Category: God’s purpose for you

Mothers, we wouldn’t be without them


Hers is a job that can’t be ignored nor can she call in sick.

“Womanhood is a wonderful thing. In womankind we find the mothers of the race.There is no man so great, nor none sunk so low, but once he lay a helpless, innocent babe in a woman’s arms and was dependent on her love and care for his existence. It is woman who rocks the cradle of the world and holds the first affections of mankind. She possesses a power beyond that of a king on his throne.
…Womanhood stands for all that is pure and clean and noble. She who does not make the world better for having lived in it has failed to be all that a woman should be.”
― Mabel Hale, Beautiful Girlhood: A Timeless Guide for Christian Adolescence

Mom is the one person that no one can be without because it takes a mom to bring you into the world. Dad can’t do it alone, although he is part of the equation. Your mother is always important, because she is the one who is there to take care of you and if she isn’t then it is your grandmother. Regardless of which one it is, she is or has been a mother at some point.

No one in the world would be what they are today without a mother or grandmother, whether king or President. We all owe our lives to the mother who carried us and brought us into the world and then nurtured us into the people that we are. Prayerfully, she was leading us toward Christ because we all need to be pointed toward a goal  that will give us hope and He is our hope.

There are so many today who are supporting abortion and the decision behind it but children are gifts from God so why are they being aborted? Mostly because of choice and convenience from what I have read about in the news and what I hear from supporters of this. I am not coming down on abortion but has anyone considered how many children have been killed because of it? God considers a life in the womb as a human being because there is a command in the Old Testament which says: “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, ” Exodus 21:22,23

These are the words of God’s law, not man’s. Women were created to help mankind (woman and man) to prosper, grow, and be companions to each other. Mothers are to be the nurturer, the one’s who give life and sustain it and help it to grow. We, meaning all of us are to be that way, not killing and murdering people the way the wars and persecutions in our world do! We are not supposed to be this way, we were created to be companions of God and to walk with Him in fellowship and a loving home is where this starts.

Give God a chance in your life, in your home and the rest of the blessings from God will follow.

 

Negativity everywhere


Besides the news channels and websites, there is so much negative in and on the web. I thought that this collaborative network was supposed to be open and free of this kind of rubbish! Everywhere you look on the web these days, someone is saying something about someone’s religion or their beliefs or their nationality and most of it is not positive at all.

In keeping with the message of my blog, there were a lot of negative vibes around when Jesus was teaching  and all the way back to the beginning too. During the time that Moses was leading the Israelites  out of Egypt, there were many complainers and whiners, all sorts of negative comments flying about. How could he deal with it? Moses took all of the negative comments to God and prayed about it! Why can’t we do the same today? The reason that we don’t is because we have pushed God as far away from us as we possibly can.

Even the church has watered down His message so that it is more tolerant and easy to handle for those who want their own version to live by. That is not the way to get people saved! If we don’t show them and tell them what is in God’s word, without diluting it, how will they know? I know there will be many people who do not agree with me on this and I may get some nasty comments from this, but the point is this: If no one tells you that you are going to fall, what will happen? You will fall!

If I could see that there was a very thin sheet of ice or something that you were walking on and I didn’t warn you about it, I would be guilty of your death wouldn’t I? The same principle applies to life and the religion that we have a choice to follow. There are multiple paths that are in the world right now and many of them look and sound great. Many of them don’t require you to do anything. No changes in your life at all in most of these religions although some have dietary restrictions as well as restrictions on what you may drink and how many times you should pray. Others, only require that you be as good as you can be and ask that you be a morally upright person. The problem with these religions is that they all require you to do something to be accepted.

The truth is that none of us, not one person on earth is good enough to be perfect in our performance regardless of what we are attempting to do or be! We cannot adhere to the Law of Moses perfectly without breaking even one of the laws. No one is perfect enough to adhere to all of the requirements of any religion, it is humanly impossible!

