Category: Religion

What about today?


 

Today I woke without much pain.

Today, I thanked God for this blessing and for my friends and family.

Today, I will read God’s Word and learn from the Source of Truth.

Today, I feel His Presence all around me.

Today is the day that I will die to self and live for Him.

This is a poem, not designed to impress anyone or cause anyone to think about themselves. It is only for a daily walk with God. The words speak of a daily acknowledgement of God and His Presence in your life and mine. Some days, the first line may read like this: I woke up hurting all over, and I thanked God that I am alive to serve Him one more day.

Decide what your day will be like and how you will live it with Him, because you may only have today to do so.

I am adding to this on the last day of April, just as I wrote this on the first day. Time and age happen to us all, some of us feel it a bit more than we should or rather much earlier than we should. But, that is the way that it goes almost every day. One hour at a time, one minute at a time, life and time move at the same rate no matter who is doing the counting.

So, what is your time like today? Your life? Is it what you thought it would be? For many of us, our thoughts and dreams are far behind us now and very likely will never come to pass. The golden age of dreams for many in America was during the ‘50’s through much of the ‘70’s. Although it was also during those years that many conflicts arose in the culture of America.

Between races and even between men and women and their rights as separate but equal partners in life. The decision of allowing legal abortions also came through the Supreme Court of our land and has been a blight on life ever since. It doesn’t matter what your stance on this decision might be, it falls on the wrong side of life itself. Why do I say this? Because it is wrong to kill another human being, especially when it is a child that isn’t even out of the womb yet and can’t defend itself!

This so-called “right” is defended in the name of giving a woman a choice with her life, such as whether she wants to raise a child or not. If that were the case, then why is the child always referred to as a “clump of cells” and not a child or a baby? Consider what you are doing before causing this life to grow within you the way that God designed it to do!

God does love each of us and He is the Author and finisher of our life and our faith. Our choices in this life also affect our eternity for good or for evil and it is your choice which sends you in one direction or the other. God doesn’t toss you into the lake of fire or “allow” you into Heaven because of your good works in this life or what you did wrong in this life. It is your decision of belief in Jesus and His work, and His atonement for you which decides your eternal destination.

Today make that choice of learning to follow Jesus, learn more about Him, seek Him out in God’s Word and ask Him to come into your life. Because it is only in this life, while we are breathing, that the decision can be made. When your life is over, the decision is sealed and so is your fate and destination.

Kneeling in prayer


There are many places in the Word of God, where a man or a Savior, bends their knees and gets down to the business of faithful prayer. It is something that many in the Church seem to have forgotten about. We stand and pray, we sit and pray, some of us bow our heads with eyes closed, some don’t close their eyes during prayer.

PrayerPrayer..is talking with our Savior and our Creator, if you don’t revere Him enough to close your eyes and bow your head then I am sorry for you. God loves you more than you realize, but He expects some respect and reverence from His Creation.

When he had thus spoken, he knelt down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.

And they accompanied him unto the ship.  [Acts 20:36-38]

They took him down to Caesarea and by journey to Jerusalem—his last visit to that city in which he was arrested, imprisoned, and taken to Rome in trial for his life. But the word that describes this last meeting with the people in Ephesus is most poignant and meaningful. “And when he had thus spoken, he knelt down and prayed with them all.”

What does this say about Paul? He desired that they would continue in the faith that he had taught them before his arrest. Paul knew that his time there was over. He knew that he may not see Jerusalem again, so he knelt down and prayed with them all. What did he say? We likely won’t know until we can ask him face to face in Glory! The point is that, as Christians and ministers of Jesus Christ we should pray for our families and our country. We should pray for our friends and our students and those who need God’s healing touch.

Prayer can bring about many things, good and bad. It just depends upon who is doing the praying and what they are praying for. In a parched, drought-stricken land, they may pray for rain, in a world on the brink of war they might pray for peace, even if it would take a miracle for that peace to come. Once there was a man who believed in prayer in our country and you may have heard of him. His name was George Washington. Here is a small picture of something that he did early in our history whenever it was called for.

There was a visitor to the Continental Congress of the American Republic from Great Britain.  And as he stood in the chamber of that august assembly, he turned to the man standing next to him and said, “Which one is General George Washington?”  And the man standing next to the visitor turned to him and said, “When Congress goes to prayer, the one who kneels will be General George Washington.”  Kneeling in prayer.

It happened that this was the way that Congress used to begin each meeting and some say that they still do this…but are they truly sincere about what they are saying and to Whom they are praying? In our society today I doubt it.

