Gracious gifts


If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Luke 11:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.11.13.KJV

The way we walk by faith


(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/2co.5.7.KJV

Do you know why?


Most believers and the churches that they attend know or think they know “what they believe” and “how to tell others about their belief in Jesus”. In many ways, the pastors of those churches feel that they know these things as well. Some do know these fundamental beliefs of the church and they preach them from God’s Word. But do you know why you should study God’s Word? Do you know why you should tell others in your family and those who live nearby about your Savior?

Is there a reason why we should tell others about Jesus? Why do we come to church?

Telling others about our Savior throws a lifeline to them so that they can know their Savior and escape an eternity in hell. Why do we come to church? Because the Bible says, “forsake not the assembling of the brethren or believers”. We are strengthened in our Spirit when we worship Jesus together. We learn more about our Savior and how to be His disciples when we meet together and study the Bible about His work. We learn about who we are to take this good news, the gospel, to every tribe and nation and tongue, whether it is across the ocean or the street.

But…do we take this good news even to our own family? The “why” of the gospel is simple, maybe too simple, and it is love. God loved us and still loves us so deeply that He sent Jesus to live and die for our sins, no matter how big or small our sins may seem to be to us. The sins that we commit each day in our thoughts and in our speech and with our eyes tend to make a mockery of our claim of being a Christian. We don’t take our faith and our walk with Jesus by our side seriously. Sometimes we rarely think about Him at all outside of the church. It’s almost like when we were young and we would go to visit our grandmother or an aunt that we only see once or twice a year. 

We would be told in very stern words to be on our best behavior while we are there. The problem with this kind of thinking and living as Christians is that unlike our grandmother or our aunt, God knows what we think and say even if we don’t say it in church. He knows about your sins regardless of their perceived size because to a holy God…every sin is the same. It is our rebellion against Him and His commandments. That is hard for us to understand because we categorize sins as big or little, white or black. To God, telling your Mom that you didn’t eat the cookie when you did is the same as killing your brother or someone in anger. They don’t seem to be the same to us, but to God, a sin is a sin…period.

Your life and mine are an open book to God. He can turn the days back and see the day you were born and He can look ahead to the day you will die or to the day that we will be taken up to heaven. He knows you and me far better and more completely than our family does. So answer this question in your mind: do you know why you are important to God? It is a simple answer but it is one that we rarely believe or understand because it is too simple.

The reason that we are important to God is LOVE. 

Plain, simple, and boring…but from His perspective, it is the most important reason of all! Why is love so bland and boring to us? Because we have used the word for so many things which are not actually “love” until we have tarnished its meaning and weakened its importance. For some people, the expression of love can be done in ways that others would find obsessive or offensive. Then there are times when we say, “I love that show!” or “I love shrimp!” 

We use the word “love” in ways and for the expression of feelings that really have no resemblance to love at all. At least not the type of love that God has for us and for all of His Creation. We have stretched it and turned it into a word with little meaning at all because we use it so much. But…God’s Love for us is overflowing with meaning and purpose and it’s alive just like His Word in the Bible. It inspires you and it burns within you and it compels you to do things that you wouldn’t normally do like get in front of a group of people and speak for almost thirty minutes!

Love is the reason for everything that God made. Especially when it comes to His feelings for you and me. God’s love came to Earth so that we could come to heaven. He came to pay for our mistakes so we wouldn’t have to pay the penalty ourselves.

Amen

What can we say?


Our world is paying the price for pushing God out of the schools and our government too. Not only are we paying for our ignorance but the rest of the world has been put on notice for the same iniquity. Some people may wonder exactly who is doing this? It is our Creator, God. God is in charge of the universe and everything in it, especially our lives. We may not acknowledge Him for it, but you breathe in and out and your heart beats because He wills it so. Does He control us or you like an automaton? Of course not! He created us to love Him and serve Him because we want to not because of instinct or because we have to. Love can’t be forced on anyone.

So why do we push Him away from our lives? In today’s culture it is because we want our lives and the truth that we use on a daily basis to be more fluid and flexible. God’s Truth is not flexible. That is the major reason that most of the world’s religions have no absolute truth in their holy words. God’s Word is the absolute Truth because it came from Him by the Holy Spirit Who inspired the writers of the Old Testament and the New Testament to write it as His Word because it actually IS HIS WORD!

In the book of John it begins at the beginning: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God“. Then, when Jesus came to Earth to live with His creation He was and is the Word become flesh. Believing in Him for your salvation because He is the only way to salvation is the Truth that many don’t want to listen to or believe but if they don’t…if you don’t believe in Jesus the Christ for your salvation then you will pay an eternal price because of it. Make your most important decision while you still can in this life because after your life is over, there is no way to change your choice. No choice is a choice.

What does the Lord require?


He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/mic.6.8.KJV

Trust in the Lord


Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: Isaiah 26:4 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.26.4.KJV

God is your Protector


No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord , and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord . Isaiah 54:17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.54.17.KJV

He is our Refuge


But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Psalms 59:16 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.59.16.KJV

Stay close to God because He is your Protector and your Savior.

Changes are happening…


This entire year has been about sudden and rapid change. Beginning with this virus and all of the chaos that it has brought to the entire world. Society has changed so dramatically that very few countries have been spared. Societal change and personal changes have happened so rapidly until we can’t get a grip on what reality really is. Which side of an argument is the right one? Who is doing the right thing and for the benefit of which part of society and culture will it affect? Hard questions. Questions that the world shouldn’t have been asking in such a short period of time. We can barely keep up with what happens during a normal year, even a normal election year in America’s case. The entire world…every country has gone through so much this year. Things that no person on the planet was prepared for. Their economies ruined because of quarantine measures which placed so many businesses in jeopardy and many of them haven’t recovered and some may never recover.

What are people blaming this pandemic on? Some are blaming it on our President and some are blaming it on China because they were the first to be hit by it right after their New Year celebrations. I think it is likely that this was sent to us by God just to make us see that we are not in control of this world. The problem with this is that many people in this world will blame God to the point of not wanting to have anything to do with Him or the Christian religion!

Is there a way out of this? Yes, seek God and His wisdom to find the truth of where this came from and how to stop it. Will our world do this? Not likely. The reason is that many “religious” people are running many churches today and some of them really don’t believe the sermons that they get up and give to their congregations each Sunday. Mainly they don’t believe in the God inspired Word that their sermons should come from. Of course if that is what is wrong then they really don’t believe in their Savior, Jesus Christ. Because if you don’t believe in the Bible as the inspired Word of God then how can you believe the story in God’s Word? Jesus was foretold in Genesis as “the seed of the woman” and in every other book of the Old Testament He shows up in some way to help or teach His people.

This “pandemic” may get worse because we are entering the flu season soon and they both affect the lungs and the body so how could you tell them apart? Many tests and trials of different medicines that might work or might not. Life goes on as it does each and every day and people who have other medical problems will die because they have contracted this virus or the flu or a mutated strain of either. Taking your request for healing to God is the best way but it is not the only way. We should be relying on our doctors and nurses and the treatments that they recommend. God will heal all of those that He wants to heal.

Be thankful that you don’t have this virus and if you have had it, depend upon Jesus to heal you with the medicine that the doctor orders for you. Then…make sure you give credit to the doctors and the nurses and to God as well because if He had not led those who developed the vaccine to do so then we would not have a vaccine.

The peace of knowing God loves you


Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.14.27.KJV