My part doesn’t count

Don’t ever think this thought! I have thought it at times but your part does count! God can use your life, your voice, your message, your witness in ways that you have no idea just how much good it may do. But He does!

He knows how many people will hear or listen to or even read your words, like on this blog, and He will use your voice to take His message to the world and those who are desperate to hear the gospel of Jesus and His love for them. Just as when it is time to vote for a President or a Senator, your vote…your voice does count! If John had not gone to Ephesus and preached to them they wouldn’t have heard about Jesus. If Paul had not gone to all of the places that he went to with the good news of Jesus and the salvation through Him then many people would never have heard about Jesus.

Each of us has a part to play in the grand scheme of life, whether we believe in Jesus as our Savior or not. Our part is not usually a small part because we do influence people around us whether we realize it or not. It is that influence which carries His message to the world most of the time. A thank you to a stranger or blessing the food at a restaurant or just opening the door for someone who may have their hands full or maybe you are just doing it “just because”. Any of these small interactions can have a big impact on people and then their impact on others will be affected too.

None of us can truthfully claim that what we do in this life makes no difference. Adam and Eve ate a fruit that they weren’t supposed to eat. It doesn’t sound like much until you realize that God had told them not to before they did it. They disobeyed God’s command and did their own thing, which is what we’ve been doing ever since. It was a small decision but it had huge consequences for the rest of creation. Don’t ever discount a decision that you are thinking about. Whether you think it is big or not, seek out God’s perspective on it if you are a believer because His advice is always right. Though many of us today are too impatient to wait for His answer at times.

Does your influence count? Yes it does. A parent has a lot of influence over a child’s growth and their ideas about life as they grow older. We may not think that they are listening but they are and they hear more than you think they do. A teacher or a coach has a lot of influence in the lives of those that they come in contact with over the course of their careers. Sometimes they may not find it out until years later. Society and social media today have a lot of influence on people of all ages, as well as the smart phones which we all seem to have attached to our hands.

God loves each of us and He does care about your life and your eternity. All that you need to do is believe in Him and give your life to Him so that He can give His Life to you.

The time we have

eternity In every person’s life, no matter who you are, there is a certain amount of time. Only God knows our length of days in regards to our life, but when you and I wake up each day, each of us has 24 hours in that day, 1440 minutes or 86,400 seconds. We have an allotment of time given to each of us by our Creator, whether you believe in Him or not when we are born. How we use that time and whether we use it selfishly or for Him is our choice.

What have you done with your 1,440 minutes today? A number of those were spent sleeping since our account resets itself at midnight, so depending upon how late you sleep or how early you get up determines how many of those minutes you have to do something with. There have been songs written about time and how it slips away from us or how we should be cherishing our time with those we love. What about the time which we have to serve God?

After you have given your heart to Jesus, your time becomes more useful in God’s economy and for His Kingdom. How many minutes have you given Him today? Did you thank Him for waking you up this morning? Did you thank Him for your breakfast and your other meals today? What about the safe trips that you have made around town or on the highway, did you thank Him for watching over you at those times? God loves you and He does watch over us each and every day, but do you think about Him or thank Him for the good things which happen in that day?

That is the part of life which I think is the most useful because when you live every day in a thankful mood toward God, you notice things which you really are thankful for. Getting up in the morning, getting around the house, going to the supermarket or to Walmart, and doing all of this in safety without incident, those are accomplishments which deserve thanks to the One Who gave you the ability to do them!

We all have time and the same amount of it each and every day that we live. There is no day which is too short nor a night too long because no matter where you live or the time zone that you live in, the day is still the same. Savings time or standard time, the day is still 24 hours long regardless of your feeling that you need more time to finish a task or not.

Give God the glory and the praise for the time that you have with family and friends because each minute which goes by is gone for good. You can’t get it back and you can’t add to your day tomorrow to make up for any time which you feel was lost today. Consider this when you think about how fast time goes by and the family which you have is growing up and will soon be off to college or a career. It goes by so fast and you can’t rewind time.

