I can’t add much to this, except that I pray that those of you who have had questions about following Christ will earnestly pray this prayer and mean it in your hearts. Our world is not going to get better until He comes again!
Tag: Belief in Jesus
What have you decided?
Many people seem to have made up their minds that Christians are to be hated and scorned. What has happened in our country? I realize that there are some groups which preach hatred toward other faiths and of people who they deem as “unworthy”, but they are not the majority of Christians! Even the people who believe in Islam don’t all carry bombs and rifles and threaten to kill anyone around them, this behavior only comes from the fringes, from splinter groups, from people, who have IMO, gone off the deep end religiously. So, which camp are you in? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you a practicing Christian? Or do you hang on to a few scriptures and base your beliefs and your doctrine on them alone?
It seems that our country has decided by default that we are no longer a Christian nation, just because of the decision handed down on Friday of last week. That one decision doesn’t nullify the Bible or God’s laws, they still stand as the only beacon of Truth for those of us who claim to be Christians. Yes, there are churches and pastors who have radical views about their version of Christianity just as there are radical Imams and other religious leaders out there, but as everyone else says “they don’t represent the whole group”.
The one religion which has always attempted to help others and point the way to a better life here and in eternity is the one that everyone seems to be bashing and trying their best to disassociate themselves from. Other religions have done those things too, I don’t mean to imply that Christianity is the only one, but the religion which brought the Pilgrims to these shores shouldn’t be the one that we are trying so hard to eliminate. So, what have you decided? Are you on the same side as those who hate Christians and want nothing to do with it? Are you a Christian who is saddened by all of this?
I am praying for our country and the world itself. Please let me know where you stand in the comments. I pray that the number of Christian responses will outweigh those with negative comments.
Thank you for your prayers and your comments in advance.
Is your life cracked or broken?
(This post is my 500th post on this blog! I would’ve never thought that it would grow this big, but God is good and has allowed me to do this. I pray that you are all finding some bit of wisdom and knowledge that He has given me while I have been writing here. This knowledge comes from the Bible and from the wisdom that God has given me. I never would nor could I come up with these ideas or writings without His influence. Thank you for being here with me.)
I know, I have asked this before but it seems that our world and the people in it are more like this than they are whole and happy. We have more shootings and killings over nothing these days than we have ever had in the past fifty years. I know, there were many senseless killings during the time when our country was still divided by race relations but isn’t that what we are seeing today? It seems that there is so many problems with race relations, particularly in the past ten years or so. I thought that we were past this! What happened to the so-called “age of Aquarius” that was supposed to take over when the new millennium began? What became of the racial equality and tolerance that was supposed to be part of our culture when we elected an African-American President?
Our country and the culture that we once enjoyed has become cracked and broken, but there seems to be nobody who has a clue how to fix this mess! Any ideas?
My only idea is that we need to bring God and the Bible back into our cultural world. In the schools, in businesses, in society and especially in our homes! If we don’t repent of our ways, and turn back to God and ask for His forgiveness for all of the atrocities that we have allowed to happen in the past fifty years, then this country and the world itself is headed for a big wake up one day.
I am not going to try to bring this post up to a sermon level, but I do want anyone who reads this to think about what you can do to make this happen. In your church or community or your state even. If we don’t get started, and we should have done this many years ago, then we have gone too far to be able to turn back. Mostly what we can do is to seek God out in His Word and in prayer. We can also try to get others involved in putting the Bible and prayer back into our schools.
Individually, we can pray and seek Him out in the Bible and at church or in home Bible study. God wants to have a relationship with you and me, but He will not force this relationship on us.We have to initiate the contact by seeking Him out and learning more about Him. Occasionally, you will feel a prompting from Him or rather the Holy Spirit and that is Him calling to you. If you have felt it, but have ignored it please seek Him out! He will keep the contact and the prompting going for a while, but at some point He will let you go your own way. Don’t wait until that point. If you can feel even the smallest voice or nudge to come to know Him please do so!
