Category: Uncategorized

How awesome is God?


Regardless of whether you believe in Him or not, each night when you look at the night sky you can see His handiwork. Scientists say that our universe was caused by a huge explosion and not by a Creator, but who caused all of that stuff to congregate in the places that it did. I know the arguments for gravity and dark matter and all of the radiation from stars and exploding stars. But, there have been some studies that have shown that if the mass of protons and neutrons would’ve been different by only .01 percent or so, the universe wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t either.

The mind of God created all of this and whether you believe it or not doesn’t change that. He created all of this with His words, “Let there be light”. If you want an explanation for the big bang, that is it! God placed and named all of the stars in our galaxy and in all of the others too. We can see these things every night, they are evidence of something more than chance because coincidence can’t create, accidents can’t create, random collisions of atomic nuclei don’t create. God does!

I know that many scientists will not agree with this, but I doubt that many of them read my posts anyway. God had us in mind when He created all of this so that we could see the grand scale of all of it and wonder how it came to be. The answer lies in God Himself, there are many mathematical constants and other calculations which prove this and were discovered by Isaac Newton. He proved in one of his books that the math contained in the God’s Word was linked to prophecy and history. For instance, the year that the state of Israel became a nation again, 1948, is exactly the number of statute miles that it is from the center stone in London to the corner stone of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The name of the book is “The Temple at the Center of Time“, if you want to check my facts.

There are many others contained in its pages, the math is proven and so are God’s prophecies as well as Who He is. God is awesome, and yet after He made the entire universe He decided to populate the earth with life and to “make man in Our image”. He considers us special enough that He personally created the first man, He did not use an ape as a template nor did He use any other life-form on earth. We are made in the image of God!

Our Lord and God loves us enough that the earth is at just the right distance from the sun to have a temperate climate that is friendly to life. This did not happen because of chance. It did not happen because anything “slammed into the primordial earth”, God placed the earth where He wanted it and then placed the moon and our star as well. I know the cosmologists say that the earth was not created first, but that is the order of creation in the Bible. If you don’t believe it, read it for yourself or ask Him when you come before Him, if you get the chance. Go to http://www.biblegateway.com and you can read the passage yourself. The sun and the moon were created on the fourth day.

Give your life to Jesus and let Him show you how to live and Who to live for because your life and mine can be so much more when we are living and working for Him and Him through us.

2012 in review!


The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

a tribute to Ronald Reagan and our Christian heritage


http://www.youtube.com/embed/OvN1jTkzXbY

This link and the video contained in it point to our Savior, Jesus Christ. Many people think that our government and the men who serve there do not and should not espouse their beliefs while in office. I think a leader is supposed to lead by example, not just go along with the crowd or the most popular group at the time.

I truly would like to have a President who had the faith and the courage to speak his faith regardless of the media bias at the time. I pray for our country and I hope that you will too.

Our Lord’s model prayer


 

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us

Our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the Glory,

Forever.

Amen.

“Our Father”, we acknowledge that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all of us, as well as all of Creation itself. He is the Father of Jesus, our Savior and redeemer. He alone deserves our praise, not some god that man has fashioned from his imagination or from some part of creation itself.

“Which art in Heaven”, with these few words we are telling God that we know where He lives and we realize that He is above all, our thoughts, our ways and our sins. But, we are also acknowledging that we are, in spirit at least, there in our thoughts and in our longings.

 “Hallowed be thy name”; we know that God is holy and we humble ourselves before Him. Because of Who He is, we can do no less. We can’t comprehend God anymore than a bacterium can comprehend us!

“Thy Kingdom come”; here we are telling God that we want His Kingdom to come and we are acknowledging that it is and will be His Kingdom that we want to be a part of it with Him!

“Thy will be done”; we know that God’s will is sovereign and over all. His will is over all of Creation and nothing happens outside of His will. Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls from the sky without the Father noticing it. Because He is in touch with His Creation to that extent, how do you think He feels when we push Him away?

 “On earth as it is in Heaven”; we acknowledge that one day God’s will for us will be done on earth as in Heaven because He said so. The prophecies in God’s Word say that this will happen, therefore it will! There is no debate nor argument for or against this; God said it so it is done!

 “Give us this day our daily bread”; He will sustain us with His power and with our life’s work so that we can live for Him daily. If we choose not to live for Him, we are not forced but if He has a plan for our lives, circumstances will work toward getting us in line with His will eventually. Jonah found this out and we will too if we try to change things!

