Category: Jesus loves you

God’s character


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

These are the names of God..the names of our Lord, but you know He also occupies places in your life that are important as well.
He is our Deliverer. He is our Rock and our Fortress.
He is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is our Saviour. He is the One Who Sees our troubles and carries us through them.
He is our Creator. He is the I AM. He is our Rod and our Staff.
He is our Healer and Protector.
He is our Shepherd and our Friend.
He is our Father in Heaven.

God is all of these. Jesus is all of these. The two of them and the Holy Spirit make up the Trinity and they are One. They rule over the universe and watch over all of our lives and our troubles as well as our fears and our heartaches. God is all that you or I will ever need, even when we have nothing that this world calls wealth, we are rich in Him. When we realize this and begin to act like it, then the world will see it and want what we have because they will know that it was not bought with money. It was given to us by God Himself and nobody can take it away.

Yes, I admit that I have been very deeply depressed for over a month. I have thought of ending my life. I have felt worthless and useless but God has been with me through it all. I have cried out to Him and I have yelled at Him. I have cussed and fussed about the way that I feel and asked Him why do I feel this way? Through it all, He let me rage and fuss. He allowed me to vent and cuss and then ask forgiveness for what I had said. I am not finished with my depressed state because it is not something that goes away like a cold or the flu. Unfortunately, it is what our society calls a disease of the mind. They used to put you in the mental hospital for it and depending upon how bad you are, they still do. But…I am not there yet.

The point that I had to make today is this: God never leaves you where you are, no matter what you are doing or what may be wrong in your life. He is always there with you, holding you in His hand. Giving you strength and comforting you like a child, which we are. But, He is also very patient with His children as well. His patience is far greater than ours and it goes deeper, like His love for us, than we can comprehend. God cannot do anything to you or for you except through love because that is His character and His being. That is why we can’t understand it, because we can’t love that deeply or completely and yet the love expressed between a man and woman and their children is as close as we can get in this life to it. If you haven’t given yourself to Him, please do it before it is too late. Because once this life is over, you don’t get another chance to make it right. Think about that, please?

What has been your “test”?


Have you been blessed with a “test” in your life? Many people don’t think of these as tests but as trials. In reality, it is a learning time or a teachable moment, even if the so-called moment lasts longer than you wish or want it to. Think of Job, in the Bible, his teachable “moment” took away everything that he had including his health. So much so that his wife advised him: “His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!“. ( Job 2:9)  What kind of nonsense it that!?

Giving up on life or cursing God…neither option is a good one and could actually make things much worse! God loves each of us far more than we can understand and He is always near us, especially if you are a Christian. Although many who are going through times that are hard, especially now, may not be Christians. So, what can they do? If things seem to be too hard to bear, cry out to God! He is the Great Physician and is able to do above and beyond what we can know or think to ask for!

Jesus died for us so that we can come to the Father at any time and if your heart feels that there is no hope, there really is! Through Jesus’ sacrifice for us, He gave us the access to God directly. We no longer have to go to a priest or a rabbi to know that our prayers are being heard. There is nothing that we can do that will aid our prayers about whatever it might be that is tasking us and trying our faith. God hears what you need, especially when we are seeking Him for His ever-present help and understanding!

We are not to test God with irrational things like jumping from a building or handling snakes or drinking poison. Our faith may save us in some of those situations, but God will allow gravity to have its way. The other so-called “tests” are just against common sense, period!

The point that I am trying to make is that God loves us and will save our souls if we come to Him, seeking Him for our salvation. When we add suicide into the mix of “issues”, God will allow your soul to be saved if you have given your heart to Him prior to this, even though some might argue this point. My actual point is that if you have given your heart to Jesus and truly asked Him into your life, I don’t believe that He will allow you to get so far down that you take your life. During my month of feeling this way, I have thought of suicide but that is as far as it went…just thoughts and nothing more.

