Category: God’s purpose for you

Pottery or clay?


Have you become hard as fired pottery or are you still able to be changed like clay? In God’s hands we are as clay, in that we are being changed and molded into the likeness of Jesus. This is the way that your life as a Christian is supposed to be, but do we allow God the control in our lives to make us into what we should be? I don’t mean that God will make you something that you cannot be, because He knows what you can be and what you can do! He can mold you into the perfect instrument that can do exactly what you are intended to do and to be!

Will He create in you something that you shouldn’t be? Of course not! God is the Perfect Potter because He made us in His image and He wants us to do His will so why can’t we do this? It is mostly because we have our own free will and we can choose to be and do His will or not. Why on earth would God allow us to do that? Because, if it is not our choice to be His and do His will then we are not showing our love for Him. If He forced us to do His will, then we would be no more than mindless beings that have to do His will regardless. How would your life be if you had no choice in what you did? How would you feel about it? No one in the world would like that at all nor would they enjoy it to any extent, that is why God gave us free will.

He gave the angels free will to choose as well, which is why there was a rebellion in Heaven so long ago. God never intended for creation, mankind or angel, to be required to blindly do His will. He wanted each of us to choose and to be able to choose, because by choosing we are showing our love for Him just as He showed His love for us in the grace and mercy that He gives to us each day.

What about Christianity?


What is wrong with this idea?

At some point in history, a man comes along which does a lot of good things and teaches others to do so as well. Is it possible that we misunderstood his message? Have we dismissed him as being a good man or a prophet, instead of being the Son of God?

The answer to all of these questions is: YES!!

Why do we look at this Person in history as such a bad influence on society? It has been said that those who believe in Him are dumber and not as in touch with today as those who don’t. Also, that “Christians” are clinging to a crutch that weakens them and society. Most of the scientists of the past couple of centuries WERE Christians! They were looking for a way to prove God’s existence and His majesty in the world around them, not tear His influence out of the pages of history! I choose to believe in God and in His Son, if that offends you FINE. It is just MY belief, if you don’t want to believe in Him then that is your choice.

The thing about the argument that God doesn’t exist is that nobody can prove it, just as they can’t actually prove how planet’s form or evolution itself. Yes, there are fossils in the ground, yes it supposedly takes “millions or billions of years” to do these things like making a planet or evolving from a single cell into a whale or any other creature. Theory is good and I accept them even though I don’t agree with them. Trying to disprove a theory is like running into a brick wall, nothing gets done except a lot of bruised and hurt feelings.

The thing is…you can’t disprove God either. When the time comes, all men will know that He is God and will acknowledge it, whether they believe it or not. You will not be forced into believing it but you will bow to Him, just as Satan will. It seems to upset some people a lot about Christian beliefs even when they claim that they don’t believe in what Christians believe. Why should it bother you so much that my beliefs are not the same as yours? I don’t get in your face because of it!

I don’t care what beliefs that you have as long as you can leave me alone to worship as I please, then I will do the same for you. I will pray for you and those that you are trying to change to your side, but I am not going to get in your face about it. It is a fact that God loves you and everyone else just as much as He loves me and causing a fight or a war over it won’t change it. Before we get into the evil discussion I will just say that unless there was good in the world, nobody would know what evil was in the first place.

God did not create evil. It existed and came into existence because of the ability of angels ability to choose whether to serve God or not. Pride began to lift them up and  they wanted more and didn’t want to be servants of God any longer. Satan wanted to be equal with God and I doubt that if  he had attained that goal, he wouldn’t have been satisfied with it. Now that he knows that he doesn’t have long to deceive humanity, he is doing as much damage as possible to the Earth and to humanity as he can. Through wars, disease, weather, “global warming”, you name it and Satan will use it, if it will turn people away from God or make them blame Him for the problems in the world today.

The love of God and His grace is the only blessing that we have that is keeping it from getting any worse right now. Our world will be in much worse shape when the leader comes along that brings “peace and safety” to the Middle East, because it will only last for a few years and then his true nature will show itself to the world.

When you are down


1623771_736809902997332_1536594980_nThe times that I have been down in my life and not realized what I was going through, I don’t think that I could count them. I was very likely depressed more than I thought but I just thought that I was having a bad day. In truth, I was having a bad day but it also involved being at school or being with my family which really didn’t help much and sometimes made it worse.

They tried to help cheer me up or make me laugh. It worked sometimes, but more often than not it didn’t and it just compounded the problem. Family members, Mom, grandmother and grandfather and friends from school all would try to “help” in their own ways but the depression was still there, sometimes it was less cumbersome than before but often I would just lie and tell them that I was OK, and we would get on with the day.