Daniel knelt and prayed for God to show him the meaning of his dream and although it took three weeks for the angel to come and give him the meaning, Daniel still prayed. In the eighteenth chapter of 1 Kings, Elijah said unto King Ahab, “Get thee up…for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”  So Ahab went up.  And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, “Go, look toward the sea.”  And he went up and looked and said: “There is nothing” [1 Kings 18:41-43].  And Elijah said, “Go the second time, the third, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh.”  And it came to pass, after Elijah had prayed, down on his knees for the seventh time, that the servant said, “Look, there is a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.”  And Elijah said unto Ahab, “Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.”  And it came to pass… that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain [1 Kings 18:44, 45].

Elijah was the prophet who had prayed for the drought and he prayed that it would abate as well and his faith was rewarded to the glory of God.

There are many other times in Mark and Luke where we read that “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” (Luke 5:16, Mark 1:35)

Why do I bring this up at this time? Because we are at the doorway of a time that has not been in history before. We are at the very threshold of the prophecies of the book of Revelation! This is the time that we should be on our knees in prayer every day! Not just for our country or for the person who may be elected to be the next President, but for the entire world and its collective salvation.

I pray that all of us will be in prayer for our world and those in it, especially those who have sickness or may be dealing with treatments for cancer or surgery or the recovery from either. There are also many who are living in areas where there is very little to eat and no clean water to drink, so be in prayer that someone can bring them food and clean water soon. Life outside of America is hard but there are also people here who live in poverty and wonder where their next meal will come from. If you can help them, even in a small way, I am sure it would be appreciated.

God loves all of His children even if they don’t love Him or show His love to others, but that doesn’t mean that He will not hold them accountable for any suffering or pain that they may cause to others.

Loss, life and Love


Everyone goes through all of these in their lifetimes. Some go through them a little earlier or more frequently, sometimes it happens a bit later in life. But…we all have each of them at some point. Regardless of when or how things happen in your life, God is always near your heart and available to comfort your spirit and give strength to your soul. We cannot see Him or feel Him physically, but if you are a child of His you can feel Him spiritually by your side in all things, good or bad.

Why do I bring this up today? Because, all over the world there are people who are hurting because of one reason or another. Whether it is because of the loss of a loved one or because of disease or war or persecution, even in America people experience these. Maybe not to the point or extent that those in other countries do, but we should at least be in prayer for our brothers and sisters everywhere.

God cares for all of the human race regardless of the country or religion which you may subscribe to follow daily. He knows your struggle and would like for you to come to Him in faith. Though many people seek Him by other names, that is not how you get to know and love God. Faith and belief in Him and in Jesus is the only way to come to Him. You can’t call a statue “god”, nor can you pray to Him as another name and think that He hears you.

Jesus said that the only way to the Father is through the Son. No other name or worship is part of that relationship, just faith in God and belief in Jesus. God provided a way to salvation through belief in Jesus and His atonement for us in His death and resurrection. No other religious leader in history has ever come out of the tomb or grave after their death, except for Jesus! There were many witnesses of His resurrection body and His teaching after He came out of the tomb because He taught for another 50 days before ascending to the Father.

Life is in Him and eternity is only one heartbeat away. Make sure that your eternity is with Him!

So many signs, so little time


I am not giving a prediction of the end of the world, so don’t even go there. I don’t know the date or the hour, but it is coming and it is coming sooner than most people think. The signs are there, the prophecies are in the Bible from the Old Testament to the book of Revelation. Why aren’t people seeing any of these signs? Maybe because we have taken the words of Jesus a little bit too seriously and out of context when He said that no man knows the hour that the end will come.

The world as we know it will end when God decides that it is time. No amount of fighting or wars or bombs will cause the “end times” to begin, only God and His will controls that. We will know it when it happens, but I am afraid that much of the posturing and bragging that is going on in the Middle East, along with all of the rage directed at Jews and Christians, is pointless. It is tragic and cruel, but pointless, to think that any amount of terrorism and killing of people of a different faith will cause God to begin the time of Tribulation or Armageddon.

Mankind was truly evil during the time of Noah because most of the world at that time had chosen to worship anything and everything EXCEPT God. They wanted nothing to do with Him, even if He is our Creator. Only Noah’s family was found to be faithful to the worship of God, only eight people out of the whole world! That is truly sad. I pray that it will not get to that point again, but Jesus did say that it would be like the days of Noah at that time. It is truly a heart-breaking thought to think that humanity may get to that point and turn completely away from God!

