Tag: Faith

The gospel of John


If you have ever read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you know that John’s gospel is very different from the other three. John focuses on a few specific miracles that Jesus did. He doesn’t write so much about His genealogy or that He is descended from David. John focuses on Who Jesus is and on the miracles that point you toward belief in Him. At the very end of his gospel, John tells the reader that “if all of the miracles and signs were written about Him, the world could not contain the books“. So, he only focuses on the important ones.

John tells about Who Jesus is in the first sentences. The Word made flesh. He was there in the beginning, He came to live with His creation and to bring the Love and Light of God to the world. John doesn’t embellish his gospel, he just tells what Jesus did in seven different miracles. Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life. He also changed six pots of water into wine for a wedding feast (His first miracle). Jesus said He was the good shepherd because His sheep know Him and are known by Him. Jesus cured a man of leprosy. He also brought sight to a man who was born blind.

Only God can do these things and Jesus is God the Son. He stopped a storm and walked on water, yet He gave His life for our sins because He is the only perfect Lamb that could pay for humanity’s sins. John introduces Him to us as we read his gospel. Jesus is not introduced as some kind of genie but as our Creator and our God Who cares for all of His creation. He knows when a sparrow falls dead and He cares about the animals as well as humanity. He created all of the various forms of life on Earth. According to science, there are millions of different species on Earth. Some haven’t been found yet because it seems that new species are being found in the ocean and in rain forests many times during the year.

God created all of the universe and He knows the stars by name, trillions of them.

Why do I bring this up on a site that shows the love of God to everyone? Because God loves all of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful ways that we live. The Bible gives us a plan and guidelines to follow for our lives. But many people don’t care to read it or to know the God found in the Bible. I heard a man in a video that I watched last week say that it doesn’t matter what God wants or what is found in the Bible, he had decided to live his life the way he wanted to.

Why am I writing this today? Because eternity is a long time and one day all of us are going to die and then we will face God as our judge. I wonder how living your life your way is going to feel then? When you are faced with an eternity of life yet you lived on Earth and chose to exclude God and His teachings from your life…what will you have to stand on then? Your idea of a good time? Your rules about what is right or wrong? You will be judged by God’s Law not your idea of it. Outer darkness and the lake of fire for eternity don’t look so good when you will live and feel the pain of your decision for all time.

The Impact of a Life Partner: Lessons from 34 Years Together


Today happens to be my anniversary and my wife and I have been married for 34 years. To some that is a very long time. To others who have been married longer than we have, we are on the road to another point in our lives.

God brings people into your life for many reasons. Some come into your life as a friend, others are just acquaintances. Then there are others like my wife who has stood by me and encouraged me through college and my career as a Medical Technologist. Even though that career was shorter than I had hoped it would be, God had another plan which took me in a different direction which brought me to a computer repair shop and I served for a time as a pastor at a small church. A life partner, whether it is your spouse or God, can encourage you and inspire you in many ways. Your life will change when your life partner comes into your life and it will never be the same after that.

Some say that the change could be good or bad, but I believe that anyone who is your partner in life, whether it is God or your spouse, the change will usually be good. I say usually because we sometimes choose to follow the wrong partner or find the wrong one by not listening to God and His guidance in our lives. So, in essence, I am saying that you should seek to know God as your life partner first and foremost, then you will have His help in finding a spouse (if He has planned that for you).

We live in such a mixed up and crazy world today until it is hard to think about finding a life partner because it seems that the world may not last long enough for us to want one around. With all that is happening in the news around the world, if we had gotten married less than five years ago, children would not have been an option for one. i’m not sure anyone could honestly say that they are confident about having a child and watching them grow up in today’s world. Some people have children for other reasons and the possibility of that child having a future is not a part of their thinking.

God forms the child in the womb and He had a purpose for many of us before we were even thought of. Give your heart to Jesus and trust Him as your Savior before you move into another relationship that could be life-altering. He will give you the knowledge and wisdom to make the choices that will be beneficial to both of you, especially if you allow Him to find the right person for you.

