Category: God’s purpose for you

Alienated….


Does anyone feel this way today? There are days when I feel this way and it even encroaches upon lonely, even with friends and family around. Why is that? Mostly it is because, I think, of my disability. I don’t have a daily job to go to, I don’t work except when I preach at church on Sunday. My “self-worth” isn’t tied to a career or a job anymore.

The good news about this is that God sees me as being worth His grace and His love! Just as He sees you and every other person on this planet, He looks at us with eyes that have seen all of the good and the truly horrible in humanity, and He still loves us! Why is that?

Because He is God! He can do whatever He pleases and it pleases Him to love us!

His love is so far above what we know and feel until it won’t be known by us until we are in His Presence…if we are born-again Christians. If you haven’t given your heart to Him and asked His forgiveness for your ways, then you will face Him as a person being judged for their life, their words and deeds, and everything that you gave approval of in your life.

Alienation is loneliness but it can bring you closer to Jesus if you will seek Him in it. Depression can be overcome by Him in your life by seeking His guidance through prayer, and reading the Psalms. All of our hindrances and limitations can be brought under His strength and under His tutorship if we will let Him take the wheel of our life.

We weren’t meant to do everything alone and without Him in our lives. We try to do a lot before we find out about Jesus and we try to do it with our own strength, our own ideas, our way of fixing things. Until we find that most of the time, our way is not going to work. We still feel empty and inadequate, unable to meet the deadlines and the requirements with our strengths and our ideas.

What are we to do?

Submit your life to Jesus and ask Him to cleanse your heart and your life so that you will be part of the family of God. Believe that He died for your sins and took the punishment for them, then ask Him to forgive you and He will. The grace of God has been extended to you through Jesus, all you have to do is ask for it and it is yours. You won’t be alone anymore because a part of God’s Spirit will live in your heart from that point on!

Today and yesterday


Do pastors need to be commentators about the issues of today? Sometimes it is good that pastors do this, but not at the expense of teaching from the Word of God. Today, people want to hear pastors comment on the issues of today, but that should not be the content of sermons on a regular weekly basis! Pastors are not newsmen but are supposed to be watchmen who tell their church members what God’s Word says and expound upon that!

I am a pastor and I was not called to bring attention to the news, but to bring people into the light of the gospel of Jesus the Christ! This is our job and our calling. Politics and the news are for others to speak of but we are to tell people about Jesus and His works for our good and His Kingdom! God called each of us, even those who are not pastors but teachers and even each Christian, whether they have a position in the church or not. We are supposed to be salt and light to the world so that they who are lost and are seeking the filling of their empty hearts can see that Jesus is their answer and the One who is to be placed in that place!

God loves each of us and has given each of us a talent or two to use for His Kingdom, not just for our benefit but for His glory! Even if we only touch one person’s life and they change and give their life to Jesus because of what they see or hear from us, all of Heaven rejoices because of it! During your lifetime, you have the ability to touch many lives and hopefully to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus the Christ. But, you must be willing to submit your heart and your life to Him so that you can fulfill that position and calling.

The plans of Satan


I’m reading “The Third Heaven: The Birth of God” by Donovan Neal, Natalie Davis and wanted to share this quote with you.

This quote below is from a speech which Lucifer/Satan was giving to his followers, his fallen angels, regarding how they were to interact with humanity. His plan seems to have worked very well considering how our world is today, don’t you think?

“Follow the pattern that I have set, and make the male dominate the female, set young against old and use their hues and shade of skin to divide them. Raise up among them great ones, and those of low estate plant greed and envy in their ranks. Sow fear and distrust amongst them, that they never see unity of worship to El”

In our world today, there is no “unity of worship” toward God or almost any other religion. We are fractured and broken to a point of disagreement which staggers the imagination. Many divisions in the church such that there are approximately 38,000 denominations worldwide. How is this unity of worship, even though almost all of these are Christian churches? We split on disagreements between friends, deacons and the pastor and many other things it seems, sometimes we split over trivial things.

The church which started on the day of Pentecost, is not the church that we have today. Most congregations are more interested, it seems, in the number of people listed as members and the attendance on Sundays, as well as the amount given in the offering plates, than they are in serving the Lord and becoming more like Jesus!

