Tag: Faith

So much..so little


It is a contradiction but, with God in the picture even a contradiction works. How do I know? Read the story of Jesus feeding so many with so little, like the five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men. Some say that there were likely fifteen thousand souls there at least and yet there were twelve baskets left over from a lunch meant for one child.

God can use even a little talent in a big way, no matter how you see yourself or where you may be in the world. But, you have to give Him control of your talent and yourself before He can use it to bless others. Just as when a farmer plants a seed or a plant in the ground, it is only one at the time. But with water, air and sunlight it can become much more than one seed or one plant.

We, as Christians, are like that as well. God places His Spirit in us when we are saved and we are supposed to nurture it with care and feed it by prayer and the Word of God. By studying God’s Word, we feed the Spirit and like Jesus said “it will overflow as a river of living water” to all who are exposed to it. True, it may not be His exact words but that is what we are supposed to be, springs of living water to draw the world to Him by what they see or hear in us.

God can use each of us in ways that we can’t imagine or even believe that we could do. But, with His Spirit guiding us we can do so much more than just be ourselves. We can be His ambassadors and representatives to anyone who is searching for the Truth. It doesn’t take much. A prayer here or helping someone with their load in some way. Opening the door for someone, praying for someone who you don’t know.

These things are “works” true enough, and they don’t get you a spot inside the gates of Heaven. Giving your life and your heart to Jesus gets you into Heaven, the “works” are part of the life that you live after you accept Him. These are the results of your salvation, the fruits of your life in Christ that never would’ve grown out of your life if you had not given your heart to Jesus.

Just as James wrote in his epistle, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” James 2:18, he wasn’t speaking of works being required by your faith but as a result of your salvation. The works that you do will prove your faith and your salvation! God loves each of us so deeply that we won’t understand it until we are in His presence, but He hates the sins that we have lived with in our life. Repent and turn to Him, give your heart and your life to Him so that you will be saved.

Faith, belief, love…


All of these are great concepts which point toward our savior and the best of humanity but are they being shown in our daily lives? Does every religion have these in common? I am sure that most of them do since they claim to believe in these three doctrines for lack of a better word. Are they universal to all of the world’s religions? I don’t know.

Judaism believes in faith and love and their patriarch “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” so that is one of the world’s religions. Christians also have these three in common in their religion, that is two of the world’s religions. How many more have all of these in common?

I am not sure and I am not in the habit of speculation or guessing, so I am not going in that direction. I must admit that I don’t know much about the world’s religions outside of my own. I have read the Koran enough to know that their religion does have some admirable traits even though the ones which we see on the television are not the most flattering. I am not going to bash a religion based upon the actions of a few people.

In doing that all that we do is show how small we are and that is wrong. The media takes the actions of a few people who decide to shoot people and characterizes every person who owns a gun as a nutcase. Why? My guns have never been responsible for killing anyone and I don’t have any grudges to take out on anyone with a belief which is different from mine.

In this world, everyone has a different culture or belief in the God that they choose to worship or not. Nearly every person in America has an opinion on one thing or another which is different from what I believe. So, why should I get all bent out of shape because of it? Shooting people for having an opinion or a belief different from my own would just confirm that I am the crazy one. I don’t have enough ammunition to shoot that many people!

Jesus Christ told us to love one another, care for each other and to tell others of the good news of the Kingdom of God. So, why aren’t we doing this more? Why does the church, regardless of denomination, have services on Sunday morning and maybe that evening and again on Wednesday night or whatever night they choose and then everyone just goes home with nothing being done? What good is that doing?

Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep”, and that is what our services do but at some point a child needs to learn to feet itself! Spiritual milk is great for newborn Christians but until you put some action behind the words and some meat in the sermon this child, this babe in Christ will never mature! God loves us all, it is true, but Heaven is not for babies! We are not supposed to be “little children” until we die!

A calf or a kid will not grow on just milk alone. At some point a child, even one that is just a few months old, has to begin to eat solid food. It is the same with churches and the people in them, if they are not fed solid food from God’s Word then sooner or later the church itself will die.

Are you a loving person?


