Tag: God loves you

What about the rest of the family?


You know, in church and mostly in scriptures such as the New Testament, we only hear about Jesus but Mary and Joseph had other children too. Two of them in particular are highlighted in the New Testament and they are James and Jude. Both are half-brothers to Jesus and they became believers in Him as well as leaders in the church.

It is hard for us to realize that even though He was the firstborn son of Mary, that she actually had some other children too. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem before his death and he wrote the book of James too. I a preaching this Sunday, tomorrow, from the first chapter of James and he has some interesting advice for us as Christians. Particularly about how we exercise our faith in Jesus and learn to be more like Him.

Even though he is referred to as the half-brother of our Lord, they were raised together just like any other children. To the community, they were brothers since few people knew about the Parentage of Jesus being the Son of God. Only his parents who raised him and Elizabeth and Zachariah and John knew Who He was prior to His resurrection. In spite of some of the “books” which were written about His life as a boy, which were false by the way, Jesus did not create small animals and bring them to life to play with. These books are nonsense and fantasy, nothing more.

James teaches us today that we must bear up under persecution and testing in our life to prove our faith in Him. Just as gold is purified when it is in the fire, we are brought to our best when we use our faith to strengthen our walk with Him, especially when we are under stress because of the world we live in. We are expected to exercise our faith just as we exercise our muscles, making it stronger and more durable in times of trial. Therefore, when trials do come we will be able to bear up in faith and lean on Jesus and His strength for our support.

Jesus did not say that we wouldn’t have trials in this life, He said when trials come and when you fast, be of good cheer because He has overcome the world and its troubles. We are to have faith in Him and lean on His strength and the wisdom from God’s Word, not on our own strength and wisdom. Jesus will give us the strength and the ability to get through our trials, whatever they may be, as long as we have faith in Him.

Other paths lead in a different direction


You may wonder why I didn’t put something specific where “paths” is and there is a reason. It is because we are giving legitimacy to so many religions and beliefs when we shouldn’t be! There are too many paths which would fit in that title. What are they? Dowsing, pyramid energy, mediums who claim to be using “angel cards”, ouija, etc.; all of these and more are part of the occult and people shouldn’t be consulting with them, but they are.

Giving these “optional” beliefs or paths legitimate status doesn’t help us to get the message out into the world that Jesus is the way to salvation, not “alternate religions”. There are so many different beliefs in the world until it is hard to understand just why there are so many. Satan has been working very hard to give people an alternate viewpoint which can be molded into a new religion or faith. It seems that today it is so easy to put your faith in almost anything besides God and Jesus!

separatechurchesWe talk about religion and being religious as if that covers all of Christianity but you can be religious about anything. Just because someone seems to be religious doesn’t mean that they are a Christian. They could be religious about any one of the hundreds of different religions out there, you could even be a religious atheist! My point is this: don’t give religions other than Christianity a legitimate foothold!

I know, I am not being inclusive of all people and their beliefs and I will own that. What I am trying to get people to think about here is ETERNITY!! There is only one God and Jesus the Christ Who can grant you access to eternity, or at least one that you would enjoy living in! The Bible states it plainly that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, all other paths, even though they may be morally good, will lead you elsewhere for eternity.

Some faiths don’t believe in eternal punishment like the lake of fire foretold in Revelation. But, if God says that is where you will be and He doesn’t lie, then that is where your choices will take you! Seek out Jesus and His gospel, believe in Him and repent of your sinful ways and then follow Him, reading His Word and praying for strength each day because it is through Him that we are given eternal life and forgiveness.

Don’t let someone pull you away from faith in Jesus just because they believe in some other faith a bit stronger than you believe in yours. That is what has happened to many today, especially young people. They meet someone who is very passionate about their faith, regardless of what that faith may be in, and it is their passion which draws people in. A question which comes to my mind when I may be confronted with this would be: Would you be willing to die for that faith, that passion in your religion?

