More abundant than you can imagine. Not the glamour of Hollywood, nor the excess of winning the lottery. Just live for Jesus Christ now and the abundance will be your reward in heaven one day.
Live your life in such a way that nothing could be said after you are gone that would be an offense to your family.
Life eternal will be with Jesus in Heaven. But, if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus, eternity will be in a place of torment along with the devil and his fallen angels. Please, make sure of your Savior and that you have given your heart to Jesus. Eternity is your destiny and the destination is where you want to make sure of.
This is a “representation” of the New Jerusalem, not the one described in the Bible. In Heaven it will be immense and we will live there. God doesn’t do small. I mean…look at the universe. Over fifteen billion light-years across, actually closer to thirty billion light-years from one side to the other.
God uses people to further His Kingdom. He doesn’t make you a popular person, in most cases, He will make your influence spread to places where He needs a voice. That is what I use this space for, to go places and tell people about the salvation awaiting them in Jesus Christ. God calls those who He knows will be able to get the message out.
The idea of asking someone, that you don’t know, to describe a smell or the taste of their favorite food or drink is something that crosses our minds sometimes. But…how would you describe such a personal thing such as a smell or a taste?
It would be similar to attempting to describe a color or love to someone who has never had sight or who has never had the experience of love. Impossible would be an apt description of the attempt. The description of warm feelings or trying to describe a color, even to someone who can see, is very difficult. When you don’t have a reference to build on or they don’t have a way to visualize what you are describing, the act of description becomes futile.
Many of our descriptions of the love of God are that way as well. His love is so deep and encompassing until we don’t have a reference to compare it to. The only human comparison would possibly be the love of a parent toward their child when they are born. This little person is a part of you and your wife/husband and just after they’re born you love them deeply beyond words. How does that happen? You know that they have been growing in the womb for the past few months and until they are born, you have never seen them until that day. Yet, the feelings that you have for them when they are born are indescribable to anyone except yourself and your mate.
The love that God has for each of us is similar to that but His love goes deeper. All the way to the molecular level. Why? Because He knit your genetic structure together and activated your personality and gave you your eye color and all of the quirks that make you and I unique. So God knows you better than you do. He knows you better than your parents or anyone else. That is why He made the sacrifice that He did in order to bring each of us to salvation. He knew you and me before we were born and He knew where we would be born and who our parents would be. That’s what makes God’s love so fantastic and deep!
When you feel His touch in your life and it is drawing you toward being a born-again believer, don’t turn away from HIm. He loves you so much and even the slightest turn from Him would hurt Him and you don’t want to do that. He won’t take it out on you or cause you to hurt because of it because He is far more patient than we are. God’s love is so deep that I can’t give you any better description than I have given here. I pray that anyone reading this will take it seriously because He is coming for the church soon.
We hear many messages about our Savior and about His sacrifice for all of us, but have you considered the fact that He was God’s Son. Part of the Trinity in the flesh so He could die and pay the price for ALL of our sins. Granted, there are many who don’t believe that He was/is God’s Son and that’s okay, but He came and paid for every sin of every person who ever lived on the Earth.
Think about that and let it sink in a bit.
God came to Earth as a baby, wrapped in frail humanity to live and know the temptations that we live with and have to deal with on a daily basis throughout our lives. God has loved each of us since before He created everything, but that is something our minds can’t understand. The prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament said that we were known “before the foundation of the world was laid“.
Jesus came to be the sinless, spotless Lamb of God Who took the sins of the world on Himself, dying on a cross after being flogged so brutally that He scarcely had any blood left to make it to the cross. God loves each of us deeply enough that if it had only been me or you to save, He would’ve still gone to the cross.
If you have never seen the movie, “The Passion of Christ“, I believe it will drive home the brutality of a Roman crucifixion.
I pray that everyone who reads this will take the time to read the book of John and the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you want to, watch the movie and you will feel the love of God shown in the sacrifice Jesus went through for the whole world.
That word causes more problems in people’s lives than any other. “But”, why do people try to put that word in a sentence referring to the Bible and what it says? Mostly its because they are trying to get around what it says. Either because it refers to a part of their lives that they don’t want to stop doing or it is a way of rationalizing something.
I’ve noticed that in TV shows and movies, the word “but” usually comes before something going wrong. Why do we go this way? God’s Word was given to it’s writers by His Holy Spirit so it is the Truth, yet many of us don’t want to listen to the wisdom contained within it. Our world would be so much better if people could follow even half of the wisdom God has given us in His Word.
Studying the Bible isn’t difficult or impossible if you have given your heart to Jesus. I’ve heard people say that it is hard to understand and it can be if you don’t have the Holy Spirit in your heart teaching you as you read it. Before I became a Christian, most of the Bible didn’t make sense to me. Yes, the stories of Creation and the Exodus from Egypt I could understand from watching the movie about the Ten Commandments but (there’s that word again), when I tried to read the Psalms or any of the prophetic books of the Old Testament it was hard to understand.
