Christ is all you need

From the time of World War 2 and every terrible thing that happened in the camps where so many Jewish people, men, women and children lost their lives and many family members. This statement by Corrie Ten Boom is so very true because when everything is taken from you like it was in those “camps”, Christ is all that you have to cling to and believe in. In those horrible places their humanity, and their dignity was taken from them. Their individuality and every decent bit of treatment was denied them because of the conditions that they were kept in. Their treatment was inhumane and horrible and many students today are not learning about what happened or even that it did happen.

Christ is our Savior, Christ is the Savior of the world if they will accept Him. I pray that every person who reads this blog will seek out Jesus Christ as their Savior while there is time. Don’t wait because some of you may not be here tomorrow night.

Joy in the Lord!

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord , call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted. Isaiah 12:3‭-‬4 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.12.3-4.KJV

Jesus’ birth foretold, Hallelujah!

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:6‭-‬7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.9.6-7.KJV

What is your destiny?

We are living in a time that is unprecedented in the history of the world. Hatred abounds. True love seems to be absent from most of the places where it was preeminent at one time. The church, the body of Christ has become weak and fewer in number than ever before. The churches that are left are teaching a doctrine that Jesus would not approve of because it is the doctrine and the “wisdom” of men.

What are we supposed to do during this time?

We who are the believers, the born-again believers of this age, are supposed to be taking the message of Jesus and His love to the world around us and to the world at large. We have more available technology to do this than any other generation before us and we must use it. We should be “about our Father’s business” every day…not just on Sunday or Wednesday night during Bible study. God called each of us to be a witness to His love and power and we are to take this message to those who need it the most…our friends and family and also to others who need to know Him.

If we don’t take it to them and tell them about His love for them, then their fate will be on our hands because we are responsible for those who God called us to touch with our lives and the words that God gives us. It is our witness that will bring them back from the edge of hell and back to the loving arms of God. Nobody else in the world can touch your sister or your brother like you can. Nobody can get your son’s attention or your daughter’s attention in the way that you can. If you touch other lives with His message and they change their ways so to become part of God’s family then God is pleased with your efforts.

Are these efforts required to enter into heaven? No they are not! When you feel the Spirit touch your Spirit during a song or a sermon and you know what you should do with your life, don’t turn away from Him. Run to Him, ask His forgiveness for taking so long and ask Him to change your life into the life that He needs you to be. Only at that point can you fulfill God’s purpose for your life.

We are special in God’s eyes. We are not gods and we are not prophets although we as preachers are prophets too. When you are born again, God doesn’t see you and your sinful life anymore. After you have asked Jesus to come in and clean your heart and soul up so that you are a new creation, you truly are a new creature in Christ. Your old ways and your old friends need to pass away from you and you should bring in new friends and new ways. God looks at us and sees the blood of Jesus covering our sins and He sees His Son in us working to do the will of the Father.

Your life and mine are not ours anymore. We belong to God and we are His workmen, His disciples to take His message to the world. Even if we only touch one person who comes to Jesus for salvation, the angels in heaven praise God and shout for joy because one more sinner has been saved. Don’t sit on the bench, get up and get into the game so that one more soul can be saved. As Private Doss said in “Hacksaw Ridge”, “Lord, help me get one more. Just one more”. In the night that he said these words over and over, he was the only medic on the ridge and he saved over seventy souls from certain death that night. But…he was not alone in his work as a medic. Jesus went with him every step of the way.

Just one more, Lord….

Are you a sinner?

Of course you are! I am too, the difference between a sinner who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior is forgiveness. The gift of God is forgiveness through Jesus Christ. You can’t buy it and you can’t earn it with good deeds or “working your way”!

The change that happens when God touches your heart is as drastic as giving you gills to swim under the water. It’s not a change that you can ignore or live without once He has changed your heart. If you live that way, your heart has not been changed by the Holy Spirit. Just as a fish can not get up and walk on land and breathe air, a changed heart cannot go back to the sin that was your normal way of life before your heart was changed.

If you are a member of the church and you’ve been baptized but you frequent beer joints and can’t remember even one scripture from God’s Word you may be fooling yourself. A heart, your soul, that has been fulfilled and changed so that Jesus is your Savior cannot and will not go back to those things that it was doing before the Holy Spirit changed you! Make sure of your salvation because when that Trumpet blows one day only those who have been changed will leave this world.

God changes each of us when we choose to follow Jesus when His Spirit touches your Spirit (heart) because He has work for you to do. Not work to become saved. You won’t be working to help Him save you, you will be working for His Kingdom now while you are alive and even after into eternity. Why does He call you to be His? Because the job that He has for you is specific to you and nobody on Earth can accomplish it except you. It may be the advice that you give your son or daughter or the witness that they see in your life and you are the only one that can reach them.

Love is the reason

All of the Bible is held together by God’s love for His people, the Jews. He also loves all of mankind, no matter what ethnic background or skin color they may have. Our problem with God’s love for us is that we can’t understand the depth of it. Why would God love people who hate Him? Why would He send Jesus to die on a cross for people that hate Him and His message?