To give you a bit of accuracy and credentials to back this up, here is a definition which will clear things up a bit:

“Denominations. A denomination is defined in this Encyclopedia as an organized aggregate of worship centers or congregations of similar ecclesiastical tradition within a specific country; i.e. as an organized Christian church or tradition or religious group or community of believers, within a specific country, whose component congregations and members are called by the same denominational name in different areas, regarding themselves as one autonomous Christian church distinct from other denominations, churches and traditions. As defined here, world Christianity consists of 6 major ecclesiastico-cultural blocs, divided into 300 major ecclesiastical traditions, composed of over 33,000 distinct denominations in 238 countries, these denominations themselves being composed of over 3,400,000 worship centers, churches or congregations.” (Barrett et al, volume 1, page 16, Table 1-5, emphasis added)   (http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/a106.htm)

The church which began soon after the resurrection of Jesus, has splintered into so many pieces which have many differing views and rules and orders of worship, until it seems that it is no longer a unified body of believers at all. While it is true that most of them worship God and Jesus as His Son, some have a different viewpoint regarding exactly Who they are.

Some don’t believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, some teach that parts of the Bible, God’s Holy Inspired Word, are wrong or that it doesn’t apply to the “modern church”.

God doesn’t change and His Word is true today just as it was at the time that He inspired the writers to write it down. There are no parts of it which are wrong, unless you just don’t want to believe it because it offends you or someone you love. God’s Word is true because God doesn’t change and He gave the words to those who wrote it down, so why is it that people don’t want to believe it? Because, we don’t want to learn the rules or learn about God.

Many don’t want to become a Christian because they believe that the rules will keep them from enjoying their life. Why do you believe this? The rules in the Old Testament about food and the sacrifices needed don’t apply to us today! The Ten Commandments will condemn you because all of us have broken one or two or more of them and they do still carry the same punishment that they did when they were given.

If you won’t give your life to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and change your heart into His, why not? Have you felt a hollow feeling in your life and have never been able to fill it with the things of this world? The reason is because that empty place is made for Jesus to fill and nothing else. All of us have felt that place inside us which we know is empty and we feel like something should be there, but we don’t know what. Some of us go for many years without finding out what fits in that place…well now you know. The Holy Spirit of God fits in there and He only comes when you ask Jesus to come in and cleanse you, making you whole and a part of God’s family.

The third part of the year or ….


We are in a part of the year which is just before the election cycle for this year. If you haven’t made up your mind which candidate you will choose, you don’t have much time. The decision that we all have to make in this election will be an important one, make sure that you pray about it for many days before making your final decision.

We are in a particularly troubling time for our world and for our country. Because of the load of debt that our country has and because of the time in which we are living. Many people don’t see it that way especially if they don’t believe the Bible is true, but I happen to believe it. We may not be in the time period known as the Tribulation, but we are on the very edge of it, at least from all of the signs that we see and hear every day.

The weather is unpredictable in ways that haven’t been seen before. The amount of diseases and problems that are in the world just seems to be growing in number and intensity. We are about to move into the “Fall of the year”, even though it may not cool off for another couple of months and our planet’s history is moving toward the winter of its time.

It is true that some will not believe what I am saying, but if you open your mind and read some of the prophecies in the Bible then you will see much of what is going on around us was foretold in detail at least two thousand years ago. It should not be ignored, regardless of your beliefs, that the signs which are spoken of in the Bible can almost be read like a newspaper today. Much of what was foretold is coming true and has come true in the last fifty years.

I urge you to consider giving your heart to Jesus, if you have not done so yet. Truly, the state of our nation and the world itself cannot be fixed by a person or a candidate or a policy, except by Jesus and His return to this world there will be no lasting solution. Jesus said that if you gained the world, meaning the riches of the whole world, but you lose your soul by not accepting Him as your Savior then you gained nothing. Why do I say this? Jesus said it first.

Nothing that we gain in this life will follow you into the next one, no matter how much you may have. You have never seen a trailer following a hearse to the graveyard and even if they did, it would only be to bury the contents in the ground. You can’t take it with you and, if you are like me, I don’t have enough for anyone to fight over. The only real blessing and inheritance that I can give away that will mean anything in eternity is for you to come to know Jesus and give your life to Him.

