Category: Purpose in Life

The Tapestry of Life


When God said, “Let there be Light!”, He wasn’t kidding. The work which He started way back when His Creation was just starting. It began with that thread of light in the darkness and it continues on today in all of the colors of the biggest rainbow that anyone could possibly imagine.

The colors have changed and run together to make different colors over the years. Sometimes the changes were caused by floods or war or slavery or just our own greed and stupidity. Because when we try to weave the colors together on our own with our ideas of how they should be, usually we end up with knots and broken threads and hurt feelings. We say things which shouldn’t have been said or we cause hurts in ways that we don’t know about with those words.

We are the cause of our own separation from God. We are the ones which move away from Him when we should be getting closer to Him. Your life and mine are important to God and He wants each of us to be a part of His Kingdom, but when we decide to do things our way or say things which hurt others, even if we didn’t mean what we said at the time, it places a barrier between us and between us and God.

But God still loves us and if we haven’t been pushing Him away for too long, He will take us back. He will forgive and forget and He does it completely. He doesn’t bring it up again to hurt us or to make us feel guilty.

The tapestry of Life on the Earth has had many colors in it and it has had a lot of blood spilled over greed and anger and problems which we brought on ourselves. There are many threads in this tapestry and each of us has a part in it, but the finished work won’t be visible until God is finished with us and we see the completed product. He wants you to see it and be a part of it, but if you choose to go your own way and walk on your own path without Him, He will let you do that too.

This tapestry is part of our life and a part of our journey on this journey. God has placed people and circumstances in our lives which leads to more strands in the tapestry of life here and for each person on Earth. How will it turn out? Only God Himself knows that answer, we just need to make sure that we are along for the ride.

Do you enjoy life?


joySome of us do, but many don’t. Oh, we tolerate everyday ups and downs and we go to work and come home. Living or existing as the day permits and allows. So, what do you enjoy in your life? Your children or grandchildren likely give you some enjoyment and joy. But…what about your life with Jesus? Does being a Christian bring joy and fulfillment in your worship and study of God’s Word?

For some Christians it does exactly that, but for many who think they are Christians and are not, the worship service and study of the Bible is confusing and frustrating. It is that way for many that I call “casual Christians” as well. The biggest problem with this is that you can’t be a casual Christian, claiming Jesus on Sunday or when a loved one dies and then living as you please the rest of the time. Jesus is not a hero which you call on when you need Him and then send Him away until the next time!

He is our Savior and yes, He is our Hero and our Creator but He is not on-call some days and not on others. God and His Son are available at all times, not exactly for your convenience or at your time or on your schedule. God works according to His timing and His schedule. Don’t turn away from Him, especially when you need Him! Not just on bad days or at times when trouble is making your day feel like a week, but call to Him and lean on Him every day!

God loves each of us and wants the best for us, but His best and our idea of best are sometimes very different. His idea of a mansion and no debts may be your home in Heaven, not a beautiful home and no bills here. God’s ideas for us are not the same as our ideas of Who He is, thankfully. If our salvation was no better than our idea of what salvation is, then we would never see Heaven at all!

Don’t close the door on an opportunity in your life to get to know Jesus because the moment that you give your heart to Jesus your name is written down in the book of Life. After that, your life here and into eternity will never be the same!

What is important to you?


There seems to be many people who are running around searching for something which makes them feel good. The travel to places which are beautiful, they go to sports arenas and watch football games and baseball games, some go to race tracks and watch professional drivers run around in circles. Many go on trips called vacations to places that they do not live, to see things for a few days and live there for those few days, sometimes in the lap of luxury. Then what?

You come home. The excitement and the newness of living has worn off. You are sitting in a house, a home, with the same people who went on the vacation but..something is missing. You feel restless, unsatisfied, nervous, anxious, what do you do? Many who can afford to will be off on another trip, somewhere. Anywhere but at home, in a place that is boring and uninteresting.

Contentment is hard to find, unless you have allowed it to find you first. Contentment is a state of mind where you know where you belong and to whom you belong. You don’t have to be married to be content, but it doesn’t hurt! Paul wrote “I have learned to be content in whatever state I find myself in” Philippians 4:11 , wouldn’t it be great if we could all find that place?

Contentment, what is important to you, these two are not exclusive, they are the same. Have you found your place, your “happy place”, the place where you are content and fulfilled with where you are and who you are? Sadly, some people never find that place. Many search for it their entire lives and don’t realize it until they are on their death-bed. By then, it’s too late to enjoy it. I see it in many of my friend’s lives and some of my classmate’s lives as well. Over the years I have watched many of them chase after something which is elusive like a puff of smoke.

