Category: Religion is not Christianity

How much more?


How much more is the world going to have to endure? How much more killing in the name of a dead prophet? How many more children will be murdered in the United States because they aren’t wanted? The count is over fifty million now! How will you explain to God that you killed them because you just didn’t want that child because it was inconvenient at this time?

The atrocities that we hear about on the news from the Middle East don’t even compare to our own, because we made it legal. There is a double standard in this world today that is so messed up. It is impossible to keep up with all of the things which happen and many of those we don’t hear about on our “news programs”, we get them from Facebook or somewhere else on the Internet. The lives that we have today, at least according to the pundits of the time, were supposed to be like those of the cartoon family, the Jetson’s. Very little work, money to do whatever you needed to do, technology to take care of all of your needs. By this time, we were supposed to be living the life.

It doesn’t look that way to me today. Our weeks now are taken up with updates on Facebook, tweets on Twitter, texts on our smart phones, blogs where we tell everyone our shopping habits and post our pictures of vacation spots that we would like to go to, but don’t have the money. Then, there are the folks who actually work for a living. Many of them are working sixty and seventy hours and barely have time to shut their eyes in sleep before they have to do it again.

Yes, I do keep this blog going. But I don’t post anything except the messages which I feel led to post by the Lord. I don’t care if you believe me or not, that is not my concern. My concern is that you believe in Jesus, Who died for your sins so that you can have life in Heaven. I know, I sound harsh tonight, but the point is that there are so many who discount the Bible and the Son of God. Why? If it weren’t for their love and grace toward you and me, we wouldn’t be here at all!

God loves each one of you, far more deeply than any of us truly deserve. Yet, He gave His Son on the cross to pay the penalty for all of the sins of humanity from Adam into the future until He comes again and even further than that. All that we need to do, if we want to repent of our sinful ways, is to come to Jesus in repentance and ask to be forgiven. Ask Jesus into your heart and then determine that you are going to live under His teachings from the Bible for the rest of your days. Read it, study it, pray about what you have read so that you can understand it and then tell others about your life with Him. Even if you only tell one person and they come to Jesus, all of Heaven rejoices at that!

All of this terrible stuff that we are going through right now is because of Satan and his demons. They are not in hell, they are here causing all of this. The wars, the diseases, the killings, the murders, all of the terrible, evil things that men are doing to each other is being done because of the influence of satanic powers and demons who inflame our human tendencies to a point where we don’t even act like humans anymore. All of this was foretold in the Bible and that it will get worse before the end comes. Seek out Jesus, pray that He will save you so that you can be a light in someone’s life if only for a while.

God loves you. Look to Jesus for your Salvation. Seek Him while you can.

What is going on today?


Many people are asking that question today and every day, so what would you tell them? Would you tell them that global warming was destroying our world? What about radical groups of religious zealots for Islam and Buddhism that are attacking and killing people because they don’t follow their brand of religion? Economies of governments and the budgets of nations are in dire need of help, but from where? The people in those countries don’t have enough money to put food on their table let alone enough money to pay taxes and higher fees for insurance! This world and the people in it need hope and a Savior but from where will he come?

He will come from Heaven and from Scripture into your lives and your hearts if you will choose to allow Him to do so. He is not going to bring pounds of gold to give to you nor is He going to make your problems vanish over night, but He will give you a hope for tomorrow and the strength to get through whatever it may be that is in your path today and tomorrow.

God loves each of us far more than we can know or even understand, yet we don’t seem to want to allow Him into our daily lives, why? Are we so blinded by our own ego and pride that we can’t see that we need Him in our lives? It is possible to let Him into our daily lives without His Presence interrupting our activities. Actually our activities should be in line with His plans for us, but that isn’t possible for many people.

The love that God has for us is far above anything that we can understand, but the closest that we can come to it is the love that most parents have for their children. That is how God views us, as His children. Regardless of our color or our background, He cares about us. No matter where you live or what you may be doing in your life, He is there watching and if you allow Him into your life He will guide your steps and your actions so that others will see Him through you and maybe they will seek Him out too.

