Tag: Christ

Are you okay?


I get this question asked of me at least once or twice a week. Sometimes I answer it with, “Yeah, I’m fine”, but sometimes I really don’t feel fine. Life does that to you when you pass the age of fifty or sixty. The “okay” feeling that you had when you were younger just doesn’t show up as much as it once did. But, God has a plan and I’m letting Him lead me these days, instead of taking off on my own and hoping that He will get me out of trouble. God loves you and me and everyone who lives on this little ball of water and dirt. He doesn’t like the way many of us live and worship gods who aren’t gods at all. He is the only God and Jesus made a way for us to be with Him if we will believe in Him and turn away from our ways.

Read God’s Word and learn more about Him than you know now. Seek Him out and you will find your Savior and Redeemer because He has been waiting for you. All of us don’t have to be evangelists or preachers, just be willing to tell your own redemption story if someone asks where you get your strength from. I wouldn’t be able to even do this if God didn’t give me the words to put here. Being okay with God is not answer when someone asks about your salvation. You have to believe like the thief on the cross, knowing that Jesus will save you when you call on Him.

Is it possible to be a follower of Jesus and not tell others about your Savior? I don’t think so. Because your life will change and your behavior will change when you have given your heart to Him. So, even if you don’t actively tell everyone about your Savior, they will see it in your life and your actions. Some people may say that is the coward’s way of telling others about Jesus, but St. Augustine did it that way a long time ago.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ demands that your life changes and many people will notice it immediately. If your life hasn’t changed, then the Holy Spirit hasn’t made a change in your heart. Some people claim to be Christians and I don’t doubt that some could be, but if their lives haven’t changed significantly from the life they lived prior to their claim of finding Jesus they should seek Him in a Bible-teaching church. Being okay in this life is fine, but consider that eternity is your destination after you die or Jesus returns for the church. Make sure of your eternal destination because you don’t want to go through the wrong door.

Which world do you live in?


All of us live in the world, mainly the three dimensional world that everyone else lives in. But, there is a world here that is darker and more malevolent and evil than we can imagine. We, humanity and anyone who believes in Jesus, are hated there with a deep and abiding hatred that we cannot understand. So we actually live in both worlds, except the world that the devil and his minions inhabit is a spiritual world that occupies the same area that we live in. But, God doesn’t allow him to do as he wishes with the Earth and its inhabitants thankfully.

God is gracious enough that He protects us as we live our lives every day. Life here is literally held in God’s hands because if it were not, the devil would likely kill every person on the Earth. But, God won’t allow him to have that much control on Earth. The devil can only do things that God allows him to do and we should be very grateful for that.

God loves all of us, yet He cannot save all of us because of our stubbornness and refusal to believe in Him. Life can have an extension into the future but only if we believe in Jesus for our salvation from our sins. I ask all of you who may read this to seek a church that teaches from the Bible and learn about your Savior. Then give your life to Him and believe that He saved your soul from an eternity apart from Him.

Your Jordan river…


All of us have a Jordan to cross or be baptized in or even to be cleansed in. Whatever your Jordan may be, don’t turn away from it because it looks dirty or muddy. Jesus stepped into the Jordan because He came to be our Savior. He didn’t need cleansing. He didn’t need forgiveness. He was being washed with the water because His ministry was just beginning. The Spirit sent Him into the wilderness to begin His testing. Not because He needed to be tested, but because His ministry needed to begin with the testing and His victory over the one testing Him.

Our Christian life is our testing ground after we come out of the baptismal water. Every day is a test that we have to pass by leaning on and depending on Jesus to get us through each day. One day at a time, one step at a time. Some of us try to do it on our own and God will let us try it that way but we are more likely to stumble and fall when we do it “our way”. Walk with Jesus every hour and every day, praying and being in a prayerful attitude each and every hour. Why? Because the devil doesn’t stop trying to trip you and me. Every step we take, he puts something in front of us or in our thoughts to cause us to trip and fall. But, we have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus. As long as we confess the stumble or the fall, asking for forgiveness we are forgiven fully and completely.

Life is a constant walk toward Heaven. God knows the date that you will arrive. He is in control and will give us the strength to finish that journey. Follow Jesus into the Jordan and out the other side and your life will have the meaning that God had always prepared for you.

