Tag: Creator deity

Celebrate Life, celebrate God!


You hear singers and people on news programs saying things like “We celebrate life itself!”, usually with much enthusiasm. Yet, we kill unborn children by the hundreds every day! There are murders, planned and spur of the moment, that seem to happen almost every hour of every day. So, why don’t more people actually celebrate Life!?

Is it such a hard concept that we say it and it sounds good but it isn’t something that we can actually do? It is just a mantra that we use to sound important or special in our own eyes and the eyes of those around us, right? In a manner of speaking, yes and no. I know, confusing.

My point…if you really intend to celebrate Life, then act like it and get out there and enjoy life! Do spontaneous things, stuff that you haven’t done but have wanted to do such as things which might be on your “bucket list” maybe? Yes, Jessica, there are people who truly need to get out and DO these things! Not just because they need to get up, like me, but because life is too short to dream about them and just say “I’ll do it later”. There may not be a “later”, for many of us there won’t be.

Now, I am not trying to get into “doom and gloom” here, I am just saying that winter for this year is nearly over and spring is getting closer. For many of us, it doesn’t seem that way but it will soon enough. My point on this page and this post, is to point to God Himself, the Author of Life! When we celebrate Life, we should be celebrating God’s purpose in Life and we should be celebrating Him as well! Don’t get into this “new age” thinking that God is not part of the 21st century, He is part of ALL of them! He is now, He was then and He will be God no matter what century that you might be thinking of!

In spite of evolution and its proponents, God is the Author of Life and everything that goes along with the creation of Life, and the maintaining of Life. Yours and mine and everyone else’s on this planet including the animals, fish, mammals, and birds. So, why is everyone so hell-bent on taking Him out of Life? Our everyday living even! It seems that the laws which have been adopted lately have been putting more pressure on just one group of people, Christians. Specifically, to keep us from expressing or following our mandate of how we live and what we are supposed to be doing with our lives.

The Bible clearly says that: “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,b baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20

This is the command and the commission that we, as Christians, have been given. We have not been told to kill or behead people if they won’t convert to our way of thinking and worshipping, but to love them as Christ did and to tell them of the gospel. Though, it seems that we are leprous in many people’s eyes, they don’t want anything to do with us or our religion yet they will gladly accept almost any other religion without complaint. Why is that? What is so attractive about all other religions that makes Christianity seem as if we are trying to give you a sandwich made of mouldy bread and maggot-infested meat?

Celebrate the Author of Life and the Finisher of Life itself, God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Between them all, the Earth and all that is in it were formed, created, and established in six days. The day of God’s “rest” has not ended, yet He is still creating, He is still giving Life to all of His Creation. He offers eternity to you if you will believe in Him and in Jesus’ work on the cross and the atonement for all of your sins and mine. This is your choice…it is not forced upon you nor will it ever be. Choose Life in Him and in His Son because the alternative is an eternity of the same punishment that Satan will get one day. Celebrate Life from God’s point of view…the grander scale of the entire universe, big and small, on Earth and in the far-flung galaxies! He knows you better than you do, so give Him the chance to infuse your life with His Life and the possibilities are endless!

Jesus is born…now what?


Christmas is a time of wonder and magic, especially for young children, but what about the One Whose birthday we are celebrating? Do we truly consider what we should be doing with our knowledge of Who He is and the reason why He came? It centers around the nature that all of mankind possesses, that being our sin nature which has been passed down from Adam and Eve. Whether you believe in Creation or in Evolution, you can witness the results of this nature that everyone seems to have and you can see it every day on the news or on the Internet. The Truth which is contained within the Bible tells the story of people who want to be more than they are and it begins right at the beginning.

It is true that wanting to be more than what you are is not such a bad thing, in most situations, but when you are going against the laws of God and His will for your life it will have an effect on your life for years to come. Like any decision which we make on our own and that we continue in daily, going against God’s will for your life is allowed by Him but it is not a good idea. Truly, following God and giving Jesus your heart is the best decision that you could make for your life and yet many people want to “do their own thing” on their terms and not according to the will and purpose of God.