We are only human
In today’s society, it seems that when you are a pastor of a church you are held to an almost god-like standard. One which penalizes you and calls for your resignation when you fail or when you fall like everyone else does. It’s like walking a tightrope, one misstep and you will fall to your death unless there is a forgiving net to catch you. I have felt the stares of people, watching me because they know that I pastor a church. It doesn’t matter if it is a small church or a huge church, the standard is the same. Just because we are preachers, proclaiming the gospel of Christ and His forgiveness, we are not perfect! Our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, so God has forgiven us, but when you see us sin and fall from that pedestal the forgiveness doesn’t seem to follow.
People, humanity has a very long memory when it comes to its teachers and preachers. Nobody is forgiven it seems, when the sin is made public. It is more akin to being tarred and feathered in the public square and then having that picture put up on Facebook or Instagram where it will never go away. On the other hand, if you are a politician or a lawyer or maybe a football star your sins will be overlooked and forgotten in a few hours or days.
Why are we held to such a high standard? Because we are telling you about the love and the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ and that you can have it for the asking. It isn’t a magic formula or a potion that you have to buy, it has been paid for through the blood of Jesus. All that you have to do is believe in Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins, just like the thief on the cross. He couldn’t get baptised and there was no way that he could tell others about Jesus, but he could believe and he did! Jesus told him that “today, you will be with me in Paradise”, if that isn’t an affirmation of being saved I don’t know of one!
The apostles and all believers were given a command to go and tell the world about the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Telling is what preachers do and it is up to you whether you believe the good news and ask Jesus into your heart or not. Do we fall sometimes? Of course. Do we say things that we shouldn’t? Yes, we are human. The difference is…we are forgiven. All that we have to do is to repent and ask forgiveness for the slip or the fall that we got into. You can too! Grace, love, hope, peace and forgiveness are all offered to you from God through Jesus. It is your responsibility to ask for forgiveness and repent of your sins, not just lip service but real honest repentance!
Why do I say it that way? Because, that is what I did for many years. I would go down and feel sorry for my sins and pray and even get baptised. Then, I would attempt to read and understand the Bible for a while, but I would eventually follow a friend to a bar and get drunk, or take a girl home for a night and I would be back in my same rut again. Some call it back-sliding, but I don’t think I was true to the repentance that I professed so it wasn’t real. I was just going through the motions, doing all of the things to “look good” when I was still just as lost as I was before.
Think about it and seek God in His Word, then pray and ask Him to show you what you need to do to truly become a child of God and a Christian.
What will it profit you?
It is written in the Bible, “What will it profit a man, to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?” All of the riches and power in the world today, if they were available and given to only one man, it would corrupt him so completely until his life would be over. Worry and hatred and bitterness would be his constant companions, even with all of the wealth of the world, if he were not saved by Jesus and a Christian. Moral living and a life of wealth on that scale has never been had by one person. If he were a Christian, I am not saying that the wealth wouldn’t corrupt him even then because it could and likely it would.
He would forget his faith in God and put it in money, because he doesn’t need God since he owns the whole world. God would say to him the same thing that He said to the farmer who said to his soul, “We can be at rest now, we have barns full and can take life at ease. God said to him, “Thou fool, tonight thy soul is required of thee”. Even all of the wealth of the world, and it would be in the trillions of dollars or whatever currency that you choose, could not extend your life or make it more comfortable. It is true that you would be able to take life easy, up to a point, although you would have teams of lawyers to watch over your wealth and CPA’s to take care of your taxes and investments. Many people would be getting wealthy from your wealth, and for some that would nearly drive them mad.
Money, gold, silver and wealth measured in any way over the Earth by title to land or oil or jewels is just stuff. It it true that by the world’s standard that much wealth would be seen as a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of all the good things that you could accomplish with it for those who are in need physically and financially, and a curse because everyone would be trying to profit from your wealth in some fashion. Yes, by the world’s standards, you would be a king and wealthy enough that you could do anything and live anywhere that you wanted to. But, if your moral compass was pointing toward yourself rather than toward helping others, then this much wealth would make you a very bitter and cruel person because of the things which you could do and get away with in order to keep your money.
