Category: Happiness is a choice

What do you truly need?


Life is given to us when we are born, but our person and our soul arrives before that event which is why God said, ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;“Jeremiah 1:5

All of our needs are met by God with our life, our breath, our living on this Earth. True, there are people who are hungry and without shelter in the world and in our country, but that is a society problem. One that could be taken care of without a government program, if we would resolve to take care of our own instead of everyone else.

Life and our needs are the things which we are blessed with by God. With each breath and each blink of our eyes we see the horror of life which happens around us and we also see the beauty in a sunset or the smile of a child. So, how do you respond to all of the stimuli that you have thrown in your life, in your face by social media, by news or other programs? Do we, collectively, respond positively with an attitude which can lend a hand to others?

Many times we don’t in today’s society. We protest that there is not enough being done. We march around and parade in the streets and bring wrongs to the attention of the media, but…we could be doing something about these things. Not being dependent upon the government to take care of us, but actually helping each other. Teaching our children, showing them how much we really DO care about their education rather than depending on some stranger to tell them what the “education system” says they need to learn.

What does our country need? People who will roll their sleeves up and get to work to fix the things that need fixing! The government doesn’t know how to fix its own problems, how can they fix yours and mine?

Your life and mine belong to God. Whether you have given your heart to Him or not, He is still the Creator and whether you believe this or not doesn’t cause that fact to be false! We will face Him either when we die or at the judgement seat, but your belief in Him or your lack of belief in His existence doesn’t have an effect on His existence.

He provides for us, whether we acknowledge His presence in that process or not. Our needs are met, but our eternal need is for salvation and that only comes through Jesus and belief in Him. Seek Him out, learn of His Truth in the Bible and ask Him into your heart. How long each of us has in this life is just a puff of smoke compared to eternity, which will be your life after this one. Make sure it is one that you will enjoy rather than be in punishment during that time. It is only a small decision, one that a child can make yet many refuse to believe that it is that simple.

Don’t put it off.

Blessings for every day


How can we claim and walk in the blessings that God has for us? I wondered that so much when I would hear my Mom or my grandparents talking about it. The same as I would wonder about it when I heard it in songs or at church growing up. It seems that nobody every explained it to me then and I suppose it was because they didn’t really understand it themselves.

I have come to realize that our blessings are those things that many of us take for granted all of the time. Waking up in the morning is a blessing, even if you wake up in pain be thankful that you can feel it. When you walk to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, be thankful that you can walk, that you can see, that you feel the love of God in your life because you have these blessings.

I know, there are some who say that their pain or their troubles are not blessings. Maybe not, it is possible that God is allowing you to grow through your aches and pains like He did when Satan wanted to test Job. God did not afflict Job, but He allowed Satan to do so because of the faith of Job. Maybe that is where you are now. Maybe the pain that you feel in your body or in depression or some other ailment is a test or it may be Satan’s way of hindering you in your walk with God.

Be blessed in the knowledge that you have God in your life and that He is in control of all circumstances, good and bad. Get into His Word today and every day so that He can strengthen you and your faith in Him. His Word is more powerful than any weapon or disease, so use it every day to fight off the darts that the enemy slings in your direction. God is with you and me just as He was with David when he fought Goliath. He made David’s aim true and the strength of his sling powerful enough to penetrate a giant’s skull and He can overcome any obstacle that is in your life today.

Remember, you have the Spirit of God inside you if you are a Christian and you are made in His image just as Adam was. In that we are all the same, regardless of what race we claim to be or the culture that we live in. The Creator brought the universe together by His Word and the Living Word, Jesus, came and died to make you free from the bondage of sin! All that you need to do is claim His promises for your life and believe in Him, that He can and will accomplish them in your life today and the rest of your life!

Make sure that you follow Him in everything that you do, in life, in business and in all other areas of your existence. Read and study a chapter in the Bible every day, maybe two or three if you can get them in. Once you get into the habit of reading His Word daily, you will sorely miss it when you don’t. His Word can ease your pains and infuse your life with His power so that you can overcome those aches and pains and really be thankful for your blessings every day.

