Tag: Christianity

What can we do?


In a manner of speaking, that is the question being asked all over the country this year. What can we do? Specifically, what can one or more of the candidates for the Presidency do to get our country turned around? Is there anything that we, as Americans, can do to help get our country turned around in the economy and other areas?

Truthfully, I don’t see individuals being able to do much more than vote with a Biblical mindset, meaning vote with your Spiritual conscience and much prayer going into the election. God is in control and the person that He wants to be in that office will be voted in, but if our country and her citizens don’t turn back to God and ask for healing and forgiveness, we may get a more punishing outcome than we were expecting. The outcome of the past two election cycles has been more people out of work, more racial divisiveness, more problems with terrorists, more economic problems in many areas of healthcare and other industries.

Why am I bringing politics into a site which usually has uplifting, spiritual messages? Because, we as Christians cannot sit idle on the sidelines and just “wait until Jesus comes”! God expects us to get involved with telling others about Jesus and the wisdom contained in God’s Word! We are supposed to be doing the Master’s business until He does come,not just sitting on a pew singing hymns and praying! Those are nice things to do and they do much good for us spiritually and for those who we are praying for BUT there are other important tasks for us to do.

Search your heart and discuss these things with your friends at church and in group Bible studies. Pray about it and ask God for His advice in all areas which you feel the need to get something accomplished and then get to work! We are supposed to be God’s ambassadors and priests, examples to those who need Him and helpers to those who are in need. By God’s grace and favor we can do this, but it requires more than just sitting around praying that things will get better.

Think about it, pray about it and then get up and DO IT!

Worry, doubts and fears


It seems that every day people are bombarded with more things which cause fear and anxiety. We doubt ourselves at times, and we have fears which cause us to worry about things which we can’t control. What can we do about this? Can we do anything about this situation? It depends upon your situation and your faith.

Some people claim that they can handle their own lives and they don’t need to have “blind faith” in religion to help them get through life. The problem with this kind of attitude is that when push comes to shove and things get a bit out of hand, most will seek out a “higher power” for comfort and direction even if they claim that they don’t believe in a “higher power”. God is that One Who is higher than all, Jesus is the One Who can relate to our suffering and our pain and they can help in all of life’s situations no matter what!

With all of the news that is available to us on the Internet and television today, there is very little which goes on in the world that we can’t keep tabs on whether we truly want to or need to or not. All of this information can cause us to worry far more than is healthy, and the worst part is that we shouldn’t worry about it at all. God is in control of it all. He is watching and guiding your life and mine toward that day when He will call us home.

Yes, one day the whole world will see that we are important to our Creator. Important enough that He will be returning soon, much sooner than most think. Many people are going to be surprised and terrified when that day comes and the church, the believers who are waiting for His call, all disappear and are taken to Heaven. Then they will want to believe, but it will be harder to do so. Many explanations will be given which have nothing to do with God or the Bible’s prophecies but just as in the days of Noah, when the door to the ark was shut the only ones saved were the ones inside.

We don’t have “blind faith” in a God Who is not there. He is the Creator because there is no way that all of this universe could come into being as it is because of an accident. Our own solar system, out of all the ones that have been discovered, is the only one that is stable and with orbits for all of the planets that allow for life to flourish. All of the hundreds of solar systems that have been discovered are too close to their star or too far-flung to harbor life.

God loves all of us, no matter what your skin color is or your culture, but we refuse His provision and His grace when we try to take His place. When we think that we know better than He does how to fulfill our lives in this world, we are deluding ourselves. Seek God in the Bible or at a church which teaches from His Word. Pray that your life can have meaning in and through Him and seek His wisdom every day. This is the best way to relieve stress and worry because He is the One Who holds tomorrow in His hand. All that we have is today.

Live today for Jesus and then do it again tomorrow, then repeat until He comes again. That is the prescription which will conquer worry, doubt and fears far better than anything that a doctor can give you.

God is in control


JesusWhether the magazines or the newspaper agrees with that statement or not, He has always been and He still is in control. He allows us to make our mistakes and our choices, but in the end He is still in control. It doesn’t matter how much money that you have or how little you have, your treasure here and in your heart should be your family.

