “leaders” of the congregations getting into all sorts of trouble. Some of them caught in adulterous situations and some getting very wealthy from their “partners in the ministry” helping to spread the Gospel of Christ and yet they own mansions and cars and jets. This is not the church that Jesus intended it to be!

Christians are supposed to be patterning their lives after Jesus, seeking Him and His Wisdom in everything that they do, yet there are some who do demonstrate against authority, against the law and against our government.Why is this being done? Because, if Satan can make the world look at the church, the body of Christ, as intolerant and hateful towards the freedoms that the world enjoys without the church then soon the world will turn against the church altogether.

One of the biggest problems with mankind and one that Satan uses is that we have an independent fallen nature which gives us the delusion of being in control of our lives and the outcome of our lives, whether spiritual or physical. We think that we are capable of reaching for Heaven independent of God and that is the biggest lie that Satan has told and nearly the whole world believes it! True believing Christians who depend on God and seek Him in their lives do not, but it seems that those are few these days and likely in a couple of generations will disappear from the Earth which is exactly what Satan wants!

Since God created mankind to worship Him and know Him, Satan is striking at God by destroying or hurting us in any way that he can. Through disease, poverty, war, famine, hatred of our religion and the One that we follow, Satan has struck at the heart of God by striking at the church, those of us who believe in Jesus and His message. If he can do enough damage that Christianity were outlawed and church services were banned, unless they were worshipping him or one of the “religions” that he approves of, then part of his mission here is working.

It is not finished yet, but he knows that his time is growing short.Then, he will turn on God’s people, the Jews just because they are God’s chosen people. He has deceived them into being so religious about their religion that they missed the Christ when He came and many still can’t see Him even today because they are blinded to Him. Pray that our world and those in it who have been blinded by the pride of life and their own fantasies will come to realize that they are not in control

God wants you!


God

God wants you, not your bank account or your stuff(whatever that might be), He wants you!

There is nothing that we can give to Him which is more valuable than ourselves. He is the One Who gave you what you have anyway, but if you haven’t given your heart and your life to Him then you are missing the point of life itself! He is Life and Truth and when you give your life to Him, then He can begin to work in your life and through you to reach others for Jesus. Allow God to change your perspective this year from a point in front of you to one which is in eternity! God wouldn’t have given His Son’s life on the cross just to blot out your sins unless He wanted you to come to Him in love and be in fellowship with Him every day! Believe it or not, God loves every person on this planet even though He doesn’t like the lifestyle that they live in or even the paths that they have chosen in life. When you give your heart to Jesus, don’t just put Him in the passenger seat and let Him ride with you, it needs to be and should be YOU who is riding along with Him! God can take you places and help you to do some things that you can’t do on your own, but fellowship like this is done on purpose, every day. This what Jesus meant when He said to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Seeking God and His wisdom is not a one time meeting every week, it is daily prayer time and reading of the Bible. Meditating on it so that you will understand the lessons contained in it.

This year, many of you need to be coming closer to Jesus so that you can learn from Him and find what you have been missing all of the years of your life. That part of you that feels empty or unfulfilled is the part which Jesus can give meaning and purpose to.

Jesus is born…now what?


Christmas is a time of wonder and magic, especially for young children, but what about the One Whose birthday we are celebrating? Do we truly consider what we should be doing with our knowledge of Who He is and the reason why He came? It centers around the nature that all of mankind possesses, that being our sin nature which has been passed down from Adam and Eve. Whether you believe in Creation or in Evolution, you can witness the results of this nature that everyone seems to have and you can see it every day on the news or on the Internet. The Truth which is contained within the Bible tells the story of people who want to be more than they are and it begins right at the beginning.

It is true that wanting to be more than what you are is not such a bad thing, in most situations, but when you are going against the laws of God and His will for your life it will have an effect on your life for years to come. Like any decision which we make on our own and that we continue in daily, going against God’s will for your life is allowed by Him but it is not a good idea. Truly, following God and giving Jesus your heart is the best decision that you could make for your life and yet many people want to “do their own thing” on their terms and not according to the will and purpose of God.

