Category: Religion

So much to do, so few to do it


Every day we see things happening around us, down the street and around the world. On the news, on the Internet, alerts on our phones, calls from family and friends, all of these things alert us to the problems around us and it is overwhelming! We look at all of these things and it increases your stress in this life beyond what you normally have to deal with every day. What can we do about it? Can we do anything that will help the situation and not make it worse?

It depends….

It depends on what you can do personally in your area of influence, however big or small it may be. Your effect on the crises in the world around us may not be so big, but there is still something which we all can do…pray.

I know that sound like something that you would hear on a television show or a broadcast from a church somewhere, but it is the most effective way that most of us have which will produce results. Those results may not happen tonight or even next week, but in God’s time the effect will be seen and felt wherever it is needed. God does work quickly when it is in His will to do so, like in a life-threatening situation or a disaster, and other times He moves when He deems it time to move on a problem. That is where we have a gigantic problem with Him.

We are not patient. We want results NOW! We want results today, like they were supposed to have happened yesterday! God doesn’t work that way though. He works according to His pleasure and His glory, for our good. Many things that we see in this world could have God’s hand working in the background, but we don’t see it that way because it may not be visible to us yet.

Such as the healing of a cancer in someone’s life or the healing of someone in a wreck as they are treated in the hospital. Many of the ways that God moves in our lives, for our good and His glory, are unseen by us until the result is done and it comes to fruition in us and our life. The command which was given to the disciples and by extension to us, was that we should go and tell all of the nations, tribes and tongues about the good news of Jesus. Whether they accept Him or not, it is their choice after all, we are supposed to go and tell. But, it seems that there are so few who are willing to go. Telling is not so hard, because that is what I am doing here. Regardless of who reads this, I pray every day that someone’s heart will be softened by the Holy Spirit and open to receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Our lives here are fleeting like smoke in comparison to eternity, and yet we can help people to come to know the Christ, Jesus, Who died for their sins and rose from the dead. Your sins have been paid for, all that you have to do is accept it and believe it and in the One Who accomplished it, because you can’t! There is no amount of works or money or any other “man-made” thing or accomplishment that you can do which will gain you access into Heaven! Only your humble repentance of your sins and accept the grace that God has extended to you through Jesus and His death on the cross, only this will gain you access into God’s presence as an adopted child in His Kingdom. Otherwise, you will stand before Him and be judged for the sins that you did during your life, but the only sin which will send you to hell is the rejection of Jesus as your Savior and Lord. The sins committed otherwise would be wiped clean by His blood if you would just accept Him as your Savior when you heard or felt the call in your heart.

Turning away from the Holy Spirit when you felt Him call to you is the “unpardonable sin”, nothing else in the world qualifies as such except for that. No, we are a very impatient race of people and have been since the beginning. It has been getting worse and worse and today it is so bad until we can barely wait in line for anything, whether it is at the bank or at the drive-through window at a “fast food” place! God’s time is His time and we don’t like it and never have, but if you can surrender to Jesus and seek His counsel daily then His blessings will follow and flow into your life.

Lost now Found, Freed yet Bound


A very good poem about saving grace.

Faith Unlocked's avatarFaith Unlocked

Once lost
Now found
Thus freed
Yet bound

Freed from slavery
Shielded from judgement
Cloaked in righteousness
Bought by Jesus’ blood

A blood which binds
His church in unity
Diverse in community
Sanctified humanity

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Do you know that you are loved?


“For God so loved the world (everyone in the world past, present and future), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.” John 3:16

How much more should we love and honour God’s gift to us? God loves each of us even when we are sinners and we don’t deserve anything that He has blessed us with. This is not a fairy tale and it is not an imaginative story, it is the Truth of the Living God. He carried the children of Israel through the wilderness on their way out of Egypt. He made the way through the Red Sea so that all of them could escape from Pharaoh’s army and from their bondage in slavery. God made a way for the people to destroy the city of Jericho, not by their own power but by His. He took the blocks down that were holding up the wall around it, all they did was walk around the city for a week until God told them to blow the trumpets and the wall came crashing down. He loved them enough that their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out during the entire forty years of their journey through the desert.

