Category: Salvation

Do you know Him? Does He know you?


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.

Do everything as working for Jesus


Amen

Give thanks


Amen

Memorial Day


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.

Does God hear us?


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.

Where are you, God?


During our time of trouble and heartache we sometimes ask this question but do we expect an answer? According to Psalm 139 we can find God all around us in any situation that we find ourselves in. Here are a few verses from this Psalm to encourage you and me today:

You Have Searched Me and Known Me

For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 O LORD, You have searched me

and known me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

You understand my thoughts from afar.

3 You search out my path and my lying down;

You are aware of all my ways.

4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

You know all about it, O LORD.

5 You hem me in behind and before;

You have laid Your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go to escape Your Spirit?

Where can I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend to the heavens, You are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle by the farthest sea,

10 even there Your hand will guide me;

Your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,

and the light become night around me”—

12 even the darkness is not dark to You,

but the night shines like the day,

for darkness is as light to You.

13 For You formed my inmost being;a

You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise You,

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are Your works,

and I know this very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from You

when I was made in secret,

when I was woven together

in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all my days were written in Your book

and ordained for me

before one of them came to be.

This isn’t the entire Psalm but it gives us an overview of the way David looked at and thought about God and Who He is. God is not some prating old man or a genie like many try to make Him out to be. He is the Creator of everything and He needs nothing from us…but He does want our fellowship. Do we owe Him our fellowship? YES! Our next breath is in His hands, our next heartbeat is also in His hands. Everything that we live for and work toward should be in His hands. If your heart belongs to Him and you’ve accepted Him as your Savior then live like it!

Don’t walk around saying that you are a Christian and then go home or to a bar and drink alcoholic beverages. I’ve done this but it still tarnishes your witness toward others even if you are drinking at home, your family sees it and your Father in heaven sees it too. God is your Redeemer and your Creator so turn to Him for your relaxing times and your refreshing time by getting into His Word and learning from the One Who created you and knows you better than you know yourself.

When you are at your lowest…


God never leaves your side! He is always there regardless of the day that you are having. You can’t see Him but if you have given your life and your heart to Jesus, He is only a prayer away. It doesn’t have to be a King James prayer either. Something as simple as “GOD! I need You!”, your Spirit will pray for you even when you can’t think of the words to say or if you can’t speak at all. God is there!

In the book of Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible, he never let his faith wither and die. Even when he had boils on his body and had lost everything that he had, Job still didn’t blame God for his troubles. Did he cry out to God? Absolutely! Did he speak to God in a tone that was disrespectful? A couple of times, but Job was human. He was in pain and had suffered many losses. His children and his wealth all gone in one day. How many of us could’ve gone through that without blaming God or turning away from God? In today’s society I am not sure that there would be many people able to be strong in their faith like Job.

I read that right now there are fewer than 50% of Americans who attend church or even believe in God and that is a frightening statistic. Even after World War 2 the percentage of people of faith was about 72% or more. We are truly living in the last days before the Tribulation prophesied in the book of Revelation. Life on Earth is not going to get better in the next decade or so, it will get much worse. I pray that anyone who reads this blog with an open mind will seek out Jesus as their Savior. God has not given up on us and He knows all of your secrets and your failures but He also sees your potential and He knows exactly what you are able to do.

God’s Holy Spirit will strengthen you and give you the words and the ability to be a powerful voice for Him no matter where you live and work. Everything that you say or do is being watched if you claim to be a Christian. People you don’t even know watch you to see if you are true to Jesus and your claim as a Christian. Especially if you wear a shirt or some jewelry that identifies you as a believer. Don’t be ashamed of your faith. Wear it proudly so it can be seen. Someone else may see it and they might not say anything to you but it will plant a seed in their heart that they should see who Jesus is and maybe they will become a Christian too.

Live and walk in the Spirit


Amen

Listen…


Have you ever noticed these two words: listen and silent

They contain the same number of letters and even the same letters as the other but they are arranged in a different order. Both are useful in a time of hurt and pain. When you need to listen, be silent. You can’t hear much when you are talking or listening to music or watching a video because your attention is usually on the conversation or the video.

