You are a good work…

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6

Being loved by the Creator is a wonderful feeling, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then you likely think that I am delusional. God is our Creator, belief in this is possible because of faith and today our world is condemning people who have faith, especially if it is faith in Jesus! He is still in control, whether you believe it or not and your lack of belief doesn’t change this!

God loves you. Radical, huh? The Creator loves you because you are part of His Creation and He knows your life from the time the first cells came together to form you in the womb. He knows when and to whom you will be married, if ever, He knows what you are capable of doing for His Kingdom even if you don’t! You are created in His image! We are made specifically to be priests and prophets for Him, in our workplace and in our homes! This doesn’t mean that you have to preach on the street corner, it just means that you are supposed to let others SEE Jesus in your everyday life!

Tell your children about Jesus, if you haven’t already. Tell your family about Jesus, if you know that they don’t know Him (this is the hardest witnessing that you will need to do). Why? Because they know you! They knew you before you became a Christian and the type of person that you have been, so they need to see the person that you have become! The work that God has begun in your life when you came to Him, may have started years ago. You may have walked away for some reason and you have been away from church for years, but He hasn’t stopped. He doesn’t let go. There is still a voice, the Voice of the Spirit within you that has not been completely quieted. Listen to Him, trust in Him, learn more about Him and follow Him because by doing that you can make the demons surrounding your home flee!

The time is nearly here that we truly NEED men and women of God to rise up and be counted in our homes, in our churches, in our states and in our nation because God has been reviled in the news media and in many countries and it is getting worse. This is just the beginning of troubles for the church of Jesus, the body of believers in the world that claim Him as their Savior. Stand firm in your faith, read and study God’s Word, pray about what you read and think on it (meditate) because the time that we are in now is very close to the trouble times. I don’t know when the treaty with Israel will be signed or when the ruler of the world will be brought out into the open, but I don’t believe that it is far off.

Yes, very possibly in our lifetime, it will happen and it will happen because God said so in His Word! Give our God the credit for being our Creator and our Redeemer because that is Who He is!

Are you a follower, a leader, or a Christian?

In many ways we are called to be all three, especially if we claim to be Christians. Today, we are supposed to be a people who follow Jesus and His example, not the “politically correct” way but His Way of Life! If you are a follower of Him, will you be one when the persecution comes to America, and it will come sooner than you think! Will you stay true to your faith in Jesus and your claim to Him when someone is threatening your life or your family’s security?

We need to be that strong in our faith, we are supposed to be that strong so that we can stand in our faith and for our communities and our churches. We are also called to be examples and leaders of our churches and our families faith. If we aren’t doing that then what is the next generation going to learn? Who are they going to learn it from?

God gave that responsibility to parents. To raise their children in the knowledge and reverence of Him, not to be afraid of Him as if God were going to strike you with a bolt of lightning for doing something wrong. God allows us to make mistakes, but we aren’t supposed to live in those mistakes. We are supposed to learn from them, repent of the sinful ways that we had and move into a life of service to Him and not to ourselves.

Christians are supposed to be fundamentally bound to the Bible, God’s Word. It really isn’t supposed to be an option because if you choose to not believe one part of it, you are invalidating all of it! We have to be consistent in our faith in God and in the Word of God because if we aren’t going to believe all of God’s Word, then why be a Christian at all?

The belief in the Word of God comes with the faith that you have in Him and His Son. If that isn’t there, then you need to check with the Bible and see if you really do believe in what you say that you believe. This is exactly why there are so many people who don’t want to believe in God and who don’t go to church. They see all of these “so-called Christians” that go to church and then don’t live their lives by what they are claiming to believe on a daily basis.

This is exactly why so many people choose not to come to churches. They see many of those who claim Christ on Sunday, but who walk a different way during the week. The walk of a Christian is not an optional thing. It is just like walking on a thin line which we are called to do, you are either on it or not. Yes, we fall from our walk and step off of the line, but we should try to get back on it as soon as possible. Don’t decide that once you fall off that you can’t get back up! You don’t learn to ride a bike or a horse that way and your walk with Jesus is no different!

When you choose to be a Christian, regardless of how long ago it was, you are in a committed relationship. One which is dependent upon you to keep it going. Jesus has already done everything that He needed to do, it is up to you to seek Him out daily in His Word. Pray for your day to be the one that He would want. Keep your mind focused upon Him during the day, as often as you can, because the more you keep Him on your mind then the less chances Satan will have to cause problems in your day.

Make sure that, if you are a Christian, you are walking with Jesus and not dragging Him up when someone asks you about Him and then pushing Him away so that you can do what you want to do. Prayer is good, if it is done for the right reason and God hears those prayers when your heart is in them too. If you are just saying something like “God bless you”, then it is just an automatic thing and really doesn’t mean much. Consider what you are thinking because God knows what you are thinking too. Nothing is hidden from Him no matter where you might be.

Are you ready for Jesus?

One time I told someone who came into the place where I worked that I was ready for Jesus to come and the very next words from their mouth was, “I am not, I have too much I want to do before He comes back.” The attitude expressed in this statement is that life is over when He comes! Why would you think that? If you belong to Jesus, your life will never end so when you arrive in Heaven so your life is really just beginning.

Why would someone think that life ends when Jesus comes? If you are a sinner and there are some things that you want to do that Jesus wouldn’t approve of then from that point of view, I can understand. But, if you don’t belong to Jesus when He comes to call the church to Heaven then you will be left behind during the worst time on the Earth.

During the flood of Noah’s day, when the rain and the fountains of the deep broke open, the people of Earth drowned except for the eight that God saved on the ark. During the Tribulation, there will be seven seals, seven bowls and seven trumpets with each one being a specific plague or punishment for those on Earth. The difference during this time will be that there will be some who will still be able to come to faith in Jesus, although it will be hard and dangerous to do so.

Many people think that God will remove the possibility of salvation when He takes the church to Heaven, but I believe that He will not do that even though faith and believing in Jesus will be dangerous for those living at this time. This belief is mine, and it has not been taught in seminaries because they have been taught that the Holy Spirit will be taken from the Earth before this time. God may do this but I think that He will give everyone who chooses not to worship the Antichrist the opportunity to learn about and come to faith in Jesus the Christ.

My own beliefs may have been influenced by some of the books that I have read about the end times, but also by my own prayer and study of God’s Word, but your own life and the message that you get from the Bible is yours. The truth contained in God’s Word is God’s Truth and since He cannot lie, then I accept it as such. The writers who were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the words were men, but those forty men could not have produced a book of such accurate and truthful proportion without the Spirit’s guidance. Especially the books from over a thousand years before Christ, which describe His death on a cross exactly and all of the other prophecies which point to Jesus which were written so long before He came into the world. Men could not have made this stuff up and then it came to pass!

Please, if you are a Christian get into a deeper relationship with Him and serve Him in some way until He comes. If you are not a Christian, but you are searching for meaning in your life then look to Jesus and read about Him in the Bible. Ask Him to show you what you need to know and Who you need to follow, the answer may surprise you.