That is why Christianity is the only religion which allows for our imperfection and provides us with righteousness through the sinless Son of God who died in our place and took the punishment for us all. So that all we have to do is..believe in Him and ask Him to come into our heart and our lives! When we do that, we are changed into “a new creation; the old has passed away and behold, we are made new”.

The negative part of your life at that point is over and you have a positive life from that point on. I am not saying that your life will be perfect and without problems from that point on. Satan may make your life harder because you may bring many people to Christ in your life and he knows it, so he will try to make you fall and stumble, but Christ will be with you to strengthen you and get you through those trials. Because of that, you will be stronger in your faith and able to be what God intended for you to be!

God loves you, each and every one, and He knows exactly what you can do and what you will do when you are His child. Your future is in His hand because He knows the end and the beginning, and all of the points in between. Give Jesus a chance in your life and make your life His from this point on!

Do you act like a child?


“When I was a child, I spoke as a child and played as a child; when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:11)

This is something which we have heard from preachers for years, but what exactly does it mean?
To us, as Christians, it means that when we finally grow up, regardless of what age we may be when we do, we should act like it!
Do we act like it? Have we grown up? Are we, as adults, really grown up?
1. Most of us are not.
• We do what we want to do, when we want to do it, if possible. Then, we get mad if we can’t.
• People see themselves as good, but what about the thoughts that we all have. Are they good all the time? Would you want Jesus to read your thoughts every day? He knows what you think whether you have given your heart to him or not.
• Does it bother you that God knows every thought that you have? If it doesn’t, you might want to check your relationship with Him.
2. Can we fix our character, our heart or our soul on our own? Of course not! We can’t pull off something like that, only Jesus can do a soul-cleansing restoration on your heart and soul!

Many times, we believe that we are in charge. We start our lives wanting to be in charge of our life. “I can do it myself!” How many times have parents heard that? At those times it is cute, for a while, but when children get older it is called being rebellious. It tends to cause ulcers and grey hair and lost hair too.

The point is that, when we think that we are good enough to run our lives by ourselves, we are taking the throne away from the One Who is supposed to be there! We are doing the same thing that Satan tried to do when He was cast into outer darkness. He wanted to put himself on the throne which God was on or to put his “throne” above God’s. We can’t do that, although many people do just exactly that!

People that think they have plenty of time to get around to God do it. People who don’t believe that there is a God do it. People who have made their own version of “god” do it. This happens all over the world, every day. Billions of people think that they know better than God!

Can we be that ignorant? Are we? Many people think that they have all of the answers for their own problems and for the world’s problems too. You see them on television and on the internet every day. If they base their advice on God’s Word, and use its wisdom to advise people, then maybe they do have the answer for mankind’s problems. But, if they are using their own wisdom or some wisdom from man, such as Buddhism or Scientology, then they are mistaken. Even the Koran is only from a man, it was not given by God. God would not condone killing others because they won’t accept Islam as their religion. That sounds like it came from Satan himself.

The answers to our life’s problems lie in giving our hearts and our minds to Christ so that we can become more like Him. Following Him in all of our ways, every day and in all things. Give the day to Him before you begin it so that He will be in your mind and heart and direct your steps and words during your daily routine. It isn’t hard to do, but it is a conscious decision that we have to make. A decision that comes only when your heart is filled with the Holy Spirit and you have taken the Word into your mind. One sermon a week listening to someone preach doesn’t equip you for service to God, you have to do that daily!

I know that many people think that daily walks with God in His Word is what the preacher is supposed to do. It is what we are all called to do as Christians, to be followers of Christ. Walking with God daily is our responsibility because if we don’t, we won’t get to know the God who came to save us. Reading the Bible is the best way for us to get to know Him because it is His way of communicating with us and telling us about Himself.

God loves us more than we can understand but the way that we can learn about Him is by reading His word. Getting to know our Father better is one of the best things you can do for your relationship with Him, the better you know Him, the easier it is to recognize His voice when He speaks to you. I can’t imagine a more satisfying relationship than having one with the Creator of everything! He created us all for that, the least that we could do is return the love toward Him.