Job’s trials

Jobs trials This book has always fascinated me because according to some scholars it is the oldest book in the Bible. It is an account of a man who worships God and acts as a priest for his family, offering sacrifices for their transgressions regardless of whether they have asked him to do so or not. In the beginning of the book, God is meeting with “the sons of God”, those angels who are tasked with watching over humanity at the time, I suppose. Then Satan shows up at the meeting and God brags about how righteous His servant, Job, is.

Job’s trials did not come upon him as punishment for something done wrong, but because of his exemplary life! His trials came to him because God wanted to prove a point to Satan about his servant Job. To make a long story short, everything was taken from Job, even including his health, but he never cursed God even though his wife told him to. He never truly blamed God for his situation either. At the end of the book, God speaks to Job and his “friends” who have not really helped the situation, and He straightens their conception of Him out in a hurry.

Why is this story so important to us today? Because, it is indicative of our lives in some ways. Every person on the planet can identify with Job in one way or another. From being stricken with disease like cancer to losing much or all of your belongings, there is a bit of Job in all of our lives at some point in time. The best part of the story is this: God loves you regardless. Particularly if you don’t give up your faith in Him! He is faithful to bring about all your blessings and to protect you from Satan and his demons.

So….why do people look for another god or religion to make them feel complete or whole? Mostly, it’s because of Satan and his influence on the minds of people who haven’t given their heart to Jesus. He can manipulate and coerce people into believing in doctrines and practices which have nothing to do with God, but he can make them sound as if they did. That is the reason why people have broken the church into so many pieces and invented their own religions and their own idea of who god is and what he asks of us.

The biggest problem with this god which they follow is that he lives in their mind only and he isn’t real. They believe that he is, sometimes with their whole heart, but they have been deceived by demons, giving them the idea for this to replace the real God and Savior, Jesus our Savior. Some of these people even preach this kind of “religion” from a pulpit and make it seem to be the real Truth! They pick and choose scriptures which support their beliefs and they don’t dig deep into what the context of the Scripture actually says.

God loves each of us and He wants us to come to Him to be saved through belief in Jesus who paid our price on the cross. If we can and will read His Word and pray about finding His Truth in it, then we can see the difference between man-made religions and God’s Son and the church which began almost 2000 years ago. Learn more about Him through reading His Word, pray about what He says in His Word, and ask Him to reveal the Truth which is there for all to find if we will look for it diligently!!

Life is too short to waste it looking for meaning in a life which hasn’t found the path to walk on which leads to Life eternal! There is only one Savior and He isn’t in the Koran or in any other book except God’s Word. His name is Jesus the Son of God, any other name or person is not a savior nor are they able to save your soul to get into eternity! Please, read God’s Word with a prayerful heart and ask Him to show you the Truth which is in it because at the end of your life, you will have to give an account for the reason why you didn’t follow Jesus. Especially if you have ever heard the gospel preached or read the Bible!

Belief…do you believe?

faithbelief In the world today, there are many who don’t believe in Jesus or the Bible itself yet it is the inspired Word of God. Although many people don’t believe even that the Bible is God’s Word but just a collection of stories written by a bunch of men. The Bible is so much more than that!

It was written under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit and the words which are contained in it come from God. Yes, it was written by forty different men over a period of more than 1500 years. That in itself is amazing because if all of those men from different times, even centuries apart, could write a book which told of a Savior Who would come to save the world, then how could they have made the stories up?!

Belief is also bound up in faith because you can’t believe in the miracles or in our Savior without faith even if it is as small as a grain of mustard seed. The tiniest bit of faith can be used by God to accomplish many things, far beyond what you would think. When the will of God is involved in anything, it will be accomplished no matter the size of your faith!

Give your life and your heart to Jesus, as well as all that you have, and He will multiply it back to you and into His Kingdom in ways that can’t be imagined. I pray that this will encourage you to follow Jesus and ask Him into your life. Why? Because, I have to…it is my job to tell others about Him! I can’t keep quiet because He is in control and His power goes into the world to heal from this time forward! God has not stopped healing or mending broken hearts and lives.

Thank you for your time and may God richly bless you in all of the ways that you need, in Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.