A few have found it, but some are still looking even after their children are grown and they are retired from their jobs. Why? Your job doesn’t usually give you contentment and sometimes neither does your family. It seems that many people are content until one or the other is gone, the job or the family and children. Then what do you do?

We identify with our jobs or our family during the productive years of our lives and then when we get to a point, whether young or middle-aged or past 65, where we have the option or maybe we have been forced to “retire” from work, we find that our identity was our contentment. Now that we are past the point of being productive in work or raising a family, life is a big question mark now. Who am I? What do I do now?

Seek out your Savior! If you have not done this during your so-called “productive years”, then truly you need to make it a point to do it today! Why? Because, that place where you have placed your contented feelings during your career or while raising a family is now empty. It was supposed to contain the Holy Spirit all along! Ask Jesus to come in and clean out the space which has been occupied by life and all of its busyness and place His Spirit in there!

That is where Paul got his contentment from. He was a murdering, hunter of the followers of “the Way”, until Jesus stopped him and got in his face. If you have felt the call of Jesus, but you have pushed Him aside, it isn’t too late. Seek Him out in scripture and in a real Bible teaching church, then ask Him to come into your life and clean out the cobwebs and the left over stuff from your life. When He does, you should begin to study and read His Word!

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t understood it before, with His Spirit helping you, the meanings will be clearer. If you can’t grasp something that the Bible says, ask Jesus to make it plain to you so you can.

Then, the things which are important will rearrange themselves and begin to line up from His perspective and your perspective will be lined up with His. That is contentment and being in that place is more rewarding than any “vacation” or any amount of fun that you could have before. I don’t mean that you have to stop doing those things, just keep your eyes focused on Jesus first. Take Him with you, learn to love things from His point of view. He is the Creator, so enjoy His creation, and when you do it in that order…contentment will come to live with you.

Satan is happy today!


Satan is happy with the church right now.

“….Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:.”  Matthew 28:19

Do you understand why all of the problems are in the world today? It is because of ___________.

Really? The church has had two thousand years to make disciples of ALL nations and what have we done? Not much. Yes, there have been millions of people who have accepted Jesus as their Savior because of Billy Graham and other evangelists over the years. But…look at the population of the world. How many of them are Christians or part of a religion which claims Jesus as their Savior? 2.5 billion give or take a few hundred thousand. The population of the world is around seven billion right now and all we have reached in two thousand years is less than half??

On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples received the Holy Spirit, when Peter preached there were 5000 added to their number! That was just one sermon! The blank above referring to the reason for all of the world’s problems has nothing to do with Christianity, although some are blaming us for them. Satan and his followers, those demons that Jesus cast out and his human followers today, are partly to blame for the problems of the world.

Why is Satan happy with the way the world is today and the church in particular? It is because we aren’t doing what Jesus told us to do. Yes, I know we are sending missionaries all over the world and we have programs and Internet sites which tell people about Jesus and how to know Him. But, we just began that in the last twenty or twenty-five years or so! What happened to the last 1975 years that the church has had to work on this?

I don’t mean that the church could’ve added as many as Peter did in that one day, every day since then but if we had gone, if we had put our feet into the streets and the paths around the world every day since then….? Don’t you think that we would have more people who attend church and follow Jesus if we had done this? I mean, if we had witnessed to one or two people every day since we became a Christian and then invited them to church, doesn’t it begin to add up when you do that?

1+1=2 …then 2+2=4, then 4+1=5, then 5+2=7, then 7+2=9…that is linear progression that is staggered a bit by our own design; but what if those numbers doubled EVERY time? 1, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16, then 32, then 64, then 128, then 256, then 512, then 1024, then 2048, then 4096……! That is geometric growth or getting into algebra (x squared).

What happened to our numbers? Why isn’t the church growing like this?

Because our enemy and the enemy of God, Satan, is at work in the world today. People give many excuses for not coming to church, for not telling others what they believe and for not being a true disciple of Jesus and all of these are encouraged by Satan and his demons. You can decide to believe this if you wish or don’t believe it, but if Jesus was having to deal with their influence 2000 years ago, then they are certainly at work today.

You can hear about the evil and their influence in the world on the news every day and all of that which is happening is likely caused by or influenced by Satan and his followers. It will get worse because he knows that his time is growing very short. He has had more than twenty centuries to become very good at deception so much so that he can influence the churches and their leaders to not follow the example set by Jesus and His disciples. Many of them think that they are doing God’s work and they are following the ideas placed in their heads by Satan himself, but he uses scripture to make it seem like the idea is from God.

