Category: Pride and selfishness

Beauty in the Cosmos


If, like me, you watched the series Cosmos on television then you were struck by the wonder and majesty of all that mankind has discovered. The beauty of the galaxies and nebulae, and of the planets in the system where we are at home. But…did you notice that they completely disregard any sort of notion that all of this was designed by a Designer? Nowhere did they show any kind of religious splendor and humility toward the discoveries of the universe itself. Everything in our universe came from a microscopic singularity that just exploded one day and blew out all of the matter, dark and otherwise, into the universe. Then, all on its own, everything just organized itself together into galaxies and stars and planet systems and bacteria, etc.

Come on! Entropy and the universe at large does not work that way and scientists know this! What happened? They theorize that gravity pulled everything together and then nature took its turn. Really?

Yes, the galaxies and nebulae are beautiful to look at and wondrous to behold, but their beauty points not to a random accident of gases and rocks coming together but to the awesomeness of God! He is the designer and builder of all that we see in the heavens. He is the One who put the stars in their places and called them by name. He is also the One Who called forth the light to begin the whole of creation in the first place. No super-collider of any kind is going to find God in a microscopic particle that lasts for a nanosecond and then vanishes!

God can only be found in the Bible, which Isaac Newton studied. They didn’t mention that in the series. Most of the great scientists up until Charles Darwin, believed what is in God’s Word and their research in the heavens was simply to confirm God’s Word not to deny it or to refute it. The answer to your problems, whatever they may be, is Jesus and the relationship that you will have with Him when you ask Him into your heart. God can heal the hurts in your life whether they are emotional or physical and He most certainly can answer your spiritual questions and confusion.

God is the answer when all other answers fail because He is our Creator and everything which is was created by Him, including all of humanity. The ones who have committed sinful acts such as rape, murder, sodomy, stealing, disrespect toward parents and other sins are still loved by God and He will forgive them of their crimes against His commandments if they will repent and ask for His forgiveness. Then follow His ways and His Truth. When they do this, they are adopted into His family forever. You don’t fall from grace after you have received it, you may stumble and fall down by doing something out of character for a Christian but you have not been tossed aside by God. Satan is just trying to make you think that is what will happen.

The world and the cosmos are all God’s handiwork, there is no denying it. You can’t say that these things just miraculously came together without a Miracle Worker! It isn’t possible! As I have said before, your life and everything in it came from God. Your talent, your family, your job, your income, and yes even the pets that you enjoy the company of all came from God’s hand. Many are prideful enough to think that they did all of these things, but you can’t even change the color of one whisker let alone have an effect on your life! God loves you and if you have felt His call…His pull on your heart and have not answered it, I urge you to do so as soon as you can!

Think about it and ask Him to show you what He has for you.

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.

 

Why are we so critical of others?


In the educational arena as well as in everyday life, people seem to be critical of cultural norms, regardless of the consequences. If someone doesn’t think that you should be doing something, such as walking barefoot or wearing an earring or whatever it might be, they don’t mind saying so. Even if your religion offends them in some part or point, you will hear about it if your religion is Christianity. It seems that nobody cares if there are those who try to change your mind about other religions, but if you happen to be a Christian then you should just keep your mouth SHUT!

Criticism of a Christian point of view has been going on for a long time, but it seems to be getting much worse and out in the open today. Even our culture, whatever it might be, seems to offend some people. Going barefoot, wearing shorts or earrings, allowing your pants to ride down on your….well you get the point. Offence can be taken at any point in your daily life from someone who doesn’t go along with your ideas or your viewpoint or you culture and also those who share or attempt to share their religious views and beliefs with others.

In the Bible, we are told by Jesus Himself that because we belong to Him the world will hate us because it hated Him first. Mainly because of the Truth that is contained in Scripture about Him and about our beliefs, there is no loss of animosity toward Christians, actually it seems to be getting worse. The time of this grace period for the world is growing shorter each day, yet it is something that nobody wants to hear about.

We are given every necessary provision for our lives and yet we crave more “stuff” that doesn’t satisfy, things which can’t help in any way at all because we want all of the toys we can get our hands on. Why? Is it because the life that we have simply isn’t enough? The car or the house that we have been given isn’t enough? What happens to those things when we die? Someone else gets them or they are sold but there is no way that we get any benefit from them after our death.

The truth is that we are eternal beings, created with an eternal soul that science cannot understand or explain but that doctors know that it is there. That part of you continues on and according to the words of Jesus, we will be as He was when He came out of the tomb…flesh and blood but also so much more because we will never taste death again. We will be immortal and no longer subject to disease or death, isn’t that wonderful! I know, it is hard to accept now because we don’t have this advantage now and we can’t have it in our life now but it will be granted to us when we die.