Your Savior is waiting


We have sung a song with these words in it. We have heard this in sermons if we have attended church, especially a Bible-teaching church. Jesus doesn’t track you down or stalk you, He does wait for you to open the door to your heart. God loves you but if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus and allowed Him to come in and change your life, you are following the devil and his demons. You may not know it, but the difference is clearly black and white. There is no gray area that you can straddle between the two. Life is similar to a fence or a tight rope, you are either on one side or the other. Walking on either is a dangerous prospect.

God knows you and He knows when His call to your heart went out. Either at a sermon or when you heard a Christian song or even when someone tells you their testimony. All of these usually points toward Jesus Christ. He came into this world to save those who were lost. His death and resurrection proved that He completed the task of paying for our sins. All we have to do is accept and believe in Him for our salvation, then allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and follow Him for the rest of our lives. It sounds hard but it really isn’t. After you have given your heart to Jesus, get a Bible and read the book of John in the New Testament. Then, read the book of Romans. Both of these books will give you a complete picture of Who Jesus was and why He came. Romans will help you see how to live your life for Him.

Why ‘But’ Hinders Our Reception of God’s Wisdom


That word causes more problems in people’s lives than any other. “But”, why do people try to put that word in a sentence referring to the Bible and what it says? Mostly its because they are trying to get around what it says. Either because it refers to a part of their lives that they don’t want to stop doing or it is a way of rationalizing something.

I’ve noticed that in TV shows and movies, the word “but” usually comes before something going wrong. Why do we go this way? God’s Word was given to it’s writers by His Holy Spirit so it is the Truth, yet many of us don’t want to listen to the wisdom contained within it. Our world would be so much better if people could follow even half of the wisdom God has given us in His Word.

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Pexels.com

Studying the Bible isn’t difficult or impossible if you have given your heart to Jesus. I’ve heard people say that it is hard to understand and it can be if you don’t have the Holy Spirit in your heart teaching you as you read it. Before I became a Christian, most of the Bible didn’t make sense to me. Yes, the stories of Creation and the Exodus from Egypt I could understand from watching the movie about the Ten Commandments but (there’s that word again), when I tried to read the Psalms or any of the prophetic books of the Old Testament it was hard to understand.

God has blessed me in the last fifteen years. I have served as a pastor of a small church and I’ve read through the Bible each year since 2011. I figured I had better know about what I was going to be preaching about. In my reading of His Word, He taught me more than I could learn from going to a school (which I couldn’t afford to do). This site is the only place I’m preaching from anymore, but I enjoy it because it is what God called me to do.

Turning away from God’s Word because it seems hard to understand is something a Christian shouldn’t do. You learn about God and what He likes and hates and how to get closer to Him. Through prayer and reading the Bible you will learn more about how we are supposed to live our lives every day. It is not a rule book or a book with a lot of do’s and don’ts. The Bible is really an instruction book about living as a Christian, especially the New Testament. Every prophecy that was written in the Old Testament is or will be fulfilled in the New Testament. It is likely that we will see the return of Jesus in our lifetime, so I urge you to give your heart to Jesus soon.

Do you really know God?


Why is our world so confused about God? Is it because He is not something or someone who can be seen or touched? I don’t believe so, since the founders of other religions are dead and cannot be contacted or touched either. The difference is that our God can be contacted and He will answer those prayers! Whether the answer will come on your schedule or not is irrelevant because God answers on His time and not yours.

God loves all of humanity, that is why He sent His Son to be the sacrifice that took the sins of all of us, past, present and future, and paid the price for them all. Our only response, the only one that is required of us, is to acknowledge that we need Him and accept that He paid that price for each of us. Then ask Him to come into our lives and make us more like Him. Once that is done, and we have taken the steps in our life to turn away from our sinful ways, we must let others know about Him!

I know that many people don’t want to testify that they have changed, that their lives have been changed by Jesus but if the change has happened people will see it in your life whether you tell them or not. The misconception that many people have is that they cannot know God.

The Bible is a collection of writings that were inspired by the Holy Spirit and in some cases, such as the books of Moses, were given directly by God Himself to the writer. All of these books are God’s way of advising us on living our lives through Hiim and for Him. God also expresses His love for us through these books and the wisdom contained within them, all we have to do is read and study them and ask Him to help us to understand. There is a passage in the Bible that says something like this, “if you feel that you lack wisdom, ask it of Him and He will give it freely”. Now that is  paraphrase, but you get the idea.

God is not someone who is billions of miles away, He is here. He occupies the entire universe and He can live in your heart if you ask Him to. You are never very far from Him and when you feel alone remember the only one who may have moved is you! God has always been close by although He will not barge into your life. He waits patiently for you to ask Him to come in.