If you do that, then you will be spending eternity with me and many others who are part of the “body of Christ”, and we will be ruling His Kingdom with Him! Don’t believe the people who say that we will be strumming harps for eternity, although I might want to learn, that is not my job, nor will it be your job in God’s Kingdom. I don’t know what He may have me doing, but I am sure that He will equip me to do whatever it may be.

 

What is your trigger?


It seems that today, people get “ticked off” at the drop of a pin or anything that has happened to someone who they don’t know at all. Maybe they have something in common with that person and feel that it, whatever “it” was, was directed at them in general. Such as the people who protest against police violence toward “black men”. They are protesting because they perceive that all police are racist and have a chip on their shoulders against all people of color. Which is not true, but for some reason it is coming to the front of news stories more and more today. Why?

Some would say that it is because it is happening more often and that the violence is justified. The “trigger” is very subtle though and it is not happening more often, it is because everyone in the street has a smart phone and it is capable of recording video of anything, anywhere and at any time. There doesn’t have to be a news crew around, but by recording an event, regardless of its significance, and uploading it to the Internet then it may become newsworthy.

I have a trigger which moves me to pray for all of those who come to this site and read or just look around. I don’t know most of you, but God does. Even if you have never attended church or sat through a sermon, God knows who you are. He values you above the riches of the whole world. He loves you enough that if you were the last person on Earth, He would want you as His adopted child. It isn’t fear or anger or frustration which drives us, it is our collective need for this world to be healed and all of the problems which we face every day to be taken care of. Only Jesus can do this.

Other religions boast of having more followers or having larger church buildings or worship centers, it doesn’t matter what they are called. If you aren’t worshiping God and His Son, Jesus, then you are in the wrong building. I know, there are many who would tell me that my way of thinking is too small or non-inclusive of others, but aren’t most religions today? Islam doesn’t allow for other faiths, you have to accept theirs, yet no one ever tells them to be quiet and not pray or not tell others about their faith. It is the same with any other faith in the world, with the exception of Christianity. We, who are Christians, and believe God’s Word can’t read our Holy Scriptures in public. We cannot pray openly, we cannot tell others about our Savior because it offends people.

Jesus said to turn the other cheek when someone strikes you. I think we have done that far too often, yet we are still doing it. Why? Because, Jesus said for us to endure persecution to the end and we will be saved. Is this world going to be better in the future? Yes, it will when Jesus sets up His Kingdom and rules the world from Jerusalem. But, until that time comes we must endure.

Yes, there is anger and bitterness in many cities today but there is also…hope. Hope for tomorrow, hope for a peaceful day today, hope for reconciliation between police and those who protest against them. Where does this spirit of hope come from?

Jesus.

The world can’t give you hope, but He can. The world doesn’t care about you or your circumstances, but He does. The world is ruled by the spirit of Antichrist, Satan and his followers and it shows in the news and in our papers every day. Jesus loves you and wants all of us to share in His love but in order to do that, we need to accept Him and then share Him with others too.

Happy Birthday, America!


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I know this is supposed to be a site where you learn more about God and your salvation but the birthday of America wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for people of faith.

Our land has been around for 240 years, or at least that is how long it has been since our Declaration of Independence was put forth. Life around our land would be very different if it weren’t for the influence of Christian leaders and the beliefs of those who started our land on its way to becoming the greatest nation in the world. It is true that some people don’t think that of her anymore, even some people who live here and are benefiting from her generosity.

America has been a light for people to turn to when they need to find their way and it has been a place of refuge for many people as well. It is true that in the past some really terrible and horrible mistakes have been made regarding the treatment of Indians and Africans who were brought here to be slaves. These things shouldn’t have happened, but they did and the worst part is that we either have swept what happened under a rug and out of  the history books or we just ignore what happened altogether.

The biggest problem that we have today is that just when we think that we may have crossed the line toward better relations between the “races”, something happens that is done by one person with an off-kilter way of looking at life and here we go again.

Then you see the old hatred and bitterness come boiling up and we are at the same point in our nation as we were when there were race riots and clashes with the police on television every night. It tends to confuse the kids who have grown up without it and many of them wonder “Why?”

Why do we have to rewind an old tape that was worn out years ago?

