Tag: Christianity

For God so loved…


The beginning of the passage from John 3:16 is a beautiful and gracious statement, “For God so loved the world”. Because He did and He does love all of us regardless of the country that we live in or what religion that we cling to in our daily lives. Whether you are a religious person or not, there is something that you use in your life to guide you and direct your life. It may be your own personal feelings or abilities or it could be a religion that you aspire to be a true follower of. But…God still loves you even if you are not a Christian and haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior.

That is the very reason that Jesus came to live as one of us, blamelessly and sinless in His life so that He could die on the cross and make atonement for all of us. This was His purpose while He walked and preached to those who would listen and really hear His message. He loved us first so that we could come to Him humbly and broken, knowing that our sin and our version of “righteousness” would not avail us any honor or acceptance in God’s sight.

Look at a pure white canvas or sheet of paper. It is as pure as we can make it, yet allow just one spot of dirt or ink, even one as small as a period like this (.) and it isn’t pure anymore. True, we can and do overlook a spot like this everyday but when we are exposed to the Holiness of God, we won’t be able to cover our sins because only the blood of Jesus can do that.

The next part of that verse is “that He gave His only begotten Son”. This is something that we cannot understand! Could you give your only son as a sacrifice so that one other person could live? I don’t think anyone could do that, even for a close friend! God gave His Son so that ALL of us would have a possible way of forgiveness for ALL of our sins, big and small, if we would put our faith in Jesus and in His atonement for us!

Believe! The next part of this verse, “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”; belief in Him and His sacrifice is the requirement for eternity, is that too much to ask?

The eternity that I am speaking of here is an eternity in Heaven, with God and His angels and His Son! Many people seem to think that if you die without God or Jesus in your life, then you are just dead, period. Not so! Jesus spoke of hell and there is a place of torment for those who have rejected the grace and mercy which is offered to all! The reason that I mentioned this is that you are the person responsible for your eternity due to your own decisions in this life. God does not sentence you to hell or an eternity of torment, your decisions are responsible for that.

Love does and doesn’t


There isn’t much more to say about this subject that God’s Word doesn’t already say! Have a wonderful day!wpid-wp-1443214045844

How much….?


This is part of nearly everyone’s vocabulary in some form. How much does that cost? How much more will you take? How much more do we/I need to do? Some people don’t know this phrase much in their lives but they are wealthy enough to be able to avoid using it. So, how much do you use it? Have you heard it very much in your life? Questions that some want to be answered and some of them don’t care about the answer at all, to any of those questions.

One question that needs to be answered in your life and in the conscience of the whole world is: How much more will it take before ________?

You can fill that blank space with so many things like “the end of the world” or “people wake up” or even “Jesus comes back” and I am sure that there are others which would fit quite nicely. The Bible has many prophecies about this time in history and at the time that they were given, the images were so horrific the prophets who received them couldn’t describe fully what they were seeing. They had no reference for missiles or tanks or planes or helicopters, so their descriptions seem to be full of all sorts of beasts and fantastic things.

Life today is hard enough to make sense of without trying to figure out God’s Word and its meaning, which is why we were told to ask Him for wisdom so that we can understand the words and meanings of prophecies in the book of Revelation. When some of these visions were given to Daniel, he was told to seal the book until the end and many people have wondered why. It is because most of the things which God showed him couldn’t be understood until now. Other explanations such as the words in Zechariah about “the skin melting from their body and their eyes melting, before the body hits the ground” are vivid depictions of the results of a nuclear attack and its effect on a human body.

How much more graphic could the Bible be in its description of it? We wouldn’t want to know nor could we understand God’s reason for these things. The fallen angels or demons who fell from Heaven with Satan are confusing people all over the world with out of context scripture being taught as if it were true. Some of it is true, but when you teach some of the truth you aren’t teaching the whole Truth of scripture which is how other doctrines are brought into being. Then, new “religions” spring up with these so-called “new truths”. How much more are we going to be deceived by this tactic and these mixed up words?

Until you read God’s Word and commit it to memory and get it into your heart. That is how long the deception will continue. Many people today are moving out of “organized religion”, into churches that teach a lie for the truth because it makes them feel good or at least feel better about themselves. Condemnation is a bad word in these churches because that implies that the people are bad or that they do bad things. I have read the Bible many times, but I am not the type of person who memorizes chapter and verse. At times, I would like to quote it that way, but the Spirit brings scripture to your mind when you need it so that is the memorizing that I depend upon.