True, that was not the right way to handle it but I didn’t know that at the time and neither did you. The point that I am making here is not one to bring up old habits or memories from this past week or in your life. My point on this site is to point you to the One person Who can help heal the dark areas of your mind and bring you back into the light of day. He won’t force you to worship Him and I won’t bring up the sinful life that we have all lived, because you know what you have done or what you may be doing today.

God loves you so much that He allowed His Son to give His life on a cross in order to take the penalty for your sins, regardless of how bad you think that you are. He came so that you can have an abundant life, one that is full of purpose and hope, not depression and thoughts of death and despair. I have had them myself, but I have conquered them through Jesus and His strength not on my own.

Give your life and REAL purpose, follow Jesus and do what the other disciples did…make disciples of others, become His disciple not because you are required to but because you are grateful that you have the chance. God has a place for you in eternity, and all that you or I have to do to get there is to believe in the saving power of Jesus and what He did for all of us on that cross.

Lies, lies, lies


In one sense all lies are lies to God. However, as the passage below shows, there is a particular type of lie that qualifies specifically as lying to God. I think of this as “lying on steroids.” Often, this lie is not about hiding things that are wicked, but about misrepresenting things that appear to be good, even righteous. This is where the greatest danger lies for children raised in Christian homes. That is why your parenting must go beyond addressing just their behavior.

“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.” Acts 5:1-4

Each day you challenge your children to obey God. In each home this challenge comes with the promise of some kind of negative consequence for not obeying and some type of reward for obedience. Even when you neglect to follow through with the consequences of disobedience, the specter of accountability hangs in the air. Given their sinful nature, the tendency of children is to find ways to avoid these consequences. At the same time, there is also the promise of reward attached to requests for obedience. So again, even when the reward is not consistent (or even not biblical), human nature desires the reward, whether it is deserved or not.

For example, one sibling sees that his sister is rewarded for cleaning. So, he is careful to mention that he too, helped, even if he did not actually do anything. This child realizes that he can achieve what he wants if his parents perceive that he is doing good things. Thus, he might participate by appearing to be busy, but only when mom is looking. Internally, he may be resentful of having to do something he doesn’t want to, but he is motivated by the reward or praise he thinks he will receive. He may even agree that God helped him to obey because he knows that is what his parents want to hear. This deceptive, self-serving attitude may eventually lead to the kind of deception that Ananias and Sapphira practiced. They were seeking praise and status without the sacrificial spirit of truly loving Christ. It was in this way that they lied to God.

As parents, you must not become complacent when your children give only outward compliance to your directions. If you put up with a grumbling, complaining spirit as the price for your children following your directions, you open the door to lying to God. God desires obedience from the heart, not the outward form of ritual sacrifice. (Amos 5:21-23; Isaiah 29:13) So, the mindset that says, “At least he took the garbage out, even though he moaned and groaned about it,” totally misses the point of loving God. This child is not being shepherded. Rather he is being encouraged to believe that God will be satisfied with mere outward compliance to his commands, even when his heart is not involved in his obedience.

Ananias and Sapphira believed that they could trade the appearance of obedience for spiritual status—for recognition from others that they were devoted to the church. But God is not mocked. He cannot be deceived. Lying expresses the hypocrisy of the human heart. This is why the Lord detests lying lips. As lies progress beyond mere self-protection to the point of lying to achieve personal desires, the danger of lying directly to God increases. Ananias and Sapphira tried to manipulate the appearance of doing good. The fatal mistake they made was thinking they could deceive God as well as people.

Lying is not something to ignore, deal with lying whenever you discover it. Don’t allow the busy routine of life to cover patterns of outward compliance. But we must address this sin carefully and wisely. This requires a substantial investment of time and biblical wisdom.

Revival of the Church


Is this something that is needed or is it already too late?

Yes, it is needed and it is absolutely NOT too late! Although many churches, or at least those who make up the body of the churches need revival in a BIG way. Revival of spirit, revival of conviction and of their purpose as Christians. It is not too late, but to most of the world, especially in America, we are silent about things that we should not be silent about. Yes, Jesus said to turn the other cheek but even He overturned the money changers tables and those tables which were selling animals for sacrifice in the courtyard of the Tabernacle!

We are not supposed to just roll over and say, “Oh well, so it goes.” Would Jesus be quiet right now in the face of all that is going on in this world? I don’t think so. When He comes back there will be many who will be wishing that He had not!

I know there are some who don’t believe in our God or in anything that the Bible says, but it is the Truth of God and when He comes they will see that it is and always has been true. As Ezekiel looked on the valley of dry bones, he did not know that they would live again but God knew. God could revive them and in the vision that he had, God did just that. He can do that to the church today! He can bring us up from the grave, no matter where we are in life or death because He is God the Creator.