Some people look at it and wonder what happens to those who are not Christians when they die. Do they have an eternal, immortal body too? The answer is…Yes! The problem that they will face is that they won’t enjoy their immortality. They will endure pain and suffering for eternity. These people are also the ones who say, “My God would never do that!”.

God does not condemn you to this punishment, you do by your own decision to reject His offer of grace and forgiveness through Jesus. It is your own choice which sends you to the place that was prepared for Satan and his demons alone. This place, Hell, was never meant to be a destination for humanity but when you choose to “live my life my way”, then you are following Satan’s path because that is what he did. He chose to go his way instead of listening to and living through God’s will and purpose for him.

Please, consider the consequences of your own actions and decisions. Decide to ask Jesus into your life and to live according to the Bible and His teachings every day. It really isn’t as hard as you might think.

Can your life mean something?


Many people seem to be looking for something to do these days. Someplace to be or go or do because it seems that so many people are bored. Why? Is it because there is no fulfillment in your job or in your life? Do you feel that you have a purpose and a meaning in your life, but you don’t know what it is or how to claim it?

These are questions that many people besides Christians would like to have the answers for, but they don’t know where to find them. Can I give you the secret to life’s most frustrating questions? No, I can’t but God can! The answers are all found in the Bible! The meaning to life, for each one of us, is found there. Advice for life, living and for business questions as well are all contained within its pages. God is our Creator but He is also the giver of life, purpose, meaning, hope and continuity in our daily lives. He will do this for you each and every day, if you will determine to get up each morning and begin your day with Him. Listening to His prompting and His advice because if you can listen closely to Him daily, then your life will be more fulfilling and more abundant.

The purpose which we all seem to be chasing is in our grasp, if we own a Bible and will sit down and read it. Not just read it as a book, but ask Him to show you what He wants you to get from its pages. If you just read it as a book then that is all that you will get from it, which is what many people who don’t believe the words contained in it do! But, if you wake in the morning with an urgent need to find your purpose and meaning, then open it and ask God to show you what you need to know for just that day. Tomorrow, do the same thing and the next day and the next. When you have completed a week of reading and learning from it, then you are well on the way to finding your purpose and meaning for this life and the next!

In the world that we live in today, people are so concerned about offending others until we don’t even preach from the pulpit the way that God would have us to. Yes, it is true that He loves you just as a parent would a child but also like a parent, God doesn’t like the things that we are doing in our lives when those things are wrong! If you would not take your mother to the places that you go, then why go there? Would you introduce your grandmother or grandfather to your “friends”? Would you invite Jesus along with you to go to the mall or other places that you go, especially if you don’t tell your family about it? If you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour for real and not just saying some words, then you are taking Him along with you wherever you go no matter where it may be. He sees and knows where you are anyway, and He knows what you said and did while you were there. God sees all of these things, whether you have taken Him into your life or not, and like a parent He loves you even though He doesn’t like the things that He knows you are doing.

Consider giving your life and your heart to Jesus and making a change in your life so that you would be willing to follow Him wherever He leads you to go!

 

What do you think is happening?


In the world today, many things are happening around the world and here in America. Disturbing things, horrible things and good things too if you look hard enough. But why do we have to look hard to see the good things or even to hear about them? Mainly it is because of Satan and the work that he is doing on Earth. He has been doing it for many, many years and he is very good at what he does. His main tool is deception and his influence on the pride of mankind.

He has deceived mankind for thousands of years and even now, many don’t even think that he is real or that he even exists. But, he is still there. He is still here around us every day. Can we avoid him or otherwise keep him out of our lives? Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can, but those in the world who have not accepted Jesus can’t. Satan can influence them in any way that he wishes and he does. You can see the effect of his influence every day on the news or hear about it on the radio and Internet. He and his fallen angels are always busy causing chaos with wars, large and small, diseases of all kinds, perversion, rape, murder, persecution, slavery, etc.

These are the tools that he uses on us but mostly he appeals to our pride and our greed. They are two of the most easily manipulated of mankind’s vices. People who have not given their lives to Christ fall prey to them very easily but some who claim Jesus also fall victim to them and their temptations as well. The examples which Christians set before the world, especially our friends and co-workers, are on display and are being tested and proven by trial by Satan. This is why Jesus said through the apostle Paul that “we must put on the whole armor of God” to be able to withstand the darts which Satan hurls at us each and every day, especially while we are doing work for God.