We are told to give away our faith in Jesus so that others might have hope in Him too. Do we do this? If you don’t, then why? We can all be the types of people which do this. We can give money or time to causes that we believe in and yet not have any love or compassion for those who are receiving our gifts but you know, but spiritually we are not getting it! Giving without love is easy but you can’t love without giving because it is impossible!

If you truly love Jesus, you can’t keep it to yourself…you have to tell others, you have to give away the thing that you could not afford to attain that which you cannot lose! Not one of us who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior could’ve paid the price that was paid for our Salvation, but once you get it you can’t lose it. Some people walk away from it and from Him which ruins their witness to others, but your eternal salvation (if you were sincere in your belief in the first place) is secure.

There are people who have thought, in their own minds, that they were saved at a particular time and yet when things get tight or tough in their lives they turn away from the only One that can help! You have known people like this, when they are making enough money and everything is going fairly well in their lives (on the outside) and they seem to be strong in their faith, they may be coming to church regularly. But, when they are at home or at work or out with their friends then they allow a part of themselves to show that doesn’t show at church. Usually, they are quite the opposite. So, what happened? Are they true Christians or were they deceived into thinking that they were?

A loving, kind person can be as sweet to you as your grandmother but they may not be genuine about having faith at all and could not care less about you or your situation. Love and kindness can be faked, affection can be faked but a person who truly has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior cannot fake it! If there has been a real change in their life and in their heart, and the Love of Christ is dwelling inside them, they can’t keep it in, they have to let it out. In whatever ways that God leads them to, it will come out. It will come out when they are at work or at a restaurant or a store, it is impossible for them to hold it inside! The genuineness of that love is so real that anyone that it touches will know it for sure!

I know that there are people who will disagree with this, but when you are the recipient of the greatest love that the universe has ever known, you cannot keep it to yourself! If it has truly changed your life and your heart then there is no way that you can keep it to yourself because it has to show in your life and your work and it will show through  your character! The love of Christ is too contagious so it has to get out so that someone can see it, it has to be shown and felt and known by all of those around you!

Here is a link to a wonderful site which shows and explains the reasons for becoming a Christian

If you have never known Jesus or a genuine Christian, then I encourage you to seek Him out. Through prayer, reading the Word, regardless of the translation and asking Him if He is real. He will show you for sure and He will be with you no matter the situation. The problems and the stuff that is happening all over the world have been caused by us or by Satan and his fallen angels. God is allowing it to happen, but He has a plan and is still in control, whether you believe it or not.

Being a religious person doesn’t make any difference?


I saw this on the news today and I wonder just what people think will make a difference in our society? Religion itself has gotten a bad reputation in the past few years because of the problems which have cropped up in churches in many places. But you know you can be religious about many different things. You can be religious about the way you cook your food or how you put your clothes on a certain way or even about going to the golf course or fishing. People can make a religious experience out of most anything, but what about your faith?

Do you have faith in the sun coming up in the morning? You really don’t have to, because you know it will. What about the moon rising later in the day or after the sun goes down? Faith doesn’t really come into play there either because you know that these things will happen.

Religion and faith together can be an explosive combination, especially when you are so caught up in emotional issues and a religion which stirs these to a point where many people get uncontrollably caught up in what their teachers teach them. I am trying to be as politically correct as possible here so I really won’t offend anyone. The point is that our individual faith, regardless of which “religion” it happens to be in, is our own.

But, what will you do with that religion or lack of faith when you are confronted after your death by God Himself who is the final judge of our lives? What can you say to Him about your religion which will make a difference? If you never accepted Jesus and the sacrifice which He made to reconcile us to God, there isn’t much that you can say. God knows your heart and every word which has come from your mouth. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, then He will be beside you as your life is judged, if not you will stand alone.

What then? Would you want to be standing in front of the Creator of the universe with nothing except your deeds and your personal “righteousness” which is as Isaiah 64: 6 says:

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Unless we have put on the righteousness of Christ, God sees us as we are and we cannot enter into Heaven in that way. What many people today do is to create their own version of “God”, one that is acceptable to them and doesn’t judge them for their personal faults but this is doing nothing except delaying the inevitable. We will all be judged by God, the One True God, whether we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus or not. If we did things in this life while belonging to Him, we will be rewarded if not then those things will be judged on their merit if any, except without Christ those merits will mean nothing.