When you do this of course, your life turns out the way that you want it to, sometimes, but sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want at all. Many times when we choose our own path in life, it goes along just fine without any problems and that is a good thing for us. But, it doesn’t point us in the direction of following Jesus at times. There are choices that we make which can be good for our life and there are some which may lead us in the wrong direction.

Yes, it limits your choices in life a bit but the life that you will have is so much more than the one that you would have living outside the will of God. I know, many people today don’t see it that way but its true. I lived outside the will of God for many years, thinking that I actually belonged to Him but I didn’t and when I truly allowed Him into my heart and my life completely, there is such a difference in everything. It is as different as night and day! We don’t realize it at the time that we are living in it though and that is the problem with making our own independent path in life. The other problem is that it is not entirely independent, because Satan or one of his cohorts keeps a watchful eye on us especially when we come near to the Lord in one way or another.

It is at these times that circumstances will come up in some way, good or bad, to keep you from the influence of God. The test of your attention to God’s voice will be when He calls you to Himself. Are you listening for Him or do you just disregard it completely? I did this a few times in the past, but I have since come to realize that when He speaks in that voice, you need to listen because He is always right as long as you can discern that it is from God and not Satan or some other “voice” that you are hearing.

Jesus came so that we might come to know Him and through Him we can know God. Isn’t that an awesome thought? To get to know the Creator of everything is such an awesome and humbling idea and experience, it is impossible to describe to you the way that it feels, especially if you aren’t a Christian already! A person without faith in God cannot understand faith, God, or the Bible itself and until you have that faith, then the Bible is just a book about Israel, some of their historical events and prophets, as well as some poetry. Pray sincerely to God for the wisdom and the faith to understand His Word so that you can understand God’s plans for us and for you.

What Child is this?


Immanuel, God with us. Those few words explain the “why” of the Babe in the manger and the “Who” as well, so why do so many people choose to turn away from the offer of grace and mercy of God? Well, it has to do with that six letter word that has been having such a great impact on the human race ever since the Garden…choose or a different version maybe, called choice. It is what God gave all of His creatures, angel and human alike.

Why did He give us a choice in our life, in our service to Him and in what we ultimately do with that choice? Because of love. You cannot love a Creator or a person that doesn’t give you a choice of returning that love. You cannot enjoy being a servant unless you are given the choice of being a servant or not. We can choose to obey the call on our lives when we feel and hear it or to turn away from it. We can choose to be the people that we are called to be or not. It is choice which distinguishes us from animals who live by instinct.

Instinct is natural for animals whether they are dogs or cats or apes or whales, that is their position in the Creation of God. We have a choice to be or not to be what we are called by God to become, and yet some people don’t allow God to change them into the people who He knows that they can be. They refuse to “conform” or to be called by God. They want to do it their way, in their time, and for some that is fine. It may give them a successful life that the world sees, but it may not lead to eternal life unless they finally accept the call of God in their life.

“But, what if I don’t ever fell or hear the call of God?” “Can’t I just read the Bible and try to do what it says and I’ll be saved?” Reading the Bible is good and God may speak to you through it, if He hasn’t already but you can’t force God to save you. Just as God chose Jacob and not Esau to make the nation of Israel through, He can choose those whom He wishes to be saved which will bring glory to Him and His Kingdom. Why? Because He is God. He doesn’t answer to you, He does as He pleases in all situations.

God sent His Son to be born of a woman of the lineage of David, so that through Him we would all have the chance to be saved. He paid the price for all of us, all that we have to do is listen to that voice in our hearts which calls to us. If and when you hear it, don’t turn away from it. God gives us all second and third chances but when we keep turning away, He will call on someone else that will answer and the most telling part about His call to us is that He knows which person will answer His call and which ones of us who won’t.

God is great!


God loves each of us. It is His will for you to be great at whatever you are doing, regardless of what you do or who you are. Isn’t that a great way to look at life! Why am I in such a great mood? Because, Thanksgiving was yesterday, but God is absolutely in control and is the most gracious God and He is in control of all, not just my life or yours if you are a Christian, but He is in control of every nation and all of the world!