Does it convince you enough that you are on the right pathway to Heaven that you would give your life under fire or being burned at the stake for it? If you question this just the least bit, then you might want to back up and consider your faith again.

Which god do you follow?


In today’s society, we have many gods. Phones, careers, cars, games, family, Facebook, all qualify to some extent as our “gods” at one time or another. Sometimes, we have more than one. We can’t leave the house or even get up in the morning without checking our phones and then we check in on Facebook. If we lose our phones, we will nearly tear the house apart trying to find this pocket computer which demands our attention every day!

Don’t make that face about this, you know that what I have written here is true because you have seen it in church or at home and certainly on the highway, although I hope not while you are driving. So, yes we have many gods which seem to claim so much of our time on a daily basis, sometimes even hourly, because I have seen people in my family at the dinner table or walking outside with the phone in front of them. They can’t seem to see past that four or five-inch screen in front of their faces.

I may be showing my age here but…how can you live like that?? There is so much more beauty and life going on around you without that screen taking all of your attention and you are missing most of it because of status updates or messages!! Whoever came up with that word certainly had the right idea to begin it with “mess”, because that is exactly what they do! Keeping up with those balloon messages and notification tones keeps many people occupied so much until they can’t pay attention to the rest of their life!

CallofDutyHow much better would our society be if we paid that much attention to the Bible? If we had to have it with us every day and read a part of it every hour of our waking day, wouldn’t our world be so much better than it is? I know we would offend many people by having our Bible out when we eat at the restaurant or when we sit to drink some coffee. But, wouldn’t our society really benefit much more in the area of morality and decent behavior if we patterned our life around God’s instructions for life, His Word?

A novel idea which, in my opinion, has come full circle and it is time for it to take its place in our society again. In schools, in the home, in business and in government, God’s Word should be consulted for all of these. Not as a state religion but as a guide to get our country back on the path which it started out on to begin with.

Nominal Christianity


Romans 10

Paul was writing to those Christians, those who accepted Jesus as their Savior. But he saw no distinction between election by the Spirit and prayer to God. Because only God who has rights to move unilaterally in human affairs can answer our prayers. Whether you truly believe it with all of your heart and soul and mind or not, God is truly in control. He doesn’t force us to do things His way, but He can intervene in the affairs of humanity to bring His purposes and His will to pass.

Considering those who don’t believe in Him, we don’t know who will respond to a sermon or to the call or touch of the Holy Spirit, so when you think of election don’t look at it as God has picked you and not this person. He wants all men to come to salvation, yet it is still up to us and our choice to believe in Him or not.

This is why, in this chapter, Paul was praying for the Jews to come to know Jesus as their Savior and we should be diligent to tell others about Him as well as pray for their salvation. It is never proper to just give up on someone because they don’t come to church or even believe like you do.

Verse 10 says: “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”

In verse 9, Paul wrote that with the mouth you shall confess the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Why did I write this after verse 10? Because, you can’t confess something with your mouth that you don’t truly believe in your heart. This is why Jesus said that “out of your mouth comes defilement”.

God’s nature and the humanity of Jesus existed in Him when He was here and after He was raised to life again, this is the confession which Christians should believe in and confess to others. It is the way to Life eternal and for our hope when He comes again. The world is moving away from belief in God and has been for a long time. Even many “Christians” today only have a head knowledge of Jesus and God. They claim to know them but they only know about them, and that knowledge is not enough.

In the USA, 70% of the population claims to be Christian, but only half of that number or less says that religion is important in their lives. I mean, if only about half of that number claim that religion is important, then are they really Christians?

So how do we define a Christian? Only God knows for sure who really belongs to Him. According to the world, anyone who says they are a Christian is a Christian.

But consider, if someone on a jihad came up to you with a knife and asked that question…what would be your answer? Would you truly answer them that you are a Christian and belong to Jesus the Christ, in the face of death? I don’t know if many people would do that, none of us know for sure what our answer would be in that situation. So, what would be your answer? Will you believe in Jesus as your Savior? Our time is growing short, so don’t take too long to find the answer to that question.

Education and indoctrination


These two words should not go together but in our time and the system that our children are taught in, from high school on through college, they are almost synonymous. Which is truly sad. One of the most famous philosophers of the last century, Bertrand Russell, said this: “Education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished” (The Impact of Science on Society)

Today, there are many in government who think this way as well. That we don’t know how to raise our children and it is the community or the government’s responsibility to teach them what they should know. Poppycock!! God gave parents the responsibility to teach our children from His Word, the Bible, so that they will know Who He is and what He expects of them! The government, city, federal or state, has no right to tell your child how to think or what to think!!

Even the teachers and supposed “educators” in secondary schools are not supposed to indoctrinate your child to the point of making an automaton out of them. God loves each person, boy or girl, and He knows exactly what they can accomplish and what they will accomplish with His strength and His Word in their hearts. Why do I say this? Because it needs to be said!! It seems that few people are willing to say anything against education or the institutions which we pay for by sending our children to them.

God’s Word should be the primary Book of knowledge and wisdom in education and if the atheists don’t like it, then they can send their children somewhere else! I am tired of the political correct police knocking down parents and teachers for trying to teach children about their Creator. If they were teaching from the Koran or any other religious book, nobody would bat an eye or even care at all. But, if you try to bring Christianity into education and there is one child whose parents aren’t believers, then the whole school is taken to court and this is WRONG!!

Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Bible was the beginning book, the one that was used to teach reading and history and morality. For proof see this link. Until 1948, time set aside for prayer in schools was OK. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to do so. From that point on prayer and Bible reading in public schools was doomed, until 1963 when this decision was made in the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court bans individual school prayer (Murry v. Curlett) and Bible reading in public schools (Abington Township School District v. Schempp). 

Just a few years after that, the number of pregnancies in school began to increase and the SAT scores of our youth began to decrease. If you look at the history of America from 1963 on to present day it seems that much of our problems in society could be traced back to that moment in time.

 

Crumbs of wisdom from a cookie


Make every day your best. You will improve yourself greatly.

Meeting adversity well is the source of your strength.

Desire, like the atom, is explosive with creative force.

These were from some fortune cookies that my family got about a month or more ago. While the first two are sound advice, the third is a bit misleading. Desire is full of creative force like the atom, but it is also full of destructive force, also like the atom.

Many of our emotions have the potential to create beautiful poetry and paintings and sometimes novels. But they can also cause bitterness and hatred, jealousy and rage which may ultimately lead to murder. Some wisdom, whether from fortune cookies or from tarot cards of any type, should be taken at face value only and put away like a gun which is loaded. Those without the training and wisdom from God are not able to handle these things without being burned in the process.

Such is the problem today of so-called “Angel cards”. Everyone hears the word angel and automatically thinks that this is from God. Not necessarily. Remember, Satan once was God’s “covering Cherub”, so he can disguise himself as an angel of light. He caused one-third of God’s angels to be cast down with him, so they too can disguise themselves as a “messenger” from God.

AngelTarotCards

Don’t fall for tarot readings from a card just because it has an angel on it. It is still a form of occult sorcery and is against God. Seek Him out in all things. When your day doesn’t begin on your good foot, then seek His Wisdom in Psalms and Proverbs. Pray to your Creator to give yo

 

 

u strength for each trial which comes your way, no matter what it may be.

 

 

We live and breathe at God’s pleasure and grace, so live your life to reflect that to the world, regardless of what they may think of you! You are a child of God, especially if you have given your life to Him and asked forgiveness for your sins. Allow Him to come into your life and change you to be more like Jesus. Then your life will be so much more in tune with Him and His will for your life.

There is much wisdom contained within the Bible and it is far better and more relevant to your life than anything that you can get from a card reading.

Why don’t relationships work?


Truly the reason that this happens is because of the foundation. Many marriages begin on the wrong foot and certainly on sand or loose gravel for a foundation. Why do we pursue a relationship that ultimately will fail?

IAM-JesusWe do this because we haven’t found the Relationship which can’t fail. We are born searching for something or Someone but for years we search and look for things and people to fill that void, that empty place which always feels as if it needs…to be filled. It is a scientific principle which states quite accurately that “nature abhors a vacuum”. At some point, something will fill that space whether it is good or bad, God or Satan, it doesn’t matter which, but it will be filled.

If we try to fill it with a career or a family, that can work for a while but it isn’t permanent. If we try to fill it with drugs or alcohol, our life and our relationships are doomed to fail because those things are designed to destroy whatever they come in contact with! But…if we will seek out our Savior, Jesus the Christ, and repent of the attempts which we have tried before, and ask Him to come in and clean our heart up, then our life will be placed on the right path.

Following Him, learning about Him by reading and studying the Bible, praying about your family and your problems, all of these will begin to fix your pathway and your life in such a way that your foundation will become complete and solid. When this happens, your relationship with your spouse and your family will begin to level out and become less bumpy and more smooth. This is the foundation which should guide our lives today but we tend to follow along with the rest of the crowd at school or church, if we go at all.

If everyone at school or at church is just going along to get along for the sake of being thought of as a “pillar of the community”, that is the wrong reason. Trying to earn a place in the eyes of people and “fair weather friends”, no matter how you earn it, doesn’t help you in the long run. Why? Because it isn’t built on God’s foundation which is Jesus.

You can decide to ignore this advice if you wish or just don’t read this at all, it doesn’t hurt my feelings one way or the other. But…what if I am right. When your life is going to hell on a slippery slope, which of your friends could possibly pull you out of it? A rich kid that you went to school with? No, they are likely off enjoying life just as they think they should. What about your dear friend from work? Not likely, they come home feeling even more tired than they did last year.

The only One Who can get your life back on the right path and give you strength enough to make it through all of your trouble is Jesus. No other religion or “holy man” or prophet can do that because all of them are dead! He is alive at the Father’s right hand and He is able to help you in your time of need. Seek Him out and make sure that He is your foundation and your Solid Rock, your Savior. Because without Him, we can do nothing.

Get your relationship with God and His Son, Jesus, right and the rest of your life will be so much better than it has ever been before.

Are you angry with God?


Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (James 1:13–14)

angerMany of us get angry when God doesn’t answer a prayer the way that we want Him to, but consider that He doesn’t have to answer your prayer the way that you want! God is Who He is and it is His prerogative and His desire to do great and mighty things with you and for you, but He doesn’t answer to you! We should not be angry with our Creator at all because it is His grace and mercy which keeps us and the rest of the universe in balance and alive.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2–3)

Life is full of disappointments but most of the time, those things which didn’t go our way are not God’s denial of something for you. Usually it is because of OUR attitude or our prayer life or lack of one. It seems that many so-called “preachers” teach that God can be bargained with or forced to give you what YOU want in life. Seriously? You or I can’t force the Creator of the universe to DO anything! He will bless you in the way that HE sees as best for your life and your situation, NOT the way that you want it.

God is not your grandfather, nor is He like Santa either! He blesses us with life every day that we wake up and gives us the energy and ability to do our job regardless of what that job may be. If you are a pastor like I am, then He gives you the words which are needed to encourage others to come to know Jesus and to learn more about Him. Which is where all of these posts have come from. I certainly couldn’t come up with this stuff on my own!

Being angry with God does you no good at all. In fact it will quench the Holy Spirit’s actions in your life. Why would you be angry with God after all? It may be that your child has died or your doctor has given you a diagnosis which is not good. Being angry with God for any reason is like being angry with a tree because it sits in a certain place, you could cut the tree down but other than that what good does your anger do? Anger toward God is like being angry with a wall of concrete. You can’t get rid of it, you can’t push it down and beating against it won’t do anything except hurt yourself. God loves you, regardless of your anger or your hate toward Him. Seek Him out and learn about His patience and love for mankind.

