Category: Jesus loves you

Are there any “nots” in your life?


Have you ever wondered whether you are good enough for God? Have you asked Him if you are good enough to get into Heaven? The answers to these questions are simple: yes, you are good enough for God and no, you are not good enough to get into Heaven!

Well, why not? Why am I not worthy to get into Heaven? It is because of our human nature and the fact that we are sinners from the time that we know right from wrong.

Can we change? Yes, but not on our own. Only by accepting Jesus into our lives and allowing Him to change us from our heart outward can there be any lasting change. This kind of change makes a difference not only in our lives but through our lives we are able to touch others because of it.

The change in us will be evident to others and they will want what we have because it gives us hope and peace. A peace that those in the world cannot understand.

Your life can be so much more than it is with Christ in it and yet, many people don’t want Him in their lives. To me, that doesn’t make sense but that is how life with Jesus is. If you have Him you can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want Him. If you don’t know Him, you can’t understand why anyone would want to.

I have been away too long for God to want me


I know many people who have said this and feel this way, but why? There are times in our lives that we move away from God and it is us who move because He doesn’t. He is always by our side in every situation no matter how desperate it seems and regardless of the circumstances.

Jesus said that not one sparrow falls from the sky without the Father’s notice, so how can we think that He doesn’t notice our troubles and trials? He is always there, we just have to acknowledge Him and turn to Him for guidance and direction. If you have never asked God for anything in your life, He still knows you as His creation, and His child because He created each of us and knew us before we were born. He knows exactly what purpose and plan that He has in store for you and will bring it about without your help if He has to.

God loves us, all of us, whether we know it or not. His patience with us is longer and more enduring than we can possibly imagine. I know that many people try to put “human” qualities and traits on Jesus and God and Jesus did live as a man until His resurrection, yet He was fully God too! As it says in the first chapter of John, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1)

His humanity was what He had to take up like we do when we put on a suit and yet He did it for us, because of His love for us. We cannot deny this and one day it will be for all the world to see. In order for us to come back to Him, if we ever knew Him, takes only a repentant spirit and a prayer for forgiveness because of our actions. If you have never known Jesus, it still only takes a prayer of repentance, one that is truly sorry for the life that you have lived. Acknowledge that you want to live for Him and allow Him to live through you and in your heart. That’s it!

I know that is too simple and straightforward for some to believe but it is true! He made it that simple so that a child could understand how to do it, it is us religious “grown-ups” who make it hard by putting religion and its dogma into the equation. That is why Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees of His day. They knew the scriptures, the prophecies that foretold Him and His coming and yet they did not “see and hear with their spiritual eyes and ears”.

Pride and selfishness get in the way just as it did then. They were proud of being descendants of Abraham and Moses. They were looking at what they would lose if common people could come to God without a priest and a sacrifice. Their position of importance among the people meant more to them that the people that they were supposed to be shepherding toward God.

This same pride is at work in the church today. Many preachers and evangelists, especially those with television ministries, allow their pride and the money which comes into their offering boxes to sway them and their message. I am not accusing all of them, but the ones which get into the news the most and draw the most attention, cause the world to look on all who claim Christ as being the same.

Pride is Satan‘s most useful tool to discredit the Church and the followers of Christ. Mainly because it causes the most hurt and makes the mistakes which are made so visible.

Give your life to Christ so that you can undo some of the damage that has been done in your life. You will be able to do this through Jesus’ power, not your own and He will give you the words and the strength to accomplish it. Don’t rely on your own strength because in the end it will fail, but His will not!

What do you mean, “die to self”?


It is a question which has been asked many times since Jesus was here. It is a question which is easy and hard to answer but I will try to shed some light on it here.

Our selfish nature or it could be called our childish nature, is what gets us into so much trouble and we don’t realize it until it is almost too late. Anyone who is a parent has heard a child say “I can do it myself” and it is that “self” that we have to get away from! If we don’t, it will get us into more trouble than we could possibly imagine!

I know that many people feel that this is just some preacher rambling about something that doesn’t mean anything. Well, I am a preacher but I have also been called to get these bits of wisdom that I glean from God‘s Word out to a dying world and in this instance our “self” is usually the bad guy. Satan will help our nature or our “self” to be a real problem, against our better judgement and our Christian nature, but it is us who cause much of our own problems!

As the old cartoon said, “I has met the enemy and he is us!” We are our own worst enemy in many ways, least of all to ourselves and the life that we live. It is our nature, the sin nature that was born in the garden of Eden, that has caused and is still causing heartache and pain and suffering today.

