Tag: Christ

The fields are ripe unto harvest…


Those who are coming to Christ, especially those in countries which persecute and kill Christians, need our prayers more than ever. We may not be able to bring them out of the situation that they are in, but He is able to strengthen them and carry them to their reward in Heaven.

Yes, our lives are on display for the world to see. Many people don’t want to see it, and they don’t really want to hear the message of Jesus and His grace toward us, but there are many others who do want to hear it! They need to hear it. Many people need to hear about the One and only risen Savior of mankind and yet there is a vocal minority that makes so much noise that the media can’t help but listen to them first. Because of their boldness and the volume that they exert in the public arena, that is why they are heard over the Christians, the real followers of Jesus.

If we were only speaking of God, then there wouldn’t be any problems because those who are Jews read His Words and those who worship Allah (supposedly another name for God) claim to worship Him too. But, when you bring Jesus into the worship service or into the media, then it seems that everyone has a problem. Why? In some people’s minds, Jesus is just another prophet. But, that is not all that He is…He is the Son of God, the Living Word, the Prince of Peace, the Good Shepherd.

Jesus is all of these and more, yet He is also a stumbling block to those who don’t want to accept Him for the One that He is. He is our Savior. He came so that we would have access to God and eternal forgiveness of our sins. What more could you ask for? The Gift has been given by God, all that we have to do is accept it into our hearts and believe it, that’s it! It is not hard to do, but many who think that they don’t need Him for whatever reason just refuse to humble themselves and ask Him into their lives.

The problem with doing this is that we all die, someday. It may be tomorrow or this afternoon but our time is not guaranteed for X amount of years. And, while it is true that I am using this to get your attention, what can  you do when you find  yourself standing in front of God one day and you are shown all of the times that you have heard the message of salvation? Think of all the times that your friends invited  you to come to church with them and you didn’t go, or even the times that you may have heard a sermon on television. What can you tell God when He asks you, “What did you do with my Son?” “I didn’t believe the things that I heard”, “I didn’t want to go to church”, “I didn’t think that the message was the truth”, the problem with all of these answers is that many of them are exactly the thoughts and words of people who don’t believe or don’t want to believe.

These answers all have one thing in common, “I”. Too many of them. Selfish answers, selfish thoughts, selfish lives that don’t amount to more than a grown up child looking for the next toy to buy and play with.

Your life and mine are too short to think in such terms. God created all of us for a reason and you can’t find it out with an “I” in your life all of the time. Our reason for living and the reason for our blessings is because of Him, because He wants us to fellowship and be friends with Him and other Christians and other people. Yes, so that we can tell them about our joy in knowing that we have an eternity to look forward to, not one to be dreaded and feared. The number of souls that need Jesus grows every day, God needs us to go and tell them about Him and His grace. Won’t you decide to follow Jesus and give the rest of your life more meaning and purpose than it would ever have without Him?

Treasure…pleasure…sin, which is it?


A few days ago, I wrote about giving your heart to Jesus. This post is about figuring out what to do with your life and with Him after you have felt the call of the Spirit in your heart and you have answered it. We have so much that gets in the way of living our lives for Jesus in our world today. From bills to school to relationships, married or not, our jobs, our phones, email, you name it then it can take up time in your day and before you know it, it is time to go back to bed and start over again tomorrow!

In our lives today, just as it has been going on for thousands of years, pleasure or happiness is something which we all strive for. We yearn for it. Many times as we are growing up we really don’t understand what it is that we are looking for, but we know that it is something. We look in many places until we find something that gives us happiness and joy. When you are very young it could be as simple as a toy or your favorite candy. As we get older our mind or something tells us that we need something more than that and we go searching again. We may find that sports or the opposite sex fills that need, that pleasure spot for us at that time…but yet it is a fleeting feeling. Soon we are looking for something else. At times we find something or someone who takes care of that need and as we grow a bit more and have a family, sometimes our family takes over that spot in our lives, for a time. If you have gotten past your twenties at this point and haven’t given your heart to Jesus or felt the Holy Spirit speaking to you, then you don’t know why but something just doesn’t feel right. Even though you may have a nice house and car, a healthy family and a good marriage…something is just not fitting perfectly. And you can’t put your finger on it and say, “That’s it!”

