Category: Salvation

The gospel of John


If you have ever read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you know that John’s gospel is very different from the other three. John focuses on a few specific miracles that Jesus did. He doesn’t write so much about His genealogy or that He is descended from David. John focuses on Who Jesus is and on the miracles that point you toward belief in Him. At the very end of his gospel, John tells the reader that “if all of the miracles and signs were written about Him, the world could not contain the books“. So, he only focuses on the important ones.

John tells about Who Jesus is in the first sentences. The Word made flesh. He was there in the beginning, He came to live with His creation and to bring the Love and Light of God to the world. John doesn’t embellish his gospel, he just tells what Jesus did in seven different miracles. Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life. He also changed six pots of water into wine for a wedding feast (His first miracle). Jesus said He was the good shepherd because His sheep know Him and are known by Him. Jesus cured a man of leprosy. He also brought sight to a man who was born blind.

Only God can do these things and Jesus is God the Son. He stopped a storm and walked on water, yet He gave His life for our sins because He is the only perfect Lamb that could pay for humanity’s sins. John introduces Him to us as we read his gospel. Jesus is not introduced as some kind of genie but as our Creator and our God Who cares for all of His creation. He knows when a sparrow falls dead and He cares about the animals as well as humanity. He created all of the various forms of life on Earth. According to science, there are millions of different species on Earth. Some haven’t been found yet because it seems that new species are being found in the ocean and in rain forests many times during the year.

God created all of the universe and He knows the stars by name, trillions of them.

Why do I bring this up on a site that shows the love of God to everyone? Because God loves all of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful ways that we live. The Bible gives us a plan and guidelines to follow for our lives. But many people don’t care to read it or to know the God found in the Bible. I heard a man in a video that I watched last week say that it doesn’t matter what God wants or what is found in the Bible, he had decided to live his life the way he wanted to.

Why am I writing this today? Because eternity is a long time and one day all of us are going to die and then we will face God as our judge. I wonder how living your life your way is going to feel then? When you are faced with an eternity of life yet you lived on Earth and chose to exclude God and His teachings from your life…what will you have to stand on then? Your idea of a good time? Your rules about what is right or wrong? You will be judged by God’s Law not your idea of it. Outer darkness and the lake of fire for eternity don’t look so good when you will live and feel the pain of your decision for all time.

Be pure in heart


How can we do that? The only way is to give your heart to Jesus Christ and follow His teachings. Read the Bible and learn what you are supposed to do and who you are to God. You are an adopted child through His grace because of what Jesus did for us. Life here is hard and getting harder, its worse in some places than it is in America but God gives us the strength that we need to live a successful life following Jesus.

God sent Jesus to Earth to be the sacrifice for all of humanity, so we could be reconciled to Him. Being saved from an eternity away from God and being allowed into heaven is what Jesus came to give us if we will only trust in Him and ask Him into our hearts. God loves humanity but He doesn’t like the sin that we live in every day. That is what giving your heart to Jesus can do, it changes your heart and your life to be His because when your heart changes, you want to change too.

The Impact of a Life Partner: Lessons from 34 Years Together


Today happens to be my anniversary and my wife and I have been married for 34 years. To some that is a very long time. To others who have been married longer than we have, we are on the road to another point in our lives.

God brings people into your life for many reasons. Some come into your life as a friend, others are just acquaintances. Then there are others like my wife who has stood by me and encouraged me through college and my career as a Medical Technologist. Even though that career was shorter than I had hoped it would be, God had another plan which took me in a different direction which brought me to a computer repair shop and I served for a time as a pastor at a small church. A life partner, whether it is your spouse or God, can encourage you and inspire you in many ways. Your life will change when your life partner comes into your life and it will never be the same after that.

Some say that the change could be good or bad, but I believe that anyone who is your partner in life, whether it is God or your spouse, the change will usually be good. I say usually because we sometimes choose to follow the wrong partner or find the wrong one by not listening to God and His guidance in our lives. So, in essence, I am saying that you should seek to know God as your life partner first and foremost, then you will have His help in finding a spouse (if He has planned that for you).

We live in such a mixed up and crazy world today until it is hard to think about finding a life partner because it seems that the world may not last long enough for us to want one around. With all that is happening in the news around the world, if we had gotten married less than five years ago, children would not have been an option for one. i’m not sure anyone could honestly say that they are confident about having a child and watching them grow up in today’s world. Some people have children for other reasons and the possibility of that child having a future is not a part of their thinking.

God forms the child in the womb and He had a purpose for many of us before we were even thought of. Give your heart to Jesus and trust Him as your Savior before you move into another relationship that could be life-altering. He will give you the knowledge and wisdom to make the choices that will be beneficial to both of you, especially if you allow Him to find the right person for you.

Winding mountain road with sun rays shining through dark clouds
Sun rays illuminate a winding mountain road beneath dramatic clouds

I do because God brought one to me


Do you believe in soulmates? Why or why not?

I’ve been married to my soulmate for 34 years today and my life would have been very different if we had not found each other. God loves us and He knows who will complement us in this life.

One that ended over 40 years ago


What’s a show that had the perfect series finale?

MASH ended with the team leaving the camp that had been their home for more than a decade. Many people watched the entire series and millions watched the ending show.

Life


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.

Wherever you are


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.

Less stuff


What are the biggest benefits of minimalist living?

Not as much to worry about and a lot less to pack up.

What is ….?


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.

God’s Son


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.