Why do I say that? Because money can’t buy happiness or joy. It can’t extend your life nor can it give you peace about life. Sure, having money helps in many of these situations, but money is only a tool which is why the Bible says that “the love of money is the root of all evil”. We are to put our faith and our trust…our love into loving our Savior, Jesus, because He is the One Who can bring you joy and peace and He can give you eternal life. Money is just a tool and that is all that it is, yet we put our lives and our happiness on the line for our careers and our business ventures in order to have more.

God is and always has been the most important person that you will ever know. He is the One that you need to get to know because HE is the Creator Who gave you life and formed you in the womb. He knows what you are capable of and what you can do today, but He also knows what you will do tomorrow. Nothing takes God by surprise.

He loves you, regardless of what you have done in the past or may do in the future. He already knows about it, so it isn’t new to Him. Why not allow Him to show His love for you by bringing you into a relationship with Him? You only have eternity to gain and the loss that you will have is the loss of the guilt from sins and the penalty for them. Jesus already paid that price so that we wouldn’t have to. Give Jesus a chance in your life and you will see a very different person in the mirror afterward.

Seek Jesus out and learn about Him, because He is the only way to get to Heaven.

Inspiration comes in small doses


inspiration5Some days I see a picture or just a few words in a comment here or on my FB page. Some days the inspiration comes from reading God’s Word or while I am in prayer for our country or the community that I live in. God uses little prompts, soft nudges which, if you are paying attention, you will be inspired by to write down something which comes to mind. Some days, it is a sunrise or sunset that brings inspiration with it.

Life itself is an inspiration to me. When I see a child running with all the abandon of childhood, it blesses me. When I see a sunrise like the one above, God is having a great day! He does this every day because HE can see what is going to happen before it happens. His days are never surprising to Him, they may be to us but as long as you begin your day with Him, the day will be a good one.

So much of our life is taken for granted, especially today. We look forward to tomorrow or next month, even when we have no idea if we will be here at that time. I know, expect to live tomorrow because expectation is a part of a faithful life. But, making plans without consulting God about those plans is foolish. He may have some other place or person in mind for you. His plans may not fall into the same time frame as yours.

Consider that He holds yesterday, today and tomorrow in His hands and He can see the outcome of those decisions that you make, with or without His consent. The direction for your life, in business and at home, always turns out better when He is part of it. God created you to be a part of His creation, His Kingdom and He is the One Who holds you and your life together.

There is a molecule called laminin that is part of our cellular structure and it is described as the glue which holds all of our cells together. Here is part of a wikipedia page quote which tells about these molecules: The laminins are an important and biologically active part of the basal lamina, influencing cell differentiation, migration, and adhesion.

Here is a picture of that molecule: laminin

It explains itself in a way. Jesus went to the cross to save us from our sinful nature and to give us eternal life through Himself. He also placed within our bodies a representation of that cross in the form of a molecule which is part of our structure which holds our cells together. God is present in all of the details of your life and mine, whether we know it or not. Ask Him to make Himself known to you through His Word and to become a part of your life from this day forward.

He will and your life, here and into eternity, will be more meaningful and more peaceful because of it.

How many times…


In your life and mine, how many times have you wondered about your salvation? How many times have you questioned whether you are saved or have given your life and heart to Jesus? How many times have you asked the question, whether in your mind or in person at church, “Can Jesus save me?”

There are many people who have asked these questions and many more like them. The answer to some of those questions is dependent upon your response to the Spirit of God when it touches you. When you felt it at a revival or a church service or even while listening to a television ministry, did you respond to it? How did you respond to Him because it was the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, which touched you when you felt the need to accept Jesus, so? What did you do?

Some people just shrug it off. The say to themselves, “I have plenty of time to make that decision, after I get my life straight.” Really? What if you have a wreck on the way home tonight? What then? Yes, I am trying to scare you because IF you don’t make that decision when you feel the prompting of God in your heart, you may not get another chance. God loves you, but He also knows exactly how many days or weeks or years that you have left!

He knows what you can do for His Kingdom and how many people you can have an influence in their lives while you are here. We are here for a certain number of years. For some of us, it may be fifty years or less, then again it may be for ninety years or even one hundred. In that time, you can have an enormous influence in your children’s lives and their children’s lives too. You can have an influence over many friend’s lives and people who come in contact with you at work or in a store or restaurant.

