Tag: Christianity

Do you have everything that you need?


Many in the world’s countries don’t, at least from the world’s viewpoint. You notice that I put in the title “everything that you need“? I did not say anything about stuff that you want!

Wanting things and more things doesn’t give you anything but a storage building that you didn’t need but it is necessary because of the stuff that you wanted. So, now what will you do with it all? Store it in a building? What good does that do you?

What about the garage with status symbols in it that cost you more than your house payment every month? You have to put a hundred dollars worth of gas or diesel in those every week at least to keep them going. You have to replace the tires on them at about two hundred dollars apiece every so often. I know that they are necessary for you to go to work or maybe you use one of them for your job, and that’s fine. They are useful, but some stuff just isn’t and it gets your money and barely any notice after that, at times.

Our needs involve food, shelter, clothing, and health. I am not speaking of having more of any of these than others but just what you truly need. The best is good as long as it doesn’t cost you more than you can afford. Enough food is great for anyone, but more than you need is bad for you. Everyone knows this, but there are many who don’t seem to care because they want more.

Did you also notice that in your needs list, I didn’t have wealth. Why is that? Because in order to have your needs met you don’t need more money, you only need enough to take care of your needs. Wealth is for those who want to do it all and have it all and it is a good thing for some people. But, Jesus said that is would be “harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”. Why is that? Simply because a rich or wealthy person doesn’t feel that they need Jesus, because they have every “thing” that they want and they have money to get what they need if that need arises.

Wealth can’t buy happiness or health though. Yes, you can pay your bills so it makes the stress level go down somewhat, but that isn’t happiness. If your health takes a turn toward the cancer ward or something happens to your child, your money can help you to have the best care that money can buy. But, what if that isn’t enough? What if there is no cure or amount of medication which will take care of the problem? Money’s just paper at that point.

Your needs, your life, your happiness, and your health are all important to God because He created you for a purpose. He cares for you and loves you far more than you even love yourself. I am not saying that all of your needs will automatically be taken care of if you trust in Jesus for your salvation. Your bank account won’t suddenly swell up with cash after you become a Christian (although that wouldn’t be a bad thing as long as you give God the glory for it). But, the love and the peace which comes with knowing Jesus and His Father will make even a diagnosis of incurable cancer bearable because you now have eternity in Heaven to thank Him for His love and grace for you. No amount of money or fame will ever fill that void in your life unless Jesus fills it.

Acceptance or Rejection


Which would you choose? In life, we would rather be accepted as friends or classmates. Rejection is something that most of us try really hard to avoid if possible. So, how do you feel about an offer of eternal life? We all get this one you know, it just depends on your acceptance or rejection criteria regarding where you spend eternity!

Humanity was created with an eternal soul, so it doesn’t matter how good or bad or indifferent you may be, we all have eternity stretching out in front of us. We don’t go into an abyss and we don’t just go “poof” after death, like a bowl of bad chili.

Yes, there is a heaven and a hell and whether you believe in one or the other doesn’t matter, they are both real. God doesn’t send you to one destination or the other based upon His whims either. It is your decisions in this life which determine your destination in the next one. Actually, it is just one decision in this life and that is whether you will accept Jesus as your Savior and live your life following Him or if you will reject Him.

That’s it!

Your eternal life and the destination in which you live it, depends upon that ONE decision, before you die. After you are dead, you can’t change your mind. Eternity starts when you breathe your last breath in this life. So, the question is when are you going to die? You don’t know for sure do you?

That is so true. None of us knows our expiration date, if you wish to call it that, so you are gambling with a future that you really can’t pin down with any certainty aren’t you? This is your decision and yours alone, no one can make it for you. My messages are just here for information, whether you follow any of these suggestions about salvation or not is your decision, nobody can make it for you.

Acceptance of the gift of salvation is an individual decision, just as taking any gift is…it is up to you. The value of your salvation is far beyond any amount of money on Earth, though you can’t spend it here. Which is one of the drawbacks of many people looking at its value today or even if it has any value for them at all.

Truly, God loves each one of us. Whether you believe in Him or not, He knows and cares for you. The truth of Scripture cannot be known or understood by reason or science, only by faith. If you don’t or won’t seek Him out by faith, then your eternity will be decided whenever He calls you into it. Rejection of God’s gift is a choice, just not a very good one.