I love my wife and son too much to leave them like that and even though I love Jesus more, I don’t believe that He wants me to do something that stupid with my life. If for no other reason than it doesn’t honour Him at all if I kill myself! Writing this out seems to be helping in many ways because it is almost like talking to a therapist without the bill. Besides, they have no interest in you anyway. All that they want is their fee. I may be wrong about that, but consider that they don’t really know you at all, you are just a patient to them.

Anyway, God created you and knows you far more intimately than anyone. He knew that this was coming and why. He also knows when it will end and will enable you to get through it, and you will by depending upon Him, trusting Him and having faith in His provisions for you.

 

Reasoning out God’s existence


Is it possible to “reason” out God’s existence? Can we prove beyond a shadow of doubt that He exists so that those who aren’t believers will come to believe? Using the scientific method can we prove that God exists?

The answer to all of the above questions is NO! There is no particle that is God. There are no cells that can be found in the fossil record that belong to Him. You cannot command God to show Himself and prove that He is or that He exists! It is utter foolishness and pride that prompt people to even attempt this, but it is an argument that has been used for hundreds of years. Some people have had experiences where God did “prove Himself”, but they can’t be repeated and to a scientific mind it wasn’t proof of anything.

There have been cases of people arrogantly challenging God to “strike me dead” if such and such is not done or “strike the one who is causing the problem dead”. In such instances, the one challenging God did indeed die soon after such a statement, but it wasn’t with a bolt of lightning but some unusual natural cause that caused their demise. Just as in the time of the early church, when the couple that sold some land decided to keep some of the profit for themselves but told Peter that they were giving everything that they received for their land. Both the husband and the wife were in agreement in the deception and both died because of it, immediately.

You cannot reason out God’s existence any more than you can prove the existence of love or darkness. Neither one of those can be bottled and shown to anyone, yet we know that they exist. Although, darkness is not real in the sense of it being a state of matter, it is just the absence of light. The point is that God cannot be proved as a person as we are, because He is a Spirit. Yet, He is and always has been. Minds blinded by the world’s thinking and reasoning cannot comprehend subjects which exist outside of time and can only be experienced by faith.

Light can be seen and measured in a number of ways, but darkness is something which cannot be measured except as the absence of light. The more complete that the absence is, the more complete the darkness is, but you cannot touch it or feel it and there is no measurement for it except for a lumen measurement of the lack of light. God’s presence can only be felt by those who believe that He exists and is the Creator, because without faith in Him and the knowledge of His love you cannot comprehend His existence.

Satan is also a being which cannot be proven to exist as are the angels and demons, but they are all mentioned in the Bible as real. Not believing in them or their existence doesn’t remove them from the universe, it just continues the blindness that we have toward them until we either are changed in our hearts or until we have died to this existence and wake up to life on another plane. Standing before God’s throne to be judged for not believing in Jesus’ atonement for your sinful life will bring total clarity but by then it will be forever too late.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all of these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33  Seek the Lord while He can be found because after this life is over, there are no second chances.

God has not forgotten you!


The question is truly yours, not God’s. Are you interested in Him? He cares because you are alive, but do you care about what He wants in your life?GodisInterestedinYou Have you ever been close to God in your life and then walked away? Many people have done this and then wonder what happened to their relationship with God. Facebook and Twitter are some wonderful social networking sites to keep in touch with family and friends who may be scattered all over the country and I am thankful for my friends there. Have you ever considered that going to church on Sunday morning is a way to re-connect with God if you don’t feel particularly close to Him right now? It doesn’t matter if some of the people at the church don’t like you or if you think that they are hypocrites, God never stopped loving you and He will meet you wherever you wish.

But, He would like for you to come to His house, where the church meets. The church is not a building or a tabernacle or a shrine, it is the people who gather together to worship God in the same spirit that the early church did. You can have a personal meeting with God and Jesus regardless of who may be there or what they think about you. Who cares what they think, it is Jesus that you came to worship and it is Him and the Father that you need in your life!

The trouble with all of the divisions in our church congregations is that we tend to split over things which shouldn’t be issues at all. At least to believers, IMO. We have been placed in the places where we are for a purpose and until we accomplish that purpose, there will always be a part of our lives which feels uneasy and empty. You might ask, “How can I find the purpose for my life?”. I know that the answer to this question is going to upset some, but your purpose in life can be found in the Bible.