Because of God’s promise to Eve and Adam that “the Seed of the woman will crush the head of the snake”, meaning Jesus would come and vanquish Satan and his temptation paying the price for ALL of mankind so they could regain their place in God’s house. This message runs all through the Bible and is fulfilled entirely when Jesus is born and grows in a village in Israel. Without God’s promise of a Redeemer and the fulfillment of that promise in the New Testament, there would be no gospel to preach and no salvation for mankind.

John 3:16-17 tells the whole gospel message in just a few words: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

God created us as living souls so that we can commune with Him. He had this relationship in the beginning and God will bring us to Himself through the blood of Jesus. If we will believe in Jesus as our Savior and turn away from our old life and walk-in “newness of life in Christ Jesus“.

Do you disciple?

Many of us on this platform tend to write a bit. Some in short, quick reads and some a bit long. But…have you ever thought of yourself helping others along the road to be a disciple of Jesus? You know, He didn’t go out trying to bring out the BIG crowds but they came to Him because of His message and the miracles. They needed healing but many wanted the food which was provided so miraculously because of His thanksgiving. Some only came for the miracles but there were many who came to hear His message.

Then as His ministry was coming to an end, He taught a few lessons that were a bit hard for the crowds to understand and some that they didn’t like at all. The life of a follower of Jesus, a disciple, wasn’t easy in those days and it hasn’t really gotten easier today, although we have many more “things” to cling to than a money purse and a staff. Even when you make your life as simple as you can these days, we are still wealthy by most of the world’s standards.

So how do you make a disciple? Well, you have to get to know the people in your study group. You can’t lead a study group unless you do know them. In today’s culture that is hard to do because many people don’t want to know their pastor or their teacher in a close and personal way. Today with the disease that is running rampant all over the world most people don’t want to be in the same building with their pastor. Not because they think he is sick but just because of the possibility that he might be. We are allowing a virus, a messenger of Satan, to dictate whether we have fellowship in God’s house. The church, that is the people who are gathered, should be faithful enough in God’s power to come together and worship Him in Spirit and Truth!

Being a disciple of Jesus means much more than visiting a church on Sunday morning. It is reading and studying His Word every day of the week so you will know His voice when He speaks. Your life can be much healthier and more productive when you have His Word stored in your heart and when you read it every day it is like eating manna, it nourishes your soul because it is God’s spiritual food for your soul.

The Lamb of God

Off of my game

The past few weeks…basically since the election, I’ve not been writing as much here. I have also been a bit distracted because of having to have a colonoscopy done. That’s as much information as I’ve giving here on that.

I have been studying my Bible although not as regularly as I was. Why am I slacking off? Truthfully…I’m not sure. I’ve noticed during the last few years that my holiday writing and studying drops off a bit. Maybe it is a little bit of the so-called “holiday blues”. It feels as if I am having to put out more effort each day to study the Bible and get the Word, the wisdom that God wants me to understand for my life, to make sense to me. Sounds like I have a real problem.

My problem is easy to pinpoint when I look at it that way. Even so I have to consciously bring my mind into subjection to His Holy Spirit so that I can write and understand that what I’m writing may bring someone who is looking for Jesus will find Him and not me. I cannot make the change in their life, in your life that will give you an eternity in heaven. Only Jesus Christ and your belief in His atonement for your sins can do that. God loves each of us so much that He sent Jesus to Earth to live as one of us and then die for all of our sins.

The only veil separating you from eternity is God’s love and He knows when you will come to know Him as your Savior. Some say that we are immortal until that day that God touches our heart and lets us know that He is waiting and all we have to do is accept Him as our Savior. Some people say ” Now wait a minute, you said that I have to believe in Jesus Christ for my salvation and now you are saying that God loves me enough to wait for me to give my life to Him!” Which One of Them is my Savior? They both are.

Jesus is the Son of God but He is also the Second of the Trinity which makes the Godhead. This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or Ghost if you prefer. All of them were present on the day that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist if you will read it in Matthew. So what is my problem these days? Satan.

Just because I am a Christian and a pastor doesn’t mean that he leaves me alone. In fact, he attacks me harder when I am about to write here or when I am working on my sermon or just studying the Bible. Why? Because as long as he can keep my mind occupied with bills and surgery and medical tests and my medication then I won’t be thinking about the work that I should be doing while there is still time to do so…to tell you and others about my Savior and what He will do for you. He doesn’t bring us wealth or fame here on this Earth or in this life but consider that no one on Earth can give you eternal life! What is wealth here compared to being in heaven with the Creator and my Redeemer? I mean the streets of New Jerusalem are paved with gold! How fantastic is that?

There isn’t a rich man on Earth that can pave his driveway with gold bricks because they would be stolen during the night. Nobody would spend thousands on a brick of gold and then place it in the dirt or in concrete to pave even a driveway. But God does. God doesn’t care about the gold and diamonds and pearls, each of the gates of the city in heaven are made from one gigantic pearl and there are 12 gates! Each one made from a precious stone like diamonds or sapphires. Can you imagine a door 12 feet tall made from one gemstone or pearl?

No amount of money impresses God…He wants your obedience and your love to be focused on Jesus and His life. We are supposed to be reflections of Him in our lives so that others can see Him in and through our lives because for some people you and I and the lives that we live in front of them are the only example of Jesus’ love that they may ever see. Live your life as close to Him and be as close to His example as you can with the strength that He gives you through the Holy Spirit because that is the only way that you and I can do this.