He was there when all of the Bible was written so he knows scripture better than any of us and he can use it against you any time he wishes. So, is he happy with the church today? Yes, he is. There aren’t very many true, Bible-believing and teaching churches today. Sure, there are pastors who preach every week and they read scripture and teach about it. But, are they teaching God’s vision for His church or are they teaching their own version of the words that they read? Do they teach it from its context or do they choose one verse and preach on that without the verses before or after it?

Taken out of context, any verse can say or be taught to mean anything to anyone!

The scripture which I started with could mean anything if taught wrongly. Let us read the entirety of that chapter and see what was written there:

Matthew 28 King James Version (KJV)

28 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,

13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.

15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

We are told to do this because we belong to Him, if we have given our hearts to Jesus. If you haven’t, then you don’t belong to Him nor He to you! God loves you and has provided a way to salvation through Jesus and belief in Him so that you can have eternity after this life! With such a good and wonderful gift to you, why wouldn’t you tell others that they could have the same? He didn’t die for one person but for the whole world and He expected us to go and tell others about His gift. Examine your life and your heart and question whether you really belong to Him. If you believe that you do, then you are saved as far as I can see because only God knows the condition of our hearts. If you are not sure, then you may want to seek Him earnestly and fervently so that you can know…for sure.

Amen.

Jesus said…


“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

John 21:25

There were far more things which our Savior said and did during His time here. Things which we are not privy to, but His disciples saw them and heard them.

When He got angry about the way the temple was being used, His anger was a righteous anger not like rage or “blow your top” anger like we see in cartoons. Jesus was angry but He sinned not, and the reason for that was because the temple was supposed to be a house of worship, not a place of merchandise and money exchange.

Is it possible for us as Christians to be angry about something without sinning? Yes, if we don’t allow our anger to get out of proportion to the circumstances. Yes, we can if it is due to something not directly associated with our person and we don’t take it that way. But…when someone takes God’s name and uses it in a fashion which is disrespectful in the extreme, for no reason, then the anger that you feel and may express is righteous anger. Why do I say this? Because if you have the Spirit of God inside you and you truly are a Christian, then if someone says something like “God****”, they are insulting not only God but the Creator and the Father of our Savior!

To some people, that is not a cuss word, it is just everyday speech. If it is, then Christians are told in the Bible not to associate with them because we are approving their way of life when we do.

Before anyone gets all bent out of shape over what they see as “judgmental” thinking, that is not what I am doing. I am not judging them, but God will. I am not saying that what they are saying is wrong, although it is. But their actions and words prove that they don’t know Jesus. If you do not like what I am saying here, you don’t have to read it anymore. My point is that Christians shouldn’t put up with the world the way it is because we were sent out into the world to bring Christ to it, to change it. Not by force or by war but through our witness and by bringing the gospel of Jesus to them, all of them.

We are to love people the way that Jesus loved them, but that didn’t keep Him from being angry about their stubbornness and their refusal to listen and recognize Him for Who He was. Tolerating the actions of the world should not be seen as approval of their actions and the church and those in the church have been too tolerant in the past.  Amen.

Happy Birthday, America!


usa-american-flag-gif-3

I know this is supposed to be a site where you learn more about God and your salvation but the birthday of America wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for people of faith.

Our land has been around for 240 years, or at least that is how long it has been since our Declaration of Independence was put forth. Life around our land would be very different if it weren’t for the influence of Christian leaders and the beliefs of those who started our land on its way to becoming the greatest nation in the world. It is true that some people don’t think that of her anymore, even some people who live here and are benefiting from her generosity.

America has been a light for people to turn to when they need to find their way and it has been a place of refuge for many people as well. It is true that in the past some really terrible and horrible mistakes have been made regarding the treatment of Indians and Africans who were brought here to be slaves. These things shouldn’t have happened, but they did and the worst part is that we either have swept what happened under a rug and out of  the history books or we just ignore what happened altogether.

The biggest problem that we have today is that just when we think that we may have crossed the line toward better relations between the “races”, something happens that is done by one person with an off-kilter way of looking at life and here we go again.

Then you see the old hatred and bitterness come boiling up and we are at the same point in our nation as we were when there were race riots and clashes with the police on television every night. It tends to confuse the kids who have grown up without it and many of them wonder “Why?”

Why do we have to rewind an old tape that was worn out years ago?

