Category: Religion and God

Dad?


During our lifetimes we have all started a conversation, or a question with “Dad? Can I….” It is not a bad way of starting a conversation actually, because it shows that you want Dad’s input or his permission in some area of your life or for something that you would like to do or even as a preamble to asking for something like a gift, whether it is for your birthday or Christmas (if you celebrate it).

What I like to hear from my son is that he would like to do something with me. It doesn’t matter what it is. If I can do it, I will go anywhere and do anything with him as long as I feel that I am wanted…needed in his young life. The reason that I say this is because there are so many father/son relationships which are strained or even broken for whatever reason.

Kids need their fathers. They need them to be in their lives, maybe not 24/7 but they need them nonetheless. It doesn’t matter for what reason, it can be for any reason but children, boys and girls, need their Dad. I barely had one when I was growing up because of a divorce that happened when I was only five years old. Of course, I thought it was something that I did, and something that I could fix. I found out later that wasn’t the reason, that I was not even part of the reason for it. I grew up angry and resentful because of it, mainly because I was so young that nobody thought it was a good idea to tell me exactly why this had happened when I got old enough to understand. Dad’s usually are good at helping kids understand things, especially when they are around.

My point in this is that our father, our Dads are important and should be in our lives, not only when we are young but when we get older as well. I know of many who are taking care of their Dad now because he is older, because he needs his children. Is it too much to ask of us as children to be there for the man who was there for us? If your Dad wasn’t around while you were growing up, maybe you can get together now. Try not to hold a grudge against him, there usually was a good reason for his absence.

Our Father, the One in Heaven, would also like to be in your life. The difference between our Heavenly Father and our Dad that we have here on earth is that we must choose to have a relationship with Him. In some kids lives, they may need to choose to have a relationship with their earthly father as well, but that relationship is important too. God wants a relationship with each of us and He is always with us. His presence in your life can be felt and known at any time regardless of where you are. The reason behind His presence in your life is because He wants to be, but you have to choose to allow Him into your life.

In order for us to have a real relationship with God, we have to come to Him through Jesus. When we do that, we can have a relationship with God forever, not just while we are alive here but when our body dies, we will wake up in His presence. Isn’t that awesome!

That doesn’t mean that we will be in “church” forever. We will be worshiping Him but in other ways, we will be serving Him in whatever ways that we can. The difference in Heaven will be that we have the knowledge to do what needs to be done and we will have eternity to do whatever there is that needs doing.

By choosing to have a relationship with Jesus, you get a relationship with the Father too. He has loved each of us from the beginning, not of our life but the beginning of time itself. He has known you from long before you were ever born or even before the world, earth, was created for us to live on. His love, His compassion for us is so far beyond our comprehension that it is hard to explain. As the Scripture says, “my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts”, God is simply saying that He is perfect in His knowledge of all things above and beyond what we can know. He is not bragging, it is just the truth!

This Father’s Day, think about your father, your Dad and then really think about having or starting a relationship with God, your Father in Heaven. Life is too short to waste it on stuff, our relationship with our family, both here on earth and the family that we have in Heaven, is far more important than is given credit in our culture today. Give both of your Fathers your attention so your relationship with them doesn’t have to end. Think about it.

 

Pentecost


Repentance is not a single event but rather a point of crisis along with a continuing relationship choice. Repentance is part of a Christian’s regular spiritual life and routine. When you repent of something, regardless of what it may be, you turn away from it and choose another, better path.

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
11 b, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Our lives in Christ are important to God, which is why He sent His Son to take the punishment for our sins and die on the cross so that we might be able to receive forgiveness through Jesus. The only requirement on our part..that we have to do is to repent and ask for the forgiveness that has been provided. Now, some might say that they don’t feel compelled to repent of anything in their life so why should they? In that instance, either you are not ready or it isn’t the time yet for your spirit to be called. Which doesn’t mean that you are not wanted by God, He is just waiting until the time, His time, is right. He alone knows when that may be, although you can still pray and ask Him into your life. You will not be refused.

