And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. John 1:5 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/jhn.1.5.KJV
Amen, Lord, come quickly.
The Light of God’s Word still shines
Category: Salvation
What rules our world today?
Believe it or not it is death. Every day more than 100 million people die each day from diseases and other ailments as well as from accidents and preventable causes. From the World Economic Forum‘s website: Nearly 150,000 people die each day around the world, according to 2017 data. Of course this year’s data has the COVID-19 death toll included but it is safe to say that there are millions of people dying every year even without this pandemic. According to the data referenced above the number of people dying each year is nearly 5.5 million, regardless of their economic status or country of origin.
Yes, death comes to each of us at some point. Whether it is sooner or later is not up to us but God knows. Hope is only in your individual beliefs and if those beliefs don’t include belief in Jesus for your salvation then death will be an eye-opening experience for most people in the world. God’s Word says that we will all face Him for judgment of our souls after we die and none of us will escape death unless the Lord comes to take His church home before we die.
So…what is your idea about death? All of us have to face it one day. Some of us won’t be here next weekend. Some of us may not live through tomorrow. So have you made sure of your salvation yet? There is a judgment after you die so you can’t say that we “just go poof” because our spirit lives on into eternity. Whether that eternity includes family and friends in a life-giving setting is up to your choices in this life. Because it is up to your choice about accepting salvation or not, which will determine your eternal home.
Jesus’ death and resurrection paid the penalty for ALL of the sins in the world but your eternity is decided by your choice of whether you believe in Him for your salvation or not. It truly is a matter of belief or of unbelief for each of us which decides our future home in eternity. So which will you choose? Life with Jesus or eternal separation from Life? The choice is yours.
God gives us strength
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Isaiah 40:29 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.40.29.KJV
Who are you walking with?
In Genesis, the Bible speaks of a man who walked with God named Enoch and God took him to glory or heaven without him experiencing death. I don’t expect to be taken any time soon, unless it is time for it, but I do try to walk with God on a daily basis. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not bragging about my life. I know that I sin quite regularly even when I’m trying not to. But I do ask God to give me strength in my Spirit to at least be able to resist most temptations which come my way. Am I successful in resisting them? Not by a LONG shot! But…I do try.
Living with Jesus as your daily companion is the Christian lifestyle that we are supposed to be living. It is not easy to do although you might think that it is. Enoch did it so why can’t we? He didn’t have all of the distractions that we have today. Cell phones, the Internet, TV shows, movies, etc. can really get your attention away from the study of God’s Word and truly walking daily with Him.
Why do I bring this up today? Because you and I need to be closer to our Lord and Savior now more than ever. Not only is it a good idea but to have a real relationship with someone you have to get to know them. Attending church or a Bible study once or twice a month is not enough. Think about a relationship such as a marriage would work with getting together only once or twice a week and you get my point…it doesn’t work and it could be hazardous to your health.
It is the same with your relationship with Jesus. Being in a real relationship with Him is a learning experience because getting to know Him is only by studying His Word and prayer so that you will recognize His voice when He does speak to you. After giving your heart to Him and allowing the Holy Spirit to come in a truly change your heart is only the first step. Waking up daily and thanking Him for another day to learn about Him and actually following through with the learning part is the part which you have to work at day by day until it becomes a habit.
Many people get caught up in the hype of some “evangelists” who talk of the rewards of being a Christian. They try to sell you a deal and get you to partner with them to be more like Jesus. The truth is that there is no partnership other than being a born-again Child of God and you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for that except for giving your tithe to your local church. This tithe keeps the lights on and the other expenses of the church paid as well as giving the pastor a little bit of cash too. No one is getting rich by preaching and if they are then they are doing it wrong.
God takes care of us without the world’s trappings of wealth and the reward which will be ours in eternity far outweighs any retirement plan here on Earth. Walk with God and His Son, Jesus, and you will have all of the perks which come with knowing your Savior and your Creator as well.
God loves us…
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psalms 103:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.103.13.KJV
God can and He will…
God is good!