Yes, there are some terrible things happening in the world, but those are not caused by God but by Satan, who is trying to take God’s glory and any person that he can away from God! Whether it is through war, or death or disease, Satan will do it just to poke his finger in God’s eye so to speak.

The difference with God is that God doesn’t give up on us, because He knows where you are and He knows where you are going!

He will be there in the darkness and the hurt and the painful days. He will be with you when you are on top of the world, and nothing seems to be going wrong. God is there, wherever you are no matter what the situation.

God loves you and will be with you regardless! How do I know? Because, when I was sick a couple of years ago, He was with me. In the night with fever and the dark dreams that were keeping me from seeing Him, He was there. He was beside me when a tornado went over my house while I had fever and couldn’t get up if I had to.

He was with every person that I have prayed with during my time of being a pastor, as I still am. He has been with my nephew after a really bad accident on a four-wheeler, and He is still healing him. Life is precious to God, no matter what the life is. He notices a sparrow when it dies, He knows when a baby is aborted and when one is born. Regardless of the life, He cares for them all. If you will give your life to Him, then you will care for them too. He loved each of us whether we were born yet, or whether we had accepted Jesus yet or not. He cares about all of the life, the creation that He created for us to be stewards of and to give glory to Him.

Psalm 148
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
Praise him, sun and moon!
Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
Praise him, skies above!
Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being. He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds,a wind and weather that obey him, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven!
He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones—the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the Lord!

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

God uses the foolish things…


“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

It is so true, God uses the simple things, the people who weren’t the most popular and the ones that nobody thinks will amount to anything,  and He will use them to do and accomplish the most in the world and for His Kingdom. Why would God do that? Because He is God and because He wants the world to see that He can do more with a little than anyone else can do with a lot!

I mean, He did create the world and our universe by speaking into the dark void, “Let there be light!”. The light that God brings into the world and the Light that He caused to shine forth in the beginning is alive! It is not just light like you get from a lamp or even the brilliant light that you get from our Sun, it was and is the Light from His Son! Light which can do more, Light which can cause things to change and people to change, Light which can bring life to a dead place. Light which will bring water into a wilderness or make “dry bones” get up from the ground and become people again!

The Light that God uses is more than just light, but it is also something which we cannot know until we have gained faith from Him and our souls have been revived to be “new creatures in Christ Jesus”! The Light of God also contains His love for us…each of us, because if He hadn’t loved us, then He wouldn’t have taken on the flesh of humanity and came down as a baby to be born into a world that didn’t know Him. A world that had mostly forgotten Him, like today’s world has.

God did exactly that and lived as a human for twelve years before he came to the temple in Jerusalem as a boy. Then He confounded the “wise men” of the day, by answering their questions instead of needing the answers Himself! After this, he spent eighteen years as a carpenter, learning the trade from his Earthly father (although He already knew) before He began His ministry in Judea. After His baptism by John the Baptist, He went into the desert and fasted for forty days before truly starting His ministry.

The men whom He called to become disciples were plain men, not Pharisees or Teachers, but during the three years of His ministry, He taught them all that they needed to know in order to accomplish that which He called them to do. They didn’t need a degree or a paper showing that they were anything more than they were, just plain people who came to know Jesus through faith and to believe that He is the Son of God! During His ministry, He was challenged by the “teachers of the Law” many times, but He passed all of their tests and confounded the wise men. How? Because, He was God! They could not trip Him up! Yet, He allowed them to capture Him, scourge Him and hang Him on a cross so that you and I could have a chance at eternity! He didn’t have to do it that way, but He wanted to do it that way. Then, after three days from sun up to sundown, He came out of the tomb victorious over death and He taught them for an additional forty days before ascending into Heaven! As the angels told His disciples, “He will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go”, and it will likely be soon.