Winding mountain road with sun rays shining through dark clouds
Sun rays illuminate a winding mountain road beneath dramatic clouds

What is ….?


The idea of asking someone, that you don’t know, to describe a smell or the taste of their favorite food or drink is something that crosses our minds sometimes. But…how would you describe such a personal thing such as a smell or a taste?

It would be similar to attempting to describe a color or love to someone who has never had sight or who has never had the experience of love. Impossible would be an apt description of the attempt. The description of warm feelings or trying to describe a color, even to someone who can see, is very difficult. When you don’t have a reference to build on or they don’t have a way to visualize what you are describing, the act of description becomes futile.

Many of our descriptions of the love of God are that way as well. His love is so deep and encompassing until we don’t have a reference to compare it to. The only human comparison would possibly be the love of a parent toward their child when they are born. This little person is a part of you and your wife/husband and just after they’re born you love them deeply beyond words. How does that happen? You know that they have been growing in the womb for the past few months and until they are born, you have never seen them until that day. Yet, the feelings that you have for them when they are born are indescribable to anyone except yourself and your mate.

The love that God has for each of us is similar to that but His love goes deeper. All the way to the molecular level. Why? Because He knit your genetic structure together and activated your personality and gave you your eye color and all of the quirks that make you and I unique. So God knows you better than you do. He knows you better than your parents or anyone else. That is why He made the sacrifice that He did in order to bring each of us to salvation. He knew you and me before we were born and He knew where we would be born and who our parents would be. That’s what makes God’s love so fantastic and deep!

When you feel His touch in your life and it is drawing you toward being a born-again believer, don’t turn away from HIm. He loves you so much and even the slightest turn from Him would hurt Him and you don’t want to do that. He won’t take it out on you or cause you to hurt because of it because He is far more patient than we are. God’s love is so deep that I can’t give you any better description than I have given here. I pray that anyone reading this will take it seriously because He is coming for the church soon.

God’s Son


We hear many messages about our Savior and about His sacrifice for all of us, but have you considered the fact that He was God’s Son. Part of the Trinity in the flesh so He could die and pay the price for ALL of our sins. Granted, there are many who don’t believe that He was/is God’s Son and that’s okay, but He came and paid for every sin of every person who ever lived on the Earth.

Think about that and let it sink in a bit.

God came to Earth as a baby, wrapped in frail humanity to live and know the temptations that we live with and have to deal with on a daily basis throughout our lives. God has loved each of us since before He created everything, but that is something our minds can’t understand. The prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament said that we were known “before the foundation of the world was laid“.

Jesus came to be the sinless, spotless Lamb of God Who took the sins of the world on Himself, dying on a cross after being flogged so brutally that He scarcely had any blood left to make it to the cross. God loves each of us deeply enough that if it had only been me or you to save, He would’ve still gone to the cross.

If you have never seen the movie, “The Passion of Christ“, I believe it will drive home the brutality of a Roman crucifixion.

I pray that everyone who reads this will take the time to read the book of John and the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you want to, watch the movie and you will feel the love of God shown in the sacrifice Jesus went through for the whole world.

Only Jesus Can Heal: Discover True Restoration

Three wooden crosses stand on a rocky hill against a fiery sunset and dark clouds.

Only Jesus can heal completely, so that the disease doesn’t come back. Only Jesus can heal paralysis and strengthen legs that haven’t walked for years. Only Jesus can do impossible things in your life and mine. Heal your hurts. Quench your thirst for something or Someone you’ve never met before. Only Jesus Christ can do these things and more in your life. No other religious figure can accomplish these changes in your life and also bring salvation to your soul at the same time!

Today most Christians are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the grave! No other religious figure has ever come out of their grave…not one! Only Jesus!

