Tag: God loves you

Which god do you follow?


This is not the way that I refer to the God of Abraham from the Bible, but many people seem to look at God as just one more to add to the number of “gods”. He isn’t that at all! He is the Creator, our Creator and the God of All things! All created things in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth were made by Him, not some man-made god which came from someone’s imagination.

OnlyJesusThe hypocrisy needs to stop! Many people seem to be trying to merge Jesus and Islam because He is mentioned in the Koran. Some Christians are trying, very successfully, to merge new age thinking and Christian ideals as well. Some of this is even being taught from the pulpit! Why would anyone want to go to a church which teaches man’s wisdom, such as it is, and gives it equal validity with the Bible? Cults do this all of the time and get away with it, but many of their members are so ingrained in the teaching until they can’t tell the difference.

God told the Israelites that this would happen if they allowed their children to intermarry with those who lived in Canaan or the Promised Land. Which is why He told them to utterly destroy the people there and take over their lands, getting rid of all of the idols and groves and things which might draw them away from Him. It is happening in the church today in some countries, particularly in America.

Why can’t we get back to believing the Bible and teaching from it because it is the Word of God? I believe it is because we have compromised for two or three decades, maybe more, and we have become too tolerant of lifestyles and sins which our grandparents would not have allowed in the door of their church. “But, didn’t Jesus associate with sinners and others?”; yes, He did, but He didn’t agree with them or their lifestyle. He didn’t tolerate their beliefs, He told them that they were to “worship God and serve Him only”, it is true that in this particular instance Jesus was talking to Satan, but the Scripture that He quoted came from Deuteronomy 6:13.

Jesus also said that “the sick need a doctor, not those who are well“, and He was referring to those who were sinners needing Him rather than the Pharisees and the Scribes who didn’t think that they needed salvation. The point of this is that Jesus does love and care about all of humanity, but He doesn’t agree with our sinful lives nor our behavior. We are to seek Him out and come to Him for our salvation, not go to man-made religions and “gods” who are NOT God at all!

I pray that all of you who read this will see that I am not judging any sin or person, rather I write this to point you to the One Who can save your soul from the second death of being in darkness and away from God forever. Thank you for visiting.

What would get your attention?


I see many blogs which are much more related to photos or jokes or even paintings which get much more traffic than the messages which I place here. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, I am not complaining about my audience at all! It does seem that interest is more for media and other things included on a website rather than messages of the Christ, our Savior!

I kinda understand it simply because of the time in which we live. We are very close to the time of Tribulation, so there is a waning of interest in things which refer to Jesus and salvation. This is also why churches are empty on many Sundays and why few people go to church at all unless it is for a holiday or a birthday or some other special occasion.

So much that is happening now was foretold thousands of years ago, yet the prophecies were so hard to understand until few people realize that they were speaking of today. The prophets, including John who wrote the book of Revelation, didn’t know what they were seeing. Planes could’ve been the demons of dragonflies, horses with fire coming from their mouths could’ve been tanks with guns firing. Our time reflects the descriptions of the time of the end, with much of the disregard for God and His laws being what we see today on the news.

Yes, we are just as much sinners and full of ourselves as they were thousands of years ago. Nothing has really changed except technology and transportation, the sins are the same, but worse today. Many of our sins today are more akin to things which would’ve been unthinkable in Jesus’ day or before. Slave trafficking was happening at the time, but not sex slaves made out of children, as far as we know.

Pedophiles and so many other sins which seem to be tolerated today by people who are supposed to be “religious” or even Christians. Why are we not saying anything or doing anything about this today? It seems that we have become so used to seeing it or hearing about it, until we just don’t think its important anymore, as if it doesn’t matter! What if it were your child kidnapped and sent to Thailand or some other place to be a slave in the sex trade? Would it matter then?

These things are happening, not because God allows it to happen but because the world is under the control and influence of Satan and his followers. I don’t mean that there is a huge cult or Satan worship group doing all of this, but those who perpetrate evil are under his influence. God is going to bring this to an end…soon. I suggest that if you don’t know Jesus, you need to come to Him and ask for Him to come into your life and change you into the person that He knows you can be!

Without Him, your life will end with your death here and then your eternity will be very different from what you might think it will be. Seek Him while there is still time to do so.

 

Next


Weird title, huh? Mostly, to get attention but there is a good reason. Time itself is winding down according to prophecy…so what is next?

Read the Book! I am not saying this lightly because of the prophecies contained in God’s Word, the times which we are living in are there. It doesn’t say names or places exactly but the descriptions of the happenings in it sound very much like all of the troubles in the news today.

onebreathawayIt seems that many people are ignoring this today, mainly because there are many who don’t believe in God or His Word and the Truth contained within it. So much is told of this time until when you read parts of Daniel and Ezekiel and the book of Revelation, when you think about what you have read it sounds very much like the news that we hear weekly.

Yet, the churches and the news and the Pope don’t mention any of these things in their media clips talking about this time. Why? I believe that it is because of the amount of time which has transpired since the ascension of Jesus. Even though He said that He was returning, so much time has transpired until no one believes that it will happen in their lifetime.

Every day, week, months and years are going on just as it always has been, so why should anyone be expecting the end time prophecies to take place? As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes “there is nothing new under the sun“; so why should anyone worry that it will be different tomorrow or next week? God has given the whole world a grace period of almost two thousand years to learn of Him and to turn to Him in repentance and humility, yet they have not!