When you do this of course, your life turns out the way that you want it to, sometimes, but sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want at all. Many times when we choose our own path in life, it goes along just fine without any problems and that is a good thing for us. But, it doesn’t point us in the direction of following Jesus at times. There are choices that we make which can be good for our life and there are some which may lead us in the wrong direction.

Yes, it limits your choices in life a bit but the life that you will have is so much more than the one that you would have living outside the will of God. I know, many people today don’t see it that way but its true. I lived outside the will of God for many years, thinking that I actually belonged to Him but I didn’t and when I truly allowed Him into my heart and my life completely, there is such a difference in everything. It is as different as night and day! We don’t realize it at the time that we are living in it though and that is the problem with making our own independent path in life. The other problem is that it is not entirely independent, because Satan or one of his cohorts keeps a watchful eye on us especially when we come near to the Lord in one way or another.

It is at these times that circumstances will come up in some way, good or bad, to keep you from the influence of God. The test of your attention to God’s voice will be when He calls you to Himself. Are you listening for Him or do you just disregard it completely? I did this a few times in the past, but I have since come to realize that when He speaks in that voice, you need to listen because He is always right as long as you can discern that it is from God and not Satan or some other “voice” that you are hearing.

Jesus came so that we might come to know Him and through Him we can know God. Isn’t that an awesome thought? To get to know the Creator of everything is such an awesome and humbling idea and experience, it is impossible to describe to you the way that it feels, especially if you aren’t a Christian already! A person without faith in God cannot understand faith, God, or the Bible itself and until you have that faith, then the Bible is just a book about Israel, some of their historical events and prophets, as well as some poetry. Pray sincerely to God for the wisdom and the faith to understand His Word so that you can understand God’s plans for us and for you.

Sickness, disease, and not knowing Christ


What do these three have in common? Well, for one thing they are all nearly the same thing. A sickness, whether it is a cold or the flu, is also a disease. But, there are diseases which are not so benign in their workings and their outcomes, such as certain cancers and air-borne viruses like the Hanta virus and Ebola virus (although this one is not considered to be air-borne). These are true diseases which cause death if not treated very aggressively and of course there are others which cause a number of conditions which are life threatening and we could go on and on with this.

The point that I am trying to make is that sickness and disease are physical attackers and they do attack the physical body. Living a life on your own, without Christ is a spiritual “disease” because we were created in God’s image to have a relationship with Him and when that relationship is missing, it is like a piece of us is missing! We always feel as if there is something missing and it is, because we have a place which the Spirit is supposed to inhabit within us and when that part of us is not whole, then we aren’t whole.

When we are sick in one way or another, we don’t feel right because there is something that isn’t right. It is the same way that I felt before I truly came to know Jesus as my Savior, something just wasn’t quite right in my life and I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly. When the command of God was ignored in the Garden, and Adam and Eve made a shocking mistake, that rebellious spirit has stayed with mankind all down through history. It doesn’t matter if you are a Pope or the first baseman at Wrigley field, we all have this part of us which isn’t quite right until we hear the voice of God, that little tug on our hearts which tells us to get up in a service and make it right.

If you have ever felt that, then you know what I mean. Yes, we are spiritual and we have a spirit living within us, but until we accept Jesus as our Savior there is still a part…a small piece which is missing or at least not complete. We can’t make this complete and we don’t have the power to just “come to Christ” when we feel like its time, God has to call you to “prick your heart” as some have said.

It is not just a decision that we can decide on like putting your shirt on or your shoes. The Spirit speaks to your spirit and when they are in agreement, then you feel it strongly enough to either ask Jesus into your life or you refuse Him. This is when you are truly walking on thin ice so to speak, because God may only call you once before you are left to your own life. This is where many people think that they have it together enough and they don’t need God in their life and they couldn’t be more wrong, but they will keep trying on their own until they can’t or until they come to the end of their life one day, in a car wreck or something that they have no control over at all…then what?

