I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psalms 16:8 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.16.8.KJV
Category: Religion
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Source: O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Why is there so much tension?
The world seems to be ready to snap these days and it shouldn’t be. God created all of us and there is very little difference in our genetic makeup. I mean if you could track it down there is only about 1% or so that is different between people all over the world. Most of that has to do with eye color, skin color, hair color, and texture but very little else.
Still, we keep shooting at each other and killing each other for mostly cultural reasons. Some of it is also because of religious beliefs but…why? We are individuals and we should be tolerant of other people’s beliefs and their culture too, so why can’t we?
Is it because of hate or greed or just being an extremist in our own belief which keeps us at each other’s throats?
The real reason is that this is supposed to happen. It is foretold in the book of Revelation. Tension and strife over petty differences and religious beliefs will become worse toward the end of the age and that is exactly where we are. If you have read the Bible and pay attention to the news all of these things are not unusual at all. They are disturbing and hurtful but God knew this was going to happen a long time ago.
Remember, God is not surprised by anything which happens. God loves us and He has things under His control. Nothing can happen without His authority. I pray that many who read this will seek Him out because one day soon the church will be taken from the Earth and life will get even harder for those who are still here.
Make sure of your salvation since it is the difference between living into eternity and being in torment for eternity.
In the beginning…
The Bible begins with these three words and it is the beginning of everything. God starts with nothing except darkness and then brings forth everything around us, including each of us. The world around us today doesn’t want to believe that God’s Word is the Truth or even that any part of it is true at all. So, what are we to do with a book which nobody believes is true?
The Bible is God’s Word written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the authors of the Old Testament and the New Testament. How can the Bible be true? If you read it and take notice of the actual story which is being presented, meaning the salvation of us and Who it is that will be our Savior…even though it was written by many authors and over many centuries, it still points to the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God!
Can you think of how you could get about forty men or women to write different books and yet point to the same Savior in those stories? There is no possibility that even two people could do this let alone forty writers separated by centuries and yet pointing to Your Son, Jesus as the focal point of all of their writing! Without it being inspired by God’s Holy Spirit the Bible could not exist at all so the truth of it is without question.
It is God’s Word and wisdom for us to live by and it’s an example of how we should live and believe in order to even have a chance at living in Heaven for eternity.
God placed these words in the minds of those writers so that they could write them down and pass them on to later generations. His Word came into our world so that we could get to know our Creator and our Redeemer. It is not a rule book to beat someone with when we do wrong. It is a guidebook for how to live our lives, how to pattern our lives around His wisdom and it gives us strength when we feel weak, that is what the Bible is.
Is it true? Yes! Emphatically true! The prophecies contained within it have all come true in the past and the ones which have not are the ones which are yet to happen. When will they come true? The Bible doesn’t give exact dates but if you read the book of Revelation and some of the prophecies pointing to the end of the age, you can see things happening all around us right now. There isn’t much time left. How much time is left? Only God knows that answer.
The very next thing which is foretold in God’s Word is the catching away of those who are believers. Some call it the rapture, but since that word isn’t in the Bible I like to use “caught up or catching away”. The church is not going through the Tribulation because that is the wrath of God poured out on the Earth and those who have refused to believe in Jesus as their Savior.
If God has begun a work in your life, He will always keep you in Him. He will finish the work which was begun in you for your sake and for His glory!
Always trust in the Lord!
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
Isaiah 26:4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.26.4.KJV
We know because we can see His works!
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/ecc.3.11.KJV
Faith is powerful!
1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
Peter had preached the sermon on the day of Pentecost just before this healing event occurred but what made this healing special? The lame man had faith. He didn’t know Jesus, but he was expecting something from Peter and John. It is that expectant faith which brings the miracles of God into our lives! Some of us who have given our hearts to Jesus and asked Him into our lives and our hearts have faith because without it we wouldn’t have felt the pull on our hearts to come to Jesus.
But many times our faith is tested in ways that we don’t recognize as a test and we don’t expect anything from that experience. We go through it and we may pray for God to give us the strength to get through whatever it may be, but we don’t expect a miracle from it. But…we should!
