Category: Love flows both ways

Apples and Jesus


A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago .. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding…

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.

He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?” She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, “I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, “Mister….” He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, “Are you Jesus?”

He stopped in mid-stride …. and he wondered. He gently went back and said, “No, I am nothing like Jesus – He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.

“The girl gently nodded: “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him – only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister.”

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: “Are you Jesus?”

Do people mistake you for Jesus?

That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word as life unfolds day-to-day .

You are the apple of His eye even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really need to be sharing what we know….

 

“Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect.
It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections.”

The nicest place to be is in someone’s thoughts,
the safest place to be is in someone’s prayers,
and the very best place to be is ……..
in the hands of God

God Smiled on You Today .

Life….


I have written a post with this name before, but not one that has the same message. “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:4,5

Jesus is our Life, our eternity and the Life that takes us into it, so why are we ignoring and ridiculing each other and the message that is in the Bible? Because many people just don’t want to hear the message and the hope that is contained in it and in the message which Jesus brought to us. We need it…all of us, but there are many who think that there are too many rules or they look at our religion as one that has caused oppression, slavery, murder, and many other abominations toward life.

Religion has caused many of these evils in the past, and regardless of the religion that was involved many of the evils committed were laid at the feet of Christianity. Christianity is a religion and many people do practice it under the guise of different denominations but being a Christian is a LIFESTYLE in which you live and walk with Jesus DAILY, not just on Sunday or Wednesday. There is a huge difference between religion and those who practice it in all of its forms and a true Christian.

Just as there is a difference between people who practice Islam and those who actually live by the good teachings of it and those Islamists who practice and live by a form that their Prophet would not recognize were he here.

God, not Allah, is the answer to the world’s problems today but many people don’t want to hear that because they believe that they have the answer and their’s is the only answer regardless of your beliefs! You can become radical about anything…money, power, religion, or any of a dozen other things but being radical about it doesn’t make it the Truth of God!

Why am I saying this today? Because the world is quickly moving in a direction which will lead many people toward a destination which is not the one that they are hoping for. Many religions in our world today take you down a path that is easy to walk and with many things promised to you, if you will just give your life to the teachings of the prophet or the leader or the doctrine being taught. If those doctrines and wisdom don’t come from God and His Word…RUN! Get away from that “church” or “temple” because they are teaching Satanic wisdom and doctrine, and you will pay eternally for it!

Life only comes through the Creator of Life, Jesus the Creator. He is called the Door, the Way and the Life in Scripture and it is through Him that we have access to eternity. Not with our own abilities or our accomplishments, even though we are given those and the ability to accomplish them by Him. You and I cannot work our way into Heaven. It is gained by faith and belief in Jesus. Belief in Jesus comes to each of us by our faith and faith comes from hearing the Word of God, whether you read it yourself or you attend a church which teaches from the Bible!

Life is not just an existence and it is not a drudgery and terrible way of living, regardless of where you live or the system of beliefs that you live by. Life is truly what comes to you from knowing Jesus and His Love in your life, daily! Seek Him out in your life so when this life comes to an end, your Life in Him will truly begin!

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.

The power of Love


This word has been used so much since the sixties until it seems that few people know or even care what it really is.

Love is a powerful word, one which can begin a relationship which will last a lifetime. It is also one that is used so flippantly today that much of its meaning has been lost. There are many kinds of love. One is meant for friendship, one is meant for erotic love, one is a type that has no boundaries at all and that is agape love. It is the kind that exists between parents and children who are loved by them. It is also the kind of love that is between God and all of mankind. There are no limits to it and nothing can stop it. Time nor space has no meaning to this kind of love and it is referenced in 1 Corinthians 13 as the highest form of the gifts which we are given by God Himself!

Today, love seems to be missing from our lives in its truest form. Many people really seem to mean that they “like” something or someone, but they use the word love. Its power is from God and yet we misuse it just as we misuse His name. Love puts up with many things and helps us through some of the toughest times in our lives. When you really love someone you want the best for them, sometimes to the detriment of your finances but that is how you feel and how you would like to treat them! It takes time and maturity in your love to know how much and what to do for those that you feel so deeply about.

