Tag: Christ

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.

Conviction, what is it?


I asked a question a few days ago about what is hell, now I am asking about conviction. What is it? I am not talking about being convicted of a crime such as in a court of law. I am talking about being convicted by the Holy Spirit. Have you ever felt that? Have you felt it during a sermon at a church? If you did, why didn’t you give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to come to live in your heart and your life?

Think about it. Conviction of doing something that is wrong or sinful brings you to the point of knowing that something needs to change and that something is your life-style. Give up drinking and smoking and having sex outside of a married relationship with a person of the opposite sex. Why am I being so specific about this? Because there are too many people who don’t think that this is important. Because there are too many people who don’t believe that the Bible is the Truth of God and the Word of God. If it isn’t the Truth, then I am mistaken and I am wrong.

But, what if the Bible is the Truth and the Words in it are True? If it is, then everything that I have said is just as true because I preach this every Sunday in church and I preach it from God’s Word, the Bible. Yes, it is true and it is God’s Word. There is no denying this, although many people do. So how can we possibly get past the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

We can’t, actually. If you have felt it or maybe are feeling it but don’t know what to do about it, here is a hint: Don’t turn away from it! God wants you for a reason, that is why you are feeling this conviction. If the Creator needs you, don’t run away from Him because you can’t. It doesn’t work. Jonah tried it, I tried it too but eventually God will manage to get your attention and get you back where He needs you to be.

Give your heart to Jesus and ask Him to show you how to live and what He wants from you and He will. The Lord is gracious and loves all of us, He will answer a prayer for wisdom and knowledge especially if you are wanting to do what He is calling you to do.

Do you know that God loves you?


He loves you in such a DEEP and intimate way until you cannot fathom exactly how much He truly does love you! Satan and the world at large try to tell you that God doesn’t care about you or anything that goes on in or on this Earth, but He honestly does. I mean, honestly, do you think that He would’ve allowed His Son to die for you or me or the rest of humanity if He didn’t love us?

You may not believe in God or in His Son, but God does love you. Why? Because God IS LOVE! He can’t help but love His creation and you and I are a part of that! Yes, there are many people in this world who don’t believe and may never believe in Him or His Son and truly that is too bad. There is nothing that I can do or say that will change their minds and unless they feel or hear the call to their heart from Him and answer it, they will never know Him. The problem is that they will blame Him for it when it is their decision to believe or not!

Can anything be done to prove to anyone that God exists? No, not really. People in our world are deceived by their eyes and by science and by Satan, although many don’t think that he exists either. I have met many who don’t want to change their minds, even if you could prove God’s existence. But…one day they will meet Him. Because we will all stand before Him and give account for our lives and the deeds done by us..each word, each syllable uttered that was hurtful or may have caused a child to disbelieve in God. Every action that we did in life, if it was not covered by the blood of Jesus, will be accounted for.

When you are not a child of God what are you exactly? You are a human being just like everyone else, regardless of the color of your skin or the culture that you grew up in. God knows this because He knows you! He knows exactly where you…each of us is at any time, no matter how dark the place may be or if you feel that God is not in this place, He is. God loves you no matter where you might be, all that you need to do is allow Him into your life.

He will not push or poke His way into your life, you may feel a tug at your heart when you hear a sermon but unless you answer that call it will be unanswered until the next time. If you close your mind and your heart to God though and decide for yourself that it isn’t worth giving your life to Him, He may stop calling and just allow you to be the way that you want to be. Grace is available to all but unless you make the decision to let Jesus into your life it won’t happen.

Jesus came and died on a cross and rose again so that we all could have eternal life but we have to believe in Him and in the fact that it is His blood that purifies your sinful life before God. You can’t do it, Muhammed can’t do it, Buddha can’t do it…there is no other person or priest who can pray for you and absolve you of your sins. Jesus is the only way…the only Shepherd that can bring you into eternity.

Believe it or not, it won’t matter whether you are a good person and have given your life to doing good things or maybe you have given thousands of dollars to charity to feed the poor and the sick and disabled. These are all wonderful things to do, but unless you are a Christian and have the love of Jesus in your life and you did them for His glory and not your own…they don’t mean anything.

People will think well of you for doing this but it will have no lasting significance, no eternal reward for you because it was done for your recognition and not for God’s glory! He will enhance your life and your eternity with His love and His grace and He will help you to be more of what you are supposed to be in Him and through Him. Think about it and seek Him!

God’s character


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

These are the names of God..the names of our Lord, but you know He also occupies places in your life that are important as well.
He is our Deliverer. He is our Rock and our Fortress.
He is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is our Saviour. He is the One Who Sees our troubles and carries us through them.
He is our Creator. He is the I AM. He is our Rod and our Staff.
He is our Healer and Protector.
He is our Shepherd and our Friend.
He is our Father in Heaven.

God is all of these. Jesus is all of these. The two of them and the Holy Spirit make up the Trinity and they are One. They rule over the universe and watch over all of our lives and our troubles as well as our fears and our heartaches. God is all that you or I will ever need, even when we have nothing that this world calls wealth, we are rich in Him. When we realize this and begin to act like it, then the world will see it and want what we have because they will know that it was not bought with money. It was given to us by God Himself and nobody can take it away.

Yes, I admit that I have been very deeply depressed for over a month. I have thought of ending my life. I have felt worthless and useless but God has been with me through it all. I have cried out to Him and I have yelled at Him. I have cussed and fussed about the way that I feel and asked Him why do I feel this way? Through it all, He let me rage and fuss. He allowed me to vent and cuss and then ask forgiveness for what I had said. I am not finished with my depressed state because it is not something that goes away like a cold or the flu. Unfortunately, it is what our society calls a disease of the mind. They used to put you in the mental hospital for it and depending upon how bad you are, they still do. But…I am not there yet.