At that point, you will meet the God that you turned away from, except this time He is seeing you as you are and not with the blood of Jesus covering your sins. He will be your judge and show you where you went wrong and when you heard or read about His grace and His provision for you and you said that you didn’t have time for it. You said that you didn’t want to live that way, you wanted to live your way. You rebelled against the God Who created you and Who loved you and wanted the best for you, but you didn’t want Him. At this point, there isn’t anywhere you can go except into hell at the White Throne judgement, you will be punished until then but it won’t be nearly as bad as after the final judgement.

Live your life with Jesus in it and with Him every day because with Him, life will be eternal and in Heaven with Him, not in hell with all of the rebels and the demons and Satan himself. Because that is who hell was created for, demons, principalities and powers of darkness and Satan…not for humans although there will be many of them there too. Choose Life.

What Child is this?


Immanuel, God with us. Those few words explain the “why” of the Babe in the manger and the “Who” as well, so why do so many people choose to turn away from the offer of grace and mercy of God? Well, it has to do with that six letter word that has been having such a great impact on the human race ever since the Garden…choose or a different version maybe, called choice. It is what God gave all of His creatures, angel and human alike.

Why did He give us a choice in our life, in our service to Him and in what we ultimately do with that choice? Because of love. You cannot love a Creator or a person that doesn’t give you a choice of returning that love. You cannot enjoy being a servant unless you are given the choice of being a servant or not. We can choose to obey the call on our lives when we feel and hear it or to turn away from it. We can choose to be the people that we are called to be or not. It is choice which distinguishes us from animals who live by instinct.

Instinct is natural for animals whether they are dogs or cats or apes or whales, that is their position in the Creation of God. We have a choice to be or not to be what we are called by God to become, and yet some people don’t allow God to change them into the people who He knows that they can be. They refuse to “conform” or to be called by God. They want to do it their way, in their time, and for some that is fine. It may give them a successful life that the world sees, but it may not lead to eternal life unless they finally accept the call of God in their life.

“But, what if I don’t ever fell or hear the call of God?” “Can’t I just read the Bible and try to do what it says and I’ll be saved?” Reading the Bible is good and God may speak to you through it, if He hasn’t already but you can’t force God to save you. Just as God chose Jacob and not Esau to make the nation of Israel through, He can choose those whom He wishes to be saved which will bring glory to Him and His Kingdom. Why? Because He is God. He doesn’t answer to you, He does as He pleases in all situations.

God sent His Son to be born of a woman of the lineage of David, so that through Him we would all have the chance to be saved. He paid the price for all of us, all that we have to do is listen to that voice in our hearts which calls to us. If and when you hear it, don’t turn away from it. God gives us all second and third chances but when we keep turning away, He will call on someone else that will answer and the most telling part about His call to us is that He knows which person will answer His call and which ones of us who won’t.

On that night….


Long ago there were shepherds keeping watch over their flocks and the angel of the Lord came to them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. The angel said to them, “Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign unto you, that you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

What would you think if an angel announced this while you were out camping somewhere? Many people would wonder what might have been in their food? How did I have such a vision as this? Many people would’ve hidden under a bush and then run off, had the sky filled with angels or even just one angel telling you this.

The shepherds were likely tired and just didn’t realize what they were seeing at first, until they heard the message of the Christ child. Then, they said amongst themselves, “Let us go see this that the Lord has told us about.” What do you think they were thinking? They were shepherds and were supposed to be watching over their flocks during the night! Why would they want to walk away from them and see this child?

Because, God had never spoken to anyone for about four hundred years and all of them had heard of this news about a Savior, the Christ! They had heard the Scriptures and had been taught by their parents from them. They knew about the prophecies, but when they became shepherds they were declared unclean and couldn’t go into the Temple. But, they went to see Jesus, the Babe that was in the manger, Immanuel, “God with us”, God in human flesh, the Son of God!

