Tag: Bible

Begin…


This is the day that we need to begin not tomorrow because you don’t know what it will bring or even if you will be here tomorrow. Begin something whether it is your dream for your life, or it may be stepping out to finish a degree that you wanted to finish. Life is a beginning, a new day with its sunrise is a beginning and if you are alive then you should begin!

Just as the proverb says that “a trip of one thousand miles begins with one step”, we need to begin. When God called Abram to go away from his country to a country that he knew not…he began with a step in that direction. When the Israelites were freed from slavery, they would never have gotten to the wilderness, let alone their promised land, without taking the first step.

In your life, every day, your day begins when you wake up. But…nothing gets done in the day until you begin it! You have to get up from the bed, put your feet on the floor and take a step, then another and another until you get to your destination. God knows His plans for you and they are plans to prosper you, but your prosperity doesn’t come to you without stepping out on faith and doing something about it!

We all have to begin to do something every day, regardless of the situation because in this life things don’t get done without a beginning! You can’t eat without picking up the fork, you have to begin your meal with an action. Like picking up the plate and the fork and putting the food on it and then thanking God for what we have to eat. Even then, if you don’t begin to eat with that fork, that plateful of food won’t get into your mouth without you beginning to eat it.

The thing about beginnings, regardless of the type of beginnings they are, is that some kind of action is required. In a relationship with your wife or husband it has a beginning, just as life has a beginning. When we decide to live our lives for Jesus or rather WITH Jesus, that life has a beginning too. So where do you and your family or spouse begin? That depends upon where you want to end your journey. Any trip or journey whether in life or as a vacation has to have a starting point…a place to begin and an ending point. So consider where your journey should end or at least where you would LIKE for it to end.

Regardless of your beliefs, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any of the other religions, there is always a place where your eternity also begins. For all of us, eternity begins when this life ends regardless of your beliefs. Some of you who don’t believe in an eternity will find that contrary to your lack of belief, there really is a God and you will meet Him. When your eternity begins, where will you spend it? If you don’t believe that there is one, then you will be surprised and not so happy about your eternity. If you are a Christian, then I need to ask this question:

Have you followed Jesus every day since you asked Him into your life?

Why do I make it that personal? Because a relationship, whether it is with Jesus or your family, is personal. To be in that relationship totally, you have to be present every day not just once or twice per week or once a month! How would your spouse feel if you treated her or him that way? Your relationship wouldn’t last very long would it? If it isn’t a daily walk with Jesus, then you might need to check with your pastor to see if you are saved! Sitting in a pew, reading a daily Bible verse, giving a tithe now and then, these are all good things but they are the motions that you can do that show others that you attend church…that’s all. Your relationship only shows when you are in it for real! Don’t be like the Pharisees were, so religious they couldn’t have a relationship with their Messiah.

One year over…


Many years have come and gone and this one is no different. All sorts of people in the world doing things like shooting each other or someone who they don’t agree with. Wars breaking out or getting worse because of beliefs or differences in beliefs or culture. The human race, regardless of the color of your skin, is killing itself one person at a time. Although some days, many more are killed than just one.

Why can’t we get along with each other? Is it our cultures or our skin color that sets us at odds so much that we can’t stand for the “others” to live? This is nothing new exactly because it has been going on for millennia and it will continue until the return of Jesus. In many ways, even His name causes much of the strife and problems in our world today. As long as you are speaking of God, there is no problem but when you bring Jesus into the conversation then things get heated.

Why does He cause such reactions? Well, in the days before His crucifixion, it was His teachings and the way that He taught that was the real problem. His authority and the teaching that He was doing was undermining the control that the High Priests had on the people. Then there was the, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me” statement! Who did He think that He was,420268_10150681777049769_182249954768_8767283_149600359_n.jpgGod?!

Yes, this past year has been a bad one in more ways than one for many people who have lost loved ones. Some of them were lost due to war, some were due to car wrecks, some were killed by gun shots fired by people who didn’t need to have a gun in their hands. Some were killed because they waved a BB gun around that looked like the real deal.

This past year has had some senseless deaths occur in it, but they could’ve been prevented. Our problem is not the guns or the fake guns and it is not the attitudes or opinions of those in government, it is that we have forgotten how to be a society that takes responsibility for its actions, regardless of how shocking they may be. We have also pushed our principles and the Book which taught our grandparents and their parents how to act out of the education system.

