Tag: Christ

Are we pushing an agenda or trying to bring people to Christ?


In the charged atmosphere that our country is in, what are we doing as representatives of Christ? Are we representing Christ to the world? There are many who see the church as a radical group that is pushing their agenda on people who don’t want it. In this scenario, the church is being compared to zealots and terrorists because of the way the message of a few congregations gets attention from the media. Sensationalism in our society is all the rage because of so-called “reality TV” so anyone who has an opinion, especially one that is going to get attention, will get air time.

Even the man-made religions of Islam and Scientology get far more favorable time than most churches that follow Jesus. Is it because we are living in the times prior to His return? I don’t know for sure. Many people wonder when that might happen and the fact is that no one knows except God. When the time is right, it will happen because it is prophesied in His Word. That belief is based on faith, but not blind faith. It is faith in a risen Savior and in the prophecies which have already come true that are in the Bible.

Christ is the answer to all of life’s questions because He is the author of life. He is the Creator and our redeemer and the only “agenda” that I am preaching if that is what you call this.

In life and in this world there are many troubles. Some are caused by us, some by natural processes like earthquakes and hurricanes, and many of the wars and diseases that afflict mankind have their cause in Satan and his demons. I know that there are many who will not believe this because they put about as much into belief in him as they do in Bigfoot or “little green men”.

Humans are hated and despised by Satan because of our status in God’s eyes, especially those who have accepted Christ as their savior. The rhetoric that is being debated in the media about Christians and their belief that is based on the Word of God against sinful lifestyles.

In many ways we are very much like children who cannot get along. One group goes to one part of the playground, another to another area and none of them play together. Our pride and selfishness gets in the way of being the people that God intended for us to be. We have our own views and opinions of how “religion” or lack of it should be done and we are stubborn enough to not allow others to influence us.

Why are we such a stubborn people? Because we want things our way, we want to do everything on our own, like children even as adults.

God knows this and He knows us and our ways. He also knows what is best for us but until we decide to follow Him, we will be stuck doing it our way. We may get some things done in our world, but what about after we leave this world and stand before Him? Will anything that we have done matter at that point? If it was done for Him it will, if not then the question becomes “What did you do with my Son, Jesus?”

The answer to this question may not mean much to you now but when eternity is before you the answer will make a great deal of difference. We do not know how many days that we have in this life and I know there are many who think they should do all they can to have fun before they die. Have you considered what happens after you die? Many people think that once you die, that’s it, but it is not.

We all have eternal souls and where we spend eternity hinges on the answer to the  previous question. Your life in eternity, whether in heaven or hell, is determined by your answer toward Christ. Did you accept Him as your Lord and Savior or did you reject Him? You place in eternity depends solely on the answer to that question, think about it.

In what shape are you in?


I am not talking about your body shape, I am speaking of the shape of your relationship with Jesus? Are you good friends? Do you speak to each other on a daily basis or do you only call when you need something?

God loves you as no one on earth can and His love is unconditional. He doesn’t require you to do anything to earn His love. He does ask that you ask Jesus into your heart and your life, but He will never force you into a relationship with Him. God doesn’t do that, regardless of what other religions say with regard to your acceptance of their version of “God”.

When you become part of God’s family, you are a part of it but yours is a unique part. Unique in the way that you are because there is no one on earth with your abilities and God knows what you can do, even if you don’t, yet!

The Bible is a collection of stories, true, but it is also God voice speaking to us and telling us how much He loves us. He speaks to us through the poetry and the history of the Jewish people but He also speaks through the letters and the prophecies, the wisdom contained in the book of Proverbs. Many people don’t realize that God spoke and is still speaking through the words contained in this book. But it is so much more than a book. God’s love is expressed all through it from Genesis to Revelation. It is expressed angrily as a jealous God would but it is also expressed lovingly as a father would to a child that he loves.

The anger that is expressed is the kind that a parent would have toward a child that is doing something which might hurt them or cause them to be killed. It is not a hateful anger nor is it an anger which is comparable to our anger, it is a type which I cannot fully describe to anyone unless they have a child which they love. When that child runs out into the street or touches something which might endanger their life, don’t you feel a little angry and anxious because you may have lost your child?

That is the type of anger that most closely mirrors what God expresses and yet He loves us with an unbounded love, one which we cannot fully comprehend. When you are looking for something and yet you don’t know exactly what that something is, you will find your answer in the Bible and nowhere else! You may try to find it in another religion or a job or by using drugs or alcohol, but when you wake the next morning feeling hollow and still wanting something to fill that space, God is the only One who can.