Can we do anything about it?  No, not on our own we can’t! With God in our life and in our hearts we can overcome our self, the old self that is at war with our new creation after Christ comes into your heart. It is a battle that we cannot afford to lose which is why we are admonished to put on the armor of God by studying His Word and taking its wisdom into our life on a daily basis. When we do that, we are able to do exceedingly more for Him and through Him than we could ever do on our own!

Give your heart to Jesus, the only One who loves you regardless of what you have done or will do! He will never leave you nor let you down so give your heart to Him and your life will never be the same, it will be BETTER!

Celebrating Easter


The idea that a rabbit has anything to do with Jesus’ resurrection came from a pagan ritual. The truth and the reason that we celebrate Easter is the resurrection of Jesus after His crucifixion! It has nothing to do with the spring of the year or eggs or rabbits but it has everything to do with your salvation!

Jesus died to ransom you from the penalty of your sins, regardless of what those sins are! It doesn’t matter if it is a lie that you told your Mom or your boss or your wife/husband, even that is a sin. It may be considered a small sin but in God’s eyes and in His universe this is no different from murder. Sins are just that, sins, regardless of the severity or consequences in our world! To a holy God, our God, sins are all the same regardless of the effect they have in this world.

This is a hard message to hear and to learn but it must be said because there is an eternity at stake and it is yours and mine! Think about what God might feel. He created all of us as His children, to learn about Him, to decide on our own to love Him because of what He does for us on a daily basis. Then, when we decide not to love Him and sin against Him, He feels it like a knife every time. Not just from one of us at a time but from everyone on earth!

We won’t be perfect even after we accept Christ as our Savior but we will have His righteousness to cover those sins that we do commit! We will still sin but we will know it, the Holy Spirit will let us know and we will want to follow Jesus’ footsteps toward the Father. If you haven’t allowed Him to change your heart and your life, please consider this…the fires of hell never go out and after your life on earth is over you will live forever regardless of where you are.

The eternal life that you live will have much more meaning and purpose if you serve Him now so you can serve Him then. If you choose not to allow Him into your life while you have this time on earth, (since we don’t know when our time ends we may not have another chance), your eternity will be very different from what it could have been!

Satan doesn’t care about you or your life other than getting you to choose not to follow Christ, as long as he can accomplish that he feels that he has hurt God more each time one of us chooses our own way instead of God’s way!

How does Jesus know me?


God and Jesus both see us, each of us, as beautiful beings. Whether male or female, tall or short, dark skinned or light, they see us as we really are. They do not see us the way our family sees us or as our friends see us. They don’t even see us the way we see ourselves!

They know us more deeply than anyone can know us because they formed us and knew exactly what they wanted us to be. All of the warts and the beauty and forgetfulness and the genius that each of us have, they put it there. It was done for a reason and a purpose, God’s purpose. Each of our traits is something which can be used by God in ways that only He knows and for His purposes.

Your life and mine don’t belong to us individually. We belong to God and it doesn’t matter if you have given your heart to Him or not. If you are going to be part of His plan and His kingdom and a worker for Him, you will eventually. He will see to it. Your life will work out in such a way as to bring you into God’s family and then you can begin to live for Him!

We are truly not designed to live for ourselves; there is a God-shaped place in our being that needs Him. When we haven’t found Him, we try to put other things in that place but none of them fit. So many people search and try many, many different things to fill that place and yet none of them satisfy the longing. The longing that we have for Him, for a real relationship with Him will never go away until we ask Him to come into that place.

Jesus is the answer and He is the One which fits in that place. We can have a true relationship with Him daily, hourly even, if we want it. He doesn’t push himself into our life and He won’t because He wants us to want Him. If we were forced, there would be no love toward Him from us. God and Jesus want the same relationship that they had with Adam before the fall. Daily communion from us to them and back again, forever.

On our own and with the baggage that we carry in our lives, we are not worthy of such an intimate relationship, particularly with the Creator who is Perfect and eternal. The only way that we can be worthy is by asking Jesus into our life and into our hearts so that the space in our being can be filled with the One which it is designed for. Nothing else will fit and nothing else will satisfy. Give Jesus a chance to change your life into the life that He knows you can have!

In our culture today we have so many ways of looking at information. We have the Internet, from our computers and our phones. We have television which comes to us from cable or satellite with news from all over the world. All of this is nearly instantaneous and still we aren’t satisfied with what we have. Our food is cooked in microwave ovens in a few seconds, we go through the drive-through at McDonald’s or Wendy’s or wherever we go. Our culture is based on “instant gratification” and like spoiled children we want it NOW!