The message of Jesus


Have you ever HEARD the message of Jesus?

Jesus said for us to believe in Him (and the atonement provided by His death and resurrection), and we will have eternal life. Repent of your former sinful life and allow the Holy Spirit to transform you into a likeness of Him. Are these things possible? Yes, if you have faith like a little child. One who trusts their father completely and without reservation. That is the kind of faith that it takes to live or rather to begin to live this life in Jesus Christ.

Are all Christians like this and do they have this kind of faith? The real and truthful answer is “NO”. All Christians or at least those who claim to be Christians, don’t have faith which would measure up to this standard. Many of them believe that they do and that they are true Christians, but when persecutions come or real trouble comes into their lives, the true person will show through. Hardship, pain, disease, financial loss, or loss of a family member will bring the real person out so that all will see. Sometimes, that is why we are allowed to go through trouble and trials.

In order to bring out the beautiful person that God knows is in there and the one that He needs for you to be for the duration of your life, sometimes He allows those trials. They can come in the form of a disease or the loss of a loved one. Sometimes the trial comes through the loss of a job or something which disables you. However it comes, treat it as Paul did and “count it all joy”. Look at the trial as a test in and of your faith then seek out God and His Wisdom through His Word. Pray deeply and fervently every day if need be so that you can get through this time. He will give you the strength and the wisdom to do so, and He will provide the comfort during your suffering too.

There are many people today, young people, who are turning away from God and religion which is their choice. It is the wrong choice but it is the one that God allows us to make. If He has something for you to do, then He will bring you back eventually if you will listen to His voice in your life. Our God, the One Who created everything and did all of the miracles in the Old Testament and the New, is an AWESOME God! Don’t turn away from Him, if you have given your life and your heart to Him then seek Him out in His Word!

God loves each of us and wants the best for us. Many cannot see this right now, because God doesn’t reward us the way the world wants to see rewards. Everyone sees reward as money, fame, a house, fancy cars, etc. but God doesn’t always reward us this way. Our reward, in many ways, waits for us in Heaven not here on Earth so we can’t use it or touch it until we die in this life and are born into eternity. Many people don’t look at this as a reward so much as a “bait and switch” game. Satan will do that, but God doesn’t.

“Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added (given) unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Today is the day!


It seems that most everyone treats tomorrow or even next year as if we are guaranteed to get there…well sorry to burst your bubble but we’re not! Your life and mine can be much more than it is, but we truly have to live life in God’s hands, every day. Your strength can’t get you through all of the troubles of this life, but God can take you through it all and then some! I am not speaking about using God as a crutch or even suggesting that Christians are weak because we are not. The martyrs of hundreds of years ago could not and should not be considered weak because they endured torture and mutilation for their faith in Christ and would not give up that faith even in the face of death!

Why did they do this? Not because of some fantasy reward for their death, but because He died for them and they had placed their faith in Him! A legion of Roman soldiers froze to death, naked on a lake because they would not recant their faith in Him. John’s disciple, Polycarp, was burned at the stake because he would not burn incense to the Roman emperor. I pray that we will be faithful enough to follow these saints if that time should come.

I believe that we should give our lives to Jesus and seek Him and His strength to carry us through the trials that we have in this life. Why do I believe in Him? Because the Bible is true, every word of it! He came to give us life, not just life here but life in eternity! He loves us enough to give us the grace through Jesus to have eternal life, if we will believe in Him and trust Him. This is not some fantasy nor is it a fairy tale. The prophecies which God spoke about through His prophets have all come true except for the ones in the book of Revelation. Those are reserved for the world to see during the time of tribulation and testing.

When that day comes, and it will come, many will wonder why they didn’t believe in Jesus or God while they could. Many will want to begin to believe in Him at that point. It won’t be too late, but it will take a lot of faith and determination to do it with the persecution that comes on the world during that time. Our lives and the purpose that we have in this life are determined by God for us. We just need to seek Him out to find that true purpose. Please don’t put this off! God loves each of us and will answer your prayer of repentance and come into your life, if you will only ask Him.

Why all of the fuss?