It is time to put prayer and the Bible back where it belongs so that the next generation won’t completely forget that God is in control, no matter how bad things get or who may be in charge here. He will bring about a revival and heal the problems in our land if we will just seek Him out and repent of our sinful ways.

The Bible is still a Book which has more wisdom in it than all of the books that are in the library and we need to be using it, studying it and reading it. If we don’t then we can only blame ourselves for what will come next.

Death…and Life!


I am not sure how many people look at Jesus’ life and death and resurrection in that order, but I do. I have to, I am a pastor after all. Yes, life comes after death! It is not an “if” situation it is a when. When you die you will live somewhere forever, the where is up to your decision in this life. Which decision you may ask? The one about giving your heart to Jesus and asking Him to come into your life! It is not a decision which will ruin your life. Your life will change for sure, but it will be a more sure and hopeful life. Sure because of the promise of God, if you accept Jesus as your Savior you will be saved from an eternity of torment. Eternity is a very long time, so I would really think it over if I were in your place.

I was in your place once. I had never given my heart to Jesus, I just thought that I had. I had gone through all of the motions of going to church and Sunday school and Bible school. I had even gone down front and joined the church and even got baptized. The only thing that really happened during all of this was..that I got wet with my clothes on in front of some people. That is it! Nothing changed in my heart and I went through this more than once. Until I felt the Holy Spirit calling me and I answered Him honestly and truly, nothing changed. When I did answer His call on my life, I knew it!

Some people have said that they can name the day or date that they gave their life to Christ. I never have worked that way, never even tried to remember it but it really did happen. It has been about ten years or so now, but the relationship has grown so much closer and warmer than I could have ever imagined. It truly is like being in love because you are loved so much more deeply than you can be by anyone in the world!

Jesus loves each of us far more than we can understand and I know I have said that before, but it is true! Seek Jesus out in the Bible or at a church where they teach from God’s Word. Learn about Him if you don’t know Him yet and ask Him to come into your life. Read and study the Bible, not because it is a good book to read but because it is a collection of God’s Wisdom and His love letters penned through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to all of us, not just the Jewish people.

In His Service until He comes or I go home.

How much more?


What has to happen in our country or in the world to wake people up? How much more will have to be taken away in the form of losing freedoms or rights? How much more will we willingly give up to the government or to our own view of life, freedom, and happiness? Why are we willing to make ourselves into slaves of the government like Israel and the Egyptians did when famine took over their lands? Are we really more like sheep than we thought?

The answers to these questions are answers which we really don’t know. The media, the news outlets, the governments of the world are all clueless in answering these questions because they simply don’t know the answer and they don’t know where to look for it. Is the answer to all of this in God’s Word? Yes, most of these questions could be answered by people following the wisdom contained in the Bible. I mean REALLY following it, daily, in our jobs and at home 24/7!

Would we be willing to do that? The short answer is unfortunately NO! Christian faith has taken a huge hit in terms of people willing to follow it over the years. I am not speaking of those who claim to be Christians, I am speaking of those who really are committed and live their lives in God’s presence with prayer, meditation on His Word DAILY! Not just once per week and certainly not just on holidays! When you try to nail down those who are TRULY committed to Jesus, the number of Christians who fall into that number drops dramatically. Most polls show that out of the world’s population there is approximately 25% that claims Christianity as their faith, but if they are truthful and look at those who committed to following Him daily, I believe that number would be closer to ten percent.

True, this is just my own opinion and I don’t have any facts or polls to back this up with so don’t jump on me because of this. I have only been a pastor for a little more than four years but it seems that the number of Christians who would still claim it even in the face of death threats is likely less than the ten percent, but this was prophesied over two thousand years ago so it shouldn’t be surprising. It is just disheartening and depressing, but God knew and knows who will be His and who will turn from Him. So, how many more will turn away? How much more will we lose to technology or to the attractions in the world?

The real answer is: Only God knows for sure!

We have given up our family time together, we rarely meet with our friends to talk and go over our lives together, the world is crashing in on every aspect of personal life, like waves on the seashore and like the sands of that seashore, we seem to be powerless to stop it. The sad part of it is that we have done this to ourselves! We have allowed it to happen and the more it encroaches on our lives it seems that we are willing to just allow it to happen even more.