While the lame man was actually expecting money from Peter, it was that attitude of expectancy which brought his miracle into his body. He expected something, anything from Peter and when Peter said “in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk”, he did! He expected something and he got more than he expected from the encounter.
So, why don’t we get miracles today? Some say it is because miracles only happened at the beginning of the church age. I think it is because of our stubborn hearts and minds which have been “programmed” to discount things which science can’t explain. But miracles do happen today. Some of them are part of a medical treatment or surgery which God uses to bring a miracle into that person’s life. Which allows doctors to see that their treatment works in concert with prayer and faith.
Some of the doctors may not see the recovery as a miracle but there are times when a healing happens and the doctor can’t explain it because it happened through his treatment but not because of the treatment. In other words, the doctor wasn’t expecting a healing in this instance but the patient and their family were and God honored that. I imagine that many of these miracles happen more often than we realize. They just happen in the background and unless there is faith involved the healing might not have happened at all.
Father?
Father? Are you there? (Silly boy, I am always here)
I just need to talk to you. (I am listening)
My day…hasn’t gone very good today. (Why do you think that?)
Well, it just doesn’t feel quite right. It seems that most of the things which I tried to get done today took longer or just didn’t work out like I had wanted them to, you know? (Yes, I have been with you through every minute of your day, but you didn’t ask Me about any of it until things didn’t work like you thought they should)
Yes, I know and I’m sorry about that. I should’ve started my day with You and asked You to help me through the day with all of the things which I needed to do. (I’ve been telling people this for thousands of years and it seems that it takes a few missteps and scrapes before they learn to do it right)
Sometimes, I think I can do it myself, you know? (Yep, I’ve heard that same sentence thousands of times)
Father, help me to remember to include you in my day from the beginning when I wake up and all through the day until I go to sleep again. (I will gladly do that…but you have to listen to my Voice and include Me, I will not force My Presence into your life. You have to invite Me in every day, can you do that?)
I will try, Father. (In the words of another wise teacher, “try not, do or do not, there is no try”)
Father, that was a quote from Yoda in a Star Wars movie. (Well, if it makes sense to you then I use it)
Thank you, Father, for listening and being there when I need you. (I am always here, you just need to live your life like you know it well enough to feel my Presence in your life. Try not to shut Me out because when you do, I let you. That is when you feel alone.)
This is the relationship that I want to have with Jesus and His Father and the reality of it is this: it will be this way when we are there in Heaven. How wonderful will that be?
Differences
In the church, there are many differences. Differences of doctrine and belief and differences of procedure in the order of service and other things related to our worship of God and His Son, Jesus the Messiah. But…why are there such drastic differences? We are all worshiping the same risen Lord, we mostly share the same Bible, so why are there so many things which are different between churches? This is something which I have wondered about for most of my life and now that I have been a pastor for most of the last decade, I still can’t see a reason for them.
Yes, there are doctrinal differences between Baptists and Methodists and all of the variations of those two denominations. There are differences between Lutheran and Episcopal and Catholic churches as well as differences between Presbyterian and Church of God and ……, the list could go on for a long, long while. My point is this: Why exactly are we so different?
In my opinion, it is because of Satan. He has gotten into church administration business meetings and sown seeds of dissent and anger and strife to the point of splitting churches because of small things which could be resolved but usually aren’t. These little splinters grow into huge logs which split the church into another doctrine or discipline and the church is weakened because of it.
Remember, at first the church had all things in common. Their belief and their doctrine were that which was taught to the disciples and then to the churches and this carried on for a couple of centuries and then the church began splitting off because of disagreements and ideas about how the church should be run. Of course, it is too late to reorganize the Body of Christ into a cohesive whole today but it was never supposed to be split up like it is now.
That is why there are so many “non-denominational” churches today. These people just want to worship God and learn from His Word and put away all of the bickering and petty squabbles which split the unity of the church. We are supposed to be sharing our life with Christ and with each other and our congregations who are unified as believers in Jesus our Savior. Why are we still divided in our worship practices today?
I don’t think an answer that will be satisfactory for the church will be found until Jesus comes back and begins His reign on Earth. This is a sad reflection on our unity as a church but it is likely that we cannot put our differences aside until Jesus is King.
Follow the Lord daily
And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/2th.3.5.KJV
The Living Message of Christ 