So much strife, remember…


In our world, in our everyday lives, we experience problems of all sorts. Pain, heartaches, anxiety, fears, the list could go on and on. Remember, God loves you, and remember these promises as well:

PromisesfromGodsWord

I know, during this time of year many people aren’t really concerned with their eternal destiny but you should be! Why? Because it is going to last a LOT longer than this life will! God does have a plan for you and me, and it doesn’t stop when your life on this Earth stops. Consider this, God said that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Present tense, not past tense! Meaning, they live on into eternity and you will too…if you have given your life and your heart to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your heart and save you, because HE came to seek and save those who are lost which includes you and me! I accepted Him a few years ago, and I pray that you will too.

Faith, belief, love…


All of these are great concepts which point toward our savior and the best of humanity but are they being shown in our daily lives? Does every religion have these in common? I am sure that most of them do since they claim to believe in these three doctrines for lack of a better word. Are they universal to all of the world’s religions? I don’t know.

Judaism believes in faith and love and their patriarch “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” so that is one of the world’s religions. Christians also have these three in common in their religion, that is two of the world’s religions. How many more have all of these in common?

I am not sure and I am not in the habit of speculation or guessing, so I am not going in that direction. I must admit that I don’t know much about the world’s religions outside of my own. I have read the Koran enough to know that their religion does have some admirable traits even though the ones which we see on the television are not the most flattering. I am not going to bash a religion based upon the actions of a few people.

In doing that all that we do is show how small we are and that is wrong. The media takes the actions of a few people who decide to shoot people and characterizes every person who owns a gun as a nutcase. Why? My guns have never been responsible for killing anyone and I don’t have any grudges to take out on anyone with a belief which is different from mine.

In this world, everyone has a different culture or belief in the God that they choose to worship or not. Nearly every person in America has an opinion on one thing or another which is different from what I believe. So, why should I get all bent out of shape because of it? Shooting people for having an opinion or a belief different from my own would just confirm that I am the crazy one. I don’t have enough ammunition to shoot that many people!

Jesus Christ told us to love one another, care for each other and to tell others of the good news of the Kingdom of God. So, why aren’t we doing this more? Why does the church, regardless of denomination, have services on Sunday morning and maybe that evening and again on Wednesday night or whatever night they choose and then everyone just goes home with nothing being done? What good is that doing?

Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep”, and that is what our services do but at some point a child needs to learn to feet itself! Spiritual milk is great for newborn Christians but until you put some action behind the words and some meat in the sermon this child, this babe in Christ will never mature! God loves us all, it is true, but Heaven is not for babies! We are not supposed to be “little children” until we die!

A calf or a kid will not grow on just milk alone. At some point a child, even one that is just a few months old, has to begin to eat solid food. It is the same with churches and the people in them, if they are not fed solid food from God’s Word then sooner or later the church itself will die.

When God orders…


“A very poor woman called a Christian radio station asking for help. A bad, evil man who was listening to this radio program decided to make something out of it…. He got her address, called his secretary and ordered her to buy food and take to the woman with the following instruction., “when the woman asks who sent the food, tell her that it’s from the
devil.”

When she arrived, the woman was so happy and she started putting the food inside. The Secretary asked her, ”don’t you want to know who sent the food”?? The woman answered. ”NO , it doesn’t matter, because when GOD orders, even the devil obeys.” The secretary broke into tears.

God is in charge no matter what is happening or what the “news” says about the situation.

Life, what will you do with it?


Since we are all alive if we are breathing, then we are all living right now…today, but have you considered what tomorrow might bring your way? Have you even thought of what will happen or may happen in an hour or two? We are not gifted with that kind of sight, thank goodness! We can’t see into the future even a few minutes from now regardless of where we are or how much we may like to see the future. So, how are you living your life right now, this very instant? Have you ever thought of that or even considered it at all?

Life is something that we live one tick of the clock at a time or one blink of your eyes at a time. Just fractions of a second stand between you closing your eyes in a blink and then opening them again and it only takes a fraction of a second. But, there are times that just that tiny fraction of a second could make the difference between having a wreck in a car or not. But, we can’t stop blinking or driving or walking because that is what we do while living!

Faith in God’s provision brings us through those milliseconds of time when we blink. He will see us through and bring us out the other side. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but consider all of the milliseconds that people experience every day, every month, every year and you realize that we all live faithfully in God’s grace whether we believe in Him or not! Isn’t that great? He loves each of us THAT much regardless of our faith or belief in Him.