God is the Creator and the One who sustains the universe and all that is in it. Jesus is the living Word that came to earth and became a man to take our sins and the punishment for them to the cross. He is the reason that many have trouble with accepting Christianity. They don’t want to accept Him because many do not believe that the Son of God would do what He did.

The love that God has for us is one that we cannot comprehend because it is far above what we are capable of. Yet it is because of that love for us that He came to suffer through life as we do, to be as we are in every circumstance and yet follow the will of His Father even unto the cross to pay for our sins.

Can we know God? Can we get to know Him like the prophets knew Him? Yes, we can! He wants to get to know us and He wants that relationship with us. All that we have to do is ask Him into our lives and study His Word prayerfully so that we will gain an understanding of just Who He is and what we should be doing.

We are sometimes to proud to admit that we need Him until some problem happens in our lives that punctuates the fact that we cannot handle life by ourselves. At those times, even those who claim that they don’t believe in God will seek Him! Whether they make a life-changing decision to allow Him into their lives is another topic altogether, but they will look for Him until something or someone directs them elsewhere.

Satan is very good at directing us to look to ourselves or to something in the world besides God. It is what he has been doing since the beginning and his ability to deceive us is a finely honed skill that he is very proud of. Satan is capable of twisting scripture to a point that you will think that you have found “religion”, and you have but you haven’t found Jesus!

Religion, in all of its forms in the world, cannot save you from your sins. Only believing in Jesus and asking Him to come into your life and your heart can do that. The choice must be a sincere and honest one, not lip service. Saying some words and getting emotional about it doesn’t change your heart. If the repentance of your heart is not genuine, God will know. Read and learn from the Bible. Go to a real church that preaches from God’s Word. Give your heart to Christ and ask Him to cleanse you from your sins. Once you have done this, your life and your character will change and you are a new creation. Your family will see it, as will your friends. Everything will change because you belong to Him and He will live in and through you! That is my prayer and hope for all who read this.

You are with me


youarestillwithmeIn the 23rd Psalm it goes like this:

Psalm 23 King James Version

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

This Psalm of David is an ever-present help, just as the Lord is, it is also a poem of comfort and of thanksgiving. In our world today, we need this because of all the things which are happening around the world. Why? Because of all the strife and the anger and frustration that flows from the news every single day. It seems that we can’t get away from it, even if we turn the TV off and don’t watch it. If we log on to our Facebook account, the news is there; if we log onto Google and look at the news, all of it is there in front of our eyes. We can’t escape it even if we are in the car and turn the radio on…the news, no matter how bad it is, is there too. We need God’s comforting presence in our lives today!

Why do I say this? Because we are not “supermen” and we never will be. It doesn’t matter if you made it through boot camp or SEAL training or any other type of military training, you are not bullet-proof regardless of what they tried to tell you over and over again!

We are normal people with problems, hang-ups and hang-overs. We have all of the problems that they try to recommend medication for on TV, yet most of us don’t want the side-effects of that medication. Most of us don’t want to be told that we are sinners or back-sliders or adulterers or in some cases, perverts. Nobody wants to hear about our personal dirty laundry, but we love to hear about and read about celebrities and sports figures who have problems!

Every church is filled with people who are exactly like those in the paragraph above, no church is immune because we are all sinners! The only difference between those who claim to belong to Jesus is that we….they are forgiven! We claim our forgiveness from Christ when we admit that we need it, just as a person addicted to alcohol or drugs had to admit it before being able to fight it! The big difference is that Jesus already conquered our sin nature, all we have to do is believe in Him and ask for it to be applied to us!

There isn’t anything really special about Christians except for the faith in Jesus that most of us have. The reason I said “most” is that some think because they have been raised in church from their childhood, that makes them a Christian. Many have this belief that because they go to church occasionally like on Easter and Christmas, that this makes them a Christian. Not any more than sitting in a garage will make you into a car!

God created each of us to be in a relationship with Him and the only way we can do that is through His Son, Jesus. There is no other door, and no other “prophet” who can get you into Heaven. No amount of work you can do will help you. No amount of money given to the poor will buy you a brick to build a heavenly mansion. Nothing that WE can do will have any bearing on our eternity EXCEPT belief in and submission to Jesus in faith believing that He did everything necessary for your salvation!

Trust in Him, learn about Him, and come to Him with a heart that knows that He is your Savior and at that point ALL of Heaven will celebrate a new saint that will be coming home!