God never will turn away a sinner who asks from their heart and truly repents of things that they know that they have done. It is not a one-time event in your life, just as changing the oil filter on your car isn’t a onetime maintenance item either. We are all sinners and we do it on a daily basis. Nobody is exempt from this fact, even Jesus was tempted but He didn’t sin. What can we do about those temptations? Are we able to control them and ourselves? In many instances, no we are not able to do this with our own strength. But God provided us with the same Spirit that was given to Peter and the disciples that day, which will enable us to resist temptation.

Many people think that He didn’t sin because He was God in the flesh, but it was because He yielded His will to God each and every day..every minute. This is what we are supposed to do, but many think that once they have given their life to Christ, they don’t have to do anything else. If you don’t do anything else, your life won’t really change at all from what it was before you accepted Christ.

Then you will be counted among the hypocrites because you didn’t allow the Holy Spirit which you received to really change your life. This is why there are so many who are not in church, they know the Truth, they may have accepted Christ but they have not followed through with Bible study, daily prayer asking for strength to get through the day, etc. The spiritual fire that some have and many do not and the reasons for the difference is found in that, follow through. The gospel could be preached simply by saying “Believe in Jesus who was sent to die for your sins and ask Him to come into your heart and cleanse you from your unrighteousness”. One sentence, but without prayer and study of scripture allowing you to get to know God, what will change in your life?

William Blake wrote a poem about Pentecost and a few lines from that poem read:

Unless the eye catch fire, God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire, God will not be named.
Unless the Heart catch fire, God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire, God will not be known.

We are to be on fire for our Lord because He came down to us. We are to be on fire for God because a part of Him resides within each person who has accepted Jesus as Savior. If we are not on fire for God, why not? Do you not realize that the Creator of the universe came to earth specifically for each person here? Not only here in this church building, but all people are the ones that He came for, whether they know Him or not at this moment or even whether they care that He loves them, he still came.

I have seen a book called “gods at war” and it is written by a pastor who teaches a study based on it. The problem is that there are no gods at war, there is only one God, all these others are inventions of men. These man-made gods cannot fight with the One True God. They have no power because they are man’s imaginings of the “god” that he wishes to be the true god.

Even many people who are in church do this. You may hear people say that “My god would never condemn someone to hell”; in fact, it is not God that condemns people to that place but we ourselves.

Getting back to the day of Pentecost, those who heard the sermon in their own language wondered what they must do when confronted with the truth of Jesus. During the Festival of Weeks, many Jews would come to Jerusalem because they were required to by their religion. All of those that Peter spoke to were from Rome, Crete, Turkey, what is modern day Iran and many other places. Peter answered them and said that they must repent of their ways and be baptized. We can do no less than this.

Are you content in your life? Are you satisfied that you are in a right relationship with our Father in heaven? Many people are and the truth of it will condemn them. They are like the Pharisees, they see no need to repent because their religion and their practice of it feels just fine. As time and our lives will show that one day every person will bow before the King of Kings and we will all be shown the truth of our life. What kind of truth will your life show you?

How does society shape your beliefs?


In the western part of the world, consumption of material things, selfishness, greed all play a part in our society. Whether we like to admit it or not. Many people look at their religion in the same way. They want it to be their personal religion, not a religion that everyone follows but something that is uniquely theirs. The problem with this is that when you “choose” your religion it is like a pair of jeans or a shirt in your closet, it is yours alone. No one else has to believe in what you believe and that is fine because that is the way you wanted it anyway. There are many religions that have sprung up in the past one hundred years like this. The preferred religion of Hollywood, Scientology, was created in the past eighty years and yet claims to follow beings who are trillions of years old. It also claims many of the same things which are exclusive to Christianity and yet it says that one day you can be like a god. Really?

No person on earth has ever been a god except one…Jesus. He is the only prophet, Priest and King who can claim this title because He is the only person to have been resurrected and Who now sits next to His Father, ruling the universe and watching over everything until the time for His second coming is fulfilled.