The things or people who you treasure, those that you love are the ones who get the most of your time. Sometimes, it happens to be your job or the kids, then sometimes it is other things. How can we get the priorities of each of these to straighten out and line up in our daily lives in the order that they should be? The first thing that we need to do is…pray. Since we belong to God, then prayer is the communication line that needs to stay open EVERY day and it should start at the beginning of the day, before anything else. God will help you to prioritize your life and your days, but you have to listen to Him and not your own desires. He knows what you need to do and when, and when you put His priorities first then your priorities will line up correctly too.

No, I am not saying that your days will be perfect and nothing will go wrong if you do this BUT they will be easier and smoother to handle because you are not handling the days problems alone.

Okay, lets pretend that we have done this and our first day is going pretty good. Then you get a call that one of your kids is sick or got hurt playing ball. What you do in the next few minutes will determine how the rest of your day goes. Does this situation throw a wrench into the workings of the day and everything just goes to pot from there? No, it shouldn’t. God has an answer for this and if you take the problem, whatever it is, to Him first before you grab the keys and rush out the door, then everything will work out the way that He knows that it will. PUT GOD INTO ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS! Nothing is too big for Him, the One who hung the stars and the moon, all of your problems are small to God even though they aren’t small to you.

Can we do this? Some people will and some won’t but the point is that God is not a crutch and not a figment of people’s imagination. Satan is not a figment of someone’s imagination either and that will be proven soon. Our world and all of the people in it are very important to God. He has not abandoned us nor will He, He is present in every area of your life good and bad. God doesn’t cause the bad parts of it, but He will allow them so that you may realize that you need Him. Satan hates humanity and will do anything in his power to keep us from turning to God and if that doesn’t work then he will cause problems which show up all over the world. If you are a born-again Christian, Satan has to ask permission to do anything to you. If you are not, then he may help you to have a life that is more successful than you deserve just to keep you from needing God or he might cause an illness that you will blame God for just to keep you away from God.

So, it is your choice. Choose carefully and prayerfully before proceeding.

What is the difference?


The difference between religion and Christianity is the question to answer today, but can the answer be an easy one to find? Religion can be a belief or no belief because you can make a religion out of most anything from fishing to football, your family or anything else that you really enjoy. You may not realize that you have made something into a religion, but when you religiously do something or even live a certain way religiously, then you are doing just that. You can be a religious atheist just because you pursue your beliefs religiously, the same goes for any other religion or belief.

Many people are even religious about hunting or fishing and football and basketball, so being a religious person is not hard to do and it doesn’t have to be a religion at all.

The difference between being religious and being a follower of a religion is the focus of your belief or your faith. Why would you call something a religion which is based on something made by man? Such as sports or even a religion like Zen Buddhism? Yes, there are differences between worshipping an idol or your ancestors versus worshipping Jesus, from a Christian standpoint, is that an idol or your ancestors don’t qualify as deities and Jesus is the Son of God. Whether you believe in God or Jesus or not is not a question in this writing. Belief in no supreme being is also a religion because there are gatherings and “churches” for people of that religious faith as well.

Whether you believe in God or His Son or even the validity of the Bible or not is a discussion that will be and already has been brought up in this forum. The reason that some of you commented on this post already is because I posted it from my Kindle Fire and I couldn’t post it as a draft which is what I had intended. My apologies.

The belief in nothing is something that I can’t understand or as the Greeks had it when Paul was visiting them, “the alter to an unknown god”. Paul introduced them to the real God while he was there, but there are many it seems in the world today who don’t believe in any supreme being. I will be praying for you whether you want me to or not.

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

 

Have you come to Jesus in repentance?


You know, there are many people who attend church and some who don’t attend any church who know about Jesus but they haven’t repented of their sinful life or their sins in any way. Many of them think that by being in the church or on a church roll that God will dismiss the things that they have done and forgive them anyway. That is NOT what the Bible says or what any of the gospel writers taught at all! Believing in Jesus is the way to salvation but refusing to repent of your sinful ways is just a slap in His face which will not be tolerated nor forgiven!