He can use each of us in the same way today. Just as some of the teachers today have gone to school and to advanced degrees to show themselves approved, there are some who are just plain folks like me. Yes, I do have a college degree, but it isn’t in religion or theology. Yet, God has taught me through His Word and through prayer, the knowledge which I need to be useful to Him! My skills are not accepted in the “great churches”, because I don’t have a “seminary degree”, I am just an un-learned man so what do I know? I know that God can take me, just as He did those fishermen, and use me and you to do far more than people think can be done by someone as simple as I am.

Seek Him out today, read His Word and come to know Him through it because He can make you into a giant of faith if you will answer the call on your life now while there is still time. Don’t put it off until tomorrow or next week, you don’t know if you are going to be here that long! While there is time, especially if God is calling to your heart now, answer Him. His disciples did, I did, and many others have over the years. Give Him a chance to be your Lord and Savior.

We are more than conquerors


We are MORE than conquerors through Christ, no matter what this world throws at us! In Ephesians 1:16-21 says this in the Amplified Bible:

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. 17. [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), 19 And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, 20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places], 21 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.”

God has given to each of us as believers, the victory through His power and through Christ who also conquered this world and the one who is in this world! You might say, “Victory over what?”!

Victory over your circumstances, whether they are involving money, loss of a job or a loved one, depression, alcoholism, drugs, illness, whatever it may be. Paul wrote the scripture above to the Ephesians because that is what he prayed for them to experience in their lives, not just some of the time but every day! I am not saying that God will heal all of your sickness or your addictions overnight, but He will comfort you and be there with you through the process of getting over them and through the healing process.

Sometimes God will heal you or me when we claim that healing through faith in Him and His power in our lives. But, Satan is going to try to derail your faith and stop any victory that you gain over his demonic powers which enslaved you to that illness or addiction. He will tell you that it isn’t possible, that God doesn’t care about you and that God won’t do anything for you that you can’t do on your own. Those are lies from the master of lies!!

God does love you. He does care about you and your problems and He will make a way for you to get through them! If you have given your heart and your life to Jesus and asked Him to come into your life and change your life into what He sees in you, then you can make it through all of the things that are going on, no matter how bad they are! It may require that you are killed by someone who is not a Christian, but you are the conqueror because as a Christian you have a sure victory through Christ and a place..an everlasting home in Heaven with Jesus!

We see and hear every day that more bad things are happening in the world because of hatred and violence in places from America to the Middle East to Africa, but these are ‘birth pains” of a world that is coming to a close. Look up and pray, expecting Jesus to come because He will. Your salvation and redemption draws closer every day!

God’s character


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

These are the names of God..the names of our Lord, but you know He also occupies places in your life that are important as well.
He is our Deliverer. He is our Rock and our Fortress.
He is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is our Saviour. He is the One Who Sees our troubles and carries us through them.
He is our Creator. He is the I AM. He is our Rod and our Staff.
He is our Healer and Protector.
He is our Shepherd and our Friend.
He is our Father in Heaven.

God is all of these. Jesus is all of these. The two of them and the Holy Spirit make up the Trinity and they are One. They rule over the universe and watch over all of our lives and our troubles as well as our fears and our heartaches. God is all that you or I will ever need, even when we have nothing that this world calls wealth, we are rich in Him. When we realize this and begin to act like it, then the world will see it and want what we have because they will know that it was not bought with money. It was given to us by God Himself and nobody can take it away.

Yes, I admit that I have been very deeply depressed for over a month. I have thought of ending my life. I have felt worthless and useless but God has been with me through it all. I have cried out to Him and I have yelled at Him. I have cussed and fussed about the way that I feel and asked Him why do I feel this way? Through it all, He let me rage and fuss. He allowed me to vent and cuss and then ask forgiveness for what I had said. I am not finished with my depressed state because it is not something that goes away like a cold or the flu. Unfortunately, it is what our society calls a disease of the mind. They used to put you in the mental hospital for it and depending upon how bad you are, they still do. But…I am not there yet.

