Tag: Bible

The Season’s Reason


edited atheistThere is an organization which is trying to push their agenda into the spotlight. Well it is time that some of us pushed back! The image to the left is an edited version of their billboard, the one that they are using to try to trash Christmas.

The Truth is in God‘s Word and the Living Word came to Earth as a baby, although he wasn’t born in December but that is not the point. The point is that the few people who deny His existence are really the ones who need Him the most! Where I edited the words a bit changing it to the Truth, underneath it says to celebrate reason, I would rather people celebrate the Reason for the Season!

Why? Because Jesus is the reason for the Season and because He came to pay the penalty for us who were sinners, who still are sinners but we are saved by His grace and the love of God through Jesus. Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter, the truth is in the Bible and the One who came to save us is in it from the beginning to the end. If you read it, think about what you are reading, pray about the words that you read and ask God to show you the truth in it.

Don’t look at it or read it with a closed mind and heart, ask God to show you His Truth because it is contained in His Word. There is no mythology or false words in God’s Word, because a book with over forty authors could not write these words and all of them point to the same Truth, the Savior of all of us, Jesus if those words were not inspired by God.

The Love of God in your life!


Do you believe that God loves you? Have you felt it in your life this week or this year? Has someone from a Christian church ever showed the love of God to you or to someone that you know? Is there a church nearby that teaches from the Bible as God’s Word in truth and in love? All of these questions are things that shouldn’t be needed in our society, the commandment which was given by Jesus was that we should “love our neighbor as ourselves” along with loving God! The problem with this idea is that you can’t love God or anyone else until you decide to love yourself!

I am not speaking of selfish love, believing that everything and everyone should love you and revolve around you, but about caring about yourself and your soul in the way that Christ does. You also need to care about others too, especially those who may be less fortunate than you are. Those who are homeless or without a job for one reason or another (not just because they don’t want to work) or even someone who is elderly need to feel the love of God through us. Something that you can do or your church can do would be a great demonstration of God’s love. It doesn’t have to be much, just a meal that you take to someone or even helping them to get their groceries by taking them to the store.

In this world that we live in, little things mean a lot to someone who is in need. The need may not be financial, they just may need to have someone to visit them a couple of times a week. Many elderly people rarely see friends or family unless it is on a holiday or at church. Some have trouble driving and have a hard time getting someone to help them get to the doctor or the grocery store. These are just ideas, and they are small things that we can do but they mean a lot. So, how can you feel the love of God in your life?

If you are not a Christian, then you truly need to know the love of God. So, I ask you have you given your life to Christ? Do you believe in God and His Son, Jesus? There are many people in the world today that don’t claim to have a belief in Jesus or in religion in general. How can I show you the love of Christ? I know that He loved those of us in this world before we were born because He said so in His Word and He doesn’t lie.

The love of God is eternal for His Creation, all of it which includes each one of you. Satan cannot love anyone except himself, he doesn’t reward anyone with anything except the same punishment that he will receive for eternity. God cannot be different and He doesn’t change, we are the ones who change, we are the ones who move in the relationship and it is usually away from the One that we should cling to! The problems in our world today are the result of rebellion.

Rebellion against God, rebellion against the laws of God, rebellion against the wisdom of God, these are the reasons for the problems in our world today. If we spent our lives trying to be like Jonah, then sooner or later you will find that escape from God and running away from Him does not work. Why? Because God knows where you are, even if you don’t! He can see you regardless of the darkness that you try to hide in, especially if He has plans for you to accomplish! Like Jonah, He will make certain that sooner or later you will accomplish His purpose in your life and for Him!

Why are we living the way we do?


In many areas of the country, people just do as they please, as long as its not hurting anyone or is against the law. Which is fine, but what about the big cities, the population centers which control who gets elected to office. Most of them have high crime rates ranging from high numbers of thefts, and rape, to murder, and vandalism. What has happened to the American way of life, the one that many people claimed to enjoy about fifty or more years ago? The kind of life that many people came to America to enjoy seems to be slipping away, so what happened?

The thing that happened in our country and in our culture, to begin with, was the start of the Vietnam conflict and the civil rights marches, but those did not impact our culture to stop our embrace of morality and dignity. I am not sure what prompted the lawsuit that started our slide away from respect for each other and a moral way of living and character, but according to documents from the history books and from the government, it was prayer.

Prayer, by itself, is not a reason to move away from morality and dignity and character. The lawsuit was filed because a parent, who was an atheist, found out that his child was participating in prayer at school. Prayer that invoked the name of God, which this parent’s child was taught did not exist. A few years later, in 1963, the decision was handed down that prayer would not be allowed in schools anymore. The next year, the Bible was removed from all public schools.