I know that there are many who don’t want to hear this and I understand that it upsets your personal life and belief in the “god” of your choosing, but listen to this argument and if you don’t take it to heart then I have done what I set out to do, tell you about the One who can show you the way to eternity.

Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth as a baby and grew up as any other child does. The only exception to His life is that He was always in contact with His Father. They likely had many discussions about His mission and His purpose on earth, although we don’t know of it. The only parts that we can be privy to are in God‘s Word. Some of those narratives are more detailed than others but suffice to say, His mission began when His cousin baptized Him.

From that point on, He went all over and around Judea or Israel, teaching, healing those who were ill, telling the religious leaders that they had missed many things in the prophets because they did not or would not recognize Who it was that was speaking to them.

His followers, the twelve disciples who were the closest to Him, also took up the message after His resurrection. He told them to take the message of salvation to Jerusalem and to all of the world and that is what they did. Even the Pharisee called Paul who was trying to get rid of the sect that they called “the Way” became Jesus’ disciple who would take the gospel to the Jews and the gentiles. It was he who wrote nearly half of the New Testament.

The world would be a very different place without Jesus and the Bible as well as Christianity. Many of the laws and moral teachings that we take for granted came from the Bible. Our world has been irrevocably changed because of its influence so it cannot be ignored or pushed aside. Think about it, read it, check the facts contained in it, then let your heart decide!

Can we live with Christ?


Our lives were created to be more complete with Christ in our hearts. The area that feels empty in our life, that you may have been trying to fill with something is the spot that was designed for Christ to inhabit. If He is not in that spot, then your life feels empty regardless of how much success you may have according to the world’s standards. So how can we be filled with Him and have a life that is truly meaningful? The simple answer is for you to just ask Him to come into your heart!

I know that sounds way too easy, but it is the truth. In our lives on a daily basis, we are confronted with many problems and different things that get in the way of our true lives, our life with Christ! I know that many people look at this and say “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I have Him already!” or “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I don’t want Him in my life!”

Many people think that because they have gone to church for many years, maybe even from the time they were children, that they are Christians and they don’t need to ask Him to come into their hearts. That is like someone living in a garage who thinks they are a car or truck. Just because you have been in church for years doesn’t mean that you are a Christian. You have heard many sermons and served as a deacon or Sunday school teacher, but unless you have asked Jesus to come into your life and change you into the person you were meant to be, you are not a Christian. You are just a religious person who attends church.

Can you get past the religious part of your life and just accept Christ into your heart? As I stated, it seems too easy and some people think it is a waste of time. But, that is exactly what the world and Satan want you to believe. If Christ and your belief in Him is a waste of time, why does the world and Satan try to keep Him out of your life? What is the point of pushing God away if belief and having faith in Him don’t mean anything?

Your life and mine are very short compared to eternity, so where do you want to spend it? I have heard all of the stories of how people will party forever with Satan in hell and they will have a grand old time. Nothing could be further from the truth!!

Hell was created to punish those angels who rebelled against God and followed Satan. It was not created for us at all, but if you don’t accept Christ as your Savior and follow Him, you are on the wrong side! Eternal punishment for simply not believing and accepting Christ is what you will get and it will not be a party!

Of course there are many people who have said that a loving God would not put you into an awful place like that. The truth is that He doesn’t put you there, you do! If you stole a million dollars from a bank and then were caught with it, what kind of punishment would you expect? Maybe a job at the bank that you stole the money from? If you killed an important person, would you expect to be given the responsibility of taking care of their children? NO! You would expect the punishment to be severe.

God looks at us as children, rebellious and un- disciplined but He also sees our potential if we come to know and love Him and His Son, Jesus. Our life will change, our outlook on everything will change because when your heart is Jesus’ home, you look at things around you the way He does. There are only two sides to life, serving yourself or serving Jesus. Life on one side can be hard, full of sorrow and pain and emptiness but on the other side you have Jesus’ strength and assurance and hope!