Love that has grown deeper with time doesn’t fade and it doesn’t go away, ever. It is a smouldering emotion that is always there, but it never fizzles out or dies. True and genuine love cannot be expressed by someone who you just met a few weeks ago. Erotic love burns HOT like a flame which has gas thrown on it, but unless the lust can keep it hot over a period of time it will flame out and grow cold and heartless. This is the kind of love which will make you hate someone and divorce them or worse.

Seek out the Source of Love in God’s Word and you will know the Power of Love and if you really want to feel His Love, ask Him to reveal it to you and you can truly know of His Love forever!

Darkness and Light


Darkness tried to invade our county this past weekend. It took out two shining lights, ones that it thought would dim our lights. It didn’t take into account the faith and love that these two lights had behind them nor how many friends that they shared in common all over the state. The amount of prayer and support their families got from the school, from their teams, and from the 4H groups that they were involved with brightened the sky with the prayers that were sent up to God. Then, He sent down legions of angels to comfort and strengthen those friends, family, and classmates. So, in trying to dim the light that is in our county, it only made it brighter. Faith and Love are powerful especially when you combine them with prayer.

I am still praying for all the people…friends involved in this tragedy, but God knew about it all along. They are now with Him and are enjoying the benefits of Heaven and that their bodies can never die. They both are praying for their families well-being and they are also asking for the Lord to give their loved ones the strength and comfort that they will need during this time.

Although some may not believe it, I believe that we can see our family from Heaven. Especially when our lives end so suddenly, because God wants us to be comforted and to lend comfort to those we left behind. We are fragile creatures, physically and emotionally, but God knows what we need and when we need it and He will provide it, especially now during this time of mourning and healing.

Our community should come together and will do so during this rough time for the families of these girls. They are clothed in their gowns of righteousness, which would make the most expensive wedding gowns look like rags. Why are they that beautiful you ask? Because, these two young ladies are part of the church, the Bride of Christ, and they are supposed to be adorned that way!

Shimmering gowns of love and light, which more closely resemble a dress made from gold and silver and colors of the rainbow that we can’t even imagine in our minds. No fashion house on Earth could come up with a gown which comes close to the beauty that they are clothed in now and we will see them one day.

The love of God expressed toward us in light, His Light, is more beautiful and illuminating than anything that we have. Even our homes in Heaven will radiate with His Love and so will everything else in Heaven. That is why there is no darkness in Heaven, because every blade of grass, the trees, the water which flows from His throne, all of it will shimmer with His Love and His Light.

The darkness which tried to cause our lives to dim over the weekend did not have the effect that it was supposed to have. Because, the love and faith of the families involved in this tragedy grew stronger and it shined more brilliantly than it had before. Not because it wasn’t there before, but because it was needed for other things. Now, it is needed for comfort and strength and as a witness to all around that the Love of God can and does conquer death, hell and the grave!

Seek Him out if you don’t know Him. Read His Word and pray that you will come to a saving knowledge of Him, before a wreck or something else takes your life. Because, standing before Him is too late to realize the mistakes that you have made while living.

So much to do, so little time


Yes, I know, I am trying to scare you. I’ve heard it before…Boo!

Life goes on, it always has, even in the midst of riots and wars and natural disasters like the earthquake in Nepal or the volcano in Chile. I get it, nothing new has ever happened because it has all happened before at some point in our past. These are the same musings which the Preacher, Solomon, wrote when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and yet it is true.

The only new stuff that is happening now is that technology is exploding! So is the population of the world. Can we stop or take a breath in this rush to oblivion? Not really. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it has been prophesied for many thousands of years that all of this would happen when the “end of the age” drew closer.

Well, like it or not we are getting closer. How much closer? I don’t know. Nobody on Earth can answer that question. Although, each one of us has a date that is immovable and irrevocable and that is the day that we die. It is different for us all of course. My death may come tomorrow or twenty years from now, just the same as yours. Thankfully we don’t know our “expiration date”, although there are times that I wish that I did.

I am not going to be arrogant enough to take that date into my own hands and force the end to come sooner rather than later. Some seem to be destined to do this and I suppose that is fine, but it isn’t for me. I don’t know that I could take another human being’s life, let alone taking my own. I am just not made that way and never have been.

God gives each of us a job to do. Whether we choose to accept that job and follow through with it or not is our choice, individually. He doesn’t force the issue on us nor does He punish us for taking a bit longer to get around to it. Why? Because, if He has something specific for you to do that only you can do then He will make sure that eventually you will come around to being the “right person for the job”.