“Forgive us our debts”; we are to ask for His forgiveness for our sins humbly and willingly because we are guilty of being sinners.

 “As we forgive our debtors”; this is the hard part to digest because it simply means that we are forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. Once you have asked Jesus into your heart and life, you are forgiven but you are to forgive others too. If you can’t forgive others, how can you show that you have been changed into the likeness of Christ?

 “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; God doesn’t lead us into temptation, Satan does that by enticing us with things which he knows that we will pay attention to. If we are being led by God on a daily basis we will not be led into temptation, but we will be given the strength to resist it!

In delivering us from evil, God will deliver us from the evil influence of Satan and his demons by His strength as long as we are relying on Him and not our own.

 “For Thine is the Kingdom”; we know that the Kingdom to come is the Lord’s and if we belong to Him, we will share in it. How could you not want to share in an eternal Kingdom with God?

“The power and the Glory, Forever”; God has always been, period. He is omnipotent or all-powerful. He is the Creator of everything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy and everything in between! All of these things that He created show His wonderful majesty and awesome power! Our God, His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in One and between them and their influence in our universe everything works, PERIOD!

This is just a small part of what Jesus said while He was here, but what a mighty impact it has had. Many people pray that prayer as their prayer but it is supposed to be a model for us to pray, not a memorized prayer! We don’t have to pray exactly the way this prayer is laid out, but as long as we acknowledge Who is in control and give Him our petitions and problems and have the faith that He will work things together in our lives for our good and for His Glory, we only need to lean on Him in prayerful dependence with faith like a child.

He loves us more than we can comprehend. The only thing that is required from us is to love Him, we don’t have to but don’t you want to! God gives us all that we ever need or that we could want, not out of necessity but out of love for us. He doesn’t supply all the money that we want but He does supply our needs, because He knows each of us far better than we do.

 Give your heart and your life to Him and all things will work together for your life in His will and for the good pleasure of Him who sustains you.

New creation, same old body


How can I be a new creation after Christ has entered my life? Is it possible that I let Him in by mistake? The answers to these questions are: you can’t and you didn’t!

We can’t be a new creation on our own, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you truly accepted Jesus, you are. It is not something which will be heralded by angels or by some miraculous healing, but it is a transformation of your spirit. You become aligned with one of the Trinity and by His power you are a new creation!

The second question from above is not possible because unless God calls you spiritually and you respond by giving your heart and life to Jesus, you can’t and you won’t be His. You may go to church and be a deacon or a Gideon, you might even become a missionary overseas but you will be doing these things under your own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That being said, I do not mean that you aren’t a good person, but you can be a “fan” of Jesus and not a follower. By that I mean the same as someone who is a fan of a particular sport. You are a true fan but you don’t play professionally. You know about the sport or the person Jesus, you have heard and read many parts of the Bible, but until you let Him into your life and your heart and truly become a follower like His disciples were, you are just a fan and nothing more.

It is wonderful to be a fan of Jesus, but until you can say truthfully that you love Him and know Him from His word, that is all that you are. You are not a new creation because you don’t have Him in your heart! This is a hard truth that many in the church today have a problem with and many who have been in church and who have left also have a problem with it. Being a member of a church and attendance every time there is a function at the church doesn’t do anything for you spiritually anymore than being in a garage makes you a car!

Until you can ask Jesus into your life and your heart and live that way daily, not just on Sunday, you haven’t changed! Until God calls you to be that new creation and you answer that call by asking Jesus into your heart, you aren’t a new creation!

Oh, but when you do answer His call on your life, everything changes! Your life takes on a new meaning, your relationship with everyone becomes more meaningful, your whole character changes because you are not the same anymore! Your heart and your mind will begin to reflect the attitude and the person of Christ and everyone will know it, even if you don’t say anything about your decision.

God wants all of humanity to come to Him. Whether we choose to do so is our individual choice. It is not forced because love cannot be forced. He won’t make you love Him because that is not love. Choose Life from the Sustainer and the Creator of all life because when you do, you will be a new creation! All of the old habits won’t have the same hold on you, your friends will either like the “new you” or they won’t. Give Jesus a chance in your life and your heart because He is the longing that we have been searching for and didn’t know that He was it!

How does Jesus know me?


God and Jesus both see us, each of us, as beautiful beings. Whether male or female, tall or short, dark skinned or light, they see us as we really are. They do not see us the way our family sees us or as our friends see us. They don’t even see us the way we see ourselves!