The life that we have here only lasts for a short time, but once you cross the threshold of death, eternity waits. Which eternity will you have to look forward to? One where you get to meet all of those that your life influenced to come to Christ? Or one where you get to spend eternity alone, in pain and torment because of the wrong decision, the one decision where you rejected the Son of God who came so that you would have eternal life, if you had  just asked Him into your heart?

Religion may put you in hell!


In Paul’s day and in our own time, people keep traditions alive and you hear “that’s the way it has always been done”, as proof of their Christian lives and their beliefs as well as the “proof” of their conversion. We see people in church as well as on the street that we know as “church people”, meaning that they are in church every time that there is something going on there. It could also mean that they volunteer in church to drive the bus or to help in the nursery or any number of duties. These people feel sanctified and saved because of their deeds or their work for the church and they may be, but what about the Person that they are serving? Are they working for Jesus or themselves?

In Paul’s day there were many who were “religious”, all of the priests, the Pharisees and Sadducees were religious and yet Jesus condemned them. They were convinced that they were right and everyone else was wrong and they would not listen to any “new” teaching. They were stuck in the past with all of their laws and rules and they had hardened their hearts against anything new.

Do you know people like that? I do, but what can you or I do about it? We can’t change them because they don’t listen or won’t listen just as those in Jesus’ time wouldn’t. So what can we do? Love them, and pray for them daily.

In reference to the title of today’s sermon, there will be many people in hell who are or were religious while they were here and they were that way their whole life. They were convinced that their way was right and that they were doing things right, so what happened? They weren’t shown the error of their ways? Maybe or maybe they just didn’t listen or really hear sermons which they attended. When your ears are closed to Christ and His way of living, your heart is too. So how do you get people like that to listen? By prayer and fasting. Even Jesus said that some problems can only be solved by prayer and fasting.

I am not speaking of fasting for forty days or even two weeks, but if there is someone that you love who hasn’t given their lives and their hearts to Jesus then pray for them and fast for one day! Drink water and juice during that time and pray.

Their life will be impacted and yours will too! God listens closely to those who combine fasting with prayer. The answer may not come immediately after the fast is over, but you can be sure that your prayer was heard!

When Paul wrote most of his letters to the different churches, he was usually in prison at the time. What does that say about his ministry? It says that it was effective for one thing because he was getting someone’s attention! He was striving for the prize, but what was that prize? The prize that Paul was striving for was to be more like Jesus and if it meant that he was stoned or imprisoned for the teaching that he was doing then so be it! The prize that Paul was seeking was also to be considered worthy of being a “good and faithful servant” to his Lord, which is something that we should also be striving for.

To live for Christ and with Him in your daily life is a conscious decision that has to be made daily. It doesn’t automatically happen when you accept Him as your savior. Many people think that once you have accepted Him into your heart, you have done your part. That is not where your part in your new life ends but where it begins! You have to decide every day to take Christ with you everywhere you go! And if you wouldn’t take Jesus there in person, then you shouldn’t be there either!

That is a radical concept for many people to accept even Christians who have been in church most of their lives. You can get up and have a bad day and from that point you may un-invite Christ or decide not to ask Him to be with you that day. Of course He will still be there but you may not know it because you choose not to recognize Him. We are supposed to know and come to know Him daily because of Who He is and what He did for us and yet we sometimes choose not to allow Him to be a presence in our daily life.

Why would you decide such a thing? The Creator of everything wants a relationship with you and everyone else in the world, doesn’t that sound cool?! We are enamored with all sorts of celebrities and sports figures and would enjoy spending time with them so why not be just as excited when the Creator wants to be in your life and share it with you? The disciples had that relationship for about three years and yet they didn’t fully comprehend it until He ascended to the Father. We have the Bible, God’s Word, to tell us all that we need to know about Him and about the Father and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us daily in our walk with Him, what more could you ask for?