 

Can we have a relationship with Jesus right NOW the same way that the disciples had? I believe that we can if we are willing to put our heart into it. Jesus wants to have a relationship with us as intimate as any that we have with our families. When we have sin in our lives, the relationship is damaged, but not irreparable.  Sin creeps into our lives in small things and thoughts and words. Sin is like that, just one puff, just one little drink. Then pretty soon here comes another tentacle, just a thought or just a lustful look. But then here comes another tentacle. Just a little lie, a slight rearrangement of the truth, & out comes another tentacle & soon we are completely entangled and feeling helpless.

But, we are not alone in our fight against sin and Satan. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always there to guide us and direct our paths and our thoughts. All we have to do is reach out to Him through prayer, acknowledging that we can’t do it alone but with His strength we can get through anything.

Jesus knows the people that He created us to be and He knows the abilities that we have even better than we do. Some people, like me, don’t know what they can do until God calls them. When He calls, He will give you the words and the abilities to accomplish His purpose in your life and in the place where He has planted you.

What we should be doing


praying-hands-258x300In our time alone with God, when we are not alone but with the Creator of everything, we should be praying. Our lives are merely His to work out His will on this earth, regardless of how we feel about Him or even if we acknowledge Him at all. If by some chance, you know Him but don’t pray much, He is waiting patiently.

All of the gifts and blessings of this life come from God. Satan has a hand in all of the bad things which happen to people, but only so far as God allows him to go.  God is in control and always has been, so there is no reason to worry about your life or what you will eat because God feeds the birds and He cares enough for you to do the same in your situation.

There is so much more that God can and will do for you and all that you have to do is ask Him into your heart and life. When you have done that, I am not saying that your life will be rosy from that point on, but He will give you the assurance that His love brings and the strength to carry you through.

My life is out of control, HELP!


What happens when you feel this way? Do you panic or call a friend? Do you feel that this is what happens to people when they have nowhere to go or anyone to turn to? I have heard from and talked with many people who think that when this happens, there is nowhere to go or no one to go to.

Our educational system in this country has pushed God out of the classroom so much that children and teenagers may not have any concept of Him at all. If they have never been to church or bible school, they certainly wouldn’t have any concept of Him. As someone who lives in the “Bible-belt” it is hard for me to imagine anyone not knowing about Christ but I know that there are some people who have never heard of Him and His grace toward us.

Our Savior is the Creator of everything, but He is also a friend who loves each of us more dearly than we can imagine! His Word, the Bible, is full of stories of His love toward us and His chosen people, Israel. When you read it from cover to cover, you find that it is not a book of rules about what you can’t do but it is an instruction book. One that suggests ways of doing things with your life that will inspire others to do the same. It is also the living Word of God, so when you read it the message that you get from it will be different each time.

God’s Word will also influence your life in ways that you might never have considered before. Our Lord loves all people because He had a hand in creating each person on the earth. The problems that we experience in this life are felt by God because He knows each person whether they know Him or not. Remember, according to Jesus, “Are not two sparrows sold for a pennyd? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” Matthew 10:29

Our God cares for this world enough that He watches over the sparrows as well as all other creatures, including us. Even when you think that He is not watching or listening, He is, and even though our world is coming to the end of the church age, He is carefully watching everything.

Our world is under the influence of Satan and as such we experience many deceptions and hardships because of him. Although he is not in control of our world, he just influences things which happen here, God is in control and He allows Satan to do some things as long as those things follow His will.

When life and trouble seems to be too much, look to Jesus. Ask Him to help you overcome the problems which seem to be too big because even though they may be too big for you to handle, they are not too big for God. When you have come to the end of your rope and hope seems to have faded, trust in Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life as well as our Savior and Friend. He is the Creator of all things and the King of Kings who gave His life to pay the price so that we don’t have to! All you have to do is ask Him into your heart and believe that He is Who He is, then repent and follow Him.

What will you do with Jesus?


After you have asked Him to come into your life, what then? Can you just go back to being the same person you have always been?

If there was true repentance and acceptance of His Lordship over your life, it is not possible for you to return to your old life and habits. Your heart and your Spirit won’t let you and your conscience won’t allow it either.

Can you ignore the prompting of the Spirit and your conscience and return to your old life? Yes, you can and each time you ignore the prompting of the Spirit, it will become easier and easier until you quench the Spirit entirely. Then you will be just another hypocrite who said they got saved and then turned away from it.

Will you feel good about doing so? At first you won’t, but eventually that small voice in your heart will go silent. Like ignoring your wife or your parents, it becomes easier with time until one day you don’t notice it at all.