Today, it seems that many churches are trying to “water down” the gospel, to make it more tasty to those who are fighting against its message. Making it more palatable, like putting four ounces of cream and sugar in a cup of coffee which only holds six or eight ounces. At this point, it isn’t much as coffee goes and the same is true of a message or the preaching from a church which has watered down the words taken from God’s Word! When you take out the words and the meaning from God’s Word, you are preaching another gospel, one which is not approved of by God but by men. Yes, many churches are doing exactly that today because they want new members to give their tithes, and offerings to the church.

That is all good, but the message being taught and preached by those who water down the gospel is a message which Jesus said to flee from because it is not the True Gospel! It is a false gospel taught by false teachers and it needs to stop! Why? Because the path that we as preachers are supposed to be leading people on is one that is narrow, not broad! A gospel that has been sweetened up and made pretty and acceptable is not the gospel of salvation but of damnation and it will lead many people to hell! The church today in many ways sounds much like the church in Revelation from Laodicea  which Jesus said that He would spew from His mouth because they were a lukewarm church. They had gone astray from Him and from the gospel and they were neither hot and on fire for Him nor were they distant and cold. The city and the church there was wealthy from material goods but spiritually they were poor and naked.

A watered down gospel is a lukewarm gospel and it will cause the church to be like that church and being that way is a terrible thing. Why? Because you are putting yourself and your congregation on the side with Satan because of what is being taught. Making Christian “church” more easy and palatable to many is not the way to go. Ignoring the words of the Bible that are against lifestyles which are offensive to God, such as homosexuality or belonging to a cult are not the way to salvation. Yes, God loves all people regardless of their sins but He still hates the sin itself. Because of this, an unrepentant person (one who will not part ways with their sins), will not be able to be saved and enter into Heaven. When your heart is broken spiritually and you feel God calling you to Himself, answer this call on your life. Don’t turn away because sometimes, the call to be saved is only given once and if you turn away from it you may not get another chance to change your life for  the better.

I don’t want to mislead anyone, Christianity is not a “prosperity cult”, you will not prosper so much that you are wealthy beyond belief if you turn to Jesus. The wealth that you gain with Christ is the kind that is stored in eternity for you, not here on Earth for people to see and steal. Eternal life is also misunderstood. We will all have eternity to enjoy our choices, although enjoy is not the right word for those who reject Jesus. Eternity in hell is reserved for those who have sided with Satan and it doesn’t matter if Satan himself has promised you that you won’t be in a “lake of fire” for eternity, because that is his destination and all of those who have rejected Jesus and the grace of God will be there too.

Seek out the wisdom found in God’s Word, pray about what you read and that it will illuminate your heart and open your eyes. Give God a chance to show you Who He is, ask Him to come into your life and help you to walk with Him daily, because it is a wonderful journey in the right company.

Living your life


Yes, we can live joyfully, but what about living for Jesus? Living with Him, waking up with Him, praying to Him about everything, no matter what it is. We can do it, if we choose to do it. It is our choice, we are never forced into a relationship with God. Can we live this way?

Yes, we can! But, we have to do it by choice! Wake up in the morning and thank God for giving you another day to serve Him and live on this Earth, enjoying our family and our blessings. Where do those things come from? God, of course. He provided you with the ability to do the things that you do, whatever your vocation.

You can’t tell God what to do, but many people are so proud and prideful in their way of doing things until they try to do just that. He loves you, but He is going to answer your prayer in His time and when you are ready for the blessings that He will provide for you. How do I know this? Because He has done it for me and for many others, that is how I know His provisions and His love.

Can you know Him like this? Yes, you can. All that you need to do is to decide to listen to His Word and ask Him to come into your heart, when you feel the calling, the prompting of the Holy Spirit which calls to us. Answer that call on your life and your heart and you can be saved. Many people will think that they don’t need saving, they are doing fine on their own without Jesus. Are you really?