The point that I had to make today is this: God never leaves you where you are, no matter what you are doing or what may be wrong in your life. He is always there with you, holding you in His hand. Giving you strength and comforting you like a child, which we are. But, He is also very patient with His children as well. His patience is far greater than ours and it goes deeper, like His love for us, than we can comprehend. God cannot do anything to you or for you except through love because that is His character and His being. That is why we can’t understand it, because we can’t love that deeply or completely and yet the love expressed between a man and woman and their children is as close as we can get in this life to it. If you haven’t given yourself to Him, please do it before it is too late. Because once this life is over, you don’t get another chance to make it right. Think about that, please?

What are we doing?


Arguing about the realities of life on Earth and whether we evolved from mouse-like mammals or whether God created us and everything else on this Earth! There are many people who are arguing or debating, depending on how civilized the debate goes, about how life came to be on this planet. Why? What is so polarizing about life’s beginnings or how life began on this planet?

Yes, there are fossils which are supposedly found in layers which “date” back hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. These same layers have also been found in the ash flows around Mount St. Helen’s eruption, which are less than fifty years old. Also, the “carbon dating” of rocks and fossils is subject to interpretive and radioactive false readings, check the dates found on newly deposited lava flows in Hawaii. Some of which were “dated” at over one hundred thousand years of age, yet they were deposited just days or even hours before.

Our world is not billions of years old, yet some scientists seem to think or believe that it is. I will not debate what is a perception of belief. The Earth is here, we and all other life on this planet are here, the cosmos and all that is in it was here and is still here. Explanations aside, scientific or Biblical whichever you prefer, we are people who aspire to explain things which we can’t explain. Faith is something that we find hard to believe as well as being hard to explain to scientists and others.

If you are not a believer, a Christian, faith is nearly impossible to understand. Anything which requires faith to believe, such as God being the Creator of everything, causes a polarizing effect between scientists and so-called Creationists. People, mainly Bible believing Christians, who truly believe that the Word of God is true don’t question the account of creation as told in Genesis. I happen to believe that God is the Creator and since He is God, if He wants to create everything in six twenty-four hour days then He can! Making the universe and the Earth itself appear to be older than it is would really not be a problem for Him at all.

Give it a rest, the evidence shows what it shows and how you believe what you see or read is totally up to you and your own beliefs. Debating the issue will not change what I believe and telling you what I believe and why will not change your mind either. When He comes to rule the Earth, the answers will be evident and clear to everyone.

Without God, what’s the point!?


A quote that I read a while back said that men in the twentieth century have forgotten God. I know that many have tried to say that He is dead and that He doesn’t exist, but how can you forget God? With everything around you in the world and in the universe itself, how can you possibly forget God!?

I know that all of everything is supposed to have come about by some cosmic accident. Something went “Boom!” and then billions and billions of years later everything just put us and everything else into the place where we are and that is that, right?

NO! Explosions involving trillions of tons of matter and chemicals don’t just form up into planets and people and trees and fish. It just doesn’t work that way! Entropy and all of the thermodynamic forces will devolve into less organized bits and pieces given time, but it doesn’t go the other way! Some of the bits and pieces may clump together and become planetesimal bodies, but belief in all of this coming together into living biomasses by accident is by definition insane.

God is the Creator and Designer of everything and everyone in the universe. His place is outside of time because He designed it as well. He can see the beginning and the end and all that is in between them. God is not taken by surprise because He can see those things which are happening and the ones which are going to happen. Life is precious to Him, all of life is precious to Him. From the fish in the sea to the sparrows in the field to a newborn baby in a hospital, each life is precious to God and to push Him out of our lives or try to legislate Him out of our children’s lives is wrong!

We need Him and the moral compass that He gives to each of us because without it we really do act like animals. Humans are selfish and immoral by nature. There are some who are taught right from wrong at an early age, and they will take that with them, but there are many who are not and it is those, regardless of the country or racial strata that they come from, that we hear about on the news. It is the part of society that shouldn’t be getting the exposure but it is. The good part of society, the people who are doing good things usually are not heard about unless they try to help someone who doesn’t want their help and kills them. Then, we don’t hear about he good thing but the bad.