God knew you before you were born and He knows when your last day on the earth will be. Knowing this, He still chose you to be a child of His and all He is waiting for is your agreement with Him and your asking Him into your heart and life. God’s grace toward us is loving and eternal and doesn’t depend on anything that we may believe that we have to do, God doesn’t need our help in making us righteous. He works His changes in your heart and your life gradually and carefully, but sometimes those changes may hurt a bit.

We don’t agree with the pain and suffering that we have to endure during the time of God’s changes in our hearts and our lives because, even as Christians, it hurts or it is uncomfortable. That’s life! Jesus didn’t say that He came to make our lives easy. He told the disciples and us through them that we would have trouble and pain in this world, but He also tells us to take heart because He overcame the world and through Him, we can too!

There are many people in the world that are hurting every day and in more ways than we can imagine but God knows about each of them and His Spirit is with them through it all. He will draw them to Himself and if they answer the call they will have His strength to carry them through whatever they are being put through. Many people don’t acknowledge that call on their spirit because they are hurting too much or they are high on drugs or they are drunk, but God knows their hearts. He will keep drawing them until they tell Him to go away, if they recognize that it was Him to begin with.

Other times, which happens more often that we would like to believe, they don’t hear His call in their life. People are so caught up in what they are doing or having to deal with until they are spiritually deaf. Satan loves it when we are so caught up in our lives and our jobs or with our family that we can’t even hear God calling to us. That is when he will crank up the volume in our life so that we are even more involved and there is no way God can get through. But, God knows your heart and He knows whether you will hear Him at some point and it is at those times, whether you like what is happening to you or your family or not, that you will hear Him! You may wonder why this is happening at that point but it is because God has something that only you can do and He will not let you ignore Him.

I can hear many people saying that we are not predestined but God says that we are. He can raise up a ruler or bring him down for His purposes and He can do the same with us. He is the Creator and can do anything that He desires to do and if that means breaking down your will in order to build you up to be the person that He knows you can be, then that is what He will do. Give your heart to God before He has to allow that to happen in your life, so that He can use you in a more fantastic way than you could ever imagine! Won’t you call on Him today?

Our world is (mostly) lost


There are many who, I imagine, would agree with that statement and many who would disagree as well. But, from a salvation point of view, it is true. Many people, billions of them in fact, are lost. They are looking for something, yet they don’t know what it is, and they are looking in the wrong places. The look to things or people or religions that offer no real hope. Nothing proven to be a future hope, just feelings of belonging to something that is temporary. Life itself, the one that we all live on this planet, is temporary. It may seem to be an arduous task to live it, however you may do so and wherever you may live and yet the time that we have is but an instant.

Eternity lies before us, all of us, regardless of the place we may go to after our physical death. We should choose whether we will serve our own lusts and desires in this life or will we give our life to Christ and do the work that He has for us to do. Many people think that living for and through Him is boring and not fun and that couldn’t be more wrong. Once the Creator has taken up residence in your heart, He is with you regardless of what you are doing or where you may be. He sees and knows the things that you do before you belong to Him and it grieves His heart to see you going through so much heartache without Him.

To be useful to Christ doesn’t take going on a mission trip or being a pastor. Just doing little things for people who haven’t know Him, but they know that you do, will have a BIG impact. Even if you don’t do those things every day, just once a week will get them to thinking. When we act like Jesus toward others, that is when they see Jesus in us, and many times they will want what they see.

I learned this morning that a wonderful man of God went to his reward and went to his eternal home yesterday. He was over one hundred years old but I know that he won’t look it when I see him in eternity. I didn’t know him personally in this life, but I will in the next one. His name is George Beverly Shea and I don’t consider him to be dead at all. Just as Jesus spoke of Moses and others as being alive and not dead, I consider all those who have gone to their reward as being alive forevermore.

Regardless of what you may have learned in college, this life doesn’t end when your eyes close in death. That is only the death of the physical body. Eternity is for all of us, the place where you spend that eternity is up to you!

What will you do with the time that you have? The decision must be made while you are here because there are no “do-overs”, we don’t get to come back and fix things and do better next time. The dress rehearsal is the life that you are living and you only get one.