Have you had a time recently which caused you to question your life or your place in life? Many people today question whether God cares about us, but if you look at all of the blessings which we see every day in the light of His love, why would you question Him? You woke up this morning with a new day to serve Him or yourself, which will it be? You were able to get up from your bed and go about your day, isn’t that a blessing from God? Many of you had food to eat and a warm place to live, those are blessings from God. Your job and income comes from the One who owns it all, so that is a blessing.

Can we be His in our daily lives? Yes, it is not something that you can do on your own, but you can do it with His help! God loves you and is concerned about everything that happens to you, from losing your keys to forgetting to pick up the milk. Yes, I pray when I go to the store or when I am driving to the store (especially when I am on the road with all the others out there). I need Him every day, all day, how else would I be able to come up with the content found here? My mind is not filled with words enough to fill these pages like I have these past few years.

God has given me a small church to pastor every week and I enjoy it, but I have a larger audience here. Why? I think it is because there are many more people outside my local area who are looking for God or evidence of His love or even just an encouraging word in the times that we live in. I can’t be in all the places that you live, but the words that God gives me to put here can, so I do this a few times a week, sometimes more if I am given the words for it.

I don’t want you to think that I am anyone special, because I am not. I am a servant of Jesus, gladly, until He comes again. Whether He wishes me to serve here or in a church doesn’t matter to me, I will do one or the other or even both as long as I can. I will only be able to do it with His wisdom and His strength, and I pray that all of you who read this will pray for me to be able to do this as well. We all need prayers, and I pray for my fellow bloggers as well. Have a wonderful, Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Living Joyfully!


For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭9-10‬ NKJV)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭2-4‬ NIV)

These two scriptures encourage us to live with joy in the knowledge that Christ has forgiven our sins and if we have accepted Him as our Savior, then we are truly complete in Him! But, what do you do on the days that things aren’t going so well? Those times when you get a bad report from your doctor or a pink slip from work, what about those days? Are we still supposed to be joyful in those situations?

Not exactly joyful in the way many people think of it, but in the knowledge that Jesus is in our hearts and that we have His strength to get through them. God is in control of all things on the Earth, He knows what is happening and when and for His children He has prepared a way to make it through the storms of life, those times when things are not going very well. Yes, God allows trials in our lives and trouble too, but He provides the strength and the way through those times if we will lean on Him, trust Him, seek Him in all things.

Smooth sailing in life is good, but it doesn’t prepare you for the times when things get rough. If you ask for patience, you will surely find this out, which is something that I advise you not to do. Because it will take patience to get through the trials that come with learning patience, which is the reason that you never ask God for it unless you are truly prepared for the consequences. You may forget that you even asked Him for it by the time the trials come, but if you seek Him about their reason then He will let you know. I made that mistake once, and I won’t do it again.

Joyfully living in Jesus is knowing that He loves you and cares for every part of your life. He even cares where you may have lost your keys or the ten dollars that you can’t find or any number of “little” things that we wouldn’t normally pray about, but He wants to help you in all of the life that you live. If you will let Him. As Christians or someone who may be looking for that something that they feel is missing in their life but haven’t found it yet, your life and every part of it is important to God. He loves you enough that He sent His Son to die on a cross for your sins. Jesus chose to die in our place so that we could have eternal life, He wasn’t forced into this decision but He willingly accepted God’s will in this so that we would be the beneficiaries of His Grace.

Knowing this, how could you not want to praise Him joyfully and thank Him for this blessing of eternity and forgiveness? It is a debt that we can’t repay and we don’t deserve it, but God freely gave it to us through the sacrifice of Jesus so that we would be able to come into His presence in the holiness of Jesus. Our own “righteousness” is as rags, found in the garbage that have been there for a LONG time. God is Holy and we cannot stand in His presence without the covering of the blood of Jesus in our hearts which gives us the righteousness of the Son.