In our world every day there is heartache and trouble, from drugs and shootings to violence in the home and religious zealots making statements about which religion we should be following. Some of those zealots may be Christians, but the majority that we hear on the news are from those who don’t believe in any god or those who follow Islam. Most news agencies won’t report anyone who is doing Christian work, unless it gets a headline somehow and usually in a negative way.

Satan is in control of most, if not all, of this negative press so it really shouldn’t be much of a surprise. If you have read some of the prophecies in the Word of God, you know that this is supposed to happen. God knows that it is happening and He is in control. He allows some things that Satan does but thankfully He isn’t allowing Satan free rein on Earth just yet.

Jesus is the only answer to our world’s problems and giving your heart to Him is the only way to come to the Father in Heaven. Seek Him out while you have today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, only the day that we have and we must use it to the best of our ability. Serve Jesus and allow Him to work through you for the better and greater good of those that you come in contact with. He will grant you peace and security in the Life that you will have after this one.

Love is the message


How could love be the message of the Bible? With all of the killings and the wars that are fought in its pages, how could the Bible be considered a book based upon love? We will see that very soon.

Love is the message which shines through every book in the Bible. Yet, some people can’t or won’t see it because of the words in the message. God loves each one of us and the people around us, regardless of their race or religion. Of course in the Old Testament, He told the Israelites to purge the Promised land of their enemies, why? Because God knew that if they were left in the land, soon they would become a stumbling block to Israel as a whole. The people would inter-marry with them and begin to worship their gods and their ways and pretty soon, Israel would be just like them. They would no longer be God’s chosen people because they had mixed with the “world” around them to the point that you couldn’t tell them apart.

The love that God has for everyone is the kind that we don’t understand, agape love or unconditional love. It is hard for us to understand it because for us, there has always been a give and take approach to affection and love. But, that is not how God’s love works.

The Church that began with the disciples after Jesus went to Heaven started out with the love of God in their hearts and toward all of the believers. Not only that, but that love is turned outward toward the world itself because we are to take it to the furthest reaches of the world so that others who haven’t heard of Jesus can come to know Him. That is the expression of God’s love. We do not seek riches or power for ourselves, just the continuation of Jesus’ work and His Grace to all who will receive it.

Your witness to them, no matter who they are or where they live, can be expressed through your life or your words or even something that you do for them. It doesn’t have to be done because of your love for them, but because Jesus loved them first and we should too. Many people seem to look at this as loving others like we love each other, but the love that we must spread abroad to others is from God and not ourselves.

Could I love someone who has killed my children or my wife? No, not with my own strength or my love but through Jesus and the love that He has given to me in my heart, yes I can love them through Him. I can also forgive them for what they have done to me or my family through Him as well. It does sound as if I am crazy and to some people I may be, talking of forgiving someone for killing my family. Only through Jesus could I do this, not on my own.

Can anyone feel or express God’s love if they don’t know Him? Feel it, yes, express it..not a chance. God can love and does love everyone. He does not condone the sinful life that they lead apart from Him, but if they repent and turn to Him when they feel His Spirit touch their heart then He will forgive them and take them into His family. It really is just that simple.

Jesus died to atone for ALL of humanity’s sins. The only thing that is left for each of us to do is to believe in Jesus and that sacrifice which happened on the cross for us. Humble yourself to ask Him to come into your heart and change you into the person that you can be, then your life will be forever changed and you will be a new person. The thief on the cross believed in Jesus enough to ask Him to remember him and was saved, that was all that was necessary. Belief, heartfelt and true as a child.

The REAL instigator


The person responsible for the fall of mankind isn’t man at all nor is it a woman, it is a fallen angel named Lucifer. He used our own feelings against us in the garden and he is still doing it today. We feel lonely, he is a friend for a price. We are hurt, then he will soothe your feelings with words of comfort..for a price. When you are angry, he will make you feel powerful but he will abandon you when you have to pay for something that you did. There is one particular emotion which he knows how to use and manipulate like a master violin player and that is our pride!