Each of us can look at the heavens or the ocean or even a newborn baby and tell that deep in our heart we feel the Presence of God when we see those things. We don’t consider evolution or the “billions of years” theory of life and all that we see! God placed in our DNA the knowledge of Him that overrides our education, no matter how hard they may have tried to push Him out. We can feel it as the Truth in our bones and we don’t need a book or a professor to tell us otherwise.

We don’t need a dead prophet of a man-made religion to tell us that God is real and that we should follow his prophet because it is written in some book. Pedophiles and murderers are not prophets and they certainly are not holy! Jesus is not a servant of a prophet, He is the Son of God and He sits on His throne today!

Accept Him and you will live, reject Him and you will suffer the consequences for eternity, just as Satan will do. Hell and the rejection of Jesus only brings a barrier between you and God and you are the one who chooses this, God doesn’t send you to hell. You buy that ticket all by yourself when you decide that you know more than God and you are good enough to get into Heaven without Jesus. NO, you are NOT!

Read God’s Word and see that He loves you and me, but He won’t tolerate your worship of anyone or any thing other than Himself.

So little time…


Do you recognize that life itself seems short? If you are past your teenage years, you probably see every year this way. Sometimes when we are young it seems that time just won’t go very fast at all. Particularly when you are in school and you would rather be fishing or playing outside or for today’s young folks, at home playing video games. Time seems to just fly by once you have finished school or have a child and from that point on it never slows down (except in line at Walmart).

Our lifespans seem long, especially when we are under twenty, but 70 years or even 80 is not very long at all. Living beyond that is by God’s grace alone and under His supervision as well. So, what do we do with this amount of time that we are given? What should we do with it? As some country and rock singers say, “Just LIVE it!”; but do we really know how to do this?

Most of us don’t figure out HOW to LIVE until a good portion of it is gone! When we are young, we are going to school and hanging out with friends. As we get to our “adult” years, we are so busy trying to pay bills and keep food on the table that we don’t even think about what “living” means! As our children get older and move on to college or their careers, usually we begin to see things from a slower pace…usually. Then, when retirement hits us in the face, we realize that we have let all of our flowers die and we didn’t even get to smell them.

Now, we are learning about parts of our body, which hurt now, that we never even noticed before. We want to get out and travel and see the world, but our money is spent on pain medication and doctor visits. Life is too short.

That is why we all should be planning for eternity. What is that? Well, it is the other side of Life which we don’t get to see until this body dies. If you are not a Christian, eternity may not mean much to you. Some see the word “afterlife” and think it is a bunch of hogwash, others see it as a party that never ends, and still others see it as a time of reincarnation to fix things which didn’t get done in this life on the first time around.

Jesus called it paradise and my idea of that is much better than starting over or continuing to have fun into eternity. Paradise can mean different things to different people. For some it may be seeing family members that have gone before us or even to be thankful to God for the grace and forgiveness which allows us to experience His true Kingdom.

road2eternityAs human beings, we can’t imagine in our finite minds the wonders of a perfect and eternal place with God as the Ruler and King. Eternity itself is beyond our thinking because even millions of years is beyond us and one million years is just one tick on the clock of eternity. What will our eternity be like? Your eternity and mine may be two different experiences.

If you are a believer in Jesus, then at some point we may meet in eternity. If you don’t believe in God or Jesus and especially or particularly in anything contained in the Bible, then your eternity will be separate from God and all of His Kingdom. The image above shows an idea of eternity from our perspective on Earth, a road which goes into the horizon and we can’t see its end. That is actually a good way of looking at it.

We walk on it every day even though we don’t realize it. Every event in our life is a pause or a stop on this journey. The path is well-worn and wide if you don’t know Jesus as your Savior, but the path to His Paradise is a bit different. It is narrow but just as long, the big difference is that one leads to Heaven and the other leads to a place without God and a place of torment which was never meant for us.

God knows each soul in hell, but they are there by their own choosing. They are in that place because they chose to live their life without Jesus or belief in Him. It is not a place where God sends you because He hates you. God loves you and wants the best for you, but if you choose to follow your own path and your way of living instead of His, then that is where you will be. In your own version of punishment and misery, but not in Heaven.

Don’t waste the time you have to make that choice by being selfish and greedy for yourself. Pray about your salvation and what it could be and then seek Him out, and He will answer you.

God is always there


No matter your trouble, no matter the fear, no matter the “why?” of how you got here.

There is always God.

It doesn’t matter which way you turn or how far you run or even if you can’t go on,

There is always God.