WE ARE ALL SINNERS! At some point in your life you have told a lie, you have taken something which wasn’t yours, you have wanted (coveted) something which someone else has, etc. The only One Who has lived without sin, sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is coming back to get His Bride, the Church, one day. How much more will God put up with from us and our rebellious world system? As much as He can until the last person who will accept Jesus as Savior has done so. Our everyday lives will be worse than we thought they would be, if we belong to Jesus. If you are part of the world and don’t want to hear about Jesus then your life may be in pretty good shape…for a while. Which is why many people don’t turn their lives over to Jesus. It is also why Jesus said that “it is harder for a rich man to enter Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”, because they feel that they don’t need God or Jesus or forgiveness for anything.

I pray that all of you reading this will pick up a Bible today or tomorrow if you can. Read as much as you can with an open mind and heart, especially the books of the New Testament. Seek God’s wisdom for your life here and for eternity because you do have an eternity ahead of you and it is up to you how and where it will be spent!

 

Be watching….


Be attentive and watching because you know not when the Master comes. (paraphrase of Matthew 24:32)

Many things are happening right now and we must not be deceived by those in power or those perceived to have power by others or the media. Keep your eyes on the sky and in the Word of God. Daniel 9 shows many things are coming which will show us the times that we are living in.

There are also many who don’t want to hear anything about religion in general regardless of the eternal effects that learning about Jesus will have on their life. Even if it is true that religion should stay out of the public arena, which I don’t agree with, God does have a hand in this world and on each of its citizens. Like it or not, you will appear before Him one day even if you don’t believe in Him! It seems that many people in the news are taking the view that if they don’t believe in God or the religion which shows them Who He is then He doesn’t exist! How ridiculous is that?

That is like someone saying that they don’t believe the sun is a star or that it won’t rise this morning, if God chose for us not to have the sun to rise today it wouldn’t but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. Life is hard enough to get through without Jesus in your life, but it is so much better when He is because you can lean on Him when you need it the most. God does love each of us and whether you believe in Him or not doesn’t change that. Today, it seems that so many people are searching for something, Someone to believe in above themselves mainly because we can’t do or be the person that we need to be without something…Someone to help us! Some look for and chase after money or prestige or even drugs to be that “something” that helps them to get through the day and for some it may work for a while, but it isn’t permanent and it doesn’t fill that space that we all have.

Jesus came so that He could  identify with us and our problems and fears and He came to be the One sacrifice which would take care of the debt that we owe because of our sins, no matter what they might be. We look at sins as small or large like lying to someone is usually considered small and killing a person is a pretty big one, God looks at sin as sin. So, we all need Him. Every church is full of hypocrites because, even if we are saved and practice our Christianity every day we are still sinners saved by His grace and mercy. If we weren’t convicted by the Spirit to change our lives in the first place then we may have gone down the aisle on our own because we felt emotional, not because we wanted or needed to get saved. If that is the case, then it may not be genuine but only God knows your heart and He is the one who will judge you when you stand before Him one day.

God’s viewpoint


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

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

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

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

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

 

Sad remembrance


Our country was still reeling from the impact and the horror that had happened only a few hours before at this particular time fourteen years ago. Most of us were in shock. Not wanting to believe what our eyes were seeing and hearing on television or radio that morning, yet it had happened.

America had been attacked on her own soil, in the very heart of one of the most populated and celebrated cities, New York City. Yes, it was a sneak attack, an unprovoked attack from our point of view. Why? was the question that everyone wanted an answer to, but that answer even today is elusive. Theories abound but no real solid answers have been given or found in the years since.

How can we get past this point? There is no specific nation to look toward as the instigator of this, the reason…if there is one is based in religion, just one religion. Islam.