Yes, there were many atrocities committed during those times and before then, but can’t we stop dragging the past into the present? Make a new day and a new way of getting along with one another! Stop looking at their skin color or their music and just listen to each other for once. Begin to TALK to one another, not texting but talking! Put the phones down and sit down and talk! Turn the TV off and talk to your kids or grand kids about the past but also about the future…their future!

Don’t repaint their future with the brush that you used when you were their age! Help them find a better one, one that is positive about what may happen in the future and not drag the negative parts of history in to cover up the progress that has been made!

America can be great again, if we as Americans will stand up and take our country back and MAKE it better! Shuffling money around from the rich to the poor won’t do anything but cause more problems. Fixing the things which are wrong is going to take more than a new President or a new set of laws or regulations. It is going to take Americans getting together and working toward fixing the problems one at a time!

Almost home


Have you ever wished that you were home? I don’t mean your Earthly home exactly, although that is a wonderful place to be most of the time. I mean your Heavenly home, the one that Jesus went to prepare for each person who claims Him as their Lord and Savior!

The longer that each of us live here on Earth, if we are Christians, the closer we are to getting there. Your journey of this life begins the day that you were conceived and ends on the day you die. God knows both dates and He will bring you into His home, your eternal home right after your soul exits from your body.

Now, I know there are some who don’t believe this and they will disagree with me. That’s OK, because one day they will meet Him too. Whether they know Him as Savior or not, they will meet Him although they may not enjoy the meeting if they didn’t accept Him as their Savior.

Almost home

Through the brambles and the weeds, the long road winds. Twisting, turning, and ever climbing yet upward and forward it goes. Life it is that we live here, sweet and sour though it may be. Sweeter still when ever we find the end of the path and cross over to be…with our Creator and our Lord into Eternity.

pathtoCFSometimes it seems that we take our life for granted, where it starts and where it ends and all of the stuff that happens between those points are just part of it. But, do you ever consider the path that leads to Eternity? If you are a Christian or have any idea about an afterlife, then the thought has likely crossed your mind a few times. Seek our Jesus and a Bible teaching church or study group, learn about Him and His ways because He is the only way into Eternity and He does have a place for you there. He said so.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. 2 In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so,would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am.”  John 14:2,3

Ooops!


Do we have times or places or even events in our lives where “Ooops!” would be appropriate? All of us have these at one point or another. The only person that hasn’t had a day or even a minute where this would be part of the vocabulary would’ve been Jesus.

I know, many of you would say “What about the scourging or the cross?”; those were already planned and part of His life before they came to be. Those of us who watched cartoons in the seventies and eighties learned from the master of “Ooops”, Wile E. Coyote. He always got the bad end of gravity or a falling rock or even an explosion which didn’t go off at the point where he wanted it to.

What do you do when this happens in your life? I know that most of us don’t have problems with gravity or with bombs going off unexpectedly, but just walk with me down this memory lane a bit. Do you fret over it or worry about it? Sometimes it is too late when you realize it, so what can you do about it? Most of the time, you can’t really do much about it. If the “ooops” has already happened, then you will just have to deal with it in one way or another.

Sometimes it is caused by something that we say, in my case it is most often done this way. My mouth gets in a gear that is running faster than my common sense and I say something that I should’ve thought about a bit before it came tumbling out in the open! Does it cause pain or anguish, sometimes it does, at other times it just causes someone to giggle or laugh, depending upon what my mouth blurted out at the time.

A moment of “ooops” can cost a lot in the long run, down the road of life but at times it can also put you in a place where things can change. Sometimes…even you change. Sometimes…I change. So many times an “ooops” moment can even make a difference in the long run, if you use it in the right way.

But, you have to follow-up and work with the feeling that this moment caused in you. Don’t think about it and then let it get away and forget about it, use it to spur you on to fix the problem whatever it might be. God uses moments like these to show us what to do or what we should do, it is up to us to realize that He is part of the equation and the answer to it as well.

Why do I bring this up? Because He is always the One in control of the outcome, whether we believe it or not. If you believe in God and have learned that you need Him in your life, then follow through and make sure that He is your answer to your life’s problems. He wants to be that answer and the One that you call on in all things, not just when there is an “ooops” in your life.

Is your life broken?


We hear about people who are broken in spirit and in their lives too. Broken is, sometimes, a state of mind but occasionally it is a state of being. We feel as if life and the things which we are doing just don’t work anymore, so it feels broken and cracked. Sometimes the brokenness is felt spiritually, like our prayer life and our connection to God just doesn’t seem to be working anymore.

