Tag: Christianity

Why should we?


Every newscast seems to be saying the same thing. That Christians are supposed to support and go along with the agenda that is being put forward by a certain lobbying group. Actually, the Bible says that we are to step back away from you and not get involved at all.

What God considers to be an abomination, we aren’t supposed to condone or accept. Why should we? If you can’t accept our beliefs, whether we agree with your lifestyle or not, who is being intolerant? According to our rights as Americans, we have the right to believe and worship any way that we please.

But, today it seems that we are labelled as haters because we actually believe the words contained in the Bible. It is not our opinion about you one way or the other, it is God’s hatred of the sinful life that you want us to accept! How would the Muslims treat you? I have heard that they are killing homosexuals. At least we aren’t condoning that!

I love you as a person, just as God does. But, it is the sin that is in your life and your lifestyle which He won’t accept. He will forgive you, IF you turn away from it and follow Him in repentance. No one can keep sinning willingly and on purpose and serve God as a Christian too, if your heart and soul has been changed on the inside then it will show to the world that you have truly changed.

I don’t think of myself as perfect, I am far from that! Yes, I stumble and fall, and say things or think something I shouldn’t, but my spirit or the Holy Spirit will convict me of it. Then I determine to repent of it and ask forgiveness. God loves you far more than you will ever realize until you come to Him and repent, asking Jesus into your heart to change you into the person that you should be and can be for Christ.

Living Christianity


Thanking God for waking up today, and for the blessings that you have in your life.

The prayer that you say before leaving to go to your job or on other errands that have to be done.

Praying for someone in your family, your church family, or someone who you hear about on the news. Not necessarily for their salvation, but for their comfort or their healing depending upon the circumstances.

Doing something, no matter how small it may seem, for someone that you know. Even if it is just saying a prayer for them.

Give of your money, your tithes to help those who are truly in need and in danger. The Jewish people are not all rich, there are some homeless children and elderly there that need our help. I have been doing this for the past three years or so and even if you can only give twenty or twenty-five dollars will help, even if it is only a one time gift. I am sorry to say that I haven’t been able to give that amount every month but I pray that is about to change for me and for you as well.

Don’t just go to church on the days or nights when there is a service going on. Your faith in Jesus has to be taken outside the church so that others can see Christians as we are supposed to be, reflecting Jesus so that the world can see Him through our actions and in our life.

Don’t claim to be a Christian and go through the motions of being one and not believe in Jesus fully. If you are doing this, you are fooling yourself and you are being fooled into thinking that you are something that you are NOT!

Do as Jesus said to do, “Seek ye the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) This doesn’t mean that all of the stuff that you want will come to you, but the blessings of God will be yours through Jesus. Read and study God’s Word every day! It is imperative that we know what it says so that we aren’t fooled by someone quoting a scripture which isn’t there or out of context.

Be LIKE Christ and be the Christian that He intended for you to be. Many people have died over the years because they would not give up their beliefs or change to go along with everyone else’s opinion and we should be just as stubborn as they were by clinging to our faith no matter what comes!

Love, where does it come from?


Many people wonder about love and today consider that this word is just…a word. It doesn’t mean anything, it has no depth for many people. It is just a simple, four letter word and nothing more. Where does this sort of thinking come from? Why is it so denigrated and down-played from the meaning that it is given in God’s Word?

Mainly because people don’t see love today as the same as what is talked about in the Bible. We have been using the word, LOVE, as a stand-in for lust for so long until it has lost its real meaning. Nobody sees it being acted upon or toward people in the same way that Jesus told us that we are supposed to do. We are supposed to love each other as we love ourselves, but very few people do this today.

Everyone is out to get what they can get and as much as they can get for themselves. Its like the world is populated by millions if not billions of spoiled brats!

I am not saying that stuff is bad but the constant search for and chasing after more toys is idiotic. Nothing that you gain in this life materially gives you much satisfaction except for a brief moment when you are using it for the first few times. Then, just like most children, it becomes old and it just doesn’t fill the void that you wanted filled. At which point you are off to find something else.

Our search for something to fill that void in our lives is not a pursuit which is limited to young or old, rich or poor or middle class. It is something which we feel when we get to a certain age and realize that there is something that is missing. At which point we begin to search for it and depending upon our resources (money), we look in all sorts of places and seek out fulfilment in more and better things.

We will look at new cars or homes or games or guns, then sometimes we seek out new friends or relationships or even new gadgets like an iPad or tablets or phones and computers. Today, the selection is nearly endless yet we still have trouble finding just the right combination or specific person or thing which will fill that void. We will never find it until we begin searching for the One which can fill that place of empty feeling.