Whenever you need Him or something that He has, but you are not sure about your place in His grace,

There is always God.

His love is there to comfort your cares, to be your strength when you have none. That is why—-He is the One!

You may not see His hand moving in your life, but it’s there. He is always near because He can’t be anywhere that you are not.

There is always God.

Give Him your self, your heart and your life, no matter your cost because in the end…..

There is always, God.

What did I not do?


Strange title, I know, but sometimes it seems to be a mantra in my life. I am not complaining about it, but many times it seems that I mention something that I want to do and then something else interrupts my thoughts or my accomplishment of that which I wanted to do. Some might call this old age, some might call it being lazy, I just think that I have too much on my mind at times and the stuff which isn’t important at the time gets shoved aside.

2014-07-16-procrastinatorWhichever way you look at it, I could be accused of being a procrastinator and I suppose I should own it. Getting back to the point, what did I not do: I didn’t make some ham chowder. Why? I don’t know, I am not sure exactly what caused that bit to become shunted to the side in favor of something else. Some might also call this a form of adult ADD.

Whatever you want to call it, this little problem of mine doesn’t bother God in the least. He doesn’t have a problem with too much on His plate or on His mind. Thank goodness, because with all of those prayers being sent up to Him every hour or every minute of every day, humanly speaking there isn’t a person who could accomplish a fraction of what God does every second of every day that we don’t even know about! He is the Ultimate Multitasker of the Universe!

God knows which of us can handle multitasking and which of us can’t. Life is doing multiple tasks on a daily basis, just not necessarily on a deadline! Preferably, not a deadline which may get you fired from a job! The only real deadline that I am currently dealing with is the one which has to do with my sermon each Sunday. God usually gives me the words to speak or the topic to speak on, which for this year it has been mostly involving the book of Romans.

Paul was a very good evangelist and a multitasking individual because he was raised as a Pharisee. He knew the Law and the Prophets by memory and didn’t need to carry a scroll with him as we do our Bibles. My point in bringing up problems with our memory is that we can’t remember all of the things that we need to all of the time. Nor can we accomplish all of those tasks in a timely fashion daily, but God gives each of us the ability and the mind to accomplish our tasks which He gives to us at the right time. 

As the Bible says, “you will be given the words to say at the proper time” and the Holy Spirit will give you those words which you need to speak. I rely on this every Sunday and for every writing which I post here. I am not eloquent enough to spout as much as I have over these last six years between Sunday and all of the little sermons that I put up here. God gives me the words, I just put them down. The grace of God and through His Love is the only reason that I have been able to do this.

God loves each of us in a unique fashion that only He knows. We will feel it when we get to Heaven, but until then we have to live with the grace and love brought to us through His Spirit. It isn’t a downgrade exactly, but our humanity prevents us from experiencing His Love in any profound ways in this body. Seek Him out in your life so He can prove that His love is more than you can bear. I have felt it and it is something that I can’t describe to anyone, you just have to experience it yourself.

How can I be saved?


faithIt is a question which may be on quite a few people’s minds these days. Why? Because of the frequency of the indicators which point toward the end of the age. The more powerful storms, more frequent storms, the number of conflicts in the world, the hearts of many people growing cold toward their fellow-man and to religion in general. All of these were foretold many years ago by our Lord Jesus, yet few are taking notice of them happening today because our news media doesn’t take prophecy serious.

Everything is happening as it always has happened in the past and it won’t change. That is the way many are looking at almost everything around us except the temperature changes! They are taking a one or two degree rise in temperature as a portent for disaster, yet even the temperature is doing the same as it has always done. Our influence with carbon emissions and such has only impacted the climate for about one hundred and fifty years or so. Maybe a little longer if you consider coal-fired mills in the early 1800’s.

Still, the climate has fluctuated in temperature up and down for thousands of years without the help of mankind and it will continue to do so whether we stop using fossil fuels or not. I am not trying to get on a soap box about climate change, but I do want to talk about the end of the age and where you may spend eternity.

Have you asked Jesus into your heart? Are you sure about your salvation? Have you truly been walking with Him daily or did you just say a prayer once and get a warm fuzzy feeling inside and think that you were covered? The Holy Spirit isn’t a holy teddy bear! An emotional feeling of love and compassion doesn’t even come close to what you can have with Him, but feeling that way one time and then going on with your life, as if nothing really happened doesn’t cut it!