It seems that every day I hear about more disgruntled people being disenfranchised in one way or another. Marginalized by society or insulted because of some post on social media or a news program. Worse yet, many of them seem to be intent on ruining the very culture and country that has allowed so many to enjoy freedom of speech in the first place! What has happened? What is happening in our country and in the world at large?

It seems that very little good news is heard in the media today, but I guess that is because good news doesn’t get the traction and the audience that the network needs. Nobody wants to hear about a miracle which occurs in a child’s illness that the doctor can’t explain except to say that he knows it wasn’t anything that medicine or treatment did! Don’t get all upset, that illustration is just hypothetical! I haven’t heard of a child in that situation lately.

My point in all of these words is that all the news agencies and media outlets concentrate on mostly bad news. How many murders or rapes there were today in some city. An earthquake has killed thousands in Nepal and the aftershocks aren’t making it any better. I pray for all of these tragic people and their stories, they aren’t just statistics or numbers. Why? Because, even though these tragedies are happening…God loves them and is there with them through it all.

Some are going to ask at some point, “Why didn’t God do something about this?”. He could, but would you give the glory to Him for stopping it or would you chalk it up to a natural phenomenon? Satan is enjoying all of the killing and rapes and the dying people in disasters. Not because he enjoys death, but because many of the people in these situations may not even know God or even know about Him. They are ones that he has snatched away from God, at least in his twisted way of looking at it.

God gives us the evidence that He exists and it is all around us, but most people just see the creation rather than looking for the Creator. Many even worship the parts of His creation like the stars (astrology), or man-made gods which are just made of steel or wood. Some think that we should worship our own abilities and think of ourselves as “gods”.

Man-made gods such as money or fame or even a statue of someone are just things. It would be like someone bowing down to a concrete block and worshipping it, how stupid is that! The same goes for the stars, what can they do except shine like God intended for them to do? God is the Creator, Jesus gave His life for us so that we could have eternity, the Spirit of God (even a tiny portion of Him) comes to live in your heart and life when you become a Christian. He gives you the ability to be a Christian and to do things that you can’t do on your own.

I don’t mean that you can fly or touch someone and heal them. God Himself does the healing, the most that we can do is pray and have faith that it is His will to do what will bring Him Glory so that people can see that He is God. Faith in Him comes from our belief in Him, if you don’t believe in Him then you won’t have the faith to truly believe. Yes, it seems to be a catch 22 but God calls those that He wishes to call. Those who will listen and do His will and purpose in their life for Him!

Christianity is not a social club and it isn’t an exclusive club either. Seek Him out in the Bible, pray that He will give you the faith to come to Him. Don’t close your heart and your mind to God because when you see a baby or a butterfly you are looking at His handiwork. Life is precious but fleeting. Our lives are not very long, especially compared to eternity. Consider this and seek Him while you can.

So much love


Yes, I know that there are many of you out there who may not know the One of which I speak. Yet, He does love you with such a deep and abiding love that it is indescribable, at least in human terms. I have felt it at times in worship and in reading and studying His Word, yet I can’t give you a description of it any more than you could tell someone about the color blue or red!

There are many ways that we feel love in life. Through our families, our friendships, even from people who somehow helped us when we didn’t know it. Love can be expressed in ways that defy description, even from human terms, but God’s love is a kind of love that goes as deep as your cellular structure, even into your atomic structure. That kind of love, agape’ love, is the kind that asks nothing in return and never expects anything more than love to be given away. In doing this, you glorify God and that gives Him pleasure too.

God created us, each of us, with certain talents and abilities and we are to use them for His Glory and purpose. But, many don’t do this because they don’t want to or they don’t want to believe in God or in His Son, Jesus. The reasons for this are many. Some say that Jesus was just a prophet and nothing more, some say that God doesn’t have a Son, that He is One and none others are involved. The tiny, relative to the universe, ball of dirt that we live on is the one place which God has focused His attention on at this time. He may create another place and other people in the future, but as far as we know right now we are it. This is not arrogance, it’s just that we don’t have any proof of anyone else so we can’t say for sure.

If there are others, God loves them too wherever they may be. Love covers many things in life. Real love, not just lust or infatuation, doesn’t get jealous or angry because true, abiding love doesn’t stray from a relationship. In the past and right now too, people are moving away from a belief in God because He is not seen or they just don’t want the Bible to be true. That way, they don’t have to be responsible for their sins because of the Truth in the Bible.