What would you do with all of that wealth? I can’t even imagine having one billion dollars to use any way that I choose, let alone having all of the wealth in the world at my command. No one person has ever had that much and likely no one person ever will, but the good that could be done with it is extraordinary and hard to imagine. Yet, it pales by comparison when you consider eternity with God by accepting Him as your Savior.
Think of it. A pile of money that could cover the entire United States more than a mile deep, but what or who will it benefit when you die? Wars would be fought over it, people would die to have part of it, for what? Your life and your charity would be forgotten within a century, and where would you be spending eternity? Life doesn’t end with your last heart beat and breath, you were created with an eternal soul and it will go on…somewhere. Choose today where it will be, either in Heaven with God or in hell with Satan and his demons.
Satan hates us
Have you ever wondered why he hates us? I used to, until I started really studying the Bible. He hates us because we are made in God’s image. He was kicked out of Heaven because he rebelled against God, so anything that God loves, he hates. But, that isn’t the only reason…God created man, Adam, from the earth, from mud and then gave him something that no angel has…an eternal soul! Angels are spiritual beings and therefore are immortal, but they can’t have a relationship with God like we can. Our relationship is on a deeper level and it is one that angels don’t have access to, and that is another reason that we are hated by Satan.
Love is another reason. God loves us, his creation, not just because we are but because we are made in His image. He loves us in a deeper way because of our image of Him inside each of us. God loves all of His creation, the Earth, the animals, humanity, and the angels too, but humanity holds a special place that we can’t understand fully until we are in His presence. When Lucifer rebelled against God’s authority and wanted to place his throne on the mountain of God, it likely broke God’s heart.
Why would it cause God pain? Because, until man was created, Lucifer was the most perfect of His creation in the angelic race of beings! Giving humanity and angels alike the choice or the ability to choose to serve Him, to love Him, was a risky thing to do but it was also the right thing to do. Because service and love cannot be forced or required to be genuine and true, they must be given from one being to another. It also cannot be earned, but given as in a gift of service or the gift of love to one another.
Love is the reason that God does anything that He does. He created us because of love, His love for us, His love of Creation itself. He created the angels for all of these things too, but Satan (Lucifer) wanted more and did not want to serve God. He wanted to be worshipped and that was and is not his place. Satan is not omnipotent nor is he omniscient, God is.
God sent His Son, Jesus (Yeshua), to the Earth to provide a way for all of us to be saved from the punishment for our sins. He did that on Calvary when He chose to give His life for ALL of us, not just a select few. Yes, there will be many who will choose not to know Him because they are stubborn or because they think that they can’t be saved. If you will believe in Jesus and His path for salvation for you, it doesn’t matter what you have done, you will be saved. The prayer of a sinner who is repentant of his sins will always be answered, even if it is on a cross or on his death-bed. It doesn’t matter if you have time to be baptized or not, if you repent of your sins and ask for Jesus to save you then you will be saved.
God’s creation, from the farthest stars and galaxies to the smallest of atoms, groans in anticipation for the day that all will be made right again. One day, it will happen. For some, it will be a great day of reunion with family and friends. For others, it will be a day of judgement and pain. The greatest pain will be that you had a chance to accept Jesus in this life and you chose to throw it away because of stubbornness and pride. Please, reconsider and seek Him out while there is still time to do so.
Celebrations and tears
We all have them at one time or another. We mourn the loss of someone who we love or we celebrate an anniversary or other accomplishment in our lives. Sometimes the tears come during the celebrations, but it is all part of life. How do you live with it or live without the people in your life which have gone on before you? Do you rely on your own strength and that alone or do you lean on friends and family? Many people do exactly that, they lean on others who have gone through the same troubles and heartaches. Is that really how we are supposed to get through our tough times?
The celebrations are easy because they usually involve someone’s accomplishment in some way or another. Maybe you have been married longer than some in your family or friends. Maybe you just graduated from college or even got married recently. Maybe you just had a baby, boy or girl doesn’t matter, it is still a celebratory moment in your life that you won’t forget…EVER!