God’s Kingdom is going to manifest itself in this world soon. Everyone will see it and it will split the world in ways that nobody ever considered. The prophecies in the book of Revelation will come to pass whether we like it or not. It will not be a good time to be a believer but it won’t be a time when those who follow the side that has food and a place to stay will enjoy either. Oh, they will for a short time, but those who refuse to give their lives to Jesus and face persecution because of it will be the victors in the end.

How can you or I know this? Because it is in God’s Word! God cannot lie and the prophecies contained in it have all come true up to the point of the eventual “ruler” of the world being revealed and the other seals being broken. Is God interested in you? Yes, He knows the number of hairs on your head and what you are doing during every minute of the day. He knows this about every person on Earth, not just Christians. Because He could be calling you to be His child, His disciple so that you can have a purpose in His Kingdom now and in the future.

Don’t you realize that God is always near you, whether you feel that closeness or not. He is there. He shows His love to us, all of us, because of the life that you have. We have this planet to live on, we have air to breathe and a place to call home. Many of us have families and jobs, those are blessings from God. We are loved by the Creator of everything, isn’t that awesome!! He created the entire universe, worlds and galaxies that we can’t see with our natural eyes and that are far bigger and so vast that the limits of it we can’t comprehend, yet He pays attention to every bird that falls to the ground on Earth. If He cares that much about them, don’t you think that He cares much more about each of us that are created in His Image?

If you are loved that much by the Creator and you are, then don’t you think that you should return His love by giving your life to Him? Think about it.

Gloom, despair and depression…why do we have them?


“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.” Psalm 42:11

The words above were written for us today. Because they speak to the depression and the solitude which Satan uses to take over our life and make it one which is filled with despair and gloom and darkness. Why does he do this? Because he doesn’t want you to tell anyone about Jesus and he knows that if you are “down in the dumps”, you won’t feel like spreading the Good News of Jesus to anyone! If he can stop you from telling one person, he has done his duty. Because, that one that you miss because of your depression just might be the next great evangelist and he doesn’t want that.

If it was your business to do the things that make people miserable, like Satan’s purpose is today, you wouldn’t want some on-fire evangelist out there spreading the Gospel to everyone that he meets! It doesn’t matter to Satan how he accomplishes his goal, if he has to kill thousands to do away with the one that could bring a message of hope and love to even a few people, he will do it! But…God’s plans will always win out. Satan may think he has won, but God knows the outcome and He knows where the next follower of Christ is and what they can do.

Satan hates us as human beings because God loved us more than He loved the angels, of which Satan was a principle cherub, the guardians of God. Not only does he hate humanity because of God’s love for us but because of the special position that God gave to us, the relationship that we can have with God through His Son. So, you see it isn’t personal, he just hates us with such a deep and abiding hatred that no human could ever understand it. Satan will make people think that he will reward them with power and wealth and he might for a time, but the day will come when your “contract” will be up. No amount of money or power will save you from the eternal punishment that will fall on you because you chose to align yourself with the consummate liar and deceiver that is Satan.

Some religions teach that there is no eternal punishment for us because Jesus paid that price and we are all saved through Him. Well, technically that is true but if you have not repented of your sins and asked Jesus into your heart and your life, you don’t have Him as Lord and Savior to keep you from being thrown into the lake of fire with Satan and his followers. Just as if I told you that I have one hundred dollars that I will give you, if you don’t come to my home and claim it then you still don’t have it. The offer of salvation is there, the price has been paid and once you take hold of it then your salvation cannot be un-done, but if you don’t grasp it and repent of your sinful ways and follow Jesus when you ask Him into your heart, then they were just words and nothing more. You can even get baptised in front of a church or in a stream, but without repentance and a commitment to follow Jesus, you just got wet in front of an audience and nothing more.