Some of us are given much in goods and things that the world sees as our blessing from God. In the eyes of many people of the world, outside America, each person in this country is wealthy. Most of us have a place to live that is warm or cool according to the season, many of us have food on the table or in the house every day of the year, many of us have jobs which pay us a nice wage or if we happen to own a business it may be doing well enough to provide us everything that we need in this life. The problem with looking at our “material wealth” from the perspective of those outside of our homes or our businesses is that they don’t see or feel the loneliness and fear and helplessness that comes with being “well off”.

Many of us don’t even consider ourselves well off in wealth at all. Business owners have payroll and insurance and overhead expenses like utilities and such. Homeowners and those in business have insurance and grocery bills, utility bills, cable bills, dental and clothing bills, tuition bills, etc. So much so that after you take out all of the money for bills and life, there isn’t much wealth left at all! But, to those who live in Africa or India or Turkey or China or North Korea our way of life and the apparent wealth that they see is far above anything that many of them will ever attain.

That is why America and Americans are not on the lists of people who are liked or loved, because we are seen as a culture and a country that has it all. Everyone else wants what we have, up to a point, but they also want to bring us down a notch or two if possible. The biggest realization that the world needs to find out about is that we can’t fill that spot that has always been empty or hollow. No amount of money or stuff will ever fill that empty part of your soul until you realize that Jesus is the One that does fit in that spot! Once you understand that, all of the stuff that most are holding onto for dear life just doesn’t matter! Yes, you still have to have money to pay your electric bill and your other bills, but the i-Pads and the i-Pods and the phones and computers and any other amount of things which this season tries to tell you that you HAVE TO HAVE…they don’t matter at all!

Jesus said that your life is like a puff of smoke and compared to eternity it really is! Your life doesn’t matter much unless Jesus and belief in Him is a part of your everyday existence. No amount of time or effort or money invested or given to any charity will make an eternal difference unless you are doing it with faith and the love of Jesus in your heart.

Is it possible to commit an unpardonable sin?


The point of no return is the same as an unpardonable sin, when you die there is no return and if you have refused the grace of God all of your life there is no pardon available! You don’t get a second chance after death because you have had many opportunities in this life. What can you do? What will you do with your eternity now?

For many people, that decision has already been made and there is no changing it. For others there is still hope. If you still breathe and walk this earth you can change and seek out your Creator, today. Tomorrow is still ahead and yesterday is already gone, consider this before you go to sleep tonight. Like the farmer in the story who said, “I have enough. I will build more barns and take life easy. Eat, drink and be merry and take life as it comes. And God said, you fool, tonight your soul is required of thee.” Granted, this is a paraphrase of the scripture (Luke 12:19,20), but you get the idea.

Your life and mine are not guaranteed. We don’t have a certificate which says “you will have 58.5 years before you die” when we are born. Even in the Bible it says that man has appointed three score and ten or seventy years, anything beyond this is due to God’s grace alone. Yet, even that isn’t guaranteed. Consider that you live X number of years, after this there is eternity in one place or another. Which one will you live in during that time?

Consider this the next time you are in a close call on the highway. Why do I emphasize this today, now? It is truly because our lives are just a puff of smoke compared to eternity and whether you believe it or not, that is where you will spend most of your actual life. Seventy years is not a long time compared to even one million years, it is just a dot on a very long line. Even one million years is only a dot on a line that never ends! That is why I am speaking this way today because your eternal life will be either in the presence of God in Heaven or it will be with the demons and Satan and everyone else who refused God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It is your choice. God doesn’t require it of you nor does He force you to serve Him, ever! You cannot force anyone to truly love you and if it is forced, it isn’t love at all. It is done out of fear and that kind of devotion is NOT what God seeks!! God is not Allah and Allah is not God! Radical thinking, huh? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not Allah, it is Yahweh Elohim! Seek Him out and learn of the One True God because beside Him there is no other!

Amen

Do you believe?


I do! It is evident in my preaching and in the content here, so yes I do believe in Jesus as my Savior and I know that He can be your’s too! If you will believe in Him. Will you?

Remember, today is the only day that we have. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, neither one of which we can do anything in, but today is the day of salvation and life and love. Use today as if it was your last day, seek the Savior’s love and find it today while today is still here.

How much more?