Coming to Jesus with a broken heart knowing that what you have been doing is against His laws and commandments and asking for His forgiveness is the way to and the beginning of salvation. Once you have taken that first step by asking Him to forgive you, then you are ready for the Holy Spirit to come into your life and your heart and change you into the person that He needs you to be. As the Scripture says, “you are a new creation, behold all things have become new” and it is true!

Your old life and ways won’t have a hold on your heart anymore. You will want to be more like Jesus and to follow Him every day. Oh, this desire to be like Him and follow Him won’t happen immediately but it will happen when you study the Bible and pray with Him and to Him daily, bringing your problems and fears to Him. Because, Satan will try to derail your walk with Jesus by bringing your old life up and your friends will come around asking for you to go with them to places that you know you shouldn’t be going now. Temptations like these will happen sometimes on a daily basis at first, but once they realize that you belong to Jesus, your friends might just ask you about Him.

That is when some of them will leave and you might never see them again, but some of them will want to know more. Why are you so happy? What has changed about you? Things which bothered you one time, don’t anymore. What is going on in your life that is different? They will want to know and you can tell them. Show them the verses that you have been reading, tell them about the saving grace that God has granted to us all if we will just ask for it with a repentant heart and turn away from our old life.

Repentance is the only way to change your life along with coming to Jesus. Continuing to do the things that you did before, even after asking Him for His forgiveness, shows that you are not sorry that you did those things and that you never intended to stop doing them in the first place. In other words, you lied to Jesus and to God! That is a dangerous thing to do because not only can God just give you over to the thoughts of your mind, but He can also harden your heart so that you cannot lie to Him again. You will never feel the tug of the Holy Spirit on your heart regardless of how good the speaker might be.

Being let go by God is a sad thing because you will never have the chance to repent again…to come to Him and ask His forgiveness. I know, some of you will say that God is supposed to love us and He wants to save us. Yes, He does but we are given free will to be and do whatever we want to do. Many of us do this to the extreme and some of us push the limits of everything that we do. What do I mean by this? Well, for instance we push against God and His laws, just as we do against our parents when we were growing up. We rush right up to the limit of the sin, whatever it might be. Some of us pull back and repent. Some of us, keep right on going because we enjoy whatever it is that we are doing, even when we know it is wrong.

 

Give what?


This morning is just a short admonition of worship.

Give unto God what is due Him.

Your life, because He loved You first; your time because He gives you another day to work and live for Him; your efforts in everything because God formed you and knew you before the foundation of the world and most of all, your love for Him because without Him you can do nothing.

Praise the Lord all of you who are burdened and in need of rest, because resting in Him with praise in your heart is the best rest and peace that you can have.

In His service.

laminin Collossians 1:17 says: “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” 

This is a picture representation of the molecule of a protein which holds our cells together. Striking resemblance to the cross, don’t you think?

What should we say…


Christians tend to get tongue-tied when they are telling others about Jesus and it does happen to pastors as well. When Paul and Silas when to the Berean Jews, they accepted the gospel with gladness:

10That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men. (Acts 17: 10-12)

The way that they accepted and searched the Scriptures is exactly the way that we should be every day with the Word of God. The more frequently you read and study the Bible, more of it will get into your mind and you won’t have to memorize it. It will just be there waiting to be used. It will also give you a greater understanding of God and His ways to “search the scriptures” because in doing so, you will be learning about God more and more.

Should we be more forceful or pushy with our faith, trying to convert anyone that we can? Absolutely not! Yes, we need to be able to tell others and defend the reason for our faith in what we believe and Who we believe in, but being zealous for our faith to the extreme is not necessary. Jesus wasn’t that way and we don’t need to be either. All that we need to do is tell others about why we believe in Jesus and why, the Holy Spirit will take that seed and make it grow.

God’s Word doesn’t come back to Him void of the purpose for which it was sent out. It always accomplishes that which He wills for it to do. Can we be better witnesses? Yes, with the help of Jesus and the Spirit of Truth. Why can’t we do it on our own strength? Because doing it on your own is not the way that it is done! If that were the case, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come and die on the cross. In our own strength, we could keep the Law and work our way toward salvation, but we can’t!