Some of us may get chosen to come to salvation while we are children and will be able to touch the lives of many people in our lifetime. Yet, some of those may die when they are only eighteen or twenty years old so their lives will be short but it still may have a huge effect on the people who knew them. God can use your talents and your time in ways that you don’t imagine and can’t imagine, until He does it. I never thought that I would be a pastor of a church, but I am. It is a small church but those in it may have a big impact on the world one day.

This blog and the others that I write for is also part of my ministry and many people can find the words which God gives me to write here. I don’t use this site to make money, all that I am doing is bringing the message of salvation to those who may be looking for it. God loves us all, even if He doesn’t like the sinful lives that we live. I still make mistakes and commit sins every day. To some the sins which I commit may not count as “big” sins, but to God ALL sins are the same. A lie told to your child, even those we call white lies, is still a lie. If you hate someone, Jesus said that was the same as murdering them. No one is immune to sin, except Jesus, because of our nature. We are HUMAN and we are sinful people.

The best part of salvation is that when you accept Jesus and believe what HE did for you to become a child of God, then your old sins are wiped clean and you are given the righteousness of Christ. Of course we will get some dirt on our clean robes afterward, but ask Him to forgive you and help you to do better. Read the Bible, learn of His ways and how God looks at our life and our sins so that you can learn to be more in tune with Him. Pray and thank Him for waking you up in the morning and He will help you to sleep better at night. Start each day with Him and end it with Him and you can’t go wrong.

We all have skeletons…


It doesn’t matter if you are an atheist, a Muslim, a Baptist, a Methodist or whatever type of belief system you want to hang on yourself, all of us have a past and we have skeletons in our closets that we may not want to let out. Yes, we have a past which may not reflect our present circumstances and may not line up with our future but we do have them.

Can we get past them? Can we be forgiven for those indiscretions and mistakes? Of course we can. Mistakes or sins, whatever you call them, are just part and parcel of life. You can’t avoid them entirely, but you can be forgiven for making them. That is what Jesus came to Earth for all those years ago, to bring forgiveness to all who sought it and to those who seek Him today.

Can we still serve Jesus if we sin, even if we are born-again Christians? Absolutely! If we couldn’t there would be no one in any church or pulpit in the world! Jesus forgave Peter when he denied Him on the night of His arrest so it makes sense that we can be forgiven for our sins today, whatever they may be.

Decide to ask forgiveness, seek out Jesus in prayer and in the Bible and move forward with your life. You can’t fix your own sin problem, so allow the Creator to do it. That is Who He is and His purpose for you and me is known to Him until He reveals it to you. God loves you, He may not like the life that you live or the sin that crops up in your life occasionally, but He loves you.

We don’t need to downplay the nature of sin by calling them mistakes though. Sin is anything that God says that you shouldn’t be doing and Satan knows exactly which one that you like the best. Life is full of temptations and he will use them to get into your head and your life and make you feel as if you can’t do anything right. The best and most important thing to remember is: God LOVES you in spite of this! Ask forgiveness, seek Him and praise Him in all things good or bad and keep moving toward Jesus and into eternity!

Why did Jesus come?


4thpage.jpg“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 These words were spoken by Jesus from the cross as He was crucified for our sins. Not just yours or mine but for every person in the past, in His present and in the future. Why did God do this? Why would God allow this to be done?

The simple answer is because of His love for us, all of us. This is a kind of love that we cannot comprehend…we cannot understand this depth of love. It is so far beyond our pitiful ability that it would be like explaining the concept of love to a shark or a snake. It cannot be understood and it can’t be comprehended by our limited minds. Of course, there are some who will contest this way of thinking but if you really think about it, the depth of love that it would take I mean, our human mind can’t comprehend a love like that.

That is the reason that Jesus said that we would have to come to the Kingdom of God with faith like a child. Trusting that God knows what is best and that we can give Him our life and our heart no matter what!