Your life and mine have eternal consequences for us and for those who see us and know that we are Christians. Your life is a witness for Him, your actions and words and your children are witnesses for the power of God in your life. They cry out about your true character and whether it is influenced by Jesus or not. People can easily see the difference, so what does your life and your character say about you and your relationship with Jesus? Does it really offer proof of what you may claim to be?

What will you do with your life? Not just this one, but in eternity. If you have not given your life to Jesus and asked Him to come into yours, then you are lost. Do you feel as if there is something missing, but you don’t know what it is? That is the place where Satan enters, in the spot where you feel vulnerable and empty. The person that should be there is Jesus and all that you have to do is ask Him to come in. You are responsible for that one action and it is a simple one because children can understand it, that is why many people miss their opportunity. They think that they have to “clean up” in order to get right with God, when in reality Jesus has done all that there needs to be done. Your only action is to believe in Him and the atonement that was provided for you by His death and resurrection.

Can racism be fixed?


It is a topic on many people’s mind for some reason, especially in America, but why is it so important? What is bad about racism? Why do we still have it, even after more than forty years of “the dream”!? What can we do about getting rid of racism?

For starters, we could just program our children to not notice the color of people’s skin. It is done in schools all of the time, the “programming” of our kids. But what about the adults, the ones that have lived through the sixties and seventies ad nauseam, where will it end? Those of us who saw the riots in Los Angeles, the shootings in Chicago, etc. cannot just forget. Then there are the family stories of lynchings and the slavery that was endured by great-great grandparents. Yes, all of this must be taken into account but what can be done about the racism of today?

Can we fix it? It cannot be apologized away. There isn’t enough gold or silver or any amount of groveling which will pay the price to a people who were taken from their home land, sold into slavery by their own people or who were conquered and then sold. Nothing that can be said or done in reparation for over four hundred years of slavery and bigotry and hatred!

I am a Caucasian male, born in the same year as our President. Yes, I have seen the terror in people’s eyes, the fear and anger during the late sixties when I was just starting school at about the same time that Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered and a few months later Bobby Kennedy was shot while campaigning! The thing is that none of my family, as far back as I can trace, has ever owned a slave. Yet, “crackers”, white people like me, are blamed for every slight, every injustice that has ever happened in the past one hundred years or more.

Why? Because of racism. Not our racism, but the racism that exists in our culture. I don’t blame African-Americans for this, it is not their fault. It is not my fault that racism exists in the South or in America as a whole. I believe that Satan himself has used racism to great effect in America and has used it to stir up so much hatred and enmity between people who don’t know each other, they just know that skin color and culture are different between us. God created mankind, He did not create certain races of people to do certain things and others to do other things in this world. God created one race that had many different shades of skin color because of the climate that they settled in, not because one is better or worse than any other!

God is the only person Who can bring about the end of racism and bigotry and when Jesus comes back and rules the world as King, it will happen! This is not an “if” or a “possible” outcome, it will happen because Jesus said so! At the end of the Tribulation, when the one-thousand year reign of Christ begins, there will be no more bigotry and racism and those who try to keep it going will answer to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! God removed His people from slavery after four hundred and thirty years, He did not endorse it. Those who were in slavery in Israel were to be released on the seventh anniversary of their slavery, it was not to be a life-long servitude unless the slave loved the family enough to become a bond-servant and it was the slave’s choice not the masters.

We cannot do away with racism by our own choices. Humanity doesn’t have the moral and ethical capacity to get rid of it or any other bigoted ways of treating people, not on our own strength at least. The love of God through Jesus can open our eyes and our hearts so that we no longer act on our cultural and familial learned behavior toward others, but if it has been taught from an early age it is still there. Only the change wrought by Jesus in your life and mine can cause it to be any different, so the choice is clear…choose Christ as your Savior and follow Him. Serve Him as your Master and Lord because He is the only Master to whom service is due!

Time, do you have enough?


It seems that when we wake up in the morning, the day just seems to be on meth (or so I’m told). When your feet hit the floor, the minutes just seem to fly by you without stopping. There never seems to be enough time to finish all of the tasks and errands for one day before another starts! I have also noticed that once the number of your birthdays gets past that all-important “21” marker, it seems that someone puts grease on the “line” and time and dates just slip by faster and faster from that point on.