Yes, there were many atrocities committed during those times and before then, but can’t we stop dragging the past into the present? Make a new day and a new way of getting along with one another! Stop looking at their skin color or their music and just listen to each other for once. Begin to TALK to one another, not texting but talking! Put the phones down and sit down and talk! Turn the TV off and talk to your kids or grand kids about the past but also about the future…their future!

Don’t repaint their future with the brush that you used when you were their age! Help them find a better one, one that is positive about what may happen in the future and not drag the negative parts of history in to cover up the progress that has been made!

America can be great again, if we as Americans will stand up and take our country back and MAKE it better! Shuffling money around from the rich to the poor won’t do anything but cause more problems. Fixing the things which are wrong is going to take more than a new President or a new set of laws or regulations. It is going to take Americans getting together and working toward fixing the problems one at a time!

Choose Life…


Life as I choose to define it here is a life which is following the Author of Life which is Jesus the Christ. Many people write His name as if Christ is His last name, but it is a title meaning Savior or Messiah which is why I chose to write it this way here.

God loves you enough that He sent His Son to die for you on the cross, giving His life and His blood as the ransom in payment for all of the sins of the world. He didn’t die for just a few people, He died for all and His blood paid that price for you. All you have to do to inherit eternity is to believe that He did this for you and that you need Him, also realize that you are a sinner and that you should turn away from your sins whatever they might be.

I have heard people say that they won’t go to this church or that one because there are hypocrites in there and not real Christians. All churches have hypocrites in them because we all fail at some point either today or tomorrow or maybe last week and you saw it or heard it. Preachers do it too because the only person who was sinless was Jesus. Being a Christian doesn’t make you perfectly sinless, but your sins are forgiven by God’s grace through Jesus sacrifice!

He is the Creator and Author of Life itself because He was and is the Living Word of God and it was by His Word that all of creation came into being. It was because of His love for us that He couldn’t be the liberating and conquering King that the Jewish people wanted when He came the first time. When He comes again, He will be the King of Kings and He will conquer the world’s system and its leaders who have persecuted His people for so long.

Satan and all others will get their reward when their judgement is given and carried out.There will be no appeal and no bargaining. The same judgement will fall on you if you have chosen not to live a Christian life and ask Him into your heart. Even if you have been a faithful member of a church or maybe a deacon or pastor, but have not given your life and your heart to Jesus, then you will be judged as one who knew about Him but He didn’t know you.

Please, don’t make that mistake. Everything that is needed for you to be saved has been done, all you need to do is accept it and change your life to match His. Follow in His footsteps, learn from Him and soon His ways will become your ways.

Day in….day out


We all live for the day. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but the Day! What day would that be exactly? The day that our Lord returns of course!

I know, it was foretold in God’s Word over two thousand years ago and people have been expecting it for that long. It hasn’t come yet. When will it get here? When will He come? There are some to think that His arrival is imminent and that it could come at any time, any day now. That is what we have been taught for many years and through many generations, but you know…it could be wrong.

Oh no! I have gone and done it now! I have put something on a Christian site which goes against the teachings that have been taught and preached for over 150 years! Well, you see, that is the thing, it has only been in our pulpits and the teachings of churches for a little more than one hundred and fifty years!

Why did this teaching come into our beliefs and what makes it wrong? Because, until the early 19th century, the return of Jesus was NOT taught as imminent, but that we should be ready regardless of the day or hour. There are different and various opinions regarding the return of Jesus and the rapture of the Church and I will not go into them. My reason for writing is that we should be ready regardless of the time or day that may be. Whenever the times are set, it is set by God Himself, we can’t point to a day or an hour and we can’t give a proven timing for the saints of God to be taken up or brought home.

Jesus said that He was coming to receive us to Himself. He didn’t say when or what year or time this might happen and unless He said it, we should live as if it were tomorrow or today! Be vigilant like the priests on the walls of the city to warn of a coming army or to tell of the times which were of importance such as the Sabbath beginning at sundown. We are to be the ones crying out that He is coming and telling people how to be saved from the wrath that is to come!

Be the watchman who is doing his job and letting others know about their Savior and not one that is trying to be more like the world around them.