How can our lives really mean anything or have any meaning at all without Christ? To each of us, our lives do mean something, but when you look at eternity once your life here ends, without Jesus eternity is not something that anyone would want to experience.

I know that there are many who think that life ends completely when we die, but we were created as eternal beings and part of us does live on. Without Jesus, it will not be an enjoyable eternity but with Him we will not be without anything good . You can choose whether to believe and accept Him as your Savior or not, many don’t wish to believe in Him at all. Satan knows that He is and believes that He is but he won’t worship Him and that is his downfall, don’t let it be yours.

We live in unsettling days


There are so many things that are happening right now all over the world, especially in the Middle East, until some days it is hard to watch the news. We are not left alone in these times though because the Creator, our God, knows about everything that is going on and who it is affecting. Everything that is happening today and in the future is happening according to His plans. Satan is trying to derail those plans and fool the world into believing his lies, but in the end God will win and so will all of those who belong to Him!

Our lives are not in vain as long as we keep our faith and our life’s focus on Jesus and on the purpose that He has for us. The time that we have with our loved ones is short compared to the time that we will have with them in eternity. That is why we must be bold in our witnessing to our family and to all of those that we love! If you care about them, you have to witness to them! You must! This is not an option that we can ignore and we must not quit because the seed that we plant must be watered and yet the Holy Spirit will give the increase and call that person to Jesus.

God loves us all and does not want anyone to perish and yet, He knows who will come and who won’t. It is our responsibility to make sure that everyone hears the gospel of Jesus and His offer of salvation, given freely through grace if we will believe. Once we have told our friends and loved ones about Him, if they have not decided to follow Him, then we must pray without ceasing until our Lord calls us home. Shower them with prayer, love them regardless of their actions because once we have done our part it is up to God and His Spirit to bring them to Him.

In 1 Chronicles 16:8-9 says: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name. Make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him. Talk ye of all His wondrous works.”

We are to praise Him and tell others about Him so that they may be saved from the coming wrath during the Tribulation. Our time is not done until Jesus calls us homeward so we must do everything that we can to get the word out about Him and His grace and mercy. During these days and in the near future, our faith will be tested in ways that we have never experienced before. We must pray that our faith will keep us true to Him and that we will have the strength to tell others about Him, because that is what we are here for.

Jesus will come back for us when the Father says that it is time and no one knows exactly when that will be. Although the signs are showing up, a little at a time right now and will increase as we get closer to the Day. We have to watch and be ready for in that day one will be taken and one will be left and the sign will be seen by all people over the world. There will be no secret snatching away, everyone will see and then the truly Great Tribulation will come.

There will also be a falling away of those who are of the faith. There will be some who have been in the church and will lose their faith and begin to trust in lies. Those of us who stand firm in our faith and stay true to Jesus will come through and be rewarded.

1 Chronicles 16:10 says: “Glory ye in His Holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord”. We must put our trust and our faith in Him and pray that our loved ones truly seek Him too. God loves us all and will take care of us through trials and hardship, grief and in joyful times, in sickness and in abundant health. These He promised to those who love Him because He loved us first. How much more could be expected of our Creator and our God? What could we ask of Jesus who gave His life for all of us? He endured the torture and flogging and the crucifixion as a man, and yet was raised to eternal life three days later! In doing this, He conquered death and the grave and made a way for all of us to come to the Father through His sacrifice and by faith in Him. What more could we possibly ask of Him than this?

Many would say that they want a healthy life or more money, these things are temporary because they are from this world. Your life and its comforts last only a short time, like a puff of smoke compared to eternity with Him. While we are here, if we are believers, we must do the things that Jesus told us to do:

Mark 16:15-16 “and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”.

This is our commission and our duty for our Lord. It is the highest and best calling for any Christian and one that we should be honored to do. Go and tell because our days are not given us as promised, we have today but not tomorrow until it is here. While we have the time and the breath we must be about our Lord’s business and our Father’s. Tell others, pray for those to whom you cannot go to in person, give someone a hand toward the Hands that were pierced for our transgressions. He loves you all, can’t we do likewise for those that we love?