Yes, God loves you and He does call you to Himself…but if you don’t answer or if you answer in a way which limits Him in your life, then you may not know Him as well as you think and He may not really know you at all. Finding that out when you stand before Him is not the time to fix it, because at that point it can’t be fixed. If He doesn’t know you, no matter how much you have gone to church or read the Bible or prayed to Him for different reasons in your life, then you will be cast into outer darkness.

Is that the eternity that you want? If it is, be my guest. Jesus died and rose from the tomb in order to pay your debt and mine in full. Playing church and praying to god or your version of Him is not the way to be a Christian! Doing those things makes other people THINK you are a Christian, but if your life away from church or at home shows a different person than the one you would be if Jesus were with you then a change is still needed.

If your life would be no different with Him walking by your side, eating with you and being near you, then you do belong to Him and He is part of your everyday life. If He showed up at your house and you had to rush to clean up things or change something on the television, then you might want to reconsider whether you really belong to Him at all.

Seek Jesus in His Word, find out more about Him and determine to follow Him every day, then ask Him to come into your heart. That is one prayer from a sinner that God always hears when it is done with a repentant heart and a life that is intent on following Him.

What is Life?


madewholeinHeavenThat question has been in my mind a lot lately. I know, it seems kinda dumb doesn’t it? What is Life? I am alive, you are alive so we are living in our version of Life, right?

Well…not exactly. The life of a Christian begins with your rebirth in Christ and your Life in Him is dependent upon you living that Life with Him on a daily basis. It is not a take it or leave it proposition. When you give your heart and life to Jesus, you are not supposed to pick and choose which parts of your life He is involved in. The problem with most of our churches is that many who claim to be His do just that!

How would your spouse or significant other feel if you did that in your relationship? It’s like saying, “We can sleep together and live together, but you can’t be around when my friends come over.”  Yet, that is exactly how many people treat their relationship with their Savior! Like this: I will visit you on Sunday for worship services, and maybe on Wednesday night and holidays, but any other time is off-limits. That is MY time, MY life!

You don’t really live LIFE without Jesus, you just exist in this world until you find Him or He gets your attention. Existence is not what God created us for. Life with Him is what we were all created for, but God knows who will decide to come to Him and who will not. That doesn’t mean that He will reject you, but you can’t just choose to come to Jesus on, say May 15, 2020 because you feel it is a good day or time for you!

God calls to each of us individually. Some of us hear it and respond, some of us hear it and run away, some of us ignore it and there are a few that don’t hear Him at all. Which one are you?

LIFE is meant to be lived with and through His Spirit in you! But, it seems that many people want to make their own decisions and paths to where they want to go instead of letting Jesus be their Savior and their Guide. We, meaning humanity, have become so independent in our thinking until we rebel at any authority or power or religion which tries to get us to do otherwise.

The same type of thinking which caused God to send the Great Flood, is the kind of thinking that seems to rule the world today. Thankfully, we are under His grace at the moment, but with the number of prophecies coming true in the past fifty to seventy years, I believe that we are coming to the end of that grace period. Life is in Jesus and I pray that most, if not all, of my readers belong to Jesus. If not, please consider learning more about Him and the salvation that is offered through Him. Belief is all that is required, so please consider Him as your Savior because eternity is a long time for regret.

God does answer prayer!


Time and time again I have heard some people say that “God doesn’t care, He doesn’t answer prayers anymore!”, and with an angry tone they walk away and likely never come back to Bible study or church. Yes, He does answer prayer! He may not answer it the way you want Him to, but He does answer prayer. I have been praying for someone for the past hour or so to have a safe trip and they called and told me they are at their destination, so He does answer prayers!

I know some of you will say that my prayer didn’t count. They were being a good driver so they made it just fine. Maybe so, but I choose to believe that God and His angels had a hand or hands in the outcome of that trip!

Prayers are answered in all sorts of ways. Some are answered when there is a good outcome for a medical test or procedure. Some are answered when a cancer or other disease goes away or can’t be found later and the doctor can’t explain it. God answers your prayers for strength and hope in a time of sorrow and pain. Prayer is answered when a baby is born or when you find your keys that were lost.

God cares about the outcome of your life, every day and if you ask Himnots in your life to be a part of your day in a small way or a big one, He will be! Don’t discount His presence just because you can’t see Him or feel His touch, if you are a Christian or you are thinking about becoming a Christian, He is always nearby. You are never truly alone because HE is EVERYWHERE!

Give God a chance in your life. He can be strength for you, He can answer prayers in positive ways, He can be the friend who sticks closer than a brother, He is your Creator and Savior if you will let Him be.