God has given us His Word, the Bible, to be able to seek and to know Him and His ways. Leaving it on a shelf or under some other books doesn’t help us to know Him at all. Open your Bible if you have one. Get one if you don’t. Read it and learn about our loving God. While it is true that He is a vengeful God and a jealous God, He is also loving and compassionate. He sent His own Son, Jesus, to die for us…in our place to pay the penalty for our sins. We may not understand His ways at first, but if you read the Bible and ask Him to reveal Himself to you, you will begin to understand.

God loves each of us but He sees and knows every thought and every deed that we do before we finally decide to believe in Him for our salvation. Once we have asked for Jesus to come in and cleanse our hearts, those previous sins in our life are wiped away and God doesn’t dwell on them ever again. We do, but they have been removed as far as the East is from the West. Give Jesus a chance in your life, be silent while you seek Him in the Bible, and pray for Him to reveal His will for your life. Listen to His wisdom and you will find it.

God’s will for you is only found when you read His Word and learn more about Him because His will for each of us is found in it.

What do you truly believe?


When the Pharisee, Nicodemus, came to Jesus at night He told him that you must be born again. Nicodemus couldn’t believe at first what Jesus was saying. “I can’t go back into the womb and be born again!”, Jesus told him that He was speaking of a spiritual rebirth. “What does that mean?” he asked. Jesus told him that to be born of the spirit meant to believe in his heart that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. Not believe in your head through knowledge but to commit your heart and your life daily to following Him. This commitment cannot be made because of your knowledge of the Bible or even your knowledge of Jesus. You may have a degree in Bible studies from a seminary or a college but if you have never truly given your heart to Jesus, confessing your sins to Him…you are not saved. This is something that is totally between you and God. I don’t know your heart, only God knows for sure, but until you have felt your heart break and you know that you need Jesus as your Savior you will never truly give your heart to Him.

The Holy Spirit of God can touch your heart and your mind and you will know that you need Jesus as your Savior. Many people feel this touch and then decide that they will do it later. You are not guaranteed a “later”! You don’t know if you will even be alive tomorrow! I could die in a car accident today or you could yourself, no one knows for sure how much longer we have in this life. We make plans for a weekend outing or a vacation for a few months from now but we are only hoping that we will be able to go on that trip. We don’t have a guarantee that we will be alive next week or next month, but many of us make plans far in advance regardless.

I have heard while watching a TV program that some celebrities have read the Bible completely through from Genesis to the book of Revelation and that may be true. But…reading God’s Word doesn’t change your heart unless the Holy Spirit reaches down and touches your heart first. If that doesn’t happen or it hasn’t happened then reading the Bible is like reading any other book. It only gives you knowledge. The spiritual aspect of the Bible doesn’t come into your mind or your heart unless the Holy Spirit breaks your heart and you realize that you need Jesus Christ as your Savior right now! When the Holy Spirit touches your heart, God gives you enough faith to know that you need Jesus because without faith His Word doesn’t mean anything to you.

Without even a small amount of faith you can’t please God in any way! Your life as a Christian cannot begin without a small amount of faith, trying to do it on your own will fail every time. Your strength is not enough. Peter and John and all of the disciples could not have started the church that Jesus told them to do without the Holy Spirit’s anointing. They couldn’t do it with their own strength. Jesus even prayed the night before His crucifixion, “Father, let this cup pass from Me!”, His human mind and body were terrified of the punishment that He knew was coming in just a few hours. But…He said, “Nevertheless, let Thy will be done.”. He submitted to the will of God that His sacrifice for each of us was the only way to pay the penalty of sin for every person that would accept Him as their Savior.

If you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit on your heart and you know that you need Jesus as your Savior, don’t turn away from Him until you have asked Him to come into your life and into your heart and save you. Ask Him for His forgiveness and to make you a new creation in His Kingdom. We may not live past the next hour or even the night tonight so make this decision today while you can. Please do this before it is too late. Jesus loves you enough that He gave His life for yours, don’t turn away from Him today.