Please, turn to the Bible and to faith in Jesus! Getting closer to Him and the wisdom in God’s Word is the only hope that we truly have!

So much need and so little time…


In our country there is a vacuum that is forming in towns and cities, communities and homes and it seems to be going unnoticed by most people, but God knows that it is there. We have pushed Him away from our churches and our homes and our jobs, especially from our own government so the vacuum that has been created is of our own making. We have caused this, we as a culture and people have done this collectively. Why did it happen? What is the purpose of it?

In reality and in truth, we have been fulfilling Scriptural prophecy that God inspired the writers of the books in the Bible to write down. Many people seem to be wondering the same thing that I have for many years: Why is America or at least a reference to it completely absent from the Bible, particularly the prophecies concerning the end times? It is simple really, it is because we are not a powerful nation anymore. We have lost our foundation and our purpose for being. How did that happen? Over the past century, our government and many politicians in the states have gradually taken freedom from us. Just a little bit here and there, nothing that would be missed for a while. But, after fifty years or so the missing pieces begin to add up.

Like taking a rock from a pile of rocks. At one point, after the pile has settled, the rocks are all suspended and touching each other supporting the ones above on the ones below. If you remove a small one from the bottom, it may not make much difference, but if you take enough small ones from the bottom the result can be hundreds coming crashing down. Another illustration would be a large amount of snow packed on the side of a mountain. As long as you don’t disturb much of the packed snow, there isn’t a danger. But, if you disturb enough of it then the whole side of the mountain may come crashing down as an avalanche.

The only difference in taking freedoms away is that the catastrophe won’t necessarily kill you, although many people may die in the aftermath, but the economy of the country will fail eventually. Bit by bit, a little knowledge is taken away, a bit of history is changed so that the next generation doesn’t really know the truth, money is printed to keep the supply up and the interest rates are dropped to prop up the economy. The net result is that sooner or later, the stocks and bonds that were sold to keep everything going are worthless, the money that our economy depends on is not worth enough to keep the value up when the banks come looking for payments on loans. Our creditors in other countries will look at our devalued status and demand payment on the bonds. Sooner or later this house of cards will collapse under its own weight.

Why is this traced back to our character and our heritage of being a country which feared God and used His Word as a template for our laws? Because, without God at the center of our nation and its governance, the wheel will fly apart and our country will be no more. The movement, if you want to call it that, which began at the beginning of the twentieth century is called “progressivism”. By the time that this is published, we will have lost about half of the freedoms that our great grandparents took for granted and it will get worse before it gets better.

Our country and all of the people in it NEED a true revival of Biblical proportions. Similar to the Great Awakening of a couple of centuries past, but even more fervent in scope. We are seeing our country brought down by a few people, those who believe that an altered view of the Bible is needed or those who believe that God and His Word needs to be booted out of the country and all of its institutions and offices all together. Our people, those in the United States but also every person who reads this blog, need to get into God’s Word and pray for a real revival in their hearts and in the heart of the nation itself. Please, take this to heart and look for God in His Word because He is there waiting for you to come and open  your heart to Him.

What are we to do?


As human beings, we are to live and grow in our lives and with wisdom and using the knowledge that we gain in life we are to conduct ourselves as moral people. Can we do this on our own initiative and strength? To a point, yes we can but no further. Our strength and wisdom will only carry us as far as the next person with wisdom, which may be beyond ours, or rather they perceive their wisdom to be beyond ours. Then we have to submit to theirs and learn from them as much as possible. This is humanistic learning and wisdom, which gains us nothing. Yes, sometimes, we will learn from others wisdom but many times their knowledge and wisdom is repackaged from another source.

The best source of wisdom is the Bible because it is the Truth of God and His Wisdom, brought to us through the Holy Spirit and written down by disciples and prophets, poets and kings. All of the wisdom or knowledge that I have placed here has come from Him and from the Bible. I can’t come up with all of this on my own, yet I have had many comments which say otherwise. Life is different for all of us. For some it is hard to get through one day to the next, for others it seems to be the easiest walk in the park you ever strolled through. Learning about life is a hard lesson at times, because it isn’t something that you get out of a book, with the exception being the Bible.