We, as Christians, serve a living Savior that is in Heaven at God’s right hand. He is interceding for us when Satan accuses us of wrong, or points out where we have stumbled along the way. Jesus’ blood covers everyone’s sins, but you don’t get to enjoy the benefits of it until you are called by the Spirit and you answer that call by asking Him into your heart. God knows exactly who will answer and who will not, but the offer is still open to all who will make that decision to follow Jesus daily.

Christmas, Hallelujah!


This season that we have so commercialized, up to the point of pushing Jesus and His birth completely out and not even calling it “Christmas” but “Holiday season” or “Holiday break” or Holiday tree. It is ridiculous really. Yes, I know that Jesus’ birth was not likely during this period but possibly back in September or early October. I have heard all of the stories about the pagan celebration which the ancient church took over to bring them into the church.

Here is a video which was brought to my attention recently that I would like to share with you. It is about this baby boy born in Bethlehem so just listen and see if you don’t get chills while listening. Consider the reason that Jesus came, you and me. Then really LISTEN to the words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSTH3G1YIs

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.

God is great!


God loves each of us. It is His will for you to be great at whatever you are doing, regardless of what you do or who you are. Isn’t that a great way to look at life! Why am I in such a great mood? Because, Thanksgiving was yesterday, but God is absolutely in control and is the most gracious God and He is in control of all, not just my life or yours if you are a Christian, but He is in control of every nation and all of the world!

Yes, there are some terrible things happening in the world, but those are not caused by God but by Satan, who is trying to take God’s glory and any person that he can away from God! Whether it is through war, or death or disease, Satan will do it just to poke his finger in God’s eye so to speak.

The difference with God is that God doesn’t give up on us, because He knows where you are and He knows where you are going!

He will be there in the darkness and the hurt and the painful days. He will be with you when you are on top of the world, and nothing seems to be going wrong. God is there, wherever you are no matter what the situation.

God loves you and will be with you regardless! How do I know? Because, when I was sick a couple of years ago, He was with me. In the night with fever and the dark dreams that were keeping me from seeing Him, He was there. He was beside me when a tornado went over my house while I had fever and couldn’t get up if I had to.

He was with every person that I have prayed with during my time of being a pastor, as I still am. He has been with my nephew after a really bad accident on a four-wheeler, and He is still healing him. Life is precious to God, no matter what the life is. He notices a sparrow when it dies, He knows when a baby is aborted and when one is born. Regardless of the life, He cares for them all. If you will give your life to Him, then you will care for them too. He loved each of us whether we were born yet, or whether we had accepted Jesus yet or not. He cares about all of the life, the creation that He created for us to be stewards of and to give glory to Him.

Psalm 148
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
Praise him, sun and moon!
Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
Praise him, skies above!
Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being. He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds,a wind and weather that obey him, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven!
He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones—the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the Lord!

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

What else do we need?


Since tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year, or one of them at least, what is it that we need? Any suggestions?

Peace.

Hope.

Caring for one another.

No bills would be good.

No more diseases or death.

More love and compassion.

Are these impossible to have in the world that we live in? No, not impossible, just improbable. Why is that? Because we are flawed, human beings. How many years have we enjoyed peace in the past few thousand years? Just that factoid will give you chills and here is the answer that I found: There has been NO time in the last 500 years where there has not been armed conflict somewhere in the world.  

Very likely, if you are talking about peace all over the world, there has never been a day in which there were no conflicts somewhere in the world from the beginning of mankind.

All of those positive things that I listed above, are good to think about, and pray about, but until Jesus comes again our world will not enjoy those much. Yes, we can give hope to others, we can care for those less fortunate, bills are an individual problem and another problem altogether, disease and death are under God’s control so only He can eliminate them, love and compassion have to do with our lives spiritually and that has everything to do with whether we are totally committed to life with Jesus in our hearts. Because, without Him we can’t be loving and compassionate like He is.

