Tag: God loves you

….it’s too late for me.


These are the worst words that a pastor can hear when someone requests prayer for a family member but they end the request with this. It is never too late to come to believe in Jesus, even on your last day here you can decide to follow Him! There is no sin that He will turn away because His accomplishment on the cross and during His life took care of the punishment for all of us. If we will just accept Him and believe in Him we can be saved, even if it is with your last breath!

God provided the atonement through Jesus’ death on the cross for all of mankind, all that we have to do to receive it is to believe in it and ask Him to come into your life and save you from an eternity in hell. Mercy is provided for us through God’s love for us through Jesus our Savior. You can’t purchase it and you can’t add to it by doing more in this life through works of any kind. Grace is our unmerited favor and blessing through Jesus Christ, to which we cannot add anything to or be deserving of more than we are.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, came for this purpose only…to atone for the sins of the world and all of humanity. It is a free gift and all we have to do is accept it and believe it, confessing our sins and we are each saved. It is just that simple! God knew before the world was created that mankind would go their way and not follow Him as He intended but He also had a plan in place to redeem us from our mistakes.

It is never too late to accept Jesus as your Savior, regardless of the sins that you have committed or how evil you may think of yourself. Those are lies from the Accuser and we don’t need to believe them! Choose to follow Jesus, read the Bible and believe in Him and God’s inerrant Word, then walk with Him on a daily basis toward eternity. Your life here is only a puff of smoke compared to eternal life with Jesus. So, walk in it like you have it already if you have truly given your life and heart to Him!

Why am I bringing up eternity and salvation in Jesus at a time when our world seems to be more wicked and lost? Because of those very things! Our world is that way because we have chosen to follow our own goals and our own paths instead of seeking out the One Who can save us! There is nothing which we can do that can add one second to our lives and nothing that we bring to the altar is truly acceptable to God except the blood of Jesus!

He was our Spotless Lamb and our Prince of Peace and He has paid the price for every sin, whether you think of them as big sins or small ones, they are all sins in the eyes of God! How can you be saved? Here are a few scriptures which will point you in that direction.

Bridge2Salvation

Holidays hurt sometimes…


I have had loved ones in my family who passed away on different holidays in the past, one even passed from this life on my birthday 33 years ago. Today, there are many who suffer from feelings of loneliness and depression during the holidays, even when families are together. It is hard to understand how you can feel lonely with family around you, but you can.

Sometimes the world thinks that Christians aren’t supposed to get sick or feel lonely because they belong to God. But, in this life…right now, we are human and we get sick, we feel depression and loneliness and every other illness which is out there as well. The only time which we will be able to claim no sickness or bad feelings like depression will be when we are in Heaven or we have crossed over into eternity.

Could God give us this great show of His power today? Yes, He could if He wanted to but that isn’t part of His plan. Every person who is a Christian could live forever and never be sick if God planned it that way but He didn’t. It isn’t because He doesn’t love us because He does, but we aren’t given this privilege above others. Humanity is God’s image in this world because we are made in His image, but we don’t act like it very much.

As humans, we act as we were raised and sometimes we just haven’t been raised in a good environment. Some of us come from broken homes, some live in poverty and want in some of the worst areas of the world. Conditions which most of us in America can’t imagine. Even in America, there is hunger and homelessness and poverty and many people think that we should be sharing the wealth so that this doesn’t happen.

If we tried communism, who would decide how much is given to who? Because that is the system which tries to “spread the wealth around”. But in most communist countries, those in power get more than anyone else, so those in power tend to bring their friends and family into that group and they have more than everyone else.

The Pilgrims tried this when they started out in the first few years of their colony but it didn’t work out well. People were fighting over who got what and how much, and that is what would happen today if we tried it again.

Holidays do hurt because it shows just how materialistic we have become. Some get really nice toys and stuff and some don’t. So what determines the amount of spread when you decide how much and to whom? Communism is that way, but those who are corrupt in a Democratic Republic like ours will be just as corrupt, if not more, in a communistic society.

Yes, holidays cause hurt and pain and sometimes cause a lot of resentment among those who have a little more than the next person. Usually, this is due to credit and not real wealth which is another reason why our country is so divided.

Holidays cause division, sometimes more than we realize. It happens in families and in communities and in cities, so what should we do? Outlaw celebrations of significance such as Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years? What real good would that do? Not very much I would think. Taking holidays away won’t stop the division between people and it won’t take away the depression or other problems which we see. Just as gun control won’t get rid of crime or shootings, getting rid of religion and holidays will have no effect on our social divisions.