God showed the people of Israel how to live and gave them the instructions, if they would follow them. But, they didn’t. They had lived among idol worship in Egypt for over four centuries and wandering in the desert for forty years didn’t get that out of them. When they came into their land of promise, they said that they would follow Him and do as He commanded. Sometimes they did, but many times they did not and they paid for it with slavery and being exiled from their homes and their land. God had told them that they would be blessed and would be a blessing to all IF they would obey Him and follow Him in all of their ways. They didn’t listen.

Even today, we have been blessed by having the whole Bible to read and learn from and many people still scoff at it and say that it isn’t true. Yet, many of the prophecies in it have all come true. The only ones left are the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the Rapture of the Church and the Tribulation foretold in the book of Revelation. Read from His Word, prayerfully and with an open mind. Ask God to show you what He wants you to see in His Word, again with an open mind toward Him. Read the book of Romans and all of the New Testament before you go into the Old Testament, because it helps to read the fulfillment of one which explains the other, or at least helps to explain it.

I look forward to seeing you in His Kingdom!

Pride….


You and I and every other person in the world has dealt with it themselves or seen the consequences of it in someone’s life. Why is it that this is the tap-root of all sins, because it is the biggest! It will sneak into your life a little at a time or it will well up in your head until you feel full of yourself to the point that nobody wants to be around you! At first you may just “feel good” about what you are doing or living through in your life or your work, which is fine as long as it doesn’t take root in your mind. How do I know about this? Because I have allowed it in my life and in my ministry.

Just like an addict admitting that they have a problem before getting help, you and I have to admit that pride has come into your life and tried to ruin things. Maybe it did cause some problems, but hopefully you are able to recognize it before it gets out of hand. God brought it to my attention through my church and it stung…no it hurt! I felt like I had been stabbed in the back and I had been….by Pride! The spirit or demon that pride is associated with loves to take ministers and ministries apart, especially if it will destroy a church!

Thank God that I was willing to listen and wait for the Spirit to show me what was going on. Pride causes so many problems in our world until it is hard to track it down all of the time. It is responsible for breaking marriages up and for causing problems in businesses but he specifically targets churches. From the members to the pastor and every person in between, pride can have and does have an influence on us all. That is why there are so many scriptures pointing out the problems with this emotion or feeling or whatever you want to call it!

There are many verses in the Bible which reference Pride and you can follow this link and see what they say. The damage which pride can cause is sometimes so deep and painful that it can’t be repaired, particularly if it involves a relationship. The flames that pride can cause in a marriage or a church can burn so hot and cause such deep wounds that many times the damage won’t be repaired in this lifetime. That is why we are cautioned to not think so highly of ourselves because this is the beginning of pride.

Proverbs 11:2  When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom.

This is only one of many scripture verses regarding pride. Many of them are in the Old Testament, but there are also many references in the New Testament. Seek God’s wisdom in this and all of life’s troubles and follow His advice because it is based on His wisdom and Truth.

God’s viewpoint


The title sounds a bit grandiose doesn’t it? How could I possibly know anything about His viewpoint? Well, if you read the Bible which was inspired by His Holy Spirit you can find His viewpoint on many different subjects. Life, love, hate, anger, fear, jealousy, foolishness, adultery, the list could go on and on. He gives His view on these things in a format that is similar to an instruction manual. Some of the books rattle on about how the priests are supposed to carry out their work, but somebody had to tell them!

God views each of us as a child, His child. Those who are following Jesus are adopted into His family because they have washed their sins away by accepting the atonement and His grace. It is a gift which we can’t do anything to purchase or add to because we have nothing to purchase it with on our own! God gives it to us freely, all we have to do is realize that we are sinners and that it is His grace and the blood of Jesus which will save us from an eternity in hell.

Many people will think that, “God wouldn’t send you to hell for your mistakes if He loves you so much.” He doesn’t send you there, it is a consequence of your decision NOT to accept Jesus as your Savior which sends you there. It pains God to see us refuse a free gift which provides us with an eternal home that otherwise we couldn’t have. The love of God is deeper than we can imagine just as the hatred of Satan for us is far deeper than we could imagine.