When these two events happened, our schools and the achievements of the children who graduated from them began to erode. I am including the link address of the article where I got my information from here.

This decision, more than any other, has caused more problems and heartache and pain than many others that have come about in the past fifty years. Can we fix it or do we just have to roll with it until something blows up or shuts down, like our economy for instance?

Unfortunately, those in our nation’s capital don’t really seem to care what happens as long as their pension and their life is somehow protected from the fallout that is coming. The people which we elected to represent our wishes and the best paths for the country to follow are the ones who are making sure that they have an escape route to follow when things get really bad.

The only person that can change this sad chain of events is the one that has been shoved out of public arenas and education for years and that is God. He knows what is happening and is allowing it to happen because of our stupidity and unwillingness to acknowledge Him in all areas of our lives! The change that He will bring about is coming, it is just a matter of timing…His timing, not ours.

Consider the values of those who we vote into office, find out about them and what they stand for before you mark the ballot!! Don’t vote them into office and then go, “Oops!, we put the wrong guy in!!” By then it is too late. God gave us a brain and common sense, use it!

Does anyone go the second mile anymore?


There is a passage in God’s Word which speaks of going the second mile with someone. Do you know anyone who does that anymore? Do we, as Christians and believers, go the second mile with anyone or do we just give them a platitude to help them and pray for them and send them on their way?

We are being unfair and disingenuous in our faith if we do and being lukewarm in our walk with Christ too! He doesn’t want lukewarm Christians! Can we become more active in our faith and in our service to Him and to others as well? It is necessary for ALL Christians to get more involved in their faith and in the work of the Church, especially now, since we are coming to the end of the Church age.

I know, many preachers and so-called prophets have been saying doom and gloom for many hundreds of years, but if you read and study the prophetic books (Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation) you get an eerie feeling that you are reading today’s headlines! That is why I am saying that we must wake up and begin letting people know, whether they really believe it when you tell them or not, but they need to hear the news of Christ and how they can be saved from the wrath to come!

We need to go the second mile to help someone who is a new Christian as well. Show them how to study the Bible, help them to understand some of the hard teachings in it because if we don’t, who will? Many pastors don’t have the time these days with all of the functions going on at church, such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, study groups, etc., their time is further taken up by preparation of the sermons which they deliver during the week and every Sunday. It is up to us, each of us who may be born-again Christians, to teach and instruct our children and those new to faith in Christ. Help them to understand the fantastic gift that they have, give to them by God through Jesus!

Going the second mile with someone who is hurting from a divorce or the loss of a job or a family member, this is what Jesus would do so doesn’t it stand to reason that He would expect it of us as well? We are not perfect, we are not destined to become “gods” at some point, we are His bond-servants because of His love for us and our duty to Him. The perfection of God and His creation is that it is unchanging. He loves us with a love that is above anything that we can understand, for no reason except that He wants to love us that way!

In some things moderation is good, like eating, rest, recreation, exercise, and finances. But when it comes to spiritual warfare, moderation is a sin. When it comes to believing the Bible, moderation is a sin. When it comes to loving the Lord, moderation is a sin! We have to go full-throttle, not just ten percent in our service to Him, in our belief in Him and in our love toward Him!

If you are a Christian, your life is in Him, so it should be all in Him not just a little bit or once a week. God doesn’t want someone who begins on a row, like a planter planting a field, and then quits a few feet down the row. We can’t expect someone else to take up our slack because we get tired of being the one who is making the sacrifices or taking the time to do things. How much food would we have to eat if every farmer just planted a quarter of a row and no more?

If Jesus and His disciples had not made all of the journeys that they did to tell people of the Good News, there wouldn’t be a church today! If they had sat down only five miles outside Jerusalem, none of Paul’s letters to the churches would’ve needed to be sent or written! We need to have that enthusiasm and drive to get the message out to the world, even if it is just through the medium of pages like this. Pray about what you can do, how to do it and get started!





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Temporary living arrangement


Have you noticed that there are many people here who are living in a temporary arrangement? They stay in one place for a while then stay in another for a while, they never settle down and live anywhere. In a way, that is exactly the way that our life is supposed to be lived, temporary residence in a permanent place.

Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us to be with Him, forever. So, in light of that, the life that we live here is considered temporary. It doesn’t matter how many months or years that we have been living in the home that we have while here because it is not our permanent home. Only a home built by His hands will last forever, not these homes of clay, brick, and wooden sticks. Not even the ones that are built of concrete will last forever, although without being subjected to an earthquake they would come close.

What will you do in eternity,  if you haven’t asked Jesus into your life? Well, Jesus said that people who reject His grace and His sacrifice for their sakes will be cast into the lake of fire with Satan and his angels. I know that seems to be a harsh punishment for not giving your life to Christ, but it is the destination that you choose by not accepting Him. God did not create hell for us, it was made to punish Satan and the angels which rebelled with him. The reason that some of us will end up there is because of our rejection of God‘s gift of salvation through Jesus. When you do that, you have chosen to put yourself on the side with Satan, whether you know it or not.

There is not middle ground, no grey area where we can live and have a little bit of our way and a little bit of Christ. It is all or nothing, you are either a follower of Christ and have asked Him into your heart or you are not. There are many people who don’t believe in God or anything that is in God’s Word, the Bible and that is their priority. Sometimes, there is no way to convince people of the love of God or His grace, but I pray that many will come to know Jesus before your time on Earth is over.

I have been accused of using fear tactics to scare people to come to faith in Christ, well if it works, so what? I want you to be afraid of going to hell! Do you really want to spend eternity in punishment, in a place that was not made for you? If you are not a disciple and follower of Jesus, then you will be in that place. Think about it.

Are you satisfied?


In our world of instant potatoes, microwave popcorn, throw-away phones, etc. is it any wonder that we aren’t satisfied with life? Everything is easy, quick, “cheap”. Nothing lasts as long as we would like or feels as good as we had hoped. We are depressed, disillusioned and most of all angry at everyone and everything because nothing, nothing ever satisfies our hunger or our thirst for whatever it is we are searching for, no matter what it may be!

Boy, am I glad I got all of that off my chest!!

Your life doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to have everything instantly. Things that last are much more precious and harder to come by than the advertisements lead you to believe. Although the most precious and lasting relationship can last forever, most never realize it until it is too late. They find they have picked the wrong one and by that time there is no turning back. Or possibly, you might not wake up at all tomorrow. What then?

Will you find yourself facing God and not having an answer to His question, “What did you do with my Son?” Do you know who His Son is? Have you met Him? It really is easy you know? If you have been searching for something, but you are not sure what, it may be that you are truly being drawn to Him. Listen to that voice inside which is pulling at your heart. God is the creator and He loves His creation, you! Let Him into your life!  He can clean out the dirt, the cobwebs, and everything else that you think would make you unworthy and make you whole and new again!

Call on Him!  Ask Jesus into your heart, simply, like a child. He will hear you and come into your life and make you and your life whole again, if you will let Him. That is all that He asks of you. Just give your life to Him. He doesn’t need your money, just your service to Him and His Kingdom.

I know, there are many who say that they don’t want to serve Him. I understand and He does too. If you want to be selfish and just take care of yourself and the things and people that you can see around you, that’s fine. Many of our problems in this life, especially Christians, are caused by the enemy of God, Satan. Because He tries everyday to make life hard for us, just because we belong to God. If you don’t follow Jesus, then you are already on Satan’s side so he doesn’t want to cause you any trouble.

The troubles that we have in this world, for Christians and non-Christians alike, are usually caused by Satan and his demons. Many people don’t think that he exists, that these are just our imagination, but they are real. That is and always has been his greatest achievement, making people believe that he isn’t real.

We live in a fallen world and it will remain so until Jesus returns, which many people don’t think is happening. But, what if the Bible and the prophecies contained in it is really true? When it becomes crystal clear that these prophecies are coming true, what then?

What good are the Ten Commandments?


Today, do we still need the Ten Commandments? Are they relevant to our time and our lives today? Many people don’t think so today. According to most of those who don’t want to know about God and don’t want to believe anything that is contained within the Bible, these laws are null and void. According to them, God’s Word was made up by men so it has no authority. They even postulate that it had no authority at the time it was written and it specifically hasn’t any today!

Why is that? Our laws are based upon the laws given by Moses! We have laws against adultery, murder, perjury (lying under oath), stealing, neglecting your parents in their old age (honor your father and mother). Granted, you won’t go to jail for cheating on your wife or your husband, but if you are found out the divorce will cost you something! Dependent on how forgiving your spouse is, it may or may not cost you your life!

The Ten Commandments were given to begin to show people that they need a Savior, because there is no way that we can keep them perfectly. It just can’t be done, because by breaking even one of them, you have become guilty of all of them. If you have ever stolen anything, no matter how small or inconsequential it might have been, you are a thief. If you lied to your Mom or Dad about it, now you are a liar and a thief. Any one of these sins will keep you from having a relationship with God, but the most important decision of your life has nothing to do with these!

The most important time of your life is to realize that you are a sinner, separated from God and then to realize that you need Jesus in your life! That is the purpose of these Commandments! To make you realize your sin, regardless of your faith! If you have heard them or read them, then your heart will let you know when you break them. That is their purpose, to bring you to the point where you know that you need Jesus.

Your decision, the one which will determine your eternity, is whether you will accept God’s grace to you through Jesus or not. That is what decides your final destination, not a loving God. He didn’t create hell for any of us, it was created to punish the angels and Satan who rebelled against God. We have always had a reservation, an invitation to Heaven, all we have to do is accept Jesus as our personal Savior and when we follow Him, we will be where He is, where our reward is, in Heaven. It is your decision and yours alone that determines your eternity, this is why we were given a choice because God wants us to choose to serve Him!

Even the angels have a choice, they are not required by instinct or design to serve God. We are created with a spirit of choice as well. We can choose to live by the rules of the world and do what we want to do, trying to do it all on our own,to see if we can be good enough, righteous enough to earn our way into heaven. Except, we are flawed because of our sinful nature and we can’t be perfect enough, righteous enough to earn our way. Jesus is the only way into Heaven because He paid the price of a perfect sacrifice for all of mankind and all that we have to do is accept it and believe that He did it for us.

Don’t believe the lie that time is on your side, because that is a deception from Satan himself. He is using that to make you believe that you have plenty of time to make your decision. The problem with that is that none of us are guaranteed tomorrow, we don’t know if we will wake up when the alarm goes off tomorrow or if we will open our eyes to gaze at the judgment seat of God!

Truthfully, I am not trying to frighten you, I am not saying that your life might end tonight. But, kids who were just 19 years old have died in their sleep, people get killed in accidents every day, none of them saw this coming, none of them knew that it was about to happen, but it did. What if, for the sake of your eternal soul, I am right. What will happen to you if you have not asked Jesus into your heart? It will not be God’s fault that you will end up in hell, it will be yours! Because you have heard the message and the way out of hell is faith and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. There is no other way. Religion won’t save you, your own version of righteousness won’t pay your way into Heaven, none of your wealth on Earth will go with you and it won’t help.

The only way into Heaven is by faith in Jesus.

 

We all need Christ today!


Jesus loves you, that is why He came to earth to do what God wanted Him to do. God loves you too, which is also why He sent Jesus to earth to be the sacrifice for the whole human race. He did it for all of us, from the time that Adam and Eve lived up until now and also those who will be born until the end of the age. Jesus paid the price for you and for me.

He loves you and your family, whether you have accepted Him as your savior or not. It doesn’t make sense to us because we can’t understand what God does. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, His ways are higher than our ways. Many people today don’t know whether their eternity will be one that they will enjoy or not. People like you and me just don’t know where their destination will be, which is a sad thing. God’s grace was given to us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross so that we might know that we have eternal life through Him!

If you haven’t accepted Jesus into your heart, then your life will end here on earth but your eternity will be in torment. Not because God is punishing you but because you decided that you didn’t want to accept His grace through Jesus to save your soul. You do have to turn from your sins, repent from them, and ask Jesus into your heart, then go to a Bible teaching church and confess that you have given your life to Christ. Jesus said that we are to publicly show that you have given your life to Him and He will acknowledge you before God and the angels in Heaven.

There are so many hurting people in the world today, and their only real salvation is through Jesus. Give your life to Him and ask Him into your life. Time is growing short, the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation are  coming true every day. This is why all of the bad things are happening, because Satan knows that his time is short as well. Don’t wait, please learn of Jesus and turn to Him, He can and will help you through the pain in your life.

What kind of faith do you have?


Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.

This is the definition of honest, child-like faith, something which many people cannot understand, even though they have a kind of faith too. Take the scientists and professors who believe in evolution for example, the amount of faith that they have to believe in a theory which is still just a theory would have to be more than mine!

Richard Dawkins is quoted thus — “Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.”

There is plenty of evidence for a number of extinct animals and plant life all over the world and I agree with it. There are many different types of animals found in different places and climates, which I don’t and won’t argue with. But…no one has found a transitional fossil of any kind (species) which shows an animal in the process of changing from one type of animal, like one that lives on land or even an amphibian which lives both on land and in water, into another like the theory which says that whales evolved this way.

If scientists claim that evolution takes millions of years, then where are the fossils to prove it? Unless an amphibian stepped into the water one night and the next morning found that it couldn’t get back up on land, how can this be? It seems to me that it would take an enormous amount of faith to believe in evolution happening in that way. So, how can these questions be satisfied? If faith is a cop-out, then scientists are guilty of it too, don’t you think? Jesus said that we only need the faith that a child has, trusting faith, in order to believe and receive the gifts and grace of God. We don’t have to do anything, nor can we do anything to help us get into Heaven. It has already been done, by Jesus Himself. All that we have to do is surrender to Him in faith and believe what the Word of God tells us.

Although, there are many who think that the Book, God’s Word, was made up by the men who wrote it, there are many proofs of its authenticity. Such as the historical account of Israel’s past kings and kingdoms, these have been proven by archaeology and if there is proof of part of the Bible, then the whole of it can’t be dismissed as fiction.

Forty men over the course of fifteen hundred years wrote the books which appear in its pages and yet they are all pointing toward the salvation of the world through the Person of Christ. You couldn’t get forty scientists to agree on enough issues to be able to write a book with sixty-six chapters and coherently point toward one conclusion, whether they were separated by geography or time, let alone over fifteen centuries! The message contained within this Book points clearly to the Savior but it also points to how much God loves each of us. Not specifically for who we are or because of what we may have done, but just because He chooses to.

Isn’t it wonderful that the Creator of this universe loves each of us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to take our punishment for the sin that is in our lives! It is very humbling as well, because He knew me…He knew each of us before we even knew about Him! All of this information is in His Word, the Bible, along with the promises that He made to Israel and most of their promises have been fulfilled. If those promises were fulfilled, don’t you think that those promises to us about salvation, and eternity will be fulfilled too? Give your heart and your life to Jesus because He loved you first.

Do you know much about Christianity?


As a religion it has taken a bad rap from the other religions and from many people all over the world. So, what do you know about the religion of Christianity? Those who claim to be Christians are supposed to be following Christ and in His footsteps be His reflection to the world at large. In essence, we are supposed to be “little Christ’s”, but are we?

How many really live up to that high standard of conduct? Can we do it with our own strength? No, we cannot do it with our own strength. Very few have done this in the past two thousand years, although there have been some. Many use their “take” on this religion in the pulpit or on television to make lots of money off of many people that they don’t know and in the process many have paid the price for their arrogance.

The church, with all of its denominations and divisions, has paid the price of false teachers and doctrines over the past two thousand years. Granted, there have not been many but over those years but the ones who existed in the dark ages did a lot of damage to the church. Many of those who have bee active in the past century have also done a good deal of harm to the church and the way that Christianity is perceived in the world today. Some of them may have believed that their interpretations and their teachings were correct, and yet they were found to be false later.

The church does have hypocrites in it, in the pews and in the pulpits, but by being Christians and leaning on the strength of Christ we can be the people, the church which Jesus always intended for us to be. In the time period that we are living, we should be doing more to tell people about Christ and about Jesus, one person yet two different people according to history. Christ is the Jewish Messiah and many are still waiting for Him to return. Jesus is the Christ that many have rejected and He is sitting at the right hand of God. This is the message that we are to be sharing with the world, even though many don’t want to receive it or even believe its truth.

Many people seem to reject that the Holy Scriptures are true, those which came to the Jewish people through Moses and the Prophets and the New Testament which came by Jesus’ disciples. Yet, all of the books of the Scriptures point in one direction, to one Person and to our salvation through belief in Jesus. All that we have to do is be obedient to them and the wisdom contained in them as well as to realize that we all need salvation through Jesus, because He is the only way, the only perfect sacrifice that was given in order for us to be saved and sanctified. We cannot do this on our own! There is no amount of “works” that a human being can do to be perfect in the light of God because we are not and cannot be holy without Jesus! Any teaching which says otherwise is lying and is false!

No one can be perfect and fulfill and obey every law perfectly, not missing even the smallest detail of the law regardless of Whose law it may be. Whether it is a man-made law or one that comes from God, we cannot claim to be able to perfectly conform to any law because in thought or deed we will break a part of the law and when we do, we have broken the law regardless of offense. Which is why Moses was given the law to begin with. It was for the purpose of showing that humanity cannot attain perfection in obedience to the law because we cannot be and are not perfect. The only One that was able to keep from sinning against the law was Jesus.

He is our example and our Messiah. He was the perfect Lamb of God and is our Savior, sent to redeem the entirety of humanity from eternity past up until He comes again. Give your life and your heart to Jesus and even though your troubles won’t vanish, the strength to make it through them will come from Him! Even though you have to decide each day to die to your own selfish ways and live for Jesus and allow Him to live and show through your life to others, it will get better and you will be stronger for it. Think about it.