The church today is not dead, but asleep and not doing the work that Jesus gave it to do. We must keep working for Jesus until He comes again. It is our duty and His command that we take His message to all of the world and we can’t do that sitting behind the walls of our churches. Jesus is and always has been the Son of God, the Living Word and He is the Creator because of the Word that was used by God to create everything.

We have to get out of our comfort zones even if it takes getting our shoes dirty and going places that we might not want to go, but where He commands that we take Him! He prompted me to begin this ministry online and it is His prompting that gives me the words to write. I am not and never have been a prolific speaker or writer, but in the past few years I have been writing what I was given by Him…here and elsewhere (my other two sites), in order to get His message out to those that might read it.

I don’t do this for my sake or for any kind of recognition, but for your sake and for your salvation in coming to know my Savior as yours. The church is not a building it is the people who meet there and come to worship Jesus there. Whether the church happens to be in a large building or in a home, the people gathering there are the church. We need to be inviting others to join us in our worship so that they can come to know Jesus too.

Conviction, what is it?


I asked a question a few days ago about what is hell, now I am asking about conviction. What is it? I am not talking about being convicted of a crime such as in a court of law. I am talking about being convicted by the Holy Spirit. Have you ever felt that? Have you felt it during a sermon at a church? If you did, why didn’t you give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to come to live in your heart and your life?

Think about it. Conviction of doing something that is wrong or sinful brings you to the point of knowing that something needs to change and that something is your life-style. Give up drinking and smoking and having sex outside of a married relationship with a person of the opposite sex. Why am I being so specific about this? Because there are too many people who don’t think that this is important. Because there are too many people who don’t believe that the Bible is the Truth of God and the Word of God. If it isn’t the Truth, then I am mistaken and I am wrong.

But, what if the Bible is the Truth and the Words in it are True? If it is, then everything that I have said is just as true because I preach this every Sunday in church and I preach it from God’s Word, the Bible. Yes, it is true and it is God’s Word. There is no denying this, although many people do. So how can we possibly get past the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

We can’t, actually. If you have felt it or maybe are feeling it but don’t know what to do about it, here is a hint: Don’t turn away from it! God wants you for a reason, that is why you are feeling this conviction. If the Creator needs you, don’t run away from Him because you can’t. It doesn’t work. Jonah tried it, I tried it too but eventually God will manage to get your attention and get you back where He needs you to be.

Give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to show you how to live and what He wants from you and He will. The Lord is gracious and loves all of us, He will answer a prayer for wisdom and knowledge especially if you are wanting to do what He is calling you to do.

Hell, what is that?


HELL-105818653518Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But, many people don’t believe that it exists. God speaks about it and Jesus speaks about this place, so it must exist somewhere. Why do people think that they will be having fun by going there though? I don’t understand that at all!

Even Milton wrote something quite unusual to me: “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven”; since when does anyone think that they will be “reigning” in hell? There is nothing to reign over! Heat that is eternal, sulphur that burns and those in hell have bodies which will not die, they will just feel pain! The pain of rejection and loss of Heaven and opportunities to be with loved ones will also be there.

Your life will continue although it will not be like many people think that it will. I have worked with many people who think that they will be living it up with all of their friends while eternity rolls on, when in fact it will be nothing like that at all.

God has given each of us a grace period in a way. One that allows us to come to our own conclusion about our eternal destination but there are so many that reject this gift and think that they have a better and more fun-filled way of getting to Heaven on their own. There is a problem with that though, because nothing that we do on our own is good enough to get us to Heaven. Jesus did everything that is necessary for our salvation and all that we have to do is believe in His sacrifice for us and accept it as the wonderful gift that it is!

No amount of work or money will add to what He has already done because nothing from our point of view and our strength is worthy of recognition by God. Jesus’ sacrifice and the blood that He shed for us, all of us, is enough and it doesn’t need anything added to it. Look at it like this:

If you had committed a truly heinous crime, one that deserved the death penalty and you were convicted of it. What could you do about it? Once you are convicted, unless there has been a terrible mistake, there really is nothing that you can do to reverse the situation. All that you can do is wait for your execution date. Then, one hour before your execution, a man comes to the judge and asks to be put in your place so that you can go free. Unbelievably, the judge agrees and you are set free and he is executed in your place. Did you deserve to be set free? Do you deserve the gift that you were given…life in the place of death?

This is exactly what Jesus did for each person on Earth. None of us, not even one person, deserves the life that is provided, the eternal pardon that has been given, but that doesn’t keep each of us from reaching out and taking it if we want it. So, what is keeping you from taking the gift that has been given? What part of your life here is so important, so wonderful that you would rather choose it over the future that you have in Christ? We have no idea how life will be in Heaven, but it will be far better than what we could have here, even if we had everything that we could possibly want it will pale in comparison to what is waiting for us.

Give it some thought, read the Bible with an open mind, pray about your future with Jesus. Don’t throw away the chance that you have been given freely and without cost to you.