Time can dim the memories and the pain to an extent, but it never goes away entirely. The loss of a loved one, whether it was your child or your mother or father or one of your grandparents, is a loss to you emotionally, physically and even spiritually. Why spiritually? Because between Christians there is a bond of fellowship, it isn’t one that you can feel emotionally but it is there. When you are absent from this fellowship, your spirit feels it and whether you feel it emotionally or not, God knows how it is affecting you.
The other effects from the loss are more immediate and real because of the pain that is felt and caused by such a loss. Why am I going over this? Because many of you, even though I don’t personally know you, have a loss in your life of some kind. Some are more painful than others, some are like my mother who suffered with pain for years before she died but that did not lessen the pain that I felt at her passing. Even though after so many so-called “mini strokes”, she was still with me for a time she couldn’t enjoy life anymore so her quality of life was far diminished from what it had been. For years I blamed myself because I had asked God to take her and get her out of her pain and suffering, but it wasn’t because of my actions or my prayer that God granted it. It was because He saw that it was time and within a day of my prayer, she was in His arms.
Yes, my pain began at that point and continued for many years especially at Christmas because she died on Christmas day. My point?
First…don’t ever pray that kind of prayer unless you are ready spiritually for the consequences of it.
Second…there will be consequences, good or bad, because of a death in your family whether you prayed that prayer or not.
God loves each of us, no matter what we have done or will do in the future, He just doesn’t like the sinful lives that we lead. Especially when we don’t even recognize that we are sinners or that what we are doing is sinful. Some Christians live this way, thinking that their life is fine with Christ and with God because they claim to be Christians and they go to church once in a while. Many of them think that because they read the Bible a few times a year, not all the way through, that they have their way to Heaven in the bag and they don’t need to worry about it.
Analogy: You go to a college and audit some courses, sitting in class and listening and reading the material maybe even taking notes. You might even audit enough courses to actually have enough credits under your belt to get a degree…will you get one? No, because an audited course doesn’t give you credit for a degree, you are just present listening for your own enjoyment so to speak. What good did that do?
The same amount of good that going to church, reading the Bible, praying and singing will do for you…none!!!
You can go through the motions of this and you might even be “led” to get baptized one day because you think that it is the right thing to do but has your heart changed? Did you give your life to Jesus and allow Him to change you from the inside? If you didn’t do that and your life outside of church doesn’t change so that others can tell that something happened, then it was your decision, your feeling and not the call of the Spirit that you answered. When you die, you will be shown that you did all of these things but if you never actually gave your heart to Jesus, the knowledge that you heard but did not hear spiritually will only convict you.
Think about it.
Family life, is it?
I don’t know how to be a good father.
Is there a way?
Have you wondered about this too?
What, really, should we do?
Can it be done, today!
I feel inadequate to the task,
I don’t know what to do.
I watch my child sleep,
See the rise and fall of his chest, and
Yet I don’t yet have a clue.
I love my child because
God gave him to me.
A gift, a person to show the way
but how can I when I don’t know it?
The only thing that I know
for sure is that Jesus is the way.
I follow Him and I’ve shown my child
The One Who can affect His life the most.
It is the only real knowledge that I can give
that matters. The knowledge from his studies
won’t matter, the games which he plays
won’t matter, his friends won’t matter.
My life doesn’t matter unless
I can make sure that at least he
knows the Truth and has given his
heart to Jesus.
I pray that He lives in
my son’s heart. I can’t discern
his heart, but God can.
God knows whether my child belongs
to Him. I pray that I have done
at least enough to see that
him grow into Life
eternal.
Darkness and Light
Darkness tried to invade our county this past weekend. It took out two shining lights, ones that it thought would dim our lights. It didn’t take into account the faith and love that these two lights had behind them nor how many friends that they shared in common all over the state. The amount of prayer and support their families got from the school, from their teams, and from the 4H groups that they were involved with brightened the sky with the prayers that were sent up to God. Then, He sent down legions of angels to comfort and strengthen those friends, family, and classmates. So, in trying to dim the light that is in our county, it only made it brighter. Faith and Love are powerful especially when you combine them with prayer.