 

After Easter, what now?


The services are over, the message is done. Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour yet? There were “passion plays“, re-enactments of Jesus’ hours before His crucifixion that touched many people’s hearts and their minds with how well they were done and put together. Yet, did anyone really get the message found in them?

Jesus came to be the sacrifice for all of our sins. Not just those of the people who He preached to and His disciples preached to and carried the gospel to in their journeys, but for all of us, especially those who had not been born yet! His message and His sacrifice was for you and me and everyone else on this world, all we have to do is believe in what He did and Who He was so that we can have eternity with Him.

Many people who I have heard say that is too simple. It just can’t be that easy. The problem that they have is that they are making it harder than it is! Accepting Jesus doesn’t make your life easier! It doesn’t take away the suffering, the bills, the heartache of life that we have to live but it does make it easier to bear because we have Him and His strength to bear it with.

God loves us enough that He sent His Son to become a man and die a very cruel death to pay for all of our sins so that we would not have to pay the penalty for them. Many people don’t think that there is a punishment for not accepting Christ, but God’s Word clearly says that there is. Some may be punished more than others, depending on what they did in their life on earth, but the punishment is real nonetheless. It was designed for Satan and his demons but by rejecting Jesus and the offer of eternal life, we will be cast into it as well. We have free will to do what we choose which is why we sometimes get into trouble that we shouldn’t be in. If we didn’t have that free will, we would be unable to truly enjoy our lives. We would be like puppets and that is not what God wants! He wants us to freely give our love and service to Him because of His Grace that has been extended to us.

It is our own choices which place us there, not God. He won’t change our choices while we live, only we can do that and it is our individual choices which will condemn us to an eternity in hell or to live in paradise with Jesus. The choice is up to each of us, which one we choose to follow during our life will determine the life we have in eternity.

Life is..?


Life is…? What? Hard? Easy? Difficult? Mostly, life is all of these. Occasionally, all of them at the same time!

The wind blows, the trees sway.

The river and streams run and tumble and play,

But the rocks are still, yet they are shaped,

By wind and water too.

Life is like that as well. The things that we experience shape our lives and how we perceive life. Can we do anything about the life that we live? Sometimes, but most of the time we just live it. Is it hard to “just live it”? Not really unless you live in poverty or in an area that has been under a drought for a long time or in a war torn area of the world. Life is not easy, regardless of where you live or what you believe in.

The society and cultures that we live in, regardless of the country, shape our opinions and our lives as well as our characters. Is there any way that we can be good enough to be human and be kind to one another? Yes, we all have the capability and the moral compass within us. Whether we choose to be that person or not is our choice. We are free to choose, for good or evil, how our actions affect those around us.

Most of us would like to be liked by our colleagues, so we choose to be likeable and friendly. Others in society choose to be selfish, caring only about what is good for them as individuals and nothing for anyone else. Thankfully, those who are selfish make up a smaller portion of society, but they do get most of the media attention so we hear about them most often. I think that is why we are so fascinated by reality shows. When cameras are around, at some point the selfish person will show up when they are least expected and usually it is the person who wasn’t selfish to begin with.

We are a group of contrasts, always changing as we get older. Sometimes for better, sometimes not so much. Age doesn’t always bring wisdom, it should but life has a way of teaching you lessons that you really don’t enjoy and whether you get wisdom from these lessons or not is still up to you. We are ruled by our choices in life and in eternity. I know, many people don’t really believe that there is an eternity but it is mentioned in the Bible so I believe it exists, and it is a very long, long time!

How can we make a difference in our life and in other people’s lives now and into eternity? By living the life that we have like it is going to end tomorrow! Telling and showing others the One who came to give them life after this one! It is not a hard job, but it is one that is not very popular right now. Some of the lessons contained in God‘s Word are considered “hate speech“, bigoted, elitist views of salvation, the list goes on and on.