Thinkin’ about stuff…


300px-Pooh_and_Piglet,_Thinking

I really like Pooh Bear. His philosophy of life is profound and simple. Eat, enjoy life with your friends, think about…stuff. Like, how clouds look and how they get around, why is the Sun so bright, could I fly to the moon? All important questions, especially when you don’t want to think about the REAL world and its problems. Life is a question from the time that we can talk and make sentences until the day that we, in the words of Commander Data “go offline”. How can we really enjoy life when there are so many questions? Do we have to answer them all? I am only adding to the number of questions by asking all of these.

The point is that we are beings who think. Our minds work all of the time, except while we are asleep and some say that we actually solve many of our problems while we are asleep we just don’t realize it at the time. Unconscious thoughts, words, meanings and emotions cloud our thinking and crowd out the really weird stuff, but only while we sleep. When we are awake, we have news and Facebook and Instagram and conversations over our phones and computers as well as with other human beings. Not to mention the things which we really have to do, like go to work, drive the car, watch for the other people on the highway around us, then do our job (whatever that might be) and then drive home and either fix something to eat for our family or get it as take-out from a restaurant.

Your life and mine are constantly in motion. Our minds rarely have a chance to catch up with everything that we are doing, and yet I haven’t even mentioned giving time to God or Bible study and meditation, prayer, etc. It is possible to do all of these things but when you write them down…they look so overwhelming! God gave us the ability to do this but we take it for granted, because from the time we first start going to school, more things are added to our daily menu of things to do every day! It seems that we are never really caught up or that we ever will catch up. Why?

More questions. Think…think…think..what can we do that doesn’t require so much energy, so much brainpower? I don’t have the answer to that, unless you might want to play some games on a console or on the computer, that is a mostly brain-less activity in my opinion. So, without being brain-less, how about getting into God’s Word? The wisdom contained in it doesn’t require us to really think, just believe in Him and His wisdom, as well as in His Son Who made it possible for us to come to God at any time that we need Him, regardless of the circumstance.

Once Jesus took care of the atonement or payment for our sins, all that we have to do is to believe in Him and what He did and ask Him to forgive us and to help us be more like Him in our daily lives. So that we can bring His message to others and, if the Holy Spirit draws them, maybe they will want to give their lives to Him as well. Christians don’t go on jihad (except for the ones that were deceived by their church in the Middle ages), Christianity cannot be forced on anyone and neither can any other religion!

Please consider your eternal soul and really think…think this through before deciding to follow Jesus or not. The decision can be the most valuable in your lifetime, because then your true, eternal life won’t end at all! 

Does God care?


If God did not care, you wouldn’t be reading this. Whether you believe in Him or not isn’t the point and whether you want to believe in Him isn’t the point either. God is, period. He cares, He loves each of us and He knows when and where you will die and how. He is omnipotent and outside of time, so He can see the beginning and the end and everything in between.

Your lack of belief will not change any of these facts and you will believe when He comes again, there is no denying that. Just like voting against gravity or sunshine will not make them go away, not believing in God is your choice but even Satan knows better! YES, God cares about you and every person on this Earth because He had a hand in your life at one point.

Choosing to disbelieve this will not change anything. God is eternal and He has a plan for us all. We can’t find out that plan until we seek Him and come to know Him though. Walking around or sitting around watching TV, fishing, hunting, or whatever you do that qualifies as ‘recreation and relaxation” doesn’t get you any closer to God. You are experiencing His creation and all the wonders of it, but until you decide to repent and allow Him to come into your life, the experience of it won’t mean much.

God is as near to you as your heartbeat and your breathing. He allowed you to get up this morning and begin a new day so don’t waste it! Use it for Him, decide to come before the Creator and humble yourself asking for His forgiveness that it took so long for you to find out that you need Him. Yes, God cares. He cared enough to send His Son to take the sins of the entire world on Himself, so that when you realized that you need Him, all that you have to do is believe in Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and make you His. That’s it.

It is not hard and there is nothing that you can do to make it better or easier. Actually, it couldn’t be much easier than: Father, I have been a sinner all of my life. I ask that you forgive me of all that I have done and cleanse me. Make me into a new creation through the power of your Son, Jesus. Thank you for your love and mercy, God. In Jesus’ name I ask this today and look forward to a new life with Him. Amen.

That is it. That simple prayer is all that you have to…no, need to do if you have never asked Him into your life before. Believe in Jesus, trust in Him and the Creator, God, because when you do everything changes and becomes new. Then, get a Bible, read it, study it, pray about it while you study it because He will help you to understand it and how it applies to your life. Then, tell someone about what Jesus has done for you. They will see it and know it whether you tell them or not because the change will be evident.

God’s children


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

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

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

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

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

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