The Church which was started on the day of Pentecost was not a specific denomination. It wasn’t called the Church of God or the Church of Christ or the Pentecostal church. At the time, the Jews in Israel called them believers of the Way, a sect that they wanted to crush and destroy. Which is why they sent Saul to imprison and beat the believers in this “Way”. The persecution of believers began then and it has not stopped since. It may be subtle here in America, in other countries it is more pronounced and vigorous. Elsewhere, Christians are imprisoned, beaten, and sometimes killed because of their belief in Jesus.

Satan has used this jealousy and animosity against the Church to destroy and persecute it for centuries simply because he wants to undo the plans of God as much as he can. That is why there is so much suffering in the world and so much pain and death. God allows this because He gives each of us a choice, whether to follow Him or not. Without a choice, there is no real love. Think about this, if someone tried to force you to follow them or love them….would you? I wouldn’t.

No matter the time….


I have read some sermons from C.H. Spurgeon and John Edwards lately and today I was listening to a sermon given at a crusade of Rev. Billy Graham in 1985 and what I have noticed is that the urgency of the message and the conditions of the world have been the same as today in each instance! Whether it was twenty-nine years ago, over one hundred years ago or even two hundred years ago, the conditions of the world with wars, crime, adultery, drunkenness, and all other sins being rampant in its time period! We were taught that the world of George Washington was a more genteel one, but not according to John Edwards’ sermons, then one hundred years ago during Rev. Spurgeon’s time it was also claimed to be a more genteel and Victorian era. Not so.

During the middle of the eighties we know that the world was trying to get as much as possible whether it was money, power, or possessions and it seemed that nothing could slake the amount of greed and hatred that was present in our culture. Much of that has not changed in the last twenty-nine years and a good bit of it has gotten worse it seems. So, why is the message of Jesus not being taken up by the world? What is it that is keeping the Christian faith from making inroads into areas which have been evangelised for a long time?

The reason is told and foretold in the book of Revelation. The spirit of Antichrist is rampant in the world at large! I don’t mean that there is a demon doing all of this, although they are out there, but the spirit of unbelief is alive and well and that is the spirit of Antichrist! So, how can we get past it? Just keep doing the same thing that Jesus told us to do. Tell the world about the Good news of Jesus and the salvation through Him that is offered to all by the grace of God!

That is the message that we, as Christians, need to get out to the world. Whether you go and tell those in far off lands or just your family and those that you work with and those that you meet who will listen. Time is growing short, the time that is foretold is coming soon. I don’t know when, nobody knows except God, but Satan knows that his time is coming to a close so he is stepping up his attacks on Christians and Jews. Any who claim faith in God or in Jesus, regardless of their nationality, are enemies of Satan and he has hated humanity since the beginning!

All of the time that we have had and the percentage of people who claim to be true Christians who follow Jesus faithfully totals up to only one-quarter of the population of the Earth?! Satan and his demons and powers have been very busy during the past couple of thousand years and they still aren’t done! Can we make a dent in those that need Christ and His message? Not on our own power! We have to be walking in step with Jesus and allow Him to help us with our message and with getting it out to those who need it. The Holy Spirit will take the message that we get out into the world and make it work because “the word of God never returns to Him void”!!

Who is this Man?


 “Nobody knows the exact date of His birth, and yet His birth has divided all of history to A.D. and B.C. He never, so far as we know, wrote a book, and yet more books have been written about Him than any other person. He never painted a picture or composed any poetry or music that we know of, and yet He has been the inspiration of the greatest music, art, and poetry that the world has ever known. He never had any formal education, yet more schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries have been founded in His name than any other person who ever lived.” – part of a devotional that I received from Love Worth Finding Ministries

Of course the man in the reference above is Jesus the Christ, our Messiah, the Son of the Living God. His influence on the world is undeniable, whether you believe in Him as the Messiah or not, and the effect that Christianity has had in the past two thousand years is polarizing. So, what is it about Him that makes people either love or hate Him and His followers? There is not middle ground concerning Christianity either, it is black and white.

He said it Himself, “And if the world hates you, know that it hated me before you.” John 15:18; so why does the world truly hate Christianity and Jesus in particular? Because of many things which don’t have much to do with the religion, such as His race and because His blood had to be given in order for us to be justified and sanctified by belief in what He did for us. Those are the two main points that I have noticed about those who are against believing in Him. What has that got to do with anything?