God loves all of us and cares for us just as He did for Israel in the times of their slavery. He brought them out and into a land where they could have served Him in a fantastic way, but they didn’t obey Him and the commandments given to them. They mingled with the inhabitants of the land and began worshipping their gods who were not gods at all, but were likely demons.

We have our own version of this today. We worship money, fame, beauty, sex, drugs, alcohol. Though we may not bow down to them, we give our attention and our lives over to them in ways that are very similar to the pagan worship of trees and the earth and stars. Reading through the Bible brings forward some very interesting parallels to life today if you notice it.

Seek Him in His Word, find the love that He has for us as His creation. Then, ask Him to change your heart and your life so that you will know Him even better than you have known anyone before. I promise, you won’t be disappointed if you are repentant and desire to know Him as your Savior and Lord.

Life, when did it begin for you?


In the minds of hospitals and some doctors, life seems to begin when the child is able to live outside of the womb as evidenced by this quote “24 weeks marks the stage of viability—and the measure of life—for the unborn.” Excuse ME!

Two sets of DNA combine to create a new organism, a baby, at conception. True, it doesn’t look like a human baby yet, but in a few weeks it will. The fetus’ heart begins to beat 18 days from conception, and by 21 days the heart is pumping blood through a closed circulatory system. I would call that a living organism, a tiny human being at that point. God may look at it from the molecular standpoint of the DNA that was used in its creation, so to Him this life began before the heart started beating.

None of us remember being inside the womb, at least not consciously, and that may be a good thing. The point that I am making is that life, all life, begins in the womb before it will ever be able to live outside of the womb. Yes, I am speaking of mammalian life of course, but the point is that our world has grown so cold and callous to life itself until we don’t pay much attention to it when it is snuffed out, whether by a bullet or by a “doctor” that aborts that life.

Since there have been millions of abortions performed since it became legal, I suppose our society doesn’t care much about life. If that many had been killed by gas chambers or by bullets, the entire world would’ve taken notice a long time ago.

God doesn’t condone killing on this scale, especially of children, unborn or not. God is the Creator and the Author of Life, He sends children into the world for His purposes and He knows the outcome of their lives, if they are allowed to live. It is our responsibility as parents to consider this when children are about to come into our lives because they are precious in His sight.

God loves you and the future of humanity is our children, don’t throw them away like garbage because it is inconvenient! Someone wants to raise a child, black or white or brown doesn’t matter. There are many couples who would be overjoyed at the chance. Life begins with God, it is brought to fruition in the womb to be born into the world and to do the works which God has designated in its life. Consider this when you look at a child in the nursery window at a hospital.

Percentages and prayer


Christians, according to Wikipedia, make up about 2.2 billion people in the world. To be fair, they quantify this by adding that these are “nominal Christians”, those who may or may not be Christians but they go to church occasionally.

So, according to this, “nominal Christians” make up about one-third of the whole world’s population. Where does that leave us as the body of Christ? Do we have that much influence? According to this same reference, America is made up of about 80 to 90 percent nominal Christians. If they were all in church on any given Sunday, our churches would be packed…but they are not. According to Webster’s Dictionary, nominal means ‘in name only’. A pretty dim statistic for a faith that makes up a third of the world’s population.

Just as you can’t be ninety-five percent pregnant, you can’t be 95 percent Christian either. You either are or you are not, there is no middle ground and no line that you can stand on. Being a nominal Christian seems to mean that you claim it only so far as the claim itself will take you. In today’s world, being a Christian is becoming very unpopular, even in America where we are supposed to have tolerance for religious beliefs.

Of course, today that tolerance has become very weak and frail and almost non-existent among those who don’t believe in God or the Bible and don’t even mention the name of Jesus. Yet, we are supposed to tolerate their lifestyle or anything that they are trying to get us to allow in society.

Christians need to pray about this situation, not because it seems that we really don’t have the numbers that are assigned to our faith but because those who claim it truly need to be Christian in more than just name only! Prayer can bring this about and those of us who are Bible-believing and churchgoing Christians NEED to humble ourselves before God and ask for His forgiveness and His Spirit to move in the churches…ALL of them, regardless of the denomination.