God sees us when we make all of our decisions, good or bad, and He sees the results of them before we do. That is why we should always consult Him in all things, seeking His guidance and direction first before we make a mistake. If you could step outside of time and see all of the mistakes that you have made and where you could’ve made a difference in your life or someone else’s but didn’t, you would understand how God sees all of us. The difference between us being able to see those mistakes and God seeing them is that, if you are a Christian, He can work out your bad mistakes so that you will make a better choice the next time. Sometimes, He will take you down a path that will bring you to a better place or choice than you had hoped for.

Think about all of the lines and paths that God can see each of us walking, good or bad, and how He can guide you and me without being intrusive so that our decisions still turn out for our good and His glory! Read the Bible because it gives us wisdom to live by, advice in our time of need, and hope for a better tomorrow with Jesus as our Savior.

 

What will the Iranian deal do?


Nothing to stop Iran from getting a nuclear missile in reality, it is just a show of idiocy in international farce. Iran is a theocracy. Their leaders follow the Koran fanatically, religiously, to the letter. They are allowed to lie to those who are not believers in Islam and that is exactly what is going on. They are lying to us in order to get the sanctions lifted, once they are lifted then they will go right ahead and do what they want to do. They won’t tell us what they are doing, until it is too late entirely and we will be in their cross-hairs. Once that happens, we will see an ICBM on radar and we won’t be able to do anything about it.

Why am I bringing this up on a Christian website? Because, we are on the verge…the very edge of the prophecies found in the book of Revelation. This will begin a time of chaos in the Middle East and it is this chaos that they hope will bring their messiah, the problem is that their messiah is the same as our anti-Christ. He will kill Jews and Christians who refuse to bow to him. It’s in their prophecies, if you don’t believe me.

The “deal” only has an effect on old centrifuges that are rarely used for enrichment of uranium anymore. Iran already has the newer version and the “deal” doesn’t even mention them. They can produce enriched uranium with the newer ones in a few weeks, so after the one year grace period is over they could easily have a warhead ready for either the USA or Israel. Will this bring about the last days? I don’t know, but you can bet that God is watching and He will bring the last days down upon those who attack His chosen nation and people! If we are aligning ourselves with Iran, our country will also suffer from His wrath and I don’t want to be in His crosshairs!

It seems that many people are against helping Israel in any way. God said “I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you”, He wasn’t talking to Moses, He was referring to the people of Israel. We shouldn’t be on the side getting cursed, we need to be on the side being blessed regardless of what the rest of the world thinks of us. But, that is not how our government sees it today. The future of the world is in jeopardy and it seems that nobody cares.

Some deny it, others await it….


Many in the so-called “liberal”media deny that Christians are right. I don’t mean that we are on the right or the left, but that we believe the Truth of God’s Word! Watching the news, seeing all of the prophecies coming true before our eyes, if you can’t see it then you need to get into God’s Word! Pray about what you are reading so that He will open your eyes spiritually and allow you to see what is there!

Why am I asking many of you who DON’T  believe in Jesus or God to at least try praying for Him to show you the Truth in His Word? Because if you don’t find it out, if you won’t go to a church or read God’s Word, then when you stand before the One that you don’t believe in…uh-oh won’t cut it! Your life will be shown to you in vivid detail down to the words and thoughts that you had. The time for learning the Truth is now, not at the end of your life! Yes, you could be saved on your death-bed, but you may not get that chance.

Ican'tmakeitChristians don’t say these things to scare you exactly, but what if you had a wreck on the way home from the bar or from a meeting. What if you had a heart attack on the way home or in your bed tonight and didn’t live long enough to ask Jesus into your heart and life? We are trying to get as many people to open their eyes to the reason that Jesus and the Bible are REAL! This is not a “fake religion” like so many of them are!

Being religious can get you a ticket straight to hell, being saved by Jesus will cover your sins and allow you to get into Heaven. If you are able to do some things for Christ while you are here, you may have some rewards in Heaven, but the reward that I am looking for is eternity with Him! God in the person on His Son came down and became as we are so that He could provide a way for us to be saved from an eternity away from Him! He planned this long before any of us were born, even before our world or the universe was made by Him!

God loves you! It doesn’t matter what you have done, when you did it or how, all He wants is a repentant heart and your realization that you have sinned and you want Him to come in and fix the broken pieces and make you whole in Christ! Believe me, since He made the universe and mankind in six days, I think He can handle anything that you ask Him for, don’t you?