Just because He was born into the Jewish culture and God required a blood sacrifice to atone for sin? Big deal! The sins of Adam and Eve were covered by the blood of an animal that had to be killed in order for them to have clothing and from that point on the blood of an animal was required as the sacrifice of atonement for sin. The only difference is that on the cross, the perfect Son of God is the One Who gave His life as a ransom for all, not just a few but all! That is the part which the world wants to reject. Nobody wants a gift that cost that much to be given to them for free, everyone wants to earn it, but there is nothing that you or I can do to earn and be worthy of His sacrifice! Everything was done on the cross that needed to be done and we can’t add to it!

No amount of work on your part or mine will aid in any way your entrance into heaven. Accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord and believing in what He did for you and for everyone else is all that is necessary. Though, you will be led to do more after you are saved by His grace it will not add anything to your entrance into Heaven except that you may bring a few people with you. Please, pray about the scriptures that point to Him in the Old Testament while you read them, then look up the references in the New Testament that show the fulfillment of the Old. Once you realize that He was there from the beginning as the Son, until He came as the Son of Man and He will come as the King of Kings, you will know your Savior is Jesus the Christ as the Son of the Living God!

 

 

What do you do?


In the New Testament book of Colossians in chapter three and verse seventeen it says: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in (dependence upon) His person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.” AMP

In this verse of scripture, Paul is writing to those who have come to faith in Christ who are trying to reconcile their vocations with their new beliefs. He is telling them that regardless of your vocation, do it as if you are doing it for the Lord. If you dig a ditch, do it as if Jesus asked you to do so. If you are a doctor, treat your vocation as if you worked for the Supreme Physician.

All of us cannot be missionaries or preachers or evangelists, but we can do what we do as if we are doing it for Jesus. If you are a professional football player or golfer, play like you are playing for Jesus and the same goes for any other sport. Regardless of the work that you do, do it as if you are working for Jesus because you really are.

He gave you the talent and the ability to do what you do and the job or the business that you have so that you can be and do your work for Him. I know that many people don’t treat their job as a gift from God or a blessing from Him but it is. God gives to each of us a measure of faith as well as skill in an area that nobody else can match and we have that skill regardless of our education, it was given to us from birth. We may not find out about it until later, maybe after we have attended school or finished school, but it has been there nonetheless. I never thought that I could write much, until years after I graduated from college. I finally found my voice through finding my Savior and He gives me the words to write or say, I am just the messenger.

Your vocation, whatever it may be, is a doorway to other people’s lives. If you work in a hospital, you see people who are hurting in many ways almost every day. I used to work in the laboratory of a hospital and the specimens which we processed were from many people every day who were dealing with cancers of all kinds, HIV, viruses, you name it they were suffering from it. Nurses, Doctors, and all who work in hospitals should be on their knees every day praying for those who they have to care for, regardless of whether they might know any of them or not.

We should be praying for our country and those in Washington who are in charge of the laws of this land. We need to be praying for our military men and women who are serving and putting their lives on the line every day. Prayer should be in our minds and on our hearts for the whole world to come to know Christ, because Satan is busy changing the minds and hearts of as many as he can to turn against Christians and Jews. We are in his sights as a nation founded upon those principles, even though our country is trying to abandon them as fast as it can it seems.

Even though it has been two thousand years since the crucifixion of Jesus, He is coming back! We need to be prepared for His return by doing as much for His Kingdom as we can, whether it is just by praying or if we can preach or teach others to know Him. Teach your children about Him and your grandchildren because they need to know as well. Your family and your friends are the hardest to tell about Jesus if they don’t already know, so in many instances you may just have to pray and invite them to a Bible study at your home. Prayer can cover many things, especially in the lives of those who haven’t come to know Jesus.

Give your heart to Him, tell others about Him, live your life and your vocation as you would with Him by your side. This is the way to eternal life, follow it…follow Jesus and He will guide you.