Satan loves it when a “Christian” returns to their old ways because he has been watching you closely and so have your friends. If this was genuine, true repentance you wouldn’t turn away like Lot’s wife did. Why does this happen? In our society today people look for easy ways to get their way or what they want.

This has been happening ever since humans have been on the planet, so it is nothing new. Society hasn’t changed all that much in the thousands of years that we have been here. The facts speak to us from the pages of the Bible.

When they were in the wilderness and thought that Moses had died while talking to God, they begged Aaron to make them a god like the gods of Egypt. The Israelites wanted a god they could see and touch in the wilderness, even though they had seen the miracles that were wrought by God to bring them out of Egypt.

Then when they were in Canaan, they did not do as God had told them and they intermingled with some of the inhabitants of the land. Eventually, they began worshiping their gods and doing the detestable things that the Canaanites did, like sacrificing their children to a piece of wood or stone.

Our so-called modern society isn’t much different. We work more hours than our fore-fathers did, sacrificing our family life and our relationships with our children in the process in order to have “stuff” like everyone else. Our neighbors buy a new car or truck, so we think we have to have one as good or better. Your child comes home and tells you that Jordan or Sarah has this kind of game or toy, so you go get then one just like it.

Why? Why do we have to do or be like everyone else in the world when our Lord said that we were to be in the world but not of the world? This is not in the Bible word for word, but He meant that we are no longer ruled by sin which is of the world. When we come to Him and give our heart to Him, we are His and to be that which He wants us to be we have to be different. Different in ways that the world can see and therefore want to have. But, it is striving each day that makes us this way because the temptations are there every day. As children we may not see it as much as adults do, but the world, Egypt, whatever you call it is there and the ruler of our sinful world is Satan.

Satan and his fallen angels are real, whether we can see them or not and they rule over this world by tempting us and causing us to fall from the grace which we have been granted through Jesus. Some might ask, “Will I lose my salvation because of this?”. Losing your salvation is not possible in a real sense, except when you walk away from it yourself. Your witness to others will be affected because they might see that your life changed and then when you walk away from it for some reason they question if you were saved to begin with.

A person who has truly given their life and heart to Christ cannot just walk away from it because you have been changed from the inside out. If that change never really took place, if you never truly gave your heart to Him who sacrificed everything, then you never belonged to Him in the first place. Churches are full of people who think that they are Christians because they are in church and have belonged to it for a long time. They tithe, they volunteer for projects and help in the church, some may be deacons or even lay ministers. You can do most or all of these things in the church under your own strength and still not be a true Christian!

The ones you know that are easily identified as Christians, may not have Christ at all. True Christians, those who have Him in their life and in their heart, are humble and are usually behind the scenes. Not all of them are this way, but many are. Their life reflects the humility of Christ and His way of serving. Many so-called “upstanding pillars” are more like the priest who told God how great he was and that he was glad that he was not like the sinner who was in the temple with him.

As Jesus’ story illustrated, the person who went away justified was the sinner because he acknowledged that he was a sinner and asked forgiveness for it.

The priest only magnified himself in the eyes of those who may have heart him, not in the eyes of God. Pride was the sin he was guilty of that day and he didn’t even acknowledge his sinfulness.

God knows your heart, so bare it to Him. Ask Him to show you how to be His, ask Him to help you be the vessel that He knows that you can be. He will give you the strength and the wisdom from His word, the Bible so don’t neglect the reading of it. Even a few minutes each day can make a big impact in your walk with Him and in your service to Him.

God, the Creator of everything, is waiting for you to answer His calling on your life. We are important to Him, He cares for us and wants us to know it and to show it to others by allowing others to see what He has done in our life.

Through modeling and reflecting Jesus’ character by what we do and say everyday, we magnify God to the world. Isn’t that an awesome and humbling responsibility? Think about that as you go through this week.

 

New Year, old problems


The dishes need washing, the grass will soon need cutting, I’ve gained a few pounds so I need to go on a diet (tomorrow), etc.

These are the problems that we deal with year after year and they never seem to go away! Well, it just proves that you are alive, that’s all! So what else is different about you that most others haven’t experienced? Is there anything?

It is likely that there is very little that anyone has experienced something that most of us have not, at least not yet. How can we deal with the problems that we have now and the ones that we will experience in the future?

The one ingredient that we all need is a relationship with Jesus. Once we have that we can deal with our problems, if not under our own strength then with His guidance and His strength. I know that some will ask me “Why can’t I just do it on my own?”; to answer that I would like to ask you if that has worked in the past?