Our world and the one who influences people everyday tries to tell us that the things of this world, right now are more important than anything we could have with Jesus in our lives. Money, power, and possessions are all temporary because when our life is over those things won’t mean anything. Some of them may have sentimental value to our family but other than that, nothing in this world makes the trip past death’s door only your soul and spirit do that.

The way that many people see being a Christian is that we live with lots of rules and regulations about what we can and cannot do. That is not the way this works! Following Christ and keeping our eyes on Him, spiritually and physically is the requirement that we should live with every day. It is not hard to follow Christ, once you get the hang of it. The hard part is the tug of war between your old self and the new one that now lives in your heart.

Until your faith in Christ can keep your new self in place and kick the old one out, you will be in turmoil because you can’t serve them both. It is a decision that you have to make every day. Get up with Christ on your mind, not what am I going to do today? But Who am I going to be with today? Am I going to go back to doing the things that I did before I met Jesus? Or am I going to read the Bible a few minutes and pray for strength and guidance from Him to carry me through the day?

We are living this life to get ready for the next but you have to make sure that you are going to have a life, a real life, after this one. Many people think that there is no life after this one and the Bible says just the opposite from beginning to end. Give yourself a chance to experience that life because the alternative is eternal separation from loved ones who are in heaven and from the love of God too. The only chance that you have to make this decision is during this life, now. Once this life ends, there are no “second chances”. Ask Jesus into your life, follow Him every day, learn about Him and the love that He has for you during the time that you have now.

The universe shows us every day the power and majesty of God so we are without excuse when someone asks if there is a God. Isn’t it wonderful that the Creator of everything wants to know you and have a relationship with you? Don’t you want to know Him too? All you have to do is ask Him into your life and your heart and you will have that relationship.

How does death affect you?


The life that each of us lives here is dependent upon the life that we are brought up in. How we are brought up by our parents or even the lack of parental figures can have a great impact on our life. But, what about our spiritual life? Our parents or grand-parents have a tremendous impact on how we view God or our belief in Him.

What about death? Does it have an effect on your life? It depends on who dies. If they are close to you like your father or mother, then yes it has a great impact on your life for years to come. Whether you admit it or not, it does have an impact on your life. Whether the death happens at a young age or if you are an adult also makes a difference.

What about your knowledge of their relationship with Jesus. Does that make a difference in how their death has an effect on you? For Christians, it does have a great impact because we have the hope of seeing them again in heaven one day. Then we will have an eternity to truly get to know them and understand them instead of the limited amount of time we have in this life.

Time, during our life on earth, takes away many joys of living because between our job and the things that have to be done for our children such as school, home-work, games, recitals, etc. all seem to get in the way. We do enjoy our children and being with them but wouldn’t it be better if we could get to know them individually, rather than watching them grow up in relation to other kids and their peers? I don’t mean to take their friends away or to school them at home (although that is what I do because I can’t afford the schools in our area), but to really get to know your children you have to spend time with them.

To get to know your friends, you have to spend time with them as well. “Facebook friends” are acquaintances, unless you live in a town that includes all of them and you take the time to get to know all of them! Many people could not know, really know, all of the people in their friend’s list. What about knowing Jesus? He is the most important friend that you can ever have and yet many just know about Him. They have heard about Him in church or from family, but they don’t know Him!

Death may not seem to have much in relation to knowing your friends or Jesus, but it does. Your friends’ death impacts your life. Your death will impact your family and your friends lives. If you are close friends, it will be a more profound impact. Just as the death of Lazarus had an impact on Jesus, it also had a profound impact on his sisters. When Jesus came to the tomb, “he wept” but He did not weep for Lazarus. He was weeping because of those who did not believe who He was, even after raising Lazarus from the dead.

Death is a great equalizer. No one can escape it and it comes to rich and poor, old and young, Communist or Democratic, and all continents and to those who believe in Christ and those who do not. Compared to eternity, which comes after death, our life is like a puff of smoke. I know that some may not believe that they have an eternal soul and I don’t have the proof to give you. But we will all find out about it after our death and our belief in eternity or not won’t change the reality that we will find ourselves in at that point.