Is it possible for us to take a step back and look at things without getting run over in the process? Actually, no you can’t. When you are born, your life has a certain number of days and years allotted to it by God and just like a pot when it is tipped to a certain point, that time just spills over and pours out faster and faster. As the numbers get larger, your time seems to go faster, at times, than at others.

When you were small, waiting for your birthday to come around took a whole year, but it seemed to take two or three. The same thing happened at Christmas, the time between did not change but it seemed to get longer and longer, until you got older and realized that Santa wasn’t real, he was just the “spirit” of Christmas.

So, do we have enough time? As Christians, yes we have eternity awaiting so we have time. We may not have enough time to tell all of our friends about Jesus though. Many friends don’t want to hear or they have already heard and really don’t want to hear it again. Some think that a decision that they made many years ago, even though it didn’t make a real change in their lives, is enough. The only person that knows for sure is God. But, I still want to tell them and I don’t know if I have enough time!

God will make the time, in His time. He will bring them about to Him, in His time and in His way. The only thing that I can do is present the good news of Jesus here and then hand it over to God and let Him take it from there.

God loves each one of us enough that He sent Jesus to die on the cross as a substitute for us, all of us. That sacrifice of His Son’s blood opened the way for each of us to come to the Father through the covering of His righteousness and ask forgiveness for our sins and our decisions, good or bad. Once we have come to the place where we know that we need Jesus, the rest is simple…ask Him to come into our heart and forgive us for waiting so long so that we can be made whole through Him. That’s it! We can’t add one drop to it at all and what we do add to it, can only be done through Jesus and by Him and His glory.

Give Jesus a chance in your everyday life from your rising up in the morning to going to sleep at night. Your day won’t slow down any, but you will be able to get more done and it will be done for Him and through Him as well which will make it much more worthwhile too.

There is no punishment


It doesn’t matter what you do or how you live there is no punishment…at least that is what some spiritual leaders are telling their followers.

Whether you believe in a moral code or in God or Satan, the part about there being “no punishment” is a complete lie! If you want to believe that, go ahead and be my guest, but just as you can’t get away with breaking the law regardless of which country you live in there will be a day when you have to pay up in one way or another.

There are scientific methods which are used in the laboratory, research or medical, that can show all of the ways which a cell can be attacked by a virus or a bacterial organism and even these have laws and consequences. For instance, if the pH is off by a few hundredths of a percent, then some medicines won’t work. On the other hand, if the pH of a cell is off (toward the alkaline state) even a little, then cancer cells cannot grow, bacteria cannot reproduce, etc.

It is not something that the medical community wants you to know, because you can eat certain foods which will keep cancer cells from growing. This is not a “crack science” column, it is just a chemical fact that acid or alkaline environments won’t allow bacteria, viruses and cancer cells to continue to grow. Any variation from normal pH of 7.0 above or below will stop the run-away growth of bacteria or viruses or even cancer cells. This is a chemical law, and if you don’t believe it when you are sick ask them to check your body’s pH and you will see why.

The laws that we live by have, at their core, God’s law as a guide and model. Whether you like it or not doesn’t really matter, the moral law, the one that most people base their ideas of right and wrong on came from God. Many people call them “natural laws”, but since He established them it stands to reason that He brought these laws into being in the first place.

Then, there are people in our world today that don’t want anything to do with religion or God or any moral absolute and the rules and laws that go along with those beliefs. If you feel this way, then I am happy for you. I am glad to know that there is a perfect person that needs absolutely no help in any area of their life. If you can tell the rest of us how to do this, feel free to open up a blog or a store or something because I am sure that the whole world would buy what you have to sell.

The fact is that there are no perfect people! Nobody has the ability to do things perfectly all of the time or live their lives without any problems at all, no matter what your “claim” is! It doesn’t matter what religion you follow or even if you follow one at all, there is no person on Earth today that is or can claim to be perfect!

The only One that lived a sinless life, I did not say a perfect life, was Jesus. In appearance and the station of life that He lived in, Jesus would not have been considered perfect. He was and is the Son of God and as such He could do things which no other person could, but He came to the people of Israel first as a carpenter’s apprentice and then as a teacher. He was of the lineage of David and is the prophesied Messiah, yet at the time of His coming they did not receive Him. They will when He comes again. All who are drawn by God to become children through regeneration of their spirit in Christ will receive Him and see Him when He come in glory.

True lies, really?


How can we believe the things that are being taught today? Unproven theories are accepted as truth, lies are taught as if they are from God. What are we supposed to believe anymore? Can we believe anything or anyone today or from the past? I don’t know about believing just anyone, but the One that you can count on and believe in is Jesus the Christ!