We are too weak to be able to resist the temptations of daily living without the Holy Spirit in our lives and Jesus’ righteousness is the Only righteousness that is able to cover our sins. God loves us enough to know all of these things about us, yet He still sent His Son to die for us so that we will be able to come into His presence.

I am not saying that people can’t be morally good and do some worthy and good things even without knowing Jesus because they can. It is because of the Law that God wrote into our being that we know right from wrong and also we learned it from our parents and grandparents. So, yes, even people who believe in other gods or no god at all can do good things…morally right things even. The problem comes when you think that your “good works” are good enough to cover your sins and get you into Heaven, because they are not.

God is perfectly Holy and since He is, do you think that you can just walk up to His house and let yourself in? Do you think that you could do this at any residence of someone that you don’t even know? Of course you couldn’t and you wouldn’t let anyone into your house either if you did not know them. That is only a tiny part of why God can’t and won’t allow you to “work” your way into Heaven. He has given it to you as a gift and it is available to everyone in the same way, all that you need to do is accept it and believe it. That is it.

What do we leave behind?


10561767_743035049071205_2362292510227829463_nThe genius that left us behind today was a great man of talent. He is going to be missed by many, not only in Hollywood but all over the world. His comedic genius and wit has been entertaining audiences for over three decades and it was a shock when I heard that he was gone. Could we have done more to help him? Could the world or his friends come along side him and helped to get him through his deep depression? I don’t know!

I have been through a few months of depression myself, though my depression wasn’t as deep as his was. I will truly miss his life being in our world because I was looking forward to another Mrs. Doubtfire. But, I will be happy to watch the original over again as well as his other television shows and movies. It is a shame that many people don’t leave a lasting impression on humanity like celebrities and sports figures. Yet, even their influence will be felt less and less as time goes on. We still see and hear Elvis and John Lennon and Michael Jackson, but the impact that they made begins to fade after a time.

Do we really leave a legacy to society when we are gone or do the memories fade as the audience that we had dwindles with age? I will never know, because I don’t have a following such as any celebrity does. Some of you might miss my writing one day, but it won’t last long in Internet time. I will be replaced with the newest and best that is out there.

The thing that I hope that I have left you with is that Jesus is the answer to all of your problems. Not Muhammad or Buddha or any other god or religious figure. Jesus came and died for you and me and He is the Savior of us all. The only requirement of you is your belief in Him and your request for Him to come into your life and make you into a new creation in Him. That is all that you need to do. There is no money required, no sacrifice that you have to give, only that you believe in Him and in what He did for you. He made more of an impact on our world with His death but it was because of His resurrection that we still have hope!

No matter what the problem or your circumstances may be, He is the only real answer for it and the only One that matters! Please give Him your heart and your life, then you will see what true eternal life will be like!

God, Who is He?


To answer that question would take far more than this blog or this blogger can write, especially in a days time. God is the Creator, the Redeemer, the King of all that is, and He is our Father, our Protector, our Healer, our Friend. God is all of these and our Teacher because since He is present in the three persons of the Trinity He can be all of these at the same time.

We learn through His Holy Word, the Bible, which was written at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We are saved and sanctified by Him as well through the cleansing power of the Spirit which creates in us a new heart and purpose for our lives when we accept Jesus as our Savior. When we have taken on His Holiness, then we are able to come before God at any time for any reason, no matter how small or insignificant we may think it is.

Consider the names of God and all that they imply about Him and His holiness. All that He is and all that He has done for the universe and for our lives is done and has been done because He loves us. Each of us, not just collectively as a race on Earth, but each individual that has been born and those that will be born. The time is growing short though, so I would consider giving my life and heart to Him if I were in your place. He gives each of us the time and the opportunity to come to know Him, all that we have to do is believe in the grace that has been given, and in Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

That is it, that is all that is necessary for us to know Him because He already knows you.

God’s will


Anything that is happening in this world, good or bad, can and will be used in the will of God. Like it or not, you are too. Why there are so many people who are going against this, I don’t know. Yes, there is much in the world which is seen as bad by many people and it is hard to understand why such things are happening. It doesn’t make sense to us because the things which are happening seem to be heinous and evil, God permits those things to happen but it is not His will that they do. Whether you believe it or not, the heart of man is full of evil and wickedness and it is because of our collective sinful nature. This is the reason that things, bad things, happen in the world today.