The point of all of this is that we only have a limited amount of time to let others know about Jesus. Our lifetime is only a small part of eternity and compared to eternity it is but a puff of smoke or mist. The message that we have is one that is very important to those who need it and will listen. If you don’t think that you need it..well, prayer is an option, searching for the answer in God’s Word is another option, but religion is not. Religion, regardless of which one it is, can get you and anyone else a place in hell quicker than anything because it is not religion that saves your soul, it is belief in Jesus‘ sacrifice for you that saves you!

Open the Word, seek the wisdom contained in it, ask God to reveal Himself to you. Then let His light shine through you to others so that they can see Him and want to know Him too. Truly God is in control, otherwise our world would’ve ended long ago. Get to know Him while you can.

 

 

Easter, is it meaningful to you?


The passion of Christ, His crucifixion and resurrection…what does it mean for us, for you?

In our daily life and our lives in general it means the difference between having hope for eternity and having no hope at all. Your life and the meaning of your life while you are here doesn’t mean much to the world in general. Most people or countries don’t care anything about us as individuals. We are just numbers and revenue in the form of taxes and consumerism.

To Christ we are important. We, each of us, are important enough that He came and died for us so that we could have eternal life. But, it was not just for our benefit that He came and died, it was for the Kingdom of God and for His Glory. The work that we can do through Him and the work that He can do through us is the reason for our salvation and for His sacrifice.

So, why does life seem to be without hope to most people? Even if they are or claim to be Christians? It could be that they have not given themselves totally to Christ. Many people think that because they have asked Jesus into their lives and their heart that that is all that is required. True, for you to have eternal life that is it, but an abundant life and the eternal rewards that you will receive for the work that you do as a follower of Christ is what you do beyond that.

For Easter and its Christian meaning to have real meaning for you, your life in Christ has to have or be meaningful. I am not speaking of being a mother or father or of your job, those positions are important because your Christian life can shine through those areas as well. To be meaningful in Christ your life in Him must show to the outside world in some way that others will see it and want what you have.

The mini-series that is on the history channel, “The Bible“, this year is one couple’s way of doing that. Each of us can be more or do more with the strength and wisdom given to us by God and that is what I am speaking of in this writing.

Many people wonder, “Does God give me a gift or the wisdom to do these things?”, the answer to that is Yes! In the Bible, there is a passage that says (paraphrased) “ask of God and He will give you wisdom” James 1:5; each of us is unable to do the things that we do in the ministries that we have unless we have the ability and the wisdom from Him to do them.

The writing that I have been doing for these past five years or so would be impossible for me to to without the words and the wisdom that God gives me. I don’t have it in me to create this much or for it to make sense the way it seems to unless these words come from God and not me!

Easter is a time to celebrate Christ’s sacrifice for each of us, not to celebrate spring or chocolate or colored eggs. The celebration that we see each year is a pagan celebration of spring, that is all. Celebrating the love and compassion that God has for us and that through His Son, He could make a way for each of us to be reconciled to Him is what we should celebrate and truly be thankful for.

The love that God has for each of us is the reason that He came and sacrificed Himself for us to reconcile each of us to Himself, there was no other way to do it. Your life..our lives can have so much more meaning and purpose through Christ and with Him working through us. Give Jesus a chance to come into your heart and make it His home because once He does your life will never be the same!

Feed your faith!!


Background: Romans 10:17

Learn to feed your faith and starve your doubts. The doubts that you have can truly affect your life so eliminate them by getting into your Bible and in a Bible teaching church!

If you don’t come to church, read your Bible, and pray, then you have no shield of faith for protection from Satan. Sometimes college students go off and let some ungodly, unbelieving man make fun of their faith. And they fall apart like a house of cards. That’s because they don’t have a strong faith in God. Feed your faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” and it will be like a shield to you to protect you from all the fiery darts of the wicked world that we live in. It gives the believer certainty, certainty about what they believe and Who you believe in.

Again, you must actively, consciously clothe yourself in the armor of God. How much are you dedicating yourself to being in His Word, learning how to wield your Sword? If you are doing this only on a weekly basis, the destroyer can get to you!