That is Jesus Christ. In life, we only have a small amount of time. It could be twenty years or thirty, it might be sixty or even ninety or one hundred years, but when you compare that time with, say one hundred thousand years, isn’t it tiny? God created us all with an immortal spirit or soul and that part of us continues on when this life ends. Your acceptance of Jesus places you on the path into Heaven with Him and that life will never end.

If you choose to hear or listen to a message about being saved by belief in Jesus and then walk away, deciding that you will live the way you want to live because your idea of God would not do that to someone. Your idea of God would not punish you in hell for not accepting His Son as Savior. It won’t be your idea that judges you! It will be God Himself and it is not His decision which will place you in hell, it is yours!

Even a child can understand the Love of God that was given to all of us through Jesus and His death and resurrection, but if you choose to turn away from the offer of grace which God gives you by that love then it is your choice. It will be your choice which condemns you to hell, not God.

I am the Vine


Jesus told His disciples “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5″I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6″If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.… (John 15:4-6)

We are to be the branches depending on the Vine to give us strength and ability to go through our lives with Him so that others might see Him in us and through us. How many churches actually teach this today? There are some, but I would say that there aren’t many. Why? Because of the way that our country has gone, the people have moved away from Christ. We have allowed ourselves to become like the church in the book of Revelation that Jesus said He would spew them out of His mouth.

Why? Because they had light, they knew of Him but didn’t follow Him. They did what was right in their eyes, made the rules for themselves instead of following the wisdom contained within God’s Word. Truly, you can even know His Word, have studied His Word, even preach His Word and yet not have Him in your heart. How this is possible, I can’t say, but it has happened to many.

Seek Him, lean on His Strength and Wisdom, learn to Love the way He does, without compromise or fear and without expecting anything in return. Do things for them that can’t help themselves out of your love for Christ so that others may see Him through you and your actions.

Our Lord needs many workers who are willing to do these things in the world today because there seems to be a shortage of people who are following Him right now. Really following Him, not just saying so and going to church and singing…going through the motions to look like a Christian and be seen as a Christian but deep down they haven’t accepted Him into their hearts. Is it possible to fool people like this? Yes it is. I have read stories of pastors and bishops in churches that have held those positions for years and yet they came under the conviction that they were not saved and finally gave their lives to Jesus.

Your life and mine are just wisps of smoke compared to eternity. The things which we can do are insignificant until Jesus comes into our lives and changes our hearts and our souls. When that happens, the whole world opens up and you can have an impact and make a difference in the lives of people. Not just for their lives here, but for eternity as well. Please, seek Jesus and His story out in God’s Word and give your life to Him. Ask Him to change your life into one that can truly make a difference in this world, even if it is only one person that you influence to become a Christian. That person may become an evangelist which will touch thousands of people, maybe more!

God’s name is in Israel


I have a picture which was taken by a pilot in Israel and the hills close to Jerusalem spell God’s name in Hebrew. This is easy to see, yet I doubt that many people will take this as the warning that it could be. God has claimed this land thousands of years ago fGods name in Israelor the Jewish people and He signed it with His name. This alone should make the world afraid and wondering about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But, of course, many will dismiss this as just a coincidence although I don’t believe that a formation on the hills which forms the name of God is a coincidence!

The land was given by God to Abraham and his descendants as their possession forever, by a covenant which God proclaimed Himself! You know, since the Creator is the One Who gave the land of Israel to the Jews, how can we argue about the ownership of it? How can we possibly act as if we can split the land up and give it to others?

God is God, the Creator of everything and whether we believe it or not. Whether the world will acknowledge Him or not, it is the Truth. He is real just as Satan and his demons are real. Heaven and hell are real and they are places where people will go because of their choices in life, not because of their evil or their sins but because of their choices!

Most will not believe this, but it is only your choices which will condemn you to hell and it is specifically your choice of whether you will follow and believe in Jesus and His atonement for you or if you will follow something or someone else in life. It doesn’t even have to be someone who you worship in a church or mosque or synagogue, you can just choose to not believe or even to place yourself in the position of a god.

How you could do that, I am not sure. The thing is that, when you put anyone or anything in place of Jesus then you are worshipping yourself or whatever may be taking the place of the Messiah! Everyone seems to deny that there is idolatry today, yet it is rampant. Not only in America but all over the world. I will get many reactions from this point of view, but my point is this: we are not gods and cannot be gods! It doesn’t matter how highly you think of yourself or how impressive your body is, if you are a body-builder, you are not a god and never will be! So much hate and cruelty is in our world today because of views on race and violence toward someone who doesn’t believe as you do. Why is that?