“I have lost my way” is what I have heard some say about not going to church or that they have been gone too long. God knows where you are! He never left you, you just looked away from Him, that is all! Just like the grass looking greener on the other side of the fence and the cows stretch to get at it not knowing that the grass is the same.

God loves us with a love that none of us can understand or comprehend in our human way because He is our Creator. He is as far above us as we are above a bacteria so our feelings and His feelings are totally different and yet He cares for us as no one else can, like a father caring for billions of His children.

Giving your life and your heart to Him and becoming one of His children in a real sense is the best decision that you can make with your life. I do not want anyone to think that being a Christian is easy because it is not. The old self is still there, as are the temptations of your previous life. The world and all of its temptations as well as Satan and his demons will bring up things and people that will cause you to stumble and fall from your life as a child of God. At which point you have to decide to ask God to forgive you and turn back to Him, following His lead just as a sheep follows its shepherd.

In saying this I don’t mean that we are considered sheep, but in some ways we are. We are like children and sheep, we don’t know what is best for us so we have to be shown or taught what to do. Many people don’t like this idea, they are very independent and like the two year old that everyone has heard say “I can do it myself”; but even the two year old gets into trouble before long and comes running to mommy or daddy.

Our Father is the ultimate daddy because of Who He is. He won’t give you everything when you ask for it, but He will provide for you a life and the ability to serve and glorify Him here and in the life to come. Even if you don’t subscribe to the “afterlife” idea, it will be because God refers to it many times in His Word.

Are there any “nots” in your life?


Have you ever wondered whether you are good enough for God? Have you asked Him if you are good enough to get into Heaven? The answers to these questions are simple: yes, you are good enough for God and no, you are not good enough to get into Heaven!

Well, why not? Why am I not worthy to get into Heaven? It is because of our human nature and the fact that we are sinners from the time that we know right from wrong.

Can we change? Yes, but not on our own. Only by accepting Jesus into our lives and allowing Him to change us from our heart outward can there be any lasting change. This kind of change makes a difference not only in our lives but through our lives we are able to touch others because of it.

The change in us will be evident to others and they will want what we have because it gives us hope and peace. A peace that those in the world cannot understand.

Your life can be so much more than it is with Christ in it and yet, many people don’t want Him in their lives. To me, that doesn’t make sense but that is how life with Jesus is. If you have Him you can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want Him. If you don’t know Him, you can’t understand why anyone would want to.

I have been away too long for God to want me


I know many people who have said this and feel this way, but why? There are times in our lives that we move away from God and it is us who move because He doesn’t. He is always by our side in every situation no matter how desperate it seems and regardless of the circumstances.

Jesus said that not one sparrow falls from the sky without the Father’s notice, so how can we think that He doesn’t notice our troubles and trials? He is always there, we just have to acknowledge Him and turn to Him for guidance and direction. If you have never asked God for anything in your life, He still knows you as His creation, and His child because He created each of us and knew us before we were born. He knows exactly what purpose and plan that He has in store for you and will bring it about without your help if He has to.

God loves us, all of us, whether we know it or not. His patience with us is longer and more enduring than we can possibly imagine. I know that many people try to put “human” qualities and traits on Jesus and God and Jesus did live as a man until His resurrection, yet He was fully God too! As it says in the first chapter of John, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1)

His humanity was what He had to take up like we do when we put on a suit and yet He did it for us, because of His love for us. We cannot deny this and one day it will be for all the world to see. In order for us to come back to Him, if we ever knew Him, takes only a repentant spirit and a prayer for forgiveness because of our actions. If you have never known Jesus, it still only takes a prayer of repentance, one that is truly sorry for the life that you have lived. Acknowledge that you want to live for Him and allow Him to live through you and in your heart. That’s it!

I know that is too simple and straightforward for some to believe but it is true! He made it that simple so that a child could understand how to do it, it is us religious “grown-ups” who make it hard by putting religion and its dogma into the equation. That is why Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees of His day. They knew the scriptures, the prophecies that foretold Him and His coming and yet they did not “see and hear with their spiritual eyes and ears”.

Pride and selfishness get in the way just as it did then. They were proud of being descendants of Abraham and Moses. They were looking at what they would lose if common people could come to God without a priest and a sacrifice. Their position of importance among the people meant more to them that the people that they were supposed to be shepherding toward God.