If you don’t open God’s Word and read it at least once a day, you don’t have the shield with the faith to wield it against everyday things which rob you of your faith in the One who can and does save you. Yes, this is about you and God, because He wants to know you and He wants you to know Him! Only by hearing the Word preached and getting into the Word can you know Him. Only by reading the Word can you recognize God’s voice and His way of speaking to you. He does love us all, each of us individually so there is a reason for what He does and how He does it. Our Savior asks us to come in and eat with Him and He waits for us to invite Him in as well.

Jesus does stand at the door and knock, patiently waiting for you to let Him in and He does this every day. Believers and non-believers are in this situation because many of them seek Jesus once per week and then leave Him at the church when the sermon is over. You have to take Him with you everywhere, every day, not just when things aren’t going your way or when you think you are “good enough” to do so.

Clothing yourself in the armor of God means that you get into the Bible so that the Spirit can use it to teach you what He says and what you are to do. The armor of God only protects you if you have it on; going to church on Sunday for thirty minutes or an hour doesn’t take care of the rest of the week! It reminds you of what you are to do and who you are to be with daily, but the cares of the world and your daily routine gets in the way or at least Satan lets you believe that.

Once you decide to trust and believe in Christ for salvation, wholehearted surrender and Christ-likeness becomes a goal to achieve with the help of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of believers. The only way to have the fellowship of believers is to be in fellowship with them, regardless of whether they are family and friends or not. The Bible says, “And we should not be forsaking our meetings, as is the custom for each person, but plead with one another all the more, as long as you see that day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25

The “sword of God” is His Word and if you don’t learn it and how to use it to counter the things that you hear and read every day, then Satan can get into your mind and change things just as he did to Eve in the garden.

Then, there are many who will say that the thief on the cross didn’t do these things so why do I have to do them? The thieves on the cross were divided in their view of Christ. One of them extended the condition, “…if you are the Christ, save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). The other placed his faith in Christ, asking, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (vs. 42). Christ’s response was the best news a dying man can hear. “Surely I say unto you, today you’ll be with me in paradise” (vs. 43).

There was no way this dying thief could have told others of his salvation. He was saved by recognizing Christ as who He said He was—the only One who could save him from his sin. He also showed Christ that he believed in Him as who He was, so it was the belief…the faith of the thief that saved him. Their death was imminent so they had no way of getting baptized or of learning the scriptures, but that is not required, yet belief in Jesus is!

It is true that they didn’t have the opportunity to do the things that we can do, but we are not to use the thief’s inability to do these things as an excuse for us not to do them! As long as we can do what Jesus wants us to do then we should, the Lord is coming back and He will require of each of us an explanation of the words and thoughts that we have had as well as why we heard the Gospel and did not act on it. Don’t be part of the crowd which is cast away because they didn’t act  or believe in what they heard before He came!!

Our God loves each of us as shown by Jesus’ sacrifice for us, even before most of the world was even born! No one can claim immortality without belief in and surrender to Jesus! Your life here is meaningless without Him in it, guiding you daily to do those things which He would do if He were in your shoes. We can be the feet and hands of Christ in a world that is going dark, but we must carry His words in our hearts and our minds to do so. We must tell others what Jesus has done for us and for them, so that they will know.

Many people have died during the course of writing this sermon and the time that it takes to give this sermon many more will die. Will any of them be on your mind or conscience? Were they your responsibility to give account of the joy that is in your hearts? Did they see the joy and peace in your life that Jesus brought into your life, and if they did, what evidence did you give them of Who was responsible for that joy?

These are questions that we all must answer, whether we will have to answer for them in front of Jesus or in front of the people that we see every day, I don’t know. Jesus gave each of us a job to do. How well we perform that job is our daily responsibility. It is not an easy task, because each of us has our own gifts and strengths and weaknesses too. But, with the power of the Holy Spirit living in each of us, we can do the job that we were given. Whether we choose to do that job or not is our choice, but in the end we will have to account for that choice. Which choice will you make?

Can we live with Christ?