God loves us and He has given each of us gifts which allow us to serve Him in some ways but also to serve each other too. The only way to find your gift from Him is to ask Him to show it to you and the only way to do that is to know Him and be known by Him. Be as much like Jesus the Christ, our Savior and Messiah, as you can and if you haven’t asked Him into your life please do so soon. God’s timetable is running down and sometime soon, He will call the church home. Don’t be one of those still here afterward.

Can you be useful to God?


UsefulVesselThere are questions about whether we can be used by God in this life, particularly when many of us are kinda broken in our lives. Some of us due to broken homes or broken marriages or families, then others are broken due to their jobs being stressful enough that they can’t leave the stress at work. Then there are some who experience trauma in the form of physical trauma from being in a war zone and sometimes the trauma is mental from many different sources.

So, in many ways, almost all of us are broken in one way or another. Some of us are more broken than others, but with God all things are possible. I mean, even a small piece of a crayon will still color a picture if you can hold onto it. God has a way of using your brokenness in ways that we can’t imagine and He can use it to His Glory! We may not think that we are useful, but I can guarantee you that God can use your gifts and your talent in ways that you haven’t thought of yet!

Each of us has many gifts and talents which God gave to us. Sometimes we don’t find out what those talents and gifts are until we are forced to by our circumstances. Occasionally, those circumstances take us to a point where we can only look up to God and ask Him to show us what we can do because we don’t feel like we can do anything. Then, there are those times which we have all had when we are down and depressed and feeling as if the whole world is crushing us and all we want to do is…let it.

Sometimes we are so broken in spirit and in our lives until we look for a way out, any way out and God is the only One who can actually help us become better, not only for us but for Him too. Can we be useful in God’s Kingdom even when we feel broken and useless? Yes, but it takes prayer and dedication to Jesus, as well as the study of God’s Word to bring you into a real working relationship with Him.

We are His Creation and He knows each of us far better than we know ourselves. He knows what we can do and the gifts which each of us has even if we haven’t found those gifts yet. So, don’t move away from God and service to Him and for Him. Seek Him out in your daily life with Him, learn from His Word, pray about your role in His Kingdom and then you can take your place in whatever He has laid out for you.

Disenchanted with religion


I got an email this morning with a link to an article which is disturbing, but very likely normal for the generation called millennials. After I read the article I noticed that the author had a point at the beginning of the article. Anyone, whether a teen or a young adult would question their faith in those instances. Many of us do, whether we are from the “baby boomer” generation or any of the later generations.

My point here is that when you find that your priest or your pastor or even your church doesn’t live up to the standards taught in the Bible, find another place to go. Read and study your Bible and do it at least once a year. I read through the Bible at least once every year and I find that when my reading plan is finished, I feel good about it but after a few days away from reading the Bible I feel empty.

I don’t feel better until I start reading it again, from the beginning all the way through. I used to wonder “how can someone do that?” After I read a book, unless it was a really good book, I usually don’t read it again, because it is like watching the same movie over and over. The Bible is totally different! It is alive through the Spirit of God and it reads you too. I usually find something new or get a better understanding of a scripture after I read it over again. I see or understand a part of it which I didn’t get before, that is why I read it through over and over again.

No, none of us are perfect but if we strive to live our life as a reflection of Jesus, then our life will be much better and it will be our witness for Him for everyone to see. One of the most disturbing problems in our country today is the low numbers of young people attending church services. It seems that by the time they reach puberty or maybe a little older, they decide that church is not for them.

Some parents are responsible for this as well because I see too many drive up to a church, drop their kids off or have their parents bring the grandkids to church and they don’t attend. Your children learn and do the things which they see you doing, so don’t blame them or the schools for their bad behavior when they get to college!

While it is true that many of our church leaders and celebrities and even our elected officials haven’t set a very good example for children to follow, it is their parents who are mostly responsible for how they turn out. If you read your Bible and pray and go to church then your children will pick up on it and usually they will follow your lead. Why am I bringing this up? Because if children don’t learn about God and Jesus and salvation at home, nobody else is going to teach them…especially the schools and colleges!

Don’t make God seem to be a punisher of your sins and don’t harp on how sleazy the TV shows are either. We are not holy even as Christians, we have been given the righteousness of Jesus through our faith in Him! God loves every person on Earth, but He doesn’t like their lifestyles sometimes or the “god” that some worship. The creation around us points toward God and His Son in all that is so perfectly set up and working in it. We are not an accident nor is the universe or our solar system, it was created for a purpose…God’s purpose, and we are too!week-of-creation

How do you know Him?


