Ephesians 4:32: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Do you think about this? Does forgiveness cross your mind when someone else does something against you? Forgiveness is not natural for us. Asking for forgiveness is something that we do, as Christians. Even asking for forgiveness is not natural for humanity because we don’t see our flaws or our sins until the Holy Spirit shows you what you have done or said. Believe me, it is hard to catch those thoughts and sometimes the actions, if we let the thought stay long enough, because thoughts become sinful action if you allow it to take root in your mind.
It doesn’t take long. Only a few seconds and sometimes, just that fast, you will act on that thought. Sometimes, the words will spill out of your mouth before you can get them back. Once they are out there is no remedy for the hurt and pain that is caused except to ask forgiveness from the one you have wronged. Sometimes asking for forgiveness can be a slippery slope if you try to do so too soon. The pain and the hurt feelings are too raw for someone to even think about forgiving you. You may want to patch things up quickly but sometimes that could be the worst decision to make.
Forgiveness is something that is completely foreign to most in our society today. Living today with our world the way it is hard to do unless you are a Christian. Even if you are a Christian, it is hard to forgive sometimes but through the work of the Holy Spirit we can. Jesus came to provide the way for us to be reconciled with God through His blood, all we have to do is accept His sacrifice for us and repent of our sins and then follow Him and we will be in His family.
In many ways it doesn’t feel right. Look around and listen to the media and other outlets and you will wonder exactly what went wrong?
In the last thirty years or so, our country has gone from being “proud to be an American” to “that’s not my President” and other ways of expressing disgust with our country. The thing that strikes me the most is the age of those who seem to hate their own country. They’ve never had to go to war or even be required to be in the service of our country. Most of them have no idea about conservation of energy or money or being careful about getting a car that uses less fuel because of a gas shortage.
Most just want to throw a tantrum and burn cities and cars and loot buildings for little to no reason at all. Yet they hate this country! If you hate the country that most people seem to be trying so hard to get into, then LEAVE!
You are probably wondering why this post started out this way. It is because most of these feelings and opinions were foretold over two thousand years ago. Unruly children, perilous times, diseases that we’ve never seen before, people who don’t really care about themselves or how they live…all of these were foretold by Jesus in Matthew 24. But these are just the beginning of troubles. We haven’t seen how it will be and hopefully, the church will be taken out of here before that time comes.
God cares for and loves His Creation, you and me, and the whole Earth, but His patience doesn’t last forever. There is a day coming soon that many people are not ready for. That is the return of Jesus for His Bride, the church. He will not be coming back to Earth until after the Tribulation but when He comes this time it will be as a conquering King! I pray that everyone who reads this is ready for His return because we don’t know the time. It could be on a Sunday morning or in the middle of the night. It could be during the day on no particular day. Be looking for Him and watching because He is coming back!
You will either have rewards or consequences for eternity…your choice.
In the past year or so I think we have all felt a little broken in some way. Some, I think, more than others. Especially the doctors and nurses who are on the front lines of treating this disease that doesn’t seem to yield to a vaccine. It just keeps mutating and changing and no one knows whether the shots will work against this one or that one and if it does work…for how long? Then, after all of this, there are the everyday diseases that take our loved ones and the criminals and others who shoot people for no real reason. The brokenness of our world and our lives, to one extent or another, just seems to keep expanding from one day to the next with no ending in sight.
Where do we find solace? Can we find help in our lives that will bring some closure to this broken feeling that we have? Yes! By giving your heart to Jesus and following Him for the rest of your time on Earth you can have hope and a future regardless of what may be going on around you or in your life right now.
The news and the media that we get our news from are no help these days. Sometimes we hear good news and sometimes it is not such good news. Our families are beset with cancers and other diseases. Our children are being rebellious at times and even our job is not helping much with prices going up at the grocery store and the gas station. We look around and even on Friday, we may feel better because the weekend is here but then Monday comes and we have to endure it again.
This time that we are living in has been prophesied in the Bible. If you go to church or if you are curious, check it out in Matthew 24 and Luke 21. Jesus tells us that all sorts of problems will be happening just before the end of the age (the church age). We are living in that period of time right now and whether we choose to believe it or not won’t change that fact. All of the prophecies in the Bible have come true except for the Tribulation and the Rapture (taking away) of the church. The Rapture will happen first and when that day comes many will be blessed but there will be many more that will be left to live through the Tribulation period of seven years.
I pray that anyone who reads this will seek to find a Bible-teaching church and make sure of your salvation. Read the books of John and Acts and Romans. Pray that God will touch your heart and draw you to become a follower of Jesus. The problems and the diseases that are being reported today are just the beginning. It will get much worse during the Tribulation so make sure that your soul and your heart belongs to Jesus Christ before that day comes.
Many people worldwide wonder at the passage where Jesus says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you!” Some in the church even ask, “Will that apply to me?” It depends on your relationship to Jesus and with Him. Do you read His Word? Do you tell others about Him? If you were put on trial for being a Christian how much evidence would there be to convict you of it?
Lots of questions but all of the answers can be found in God’s Word. Jesus taught that “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Every person that the Holy Spirit convicts of their sins will be drawn to Jesus. Whether they accept Him as their Savior and Lord is their decision. Some will accept Him gladly. Some will get an iron grip on the church pew and stand there fighting with God until the invitation is passed. Some who do this may not get another chance to accept Jesus.