Many people seem to think that He lied about Who He was and nearly everything that He said, but He did not. All of the miracles were seen by more than one person, sometimes more than fifty or one hundred so they were verified according to Jewish law. His disciples saw Him taken up into the clouds and angels told them that He would return in like manner, so that proved His claim as being the Son of God and the Messiah. I know that many of these take faith in God and in His Word to truly believe, but many of the things in the Torah are also historical fact and our Old Testament contains much of the Torah if not all of it. Jesus quoted many things from it during His ministry.

The theories being taught today as facts are still just theories because they can’t be duplicated or verified by transition forms from say a fish to a reptile or an actual fossil of a “missing link” between man and ape. Most of the fossils that have been found were small pieces of a jaw or a leg or part of a vertebrae, the genetic makeup of the animal that it belonged to can’t be identified, so it is not proven to be one or the other. Genetic markers don’t survive fossilization just as cell structures and blood don’t. Yes, there are rumors of blood vessels being found in the leg of a dinosaur, with blood in it no less, but it was never widely reported. Many even disregarded it as a quirk or an accident, nothing more.

But, what if the account of creation is true like the rest of the Word of God? If there really was a world-wide flood and the world is only about ten thousand or so years old then blood could survive in a leg bone. Dinosaurs and man existed at the same time on this earth. Would believing in the Word of the Creator be such a bad thing? I think I would rather believe in Him and His Word than in much of the history and science that is taught in our schools today as fact! I would rather stand before Him and say that I did believe in Him and His Son rather than having the audacity to say that He doesn’t exist! I really don’t think even the most devout atheist will be able to stand before God and tell Him that they don’t believe in Him!

Consider that before you jump to a conclusion about Him that’s based purely on your own thoughts and beliefs or lack of belief. Just as saying that gravity is not real doesn’t take it away, not believing in God doesn’t remove Him from His throne either.

Have you ever been down?


By that, I mean depressed, angry, upset with almost everyone about something that you can’t put your finger on? This is the kind of “down” that I have lived with most of my life. I never really talked about it with many people, not even my immediate family, but it has always been there. Like the monster in the closet or under the bed, never seen by anyone except the person that is scared of it, it haunts us in our minds and in our dreams when we are asleep.

That feeling of being down and not worthy of anything that the world might give you except despair is constant and it doesn’t go away. Christians get this way too. I feel it at least once a week, sometimes more, usually after a good sermon in which I delivered the words and tried to bring some feeling with those words. Yet, it was not received with any feeling by the congregation. I have no feedback as to the effectiveness of the sermon and it makes me feel hollow and empty, similar to someone talking to a wall.

The only solace that I have is to bring my voice here, that I might be heard by someone that will listen and give me some feedback. Then there is my prayer life and my study of God‘s Word which gives me hope because His prophets were hated, killed and despised by the very people that they were sent to, so I am thankful that I haven’t had any fruits thrown at me or anything that might cause bodily injury.

Many people think that, as Christians, we are immune to these sorts of problems when the very opposite is true. We see the world as no other group of people see it…through the eyes of prophecy and the Word of God. The news that we hear each day, is written in God’s Word. Maybe not word for word, but there are places in the history of God’s people that sound as if they were taken from today’s headlines. But, few people think that what we base our belief on is the truth. Today, many people call this book a work of fiction and fantasy. One day, when the sky’s roll up like a scroll and Jesus comes in the clouds, they will know that it is the Truth. I pray that it will not be too much longer.

It is true that being happy is a choice, but in today’s world it is hard to make the decision to be happy with so much happening in the world and so many people hurting in our world today. I hope that you can find some hope and encouragement in my posts here and in Jesus, because He is the answer to the questions that people are asking, many of them just don’t know it yet.

Many people try to mold their version of Jesus. To change Him into the savior that they want, and not accept the Savior that He is. This is something which our recent, within the past fifty years or so, Christian preaching has caused. We are responsible for making people think that He is only a personal Jesus. He is in truth, but He is so much more than that.  I think that is what causes us to feel down many times. We don’t give Him the credit and the position that He deserves in our life and in our ministry, whatever it may be.

Only through Him can we accomplish the calling that has been placed on us. He and the Holy Spirit are the Ones which accomplish the conviction and the transformation of souls into Christians, we only bring messages that point people in their direction. It is usually our own pride which causes us to make Jesus in our image instead of being transformed by Him. When we can get out of His way and let Him do His work through us and through the words which He gives us, then we will see the changes and the results that come from being “little Christs” like Christians are supposed to be.