First, you have to get to know Him

Getting to know your Savior isn’t hard to do but you have to figure out if He wants to know you too! Have you felt drawn to Him in a church setting or when watching a religious program? If you have then you need to get your Bible and read a bit about Him in the gospels and Acts. When you feel His Spirit calling to you from His Word, don’t shut the book and walk away, ask Him to come into your heart and free you from this burden of sin.

Whether you have ever felt that you needed Jesus in your life or not, consider the fact of life after death. If you have never thought of it before, consider that God doesn’t lie. When you read about being condemned to hell in the Bible and it says that this punishment is for eternity…that is what it means. This is not a joke!

God loves each of us deeply but if we don’t take advantage of the salvation offered to us through Jesus His Son, then we are being foolish and following Satan’s steps saying “I will do it myself”; but you can’t! We can’t do anything to bring salvation to ourselves. If that were possible, then Jesus died and was raised again for no reason and God doesn’t do anything for no reason!

God knows you intimately. He designed your DNA and He knows exactly how you are going to act in any situation. What you will do, what you will say or not say, how much you will give at church or if you don’t give at all…He knows these things about you better than you know them yourself. He will come into your heart and redeem you from the sinful life that you have lived before, but only if you are willing to ask Him to do so and you really mean it!

God doesn’t create people who can’t know Him, but it is your fault if you don’t. The world around us testifies to His glory and His power, you don’t need a church or a pastor to tell you this. The stars in the sky and the sun and moon also testify to His power and glory, but if you think all of that just happened because there was a huge cloud of dust in space then you won’t get it.

I watched a show that I have never watched before last night called Lucifer. If you have watched it you know what it is about. Satan came to Earth and paraded around as a man, consulting with the police and helping them find criminals. My point here is this: without them knowing or realizing it, they told a true Biblical statement last night. One of the characters was talking with Lucifer and accused him of causing people to go to hell and he very plainly told this person that it wasn’t him doing that it is each of us choosing to do so! Of course this person didn’t believe him but in the end of the story, he ended up on a “hospital bed” in hell thinking that he had another chance at life.

You get to choose whether you are following Jesus and decide to live your life according to His teachings or you can follow your own ideas and never give Jesus or God another thought. Go fishing or hunting on Sunday morning and don’t worry about reading your Bible and praying for your family. But at the end of your life whenever that may be, you will stand before God’s judgement and testify that you refused to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and you will be cast into hell! You will know that your example has very likely doomed your children to hell as well because you did not tell them about Jesus because you didn’t know Him.

Unless they actually seek out Jesus on their own, without your example or your leading them to church they will follow you right into hell. Unless God has His hand on their lives, each person that you have come into contact with cannot say that you exemplified the love of Jesus in your life. Don’t turn away from Him. Make sure that your life and your witness for Jesus makes a difference in someone’s life.

TaketheGospeltoAll

Christianity and religion


These two words are not the same thing. Religion covers many different types of worship, while Christianity is only one of the many. Why am I writing this piece? It seemed like a good idea at the time.

So, which are you following….Jesus the Christ or a religious observance of a lifelong habit?

We can make a religion about anything and we can be religious about anything and it doesn’t have to be a true religion at all. It can be a hobby or your family or your job, it can also be going to church because you have done it all of your life. Sunday morning comes and you do what you have always done, eat breakfast and get ready for Sunday school and church.

But, what will you do when that isn’t enough? What will happen on the morning or the night when Jesus comes for His Bride, the church, and you hear about the devastation on the news the next morning? What about your faith and belief in Jesus then? Will you be angry at Him or with yourself because you didn’t read the Bible and didn’t take the messages seriously?

These are questions which need answers and need them NOW!! Why? Because, He could come tomorrow or tonight or next week, we just don’t know the day but there are no other prophecies which need to be fulfilled before He comes to get the church! If you don’t want to believe me, that’s fine, but what will you do when you find that your habit of going to church wasn’t enough?

Being in church because your grandmother says you should go is not going to save you. Sitting in a pew and listening to a sermon, and maybe reading the verses which the preacher tells you to read is not enough. Going through the motions of being a Christian to please other people’s idea of who you are doesn’t cut it with God! HE can see your heart, your true self and He knows if you are REAL or not.

God sent His Son to live as we live, to teach His disciples the way to know God and to be saved by belief in Him and then die on a cross and rise again on the third day. After His resurrection, He taught them for another forty days and then told them to go into the world telling others of the gospel and baptizing them in His name. They did their part even when they were stoned, beaten, whipped or locked in prison and then most of them were killed while doing what Jesus had told them to do.