This same pride is at work in the church today. Many preachers and evangelists, especially those with television ministries, allow their pride and the money which comes into their offering boxes to sway them and their message. I am not accusing all of them, but the ones which get into the news the most and draw the most attention, cause the world to look on all who claim Christ as being the same.

Pride is Satan‘s most useful tool to discredit the Church and the followers of Christ. Mainly because it causes the most hurt and makes the mistakes which are made so visible.

Give your life to Christ so that you can undo some of the damage that has been done in your life. You will be able to do this through Jesus’ power, not your own and He will give you the words and the strength to accomplish it. Don’t rely on your own strength because in the end it will fail, but His will not!

What do you mean, “die to self”?


It is a question which has been asked many times since Jesus was here. It is a question which is easy and hard to answer but I will try to shed some light on it here.

Our selfish nature or it could be called our childish nature, is what gets us into so much trouble and we don’t realize it until it is almost too late. Anyone who is a parent has heard a child say “I can do it myself” and it is that “self” that we have to get away from! If we don’t, it will get us into more trouble than we could possibly imagine!

I know that many people feel that this is just some preacher rambling about something that doesn’t mean anything. Well, I am a preacher but I have also been called to get these bits of wisdom that I glean from God‘s Word out to a dying world and in this instance our “self” is usually the bad guy. Satan will help our nature or our “self” to be a real problem, against our better judgement and our Christian nature, but it is us who cause much of our own problems!

As the old cartoon said, “I has met the enemy and he is us!” We are our own worst enemy in many ways, least of all to ourselves and the life that we live. It is our nature, the sin nature that was born in the garden of Eden, that has caused and is still causing heartache and pain and suffering today.

Can we do anything about it?  No, not on our own we can’t! With God in our life and in our hearts we can overcome our self, the old self that is at war with our new creation after Christ comes into your heart. It is a battle that we cannot afford to lose which is why we are admonished to put on the armor of God by studying His Word and taking its wisdom into our life on a daily basis. When we do that, we are able to do exceedingly more for Him and through Him than we could ever do on our own!

Give your heart to Jesus, the only One who loves you regardless of what you have done or will do! He will never leave you nor let you down so give your heart to Him and your life will never be the same, it will be BETTER!

Celebrating Easter


The idea that a rabbit has anything to do with Jesus’ resurrection came from a pagan ritual. The truth and the reason that we celebrate Easter is the resurrection of Jesus after His crucifixion! It has nothing to do with the spring of the year or eggs or rabbits but it has everything to do with your salvation!

Jesus died to ransom you from the penalty of your sins, regardless of what those sins are! It doesn’t matter if it is a lie that you told your Mom or your boss or your wife/husband, even that is a sin. It may be considered a small sin but in God’s eyes and in His universe this is no different from murder. Sins are just that, sins, regardless of the severity or consequences in our world! To a holy God, our God, sins are all the same regardless of the effect they have in this world.

This is a hard message to hear and to learn but it must be said because there is an eternity at stake and it is yours and mine! Think about what God might feel. He created all of us as His children, to learn about Him, to decide on our own to love Him because of what He does for us on a daily basis. Then, when we decide not to love Him and sin against Him, He feels it like a knife every time. Not just from one of us at a time but from everyone on earth!

We won’t be perfect even after we accept Christ as our Savior but we will have His righteousness to cover those sins that we do commit! We will still sin but we will know it, the Holy Spirit will let us know and we will want to follow Jesus’ footsteps toward the Father. If you haven’t allowed Him to change your heart and your life, please consider this…the fires of hell never go out and after your life on earth is over you will live forever regardless of where you are.

The eternal life that you live will have much more meaning and purpose if you serve Him now so you can serve Him then. If you choose not to allow Him into your life while you have this time on earth, (since we don’t know when our time ends we may not have another chance), your eternity will be very different from what it could have been!

Satan doesn’t care about you or your life other than getting you to choose not to follow Christ, as long as he can accomplish that he feels that he has hurt God more each time one of us chooses our own way instead of God’s way!

Our Lord’s model prayer


 

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us

Our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the Glory,

Forever.

Amen.

“Our Father”, we acknowledge that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all of us, as well as all of Creation itself. He is the Father of Jesus, our Savior and redeemer. He alone deserves our praise, not some god that man has fashioned from his imagination or from some part of creation itself.

