Category: Salvation

Falling away


It seems to be happening more and more today. Fewer people are even claiming to be Christian in today’s society. Today less than fifty percent of Americans even attend church services and likely less than that belong to a church whether they attend services or not. Fifty years ago America was a Christian nation with more than seventy percent claiming to be Christian and also belonging to a church as well. Today that percentage is very different because of the younger generation who don’t want to be identified with any religion at all. This is truly a sad time for our country and those who claim to have no religion at all.

Why do I say it is sad? Because politics and some other “hot” topics have been part of the cause of this. It is also troubling because those of us who are Christians know that choosing to be a non-believer will have terrible eternal consequences. But for many, it seems that the choice has already been made. Life will go on whether you attend church or believe in God or Jesus or whether you choose not to but on the day when God calls the church home…what will you believe then?

At that point, it will be too late to change your mind. But you can still become a believer during the Tribulation although it will be a hard decision to make. Even harder than it is now. Because at some point you will be told if you don’t take the mark or a chip to be able to buy or sell. If you take it you are aligning yourself with the anti-Christ and your soul will be lost because you are on his side. Even if you think you are a Christian and you take the mark, whatever it is, you will lose your soul.

The seven years after the church is taken up will be a terrible time for those on Earth. It will truly be hell on Earth because there will be more demonic activity and there will be judgments coming from God Himself. These are all outlined in the book of Revelation and whether you believe in Jesus or not you should read it and seek Him soon because the world will be much worse during that time than it is today.

The empty tomb


Many great men have lived and died in the world. Some of them lived on the side of evil like Hitler or Stalin and some were on the side of good like Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy. Each of them meant to do what was right in their own eyes and sometimes they tried to do the best thing, whatever it was, for their people and their nation. In the end each of them died. Some died due to war or suicide and others because of other evil men and their intention to kill or assassinate them before they could do everything that they felt was needed at the time.

Even religious leaders in the past like Buddha or Muhammad died. The only One Who died and then rose from the grave was Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. He taught His disciples for a little over three years before the religious leaders of the day finally had enough and convinced Pilate to have Him crucified. His resurrection is the victory over death that we, as Christians, celebrate today. His grave or tomb is the only one that had no evidence for His body except for the burial cloths that were wrapped around Him prior to His burial.

Historians of His day recorded that He died on the cross and was buried according to Jewish law. But He didn’t stay in the tomb. Over the next forty days He was seen by many people, once by as many as five hundred, then just prior to Pentecost He was taken up from the Mount of Olives to sit at the right hand of God the Father. The angels who appeared to the disciples after His departure told them that “this same Jesus will return in like manner“. Our Savior and King is coming back to set up His kingdom on Earth. What a glorious day that will be!

Jesus also told His disciples that “I am going to prepare a place for you“. He is coming back to take the Church to the home that He has prepared for all of us who have given our hearts and our lives to Him. That is the hope that we have because He isn’t in the tomb. Our hope is in Him and His return for His Bride, the church. There is nothing left on God’s prophetic calendar until He calls us to be with Him except maybe one or two more people that will accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It could be more or it could be only one more person, only God knows the date and the hour that the call will go out for us to come up here.

He is risen!


Amen

What did God do for you today?


Well, for starters, He allowed each of us to have another day to be blessed by Him. The sun came up like it was supposed to and warmed the water in the sea so there would be some rain somewhere in the world. Each of us had the strength to get up and greet the day to serve God once again. He gave us the air that we breathe and the food in our home to eat. He made it possible for us to have shelter and clothes to put on to keep us warm and dry. Each of us had a chance to see our friends and our relatives whether we did so or not was our choice.

God has allowed us to live another year to celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made for our salvation. Not the bunny and the egg hunts as a celebration but the church service we will attend in the morning to celebrate the resurrected Lord and King, Jesus the Christ! God made sure that the gravity on our little planet was at optimum efficiency so the water and the air would float away into space. God also made sure that your cells are still working so that your life is at its best. For some people those cells may not be working as well as they could be because of cancer or some other disease, but God still has a plan and He is in control no matter what the outcome is.

You can choose to believe in God or His Son, Jesus because of God’s grace towards us because it is our choice. Make sure that you tell someone about your Lord and Savior so they may have the chance at an eternity in heaven with Him. If they refuse to hear what you tell them, pray for them and ask God to take care of the calling on their life. He will.