They know us more deeply than anyone can know us because they formed us and knew exactly what they wanted us to be. All of the warts and the beauty and forgetfulness and the genius that each of us have, they put it there. It was done for a reason and a purpose, God’s purpose. Each of our traits is something which can be used by God in ways that only He knows and for His purposes.

Your life and mine don’t belong to us individually. We belong to God and it doesn’t matter if you have given your heart to Him or not. If you are going to be part of His plan and His kingdom and a worker for Him, you will eventually. He will see to it. Your life will work out in such a way as to bring you into God’s family and then you can begin to live for Him!

We are truly not designed to live for ourselves; there is a God-shaped place in our being that needs Him. When we haven’t found Him, we try to put other things in that place but none of them fit. So many people search and try many, many different things to fill that place and yet none of them satisfy the longing. The longing that we have for Him, for a real relationship with Him will never go away until we ask Him to come into that place.

Jesus is the answer and He is the One which fits in that place. We can have a true relationship with Him daily, hourly even, if we want it. He doesn’t push himself into our life and He won’t because He wants us to want Him. If we were forced, there would be no love toward Him from us. God and Jesus want the same relationship that they had with Adam before the fall. Daily communion from us to them and back again, forever.

On our own and with the baggage that we carry in our lives, we are not worthy of such an intimate relationship, particularly with the Creator who is Perfect and eternal. The only way that we can be worthy is by asking Jesus into our life and into our hearts so that the space in our being can be filled with the One which it is designed for. Nothing else will fit and nothing else will satisfy. Give Jesus a chance to change your life into the life that He knows you can have!

In our culture today we have so many ways of looking at information. We have the Internet, from our computers and our phones. We have television which comes to us from cable or satellite with news from all over the world. All of this is nearly instantaneous and still we aren’t satisfied with what we have. Our food is cooked in microwave ovens in a few seconds, we go through the drive-through at McDonald’s or Wendy’s or wherever we go. Our culture is based on “instant gratification” and like spoiled children we want it NOW!

 

Can we have a relationship with Jesus right NOW the same way that the disciples had? I believe that we can if we are willing to put our heart into it. Jesus wants to have a relationship with us as intimate as any that we have with our families. When we have sin in our lives, the relationship is damaged, but not irreparable.  Sin creeps into our lives in small things and thoughts and words. Sin is like that, just one puff, just one little drink. Then pretty soon here comes another tentacle, just a thought or just a lustful look. But then here comes another tentacle. Just a little lie, a slight rearrangement of the truth, & out comes another tentacle & soon we are completely entangled and feeling helpless.

But, we are not alone in our fight against sin and Satan. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always there to guide us and direct our paths and our thoughts. All we have to do is reach out to Him through prayer, acknowledging that we can’t do it alone but with His strength we can get through anything.

Jesus knows the people that He created us to be and He knows the abilities that we have even better than we do. Some people, like me, don’t know what they can do until God calls them. When He calls, He will give you the words and the abilities to accomplish His purpose in your life and in the place where He has planted you.

What can we do?


We can do nothing without Christ. Oh, we can go to work and make breakfast and all the other things which our world regards as living our life but without Christ nothing that we do really matters. If we do it under our own power and our own merit, it will not last. The Bible says that man’s ways are as filthy rags and that at the end of the age anything that is not done for Christ and His Kingdom will be tested by fire. If it is found to be worthy, it will go through the fire and show its worth, but if it was something done in our own power to be seen of men and without His strength behind it, it will burn up like the dried grass in a field.

In the book of James it says: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:19–20)

We have to listen to the Word of God because if we don’t, our life and the consequences of it will mean nothing. The wisdom contained in the Bible is the only wisdom that we need in this life. All of the self help books out there are good but when you compare their “so-called wisdom” to that found in the Word, it seems that their wisdom is not new or different at all. They may have worded it differently or made it more politically correct for today’s audience but the true wisdom found in God’s Word always shines through, even when someone dresses it up to look like it didn’t come from God.

In 1 Corinthians we read: “If any man be in Christ [Jesus], he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Now if your religion hasn’t changed your life, you’d better change your religion, this is just the cold hard truth. Religion has caused more pain and heartache in this world than most anything else. It has been the cause behind many wars and atrocities that mankind has done and I admit that, but it was due to the warped nature of man. People have done many things, terrible things in the name of religion and from a sense of being superior because of their religion. Only Christ and the truth in God’s Word can change a person to the point of being a new person. Religion cannot because you can be religious about going to work or to the bar down the street. Being religious doesn’t help anyone, unless you are being religious about reading God’s Word and abiding in Him.