We are all part of the HUMAN RACE! Yes, there are different colors of skin, but just because a horse is black and one is brown or black and white, you don’t look at them as a different “race” of horse! Violence toward someone of a different belief system is another stupid way of persecution toward others too. I don’t care who or what you pray to, as long as you don’t push your beliefs on me especially with violence and killings because I choose to worship differently from you! It is true, that I believe that Christianity is true to the Word of God and is the religion which will lead you to Heaven because that is what God’s Word says. But, I am not going to threaten you with a sword or a gun because you want to believe something different!

That is why God gave us all a choice to believe in Him and His Son or not. People always choose what is most comfortable to them. What they have grown up with to one extent or another. Yet, God has a way of getting His Spirit to intervene in your life at times when you least expect it to happen, even if you haven’t been to a church, Christian or otherwise. If God has a plan for your life, then eventually your life and His plan will run into each other especially if it has to do with your being a part of His Kingdom and maybe having an influence on others too!

Consider that the world right now is on the edge of all of the prophecies which point to the “end of the age”. It is getting close, though I don’t know and no one else does either. Seek Him out in God’s Word, learn about the God Who Lives, the Creator, the King of Kings, the Prince of Peace. It is He Who will bring peace to this world after all and to all of those that choose to follow Him.

Easter, the meaning of it…


Today, we look at all holidays as their commercial impacts the world and the economy. But, what about the spiritual impact that the event itself really should have on people? Does anyone really look at Easter today and think about Jesus going to the cross for us, dying for us and then being raised up on the third day in order to complete His work here?

The holiday that we celebrate has nothing to do with Jesus at all. Bunnies and eggs had no meaning to the world at large in Jesus’ day except to pagans which celebrated the coming of spring and the rebirth of life after winter. That celebration has nothing at all to do with Jesus, with the exception of the rebirth which points to the resurrection. We need to look at our Lord as the Creator of all things and believe in His work of redemption on the cross by the shedding of His blood for our sins.

The reason for Easter being the holiday that it is, is because of a pagan spring equinox celebration and that it coincides with the time for passover in late March or early April. This was the time that Jesus was crucified so on that weekend is when we celebrate His death and resurrection. Since the Jewish tradition is to follow a lunar calendar of thirty-day months, dates are never the same from year to year.

So, what is the meaning of Easter, really? The celebration of Life through Jesus Christ and His atoning death and resurrection! That is the true reason for this holiday. If it had not been for this event, we wouldn’t have the hope of a resurrection to eternal life with Him! Our Savior is alive and He is coming back and if the events happening around our world today are any indication of “birth pains”, then it won’t be much longer until the whole world sees Him and knows that our faith and our Savior is real!

We are in dire need


StrengthI placed this picture here because we all need to pray this prayer every day! Yes, we are in dire need of prayers and the strength that comes from Him every day! Why do I say this? Because it is the truth. We, as humans, are weak. We cannot be strong enough to get through the struggle which comes our way every day. Not the little things like getting up and going to work or to get groceries or even just washing the dishes or the clothes. I am talking of the temptations which Satan throws into our minds and our way each and every day. You experience these every day, we all do, even Jesus was tempted but He didn’t give in to it so it didn’t become a sin in His life.

God gives us the strength, IF we ask for it and then depend upon Him for that strength to get through a tempting time or just one temptation today or tomorrow. Depending upon God and His Word and His Wisdom is the smartest thing that you can do. Reading His Word every morning, or every day gives you the strength and wisdom to make it through all of your problems.

I have heard that many people consider going to church on Sunday to be their time with God. That is just the beginning! How would you feel if your family only visited you once every week for about an hour? Not much like a family huh? Pray to God every morning and evening, read His Word morning and evening in order to get to know Him. How can you expect a Father to know you very well if He never sees or hears from you? God knows you better than you or your parents do, but He still wants a relationship with you every day.

God’s love has been flowing to us, all of us, since the beginning of Creation. He knew each of us then, even before He created Adam. We are special and we are loved infinitely more than we can imagine on our own. So, how can we get to know our Creator? By reading His Word and learning of His ways and His love and patience for us. He will give you the strength and the ability to make it past all of the temptations that Satan will toss your way.

We really are in a spiritual war between Satan and God. Satan hates God’s creation with a hatred that we can’t understand and will do anything that it takes to destroy your life or your ministry or both if he has to. Get closer to God through His Word and prayer. Seek Him every day in Scripture and don’t forget to ask for His protection for you and your family because Satan will get to you through them if he can’t get to you.