That part of us is usually hidden from most of the world, but sometimes our ego lets it loose. That part of us is easily tweaked as well, our ego, but it goes right along with pride so both of them travel together. Satan has been using this against us for a very long time and he and his demons are expert at getting inside our minds and finding our weaknesses and then using them against us. We shouldn’t be surprised at this at all, because humanity does these same manipulations with each other all of the time.

Sports figures, media, actors and actresses, the list is endless and yet we all tend to be just as manipulative of each other and we begin learning it at a very early age. As children, we learn to manipulate our parents and grandparents into getting us things that we want and we carry that ability into our adult lives. It is part of our “fallen nature” and that is what needs fixing, although many people don’t want to do what is needed in order to get it done.

Jesus is waiting to come into your life and into your heart and He is the only fix, the only cure for our life’s problems. True, becoming a Christian will not provide you with wealth enough to pay everything immediately and I have never claimed that it would, but being a Christian and living by the principles outlined in the Bible will give you an outlook toward being debt free.

The debt toward your sinful life is paid by the blood of Jesus and the life that you live after you accept Him will reflect that if you will read the Bible, pray about your day before starting it, tell others how knowing Jesus has impacted your life. These are the fruits of a life that has been changed by Jesus, it is not work that is required of you nor will it give you more status in the Kingdom of God. These grateful actions are what you do when you feel that Jesus has done something for you that you cannot EVER repay!

Even with our pride and arrogance and ego, God loved us long before we ever heard His call on our life and then answered that call. The thing that many people can’t understand is that we don’t…we can’t be worthy of a place in Heaven without Jesus! If you have ever felt the pull on your heart and soul at a church service or revival and then refused to accept Jesus right then, its okay. But, don’t keep putting Him off by pushing Him away and ignoring Him. God has something which He needs you to do, that is why He is calling you. Because only you can do whatever it is, but you won’t find out until you accept it by accepting Jesus!

Emotions get in our way and sometimes ruin relationships and families, pride and ego, anger, frustration, fear, jealousy are all part of our fallen nature, our “dark side” if you  will. But we can overcome that dark side of us by asking Jesus to come into our lives and give us the power and change us into the people who He knows we can be. When that happens, the world doesn’t look the same or feel the same ever again because it is temporary and will be remade like it once was one day.

Give your heart to Jesus and live for Him every day so that your life will be magnificent and wonderful just as He knows that you can be. Don’t let Satan spoil your life and make it into a mockery of what God knows is there!

How Much?


How much should we endure in our lives? How much should we forgive and forget? How much? This is the question which people ask when they can’t afford what they are looking at, and yet they ask it anyway. It is also the question that we ask when we want to know what it will take to get something done, whether in the spiritual realm or the physical. How much time? How much money? How much of my life will this involve? Do you really have so much time and money that you can’t part with any of it or are you just selfish? God gave you the job or the income that you have, why can’t you give Him credit for what you live off of?

The only time that Jesus asked a question which sounded like, “How much?”, was when He fed the five thousand men. He asked His disciples about the amount of food that they had found, which was a boys lunch of two loaves of bread and some fish. God can take a little and do a lot with it, just as He used the twelve disciples and turned the world upside down with His message and the church began. That small lunch which the boy had actually fed about fifteen thousand or so since there were women and children present too, which wasn’t counted in the initial count.

How much more are we going to have to put up with before we realize that the Bible is right? Everything that is happening today, around the world, is part of prophecy. From the book of Daniel to Revelation, the world that we see and hear about on the news is there in some form. Yes, they may have used some descriptions which describe things that don’t exist, but the men who wrote those books had never seen a helicopter or a jet air plane, so they described them the best way that they could with what they knew of at the time. The next world conflict will begin in the Middle East, maybe in Turkey or Iraq, but it will be in that region. Who will be fighting whom, I don’t know, but it will involve religious differences and hatred between people.