Our lives were created to be more complete with Christ in our hearts. The area that feels empty in our life, that you may have been trying to fill with something is the spot that was designed for Christ to inhabit. If He is not in that spot, then your life feels empty regardless of how much success you may have according to the world’s standards. So how can we be filled with Him and have a life that is truly meaningful? The simple answer is for you to just ask Him to come into your heart!

I know that sounds way too easy, but it is the truth. In our lives on a daily basis, we are confronted with many problems and different things that get in the way of our true lives, our life with Christ! I know that many people look at this and say “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I have Him already!” or “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I don’t want Him in my life!”

Many people think that because they have gone to church for many years, maybe even from the time they were children, that they are Christians and they don’t need to ask Him to come into their hearts. That is like someone living in a garage who thinks they are a car or truck. Just because you have been in church for years doesn’t mean that you are a Christian. You have heard many sermons and served as a deacon or Sunday school teacher, but unless you have asked Jesus to come into your life and change you into the person you were meant to be, you are not a Christian. You are just a religious person who attends church.

Can you get past the religious part of your life and just accept Christ into your heart? As I stated, it seems too easy and some people think it is a waste of time. But, that is exactly what the world and Satan want you to believe. If Christ and your belief in Him is a waste of time, why does the world and Satan try to keep Him out of your life? What is the point of pushing God away if belief and having faith in Him don’t mean anything?

Your life and mine are very short compared to eternity, so where do you want to spend it? I have heard all of the stories of how people will party forever with Satan in hell and they will have a grand old time. Nothing could be further from the truth!!

Hell was created to punish those angels who rebelled against God and followed Satan. It was not created for us at all, but if you don’t accept Christ as your Savior and follow Him, you are on the wrong side! Eternal punishment for simply not believing and accepting Christ is what you will get and it will not be a party!

Of course there are many people who have said that a loving God would not put you into an awful place like that. The truth is that He doesn’t put you there, you do! If you stole a million dollars from a bank and then were caught with it, what kind of punishment would you expect? Maybe a job at the bank that you stole the money from? If you killed an important person, would you expect to be given the responsibility of taking care of their children? NO! You would expect the punishment to be severe.

God looks at us as children, rebellious and un- disciplined but He also sees our potential if we come to know and love Him and His Son, Jesus. Our life will change, our outlook on everything will change because when your heart is Jesus’ home, you look at things around you the way He does. There are only two sides to life, serving yourself or serving Jesus. Life on one side can be hard, full of sorrow and pain and emptiness but on the other side you have Jesus’ strength and assurance and hope!

The life that we have here only lasts for a short time, but once you cross the threshold of death, eternity waits. Which eternity will you have to look forward to? One where you get to meet all of those that your life influenced to come to Christ? Or one where you get to spend eternity alone, in pain and torment because of the wrong decision, the one decision where you rejected the Son of God who came so that you would have eternal life, if you had  just asked Him into your heart?

Religion may put you in hell!


In Paul’s day and in our own time, people keep traditions alive and you hear “that’s the way it has always been done”, as proof of their Christian lives and their beliefs as well as the “proof” of their conversion. We see people in church as well as on the street that we know as “church people”, meaning that they are in church every time that there is something going on there. It could also mean that they volunteer in church to drive the bus or to help in the nursery or any number of duties. These people feel sanctified and saved because of their deeds or their work for the church and they may be, but what about the Person that they are serving? Are they working for Jesus or themselves?

In Paul’s day there were many who were “religious”, all of the priests, the Pharisees and Sadducees were religious and yet Jesus condemned them. They were convinced that they were right and everyone else was wrong and they would not listen to any “new” teaching. They were stuck in the past with all of their laws and rules and they had hardened their hearts against anything new.

Do you know people like that? I do, but what can you or I do about it? We can’t change them because they don’t listen or won’t listen just as those in Jesus’ time wouldn’t. So what can we do? Love them, and pray for them daily.