Umber


The color of umber is brown. Not a dark brown but not exactly “paper sack tan” either. Truthfully it is like a lightly roasted coffee in color. Why am I bringing this up on this blog? Because there are discussions and arguments arising about the way that Jesus is portrayed in paintings and in our culture.

Some say that He should be portrayed as white, others say that He is black, actually He is neither one. Jesus was born Hebrew as a Jewish Israelite. If you have ever met someone from Israel you notice that they have skin tones which have an olive complexion. What does that mean? It means that their skin will tan easily in the sun.

Our Savior did a lot of walking throughout Judea in His lifetime, therefore He most likely was very dark-skinned where the sun struck Him. His face, arms, feet, and lower legs were likely very dark. The depiction of Him being white by artists who painted Him or otherwise portrayed Him is a nod to the culture of their day, racist though that may have been.

Our ancestors, the ones who began all of this in Eden, were very olive-skinned so that when their offspring came about a myriad of skin colors and complexions would be genetically possible. God knew then and He knows now exactly what He is doing genetically in this world. He is also giving us the ability to choose our spiritual pathway in our lives and He has been doing this from the start.

God doesn’t care if your skin color is dark or light, olive or even very darkly pigmented, He cares about your soul…your inner man. That is the part of you that lives on into eternity and your culture, your “skin tone” will likely be in eternity as well so we will all be able to see who we really are or were in our previous life on Earth. No one will lose their identity after death. Jesus spoke of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being alive in eternity and our names and all that we have done in the service of God will follow us into eternity too.

Living here in this life is far different from what we will see or know in Heaven and for those who won’t give their hearts to Jesus, their eternity will be a true living hell. The descriptions of hell are varied but the regrets and the separation from God’s love and all that we have known in this life will be with us through eternity. The color of your skin, your culture, your lifestyle or how much money you had on Earth will mean NOTHING!

I was given a very tiny glimpse into heaven once and the gold streets are pure enough to shine like the Sun and the gold is like glass. Some of the buildings are made of a substance like opals only more pure and clear with walls a cubit or more thick. They reflect God’s glory with all of the colors imaginable but a description would not do them justice at all.

The descriptions found in the Bible are man’s attempt at describing things which our minds can’t comprehend fully, so I can’t either. Race doesn’t mean anything in the end. We are all God’s children and all of us are descended from Adam and Eve, since God cannot lie I don’t understand why we deny that we are all related.

Times and miracles


Many days we see things or hear about something which happens that could be described as a miracle. Some people may not recognize them as a miracle but in many ways, they are. Why do I say this? Because of the living God Who is Creator, He is the One Who accomplishes these things.

For instance, scientists are still discovering “new” species unknown to science a few years ago. Healing of tumors and cancers which are inoperable happens in many cases where the patient is being prayed for by their family and these are not given the proper respect because the doctor doesn’t know how it happened. But, the family of the person that is healed knows where the healing came from, it came from the Lord!

Sometimes, the healing needs to come to the church itself. The members of some churches are so stone-faced and inexpressive during church until it looks like we are attending a funeral rather than a church service. We are supposed to be living in the Joy of the Lord, not grumbling through a service and sitting like a bunch of old turtles on a log!

Also in the Bible, it says that there will be a falling away by the church and it seems that it is beginning right now. Yes, there are still mega-churches with thousands of members but are those members Christians? Or are they just sitting in a pew when services start and not living a joy-filled life with Jesus? Many small churches and large ones too have the same problem…people who have been raised in the church who believe they are Christians because they have attended church most of their lives.

The Bible says that in the latter days, which we are living in now, young men will see visions and dream dreams. This has been foretold because God is an awesome God! The dreams and visions that young people are seeing are leading them to become Christians even in places where there are no missionaries! People are seeking God in any way that they can and coming to Him by the thousands.

I have read of accounts of young men who were against Christianity and they have learned of it and have come to know their Savior, Jesus! The times in which we are living are hard in ways but also joyous in others. Life can and does find a way to break free from bondage and chains when there is an alternative presented. Christianity does not force anyone to believe because you can’t force belief on anyone. Just as love cannot be forced on anyone.

Our world is coming to an end. It may be in the next year or in a few months or it may be in the next decade but it is winding down like an old-fashioned clock, except God didn’t forget to wind it. He knows exactly the day and the hour that the end will come.