It has been brewing ever since the nation of Israel reformed and became a nation in 1948 and it is coming to a head soon. I don’t know the date, no one does except for God, the point is that we need to get back to our faith in Him, because the problems which are coming with this conflict and the economic disaster which will likely happen before this war will cause tremendous trouble all over the world. Why do we need to get back to God? Because we need an anchor, a Rock to cling to in the raging water, something that is unchanging and that is God and His Truth. Throw that away and we have anarchy. Few people will live through a lawless nation or a world without laws and morals. Think about it, pray about it, come back to God before it is too late.

Satan’s plan


The church is being deceived by Satan and his fallen angels and was so long ago and they are still at it today. Oh, for some it is a very minor deception, mostly of pride and arrogance which has been nurtured by working in the minds of clerics and priests as well as in bishops and preachers. The deception is so subtle until it is hard to spot, until the damage is done but it creeps in like rust on a steel bridge. A little weakening here and there, a bit of dodging around the scriptures in ways that seem “right” but changes their meaning just a bit. This has been his way all along, just as he did in Eden when he asked Eve about what God said. “You will not surely die! You will be like God knowing good and evil. Twisting words a bit, appealing to humanity’s pride, because pride has been the root of mankind’s sin that gives rise to all kinds of things like rebellion and vanity just as it did when the rebellion happened in Heaven.

Satan and his fallen angels will do whatever is possible against the church and its members in order to take as many with them into hell as they can. They are the instruments of disease, death, persecution and temptation in our world, especially against the church and those who claim to know Jesus. They also empower some church leaders to gain so much wealth that the message becomes twisted and weak and in the end, the body of Christ becomes weak and pitiful, alive but just barely.

In many ways, this is exactly what the world sees in the church today, regardless of the denomination or the leader who is taking his flock on a very broad road to hell with the assistance of Satan himself. As long as he can injure or take down the effectiveness of the church and the message, then he and his fallen angels will do just that, regardless of how much damage it does. He hates man with a passion which goes beyond human understanding and he hates the church even more!

The church has seen much deceit and division with people caught in lies and extortion and with the “leaders” of the congregations getting into all sorts of trouble. Some of them caught in adulterous situations and some getting very wealthy from their “partners in the ministry” helping to spread the Gospel of Christ and yet they own mansions and cars and jets. This is not the church that Jesus intended it to be!

Christians are supposed to be patterning their lives after Jesus, seeking Him and His Wisdom in everything that they do, yet there are some who do demonstrate against authority, against the law and against our government.Why is this being done? Because, if Satan can make the world look at the church, the body of Christ, as intolerant and hateful towards the freedoms that the world enjoys without the church then soon the world will turn against the church altogether.

One of the biggest problems with mankind and one that Satan uses is that we have an independent fallen nature which gives us the delusion of being in control of our lives and the outcome of our lives, whether spiritual or physical. We think that we are capable of reaching for Heaven independent of God and that is the biggest lie that Satan has told and nearly the whole world believes it! True believing Christians who depend on God and seek Him in their lives do not, but it seems that those are few these days and likely in a couple of generations will disappear from the Earth which is exactly what Satan wants!

Since God created mankind to worship Him and know Him, Satan is striking at God by destroying or hurting us in any way that he can. Through disease, poverty, war, famine, hatred of our religion and the One that we follow, Satan has struck at the heart of God by striking at the church, those of us who believe in Jesus and His message. If he can do enough damage that Christianity were outlawed and church services were banned, unless they were worshipping him or one of the “religions” that he approves of, then part of his mission here is working.

It is not finished yet, but he knows that his time is growing short.Then, he will turn on God’s people, the Jews just because they are God’s chosen people. He has deceived them into being so religious about their religion that they missed the Christ when He came and many still can’t see Him even today because they are blinded to Him. Pray that our world and those in it who have been blinded by the pride of life and their own fantasies will come to realize that they are not in control

A birth certificate


A little girl was supposed to take her birth certificate to school. Her mother had solemnly warned her not to lose it because of its tremendous importance, but lose it she did. Later she was sitting on the steps of the school, crying. The janitor asked her what was wrong. She replied, “I lost my excuse for being born.”