There are so many things that God does for us every day that we can’t name them all. He might have kept someone from driving drunk today so that you would have tomorrow. He might have influenced someone to leave their gun at home and not shoot you or someone you love. There are many possibilities that could’ve been part of your day, good or bad, that God had a hand in stopping or changing the circumstances so your life wouldn’t be affected…only God knows all of the little things that He does that we never know about until we get to Heaven and maybe He shows us one day.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added to you.”

Are you holy?


The definition of the word “holy” is a life devoted entirely to God or the work of God. Sometimes you read that God is holy and He is, but we are set apart for God’s work when it’s used about us. When we are saved through the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, God’s work is our work! Your life is given to you by God and we are on this Earth to do His work especially for His purpose and He has given each of us the ability and the talent to do this each and every day!

Consider this: you have the answer to eternal life that will save each person from an eternity separated from your Creator and your Savior. Why would you keep that information from someone that needs to know that they are loved beyond measure by the Creator of everything? There are so many people today who have taken their lives because they feel unloved, unwanted, and depressed because they don’t know about the Savior Who gave His life so they could have life into eternity.

Your life can be changed by Jesus with one simple prayer and your belief in Him and His work on the cross for you. A child can understand it, even one that isn’t very old at all. God loves you and He has loved you since the beginning, even before the Earth was created. Why do people continually think that everything came about by accident? You and your eyes and the elephant in Africa and the smallest bird were all created by God. Not one of these came about by some accidental coming together of molecules in some primordial soup.

Eternity is a very long time and it is where we all go after this life is over. Your destination in eternity is determined by your decision about Jesus and whether you have asked Him to come into your heart and bring salvation to your life. When you feel the touch of the Holy Spirit that convicts you that you need Jesus as your Savior, you have to make that decision. Will you accept Jesus as your Savior or will you tell the Holy Spirit that you aren’t ready yet so come back next week or next month.

What if you don’t have a week or a month? If you had a wreck in a car tonight or tomorrow night and you haven’t settled this before you die then you will go to hell. Not because you are a bad person. Not because you forgot to give a tithe to the church last week. You will go to hell because you didn’t ask Jesus into your heart when you felt His touch and you knew that you needed Him as your Savior. A decision to put it off is a refusal of God’s grace and mercy through the blood of Jesus and that decision is the one that will send you to hell.

If you have a chance to tell someone about Jesus and His sacrifice for their life and yours, you have to do it. Even if they won’t accept it or they get mad and walk away, tell them that Jesus loves them and He died so that they could have eternity ahead of them. This life doesn’t last forever. We only have seven decades or maybe eight if we have good health, but just consider how long eternity is and how short our life actually is in comparison.

..___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The periods at the beginning of those lines is how long our life is in comparison to just a small portion of eternity. Think about it.

Cheap copies


I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else but have you noticed in some of the large congregations that are on TV? If you look closely at them, most of those who are in the congregation don’t have a Bible in their hands. Some are reading from an iPad or a phone but there are many more who just read the Scripture reference from one of the monitors. Why? More importantly how can you understand what is being taught by reading a verse, just one or maybe two that is put up on a monitor? Granted, we don’t know these people or their situation at home or their belief in God or Jesus but reading and studying God’s Word, especially in light of what is happening in our world today, should be first on your list every day.

The faith of those who come to church without a Bible but an electronic copy of it are blessed because they are at least reading it while in church. There are many people these days who do not believe especially those younger than thirty years of age. They claim that they have no membership in any congregation or religion. Why? Are they being taught at home about Jesus and the Bible? Not likely. They certainly aren’t getting information on religion or the Bible in school.

The “cheap copies” that I’m referring to are those who claim to be Christians in our country yet they live their lives totally out of character for being a Christian. They’ll attend church services for special occasions such as a funeral or a wedding and maybe during the holidays like Easter or Thanksgiving and Christmas but then they go home until the next occasion comes up. Life is more than this and living a Christian life is more involved than this as well.

Jesus told His disciples “if anyone would follow Me, he must take up his cross daily“; but what does that mean? It means that you must crucify your old life and your old way of living every day and determine that you are going to study His Word and learn of His ways so that others will see Him living in you and through you. Being a Christian is not an easy walk toward the end of your days. It is a narrow, rock filled pathway with thorns and all kinds of tempting paths leading us astray but we should keep our eyes locked on Jesus and His example to stay on the path that leads to Life. Hopefully someone you meet along the way will notice that you have a relationship with your Savior and they will want that too.