God created this universe so that we could experience the awesome reach of His power and know that He is the Creator and there is no other. No amount of spiritualism or pagan pseudo-religion will be a substitute for God, period. You can call the Bible a fake and the Word contained in it to be fantasy, but Christians have died believing in the God of the Bible and His Word. Of course, many people who don’t believe in Jesus will also say that they were delusional but people wouldn’t die believing a lie.

I know, sincerity breeds belief and beliefs are what those people ultimately died for BUT if that was the way that things have been taught for nearly two thousand years, what of it? At least Christians are not trying to kill all of those who won’t convert to Christianity. If we are wrong, then our lives have only been wasted doing the work of Jesus while we can. If there is no Heaven or hell, then why did Jesus come to bring the good news to the Jews and to the rest of the world? If the Bible is a lie, then the Torah is a lie and the Jewish religion is a lie.

Nothing about the Christian religion can be disproved. You can choose not to believe any of it if you wish, but the history contained in it has been proven by archaeologists. Science has proven many of the truths in the Bible as well. Such as the ordinance given to circumcise a child on the eighth day after they are born. A baby doesn’t have the capability to clot blood until that day is past, but that wasn’t proved until recently.

God loves each of us, this is proven because we live and breathe. You can laugh at this if you wish, but it truly is by His grace and mercy that our world hasn’t come to an end yet. When the time is up, every eye will see the result and hear it around them but if you haven’t made the decision to come to God by belief in Jesus…it will be too late.

So much strife, remember…


In our world, in our everyday lives, we experience problems of all sorts. Pain, heartaches, anxiety, fears, the list could go on and on. Remember, God loves you, and remember these promises as well:

PromisesfromGodsWord

I know, during this time of year many people aren’t really concerned with their eternal destiny but you should be! Why? Because it is going to last a LOT longer than this life will! God does have a plan for you and me, and it doesn’t stop when your life on this Earth stops. Consider this, God said that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Present tense, not past tense! Meaning, they live on into eternity and you will too…if you have given your life and your heart to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your heart and save you, because HE came to seek and save those who are lost which includes you and me! I accepted Him a few years ago, and I pray that you will too.

A prayer that this world needs


Thought you might enjoy this interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people… When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask  your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it  the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it  choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values
of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!

If that prayer touches your heart, please pass this on to someone else. I pray that this Christmas touches your heart and brings you closer to Jesus, Who is the reason for this season after all.

Are you in charge of your life?


We all like to think that we are in charge of our lives, that we direct our own paths and destinies but the truth is that God has had a plan for your life from the beginning. Whether you have given your heart to Him and begun the walk with Him or not is irrelevant, before you have ventured too far you will turn to Him. It may be at the end of your life if you are really stubborn about it or you may give your heart to Him early in your life. We don’t know what tomorrow holds for us, but He does. He has all of it planned and perfected but it is up to you whether you follow His leading and His script for your life or not. Have you ever considered it? Have you thought of what it will take to do this?

Some think that being a Christian is a life of compromise and giving up on the fun stuff. This is very far from the truth, although there are many who would like for you to believe it. Giving your heart and life to Jesus frees you from the sin and worry of this world because you can lean on Him for strength and give Him your worries so that you don’t have to handle them alone.
God is in charge

It is because He is in charge of the universe and everything in it, that everything works as well as it does. Your heart, your kidneys, your liver, all of these things did not evolve. God created you and me for a reason and He is the one Who put all of those things inside you to keep you alive and healthy. Just as our solar system is the only stable one which is friendly to life, our planet and all of the environment around it were created so that we could live and be His people, His creation.

Yes, you are in charge up to a point. You can choose to follow Jesus and give your heart and soul to Him or not. Life isn’t much different for those who don’t follow Jesus except that they don’t have His grace and mercy working in their lives to His glory. The biggest difference in their life isn’t in life, it is after they die. They will stand before God and they will have to answer for all of the sins that they have done in this life, no matter how insignificant they might be. The only sin which will send them to Hell is the one where they didn’t give their heart to Jesus and ask Him to come into their lives. If they made it through life without Him, then that is going to be their eternity, their punishment for not allowing Jesus to save them from their sins, even if that decision was made at the last moment He will still forgive you and save you. Please don’t push Him away, you may regret it for a very LONG time.