The word itself in Arabic means literally “submission to God”. A fairly benign statement that many believers both Muslim and non-Muslim can agree on. Christians, Jews and Muslims can relate to this as being the path to Life eternal.”What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Romans 4:3

In all three of those religions, belief and submission are almost synonymous, and yet each treats the other very differently. Religion has caused all sorts of pain and suffering in the past as it does today. Yet, we should be looking to the Author and Finisher of our faith for the Truth and that is Jesus. He brought the Truth of God to us because, as John puts it: “The Word was God and became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His Glory.” John 1:14

We are remembering the act of terror, aggression and war that was committed fourteen years ago today, but we have not turned to the One Who can give us peace in our souls and love toward those who intend to do us harm. Oh, for a few days and weeks we did go to churches and worship places and implored with God to show us why this had to happen. Most people didn’t recognize the answer that we got which was “to get your attention”!

It had to be done so that we would, as a nation, turn to God and repent of our sinful ways. But, we didn’t do that. We took it as a slap in the face and with anger we rose up as a nation, almost as they did in 1941, and we struck at those who had struck us. The problem then, as now, was that was similar to swatting at an ant in an ant hill. It only spread the problem out and made then even more determined, which their Koran tells them to bide their time and strike harder the next time.

We cannot look at this from a religious point of view or a national point of view, it just is part of our world and the time that we are living in. The next strike will be worse.

We have a lot to do….


There are many young people and some older ones who have lived their lives without Christ. WE, as Christians, have to tell them about Him. This is not a request, but it is a command from Jesus written in the gospels. Christians have turned the other cheek and been quiet long enough and the only way that they will know, that many more will find out about their Savior is if we do our part and get the message out to them! I know that today, even in the USA, Christians are being targeted as hate groups because of our beliefs which come from the Bible. This treatment will likely get worse in the near future, but we must push our fear aside and tell others that the Hope that they are looking for can only be found in Jesus.

Why should we do this? Because of God’s love for us, because He gave His Son up to be the Lamb, perfect and unblemished, as the atonement for all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, because all of us fall under that category! There is no one on the Earth now nor has there ever been anyone like Christ! Failing Him and His command is not an option in my being. Like the one who blows the trumpet on the wall to let everyone know about an enemy outside the gate, I want others who follow Jesus to begin to let your friends know, let your family know about Him! We are held accountable for the Truth that we have heard and read in the Bible, therefore we can’t be silent and we shouldn’t be.

If you could save your friend from certain death, wouldn’t you do it if it were in your power? If it were your child or your parent, you certainly would if possible! We are coming to the end of the age of grace, which we have been under for almost two thousand years. Evil is spreading in the world, anti-Christian speech and laws are being passed and reported on around our country and in other parts of the world. The world that most of us grew up in has changed so much in character until it is barely recognizable as the same anymore. It’s not the same as it was, it is much worse!

Television shows and talk shows are bringing up subjects that are occult in nature, much of what is on TV does not fall into the “wholesome” family category anymore. It seems that just in the past fifteen years that it has become harder to find entertainment that is good for the family to watch together anymore. The Internet itself is a place where kids can find anything that they want online, even if mom and dad don’t approve of it. They can bring it up on their phones or their tablet or any connected device available to them.

Even many of the books and games offered on Amazon and other “toy” stores are occult oriented as are many of the games on the Internet. Children don’t think anything is wrong with tarot cards or other occult and witchcraft oriented games or books. Some are innocent to an extent, but if the door to the occult gets opened a crack, many things which you don’t want in your house will have access to your home and to your children.

Read God’s Word and ask for Him to help you understand the wisdom contained in it. Give your heart to Jesus and lead your family in prayer and study of the Bible. The strength and protection that He can give you and your family is needed in these times.

We love and feel loved but….


Humans are selfish beings, you know it and I do too, and when we feel loved by someone we want it to go on forever but there is only one love that can and will do that very thing and it is the love of God toward you! He has loved each one of us for a very long time. He loved us so much that He allowed His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross and take on your sins and mine and everyone’s since the beginning until the last person dies, just for the purpose of giving us grace and forgiveness and a way to become His children!

Isn’t that WONDERFUL!!

He isn’t fickle like we are with our love because if we can’t feel another person loving us then we will find a way to end the relationship and find someone who will love us. God is patient and loving, so deeply and so much until we cannot understand His love. We cannot believe HOW could He love someone who has never gone to church, never read His Word, never prayed to Him, and all of the other sinful things or thoughts that we have had or done in our life. We feel as if we are not worthy of His love. It hurts to think that someone can love us in spite of those faults and sins that we know that we have.