God loves us, regardless of how small our planet may be in the grand design because He is God. He can love and care for whoever He wishes to and since He lives above time, He knows exactly when or if you will choose to come to Him and give your life to Him. From that point on, your life will never be the same…it will be awesome!

I don’t mean that you will have fame and fortune like the people in some places do. I do mean that just thinking about being a servant to the King of Kings and the Creator is…well, enough. If you aren’t a believer and don’t have spiritual faith in God and Jesus, then this concept is a little beyond your pay grade. I am not saying that Christians are better than you, but we are forgiven.

The best part about this is that God loves you and has made His grace available to you without cost. All that you need to do is to acknowledge that you are a sinner and come to Him like a child and ask Him to come into your life and fix it. Help you straighten things out…get your heart right with Him by allowing Him to do the work. If you try to get things right first, you are just in the way. Let Him do it because He is the only One that can!

Love, where does it come from?


Many people wonder about love and today consider that this word is just…a word. It doesn’t mean anything, it has no depth for many people. It is just a simple, four letter word and nothing more. Where does this sort of thinking come from? Why is it so denigrated and down-played from the meaning that it is given in God’s Word?

Mainly because people don’t see love today as the same as what is talked about in the Bible. We have been using the word, LOVE, as a stand-in for lust for so long until it has lost its real meaning. Nobody sees it being acted upon or toward people in the same way that Jesus told us that we are supposed to do. We are supposed to love each other as we love ourselves, but very few people do this today.

Everyone is out to get what they can get and as much as they can get for themselves. Its like the world is populated by millions if not billions of spoiled brats!

I am not saying that stuff is bad but the constant search for and chasing after more toys is idiotic. Nothing that you gain in this life materially gives you much satisfaction except for a brief moment when you are using it for the first few times. Then, just like most children, it becomes old and it just doesn’t fill the void that you wanted filled. At which point you are off to find something else.

Our search for something to fill that void in our lives is not a pursuit which is limited to young or old, rich or poor or middle class. It is something which we feel when we get to a certain age and realize that there is something that is missing. At which point we begin to search for it and depending upon our resources (money), we look in all sorts of places and seek out fulfilment in more and better things.

We will look at new cars or homes or games or guns, then sometimes we seek out new friends or relationships or even new gadgets like an iPad or tablets or phones and computers. Today, the selection is nearly endless yet we still have trouble finding just the right combination or specific person or thing which will fill that void. We will never find it until we begin searching for the One which can fill that place of empty feeling.

That is Jesus Christ. In life, we only have a small amount of time. It could be twenty years or thirty, it might be sixty or even ninety or one hundred years, but when you compare that time with, say one hundred thousand years, isn’t it tiny? God created us all with an immortal spirit or soul and that part of us continues on when this life ends. Your acceptance of Jesus places you on the path into Heaven with Him and that life will never end.

If you choose to hear or listen to a message about being saved by belief in Jesus and then walk away, deciding that you will live the way you want to live because your idea of God would not do that to someone. Your idea of God would not punish you in hell for not accepting His Son as Savior. It won’t be your idea that judges you! It will be God Himself and it is not His decision which will place you in hell, it is yours!

Even a child can understand the Love of God that was given to all of us through Jesus and His death and resurrection, but if you choose to turn away from the offer of grace which God gives you by that love then it is your choice. It will be your choice which condemns you to hell, not God.

Themes in the Bible


What is the theme which is carried all through the Bible? One of them is the blood. From the time that God had to shed the blood of two animals in order to create garments for Adam and Eve, through Abraham’s time where God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac, blood was always being shed in some form or another. Later, in Egypt, a lamb was sacrificed in order to anoint the door posts with its blood so that the angel of death would pass over the house of each Israelite. The covenant of circumcision also required the shedding of blood and then later, when Jesus was convicted of doing nothing more than telling the people how they could know God and come into His Presence, His blood was shed during the scourging and then on the cross itself.

In many ways, people in the world today reject our beliefs because they call it “a bloody religion”. What about all the children and parents and grandparents that have been killed by the “religion of peace” in our time? What about the blood that they have spilled? I would call that a bloody religion too, wouldn’t you? It is true that blood has been shed all through the Bible, but what about other themes and requirements?