In reference to the title of today’s sermon, there will be many people in hell who are or were religious while they were here and they were that way their whole life. They were convinced that their way was right and that they were doing things right, so what happened? They weren’t shown the error of their ways? Maybe or maybe they just didn’t listen or really hear sermons which they attended. When your ears are closed to Christ and His way of living, your heart is too. So how do you get people like that to listen? By prayer and fasting. Even Jesus said that some problems can only be solved by prayer and fasting.

I am not speaking of fasting for forty days or even two weeks, but if there is someone that you love who hasn’t given their lives and their hearts to Jesus then pray for them and fast for one day! Drink water and juice during that time and pray.

Their life will be impacted and yours will too! God listens closely to those who combine fasting with prayer. The answer may not come immediately after the fast is over, but you can be sure that your prayer was heard!

When Paul wrote most of his letters to the different churches, he was usually in prison at the time. What does that say about his ministry? It says that it was effective for one thing because he was getting someone’s attention! He was striving for the prize, but what was that prize? The prize that Paul was striving for was to be more like Jesus and if it meant that he was stoned or imprisoned for the teaching that he was doing then so be it! The prize that Paul was seeking was also to be considered worthy of being a “good and faithful servant” to his Lord, which is something that we should also be striving for.

To live for Christ and with Him in your daily life is a conscious decision that has to be made daily. It doesn’t automatically happen when you accept Him as your savior. Many people think that once you have accepted Him into your heart, you have done your part. That is not where your part in your new life ends but where it begins! You have to decide every day to take Christ with you everywhere you go! And if you wouldn’t take Jesus there in person, then you shouldn’t be there either!

That is a radical concept for many people to accept even Christians who have been in church most of their lives. You can get up and have a bad day and from that point you may un-invite Christ or decide not to ask Him to be with you that day. Of course He will still be there but you may not know it because you choose not to recognize Him. We are supposed to know and come to know Him daily because of Who He is and what He did for us and yet we sometimes choose not to allow Him to be a presence in our daily life.

Why would you decide such a thing? The Creator of everything wants a relationship with you and everyone else in the world, doesn’t that sound cool?! We are enamored with all sorts of celebrities and sports figures and would enjoy spending time with them so why not be just as excited when the Creator wants to be in your life and share it with you? The disciples had that relationship for about three years and yet they didn’t fully comprehend it until He ascended to the Father. We have the Bible, God’s Word, to tell us all that we need to know about Him and about the Father and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us daily in our walk with Him, what more could you ask for?

Our world and the one who influences people everyday tries to tell us that the things of this world, right now are more important than anything we could have with Jesus in our lives. Money, power, and possessions are all temporary because when our life is over those things won’t mean anything. Some of them may have sentimental value to our family but other than that, nothing in this world makes the trip past death’s door only your soul and spirit do that.

The way that many people see being a Christian is that we live with lots of rules and regulations about what we can and cannot do. That is not the way this works! Following Christ and keeping our eyes on Him, spiritually and physically is the requirement that we should live with every day. It is not hard to follow Christ, once you get the hang of it. The hard part is the tug of war between your old self and the new one that now lives in your heart.

Until your faith in Christ can keep your new self in place and kick the old one out, you will be in turmoil because you can’t serve them both. It is a decision that you have to make every day. Get up with Christ on your mind, not what am I going to do today? But Who am I going to be with today? Am I going to go back to doing the things that I did before I met Jesus? Or am I going to read the Bible a few minutes and pray for strength and guidance from Him to carry me through the day?

We are living this life to get ready for the next but you have to make sure that you are going to have a life, a real life, after this one. Many people think that there is no life after this one and the Bible says just the opposite from beginning to end. Give yourself a chance to experience that life because the alternative is eternal separation from loved ones who are in heaven and from the love of God too. The only chance that you have to make this decision is during this life, now. Once this life ends, there are no “second chances”. Ask Jesus into your life, follow Him every day, learn about Him and the love that He has for you during the time that you have now.

The universe shows us every day the power and majesty of God so we are without excuse when someone asks if there is a God. Isn’t it wonderful that the Creator of everything wants to know you and have a relationship with you? Don’t you want to know Him too? All you have to do is ask Him into your life and your heart and you will have that relationship.