Look for Jesus and salvation through belief in Him because eternity is a long time and I would rather meet you in Heaven than find out that you are in hell because of a decision not to come to know Him.

Is atheism better?


 

Is is possible to believe in nothing or no one but yourself? It seems that it is in the culture that we live in today.

The number of books on the rejection of religion and God has exploded in the past few years. Is this something which could have been foreseen? Yes and it was foretold but there are many who have refused to teach or preach on this subject.

Your life and mine would never have happened if God did not exist. Chance and accidental combinations of chemicals can produce nothing. If that were possible, Europe and all of the countries and towns that were bombed during WWII would have never had to rebuild. The pieces would have flown apart and rearranged themselves and all would have been as it was.

Chaos does not create order, it destroys it by rearranging order into disorder. It seems that it would take an awful lot of faith in accidental order causing what we see in the universe. Is it possible that all of the whole cosmos came from an explosion with no intelligence directing it? According to scientists in our day and time, it is possible because natural forces would take all the matter from that explosion and arrange it where it needed to be. But..what about you, the fish in the ocean, the bacteria that live in total darkness at the scalding vents in the ocean, the redwood trees? These did not come about by accident and they did not evolve over millions or billions of years. The Creator, God, created those and many more. He is the “director” of the universe.

He is the one who put you together in your mother’s womb to be the person that He knows that you can be. Not what society says or dictates but what God knows you can do and be in His kingdom! Since the world that we live in is part of His kingdom and everything in it belongs to Him, why not accept it? A belief in the existence of something does not dictate whether it exists or not. If it exists then your belief in it or not has no effect on its existence. We can’t change the way the universe is or the order of things just by our thoughts and feelings.

If that were the way that things worked, then we could choose not to believe in the tax code and just not pay our taxes and everything would be fine, right? No, because as rational people we have to go along with the laws in the country that we live in and belief in those laws has nothing to do with the consequences or whether we think they may be right or not.

The world that we live in was created by God and the laws of the universe were too. Regardless of your belief or unbelief in the existence of God, He is there and always has been. His love for each of us has been there from the beginning as well and your belief or not doesn’t change that. God did not trouble Himself when He created you or this universe because it was no trouble for Him at all! He spoke and the universe and most everything in it came into being. The only created being that He took time with was man and He didn’t have to do that, but He did. God used His hands and formed mankind out of the clay of the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of Life. We hold a special place in creation because of that.

Belief or not doesn’t change it and never will. God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to take the sins and the punishment for them on Himself so that we could find grace in Him and put on His righteousness. He died and then rose again so that we will be able to have eternal life through Him, if we will just ask Him into our lives. Being saved by God’s grace through Jesus is our choice, just as believing in God or Jesus is a choice. The choice that you make will determine your place in eternity. Which choice will you make?

 

Why all the hostility toward the Bible?


The main reason for all of the hostility toward God‘s Word is because of its claims to the Truth. The Bible is an old book and today, many people look at it as such. Why should I read something which was written over two thousand years ago? It was written as our hand-book for life, that is why. True, it was written for the Jewish people to begin with, but when Jesus came and the New Covenant was established in His sacrifice for all of mankind it became everyone’s book!

Jesus said that “I am the way, the truth and the life. He that comes to Me will have everlasting life“; I paraphrased that but those words were spoken by Him for us today, now! The time is growing short, much shorter than it has been since He went to His Father and He said that He would return and He will, soon. No one knows the day or the hour but with the world on the brink of what the Bible calls the end times.

There is hope for each of us if we will give our lives to Christ and ask Him to come into our hearts. This web address is very helpful in answering your questions and pointing you in the direction that you need to go: http://peacewithgod.jesus.net/.

The world and those who are in the world, at times, cannot see or understand God’s Word. If you have not given your life to Jesus, think about it, pray about it. It is not a weakness to ask Him into your life because being a Christian is sometimes one of the hardest things to do.