“Which art in Heaven”, with these few words we are telling God that we know where He lives and we realize that He is above all, our thoughts, our ways and our sins. But, we are also acknowledging that we are, in spirit at least, there in our thoughts and in our longings.

 “Hallowed be thy name”; we know that God is holy and we humble ourselves before Him. Because of Who He is, we can do no less. We can’t comprehend God anymore than a bacterium can comprehend us!

“Thy Kingdom come”; here we are telling God that we want His Kingdom to come and we are acknowledging that it is and will be His Kingdom that we want to be a part of it with Him!

“Thy will be done”; we know that God’s will is sovereign and over all. His will is over all of Creation and nothing happens outside of His will. Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls from the sky without the Father noticing it. Because He is in touch with His Creation to that extent, how do you think He feels when we push Him away?

 “On earth as it is in Heaven”; we acknowledge that one day God’s will for us will be done on earth as in Heaven because He said so. The prophecies in God’s Word say that this will happen, therefore it will! There is no debate nor argument for or against this; God said it so it is done!

 “Give us this day our daily bread”; He will sustain us with His power and with our life’s work so that we can live for Him daily. If we choose not to live for Him, we are not forced but if He has a plan for our lives, circumstances will work toward getting us in line with His will eventually. Jonah found this out and we will too if we try to change things!

“Forgive us our debts”; we are to ask for His forgiveness for our sins humbly and willingly because we are guilty of being sinners.

 “As we forgive our debtors”; this is the hard part to digest because it simply means that we are forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. Once you have asked Jesus into your heart and life, you are forgiven but you are to forgive others too. If you can’t forgive others, how can you show that you have been changed into the likeness of Christ?

 “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; God doesn’t lead us into temptation, Satan does that by enticing us with things which he knows that we will pay attention to. If we are being led by God on a daily basis we will not be led into temptation, but we will be given the strength to resist it!

In delivering us from evil, God will deliver us from the evil influence of Satan and his demons by His strength as long as we are relying on Him and not our own.

 “For Thine is the Kingdom”; we know that the Kingdom to come is the Lord’s and if we belong to Him, we will share in it. How could you not want to share in an eternal Kingdom with God?

“The power and the Glory, Forever”; God has always been, period. He is omnipotent or all-powerful. He is the Creator of everything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy and everything in between! All of these things that He created show His wonderful majesty and awesome power! Our God, His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in One and between them and their influence in our universe everything works, PERIOD!

This is just a small part of what Jesus said while He was here, but what a mighty impact it has had. Many people pray that prayer as their prayer but it is supposed to be a model for us to pray, not a memorized prayer! We don’t have to pray exactly the way this prayer is laid out, but as long as we acknowledge Who is in control and give Him our petitions and problems and have the faith that He will work things together in our lives for our good and for His Glory, we only need to lean on Him in prayerful dependence with faith like a child.

He loves us more than we can comprehend. The only thing that is required from us is to love Him, we don’t have to but don’t you want to! God gives us all that we ever need or that we could want, not out of necessity but out of love for us. He doesn’t supply all the money that we want but He does supply our needs, because He knows each of us far better than we do.

 Give your heart and your life to Him and all things will work together for your life in His will and for the good pleasure of Him who sustains you.

New creation, same old body


How can I be a new creation after Christ has entered my life? Is it possible that I let Him in by mistake? The answers to these questions are: you can’t and you didn’t!

We can’t be a new creation on our own, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you truly accepted Jesus, you are. It is not something which will be heralded by angels or by some miraculous healing, but it is a transformation of your spirit. You become aligned with one of the Trinity and by His power you are a new creation!

The second question from above is not possible because unless God calls you spiritually and you respond by giving your heart and life to Jesus, you can’t and you won’t be His. You may go to church and be a deacon or a Gideon, you might even become a missionary overseas but you will be doing these things under your own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That being said, I do not mean that you aren’t a good person, but you can be a “fan” of Jesus and not a follower. By that I mean the same as someone who is a fan of a particular sport. You are a true fan but you don’t play professionally. You know about the sport or the person Jesus, you have heard and read many parts of the Bible, but until you let Him into your life and your heart and truly become a follower like His disciples were, you are just a fan and nothing more.

It is wonderful to be a fan of Jesus, but until you can say truthfully that you love Him and know Him from His word, that is all that you are. You are not a new creation because you don’t have Him in your heart! This is a hard truth that many in the church today have a problem with and many who have been in church and who have left also have a problem with it. Being a member of a church and attendance every time there is a function at the church doesn’t do anything for you spiritually anymore than being in a garage makes you a car!