Living our life on our own strength and our wisdom works for a while and we may be able to get by like this for as long as we are here. But, what about the minute after you die? I know there are many who say they are atheists, or Buddhists or Muslim or Mormons, or any of a number of other religions which don’t follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but what will you say when you are standing in His presence?

Regardless of whether you believe in Him or not you will stand before Him at some point in eternity. That will be the point where you will acknowledge Him as Lord but He will say “Depart from me, I never knew you”. There will be many in that day who think that their salvation is secure who will find that they are mistaken.

Examine your heart and the Bible so that you can come to Him now before it is too late because once you have crossed over into eternity, there is no second chance. You cannot be prayed out of hell, and yet you weren’t intended to be there anyway. It was made for Satan and his demons not for us, but if you have rejected the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament that is where you will be.

This is not a pleasant message to write to you but it must be said. Our time grows shorter with each passing day, each of us only have today and are not guaranteed tomorrow. Seek the Lord while He can be found and don’t put it off because if your tomorrow doesn’t come and you stand before God, what will you say in your defense? There is nothing that can be said which will do you any good. Your own works and your life will condemn you if you haven’t accepted Jesus as your savior.

Please, do so now before it is too late. I read about a man once who was giving a eulogy at a funeral telling the people there the same thing that I have told here. When he sat down, he fell over dead in the pew. His time had come. What will you do with Jesus and your life?

Christmas means…..


 

Scripture: Luke 2: 8-20

In our culture today what does this time of year mean? To some it means that their business may end the year with a little money in the bank. To others it means that they hope they will get what they want for Christmas from Santa. What about in countries which are less fortunate than we are?

What about the children in Korea with their eyes so big and bright, what does this time of year mean to them? In North Korea, they may be looking for food and hoping they will have a meal tonight. In South Korea, where there are some churches and a fairly robust economy, they may be celebrating Jesus’ birth just like we do.

I wonder also about those who live in Africa. In places like Zimbabwe where the annual income may be fifty dollars, where people live in huts and never see shopping malls or a Christmas tree, what do they think of this time of year that is celebrated in most countries?

How about the Muslim countries, where Christmas is not celebrated at all?

I am sure it means different things to different people depending on their culture and their beliefs.

Do we forget about Jesus at this time of year? I have heard of people who set an extra place at the table for Him because it is His birthday that we celebrate. It isn’t our birthday but it is the Lord’s birthday and this is a time to remember Him and why He came.

(READ Luke 2:8-14)

The announcement that went out to the earth about God’s Son being born went to the shepherds, not the temple, not the high priest. Why do you think God went to the outcasts of society to announce the birth of His Son? I think it is because they would receive the news with humble hearts and with willing spirits. They were chosen by God and told the news by a multitude of angels, they had to feel honored even if society said they didn’t deserve honor.

Shepherds were considered unclean and not allowed to participate in any worship service, even though they took care of the animals which were used as sacrifices.

What about today? How do we receive the news of Jesus and His sacrifice for us? Do we humbly bow and thank Him and ask Him to come into our lives and be near to us every day? I am sure that is what He wants of us but not just on holidays or at certain times of the year, or when things are going bad. Jesus wants us to be near to Him as He is with us every day and in all things, great and small in our lives.

Doesn’t He deserve our respect and praise? For all the things that God has done for us through Jesus and through His work on the cross the least that we owe Him is our life in service to Him. Is there any higher calling than to be called a “child of God”? I don’t think so and I don’t believe any of you think that either.

So, what are we to do when we realize who we are in relation to Him? Do we become missionaries? Yes, in a manner of speaking we are supposed to be just that, because Jesus told us to be the light of the world and to take the gospel to all people. We can do that every day while we are working, or at a restaurant or a ball game. We do it by our life and our witness to others and when His Spirit is working through you they will see it and recognize it.

Getting back to the shepherds and what they saw and did; they saw the glory of the Lord shining from those angels who were proclaiming that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. In the darkness of the Judean hills the light must have been breathtaking, like spot-lights shining all around them. Today with the technology that we have lights in the sky wouldn’t be a big deal, but these were angels and they were SINGING and there were no lights at that time except for a fire or a candle so the glory coming from them would’ve been much brighter than they were used to.

Can you imagine how those shepherds felt? “What is this from God? Why is He telling us this?” They might have been thinking those things but they listened to the message and obeyed. They went to Bethlehem and found the Christ child and worshiped Him.

This is all that we are called to do in our lives but we are to do more than just worship. We are called to be ministers and teachers about our faith and why we have the faith that we have. We are to be the voice of Jesus and his hands and feet in a world that is rejecting Him now and in the future, until we are taken to be with Him.