I know that many people see it as being weak and some even view Christians as people who have their screws loose. That is not the case but the secular world doesn’t recognize the wisdom which is contained in God’s Word. Even the Bible says that the world sees God’s wisdom as foolishness.

Regardless of the message that other religions give, Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life. Can you come to Him by any other way than accepting Jesus as your Savior? No, the only way to know that you are saved from your sins is by repenting (turning around/away from) of them and asking Jesus for forgiveness and asking Him to come into your heart and change you into the person that you were meant to be.

The ruler of this world, Satan, doesn’t want you to come to Jesus or the knowledge that you can change your life by coming to Him. He will do anything to keep you from this because he hates you and God! Pride can get in the way of your salvation too. There are many things of this world that can keep us from turning to God, but your heart knows where to turn when there is nowhere else to go. Give your life to Jesus and your life will never be the same, it will be better!

Can my religion save me?


There are many thousands of religions or “movements” claiming to be religions today, but what do they offer us? Do the atheists who claim to have no god or belief in a god have it right, that we are our own god and that we are the ultimate authority in our lives? What about Hindi or Buddhists with all of their gods? Then there is Islam, the Mormons, Judaism, the list goes on and on. We have been inventing religions of one sort or another for thousands of years but is any one of them right?

There are some who think that the earth itself is a goddess and there are many different religions which go along with this view. However, you cannot possibly think that the earth is going to bring about peace in the world when it is the population of the world that is fighting each other. People are not inherently good, we only have to listen to the news to find that out. Our goodness comes from something or someone other than our own thoughts and feelings. Is it possible that we can’t get it right on our own. We have had many thousands of years to attempt just that and yet peace never reigns for very long regardless of where you live. There is always civil unrest of one sort or another, whether it is violent or not makes no difference.

The animal called mankind is incapable of peace on his own. Religion and religious people have actually caused much bloodshed in our world and its history, mainly due to one thinking that their way is superior to others. In these writings that I have left here over the past few years I have pointed to Christianity and its teachings and I will continue to do so. However, men have used the claim of being Christians to do many terrible things in the past and I will not deny that. Yet, following Christ and His teachings is the only way to be assured of a place in Heaven.

I am not claiming that Christians are perfect, far from it actually. We all make mistakes, we all screw up, regardless of which religion we claim to follow. Christians have a living Savior who is our model that we attempt to follow, but we cannot do it on our own or with our own strength. When we, as sinners, accept Jesus as our Savior the Holy Spirit fills a place in our hearts and if we listen to His voice, He will guide us in doing His work on earth so that others will see that it is not us doing it, but Him.

Yes, churches are full of hypocrites, and drunks and all sorts of sinners but they are supposed to be! Jesus told the religious leaders of His day that “people who are well need not a physician, but those who are sick”. If you believe that you and your life are doing fine, how can I possibly convince you otherwise? By showing you that I have something that you need. Not by beating you with it or berating you for your lifestyle, but by showing you my life and the One that I follow. If you decide that you want Him too, great! If my witness, however feeble it is, does not convince you that you need Jesus then I have done what I had to do and I will leave you to your life.

No one can force you to believe in Jesus or any other religion, even though some try. The one question I would like to leave you with is this: What if following Jesus is the right path? How will you answer God when He asks you “What did you do with My Son?” If your answer is nothing, that is the wrong answer!

Jesus is the answer. I know that it seems to be a cliché’ but it is the truth. We all have a place in our hearts, in our being that feels empty and we attempt to fill it with something. Yet, nothing fits because the only thing that fits is Jesus and until we ask Him into our lives and our hearts that space will always feel empty. Ask Him into your life and into your heart because until you do your life will always be less than it could be. After He comes to live there, your life will be more than you can imagine!

Oh, and to answer the question that I started with in the title of this entry…the answer is no, religion cannot save your soul or make you righteous in any way. Religion only points you to the One who can do those things and that is…Jesus!

Dad, what are you doing?