God loves the whole world, saints and sinners alike. But He will not save the whole world even though Jesus paid their price on the cross. Why? Because many will refuse to accept His offer of salvation. Many people have accepted Jesus as their Savior but there are many more that have rejected Him. Do you know Him?
Some people think that they have sinned too much for God to even want them. Do you think this? Moses was a murderer. Paul persecuted and approved of the stoning of Christians. The apostle Peter denied that he even knew Jesus on the night of His arrest. God used Moses to free the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Saul, who became known as Paul, met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and God used him to write most of the New Testament and be the apostle to the Gentiles. Jesus redeemed Peter three times after His resurrection to take care of those denials and Peter went to jail and was a preacher to the Gentiles too.
God used a donkey to show a false prophet his wrong decisions by causing the donkey to speak to him about why he had beaten the animal. Balaam would’ve been killed if the donkey had kept going like he wanted him to because the Angel of the Lord was standing there with His sword drawn. God can use a child or an old man or anyone, male or female, to be His voice to someone specific. He can use you to bring His message to someone that nobody else can talk to. Maybe they won’t even go to church but if you could show them by your life and by your testimony they will choose to give their life to Jesus.
Revelation 3:20 says this: 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
Come to Jesus because He did pay the price for your soul and for your sins. All you have to do is believe that He did this for you and accept Him as your Savior, then repent of your “old life” and turn to Him, seek Him in the Bible and at a Bible-teaching church so you can be a witness for Him to anyone who asks you about your hope and your faith in Jesus.
I was born in November 1961. My father had been an MP and a soldier in the islands of the Pacific theater of World War 2. In all of the years that I had to talk with him, he never once told me anything about the war. He divorced my Mom in 1966 and I saw him very little for the rest of his life. The few times that we had to talk until his death in 2001 I never asked him about the war and he didn’t volunteer any information. Today is Memorial Day 2021, almost twenty years after his death.
Life and death are what we live with and it doesn’t matter if you have been involved in a war or have only read about it…the effects that it has on men and women who have been a part of it are permanent.
I was an EMT/Firefighter for five years and an EMT for ten. It has taken nearly thirty years for much of what I saw at suicides and car wrecks and at the scene of a fire where people young and old lost their lives or took them to get to the point that I can write some of it down. During the years of working as an EMT, I had to compartmentalize what I saw or had to handle during my shift so I could do my job. Sometimes, those compartments break open and the memories come back as nightmares or episodes of PTSD.
When I was in my teens, around ‘73 or ‘74, I was afraid that the war in Vietnam was going to last long enough that I would be drafted into it. It was a fear that I carried but I didn’t let anyone know about it. This is the first time I have written about it. I watched a very realistic movie today called “We were soldiers” and it was about the first engagement in the Vietnam war on November 14, 1964…a Sunday.
I am proud to be an American by birth but I am glad that the war didn’t last long enough to drag me and my schoolmates into it. Thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy for that. I also pray that You will give Your comfort, strength, and grace to all of those who lost loved ones or friends in that war as well as all of the wars we have been involved in since then. I want to extend my thanks to all of the families and the survivors of these wars and thank you all for your service to our country.
Even on the days when we don’t think that He does…He can and does hear everything. Your fears, your needs, your prayers from your heart even when you can’t speak them aloud. God doesn’t abandon His children. Those He has chosen as His own are His and will be His for eternity. The problem is this: many of us who have been chosen don’t realize it…yet. Sometimes we feel His touch in our heart when we hear a sermon at the church we attend. Sometimes we will hear it in a song on the radio or a sermon on TV. If you read your Bible but have not given your heart to Jesus yet, occasionally the words on a specific page or from a specific verse will stand out to you. You can’t explain the reason for it but something from one of these has caused you to seek Him earnestly.
Why do we feel these feelings or notice a verse or something from a sermon? It is because God loves you! He has cared for you since before the Earth was formed. He has a plan for your life. God cares for you more than anyone else can! Do you feel that you don’t matter to anyone? You matter to God. He knows you and what you can be and do in this life because He is our Creator. He wove your DNA together in the womb with specific traits and abilities and your own personality so that you can be a blessing to Him and for His Kingdom. There is something that He wants you to do because you are the only one who can do it.
God knows every thought that everyone thinks so you can be sure He knows what you say in your prayer or even when you are talking to someone else. Our words, good or bad, are what others hear and they make their opinion of you because of what you say. Words may not break bones, but they can cause more pain and more deep wounds between siblings or friends than any weapon you could use. Words can cause wounds which never heal completely and they can cause more problems because of the way they are interpreted by those who hear the tone of your voice even if you didn’t intend to hurt someone’s feelings.
Yes, God hears every word. Whether He answers your prayers in this life or by taking you to heaven to give you a life that you could not have here…it is His prerogative, after all He is God. He doesn’t owe you anything and His timetable of answering your prayer or mine is His, not our idea of when He should do it. He knows your problems and your pains and He hears your prayers for your own life and for those that you love. God loves you more than anyone in this world and He loves you more deeply than anyone else could.
The Living Message of Christ 