That was the prayer of a man during World War 2 who was helping wounded men on the field of battle. It should be our motto and our prayer today. Lord, help me to bring one more into your family, just one more. Then go out and do it again and again.
Sometimes we celebrate one more day sober or one more birthday or even one more day without accidents at work. Why not celebrate “One more day to serve You, Lord!”? Be thankful for all that you have because it is all given to you by your Father in Heaven. Your blessings, your trials, your family and friends…everything good and not so good comes through Him either allowing it in your life or by His blessing you with it. Be thankful for everything and everyone in your life because they are here today but we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, so tell someone that you love them now, while there is still time.
We have lots of time, we think, but that isn’t necessarily the truth. God never promised us that we would have a set number of years to live. Yes, it does say that we may live three score and ten and by our strength we might reach four score years (for all you young folks, a score is twenty years). As we get older we may ask the Lord for one more year to serve or maybe one more day to be with a sick family member. One more…just one more. Seek to be useful to God for one more day and then ask for another and another. He may grant you those days until they turn into months or years. From that point you will be living for Jesus just one more day…just one day at a time.
That really is all we can do. Live our lives for Jesus and His message to the world one day at a time.
Jesus sees us as clearly in our darkness as He does in our light. Our vision may be limited in times of darkness and fear, but His is not. God knows your hard times and your weakness in those time but He is present in them as well. He said that He would never forsake us and He never leaves your side, even if you don’t know Him as Savior yet.
In Genesis 22: 4-8, Abraham was doing what the Lord God had told him to do. He was taking his son, Isaac, to a mountain to worship God. But, God has also asked that he sacrifice his son on that mountain and he was obeying God. In verse 4-8 the Scripture says: “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again unto you“. Right there is the faith of Abraham. Because God had told him to sacrifice Isaac on that mountain but with his faith he told those young men that they would come again unto them.
Abraham wasn’t senile, he knew what God had asked of him but he also knew that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if He allowed him to kill his only son. He didn’t know about the ram that would be there…yet. When Isaac asked about the sacrifice, Abraham again showed his faith in God by saying “the Lord will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt offering”. God did exactly that.
In our lives today, whether you are a Christian believer or maybe you are curious about salvation, God can supply you with the faith to believe and be saved from your sinful life. He has already paid the price for your soul through Jesus’ death and resurrection and all you have to do to receive it is to believe in Jesus as your Savior. There is no amount of money that you have to give, there is no amount of work that you can perform which will help Him in any way to complete your salvation because it is already complete in Jesus. God allowed His Son, Jesus, to be sacrificed for our sins even though we didn’t deserve the tremendous grace that would require and we don’t deserve His grace and love even now, but He loves us anyway.
God has prepared so many good things for us through the riches of Jesus and His love for us and yet many people think that believing in Him is just too simple. They believe that they have to help God save their souls. God created this entire universe with all of the stars and galaxies and planets ALL BY HIMSELF, He doesn’t need our pitiful strength or our tiny amount of money for anything. He does ask for our obedience and for our belief in Jesus as our Savior. It doesn’t cost us anything but the realization that we can’t do it all by ourselves…we NEED Jesus Christ!
Giving your heart to Jesus because you know you need Him to save your soul from hell is the easiest and best decision that you could ever make. Sometimes it is the hardest decision too, but consider the consequences of your eternity if you don’t. All of us have an eternity after this life is done, but your location depends upon your decision now, today. Jesus said that there are two paths to eternity, one is broad and many people find it and one is narrow and few people find it. The broad road leads to hell and the second death, the narrow pathway leads to heaven and an eternity with Jesus. Which road will you take?
Luke 5: 17-24
Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man
17 One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus.
18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19 but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.”
21 But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!”
22 Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 23 Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!”
In this story, Jesus proved Who He was to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, but they didn’t want to believe. The fact that He knew what they were thinking should’ve given them a clue and the healing should’ve nailed it down too…but they were blind to Him and His fulfillment of their prophecies. So why wouldn’t they believe? It was likely that they were jealous and it became worse with His fame growing.
God sent His Son to His people so that they would believe and be saved from their sins. A few did believe but there were many who did not, even with the miracles that He performed. Even when He raised Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb, many who saw this miracle did believe but when the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees were told of it, all they thought about was that Lazarus would have to die too.
Why did the religious leaders refuse to recognize Jesus for Who He was? Even the name Nazarene had been prophesied years before He came, but they refused to see it or were blinded by their jealousy and by Satan too. God is still using dreams and other means to get to those He is drawing to Himself, even in lands where Islam is the dominant religion.
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life”. Seek Him out today! He is waiting for you to call on Him for your salvation, so answer His call on your life!
I know, the name of this post sounds a bit funny or weird but in the age that we live in it is not really that far fetched. Jesus told His disciples to go out and take His message, the gospel, to every person beginning in Jerusalem and then to the ends of the Earth. In today’s tech-savvy society blogging and text-messaging for God works just as well and through Twitter can reach a very large audience in a very short time. No travel required.
I am not saying that we should look at our work for the Lord on this platform or any other Internet platform as a way to avoid going on mission trips, but it does reach out much farther than most of us can afford today. Jesus said to take His message out to the world, He didn’t tell anyone how to do it. This is one of the ways that gets the job done.
God loves all of humanity, but there are places where mission trips are not allowed and are not safe. They aren’t safe for the people you are trying to reach and they aren’t safe for you either. I know, we have God protection on us and your faith in Him will be tested if you depend upon that protection alone. But there are so many places in the world and there is very little time to get the gospel out there.
Jesus came to bring the news that belief in His sacrifice would bring salvation to many and it does. With our help, through the platforms available to us, we can get His message to many people and I pray that there are many who are giving their lives to Jesus through hearing of His message. I pray that many of you who read my blog are doing the same thing so that even more people will come to know Jesus as their savior.
In this day and age that we live in everyone has a phone. A connection to the Internet and to anyone that they want to reach out and touch. This is a period in time that many of us thought would never really happen…but it did. I’m not speaking of people who use and own Apple products. I am talking of people who can’t be themselves without their phone!
You’ve seen them or heard them in stores or on the street, at the gym or even at a movie. They can’t seem to stop talking! Sometimes you will be going through the grocery store and you will hear bits of a conversation and if you happen to keep running into that same person you will hear it until you decide to move away from them. It seems that they can’t get away from talking into their ear-buds which are attached to their phone either by a wire or wireless.
Many times I have wondered how they can get any sleep? Or even if they sleep, do they talk in their sleep? Is their phone always as close by them at home the same way it is out in public?
How much would the world change if we used our Bible as much as we do our phones? If we lived our daily lives in contact with God in the same way as we seem to be with our phone and our friends, we could impact the world for His Kingdom and it would make the world a better place. In the beginning, God did have a close relationship with Adam and Eve. He walked with them and taught them things, even though it isn’t written down in the Bible. I mean, how else were they going to learn?
God has always wanted a close relationship with us and at times He has had that with some of His prophets and disciples. But He wants that relationship with us today and we push Him away because we don’t have time or today isn’t a good day or some other excuse that is meaningless in the grand scheme of life. If we read the Bible as religiously as we read posts on Facebook or check it for advice like we check our emails, our world would be radically changed from the impersonal world that we live in to a world where God has more influence over all of our affairs.
Think about that today before you pick up your phone and pick up God’s Word a few times at least. Read some passages in Proverbs or Psalms today before you head out to shop or go to work. Pray about what you have read and think about what He says in those passages that you read. Then ask Him to show you the reason for your life being a little off balance and ask Him how it can be fixed. He will tell you, if you will stop talking long enough to listen.
The Living Message of Christ 