We also have a “birth certificate” in Heaven too! When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You were born into Heaven spiritually at that moment and it can’t be lost, just as you can’t be lost. As long as you are following Christ, seeking to do His will and not following in the lusts of your previous life, then you are His and always will be. I don’t believe that anyone who has truly accepted Jesus into their heart can turn away from Him and go back to the life that you had before. Your Spirit would convict you of the first sinful word that you said, and you wouldn’t feel right in it.

No, the people who may have “slid back” into their old ways very likely didn’t have salvation through Jesus in the first place. They felt an emotion during the service, they may have shed a tear or two, they might have felt a warm, tingly feeling during the service, but that is not salvation! When your Spirit agrees with and is in sync with God’s Spirit, your heart, your character is forever changed and you are no longer the same person that you were before. You are as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”.

You don’t ever have to worry about losing your Heavenly birth certificate because it is sealed in the blood of Christ, just as you are when you accept Him as your Savior. There is no other way of saying or believing it, that is it.

He died for us, each of us, and when we feel the Spirit calling to us and we respond and as Jesus into our hearts and our lives, the change is eternally permanent. Have you given your life to Him and asked Him to share your life? It is a relationship after all, one that continues one day at a time. The Spirit teaches you through God’s Word and through prayer and fellowship that you have with Him daily. It has to be treated as a relationship because you wouldn’t just visit a significant person in your life just once every week or once a month would you?

Think about it. Pray about it, visit the Prayer House and submit your prayer request if you need to. I would be honoured to pray for you and with you for whatever the need might be.

What is the difference?


The difference between religion and Christianity is the question to answer today, but can the answer be an easy one to find? Religion can be a belief or no belief because you can make a religion out of most anything from fishing to football, your family or anything else that you really enjoy. You may not realize that you have made something into a religion, but when you religiously do something or even live a certain way religiously, then you are doing just that. You can be a religious atheist just because you pursue your beliefs religiously, the same goes for any other religion or belief.

Many people are even religious about hunting or fishing and football and basketball, so being a religious person is not hard to do and it doesn’t have to be a religion at all.

The difference between being religious and being a follower of a religion is the focus of your belief or your faith. Why would you call something a religion which is based on something made by man? Such as sports or even a religion like Zen Buddhism? Yes, there are differences between worshipping an idol or your ancestors versus worshipping Jesus, from a Christian standpoint, is that an idol or your ancestors don’t qualify as deities and Jesus is the Son of God. Whether you believe in God or Jesus or not is not a question in this writing. Belief in no supreme being is also a religion because there are gatherings and “churches” for people of that religious faith as well.

Whether you believe in God or His Son or even the validity of the Bible or not is a discussion that will be and already has been brought up in this forum. The reason that some of you commented on this post already is because I posted it from my Kindle Fire and I couldn’t post it as a draft which is what I had intended. My apologies.

The belief in nothing is something that I can’t understand or as the Greeks had it when Paul was visiting them, “the alter to an unknown god”. Paul introduced them to the real God while he was there, but there are many it seems in the world today who don’t believe in any supreme being. I will be praying for you whether you want me to or not.

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:16,17

 

Why???


She is not old enough to know what religion is or who Jesus is yet. They are pointing guns at a child from a Christian family! I don’t know if there was any bloodshed or not, especially in her case I hope not. What good reason does anyone have for something like this? What kind of god could possibly ask his followers to kill women and children for being of another faith? I know that God asked the children of Israel to kill those in the land that they were promised and that many people may askaYoungChristian about this very thing. Yes, He did but the reason was to keep them from following a pagan religion and getting away from serving Him. What is the reason that the world is going through all of this upheaval? It has been prophesied by God, the only God that this is going to happen and is happening now.

In the book of Revelation it speaks of this time where people will be killing others because of their beliefs and we see this every day. But, why would you persecute a child that is so young that she doesn’t know the difference between Christian and Islam?