The point that I had to make today is this: God never leaves you where you are, no matter what you are doing or what may be wrong in your life. He is always there with you, holding you in His hand. Giving you strength and comforting you like a child, which we are. But, He is also very patient with His children as well. His patience is far greater than ours and it goes deeper, like His love for us, than we can comprehend. God cannot do anything to you or for you except through love because that is His character and His being. That is why we can’t understand it, because we can’t love that deeply or completely and yet the love expressed between a man and woman and their children is as close as we can get in this life to it. If you haven’t given yourself to Him, please do it before it is too late. Because once this life is over, you don’t get another chance to make it right. Think about that, please?

Consider the names of God


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

God is all of these. He has been for eternity and will be for eternity. We do not have to wonder if He is because…He is. God is able. God is the Holy Spirit. God is Adonai…our Master and Lord. All of these are true, but do we accept them when we become Christians? Do we truly realize exactly Who we are dealing with or even praying to?

In our daily lives, whether we are Christians or not, do we ever come to grasp that it is this Presence, this Person Who came and died for each of our sins and then rose from the grave to conquer death and prove that we will also? If we allow Him into our lives and into our hearts so that He can cleanse us from our previous Earthly selves and change us…each one of us into a new Creature in Christ. This is the message that Jesus wants us to take to the world. This is the testimony that we have to let others know about by telling them in some way, because if we don’t tell them…who will?

Sure, there are books and Bibles and tapes. There are DVD’s and CD’s that people can listen to, but did you listen to them? Did you hear or see those messages before your heart was broken into thousands of pieces? Did you want to know God prior to His touch…His call on your life? I doubt it. You did just like the rest of us hypocrites, you went about your life doing the same things day in and day out with no more thought about eternity than your thoughts about the economy or even what you would eat for lunch!

But, you know, when your heart got a crack in it….when something got your attention to come around to see that there was more to life than hunting and football, then you began to look for a meaning, for a purpose. You felt that things wouldn’t be enough, stuff wasn’t important any more just because you had more expensive stuff than someone else! This life…this time that we have only has meaning and purpose when you give it to the One that Created it, so that He can make you into what you were…what you ARE supposed to be. You can’t do it alone. You can’t be “the one” in your life or anyone else’s life until you allow the One into yours!

Yes, today is today and tomorrow is still yet to come but if you give your heart, your life to God and ask Him to make you into His idea of what or who you should be then your tomorrows will never end. Even if your life here does, the effect that your words, your actions, your character had on even one person may go farther than you ever could to make an impact on more people than you will ever know on this side of Heaven. Consider that and think about His Names.

Time….


Time is measured by us in seconds and minutes and hours, then days, weeks, months and years. If you wish to measure longer periods of time then it can stretch into much more than that. What is my point for writing this today? Well, as you may have noticed, time is slipping away at an ever increasing speed. Some of the younger folks may not see it that way, but the older that you get it seems to speed up monthly. Why is that? If you have children it is easy to see it happen because you see your children grow up and they do it so fast it seems. The older they get, the faster the years seem to go by, at least for you. They don’t see it that way, at least not yet.

Time ticks by us without us really feeling it go. It just floats away like a cloud of smoke and you can’t get it back. The time that it takes for me to write this is time that I will never have again. It has been about six hours or so since I woke up this morning, but that time is gone. I can’t re-live it and I can’t go back and reclaim it.

God can see it as though as it began just a moment ago. He can see yesterday as it was and He can see tomorrow before we ever get to it. He can even go all the way back to the beginning of Creation and go through all of that again if He wishes to. Why? Because He is God!! He lives outside of time, so He can see the end and the beginning any time that He wishes to.

Why am I pointing all of this out? You might think that you wish to do what God does and go back and change things in your past so that things will be different in your future. Sounds great doesn’t it? The problem with that is that depending upon the size of the change, your life will be so dramatically different that you might not recognize it. One other problem with it is that you might not like the “future” that you end up with. Then what do you do? Small changes have big consequences, big changes have BIG consequences, so you might change the person that you marry or the subjects that you study in school and the grades that you got.

These are the temporal consequences that we could not and should not be able to change. God gives us our life as it is because He knows the end result and He knows that it will work out for you and for Him and His kingdom. It is a subject that is fun to imagine about. The money that you could’ve made if you had done things this way or the difference that marrying the “right” person might have made in your life. These are things that we can imagine but that God knows would be best left alone and thankfully we don’t have the capability to do this. We see it portrayed in science fiction films and shows many times, but it would be so easy to really cause real problems if it were possible, so thankfully it is not.

Your life and your purpose are in God’s hands and the effect that your life has is dependent upon who is in charge of your life. Is it God in your heart and in the driver’s seat or is it you? Considering that you don’t know everything and I don’t either, I would rather have God in the driver’s seat because everything will work out according to His plan, which is always the plan that counts. The only thing that is necessary for each of us to do is to believe in Jesus’ atonement for you and me and the sins that we have committed, no matter how bad they might’ve been.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, then we need to decide to put Him in control of our lives and the leave the outcome in His hands. When we do that, His Kingdom will be glorified and we will have eternal life with Him. It is a winning combination!

Think about it, pray about it and seek Him because when you do, the best will come to you in eternity.