God can do all things which we cannot, but don’t expect Him to give you the desires of your heart if it doesn’t bring glory and honor to Him. When your will aligns with His, then your prayers in Jesus’ name will be fulfilled!

Despair and depression


I know that many veterans and others go through this sometimes leading to suicide, but it doesn’t have to be this way. There are many support groups for us and there is always God’s Wisdom in the Psalms and Proverbs.

12804782_1044929828955942_1233315242139204553_nI went through a deep bout of depression a few years ago and it still tries to come back at times. I had many people praying for me and I read through the Psalms during this time, sometimes I re-read a Psalm or two and they spoke to my Spirit in an awesome way that I needed at the time.

Our entire planet is going through an attack of despair and other troubles brought on by Satan and his evil group of rebellious demons. Of course, we don’t see them doing all of the influences in our lives so most people don’t believe that they exist. Remember that Jesus spoke about them in the Bible so if God’s Word speaks about them, then they are real!

Like we can’t see God or Jesus in our world because they occupy a different realm or dimension than we do, so do angels and demons. There are times when we see them, but mostly in this life we don’t see their physical forms. Depression is one of the tools which Satan uses to screw up our lives and cause us to take our own lives or derail our mission on Earth. Depression causes all kinds of problems and sometimes those problems go much farther in your life than just how bad you feel.

It can cause diseases, it can also lead to drug addiction and other destructive behavior. It can also lead to the breakup of families, so this is a very powerful tool which Satan has in his arsenal. God can cure each of these problems in your life with His Presence in your heart if you will just seek Him out and ask Him to come into your heart and change your life. This is the prayer which God hears no matter what.

I pray that any of you who don’t know Jesus as your Savior will seek Him and learn about Him so that you will ask Him into your heart.

Why so much division?


Beliefs, creeds, denominations…it seems that our world is cracked into thousands of pieces when it comes to deciding about Who we believe in and serve. Why?

DivisionMostly it is because of the work of Satan. He has been at work in the world creating other “gods” for people to worship and also creating division in the church itself. Sometimes these are small cracks but over time and with a little help from willing people they get bigger until the church splits in two or crumbles into the dust.

In the first century, just after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the disciples taught His Truth as The Way. Some called it The Truth. For many years it stayed that way until Catholicism and the Catholic church became the dominant form of worship in the crumbling Roman empire.

Until the Reformation, there were no Scriptures that a worshiper could have in his possession and read for himself or herself. Then, when the Bible was printed in English and German, many people were put to death when they were found to have one of these Bibles. The persecution of Christians by the church and by pagans, is found in the Book of Martyrs if you would like to read it. It is difficult to read, but it will show you what it took to be a true believer in Jesus, all the way up to recent history such as in the communist countries since WWII.

The fracturing of the church into so many denominations has caused many problems between believers. Some believe only parts of Scripture, some follow only a few verses in one book or another, when we are supposed to be people who believe in the entire Word of God! Not bits and pieces of it but ALL of it, the Old Testament and the New Testament should be taught in its entirety. Yet, many churches today seem to pick and choose what they will teach or believe and the parts that they will not.

This is not the way that Jesus wanted His church to be! We are not supposed to be bickering and fighting over parts and phrases, choosing which to teach and which to tell others that it is not God’s Word! If it is included in the Bible, whether it be a Jewish Bible or Orthodox Bible or a Protestant Bible, then it should be taught to everyone in the congregation, young and old!

I ask that anyone who is interested in God or Jesus and the Word in the Bible, please seek out a Bible teaching church and search out the Truth. God’s Word is true and has never been found to be wrong in any manner. Many try to bring parts of it to trial saying that it contradicts itself, but if you would seek the Truth it can be found that all of it is more true and accurate than many historical works. Praying that all of you who read this will seek Him out in the Bible and as your Savior. Amen.