Time…is…ticking…away…from…us


We have a certain amount of time to live, but only God knows how much each of us has. What are you doing with your time?

Do you spend it worried about your bills? Working to make more money so you can pay more of them off or are you trying to buy more “stuff”?

We need to be concentrating on things which have an impact in our life and in the lives of others. Not just as workers or business owners or …. well you get the picture, but as people who genuinely care for one another. In today’s world that is something that is sorely missing. I don’t want to bring up any news headlines, but people are not taught to respect each other nor are they taught, it seems, to respect life itself. Too many news stories are on the web and television about life being taken for no apparent reason. Yes, this has happened in the past, but not to the extent that it is happening today.

You and I only have today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow or next week, let alone next month or next year! We may live to be seventy-five or eighty-five if we are fortunate, but then there are those who may not make it to the end of this sentence or even to sundown today. The point of this is that time is precious and it begins ticking away the moment that we are born. Your heart beats many thousands of times during the day, pumping blood to all of your vital areas. But, it will only beat so long and God knows exactly how many beats that each of us has left.

Yes, God knows how long you will live and how you will die. He knows when too, so what are you going to do with the rest of the time that you have? What will you do about the eternity that you will step into when this life is over? Regardless of what you may have heard, there is a life after this one and it doesn’t end, how you will spend it is dependent upon your decision in this life, here and now. Will you give your life to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you for your sins, regardless of the sin? Will you ignore what that empty area in your life that you feel needs something in it but you don’t know what it is? That is the part of you that God created which desires Him to fill it with Himself!

Only the Spirit of God fits in that part of you, and if it feels empty now, just try to put something else in there…it will feel worse. It will feel as if it gets bigger and bigger until you decide to fill it with Him. The emptiness in your life will not go away until Jesus fills it with Himself, so to consider something else is foolish.

It has taken me about forty minutes to get this far and that is forty minutes that none of us will get back. Seek Him while you can. He will empower you to do things for His Kingdom that is true, but the rewards in heaven are such that we can’t imagine while we are alive now.

Is your culture affecting your religion?


In many areas of life, it seems that culture trumps religion, regardless of which country you might live in. What kind of religion do you practice? Today, it seems, every religion is acceptable in the public square except Christianity! It doesn’t matter if you are a practising witch or an Imam, you are accepted by everyone as long as your religion doesn’t involve belief in Jesus!

Culturally we are all accepted in the grand scheme of things, nobody seems to have any trouble with other cultures as long as they are not trying to impose their culture on others. So, why is it that we label Christians with that sort of label? Like they are pushing something on everyone around them? According to God’s Word, no one is going to Heaven apart from Jesus, period. It doesn’t matter what cultural background you have, where you were born or what color your skin might be. The fact is that you need Jesus in your life and His Spirit dwelling inside your heart.

The only way that you get this is by believing in Jesus as the Son of God and not just some prophet. A prophet cannot get you into Heaven. Being a member of a church or a religious organization will not save your soul. Giving your time, your money or a few hours per week while attending church services will not save your soul! The only Savior that we have who can save us is Jesus. Belief in Him and the atonement that He bought for us on the cross is the only way to be saved from the condition that you are in.

Money, power, prestige, the size of your house or the car that you drive makes no difference at all! Because, when you die, someone else is going to get all of it! None of it goes with you and it makes no difference to God how rich you were or how poor you might have been in the world’s eyes. Like the beggar who went to Paradise and the rich man went to hades, the ground is level in front of God. If your heart is right with God and you have faith in Him and His Son, then you will be richer than anyone on Earth. If you have not accepted Christ and the grace that has been extended to you through the death and resurrection of Jesus, your money will not make any difference and neither will your nation of birth. Jew or Gentile, we are all the same when we stand in front of Almighty God.

You will be asked, “What did you do with My Son and why should you come through the gates of Heaven?” If Jesus puts His arm around you and says “This one belongs to Me, Father.”, then you will have nothing to worry about. If you hear the words, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”, then you are to be most pitied. Your eternity will be a long, hard, and painful one.

Consider this and pray about your life and your eternity, please.