The most prevalent one that comes to mind that I have seen from the beginning to the end of God’s Word is obedience. All that God ever asked and required of those that He called His was obedience, to His laws and to Him. Starting in the Garden and in every book from that point on, He asked certain people to do as He asked them to. Sometimes, they obeyed but many times they did not. Even before the Israelites had a king over them, as soon as they were delivered from bondage or trouble they would revert back to worshiping other gods and refusing to obey their God.

Even Moses, during the exodus from Egypt, disobeyed God by striking the rock when God had told him to speak to it for water. True, the first time God had said to strike the rock and Moses did, but the second time he was supposed to speak to it and his anger caused him to strike the rock instead. Then, when Israel asked for a king, God gave them one but the first one didn’t obey God like he should have so his kingdom was taken from him. David did as God told him to do, but even he disobeyed God in some things but at least he repented of his sins and asked for forgiveness.

After David’s reign, Solomon did follow God and did as God instructed him for a while, but his wives led him astray to worship other gods in his old age. After his reign, very few of the kings which followed would worship God or do as the prophets told them to do. Many of them desecrated the Temple with strange gods and killed the prophets. Why would God be merciful to a people, even those of us over the whole Earth, when most of us have refused to obey Him and His laws or even to follow His Son?
The next theme which flows all the way through the Bible, from the beginning to the end, is His love for us. He, the Creator of all things, LOVES us! Even when we don’t like or even believe in Him!!

God loves us today, each one of us, enough that He sent Jesus to die so that we could have a relationship with Him. He wants that. He doesn’t need it. God has never needed us, nor does He need the angels in heaven, but He wants a relationship with His Creation, all of Creation. That is why Lucifer rebelled against Him, because he didn’t want the relationship from that point, he wanted to be on the receiving end of the adoration and the love but he didn’t want to give it to Creation or the Creator.

In many ways, we are rebelling today because we want to get the love but we don’t want to be required to give it. You know what? You aren’t required to love God at all!! But, when you realize what He really did for you so that you have the choice and the ability to love and be loved by the Creator, then you actually do want to! If you can’t make that leap into God’s lap as you would into your dad’s or your mom’s lap, then you will miss out on it. You will miss out on the true, loving, whole relationship with God, the Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a feeling which cannot be described to anyone who hasn’t felt it.

The closest way to describe it from me to you would be how a mother or a father feels when they hold their first child for the very first time. If you can imagine being the recipient of that love and then multiply it thousands of times to the point of it overwhelming you….that is what it has felt like to me at times. It is a feeling which can’t be described because the actual feeling is beyond description. Similar to the problem of telling someone what the color blue is or maybe the color purple. If they have never seen it, you just can’t tell them about it at all.

Until you can get into the Word of God and come close enough to Him that you can feel His Presence, then I can’t describe it at all. Then, consider that the river of Life runs through Heaven and it is like liquid joy!

You know, I started this sermon off talking about the blood, then I spoke about obedience, then lastly there is Love, and just as first Corinthians says that “the greatest of these is LOVE”. It really is True! Love is the reason for all of this, your life and mine as well as for Jesus coming and dying on the cross and being resurrected. God’s Love for us! The least that we could do would be to give back some of that Love to Him in the form of our life and our love because He loved us first, isn’t that a wonderful way to look at Easter?

Living with Love


Consider that God is Love and His Love for us is perfect. Could you live with His Love and experience it every day? Many people seem to think that this is impossible. That we, being flawed human beings, can’t live this way. We can’t possibly experience that kind of real Love daily. Why not? If you have asked Jesus into your life and you have really given yourself to Him, why can’t you feel His love flowing back to you?

You can by worshipping Him every day through prayer and reading and studying God’s Word. Experiencing His Love through His Spirit and the interaction between your spirit and His. I have felt this before and at times it almost overwhelmed me when I was studying my Bible.

I know, many of you will see these as being impossible to do. It takes too much time or it’s too hard to keep your eyes focused on Jesus that much. You know, He loves you anyway but you should show some love back in His direction too. Yes, you can accept Jesus and then decide to sit down and do nothing. You still have the blessing of being a child of God and you can be selfish with your salvation and keep it all to yourself.