God’s love is so deep and warm that it can wrap you like a blanket that has just come out of a dryer when you are cold and lonely and you really NEED that kind of love and forgiveness. To quote a character in a popular film: “I like warm hugs!”; God likes to give them away! He doesn’t care what you have said or if you are in a gang or part of a squad of soldiers who have killed people for no reason except they don’t believe they way you do. Yes, He can forgive you for those things. He can forgive the doctor and nurses who work in an abortion clinic who murder children every day for money, and they think that they are doing the world a good service. Except, it isn’t. Choice is the god that people use to make them feel better about it, but what does choice do for you? Yes, you can wake up tomorrow and go about your life without worrying about a child to care for and feed but that child was sent to you by God for a reason. You killed him or her before the reason for their life could become real! But God can forgive you too.

We do sometimes find love and feel loved by another person and it is a blessing when that happens, especially when it produces a child to care for and help to see the world that God made for us to live in and to wonder about. Every day should be an experience of childlike wonder at the sky or a butterfly or a puppy but the most wonderful experience is watching a child find things to wonder at and about. To discount that as an inconvenience is selfish in the extreme.

Give God a chance in your life so that you will have a chance to experience His. I heard these words in a movie recently and they are so important, especially today: “We all have two dates on our tombstone a birth date and the day that we die but the important and amazing stuff happens where the dash is that is between those dates.”  

That is where your life can mean something, so live it like it really does mean something. God put us all here for His purpose and the only way to find that purpose is through reading His Word and praying that He will show it to you!

Love others as He loved us


The video above was shared with me on Facebook. It is sobering and it steps on “church people’s” toes and it should! Because if we can’t show Jesus to someone else, then how do we know if we actually have Him in our hearts? How can we be sure if we are true to our calling and our Savior if we can’t at least be like Him? He didn’t pre-judge people. He had dinner with those who were considered sinners, prostitutes and tax-collectors. He LOVED them! This is what we are supposed to do, as Christians, we are supposed to reflect Him to others and be as much like Him as we can in our lives, not just at church! He loved us while we were yet sinners, before all of us were born and yet He loved us anyway.

We have to be more like Him every day because if we aren’t then we may not have Him in our spirit, our spiritual heart, to begin with! Consider this, think about it, read your Bible, see what and who Jesus really preached and taught every day. It wasn’t just His disciples, it was everyday people…sinners just like you and me. The only difference between them and Jesus was that He was perfect and holy, we are not but we are still supposed to reflect Him to the world. If we can’t do that every day then are you a Christian? Really?

Do you know Jesus?


Do you know Jesus, the Son of God? Have you come to Him and asked for His forgiveness, because you know that you need it?

What if…what if it were Jesus saying those words to all of you? How would you feel then? Convicted? Ashamed? Indignant? Humbled? UN-worthy?

I write this to show you how far God has brought me from where I was, so that maybe some of you might see that God can use the most unusual things…oops, I mean people, to accomplish His will and His purpose in your life and in mine, to use you to have a positive effect on someone else and their life.

God can do great things, with a thought or by His Word and by just His Breath He gave life to a model made of clay and it became a living, human being with a soul! Then he took a bone, and made a woman who most men would DIE to have on their arms, imagine that!

The point I am beginning with is this, God can do great and wonderful things with very little or a lot. He can also do great and wonderful things with nothing at all! Because He is God! What can you do with nothing? Not very much I would guess, because I can’t either.

Yes, a man and a woman can come together and a child will be born, IF God wants you to have that child. You can’t force it to happen, you have no control over what color their eyes will be or their personality, but God does. He brought you and your wife together because He knew that you complement each other. Not in the sense of, “You sure are beautiful tonight, honey!”, but because your souls and your personalities fit perfectly.

Now, you can ignore that little voice in your mind that tells you that you are marrying the wrong one, but I guarantee you that you will regret it if you do. God loves you and He loves your children, even before you finally find the right woman to have those children with.

Thirty some years ago, I was a very confused and angry young man. I did okay in school, but I was a loner and I didn’t make friends too easily. I kept to myself and kept my mouth shut, for the most part. But, one day I got introduced to whiskey, not Budweiser, but the real alcohol! The kind that didn’t take much to gets you to feeling more oats than you have. The kind that, in today’s climate, would get you killed before lunch break was over.