The only disciple which died of natural causes was John who wrote the book of Revelation. Will you read and believe in Jesus the Christ, your Messiah and Savior? Give your heart to Him and seek your salvation through belief in Him and follow Him every day until He does return!

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The shed blood of Jesus Christ


1 Peter 1:13-21
13 Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

17 And if you address as Father, the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

john_3_16_17_scripture_memory_card-raf7013e639264b87b918bea9971565b3_vgbaq_8byvr_540Sin deceives you because its roots are from the deceiver, Satan. Sinful actions can and will destroy your life in many ways and in the end of this life, it will bring eternal death which is eternal banishment from the presence of God.

The only way to save yourself from sin and the consequences of it is to believe in Jesus and the blood which He shed for us, each of us, on the cross. The Son of God gave His life for you and for me…He didn’t have to but He wanted to do it. Because He loved each of us far more and deeper than we can know or comprehend.

He redeemed us from sin through His blood shed on the cross for you! The only action needed on your part is belief in Him and the atonement bought by His blood.

Colossians 1:19-22 King James Version (KJV)

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. 21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, 22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Do you understand what God has done for us? For you and for me? Each person who has ever lived in this world, before the Flood and up until now, is born with a natural bent toward sin! I mean you don’t have to teach anyone to lie and you know it as well as I do.

Tell a toddler not to do something or eat something and you can see their wheels turning trying to figure out how they can get away with doing exactly that! If you are able to catch them right after doing it, whatever it may be, ask them if they did what you told them not to do. Even with crumbs from those cookies on their clothes they will tell you no, they didn’t do that.

In life you see many people behaving exactly the same way, even if they are supposed to be grown-ups. Why is that? It is because until you have a changed heart through the Spirit of God living within you, you are a sinner from the day you are able to decide to do something which you were told not to do! God’s will for your life is to glorify Him in all that you do and the only way for us to do that is to believe in Jesus and the atonement that He bought for us and ask God’s forgiveness based upon that belief.

Now, many religions teach that you can work out your salvation by yourself but that is not true. If that were possible, Jesus died for nothing! No amount of gold or silver or any amount of good works that you or I do in this world can bring salvation to your soul, only belief in Jesus can do that and accepting His atonement for your sins. If you can’t or won’t do that, then you have condemned yourself to hell.

Please, don’t go there, because hell was not made for humanity at all. It was made to punish angels who rebelled against God’s rule and authority including Satan or Lucifer if you know him by that name. Because of deception and our own stubbornness, many people are going to hell and it won’t be a party or a friendly place to be for eternity at all.

Make sure of your salvation in Jesus soon before the church is taken from this Earth, because it is going to happen soon. Plan on being part of that company.

 

We should protect ourselves


…35 Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. 36“Now, however, He told them, “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”…  Luke 22:35-37

In the days which Jesus spoke of, He knew that the disciples would face persecution and danger. This is why He told them to sell their cloak and buy a sword. We are living in times where people look at our faith and see weakness and fear and they use this to attack the church and its people. Turning the other cheek is fine, but not to the point of allowing someone to come into a house of God and kill without being challenged or taken down.

God loves each of us and will provide for all but our protection shouldn’t come only from God, we need to defend ourselves as well. Our news media is crying out for gun control again after this incident, but gun control and background checks don’t work against a legally purchased gun or a stolen gun!

The church and the people in the church don’t need to just bend down and allow people to kill us while we are worshiping. Protect the church just as you would your own home and your family since we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ! God cares for all of us and we should care for and protect those in our care, in the church and at home.

The path of least resistance


heaven-or-hell-eternal-destinyChristianity has never actually followed this path because there has always been resistance to God’s Word and the Truth which is contained within it. In some form or another, that resistance has spurred the message of salvation and following Jesus to expand into the world. Just as people went across the world after the languages were confused at the tower of Babel, Christianity has gone to places where it was the only religion of real hope. In today’s world those places and the people in them violently oppose the Christian view of the world and this has been happening since the first century.

Stoicism was a philosophy and still is today which many people enjoy mainly because it doesn’t require anything of you exactly. One of its practical sayings was essentially this: Change what you can control, let go of that which you cannot. Wisdom doesn’t know doctrine nor creed, it just is. It doesn’t matter what language or country the wisdom comes from or is written in, a wise phrase is what it is regardless.

The only problem with living your days according to wise principles is when you come to the end of your days, if you are fortunate enough to live a long life and die with family around you, you really don’t have much to look forward to into eternity. Wisdom cannot carry you over the threshold of Heaven’s gates and it doesn’t atone for the life which you have lived, even if you lived wisely.

Following Jesus and learning of God’s wisdom in His Word is the best end of life that you can have. Having Him as your Savior and living your life with His Presence by your side is a very wise course because your life doesn’t end when your physical life does. We all have eternal souls but we have to choose the path which we walk on in this life. Will it be the one which everyone else is travelling on? One which is easy and without rocks or bumps or briars and hills to climb or will it be a wide path that all of your friends are on?

The number of years that you travel on this road doesn’t matter except that you never know when your road will come to its end. There are exits along the way and sometimes they lead to the Christian life if we will choose to follow them, but sometimes they don’t. Seeking out the Creator of everything can give you insight enough to know which is the right exit and which is not. The one which carries you on toward life with Jesus narrows quite a bit compared to the wide and easy road which many of us walk on for many years before finding the exit to get on His path.

Yes, the Christian life is a bit harder than not knowing Him because each of us has to deal with the temptation of going back to the easy path rather than continuing on with Jesus. Can you do that? Yes, if your heart has never accepted Jesus and His Spirit which changes you completely you can turn back to your old life. But…you may never find that exit, that pathway leading to eternity with Him again.

Today, it seems that every news story on TV talks about someone or some group which is offended by a truth or some part of a church or a scripture on a statue, something which is pointing the way to Jesus. Many times it doesn’t take but one complaint in a town, one person bringing it to the attention of the media and then there is an outcry for this offensive statue or monument to be taken down.

How many years has that monument been there with that inscription? How many eyes have seen it and read it and never said a word about it, good or bad? We give too much power to that small percentage of people who get offended because someone else is offended today. Being a nation which was founded by Christians fleeing persecution was good for us until the past fifty-eight years or so, then the children of those who came back from the Second World War became the voice of America protesting against injustice.

Many of those injustices included being taught Biblical principles in school, praying in school, having the Ten Commandments posted on the hallways in schools and of course the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movements too. While it is true that the Vietnam War was a tragic one, it was also one which was run by suits in Washington and not by those in uniform. The Civil Rights movement would’ve been much better if segregation had not been the norm in the South, but that was a different generation than mine.

My point in this is this: society always follows those who stir up the most and accomplish the least.

Jesus stirred up people because of His message of love and forgiveness, not because of promises He couldn’t deliver on. He will return one day and those who are against Him today will bow to Him whether they want to or not because He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and He will reign on Earth with a rod of iron. Make sure that you know which side you will be on in that day.

What is your comfort zone?


Many of us have one and sometimes it extends to the point of making someone else uncomfortable. Is that your comfort zone? Would you extend your own story into someone’s life if they asked you about your life? What if they just wanted to start a conversation? Would you listen to them or would you walk away or make an excuse to get away from them?

VineandBranchesWe are tasked with getting out of our comfort zones each day. Some of us more than others, but at some point we do step out of our “zone” during the day either at work or at the grocery store on an airplane or a bus. We will come into contact with a person who needs to hear something from us and that is where the voice of God speaks up and tells us to talk to that person or this one!

Are you comfortable enough to say something to them? Will you say what God wants to say to them? Regardless of your feelings about talking to people, God has given you a voice to use for Him, so do that. While it is true that many of us are introverts and like to spend the day away from people, some of us don’t have that luxury. God loves you and the person sitting next to you on the plane or the bus. He also loves the drunk who is passed out on the corner and the lady who is pushing an old buggy around with all of her possessions in it.

Will you talk to them? Pray about it and if the chance comes up, don’t hesitate, tell them what Jesus did for you and for them too. It doesn’t take a long, King James prayer, just one like, “Lord, give me the words to say. Amen”, will be sufficient. That is the same prayer that I pray when I begin writing here! Surely you don’t think I have come up with all of this on my own? I am not that good!!

I don’t claim to be a prophet or some Old Testament-type writer, but I do ask that God give the words which He knows are needed and necessary for our world and those who might read them here. Are you comfortable with telling others about your Savior? You should be. Why do I say that? Because I was very shy when I was much younger, and when I began preaching about seven years ago I was still shy. But, for the most part, God has helped me to get over that.

I don’t mean that I would be comfortable preaching before a huge crowd, but I am a lot more comfortable than I used to be.

We are capable of doing more for God’s Kingdom than we realize, if we will let Him use us in this ministry. Sometimes we just have to step outside our own comfort zone in order to be useful in the ministry which He knows that we can do.