For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Isaiah 54:10 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.54.10.KJV
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord , choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord . Joshua 24:15 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jos.24.15.KJV
Psalm 68:18 Thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.
What did the Psalmist and the Holy Spirit mean by this scripture? One of the interpretations is that the whole world was and is still captive to sin in this world today, but when Jesus Christ came He made it possible for us to be led from the captivity of sinful living and into the “captive” life of a follower and believer in Him. That is the one that I choose to believe today.
Today, there are many of us that are captive to many things in life. Our work, our family, our TV or the Internet, our children or grandchildren and sometimes we are captive to bills that need paying even into our retirement years. It seems that we never get away from something that keeps us as “slaves” to whatever it may be. Even when we give our lives and our heart to Jesus there are certain things which we refuse to give to Him because those are special to us and we want them just for us.
It is usually those special things which cause us to fail at being His servant or His voice in the world. Because of those things that we don’t want to give up or give to Him, we can’t or won’t completely give our life and our being over to Him. It doesn’t take much really. A small part of your life that is important to you, that you want to keep doing or working on yourself but you don’t want God to have it. Have you ever thought about the truth of this matter: you have things which belonged to God first and He gave them to you.
Think about it. Abraham had to face it and many others did as well. Moses followed God and obeyed Him so that the nation of Israel was born out of Egypt. Moses had to go through all sorts of trials and tribulations for forty years because of the Jews decision not to believe God. In order to be obedient to God we should give Him ALL of our being and our family and our possessions because they were His before they were ours.
God loves all of humanity. Regardless of your nationality or your skin color or your culture. He created this world so that we could have a place to live. He named all of the stars and placed them where they are so that we can look up at them and see His handiwork and believe in Him. Our real problem is that many people will worship the creation rather than the Creator. We walk proudly through our life and tell Jesus that we can guide our life just fine on our own. But when a true problem comes along that we cannot handle such as a deadly accident or a diagnosis of cancer or some other disease….that is usually when we run to the Savior and plead with Him to help you with it.
Won’t you decide to follow Him today and give your life to Jesus? If you have ever felt the touch of His Holy Spirit prompting you to come to know Him please don’t turn away from His call. Because not one of us knows when our last day of life will be and we need to have the assurance that our eternal destiny will be with Jesus Christ. Just the knowledge of that assurance will relieve many anxieties and fears for many of us. God doesn’t want you to spend eternity in hell away from His Presence so please make sure that your heart belongs to Him today. I will be praying for all who come to this blog because God has asked me to. Thank you for reading and if you know someone who might benefit from this site please direct them here.
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. James 1:14 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jas.1.14.KJV
If you don’t think it can happen to you, think about what is tempting you and where that idea came from. YOUR own thoughts and desires are amplified by Satan. That’s why we need to have more of God’s Word inside our minds than those tempting thoughts. Stay near God and He will be even closer to you.
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Luke 6:28 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.6.28.KJV
On the morning of Creation when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters and He decided that it was time to act, The Word of God said “Let there be Light!”. John begins his gospel of our Lord’s ministry with these words:
The Beginning
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made
Jesus was and is the Living Word of God. There is no debate on this and no discussion needs to be done. Those who believe in Jesus as God’s Son will believe it and those who reject Him will do that as well.
God knows each of us because it was Him who formed each of us in the womb of our mothers. He fashioned each of us to have a purpose and a personality and the talents and abilities to accomplish His purpose for us and Him. In another part of God’s Word, Paul writing to the Galatians of our calling and purpose has stated this way: 3 “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. 5 To whom be the glory forever and ever, Amen. 6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. 7 Which is not another gospel, but there are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ”.
In today’s world, we see and hear about a disease that has infected many and taken the lives of many as well. God can and will protect us by His power if we will just listen and pray about this. When we, as the church, bow to the wishes of those around us and give them power over us we are letting the world tell us what we can and cannot do. God loves us especially when we have given our hearts to Him as His people. He will protect us from this pestilence that is in the world.
But when we go along with the rest of the world and close our doors as a church because of a virus that few have had in our community, we deny God’s power to save us and keep us safe while we worship.
Life is not safe today, all of us know this. Yet we give our freedom to worship up because an official says we should. One day our freedoms may be taken away from us even more than they are now if we aren’t watchful and careful with our votes and by reading the prophecies in God’s Word. Because we are living at the end of the last days.
You can scoff or whatever if you don’t believe it but our world has come to that point and if the church doesn’t recognize it then it is certain that the rest of the world will have no clue at all until it is too late. When the church is taken up everyone in the media and in most governments will be left bewildered and wondering what happened. We must keep our spiritual eyes open and on our Savior because He will soon appear and when that day comes we need to be ready.
Don’t be like the virgins who didn’t have any oil for their lamps and had to get some and while they were gone, the Bridegroom came and those who were ready went with Him to the wedding feast and the door was shut. Just as in Genesis, when God shut the door of the Ark the judgment came to the rest of the world and no man could open that door.
Make sure of your heart and Who it belongs to because when the Trumpet sounds it will be your Spirit Who hears it. If God’s Spirit isn’t in your heart that day will just be another day until the news reports come in about all of the people who are missing…but then it will be too late. Yes, you can be saved during the Tribulation but it will be harder and you will be put in jail and killed for your belief in Jesus.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: James 1:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jas.1.13.KJV
In the time of life that we are living in, regardless of your age or the color of your skin, Satan is the tempter. He always has been. God can get you through this with His strength and His Spirit living in your heart. Lean into God because the closer you are to Him, the closer He is to you.
Don’t say that you can’t make it because with God on your team YOU can’t lose!!
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.22.6.KJV
On the morning of Creation when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters and He decided that it was time to act, The Word of God said “Let there be Light!”. John begins his gospel of our Lord’s ministry with these words:
The Beginning
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made
Jesus was and is the Living Word of God. There is no debate on this and no discussion needs to be done. Those who believe in Jesus as God’s Son will believe it and those who reject Him will do that as well. So…which will you be? The person who wants to believe in Jesus but is afraid of what your friends may say? That person who knows that the Bible is true and that they need salvation but…not right now? Either one of these people might get away with NOT accepting Jesus as their Savior and Lord for a while but it could be bad for them in the long run. Following your friends or choosing to put it off for a while puts you in a very slippery situation.
You have no idea when you will die. It could happen in a car wreck tomorrow or you could get sick with this COVID-19 and be in the ICU for a while and then die…the outcome is the same. You are now standing before God as your Judge without Jesus as your Savior. Will your righteousness be enough to get you into heaven? Nope. There isn’t a single person on Earth who is righteous enough without Jesus to get into heaven. That one decision has caused your eternity to be very different than it could’ve been.
It’s something to think about. Especially in this time that we live in where people can get shot and killed in their car going down the street. Please seek out Jesus as your Savior before you stand before God without Him.
The Living Message of Christ 