I am still praying for all the people…friends involved in this tragedy, but God knew about it all along. They are now with Him and are enjoying the benefits of Heaven and that their bodies can never die. They both are praying for their families well-being and they are also asking for the Lord to give their loved ones the strength and comfort that they will need during this time.
Although some may not believe it, I believe that we can see our family from Heaven. Especially when our lives end so suddenly, because God wants us to be comforted and to lend comfort to those we left behind. We are fragile creatures, physically and emotionally, but God knows what we need and when we need it and He will provide it, especially now during this time of mourning and healing.
Our community should come together and will do so during this rough time for the families of these girls. They are clothed in their gowns of righteousness, which would make the most expensive wedding gowns look like rags. Why are they that beautiful you ask? Because, these two young ladies are part of the church, the Bride of Christ, and they are supposed to be adorned that way!
Shimmering gowns of love and light, which more closely resemble a dress made from gold and silver and colors of the rainbow that we can’t even imagine in our minds. No fashion house on Earth could come up with a gown which comes close to the beauty that they are clothed in now and we will see them one day.
The love of God expressed toward us in light, His Light, is more beautiful and illuminating than anything that we have. Even our homes in Heaven will radiate with His Love and so will everything else in Heaven. That is why there is no darkness in Heaven, because every blade of grass, the trees, the water which flows from His throne, all of it will shimmer with His Love and His Light.
The darkness which tried to cause our lives to dim over the weekend did not have the effect that it was supposed to have. Because, the love and faith of the families involved in this tragedy grew stronger and it shined more brilliantly than it had before. Not because it wasn’t there before, but because it was needed for other things. Now, it is needed for comfort and strength and as a witness to all around that the Love of God can and does conquer death, hell and the grave!
Seek Him out if you don’t know Him. Read His Word and pray that you will come to a saving knowledge of Him, before a wreck or something else takes your life. Because, standing before Him is too late to realize the mistakes that you have made while living.
Is it time for you?
I am not speaking of the end of your life, I am speaking to your heart and the question is, “Is it time to make a decision about what you believe and Who you believe in?” It can be argued that nobody want to make this decision in today’s world. It seems that there are so many who think that they can take care of their spiritual life without God.
How foolish is that? Are you greater than God? Can you create a pound of gold by thinking about it? Can you keep your hair from turning grey for a couple of hundred years? Are you able to change the weather? No person on this earth can do this! The last person that could was and is Jesus Christ!
Many people think that He didn’t exist and if that is your idea and you don’t believe in Him then you can stop reading right now. Nothing that I say here will make a difference in your life if you won’t step out in faith and believe. Jesus loves you and He is the only way to Heaven and a life with God in eternity. No amount of money or works on Earth, no amount of help to the poor or orphans will get you in the door, because He is the Door.
Jesus told His disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes unto the Father except through Me.” God loves you, every person who reads this! He provided the grace for our salvation through Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. All that you have to do is seek Him, believe that He did this for you and ask Him into your heart and your life. Read the Bible with a prayer in your mind regarding the words which you read, God will provide the meaning and the application to your life while you read His Word!
Our God is an Awesome God and the Only God, all the other “gods” are not real. They are only imaginings of man’s mind. Give your heart to Jesus, He is the Only way for salvation and forgiveness. The priest can’t forgive you, your preacher can’t do it, a book can’t help, a man-made statue can’t do it either. Only Jesus can provide you with a forgiveness of your sins.
Our time comes when we least expect it. Sometimes we are ready for it, other times we are not. Many heartaches and troubles happen in our lives and sometimes those are brought on by Satan to stop us from getting closer to God. Some of them are brought into your life to drive you toward God. Which way will you turn? Who will you turn to? Today is a sad day in my community.
Two young lives, both less than twenty years old, were taken from their families today in a vehicle accident. Too much speed on wet roads will do that. This is something which could’ve been prevented, but it has happened and they are both before Jesus now. Your life doesn’t have a specific time limit, but your date with death will come regardless of the way that it comes. See that you are ready and that your heart is in Jesus’ hands, because your life…your eternal life will begin on that day one way or another.
The Living Message of Christ 