What has to happen in our country or in the world to wake people up? How much more will have to be taken away in the form of losing freedoms or rights? How much more will we willingly give up to the government or to our own view of life, freedom, and happiness? Why are we willing to make ourselves into slaves of the government like Israel and the Egyptians did when famine took over their lands? Are we really more like sheep than we thought?

The answers to these questions are answers which we really don’t know. The media, the news outlets, the governments of the world are all clueless in answering these questions because they simply don’t know the answer and they don’t know where to look for it. Is the answer to all of this in God’s Word? Yes, most of these questions could be answered by people following the wisdom contained in the Bible. I mean REALLY following it, daily, in our jobs and at home 24/7!

Would we be willing to do that? The short answer is unfortunately NO! Christian faith has taken a huge hit in terms of people willing to follow it over the years. I am not speaking of those who claim to be Christians, I am speaking of those who really are committed and live their lives in God’s presence with prayer, meditation on His Word DAILY! Not just once per week and certainly not just on holidays! When you try to nail down those who are TRULY committed to Jesus, the number of Christians who fall into that number drops dramatically. Most polls show that out of the world’s population there is approximately 25% that claims Christianity as their faith, but if they are truthful and look at those who committed to following Him daily, I believe that number would be closer to ten percent.

True, this is just my own opinion and I don’t have any facts or polls to back this up with so don’t jump on me because of this. I have only been a pastor for a little more than four years but it seems that the number of Christians who would still claim it even in the face of death threats is likely less than the ten percent, but this was prophesied over two thousand years ago so it shouldn’t be surprising. It is just disheartening and depressing, but God knew and knows who will be His and who will turn from Him. So, how many more will turn away? How much more will we lose to technology or to the attractions in the world?

The real answer is: Only God knows for sure!

We have given up our family time together, we rarely meet with our friends to talk and go over our lives together, the world is crashing in on every aspect of personal life, like waves on the seashore and like the sands of that seashore, we seem to be powerless to stop it. The sad part of it is that we have done this to ourselves! We have allowed it to happen and the more it encroaches on our lives it seems that we are willing to just allow it to happen even more.

Please, turn to the Bible and to faith in Jesus! Getting closer to Him and the wisdom in God’s Word is the only hope that we truly have!

Understanding is necessary!


This is something which is missing in our society today. Why do I say this? Because there is so much intolerance in our country, especially for Christian viewpoints! That is why I said that there needs to be more understanding in the media and in our culture too. Yes, there are intolerant Christians, but just like those who kill people with guns, they don’t represent the Church or the majority of Christians in this country!

We, as a people and a nation, need to stop this persistent categorizing people who you don’t understand by the actions of a few! It’s like deciding that all dogs are bad just because one breed, like the Pit Bull terrier, has a few who aren’t raised correctly. Many times in our society people are judged by the actions of a few people and it is applied to a large group, such as those with dark skin color or those who work in a particular profession. We are told not to judge people by our parents and by God, yet we do it all the time. I heard many times in school “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but today it seems that we as a nation have forgotten those words too. What happened?

Understanding is defined as: the ability to understand something; comprehension; sympathetically aware of other people’s feelings; tolerant and forgiving; having insight or good judgment.

It seems that our society and the much of the world in general has forgotten the meanings of this word, whether sympathetically and forgiving or just simple understanding. Have we gone so far away from our teachings about God and His laws that this word is unknown or disregarded by everyone in society today? It seems that way because every story on the news should have something to do with this, but most stories are about intolerance and hatred toward those who don’t believe the way you do or who look different from you (racism).

I have addressed racism before but I am going to bring this up again: We have different cultures, beliefs, and religions but we ALL belong to the HUMAN RACE! Skin color may be different and the shape of our eyes may be a bit different in some parts of the world, but Biblically speaking we are descended from Adam and Eve who both were likely dark-skinned and not Caucasian. Yes, we all differ in our cultures and our preference for people who look like us or those who are similar in beliefs. These beliefs and cultural differences can be seen from one part of a city or state to another, but if you are a Christian your beliefs a similar enough that there shouldn’t be a division. Specifically one that may cause you to be so different that you can’t stand each other!

The apostle John said that “If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”  1 John 4:20

Seek God in His Word. Learn of Him and His provision of grace and love toward all of us. Pray that He will come into your heart and change you to be a new creature in Christ. This is what is necessary for salvation. If there are any questions or prayer requests please leave them in the comments. Thank you and I pray that all who read this will come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord.