Tag: Bible

Beauty in Creation


Have you every noticed the sun rise? Many people don’t because they don’t wake up early enough. The problem with sleeping in is that you don’t get to see the most beautiful part of the day. Of course, there is always sunset, which depending on the weather can be just as beautiful but usually with different colors. The time in between those two, the sky is blue for the most part depending on the weather. Every time that we notice the sky, the colors and the things that we notice about it all have to do with the weather. If it is stormy in the morning or evening, then the sky is usually red and purple or a variation of those two colors. If it is about to snow or rain, then mostly what we see is the gray clouds and the haze which comes with them.

Creation is a word that is not very popular these days, mainly because it doesn’t take the “theory of evolution” into account. Why? Because it is only a theory, it can’t be proven any more thoroughly than creation can except we have God‘s Word on one and only a scientist’s theory for the other. Which one would you believe? I think that I would put more stock in what God says than what a scientist thinks, but that is just me.

We have many people in our world who can’t seem to get a handle on religion or which one they want to put their belief and their eternal destiny in. Religion is something which man created which is why there are so many different ones in the world. In the beginning, God did not create a religion. All that He wanted was mankind’s obedience and his love expressed through our thankful offerings of our first-fruits, whether it was a first lamb born or the fruit from our gardens. If it was the first crop from the vegetable garden, it was acceptable to God. Cain brought his offering in due time, his was not the first fruits which was the reason God did not accept his offering.

We have forgotten this in our culture, in this day and in this twenty-first century. We have such a instant gratification culture that no one thinks about God much anymore until they really, truly need Him! He is the Creator of all things and yet we teach our children that it was by accident that life came to this planet, through some chance encounter with a comet that had amino acids in its ice and that they congealed into proteins on their own. Nothing is created by chance or accident and this can be proven by simple experiments. Try throwing an egg, some salt, a little baking powder, some flour and some milk into a bowl and swish it around a bit then give it a little time and some heat in an oven. Will that be biscuits or bread or a cake? This accidental concoction may taste OK, but then again it may not be edible at all. Accidental creation just doesn’t work.

All of mankind is bound up in a drop of blood. All of us have red blood, whether our skin is white or black, brown or with a yellow tinge to it or some other color, darker or lighter. We are created in His image, God’s image and it doesn’t matter what color our skin is. The culture that we grow up into is the part of each of us that is hard to reconcile, not our races or at least that is what should be known. We have different views of our cultures, whether they are acceptable to each other. Racism has run rampant in our world, not just in America but in all of the world. The problem is that it is not race that is the problem, it is intolerance of the differences between cultures, between people who judge themselves better than others because of their skin color regardless of whether they are white or black or any other color.

God’s Creation is beautiful and the people that He placed in it are to, and it is time that we started acting  toward each other like He wants us to and following His rules and laws toward each other. We need to come to the realization that God created us to be stewards, to be tolerant of each other regardless of skin color or culture. We should celebrate the differences that we have while also celebrating our similarities.

If not God then what?


There are many today that are trying to prove that God doesn’t exist and that nothing was before the Big Bang which started everything. But, let me pose a question here: What or Who started or initiated the Big Bang?

It didn’t just explode on its own even if it did contain all of the matter in the universe. What existed before the Big Bang? The singularity from which it proceeded from maybe? Just a huge lump of matter which was condensed to a point and yet contained everything? The Creator existed before the so-called Big Bang and He was the One who started it.

There is no way to prove my “theory” any more than astronomers or cosmologists can prove their theory of its going “boom” on its own so I won’t get into that discussion. Although, God was and is the Creator of all according to His Word and the discussion that He had with Job, so according to my faith that settles the issue.

Why does it seem that one of three people seem to want to ignore the facts around them especially that the order of everything is too perfect for it to have happened by chance? Perfection is the way that He planned everything, because that is His way.

Chance and accidental happenings on which evolution depends in the early part of earth’s history could not produce the variety of life or the abilities that the animals on earth possess. In the short amount of time that life has been present, even if it may have been over four billion years, life could not have changed from single-celled animals into all of the various forms of life that is present on earth.

God brought all of this into existence by His power and His voice, as the Bible says “by His Word”. So, why is everyone denying His existence? I know, not everyone is denying God’s existence but according to the news and the people in the news it seems that way.

Getting back to Creation, God created mankind and all of the animals as adults, they didn’t start life as babies so why does everyone seem to think that the universe is billions of years old? God created it with the appearance of age because only mature galaxies and solar systems work the way they are supposed to when they are created. The theories about clouds of gas condensing into planets and stars is great but how long do you really think that would take?

Our God, the Creator of everything, is awesome! He can stretch out the cosmos in all directions and place stars and galaxies in any place that He wishes to without exceeding the speed of light. There is no possibility that it created itself nor did it just go “boom” and then billions of years later solar systems and planets and animals and people just happened to appear. If God was not the initiator of it all and in every aspect of it, then we would not be here.

Give God the credit for it because that is Who did it all. Can we make it without Him? No and why would you want to try? What if He gave up on you and stopped giving you the sun to power the weather and photosynthesis in our plants which give us oxygen to breathe? Can you create these things?

I don’t think so. God loves us enough that He gives us every good thing that is needed for life plus He sent His Son to take the punishment for our sinful lives. Not just yours or mine but everyone on the planet from the beginning to the end of the age. If you decide to ask Him into your heart, please don’t think that you can take Him off like a glove and go do what you want to do when you want to do it. It will come back to bite you if you do. You very likely didn’t really ask Him into your heart to begin with if you leave Him in the church or don’t even go to church after asking Him into your life.

I mean, how would your spouse feel (if they stayed with you) if you left them at the church after the ceremony. Then claimed them the next Sunday or when you came back to church. That relationship will not last very long. How do you think Jesus feels if you ask Him into your life and then you leave Him out of your life all during the week until you come back to church? Think about it and let me know what you think too.

 

Why don’t more people attend church?


Is it because they are not interested or have become dis-interested in the message? Is it because of the media today that pushes references to God out of the news most of the time? Maybe it is because our culture has collectively walked away from belief in God and just doesn’t want to get into church. I am not sure of the cause in our nation, but in many parts of the world, belief in Jesus is exploding yet in our country belief and attendance of church services is declining. Being the only country which was founded on Christian principles, I am not sure what has happened to our belief system.

God and His Word have not changed, so what has happened to us?

Many of our beliefs today reflect our society and its beliefs, so why is our world changing in such radical ways? It is because our society and the beliefs that we have held as a nation have changed drastically in the past fifty years or so. We were considered, at one time, to be a Christian nation but even though many people still say they believe in God they don’t practice their beliefs.

If this is hard to believe, you can look up the statistics on the Internet. Many people who are college age or have graduated recently don’t attend any religious gatherings on a regular basis. Many, who were part of a family that attended church, have just walked away from their faith altogether. Even in the so-called Bible-belt, less than thirty percent overall attend church regularly. What happened?

We, as a nation, have pushed God out of our lives. We pushed Him out of our schools, we have declared that He is dead, we have mocked Him in many areas, especially scientific circles. Theories that maintain that He wasn’t present when the universe was created are taught as if they are factual. It seems that we take little notice of the miraculous in our lives, regardless of how much it impacts our daily lives.

Can anything be done about this situation? Yes, something can and will be done! The Christians who are devout and steadfast in their faith must step up and pray for a revival in our communities, our counties, our states and our nation! If we don’t do this, the next generation will be the one which pays the price and the entire world will suffer for it. If we, collectively, don’t decide to humble ourselves and pray, asking forgiveness for our lack of faith and judgment, then we will be responsible for the downfall of faith in God which will be the forerunner for chaos in our world.

I implore you to listen with your heart! Get down on your knees, ask God to forgive us, each of us, so that we can begin the healing process in our lives. So He can begin the revival in our hearts and our minds because if we don’t, there will be little hope left once He is gone from our culture. Don’t let this happen by executive order or from a judge’s gavel, pray hard and long for our revival, let God know that there are still people who believe in Him and who care whether He is present in our lives.

If we don’t revive our belief in God in our nation, and spread the news to the world, then we are dropping the ball. Jesus told His disciples , as well as us, to take the gospel to the end of the world so what are we waiting for? If we don’t tell people what Jesus has done for us and what He can do for them, then who will? How will they hear about Him, if there is nobody telling what He has done and is doing in their life?

It is a challenge for all of us who are believers but it is a challenge that we must meet. Even if you never set foot in another country, at least pray for those who are missionaries around the world. Prayer is most powerful when we do it on purpose and our purpose is clear, people must know about Christ! If we don’t tell them, or pray for them to come to know Him then who will?

Our Amazing God!


I have written about this before, but it bears repeating. That our God, the Creator of the universe is amazing! All of the life that is on our planet, not just humanity, but all of the living organisms from single celled life, to the blue whales which traverse the oceans and every tree and blade of grass was created by Him with a word, how amazing is that!

Can any other “god” claim to have done this? No, they cannot because they didn’t and cannot do what our God can do. Have you considered the wonders of our world and the universe that we live in? This did not happen by chance, nor did it happen by accident, it came together because God wanted it to!

He sent His Son to earth as the final sacrifice for our sins and if you believe in Him and the grace that is given to you through Jesus, then you are part of His family and joint heirs with Christ in Heaven! Isn’t that humbling? Isn’t it a powerful expression of love from God to each of us? Yes, it is on both counts because if God didn’t love each of us He wouldn’t have done the things that He has done for us.

He would not have sent His Son and He wouldn’t give us this place that we call home, if He didn’t love us beyond any love that we can comprehend. If God is drawing you to Himself, please don’t walk away from Him, reach out and ask Him into your life and your heart. You will know if He is drawing you to Him and when you recognize it, please don’t ignore Him. Your life before accepting Him is nothing compared to what it can be after accepting Him. Serving Him through your job and the life that you live before your family is an awesome responsibility, because they need to know Him too and if they only see Him through you then that is needed, you are needed by Him to be that witness.

There is so much darkness in our world today that many people can’t see or even tell that there is a light and that light is the love of God and His Son! John wrote in his gospel that:

16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16,17)

The world doesn’t know Him because it and those who are in it don’t want to know Him. They are like the ones in Jesus’ time that refused His message, and refused to believe in Him. In the book of Matthew is this verse “For many are called but only a few are chosen” Matthew 22:14

Those who are chose are the ones who will answer the call of God on their spirit, because some will and some won’t. If you think you can live your life without God, you are right, you can…but your life will be limited to this world. Once your life is over here, you will face God Himself and when you do He will ask you what you chose to do with Jesus even though He knows the answer. If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, then He will send you into a place of punishment forever because of your decision!

Please don’t let that be you! Give your life to Jesus, ask Him to come into your life, read a Bible and learn Who He is and how He much He loves you. Learn about Him, find out what He can do for you and what He can do through you. Your life will change into one of significance not only in this life but into eternity. Pray about it and ask Him to show you His wisdom for your life, because He will.

 

Do you see the love of Christ at your church?


In our world and our culture, the love that we are commanded to show to one another seems to be in short supply…even in church. So what are we to do? Well, the first thing that you can do is make sure that your heart is right with God! If you don’t have Jesus in your heart, then the love of God won’t be there either and if it isn’t there then it won’t show up in church or anywhere else. People will wonder about your walk with Christ, whether it is genuine or not, if the Spirit of Christ doesn’t shine through.

This is something which can’t be faked. You can act like a Christian, you can attend church for decades and teach Sunday school, you can even be a pastor and still not be saved if you know the words and what is expected of you! In other words, you can walk and talk it and still not have it because you are just going through the motions and that is all! Many people in our country are doing just that because if there really were over ninety percent of Americans that were real Christians, then every church in the country would be full to overflowing every Sunday!

I am not trying to upset anyone with this, although I may get a few feathers ruffled, but some people do need to wake up! We need a revival in our country, a revival and an exodus back to God, back to morality and knowing the One who helped to make this country into what it has been for over two hundred years! If we don’t put Him back in charge of many areas of our collective lives in this country, we are going to reap the penalty for our refusal and for turning our backs on Him and for pushing Him out of schools and each person’s lives as much as we have.

God loves each one of us with a love that nobody can come close to understanding, except maybe a mother. The love that most mothers feel for their children is the only bond that imitates God’s love for us. I am also emphatically not calling a mother’s love imitation! It just happens to be the only bond that comes close to that which God has for us and would like to share with each of us. Just as when you talk to your mom, God wants to talk to you, but we need to learn to listen. Get away from the computer and the cell phone, leave the e-mail out of it because He doesn’t do e-mail. You have to be able to hear His voice and His voice is one that is quiet, so you have to be, as the Word of God says, “in a quiet place” away from the distractions of life so that you can hear from Him. Personally, I used to talk to Him and try to listen while I was driving to and from work. If you are alone in the car, turn the radio off and tell Him that you are listening…talk to Him just like you do to any other friend that you have, He will hear you.

His love will show through you and others in your church when you are connected to it. When you are listening to Him, you will find out things that your Bible doesn’t have in it..you will come to understand scripture better when you pray about it. God reveals His wisdom to you when you come to Him. Many people today seem to deny the existence of God, they don’t want Him to hold them accountable for their actions but He does and He will, like it or not. Life is given to each of us by Him, daily to live, to love, to serve, to witness to others. What we do with our life is our choice, but our choice has a price. If you choose to follow Jesus and live through Him, other people’s lives will be impacted by your choices and yours will too. If you choose to live your life selfishly, doing only what you want to do, how you want to do it, you will affect some lives too but at the end of this life what will you have to show for it? Some people have big homes, fancy cars, money to burn and fame and all the “fair-weather friends” to go with all of this, but you can’t take any of that with you when you die! When you are gone, so will your so-called friends be, they will be off looking for someone else who has the money or toys that they like, but where will you be?

Many people say that when they die, they will just be dead period. Jesus said that this life is not the end, it is just the beginning. We are created with an eternal soul and that soul will live on, according to what your life was here and through your life on earth. This is the training ground for eternity, so what are you training for? A life of love, compassion, hope, and knowing that you have all of that secured through the sacrifice that Jesus made for you? Or will your eternity be filled with regret and pain, knowing that you could’ve made the right choice which would change your eternity…but you didn’t. You only get to change your mind while you are here in this life, once you pass to the other life the choice has been made.

 

The one who sees me


This is a great post and couldn’t have been said any better. Just as in the days of Hagar, the Lord sees all of us and cares for all of us. He is with us through all of the times of our lives, good or bad, thick or thin whether that is regarding health, money, relationships or whatever. God never leaves us nor forsakes us. Great message!

GodGirl's avatarIt's a God thing...

“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
She…

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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.

Your life, my life, any difference?


This is not a post to brag or one to belittle anyone. It is more of a confession of circumstances, things which have happened to me and the choices that were made because of them. Some of those choices were good and some were not so good and eventually the results turned out pretty good, but not because of anything that I did on my own.

As I stated in another article (Memories) I have had some interesting jobs in the past and I have seen many things that most people never think about unless they have been in a war zone. Before I worked at those jobs, I was a “normal” teenager. At least as normal as possible in the late ’70’s.

I was the product of a divorce that happened when I was five, so of course I never did understand why my parents split up. For most of my young life, I was angry. I was angry at my parents, and my grandparents for not stopping them from breaking up. I thought that everything could be fixed if they would just get back together somehow.

As I got older, my anger and frustration got turned inside. I was angry with myself. Why? I have no idea. I was just angry, so I started smoking pot then I started drinking alcohol. I didn’t start off with beer though, there was a man in town who would sell it to anyone as long as they had the money, so I started off with whiskey.

I am not going to go through my entire life story here because my life is not interesting enough for that. The only things in my life that were interesting might be the ways that God kept me from killing myself. I don’t know how He did it, but I know that my grandmother was praying for me while I was growing up so that is the reason why I survived I suppose.

To get past my teen years, there are many other things which have happened during the eighties that were the kind of things that most people like to forget, so I will not bring them up here. My life, the one that I have been happy with began in ’91 when I met my wife and my Lord (not in that order, Jesus came first 🙂 ).

When He came into my life I realized that I had been trying to get away from Him during the eighties. I had known about Him while I was growing up but knowing about Jesus and knowing Him are entirely different relationships. Yes, it is relationship that God has wanted all along!

Remember, if you have read the Bible at all, in the beginning after God had created Adam He would come down to the garden and walk with him and talk with him. That is the kind of relationship that God desires from us and for each of us today! The Creator of everything wants to know you as a friend, not as a creature or a pet but as a friend! Isn’t that awesome?

I know that our lives may be different culturally and all, but the Creator, God Himself wants to know you and me personally! I don’t know about you but that is just too awesome not to tell someone! God loves you, all of you, every one of you personally and deeply because He had a part in creating you. He knew us individually before we were born, because He exists outside of time’s constraints. He can see the future and the beginning. He knows when you were born and when you will die.

God is real and He is there because He is. We are here because He wanted us to be. There is no chance or accidental way to explain this universe nor is there a way to explain each of us. We are here, our planet is where it is because He placed it in its place. Exactly at the right distance. There are too many cosmological and mathematically precise formulas in our universe to explain it away by “it just happened”!

Creation doesn’t “just happen”! Complexity doesn’t just happen. Can you take a bunch of sticks or lumber and toss them together and form a house? Even the scientists which discovered our building blocks couldn’t take a replica of what they thought would be the “ooze that existed on the early earth” and zap it with electricity and come up with proteins, let alone a single-celled organism!

Natural processes don’t go from simple to complex, naturally, there has to be an intelligence or a Creator behind it. You can go from complex to simple because eventually everything returns to the elements that it is made from, but nature doesn’t move in the opposite direction.

I have gotten completely off into another topic entirely, but the point is that God is our Creator and He wants to know each of us. All that we have to do is accept His friendship and ask Him to help us to be His friend. We cannot do it on our own, but if we ask Him to come into our lives, He will. Then all of the junk that was in your life and the anger and frustration that was there, it won’t go away but it will be easier to bear simply because you won’t be alone!

He wanted me to come to know Him and He brought me to a place where we could meet and get to know one another. There is no hidden agenda with God, He loves you and the grace that He gives each of us daily should be enough to make you want to love Him too! It is usually our own pride that won’t allow us to admit that we need Him and yet we will allow that to come between us and the most glorious friendship that we could ever have.

Don’t put off something like this because we are only here for a short while and we are not guaranteed tomorrow, none of us are! I may not wake up in the morning in my mortal body, but if I don’t I will wake up…with my Savior forever!

Do you act like a child?


“When I was a child, I spoke as a child and played as a child; when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:11)

This is something which we have heard from preachers for years, but what exactly does it mean?
To us, as Christians, it means that when we finally grow up, regardless of what age we may be when we do, we should act like it!
Do we act like it? Have we grown up? Are we, as adults, really grown up?
1. Most of us are not.
• We do what we want to do, when we want to do it, if possible. Then, we get mad if we can’t.
• People see themselves as good, but what about the thoughts that we all have. Are they good all the time? Would you want Jesus to read your thoughts every day? He knows what you think whether you have given your heart to him or not.
• Does it bother you that God knows every thought that you have? If it doesn’t, you might want to check your relationship with Him.
2. Can we fix our character, our heart or our soul on our own? Of course not! We can’t pull off something like that, only Jesus can do a soul-cleansing restoration on your heart and soul!

Many times, we believe that we are in charge. We start our lives wanting to be in charge of our life. “I can do it myself!” How many times have parents heard that? At those times it is cute, for a while, but when children get older it is called being rebellious. It tends to cause ulcers and grey hair and lost hair too.

The point is that, when we think that we are good enough to run our lives by ourselves, we are taking the throne away from the One Who is supposed to be there! We are doing the same thing that Satan tried to do when He was cast into outer darkness. He wanted to put himself on the throne which God was on or to put his “throne” above God’s. We can’t do that, although many people do just exactly that!

People that think they have plenty of time to get around to God do it. People who don’t believe that there is a God do it. People who have made their own version of “god” do it. This happens all over the world, every day. Billions of people think that they know better than God!

Can we be that ignorant? Are we? Many people think that they have all of the answers for their own problems and for the world’s problems too. You see them on television and on the internet every day. If they base their advice on God’s Word, and use its wisdom to advise people, then maybe they do have the answer for mankind’s problems. But, if they are using their own wisdom or some wisdom from man, such as Buddhism or Scientology, then they are mistaken. Even the Koran is only from a man, it was not given by God. God would not condone killing others because they won’t accept Islam as their religion. That sounds like it came from Satan himself.

The answers to our life’s problems lie in giving our hearts and our minds to Christ so that we can become more like Him. Following Him in all of our ways, every day and in all things. Give the day to Him before you begin it so that He will be in your mind and heart and direct your steps and words during your daily routine. It isn’t hard to do, but it is a conscious decision that we have to make. A decision that comes only when your heart is filled with the Holy Spirit and you have taken the Word into your mind. One sermon a week listening to someone preach doesn’t equip you for service to God, you have to do that daily!

I know that many people think that daily walks with God in His Word is what the preacher is supposed to do. It is what we are all called to do as Christians, to be followers of Christ. Walking with God daily is our responsibility because if we don’t, we won’t get to know the God who came to save us. Reading the Bible is the best way for us to get to know Him because it is His way of communicating with us and telling us about Himself.

God loves us more than we can understand but the way that we can learn about Him is by reading His word. Getting to know our Father better is one of the best things you can do for your relationship with Him, the better you know Him, the easier it is to recognize His voice when He speaks to you. I can’t imagine a more satisfying relationship than having one with the Creator of everything! He created us all for that, the least that we could do is return the love toward Him.

God knew you before you were born and He knows when your last day on the earth will be. Knowing this, He still chose you to be a child of His and all He is waiting for is your agreement with Him and your asking Him into your heart and life. God’s grace toward us is loving and eternal and doesn’t depend on anything that we may believe that we have to do, God doesn’t need our help in making us righteous. He works His changes in your heart and your life gradually and carefully, but sometimes those changes may hurt a bit.

We don’t agree with the pain and suffering that we have to endure during the time of God’s changes in our hearts and our lives because, even as Christians, it hurts or it is uncomfortable. That’s life! Jesus didn’t say that He came to make our lives easy. He told the disciples and us through them that we would have trouble and pain in this world, but He also tells us to take heart because He overcame the world and through Him, we can too!

There are many people in the world that are hurting every day and in more ways than we can imagine but God knows about each of them and His Spirit is with them through it all. He will draw them to Himself and if they answer the call they will have His strength to carry them through whatever they are being put through. Many people don’t acknowledge that call on their spirit because they are hurting too much or they are high on drugs or they are drunk, but God knows their hearts. He will keep drawing them until they tell Him to go away, if they recognize that it was Him to begin with.

Other times, which happens more often that we would like to believe, they don’t hear His call in their life. People are so caught up in what they are doing or having to deal with until they are spiritually deaf. Satan loves it when we are so caught up in our lives and our jobs or with our family that we can’t even hear God calling to us. That is when he will crank up the volume in our life so that we are even more involved and there is no way God can get through. But, God knows your heart and He knows whether you will hear Him at some point and it is at those times, whether you like what is happening to you or your family or not, that you will hear Him! You may wonder why this is happening at that point but it is because God has something that only you can do and He will not let you ignore Him.

I can hear many people saying that we are not predestined but God says that we are. He can raise up a ruler or bring him down for His purposes and He can do the same with us. He is the Creator and can do anything that He desires to do and if that means breaking down your will in order to build you up to be the person that He knows you can be, then that is what He will do. Give your heart to God before He has to allow that to happen in your life, so that He can use you in a more fantastic way than you could ever imagine! Won’t you call on Him today?

Life is..?


Life is…? What? Hard? Easy? Difficult? Mostly, life is all of these. Occasionally, all of them at the same time!

The wind blows, the trees sway.

The river and streams run and tumble and play,

But the rocks are still, yet they are shaped,

By wind and water too.

Life is like that as well. The things that we experience shape our lives and how we perceive life. Can we do anything about the life that we live? Sometimes, but most of the time we just live it. Is it hard to “just live it”? Not really unless you live in poverty or in an area that has been under a drought for a long time or in a war torn area of the world. Life is not easy, regardless of where you live or what you believe in.

The society and cultures that we live in, regardless of the country, shape our opinions and our lives as well as our characters. Is there any way that we can be good enough to be human and be kind to one another? Yes, we all have the capability and the moral compass within us. Whether we choose to be that person or not is our choice. We are free to choose, for good or evil, how our actions affect those around us.

Most of us would like to be liked by our colleagues, so we choose to be likeable and friendly. Others in society choose to be selfish, caring only about what is good for them as individuals and nothing for anyone else. Thankfully, those who are selfish make up a smaller portion of society, but they do get most of the media attention so we hear about them most often. I think that is why we are so fascinated by reality shows. When cameras are around, at some point the selfish person will show up when they are least expected and usually it is the person who wasn’t selfish to begin with.

We are a group of contrasts, always changing as we get older. Sometimes for better, sometimes not so much. Age doesn’t always bring wisdom, it should but life has a way of teaching you lessons that you really don’t enjoy and whether you get wisdom from these lessons or not is still up to you. We are ruled by our choices in life and in eternity. I know, many people don’t really believe that there is an eternity but it is mentioned in the Bible so I believe it exists, and it is a very long, long time!

How can we make a difference in our life and in other people’s lives now and into eternity? By living the life that we have like it is going to end tomorrow! Telling and showing others the One who came to give them life after this one! It is not a hard job, but it is one that is not very popular right now. Some of the lessons contained in God‘s Word are considered “hate speech“, bigoted, elitist views of salvation, the list goes on and on.

The point of all of this is that we only have a limited amount of time to let others know about Jesus. Our lifetime is only a small part of eternity and compared to eternity it is but a puff of smoke or mist. The message that we have is one that is very important to those who need it and will listen. If you don’t think that you need it..well, prayer is an option, searching for the answer in God’s Word is another option, but religion is not. Religion, regardless of which one it is, can get you and anyone else a place in hell quicker than anything because it is not religion that saves your soul, it is belief in Jesus‘ sacrifice for you that saves you!

Open the Word, seek the wisdom contained in it, ask God to reveal Himself to you. Then let His light shine through you to others so that they can see Him and want to know Him too. Truly God is in control, otherwise our world would’ve ended long ago. Get to know Him while you can.