Our lives are short in comparison to the eternity that we all will face. I pray that when Jesus comes, hopefully soon, that everyone will see and know Who He truly is. It will be to the detriment for some who have never believed in Him and it will be the most wondrous and joyful reward for those who do.

In the world that we are living in, it is imperative that we who have Christ as our Savior tell others about Him. Not in such a way as to be pushy about it, just tell people the Truth and go from there. God will always pick up where our words leave off regardless of what you might say, but say everything in the love of Christ. Don’t be forceful, don’t act as if you are better than they are because it is that kind of attitude that has turned many people away from the church in the first place.

We are all sinners, the only difference between a truly born-again Christian and someone who doesn’t know Jesus is grace. That’s it! We are new creations, new creatures in Christ but by the reason of His grace and love, nothing more. We can’t add anything to the equation because no amount of “works” that we do can match the work of Jesus that has already been done.

Yes, we may be persecuted for our faith and our beliefs, but the Holy Spirit will give you the strength and the words needed at the time that you need them to get you through this time of testing. Many people say that we, the Church, are not going to go through any of the dark times, the Tribulation. They could be right, but if they are not then we must be prepared! Search the scriptures, pray, look to Jesus for His love and His righteousness and ask Him for strength before these times do get here, before it is too late.

God loves you and has a plan for your life, however long or short it may be. So, get to work for Him! The pay may not be much but the reward and the benefits are and will be FANTASTIC!

 

 

What do you do?


In the New Testament book of Colossians in chapter three and verse seventeen it says: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in (dependence upon) His person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.” AMP

In this verse of scripture, Paul is writing to those who have come to faith in Christ who are trying to reconcile their vocations with their new beliefs. He is telling them that regardless of your vocation, do it as if you are doing it for the Lord. If you dig a ditch, do it as if Jesus asked you to do so. If you are a doctor, treat your vocation as if you worked for the Supreme Physician.

All of us cannot be missionaries or preachers or evangelists, but we can do what we do as if we are doing it for Jesus. If you are a professional football player or golfer, play like you are playing for Jesus and the same goes for any other sport. Regardless of the work that you do, do it as if you are working for Jesus because you really are.

He gave you the talent and the ability to do what you do and the job or the business that you have so that you can be and do your work for Him. I know that many people don’t treat their job as a gift from God or a blessing from Him but it is. God gives to each of us a measure of faith as well as skill in an area that nobody else can match and we have that skill regardless of our education, it was given to us from birth. We may not find out about it until later, maybe after we have attended school or finished school, but it has been there nonetheless. I never thought that I could write much, until years after I graduated from college. I finally found my voice through finding my Savior and He gives me the words to write or say, I am just the messenger.

Your vocation, whatever it may be, is a doorway to other people’s lives. If you work in a hospital, you see people who are hurting in many ways almost every day. I used to work in the laboratory of a hospital and the specimens which we processed were from many people every day who were dealing with cancers of all kinds, HIV, viruses, you name it they were suffering from it. Nurses, Doctors, and all who work in hospitals should be on their knees every day praying for those who they have to care for, regardless of whether they might know any of them or not.

We should be praying for our country and those in Washington who are in charge of the laws of this land. We need to be praying for our military men and women who are serving and putting their lives on the line every day. Prayer should be in our minds and on our hearts for the whole world to come to know Christ, because Satan is busy changing the minds and hearts of as many as he can to turn against Christians and Jews. We are in his sights as a nation founded upon those principles, even though our country is trying to abandon them as fast as it can it seems.

Even though it has been two thousand years since the crucifixion of Jesus, He is coming back! We need to be prepared for His return by doing as much for His Kingdom as we can, whether it is just by praying or if we can preach or teach others to know Him. Teach your children about Him and your grandchildren because they need to know as well. Your family and your friends are the hardest to tell about Jesus if they don’t already know, so in many instances you may just have to pray and invite them to a Bible study at your home. Prayer can cover many things, especially in the lives of those who haven’t come to know Jesus.

Give your heart to Him, tell others about Him, live your life and your vocation as you would with Him by your side. This is the way to eternal life, follow it…follow Jesus and He will guide you.