Sometimes your walk with Him is the best witness that you have to give away and you may not know how many people have noticed it until that day in heaven when you meet them. I’m not saying that we, as Christians, can live a perfectly sinless life because the only One Who could is your Savior. But we should strive toward that goal of being a witness to those around us whether we know them or not. Let your life be your witness so that they can see Him through your words and your character.

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Even the death of the cross


What was the purpose?


Before I became a Christian many years ago I wondered why Jesus came to settle the accounts of humanity? What was the purpose? During the past decade I’ve tried my best to teach and preach from the Bible the whole counsel of God and tell those who would listen about my Savior and Lord even if they were only reading something that was published here. Sounds tedious doesn’t it? Well, not so much. Until last year when this “new” corona virus showed up and scared almost everyone out of the church, things looked pretty good actually. When the lock down began many went into hiding or at least “sheltering in place”.

The church that I had been a pastor of for nine years shut down with no idea when we might start back up again. So, I began a daily post here…sometimes more than once a day and it seemed to be what many people were looking for. I had more visitors and people looking at those posts than I had in previous years. I’m not blowing my own horn but the fact was that people needed to find some encouragement and good news and I suppose some of the words that I was given helped. Mainly because I sought God’s words just as I am still doing today and just like I sought His input for the sermons that I preached.

So truly…what is our purpose and what was the purpose for Jesus’ death and resurrection? The first is easy in a way. My purpose and yours is to accept the calling on our life when we feel the Spirit move our heart to accept Jesus as our Savior. Ignoring that call is a very dangerous thing to do because you might not have time to accept Him if you have a wreck on the way home or even if you had a heart attack tonight. When your time is up…that’s it.

The purpose for Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection was simply to be the Spotless Lamb of God to pay for ALL of the sins of mankind once and for all time. Sacrifices don’t have to be made afterward for something that you did on Friday night, Jesus paid the price so all you have to do is believe in Him for your salvation, repent of your sinful life and follow Him daily. Is it easy to follow Jesus? No, it isn’t at all easy but the reward is tremendous! If you have never given your heart to Jesus you will need someone to guide you through the early days because you likely didn’t read and study the Bible before. It will be strange to read and unless someone can help you, it can discourage you in your new life with Jesus.

That is why I have so many different translations of the Bible. Some of them are paraphrased like the Living Bible or the Message. The original translations from Greek and Aramaic to Latin and then to English are the King James Bible and the Gutenberg Bible. Today you also have the Christian Standard Bible, the New International Version, the New King James Bible, and a host of others that I won’t list here. The Living Bible or the Message are the easiest to read and get the ideas which are presented in the text, especially for a new believer. But you need to compare those ideas with the words from another version in order to get all that you can from God’s Word. Ask God to help you understand His Word and He will so don’t give up on reading it.

God inspired His prophets and others to write the words, His Word down so that we would have a complete understanding of His story and Who He is. If He had not done this, we would be clueless about His plan of salvation that began in Genesis and is shown all the way through until the book of Revelation. God doesn’t want anyone to die apart from Him but He gave us the ability to choose to follow His instructions and be redeemed or we can choose to reject His offer of salvation and be condemned…it is up to us.

Amen!


You are important!


Why do I say this in the title? Because God would not have sent His Son to redeem you or me or anyone else on Earth if He didn’t think you are important.

God has a plan for each of us. He can bring blessings into your life that you cannot imagine. I don’t mean that He is going to drop millions of dollars into your bank account, He gives you what you need when you need it. Remember, Jesus told the disciples that the hair of your head is numbered and that God even watches over the sparrows of the field and knows when one falls to the ground. If He cares for His creation enough to keep up with sparrows, don’t you think He cares for you even more?

God had a plan for each of us long before we were born, even before the foundation of the world, so that should tell you that you are important to Him. We are important enough for God to come down in the form of His Son in human flesh to redeem the sin nature that began in the Garden of Eden. He wants a relationship with you and He was willing to pay the price for it to come about.

Jesus taught His disciples for three years about the Father and His plans and what we should do with our salvation. Give it away! Others need to know the good news of Christ and the atonement that He paid for with His life and His resurrection that we celebrate this weekend. Jesus said, “I am the way, the Truth and the Life, no one can come to the Father except through Me.”

Even the thief on the cross believed in Jesus and His Kingdom and it was enough to bring salvation to His soul. Remember, no one is guaranteed another day to live. Make sure of your salvation before tonight is over because your eternity depends on it.