Addendum: I have received a comment that this post is too short and doesn’t include enough information for a “novice” Christian to follow, I respectfully disagree. While it is true that this is one of my shorter posts, the information about seeking God is the same as it is for everyone. It is true that my particular instructions are brief and low on specifics, but the Bible is not.

Learning about your role in spiritual warfare and how to combat it starts in the book of Romans and then continues through much of the rest of the New Testament. There is also a book or two in the Old Testament that is useful, such as Joshua and Daniel. Though, the entire Bible is best for learning about your responsibilities in Christ and as a Christian.

A daunting task if you are a new Christian, and one which I had some trouble sticking to when I first came into faith in Christ. Today, you have an app for that in the Bible app for your phone or tablet. With it, you can fine a reading plan which will help keep you on track to read the Bible all the way through in a year which will give you plenty of information, if you will pray through it as you go. The best advice I can give after that is….do it again. Each time, praying that God would show you something different and He will. I have read it through about six or seven times, I think, and each time I found something that had more meaning or wisdom than I noticed the time before.

I hope this helps somewhat. It is still a bit early here, so please forgive any terseness that may have crept into my writing.

Themes in the Bible


What is the theme which is carried all through the Bible? One of them is the blood. From the time that God had to shed the blood of two animals in order to create garments for Adam and Eve, through Abraham’s time where God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac, blood was always being shed in some form or another. Later, in Egypt, a lamb was sacrificed in order to anoint the door posts with its blood so that the angel of death would pass over the house of each Israelite. The covenant of circumcision also required the shedding of blood and then later, when Jesus was convicted of doing nothing more than telling the people how they could know God and come into His Presence, His blood was shed during the scourging and then on the cross itself.

In many ways, people in the world today reject our beliefs because they call it “a bloody religion”. What about all the children and parents and grandparents that have been killed by the “religion of peace” in our time? What about the blood that they have spilled? I would call that a bloody religion too, wouldn’t you? It is true that blood has been shed all through the Bible, but what about other themes and requirements?

The most prevalent one that comes to mind that I have seen from the beginning to the end of God’s Word is obedience. All that God ever asked and required of those that He called His was obedience, to His laws and to Him. Starting in the Garden and in every book from that point on, He asked certain people to do as He asked them to. Sometimes, they obeyed but many times they did not. Even before the Israelites had a king over them, as soon as they were delivered from bondage or trouble they would revert back to worshiping other gods and refusing to obey their God.

Even Moses, during the exodus from Egypt, disobeyed God by striking the rock when God had told him to speak to it for water. True, the first time God had said to strike the rock and Moses did, but the second time he was supposed to speak to it and his anger caused him to strike the rock instead. Then, when Israel asked for a king, God gave them one but the first one didn’t obey God like he should have so his kingdom was taken from him. David did as God told him to do, but even he disobeyed God in some things but at least he repented of his sins and asked for forgiveness.

After David’s reign, Solomon did follow God and did as God instructed him for a while, but his wives led him astray to worship other gods in his old age. After his reign, very few of the kings which followed would worship God or do as the prophets told them to do. Many of them desecrated the Temple with strange gods and killed the prophets. Why would God be merciful to a people, even those of us over the whole Earth, when most of us have refused to obey Him and His laws or even to follow His Son?
The next theme which flows all the way through the Bible, from the beginning to the end, is His love for us. He, the Creator of all things, LOVES us! Even when we don’t like or even believe in Him!!

God loves us today, each one of us, enough that He sent Jesus to die so that we could have a relationship with Him. He wants that. He doesn’t need it. God has never needed us, nor does He need the angels in heaven, but He wants a relationship with His Creation, all of Creation. That is why Lucifer rebelled against Him, because he didn’t want the relationship from that point, he wanted to be on the receiving end of the adoration and the love but he didn’t want to give it to Creation or the Creator.

In many ways, we are rebelling today because we want to get the love but we don’t want to be required to give it. You know what? You aren’t required to love God at all!! But, when you realize what He really did for you so that you have the choice and the ability to love and be loved by the Creator, then you actually do want to! If you can’t make that leap into God’s lap as you would into your dad’s or your mom’s lap, then you will miss out on it. You will miss out on the true, loving, whole relationship with God, the Trinity of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a feeling which cannot be described to anyone who hasn’t felt it.