God has blessed me in the last fifteen years. I have served as a pastor of a small church and I’ve read through the Bible each year since 2011. I figured I had better know about what I was going to be preaching about. In my reading of His Word, He taught me more than I could learn from going to a school (which I couldn’t afford to do). This site is the only place I’m preaching from anymore, but I enjoy it because it is what God called me to do.
Turning away from God’s Word because it seems hard to understand is something a Christian shouldn’t do. You learn about God and what He likes and hates and how to get closer to Him. Through prayer and reading the Bible you will learn more about how we are supposed to live our lives every day. It is not a rule book or a book with a lot of do’s and don’ts. The Bible is really an instruction book about living as a Christian, especially the New Testament. Every prophecy that was written in the Old Testament is or will be fulfilled in the New Testament. It is likely that we will see the return of Jesus in our lifetime, so I urge you to give your heart to Jesus soon.
What does it mean, “to call on Him in truth”? The truth that David is speaking of here has to do with your faith in the Lord. God has never been very far from any of us whether we believe in Him or not. He is always near us. Close enough to be a comfort in our time of need, whatever that need may be. It is true that we sometimes feel that He is far away, but in those times it is because we have moved away from Him. He is always close at hand to be a comforter and a friend in all of our times of need.
We are living in a time where we feel the world is going crazy. It seems to be coming apart at the seams, to quote a phrase. But even when the world seems to be coming apart, God is still in control. His plans and His prophesied work will be accomplished regardless of our belief in Him or not.
God loves us and even if there had only been one person to save, Jesus would’ve gone to the cross for that person. That is a hard truth to wrap your mind around but it is true. God’s love extends to each person so deeply and completely that He would’ve gone to the cross even if only one person in the world would believe and be saved. Think about that for a moment. If that doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what would.
We can’t imagine the real depth of the love which God expressed on the cross through Jesus Christ. Jesus told the thief “today, you will be with Me in paradise“. All that thief did was believe in Jesus, yet it brought him to salvation
Only Jesus can heal completely, so that the disease doesn’t come back. Only Jesus can heal paralysis and strengthen legs that haven’t walked for years. Only Jesus can do impossible things in your life and mine. Heal your hurts. Quench your thirst for something or Someone you’ve never met before. Only Jesus Christ can do these things and more in your life. No other religious figure can accomplish these changes in your life and also bring salvation to your soul at the same time!
Today most Christians are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the grave! No other religious figure has ever come out of their grave…not one! Only Jesus!
Our lives have many problems that follow us around. Relationship problems. Financial problems. Health problems. The only way to fix these is to get our heart’s problem fixed by allowing Jesus inside our heart and soul. Your salvation and mine through Jesus will bring healing to our other problems. The healing may take some time for all of your problems and mine, but it will come.
Jesus came to pay the price for all of humanity, but only those who are called will answer and accept His offer of life and healing. Will you accept His offer? Will you be His follower when He calls you?
You may be in a situation like the thief on the cross or maybe the man who needed healing. You might be like the woman at the well and feel judged and rejected by everyone, but God doesn’t turn away from those who need Him. Just call on Him and ask Him into your life to fill that empty place or heal your broken heart and accept you as His child. God only asks that you follow Jesus Christ in love from that moment on.
Three wooden crosses stand silhouetted against a breathtakingly dramatic sunset and stormy desert sky.
Every day we are exposed to all of the news. Good news, bad news, and every kind in between. Today we have “smartphones” which expose us to all sorts of information that we actually don’t need to know. If you are on Facebook, then you have that on your phone and you get all of the relevant “stuff” that comes with it. Any of the other social media sites that you may be a part of and your exposure just goes up exponentially. Does anyone remember when daily life was a lot simpler? I do enjoy having my phone and the fact that I can use it to look up information is just a plus. But, how many people are truly addicted to their phones and the networks that we have on them?
I saw a young man last week walking around with his smartphone in his hand and in front of his face as he walked. I pray that he doesn’t drive that way. What is my point about all of the news and exposure that we have day after day? My point is that we should be using all of that time that our phones take from us to be with our family and friends. I don’t mean texting them or giving them a like on something they shared. I mean actually putting the phone down and talking to them. If you have children, put the phones down and talk to them.
God allowed the smartphone to be invented but I don’t think He would agree with how we live almost 24 hours connected to social media and all of our “friends”. What do I mean with the “friends” being in quotes? I’ve seen people on Facebook who supposedly have over two thousand friends!? Really? I don’t have 500 and I actually try to keep my list of people that I actually know or have become friends with.
Regardless of the number of friends you have on Facebook or any other social media page, the friend that you truly need is Jesus. The world around us is reflecting the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation and from Jesus in Matthew 24. If you have never given your heart to Jesus and allowed Him to change your life, you need to be seeking Him today. We don’t know how many days we have on this Earth, so today truly is the day of your salvation! I pray that everyone who reads this will turn away from their “life” and seek your true Life in Jesus Christ.
The Living Message of Christ 