The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Nahum 1:7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/nam.1.7.KJV
Trials come…
Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. 1 Peter 4:16 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1pe.4.16.KJV
A model for prayer
Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t pray like those who have no hope. In Matthew chapter 6 you will find His model for our prayers. Praying just His model is good but you have to make it yours.
5“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.a
10 Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,b
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,c
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.d
What do I mean when I said “make it yours”? Be specific in your prayer. Tell God what is going on in your world. He knows already if you are a Christian or not, but tell Him how things are. Talk to Him. He is the Creator. He is our Creator and He knows you better than you do! Whatever the problems are or even the praise that you want to thank Him for…just tell Him! He wants to hear from us, good or bad, He loves you and He will hear you.
Jesus made it a point to pray to His Father every morning. He thanked Him for the food that they ate and for the miracles which were performed through Jesus during His ministry by the Father. Our lives would be so much less than they are if God didn’t care for us. I would not want to live in a world or the universe even if God had created all of this and then sat back to watch. Without His influence over everything, including us, the universe would be without life and we would not be here.
The so-called “spark” of Life in everything is God and it is because of His love toward all of His creation that everything is the way it is. The planets are in their orbits, the stars move in their pathways around the galaxy and the galaxies move in relation to one another. It is God Who is the “Clock maker” and it has always been His design which has kept everything in its place. Scientists say that it is gravity and mass which have influence over these things but until God placed these galaxies and stars and planets in their places their mass didn’t matter. Because until He put them there, there was nothing. No time, no light, no mass, no stars, no planets. Other than an empty space there was only God until He said, “Let there be Light!”.
God loves us. Each one of us and until we feel His touch and know that we can’t come to know Him except by believing in Jesus as our Savior we are lost and empty. We feel that there is something we need but without His touch and our faith growing, we don’t know what that something is. Many of us spend years searching for it and we become bitter and angry when we can’t find “it”. The problem is that it isn’t an “it” it is a Person and He is Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer.
Consider the heat…
In the South, we live in a very humid area of the country especially during the summer. High pressure “cells” come through our area of the country at least once or twice every month. They begin well at times but when we get behind the high pressure “cell” it pushes humidity and warm air from the Gulf of Mexico up into Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama and parts of Texas too. Many of us have heard the saying about the heat in the Southwest “but its a dry heat”. Going from our state to Arizona is a wake-up call for sure but 110 degrees is HOT whether it is dry or humid although humidity would make that temperature nearly unbearable.
Why am I speaking about heat and the heat of summer to be specific? Because…hell is HOT and it could be a “dry heat” but an eternity there is not what most people think of when they hear about hell. Dry or not, we don’t know what temperature hell is and the lake of fire brings up images of the inside of a volcano to me. So consider this…all unbelievers and Satan and his demons will be cast into the lake of fire. Most people think that it doesn’t sound bad but people in hell will have eternal bodies. The kind of body which doesn’t die regardless of your circumstances but it will be able to experience pain
Being cast into a volcano in our body that we have here on Earth will be painful for only a few seconds. An eternal body that is cast into the lake of fire will live in the fire and pain forever. An immortal body will heal if it is hurt, whether from a gunshot or from thousands of degrees of lava. This place was not created by God for humanity. It was created for Satan and his demons but when we rebel and decide to live our life without God or Jesus as our example for living we are siding with Satan whether we worship him or not. Even if you go to church and “act” like a Christian for most of your life, thinking that you will get into Heaven because of your “righteousness” you are wrong!
The heat that we feel in the Southeast is nothing compared to hell and the fact that we will go to hell because we have rejected the offer of eternity by rejecting Jesus as our Savior just makes the lie that we believed even worse. Living our short lives here in the humidity and heat of summer is child’s play compared to the eternity that you will live in hell because you rejected Jesus as your Savior.
Remember the man who asked Jesus to “remember me when you come into your Kingdom”? Jesus told him that he would be in Paradise that day for the simple act of believing in Jesus and Who He was. He is at the right hand of the Father now waiting for God to tell Him to bring the church up there.
The Living Message of Christ 