Can we be more like Jesus? Yes, as I said above, if we are committed to Jesus and seeking His Wisdom in our everyday life. If you don’t do that, then you are living and trying things on your own strength and wisdom. That is a combination which doesn’t work very well at all. This has been tried for thousands of years, and yet it doesn’t work. Oh, yes Satan will “help” you in ways behind the scenes to make your life seem to be on track and everything will be fine. The money that you are making, the home and the family that you have, everything looks and feels real cozy but how do you feel inside? Most people who are following this road, this path in their life feel as if something is missing, that is why there are so many people, successful people who are addicted to so many things like sex or drugs or even spending money. They feel like they need to buy the one thing that will make them happy, they need one more sports car, one more mansion, one more ???

The problem with this is that money cannot buy happiness. It helps in ways like being able to pay your bills or to not have many bills, you will have many so-called “friends” if you have a lot of money, but they won’t last any longer than the money will. Having money will help with your health too because you can afford to go to the doctor or to the gym and make sure that you are as healthy as you can be, but when your time is up on this Earth money can do nothing for you except pay for your funeral. You cannot buy any more time, because when it is your time to go, to die, then you will find what you have been looking for. You will find God waiting for you when you open your eyes in eternity. “Well, that is a good thing, right?”, not necessarily, if you have never asked Jesus into your life and into your heart and truly given your life to Him then you will meet God as your Judge, your final Judge. He will show you every opportunity that you have had to accept Jesus as Savior, and you didn’t do it. You will see all of the words and their effect on the people around you while you were alive. God is the Creator of all things. He doesn’t need your money, all that He has ever wanted from each of us is fellowship. A relationship with Jesus enables us to have this every day and it doesn’t prevent you from making money, but your relationship with Him will determine what you do with the money that He allows you to have.

Many of the things which I listed in the list above, in fact every one of them, won’t come to fruition until Jesus is ruler of your life and the King over this world. He will be coming back soon, so I advise you to contemplate your life in relation to Jesus and if you don’t know Him yet, then read His Word, the Bible and ask Him to show you what you need to know and understand in it. Ask Him to come into your life and forgive you of the sins that you have done and to give you the strength to serve Him in whatever capacity that you can. I promise, you won’t regret knowing Him, because He is really all that we need now and into eternity.

How many times?


There are riots in the streets over a decision by some legal entity in our society, yet those riots will not change the outcome. The killing of people and burning of businesses and cars only makes the so-called “racial” issue more loaded, more explosive. During a time when the only real racist people are those who lived through it in the sixties and seventies!

Most of the young people in college now and those who may be a little beyond college age, don’t really recognize race as a problem or even a factor in their friendships or relationships. Why should our country keep on digging up the bones of a dead issue? Let it stay buried and move on, please! How do you think that God would act in this instance?

Not with violence or hatred, those are human emotions. Jesus got angry in the Temple, but that is because they had turned the outer court of the Temple into a marketplace and that was not what it was intended to be. Anger, hatred toward your fellow-man, is considered as murder in God’s eyes because the feelings which come out when you act and feel this way toward someone are very violent and just by thinking of the act in your mind you have committed it in your heart, whether you did so physically or not.

Our country and its people need to get back into church, soon, because we NEED God in our hearts and in this nation desperately! We have been pushing Him out of our lives for long enough and it is time that we got on our knees and begged for His forgiveness! Ask Him to come into your heart and cleanse your life and bring you back into a relationship with Him!

We can’t keep this kind of tension in our country because soon it could escalate into a real conflict between races and cultures, essentially another civil war of unrest and hatred and I don’t think that our nation could survive that at all. It would rip this nation apart and America would no longer be a nation, although I can’t imagine what is would become and I really don’t want to.

Please, get into a Bible teaching church, read and study God’s Word and ask Him to show you what He wants from your life and mine. We can’t wait for another “great awakening”, we have to wake up NOW! Before it is too late!