Why are we this way? Because mankind has forgotten God! Some might turn that around and say that God  has forgotten us, but He can’t and He won’t! We are created by Him to be special, to be something which most don’t realize until they get much older. I didn’t realize that I had a purpose that God had given me until I was in my forties. Some may not “get it” until later than that, but the point it that there is one! God doesn’t turn His back on you until you have turned away from Him, if He has been calling you. If He has not, then you have to make the move toward Him and realize that you need Him in your life. This is not an easy thing to do for us because we want to do everything like children, “I can do it myself!”.

That kind of thinking can get you and each person in the world into some places that we can’t get out of. There is no real point to life without God because if you aren’t His or don’t have Him in your life, then you are only working for yourself. Some may think that that’s the point of life, to work for yourself and your family and don’t worry about anyone else. If that is how you feel, then that is a very selfish way of looking at life! Who gave you your life, your family and your job? You didn’t create any of these, God is the One that provided them. They are the blessings of God toward you, each of you and if you can’t see that then your eyes aren’t open at all.

 

Can you reconcile Jesus’ limitations?


There are many who deny that Jesus was the Christ because He seems to be limited in His ability as the Son of Man. But, did you ever consider that He limited Himself because of His love for us? Think of this: the question has often been posed about whether God could create something which He could not move, but this question sets up a paradox which doesn’t exist. Since God created the whole universe, as expansive as it is, the answer to the question is “no, He would not”, not that He could not. There would be no point in creating something so large because He already has created something which we cannot comprehend, limitless time and space. We cannot see the edge of the universe because our limited instruments can’t penetrate any distance past which time allows and time is controlled by God Himself.

Jesus’ limitations while living as a man, were the same limitations that we have except when He asked the Father to glorify Himself for a reason, such as bringing Lazarus back after four days in the grave. He proved His control of the elements when He came to the disciples by walking on the water, man cannot do this without the aid of some trickery or manipulation of the video by computers. Yes, Jesus had limitations but they were limitations that allowed Him to be the Son of Man. He could’ve done far more, but if it did not serve the purpose for which He came then why bother?

Just as someone who has a fast car doesn’t exercise that speed every time they are on the highway, Jesus did not use His power as Creator unless it suited His purpose for being here, unless it actually punctuated Who He was and why He came! There is no need nor reason for using power when you have it unless it is needed for a reason, specifically to glorify God!

Yes, He could’ve forced Israel to see Him as Who He was, He could’ve made it abundantly clear but that would not have taken His message to the rest of us. He came to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to all people and that wouldn’t have happened if He had done things the way that we might have done them! We think small in most areas, God thinks in terms of eternity, which we can’t even imagine.

Our lifespan is tiny in comparison to even one billion years and that is small compared to eternity! God sees all because He is outside the limitations of time. He sees your life from your physical birth all the way to the day you die and everything in between. Yet, the most important decision in your life has nothing to do with your job or your family or your finances, it involves your relationship with Jesus and the decision that you make about Him. Will you believe in Him and follow Him so that others can see His work in your life and want that in their lives? Or will you decide that you can do it on your own, without Him? Your way may be a life filled with helping others, giving of your time and energy so that others can have a better life, doing things for those who may not be able to do for themselves but if you are doing this without the love of Jesus in your life it will gain you praise from men but it will avail you nothing when you come to God and present your life to Him.

The question at that point is, “What did you do with Jesus?”

If your life was spent in your own strength and your own ability to do good things for people, then it may have gained you praise from them but your reward perished with you!

The lasting legacy of a life lived through Christ is that you will live into eternity and so will those who have benefited from His love that was expressed in your life toward them. Jesus lived His life in service to the Father’s will and also in service to those that He came to bring the message of life to. He did this without being arrogant, but by being a humble servant to all. Power flowed from Him into their lives and enriched them, it did not corrupt Him or those who learned the lessons that He taught. This is the legacy that we are to bring to our world and those around us while we are able to do so, this is the message of a life lived through Christ and His life lived through yours!