But, WHY would you do that? His disciples didn’t and wouldn’t keep quiet even after being flogged and imprisoned and we shouldn’t be either. It is true that many of us can’t go on missions overseas, but with the Internet we can let people know about Him from our homes, no matter where we live. Our blessed existence is in His hands and His power if we have given our lives to Him and we are watched over every day by His angels who strengthen and encourage us according to His will for us.

Don’t laugh, angels exist just as Satan exists and his demons. These are not figments of someone’s imagination. Remember the Bible says that we struggle against “powers and principalities and demons”, that is the spiritual realm that we have to deal with as Christians. Diseases and all sorts of trouble are brought into people’s lives by these beings. Our life in Christ is to be in opposition to these forces of Satan by way of prayer and praise. In expressing our praise to Him we are expressing our love for Him, but we are also strengthening the Spirit so that it can oppose Satan’s forces in the spiritual realms.

Jesus loved us enough to die for us and I think that the least we could do will be to express that love in our prayer and our praise to Him when we read His Word and meditate on it.

Racism…why?


In our world today there are so many different ism’s until it is hard to tell which is which. But why is there one called racism? There is only one race on Earth and it has been that way since God began everything in Eden. Adam was not one race and Eve another, they were both human. Their skin may have been dark, not brown or black but not white or yellowish either. We are all part of the human race.

For many years, centuries even, we have separated ourselves from each other because of our different cultures and skin tongenetic-variationes but honestly those are really the only actual differences between us, no matter where we live on Earth. Yes, we do have different cultures, that can be seen easily in our customs and the religions, the way we talk and dress, but it doesn’t make us different in race. We are all of the same race, human beings or Homo sapiens and there are no others. If there were you would easily be able to see the differences.

I know that cultural differences are varied in every country and region on this planet, but that is the only thing besides skin color that separates us. It is something that we must contend with and it is a difference which we have had since the beginning. The problem with our separateness began with the Tower of Babel where everyone’s language got mixed up and they were forced to separate and move away from each other, at least that is my opinion about it.

We live in a world which is broken and bruised in many ways because of the original sin in the Garden, but also because of our own nature. We want things a certain way in our lives, we like our coffee a certain way and our eggs cooked a certain way and when someone comes along with a different way of doing things we fuss and fight against it until we decide that maybe their way is better. If not, then we have a problem between their way and our way. This causes a split in communities and churches sometimes and in times past, it caused us to distance ourselves from each other along cultural lines which soon become “racial lines” because we considered the differences to be so great.

When in reality, the differences are not that great if you get to know someone better. Sooner or later those differences become not so different really. The difference in culture, between the way people dress or act or even the music that they listen to or the way that they talk, those are the separating lines between us. We are all of the same race, just different branches of the tree that’s all. The branch at the top is no better than the roots because they are all a part of the whole.

Of course, this explanation is one which will be very hard for most to accept. “My branch is better than yours because I am not so close to the ground”; “My trunk is better because I get my nourishment before you do”; these are silly arguments from a human standpoint but you get the point. Is there a way for us to fix these differences in culture and skin tone? Not with our human understanding alone. Force and wars, whether fought with guns or bombs or swords, have never solved any of these problems and in many countries they have made the problem worse.

The only cure or fix for this is Jesus. When He comes to rule the world for one thousand years, things will be different. Yes, there will still be separation between most nations, tribes, and cultures and all of the diversity that has come to Earth since Creation but we can take our grievances to Him directly and He can judge fairly between the parties which are having problems.

Until the new heaven and earth appear though, there will be disagreements and arguments. Maybe no wars or bombings or killings, but that won’t stop us from having disagreements between people.

Seek His counsel and His Wisdom in your life, every day, so that you have the best advice available in all of your daily activities, whatever they may be.

An addendum to this post:

Christ did not come to Earth for only one so-called “race” of people, He came to save ALL of us, to bring the possibility of salvation to all skin colors and nationalities and the cultures from which they come. God created us as one race, humanity, and He wants to have fellowship with all of us, no matter where you may live or what color your skin is.

Think of our skin colors like this: there is a snow leopard which is mostly white, there is a leopard which has black spots and a tawny color and there is a black leopard in South America which is black, but you can still see the spots well enough to know that he is still a leopard. The colors don’t change the fact that it is a leopard any more than our skin color doesn’t change the fact that we are all homo sapiens! One race, different cultures and skin colors, blessed and loved by God to be His people if we will accept Him as our Savior.