Breaking news! It isn’t God Who broke the connection, it is something in your life and mine which does that. Something that we have said or thought about or maybe even something that we did that is a…sin. It puts a wall up around us and our daily living until we confess it, ask forgiveness for it and then get back into our relationship with God. That is when the mending begins. Sometimes the cracks in our life appear as sorrow for something that we can’t put our finger on. Occasionally, those cracks come to us in the form of depression which can make them seem even bigger than they really are.

A state of brokenness is survivable, whether it feels like you can get through it or not is your own perception. God can help you to get through it and you will be stronger in your faith and your connection to Him for going through it. It isn’t fun, but it is necessary sometimes. We get to a point and feel like things aren’t going our way anymore, and we don’t know why. We can’t pinpoint it, particularly the cause of the “not right” point, it is just elusive and out there like a feeling that we have and we just don’t know what it is.

God can give you the peace that you seek in this circumstance, but you have to seek Him first. His position hasn’t moved but ours is all over the place at times. There are days when we aren’t very far from Him and then we have days where we don’t even feel His presence at all in our lives. Those are the days where we feel as if we have fallen through one of those cracks in our lives, and sometimes it feels like it is over a mile deep. We may survive the fall, but when we hit the bottom it seems that there just isn’t a way out. Like we have nothing to hold onto.

We do have God, even in those dark places. He is there and His Word is always available if we will just cling to it and read it, study it, meditate on its wisdom and pray, PRAY, PRAY!!!

Is it broken? Can it be fixed? Your life and all of the parts of it that seem to be broken can be fixed, but not by you. God can fix it. I know the newspapers and magazines say that He hasn’t fixed it yet, but He will and He can. He hasn’t fixed our world because there are so many people who don’t care to know Him and aren’t listening to Him and His messengers. Life is broken to an extent because of the fall in Eden, but also because of our disobedience to God’s laws and His Word. God did not break your life or mine, we have done that.

We go through our days and weeks thinking that everything will be OK, regardless of what we do but God is still in control, especially when we aren’t. If you are not a Christian then your life is your own or it belongs to the worldly lusts and whims that you pursue. Most people don’t want to hear about or know that Satan is alive and well on Earth and he is completely happy with you not knowing God. As a matter of fact, that is his job…to keep you from knowing and giving your life to the service of God and Jesus. Your life goes right along like it should for the most part, but there is always that little bit of tension.

At some point that little bit of tension breaks, and causes an argument or a shooting which will blow your life completely out of the water. This is exactly what the world wants and it’s what Satan wants. To bring your life down around you so that your witness won’t matter, your ministry won’t matter because your life, your family, your health is gone. This is what happens when you get on the list and when Satan targets you and your family…something breaks and becomes broken. The only fix for it is to trust in and turn to God. Amen.

Promises and Blessings


And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, Exodus 23:25

Life sometimes throws us a curve, usually one that we don’t see coming until it hits us square in the eyes. I know, some of you may have thought I would say something else, but it’s the truth. God’s promises are new every morning and they are meant to be for us as well as the Jewish people. Some of us can claim them and some of us never will claim them. It also seems to happen at the worst possible times, but I suppose that is when God wants us to depend upon Him and lean on Him more than we depend upon money or people.

Your life and mine are part of God’s creation and His Kingdom, particularly if we are Christians because we have given our hearts to Christ. We are supposed to be following in His footsteps on a daily basis, not a weekly or every few months or just when we feel like it. Studying the Bible and learning from God’s wisdom about circumstances in our lives, whether we have faced them yet or not, is the best way to learn about Him. Reading through God’s Word at least once every year is not as hard as it sounds and yet many Christians only read what is called out in church on Sunday and maybe on Wednesday night services.

How can you claim God’s blessings and His promises to you and for your life if you don’t know about them in the first place? You won’t know about them if you have never read the Bible, yet that action is severely lacking in churches today. Why is that? Very likely, it is because the Truth of the Bible cannot be ignored and you can’t disprove it. Many people say that it is just a book of stories written down by old men long ago and it doesn’t mean anything. Without faith in God and His Son, Jesus, that may be true, but if you look at the prophecies that have come true from the Bible how can you claim this?

The land of Israel was given back to the Jews in 1948, many Jews have returned to their homeland after nearly two thousand years in exile and their language has been revived as well. All of these are foretold in Scripture and very little is left to happen according to the prophecies in God’s Word before the time of Tribulation will be upon the world. Nobody knows the day or the hour of this time which is coming except God, but I don’t believe that this generation that is alive today will die before it begins to happen.

That could be within the next few years or it may be a decade or more away, but we are living on the edge, the cusp of it right now. The players are moving into position and the time is coming soon. Be prepared. Be watching and be ready!