For some odd reason, I liked the way that alcohol made me feel. Almost like I could do anything, say anything and live to tell about it tomorrow. Many of us feel that way in our teen years, whether we have whiskey giving us more mouth than we should have or not. Since there was an old man selling to whoever had the money to buy, I usually went to a football game on most Friday nights. That was my cover story at least. I would go and buy a pint or a half-pint of whiskey and before the night was through, I would’ve finished most of it. For a sixteen year old kid who did weigh much over one hundred pounds, to put it simply, I would be crawling home drunk. I had a wreck a few weeks after this began that put me in the hospital for about a week.

When I got out, I swore that I wouldn’t do that again. Well, that didn’t last long, although I didn’t have another wreck. I got drunk or tight as we called it, almost every day at lunch time. Sometimes, I would smoke pot, most of the time I just drank whatever I could get my hands on. I was well on my way to being an alcoholic. My teenage years weren’t impressive at all and since I didn’t live in town, I wasn’t popular at school either.

This is all old news, my past, for some it’s your past as well. But, you know, God can use anyone in anyplace at any time…but only if we are following Christ! Saying so doesn’t work, talk doesn’t work, IF you are going to live into forever you must have Jesus in your heart FOR REAL! This is not and it will not be a well liked sermon, but you know what? The sermons which Jesus spoke in front of the Pharisees and the other religious leaders were not popular, but they were full of the TRUTH!

The truth is that a ball of clay that can be made into a man by our Creator is what we are. The Light of Creation He brought into being with His Word, everything in the first chapter of Genesis was brought into being by the Word of God, but Adam was brought to life by the hands of God! He had a special plan for us, before mankind (and that includes women too), was even molded out of clay or fashioned from a bone like the first woman.

We are special to Him and have been ever since Creation began. His plan has been in place since before Adam took his first steps. God knows you and me and has known us since before Earth was ever formed into the world that we live on. Love like that cannot be ignored, should not be ignored because God does love each of us that much. It is a love that we can’t understand at all.

It doesn’t matter how little that you know about God. It doesn’t matter if you have ever read the Bible all the way through. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is. God loves you! This is the message that Jesus was trying to get across to the children of Israel. They believe that they are special because they are descended from Abraham and in God’s eyes they are BUT that alone won’t get them into Heaven. No amount of good deeds or amount of money or even the time that you have spent in church or on missions will tally up your side of the page so that you can squeeze in the door!

Just having a membership in a church makes no difference whether you get into Heaven, sitting in church for forty or fifty years doesn’t do you any good except it makes you responsible for all of the Truth that you have heard in that time. Did you accept Jesus as your Savior? That is the only “ticket” that will allow you to stand in the presence of God, having Him as your Savior is the only covering which will allow God to see you as Holy enough to come to Him as His child!

It doesn’t matter what you have done in the past, the only way that you can be of any use to God now or in the future is to truly give your heart to Jesus and let Him come in and make a true and lasting change in your life. That change has to be all the way to the core, not just a surface change that lasts until the revival is over. It has to be REAL, the change has to take over your life, your family, your business, your friendships, your finances, EVERYTHING!!!

Why does it have to be that much of a change? Because YOU ARE A NEW CREATURE! You are different, you are not the same person that you were yesterday, your wife is not the same, your children are not the same. The change has to be COMPLETE and totally committed. If you haven’t made this change, this deeply, this far-reaching, then you need to DO IT! Because, unless it has been a heart change, deep inside, the kind that it will offend you if you hear someone take God’s name in vain to be used as a curse word, if it isn’t that deep then it isn’t real and genuine!

Will you make that deep of a commitment to Jesus? We are entering a time in history that has been foretold in God’s Word and if you haven’t made this kind of commitment, you NEED to do it TODAY! If not today or tonight, then please make it soon. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, and if you are going to make a difference then you need to make this change! If that voice or some part of your soul is feeling a call from God to be that person, the one that will stand in the gap, the one who will lead their family and their business and their friends to Him, to Jesus. If you are being touched by Him and by His Spirit please answer His call on your life. Today.