The woman at the well found her Messiah and a well of Living Water to refresh her soul all the way to heaven! The paralyzed man who had to be carried to his healing and let down through the roof to get in front of Jesus came out of the house on his feet walking home and carrying his bed. The thief on the cross who realized Who Jesus was before he died just asked Jesus to “Remember me when you come into your kingdom”. Jesus told him that he would be in Paradise with Him today. He didn’t have to do anything but believe in Jesus for his salvation.

Our lives have many problems that follow us around. Relationship problems. Financial problems. Health problems. The only way to fix these is to get our heart’s problem fixed by allowing Jesus inside our heart and soul. Your salvation and mine through Jesus will bring healing to our other problems. The healing may take some time for all of your problems and mine, but it will come.

Jesus came to pay the price for all of humanity, but only those who are called will answer and accept His offer of life and healing. Will you accept His offer? Will you be His follower when He calls you? 

You may be in a situation like the thief on the cross or maybe the man who needed healing. You might be like the woman at the well and feel judged and rejected by everyone, but God doesn’t turn away from those who need Him. Just call on Him and ask Him into your life to fill that empty place or heal your broken heart and accept you as His child. God only asks that you follow Jesus Christ in love from that moment on.

Three wooden crosses stand on a rocky hill against a fiery sunset and dark clouds.
Three wooden crosses stand silhouetted against a breathtakingly dramatic sunset and stormy desert sky.

Living with Jesus daily


The preacher tells us that we should strive to do this, but I don’t remember him telling us how to do it. It depends on your relationship with Jesus. If you are a new believer, you will be seeking to know Him on a daily basis. At least for a while. I did that because I wanted to know Him, so I got into reading the Bible every day. The problem of reading the Bible every day is that life gets in the way. Your morning routine gets rushed because you slept late or for some other reason. Living your life with Jesus is something that you have to be determined to do, and eventually it will become a habit. Bible reading and prayer will just happen, but it won’t happen unless you make a daily decision to do it.

As you become more mature in your walk with Him, your prayer life and reading Scripture will become second nature. You won’t have to think about it; you will just do it. It may not be at the beginning of every day, but you will do it at some point in the day. I like listening to the Bible reading on my phone with the You Version Bible app. For over ten years now, I have picked a year-long plan to give me a certain number of chapters to read/listen to each day. I enjoy doing my reading this way because I don’t have to sit and open the Bible to read it. I can do so and read along with it, but I have to be at home to do that.

Living with Jesus every day is a choice, and some people choose to do it as their Christian walk. Others choose to only learn about Jesus when they come to church. Sometimes they come every Sunday, while some come only when they feel like it. Living your life with Jesus is not supposed to be a part-time life; it should be like a marriage. A marriage wouldn’t last very long if you only came home sometimes, and that is what I mean when I wrote “part-time” life with Him. Any relationship will only work if BOTH partners are dedicated to each other. In a relationship with Jesus, He is intent on His part of the relationship; it is on you to choose to be dedicated to Him. That is why it should be a daily relationship, not just a “part-time” relationship.

Do you talk to God?


He created you and me and everything in this world, so why not thank Him for everything in your life? I know that we all have good days and bad ones, and sometimes the bad ones may outweigh the good ones, but God provides His promise for us all.

God talked to Adam, Noah, and Abram. God also talked to every faithful king in Israel and every prophet that He sent to Israel. If we acknowledge that He talked to all of these people, then we can infer that God likes to talk to His people, whether they are Israelites or Gentiles.

So, why does the church only talk to God when we pray for others? Why can’t we talk/pray to God about everything that we need to talk to Him about? I’m not speaking of prayer for things that we want, but prayer about being thankful for our blessings. I’m not saying that prayer for others is a bad thing, but do you pray to God about your day? He knows what is going on in your day, but like a parent asking their child, “How was school today?”, God wants to talk to you about you!

God loves each of us, whether we love Him or not. He cares about you and me. He may not like your lifestyle if you live a sinful life, but He loves you. When you wake up, thank Him for a night’s sleep and for waking you up again. When you have a good day, thank Him for it. If you have a bad day, pray about it, and He will help you with that problem.