That is the only thing that we can do which will matter in this world and have lasting effects in the next world which we will live in if we belong to Him. God loves you all and wants all to come to Him. Hell was not created for mankind, it was created for Satan and his demons but men will be cast into it if they don’t choose to follow Jesus. It is your choice whether you go to hell or not, God doesn’t send you there. You do by your own choice to follow Jesus or not. Don’t fall in with the one’s who choose not to follow Him.

How can I serve Jesus, I am too bad!


I have done too many bad things. I am not worthy or capable of serving Him. He wouldn’t want me.

The answer to all of these excuses is that they are all false! Anyone can serve Jesus and He does know you and what you have done and He still loves you. He knew us all before He went to the cross two thousand years ago and He still did it, for all of us! God loves us all, it doesn’t matter what we have done or how bad we think that we have been and He has from the beginning.

There is no way that you can be good enough to come to Jesus, that is why He had to die for your sins to be forgiven. All you have to do is accept Him and believe that He did that for you, thats it. Your belief in His grace is what saves you, not you or how you “clean up your life”. You just have to believe that He did what the Bible says that He did and ask Him to forgive you and come into your life.

The time for forgiveness and asking for it is now. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow or even the next hour to live, so what are you waiting for? He loves you and paid the price for your sins, period. Accept it, ask for Him to come into your life and then get to work serving in His kingdom. It may not pay much here on earth but the retirement plan is out of this world!

The inerrant Word of God


It seems that there are those who are questioning the truth of the Bible. The Jewish leaders and teachers have never doubted the veracity of the Torah or of the Prophets and Writings why should anyone question that which completes the Bible. The New Testament is the testimony of those who witnessed Jesus’ miracles and His proof of divinity by His resurrection. He fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah foretold hundreds of years before His birth.

I realize that this is a bit of a stretch for people to believe who don’t have any faith in Him but it is true! There are many prophecies from the Old Testament which point to where He would be born and His birth to a virgin. That He would be of the line and family of David. That He would be beaten and crucified, although crucifixion had not been used or even seen at the time it was prophesied.

I know that there are many who don’t want to believe that this is true and I do understand. Because, if it is true it means that we all deserve to go to hell. It also means that we are all sinners, regardless of the magnitude of the sin itself. As in today’s culture a “little white lie” is not considered to be something to go to hell for, but someone who is a murderer or a molester of children does. Unfortunately, in God’s sight a sin is a sin and perceived size does not matter. In truth, the only sin that will send any of us to hell is the rejection of God’s grace through Jesus and the acceptance of Him as our Lord and Savior.

In my opinion, that is the reason many people don’t want Jesus or don’t accept Him…… because it is too simple and easy! It is hard for people who don’t have faith or have never been in a church to accept something simply on faith, like a child. A small child doesn’t question if what you said is true as long as you haven’t proven to them that you will lie to them. They accept what you tell them as the truth, no matter what. If your life needs someone or some strength that you cannot provide yourself, look to Jesus and ask Him! I promise, He will not let you down and once you give your life to Him, He will never leave you!

Division is great in math class but not in the Church


In the past one hundred years the Church has been divided so many times that it is nearly unrecognizable today. Christians, regardless of denomination, have become too permissive and meek. We allow people to run over us and around us in the guise of being “politically correct and inoffensive”.

Jesus said that He came to put friends and family against each other because of Him and His teachings. We are not to be so meek that we are run over by every religion that claims the title of religion. Just because Jesus said that the “meek shall inherit the earth” doesn’t mean that we take it to an extreme!

I am sure that there are some real Christians in our world today that could be called friends of God but they are so few in number that they would not fill the sanctuary of a small church!

Our life is to be in service to Him regardless of the occupation that we have and being divided in doctrine or belief in the authenticity of the Bible is not the way to do it. There is no middle ground of service you are either serving God or Satan, you cannot serve both.

The Bible is the true and inspired word of our Creator! Those who disagree with this are challenged herewith to find at least 66 authors from all different walks of life. Without telling them what to write about other than to say that they must all be in agreement and have their stories point to one truth alone, have them to write a coherent book which will rival the Bible. Even if our lives were un-naturally long, there would be no possibility of this book ever being published in a coherent form within the next one thousand years!

The Bible spans about fourteen hundred years and tells of history back to the beginning of the earth and yet the story points to one Savior, Christ, who will fulfill all of the prophecies in Himself and through His ministry and His death and resurrection will be the salvation for all of mankind who have been called by God.