The closest way to describe it from me to you would be how a mother or a father feels when they hold their first child for the very first time. If you can imagine being the recipient of that love and then multiply it thousands of times to the point of it overwhelming you….that is what it has felt like to me at times. It is a feeling which can’t be described because the actual feeling is beyond description. Similar to the problem of telling someone what the color blue is or maybe the color purple. If they have never seen it, you just can’t tell them about it at all.

Until you can get into the Word of God and come close enough to Him that you can feel His Presence, then I can’t describe it at all. Then, consider that the river of Life runs through Heaven and it is like liquid joy!

You know, I started this sermon off talking about the blood, then I spoke about obedience, then lastly there is Love, and just as first Corinthians says that “the greatest of these is LOVE”. It really is True! Love is the reason for all of this, your life and mine as well as for Jesus coming and dying on the cross and being resurrected. God’s Love for us! The least that we could do would be to give back some of that Love to Him in the form of our life and our love because He loved us first, isn’t that a wonderful way to look at Easter?

Bad things happening to good people


I always wondered why this happened. I thought that God always brought good from bad things for those who love Him? Yet, bad things still happen. Why is that?

In many ways, the world itself is the cause of the “bad things”, and they are allowed to happen so that others can see how a Christian reacts to those things which happen so that God can get the glory! I know, it sounds crazy but those bad things are usually caused by Satan or his demons because of something that a Christian is doing in their life. They may be making a difference in the world. Maybe not in the world at large, but just in the world immediately around them.

They might be having an influence on some of their family members or some of the people in their community. This is what is getting Satan and his demons upset, so they cause bad things like cancer, wrecks, infections, broken bones from a fall or an accident. It is not your fault or your Christian family member’s fault, it is what they are doing that is causing the demons to cause these things to happen in their lives.

If you are truly working to tell people about Jesus and to bring others into the Kingdom of God, then Satan will attempt to stop it one way or the other and it doesn’t matter if he has to kill you or your friends to accomplish this. If a death, regardless of whose death it is, will stop you from spreading the Gospel then he will do it!

The apostle Paul said it clearly in Ephesians 6:12, we are at war in heavenly places, with powers and principalities that we can’t see but they can influence our lives and the lives of those around us. Whether you believe in him or not, Satan and his demons and powers have you in their sights. Especially if you are actively working for Jesus and His Kingdom.

Pray for God’s angels to watch over your church and your family because prayer is our most powerful tool in this war. Praying scripturally and reading the Bible gives you more power too. Seek His wisdom and knowledge in all of your readings in the Bible. Pray and thank God for all of your business and life successes and ask that He would show you how to give Him the glory in your daily walk with Him.

Satan knows that his time is short and will be heating the world up with persecutions and other ways of destroying the church and God’s people. Pray for strength and wisdom through Him. Watch and pray.

What do you hear?


From the television and almost all of the news sources, mostly…JUNK! The world is going down the tubes fast, and all anyone seems to care about is their shows on TV or what is happening on Facebook. What difference does it make? Facebook, Twitter, Survivor, and so on are all just there to distract us from what is happening in the world. Yes, there are some on all of those social media sites which are talking about actual news, but what news?

What about our freedom? Freedom to worship ANY way you want to in America! We have that freedom right now, but it seems that there are so many on one side who can’t stand ANY mention of God or Jesus! I am not trying to force anyone, anywhere to worship the way that I do, but it seems that there are many who just can’t stand to read or hear about Jesus at all. If you want to worship a rock, I don’t care! That is your option, even God gave you the choice to do so even if He doesn’t agree with it.

We have a choice and it was given to us by God Himself. You can choose to believe it or not, it doesn’t matter to me. I pray that you will come to Him before your life is over, but it is your choice regardless of where you live, at least as far as I am concerned. Many of the countries in the world are not nearly free enough to have the choice of Who they worship, as we are in America.

Christians, whether you agree with their faith or not, are being killed not just persecuted and yet the Christians there are not converting to Islam. They would rather die for their faith, just as the martyrs have done for hundreds of years. I pray that we in America don’t see this kind of persecution, but it may happen yet.

What can we do? Pray for those in areas where Christians are being persecuted severely like in Iraq and Iran and Turkey. I don’t know what to tell you about things that we could do other than pray. Since God is in control and He can send Angels to comfort and help those people, prayer is powerful because God is able to deliver them by His power.

The world is tearing itself to pieces and it isn’t over, this is just the beginning. It actually hasn’t gotten to the point that most are fearing will come yet. Read your Bible, study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, pray about what you are reading. We are at the beginning of those times! Watch and pray that you will have the strength to endure until He comes again to take the church out of this.