I have been asked by some “Then why doesn’t God stop it? If He is God, couldn’t He force us to behave?”

Yes, He could, but forced obedience doesn’t engender feelings of love and compassion does it? If you were forced to do something, like go to church for instance, would you be worshipping God while you were there? Not likely, you would be angry and resentful toward the person who made you come. You wouldn’t be thankful or grateful for the sermon or for the person about whom the preacher was speaking. Being forced into something, whether it is a worship service or a marriage like some women or girls are forced into in some countries today, doesn’t engender love for the arrangement regardless what it might be.

God does love each of us and it is His wish, His will that all of us would come to Him, to know Him willingly. But, it is our decision to do so. He doesn’t force us. Therefore Allah doesn’t exist. Allah and God are NOT the same person. The Koran is not God’s word, it is something which was given to a man by a demon from Satan disguised as an angel from God. The concepts from God’s True Word about love, dignity, purpose, and life are not reflected in it anywhere. Oh, yes, there are some good points and some of it is about peaceful living. But, the surah which talks of lying to the infidel and attacking him, killing him if he will not convert to Islam. Waiting for a chance to kill a Jew or a Christian when the time is right…these are concepts born of a hatred for God’s people.

Compare those concepts with Jesus’ teaching about love your neighbor as yourself, do good to those who persecute you, give to the enemy which takes your cloak your tunic also, these are not the same as the “teachings” of Allah.

Now, I am not attacking anyone’s beliefs with this. If you wish to worship Allah, that is your right and ability to do that, those who worship Zen, or any other Eastern religion are welcome to their religions too. Yes, I said that Allah doesn’t exist but if you worship him, then feel free to do so. Worship is not up to me or you or any other person, at least in the sense that someone is in control of your worship. Religion and religious worship are individual decisions, just as following Jesus as your Savior is an individual decision too.

Think about it, pray about it, seek God and He will come to your heart and your life and change it for the better.

Revival of the Church


Is this something that is needed or is it already too late?

Yes, it is needed and it is absolutely NOT too late! Although many churches, or at least those who make up the body of the churches need revival in a BIG way. Revival of spirit, revival of conviction and of their purpose as Christians. It is not too late, but to most of the world, especially in America, we are silent about things that we should not be silent about. Yes, Jesus said to turn the other cheek but even He overturned the money changers tables and those tables which were selling animals for sacrifice in the courtyard of the Tabernacle!

We are not supposed to just roll over and say, “Oh well, so it goes.” Would Jesus be quiet right now in the face of all that is going on in this world? I don’t think so. When He comes back there will be many who will be wishing that He had not!

I know there are some who don’t believe in our God or in anything that the Bible says, but it is the Truth of God and when He comes they will see that it is and always has been true. As Ezekiel looked on the valley of dry bones, he did not know that they would live again but God knew. God could revive them and in the vision that he had, God did just that. He can do that to the church today! He can bring us up from the grave, no matter where we are in life or death because He is God the Creator.

The church today is not dead, but asleep and not doing the work that Jesus gave it to do. We must keep working for Jesus until He comes again. It is our duty and His command that we take His message to all of the world and we can’t do that sitting behind the walls of our churches. Jesus is and always has been the Son of God, the Living Word and He is the Creator because of the Word that was used by God to create everything.

We have to get out of our comfort zones even if it takes getting our shoes dirty and going places that we might not want to go, but where He commands that we take Him! He prompted me to begin this ministry online and it is His prompting that gives me the words to write. I am not and never have been a prolific speaker or writer, but in the past few years I have been writing what I was given by Him…here and elsewhere (my other two sites), in order to get His message out to those that might read it.

I don’t do this for my sake or for any kind of recognition, but for your sake and for your salvation in coming to know my Savior as yours. The church is not a building it is the people who meet there and come to worship Jesus there. Whether the church happens to be in a large building or in a home, the people gathering there are the church. We need to be inviting others to join us in our worship so that they can come to know Jesus too.