And when they came to the manger, they worshipped Him! Then they went out from there and told all who would hear the news about what they had heard and the One that they had seen! Isn’t that what we are supposed to do when we meet Him? Tell others about the One that you have met, and what He has done for you in your life from that moment on. Why do we have to do this? Look at it like someone who had a REAL debt!

You get a letter one day after many years, and somehow in your past there is a debt that you have owed that has accrued a LOT of interest! So much interest that if you can’t pay it, you will either go to prison or if you owe someone who is a criminal, like a bookie or something, and they could kill you or your family if you can’t pay this debt! It is in the millions of dollars and there is no way for you to do it! You begin to pray like you have never prayed before, because you only have a week to pay this debt! Six days go by, and many phone calls which were not nice at all, you can’t sleep, you feel as if the world is falling in on you and there is no way out. Then, as the people who are owed the money are coming up your driveway, the mail comes.

There is an envelope, addressed to you. You open it and there is a check for the exact amount down to the penny. You sign it over to the people who you owe this amount to and they take it in payment for this debt. How would you feel? Relieved? Absolutely! Free of the burden? Yes!! Where did that money come from? You want to thank this person. How could you do this? What would you be willing to do?

This is just a small showing of what Jesus has done for each of us. He didn’t owe any sin debt, because He was God’s Son. He didn’t have our nature, the nature of Adam, in Him and yet He willingly gave His life for us. That is what He was born to accomplish and He did. He paid the debt for ALL of mankind, past, present and future. All that we have to do to have forgiveness is to believe that He did what He did and ask for it. That’s it.

There is no amount of money or work that we can perform ourselves that will be of any use in our salvation, because it was all done by Jesus. That is the message that we should be telling everyone, no matter who they are. If they receive it with joy and gladness and accept Him as their Lord, that is wonderful! But, the choice is theirs and yours. Adam had a choice and Eve did too. So did the angels who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. What will you do with yours?

Are you ready?


I just got used to this year, and now we’re going to begin another one in about two weeks! Why is it when you get past the half-century birthday, it seems that every year goes by faster and faster? It’s like time speeds up just trying to get you out of here quicker! Granted, I am ready to be done with this life, in a way, but I would like to enjoy the years that I may have left, rather than watching them speed by like race cars!

In some ways, I think that it is God’s way of letting us know that the best is yet to come and the quicker we get to the end, the better it will be! At least, that is the most hopeful spin that I can put on it anyway. God loves us far more than we can love ourselves and truly, He must have since He allowed His Son to die so that we could be saved and forgiven for our sins.

Also, the age of the church is coming to an end so time grows short and the time of the second coming of Jesus is at hand. Everyone seems to be moving about like a bunch of ants, some with a purpose and some seem to be just running around. So, what can we do to make sense of this short time that we have? Well, for one thing…read the Bible! It tells you everything that we know for sure about this time, from God’s point of view and for us.

Some people might say that it is too confusing to read, but the Bible explains itself if you will take the time to pray about it as you read and look up the references for the scripture that you are reading. The NT explains the OT and vice versa, but you have to read both, not just a verse here and there. It is something that we don’t or won’t do as we are growing up because our teachers tell us to and many of us just read the parts that the preacher is speaking about in his sermons and no more. Even if he reads an entire chapter, sometimes that is not enough to get the real meaning of it, which is why many people leave church looking “dazed and confused” more often than not.

How can anyone learn about Jesus and His mission and message if you only hear a small portion of it or just one chapter of it? Honestly, you can’t! Get into a Bible teaching church, read the Bible with a friend and ask each other questions when you don’t understand something, look it up in a concordance  or online if need be. We have many resources today that were not available to people just twenty-five years ago, but test what you learn against the Bible. Make sure that the message you hear is the same one that is in God’s Word, if not then run away from it.