You may or may not know where Father’s Day came from, so I looked it up and found it. It came about because of a girl named Sonora Smart Dodd. In 1909, she was sitting in church listening to a Mother’s Day sermon when she had the idea of Father’s Day. She had been raised by her father after her mother’s death, so she wanted her father to know how special he was to her. To make a long story short, twenty-five years later, through her efforts President Calvin Coolidge designated the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day, then President Lyndon Johnson declared it as well but it took President Richard Nixon to sign the proclamation and make it permanent.

In God’s Word, there is one father that we know of who doesn’t have anything to say and yet he helped to raise and teach and nurture the Son of God. I am speaking of Joseph. In the story of Jesus’ birth, Mary and the angels have big parts to play; the wise men who are seeking the Child are prominent in the story too. Joseph is told that the Child is from God and that it is OK to accept Mary as his wife. Later on he is warned in a dream to take the child and flee to escape Herod’s soldiers.

Nowhere in the story do we hear from Joseph. I suppose if you are told that you are to be the step-father of the Son of God that would take your breath away. But there are many things about Joseph that we can only get from other scripture. Joseph loved Mary, which is what a father is supposed to do. Even though he thought she didn’t love him.

When he was making plans to divorce Mary, God showed him the divine plan in a dream: In a dream an angel appeared to Joseph, “Joseph, thou son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the baby in her womb is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20-21). “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have relations with her until her son was born; and Joseph named him Jesus.” (Matt. 1:24, 25).

How much better would the world be if every father took responsibility like Joseph? He understood what God expected of him, and he was ready to obey! Even if the village that they lived in considered the child to be a child of adultery. Joseph believed God, obeyed God and accepted the responsibility that God had given him.

About fifty years ago, seventeen percent of the children born were raised apart from their fathers. In 1990, that number was up to 36%. Today, nearly half of all children in the U.S. are raised without a father in the home.

You know, in many ways, we as fathers and husbands, are to be the leaders of our team. The team being the family, we are expected to be the head of the household in all areas. That includes financial, religious, personal, etc. Every part of our lives and the life of our family, we do not control but we are to guide and help and nurture to the best of our ability and the ability that God has given us. That is our responsibility as fathers. We are to be like God as much as is humanly possible, just don’t ACT like a god!

Your wife will take care of that! She will bring you down a notch or two if you do!

Joseph was a devout Jew and made sure to do everything according to the Lord’s teachings in the Law of Moses to the best of his ability. He sought God and led his family to the Passover festival every year.

I read once that “A child is not likely to find a father in God unless he finds something of God in his father.” (Austin L. Sorensen) Seeing God in their father is a child’s best way to come to know God as their Father. Let that settle a bit in your mind and think on it. Who else would a child look to if not his or her father? We all claim, if we know Jesus, that God is our Father but can you feel Him? Can you touch Him?

Those sensations of touch are necessary for children and only our earthly fathers can give us a hug or hold your hand or pull the fish that you caught off the hook. We are supposed to be the spiritual leader in our family, like the priests in the Old Testament. If your child sees you reading the Bible, then they will see that you think it is important, especially when the wisdom that you gain from it is applied in your life, to every part of your life.

You are able to instill faith in your children. You are able to show them what a loving father looks like and acts like. You can give them the ability to trust and depend on their Father in heaven, but you can’t give your children something that you don’t have. Before they will see God in you, you have to let Him into your heart and your life. He has to be the top priority and they have to see you seeking Him. When you do, your children will see it; your grandchildren will see it. They will know that it is important, that He is important to you and to them.

A preacher once asked some preschoolers to draw pictures of God. He was going to use them as illustrations for his sermon. At the end of the class, they came up with rainbows and men with big hands. His daughter told him that she didn’t know what God looked like, so she drew a picture of him instead.

Joseph was a quiet man in scripture. Strong in his faith, yet we never heard him speak. His example teaches all of us a lesson in righteousness, responsibility and a lesson in religion. God is our Heavenly Father and He wants nothing more than for you to be a part of His family.