Until you can ask Jesus into your life and your heart and live that way daily, not just on Sunday, you haven’t changed! Until God calls you to be that new creation and you answer that call by asking Jesus into your heart, you aren’t a new creation!

Oh, but when you do answer His call on your life, everything changes! Your life takes on a new meaning, your relationship with everyone becomes more meaningful, your whole character changes because you are not the same anymore! Your heart and your mind will begin to reflect the attitude and the person of Christ and everyone will know it, even if you don’t say anything about your decision.

God wants all of humanity to come to Him. Whether we choose to do so is our individual choice. It is not forced because love cannot be forced. He won’t make you love Him because that is not love. Choose Life from the Sustainer and the Creator of all life because when you do, you will be a new creation! All of the old habits won’t have the same hold on you, your friends will either like the “new you” or they won’t. Give Jesus a chance in your life and your heart because He is the longing that we have been searching for and didn’t know that He was it!

Five minutes after I die….


Ask yourself, “Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I would have given on behalf of the helpless while I still had the chance?”

Many people may say that this is a foolish question because there is no afterlife, but what if they or you are wrong? What will you say or do after this life is over and the next existence begins? Will you have a real existence after this life?

The answer to all of these questions is “It depends”. It depends on what you did in this life and whom you were following through life. If you took care of yourself and your immediate family, that is good but it is also selfish. Did you give your life to anything greater or any One? Could you have made a real difference in other people’s lives if you had been a Christian? Yes! There are many things which you could do to help others with our own strength, but with Christ living in your heart and working through you, you can do so much more.

Is it possible for us to go through life without Christ? Yes, but why would you want to? Having Him near everyday gives me such peace and the knowledge that I can speak to Him about anything at any time is reassuring. I feel that part of my life that was empty at one time is full now and the One that filled it was Jesus.

It also gives me the assurance that when I die, I will be with Jesus and the rest of my family who are in Heaven already. We will serve the Lord with gladness throughout eternity and that assurance gives me hope because it is a future without end!

Ask Jesus into your heart and ask forgiveness for your life before He came to you. Once you do that, your life will never be the same but it will be better than it was!

 

My life is out of control, HELP!


What happens when you feel this way? Do you panic or call a friend? Do you feel that this is what happens to people when they have nowhere to go or anyone to turn to? I have heard from and talked with many people who think that when this happens, there is nowhere to go or no one to go to.

Our educational system in this country has pushed God out of the classroom so much that children and teenagers may not have any concept of Him at all. If they have never been to church or bible school, they certainly wouldn’t have any concept of Him. As someone who lives in the “Bible-belt” it is hard for me to imagine anyone not knowing about Christ but I know that there are some people who have never heard of Him and His grace toward us.

Our Savior is the Creator of everything, but He is also a friend who loves each of us more dearly than we can imagine! His Word, the Bible, is full of stories of His love toward us and His chosen people, Israel. When you read it from cover to cover, you find that it is not a book of rules about what you can’t do but it is an instruction book. One that suggests ways of doing things with your life that will inspire others to do the same. It is also the living Word of God, so when you read it the message that you get from it will be different each time.

God’s Word will also influence your life in ways that you might never have considered before. Our Lord loves all people because He had a hand in creating each person on the earth. The problems that we experience in this life are felt by God because He knows each person whether they know Him or not. Remember, according to Jesus, “Are not two sparrows sold for a pennyd? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” Matthew 10:29

Our God cares for this world enough that He watches over the sparrows as well as all other creatures, including us. Even when you think that He is not watching or listening, He is, and even though our world is coming to the end of the church age, He is carefully watching everything.

Our world is under the influence of Satan and as such we experience many deceptions and hardships because of him. Although he is not in control of our world, he just influences things which happen here, God is in control and He allows Satan to do some things as long as those things follow His will.

When life and trouble seems to be too much, look to Jesus. Ask Him to help you overcome the problems which seem to be too big because even though they may be too big for you to handle, they are not too big for God. When you have come to the end of your rope and hope seems to have faded, trust in Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life as well as our Savior and Friend. He is the Creator of all things and the King of Kings who gave His life to pay the price so that we don’t have to! All you have to do is ask Him into your heart and believe that He is Who He is, then repent and follow Him.