Satan and his fallen angels believe in God and they know Him and Jesus too, they choose not to serve them. The same is true for those “nominal” Christians, they know about Him, they just want to live their lives without Him in their life until they decide to let Him in. This is a very dangerous way to live, because you are not given tomorrow by guarantee. Your soul, like th farmer in the parable, may be required tonight, then where will you be? He thought that he had a life of leisure to look forward to, he had plenty and he had decided to enjoy it. But…when your time is up, according to God’s timetable, then there is no amount of negotiating that will extend your time, no amount of money will affect the outcome either.

Your decision to follow Jesus and serve Him has to be made during the time that you have, today preferably, because you don’t know what is coming tomorrow or even tonight. Give your heart and your daily life to Jesus, become more than a nominal Christian! God needs us to be Christians which read the Bible and pray daily. The kind that make the demons tremble because we are children of God, made in His image and destined to reign with Him! That is the type of Christian that we all should be!

Faith, how much do you need?


mustardseedFaithThis is what Jesus said, “with faith as much as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain “Be thou removed into the sea and it will move”. Matthew 17:20

Our lives, spiritual and daily, would be so much better if we used our faith and cultured our faith through prayer and reading of God’s Word. Much of our country would be in better shape if people of faith used their faith in God in the way that He intended for us to. Truly, it doesn’t take much faith but it has to be unwavering faith. The kind where you don’t doubt what you believe in, which seems to be hard for many people.

I admit, unwavering faith is not easy to achieve, especially for people who have not been in church much or at all, but with prayer and learning about God from reading the Bible it can be done. We have faith in our football teams and in lotteries, why not have faith in the Creator Who can actually DO something about your problem.

Many will question me about this because God doesn’t answer prayer in the way that you or I expect Him to all of the time. It has to do with His will in the matter. What He sees as being the best outcome, may not be your idea of the best outcome but He is God and it is His prerogative. After all, He is God.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!


Does it occur to you why we are going through so much right now in the world and at home? Many are saying on TV and other media that it is because of global warming or some other nonsense science. The world is changing because of us and because of all the damage that we have done to it over the past 150 years or so. Really?

Why in the world would the climate change around the entire world because of a few tons of carbon dioxide? Yes, I know it is a greenhouse gas, so is methane, but these have been in our atmosphere since it became an atmosphere. The world is changing more because of overuse of resources, such as fish, than because of fossil fuel use. This is a more plausible reason for the “warming” effect than our one hundred years of burning gasoline and diesel.

The thing is, there is a lot more happening in and around our world than just “climate change”. Except, most of the news outlets are not reporting on that part of the news because it doesn’t pique enough interest in viewers. What is being reported on is that people are giving up on their belief in God, that they have walked away from their faith (if they ever really had any).

Yes, there are questions that need to be answered, not so much about climate change but about the difference in religion, religious beliefs, and Christianity. Religion and being religious can be about almost anything that you want to put in the sentence. You can be a religious fanatic about fishing or hunting or even making money, although what will that get you? Broke in more ways than one.

A religion is defined as: the belief in a god or in a group of gods;an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods; an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group

You can make anything, activity or a god or interest into a religion and follow it religiously, even fanatically, but what is the eternal answer that it gives you? Does it have an answer for eternity at all? Many religions actually don’t have an answer and those who follow them will get angry with you if you ask them this question. Especially if you are trying to find out if they believe in Jesus as their Savior or not. It seems that His prophecy that “you will be hated because of Me” is spot-on for the time that we are living in for today.

Although many don’t believe that we are living in the “last days”, I do. We are not living in the “Tribulation” as spoken of in Revelation, but I don’t believe that we are far from it. Many people, believers and non-believers, need to truly wake up and read the Bible. Compare the prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel and the book of Revelation. Yes, they are hard to understand but with prayer and asking for God to reveal those hard parts to you, you can understand it enough to know the signs that are happening all around us. We cannot know specifics like dates or times, God alone has that information, but we can learn enough to be watchful of the events that are happening in the world. Even if the media won’t tell people the implications of what is happening, we can see it from a Biblical perspective which is what was meant by the Bible when it says “watch and pray” during this time.

Keep looking up, because our Redeemer and our redemption draws ever nearer every day!