Read the Bible and ask Him to help you understand His Word. God speaks to each of us through His Word, and you can know what He is saying IF you read His Word. We are living in the beginning of the end times, so I encourage you to seek His knowledge and wisdom by reading His Word, and come to know His will for your life.

Jesus is King


He was King when He came in the manger. He was King when He was with the disciples teaching them and healing many while doing the will of God. He is still King and He will be coming back to be King on the throne of David one day soon. God loves all of us so much that He sent Jesus to be the Lamb which paid the price for our sins.

Jesus is our Savior and creator and He will soon reign over the Earth for one thousand years. Life will be the norm during that time and death will only come to those who reject Him as their Savior. We celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ but that is not the main theme of the season. We give and get presents and go to parties, when celebrating His work on our behalf is what we should be celebrating, if we believe in Him for our salvation.

Life as we know it today is changing all of the time and one day it will change drastically. When He comes for the church, believers who have died and those who still live, the world will change dramatically. Can you imagine? A world without believers in Jesus. Some people will be glad that they/we are gone. But…hell will be coming to Earth for seven years after this. Still, some will be happy about this, but I don’t think that everyone will be happy about this.

God loves you. He has made a way for you to live with Him for eternity. Life more alive than we are today. Working for and with the Creator of everything! We will not be bored for thousands of years, He will have something for us to do. We may be in His kitchen cooking or painting beautiful scenes for Him. Whatever your real talent is, God will find a way for you to use your talents. There will not be schedules or time clocks or cell phones (thank God). I am truly looking forward to being there. I pray that you will be there too.

Grateful thanksgiving


The Bible tells us to be thankful in our lives, even during hard times. It is something that we find hard to do because you can’t understand why. Why do I have to be thankful for the hard times in my life? Consider the grace that we have been given by God. We don’t deserve it, but He has given it to us because He loves us.

Grace and being grateful go together because you can’t have one without the other. God gives us grace through faith in Jesus Christ and as we live as Christians we become so used to having grace in our lives…we take it for granted. Be thankful for God and His love for us because He loved all of us many years before we were born.

Being thankful every day because you woke up this morning. Be grateful for today because God has given it to you and He wants you to tell someone about Jesus and what He has done for you. He loves you and has provided a way for you to gain entrance into Heaven one day and that door is Jesus Christ. Ask Him to come into your heart and change your old heart into a newborn heart that is loving, grateful and thankful for every blessing that you have received from His hand.

Because one day, Jesus is coming in the clouds for His Bride and when He does, the world will see Him and they will see that the Church is gone. The news that day will be terrifying because the Holy Spirit is gone too and the evil in the world will now have nothing to hold it back. Make sure that you have given your life to Jesus and that your heart has been changed today. Because, life will be so much sweeter and everlasting when you are in Heaven with Him one day.

Endure through the hard times


The world is going through some hard times today. How we get through them is not only our responsibility but it is also our witness to others who know us and our beliefs. Christians have a Savior to lend a hand with our trials. We can lean on Jesus and His teachings when our lives get a bit rough during illness or family troubles or financial troubles. Most of the world does not have that. Many people in America and around the world only have their family or themselves to get them through troubled times, regardless of the severity of the trouble may be.

Those who find themselves in a real fire-fight like during war or during tribal problems have to rely on their wits and their neighbors to get through these times and very often it isn’t enough. Sometimes it takes more faith than we can imagine to get through even one night of ideological skirmishes and attacks. God is close to all who have faith in Him and in Jesus and the joy that comes with that is something that most people can’t understand. Especially during physical attacks and war because faith in God gives us comfort for our eternal life but it doesn’t take away the fear and anxiety of today or tonight.

Comfort from God comes from the strength we get from our faith in Him regardless of our circumstances right now. Seek to know Him as your Savior and your King because one day He will appear to take His Bride, the church, home to be with Him. The true joy that we have in Jesus is knowing that as long as we are His in our hearts and live like we are ready to die to be with Him, there is nothing in this world that can take that away from us.