Good Friday


I used to wonder what was so good about the day that Jesus hung on the cross? I know that it was the fulfillment of prophecy and it was necessary for our salvation, but for Jesus and those two thieves, that particular day was not a good one at all!

Jesus willingly went to the cross, even though His human mind and body didn’t want to do it, He knew that it was necessary in God’s plans for all of mankind. It hurt, and He endured it for three hours or more if you count the scourging and carrying His cross up the hill. The pain that He had to endure from the point that God had to turn away from Him was even more excruciating than the physical pain that He experienced from the nails and the whips. Why do I say this? Because, in all of existence back to the very beginning of everything, He and His Father had never been separated, EVER!

That was the hell that every person in hell goes through forever. Not just the pain from the heat and the fire, but the total separation from God and everything good in the universe is a pain that I can’t describe because I don’t know what that feels like. Jesus suffered through that separation until He realized that His job, His mission was finished and then He gave His Spirit up to God. He was in control, not the Romans nor the Jewish leaders that is why Pilate was surprised when he heard that Jesus was dead already.

He could’ve called many angels to take Him from the cross, but He didn’t because He loves each of us more than He did His own life. Which is why He gave His life as a ransom for each of us, every person on Earth! Isn’t that amazing? Our God loved us enough that He would go to such lengths to redeem us to Himself which is why few people believe it. Why do you think is it that few people believe that each of us don’t have to do anything in order to gain entrance to Heaven?

I think it is because, in our minds we just can’t fathom the kind of love and the amount of love that it would take for God to do this. Of course, if you don’t believe in God or Jesus or even any of the events which happened in the Bible, then it truly won’t make any sense at all to you. The Bible says that the “wisdom of God is foolishness to those in the world”, and it is true. Before I believed or was convicted to believe, much of the Bible didn’t make any sense at all to me. I heard it in Sunday school and in church, but that didn’t mean anything because to me those were just stories. Like “David and Goliath”, that to me was a children’s story and nothing more. Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, I saw Charlton Heston play that role, that was from Hollywood.

The thing that you have to learn by reading the Bible is that these things are and were given to prophets and priests to write down by the Spirit of God and He can’t lie! These stories are true because every part of the Bible is true! Why do I believe this? Because if any part of it isn’t true, then none of it is true, so my faith and my spirit agree that it must be and that is that. If you are curious about Jesus this season, read Matthew 26 and 27. Both of these chapters describe the Passover (Last Supper), the betrayal of Jesus and the mock trials leading up to His crucifixion. The best part of the narrative is that on the third day…Jesus arose from the tomb.

empty_tomb11Our future, our hope lies in the resurrection of Jesus because He said that He would come again and take us to be with Him in Heaven! That is a Christian’s home, not this place. Since He lives, we will also! Amen!

Prayer and faith


Praisethelord Yes, both are necessary for a Christian and for our world too. Why do I say this? Because there are so many people who don’t want to admit this or hear it. Prayer and praise go together with faith and all of it is needed today. Because life and living today is hard enough without having faith in a future with Jesus. Prayer and faith go hand in hand, but it seems that many people don’t believe in having faith in a God which they can’t see. You can’t touch or see any of the “gods” which are worshiped in the world today, many of them are actually dead and in their graves yet people still think that they are “gods”. If they were then they wouldn’t be dead!

Satan is a fallen archangel, a guardian seraphim and one that once lived on the “mount of God” but pride brought him down because he thought that he could be like God and take God’s place. No one can do that but he convinced enough of the angels to follow him until there were a third of the angels thrown down from Heaven. We don’t know how many this was, but considering how much our world is in such a mess today it was a LOT!

Today it seems that nobody wants to acknowledge God as the Creator, but He is and He is NOT dead! Seek Him out while there is still time to do so. Read John 3:16,17; Romans 8 too, because they tell you what and Who you should know and why.

Mary, did you know?


When the angel came to tell of the baby you were going to have, did you know that your heart would change completely? All parent’s hearts change in some way when their child is born, but your Child is special. He was and is not a child born of human procreation, but One Who was prophesied since the beginning, to be the Savior of mankind.

The story is told in Luke 1 beginning here:

26…the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.

28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Jesus came to a humble family, but one that was descended from the lineage of David of the tribe of Judah. The babe was sent into the world to announce to it that God had come down to mankind to offer salvation to all who would believe.

The story continues here:

Luke 2 (King James Version)

2 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. 2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) 5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. 6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

The shepherds went out telling all of the things which they had seen, just as we are supposed to do. Amen.