In those two millennia, mankind has seen fit to create for himself idols and ideas of “god” which do not fit Him as He is in the Bible. We have made Him into our own “gods”, even if we don’t have carved images of Him or our idea of what He is like. We worship those “ideas” of “god” which are not God. We have placed Him into a box which we like with things like, “my god wouldn’t send people to hell for this or that because he loves everyone” or “my god doesn’t condemn people because of their sexual orientation, he includes everyone in his church”!

Many churches and pastors today teach on these very topics and this is WRONG!! It is not Biblical at all! God hasn’t changed to allow sins and sinful people into His Presence and He will not change because God said that “I am the Lord and I change not“. Just because it is your opinion or idea that God is this way or that doesn’t make it so. God is god and His timing will bring about the end of the age whether you think it is coming or not!

Be ready in that day because when the trumpet sounds and the dead in Christ rise, then those who remain will be caught up with them to be with the Lord forever.

 

Miracles


MiraclesIn everyday life we see them but we may not recognize them for what they are. Some of them are little miracles that don’t seem like God had anything to do with them at the time. Some that we hear about are easy to recognize as a miracle because the healing or the shrinking of a tumor just doesn’t happen on its own. God works like this, in the background doing little things which will accomplish His Work and His purposes even when it seems that things aren’t going very well.

Our lives are like that too. Some days they are very good and some are, well not so much. Do miracles happen in your life? Occasionally you may notice something that couldn’t happen that way otherwise, but I would bet that many of our miracles happen when we don’t know about it. A guardian angel slips between you and someone intent on robbing you or maybe they redirect a car or truck from slamming into you. If you don’t think that God uses angels to do this kind of work, I imagine we will be surprised when we do get to Heaven.

We are His adopted children after all and if you have not given your heart to Jesus and asked Him to forgive you for waiting so long, then you need to get it done! Whether the world believes it or not, this age of grace which we have lived under for almost two thousand years is nearly over. A lot is going to happen in the next decade or two, maybe less, who knows? God does. He knows the day and the hour of your death as well as the time when He will send for all of His Church to be brought to Heaven.

The signs are in the heavens but many people are just saying that this is just astronomical signs and nothing more. The Bible clearly states that God intends to use the heavens to declare seasons and times and we are coming up on one of those times, the end of days or the Tribulation. Whatever you want to call it, it will be a time of war and disease and death as well as the judgement of God, all of it spelled out in prophecy.

Choose today who will be your Savior because your tomorrow isn’t guaranteed.

Come as a child


The obvious reason that Jesus told His disciples not to hinder the children from coming to Him was and is that they understand His message better than any adult can. As soon as a child is old enough to know that He can’t earn salvation, they know that they have to ask Jesus into their heart and their life. It doesn’t take a lot of sermons or education for a child to just “get it”, they do.

madewholeinHeavenAnd they get it far better than we do. After we become adults, if we haven’t truly accepted Jesus as our Savior, we are so covered in education and pride and all sorts of other “filters” until we can barely see the message of the cross, let alone the real message of salvation. The world itself places those filters on us and our hearts and we allow it to happen. Most of the time we don’t even realize that it is happening, just as when we were sinners.

We didn’t know that we needed Jesus at that time and we didn’t really feel the need for Him. Until the Spirit of God touched our hearts and we noticed all of the sins we had committed and that they were separating us from God, most of us didn’t even know that we needed Him. We were comfortable with our lives and the sin that we lived in.

Don’t think that your life and your righteousness is good enough because it isn’t! If Moses couldn’t get into the Promised land because of his sin, then we are not close to being able to get into Heaven without Jesus! Regardless of which religion you follow or have been raised in, your goodness, your righteousness is as filthy rags next to the grace, mercy and forgiveness which comes from your belief in Jesus!

Have you been…crucified?


lamb-of-god-passoverI don’t mean in the physical, torturous sense. I mean spiritually crucified to your old way of life and actually living a risen life with Christ every day! It is not a life for the faint of heart and it isn’t a life for someone who only goes to church when they feel like it. It is living a life wholly given over to the Lord in humility and obedience, sacrificing your old ways and thoughts, a “sacrifice pleasing unto the Lord”.

This is exactly what Jesus meant when He said that you would have to take up your cross daily and follow Him. It isn’t a sometimes Bible study, sometimes on Sunday, occasionally on Wednesday, maybe during a revival kind of attendance. It is a life that is following Jesus no matter when or where in all of your life’s decisions and in everyday living!

If you have not given your heart and your daily living to Jesus, then you may want to check out this site and make sure of your salvation. If you are absolutely sure of your salvation, then ignore it, but if you have any doubts about what Jesus would say to you at your home, then you may want to truly seek Him and repent of your idea of salvation so you can ask for the REAL thing!

Playing or acting like a Christian doesn’t get you in the gates of Heaven. Praying and occasionally reading the Bible doesn’t do it either. Your life should be an example of discipleship such that Jesus could come into your home and not be offended at anything in your house. I know that none of us are holy or righteous, our righteousness comes from Him and Him alone. But, we should strive toward that goal of righteousness, read God’s Word and pray about it daily, seek Him in all that you do daily. It isn’t a hard life to live, but you have to live it with the purpose of striving to be more like Jesus!

If you are trying to be like the “idea” of Jesus that you have in your mind, then you are doing it wrong. Our idea of God or Jesus is not the same as the REAL Person of God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit, yet humanity will place God in a box of their ideas which fit their comfortable view of Him and all of us have done this at one point or another. This has happened for thousands of years, even before Jesus came! People were claiming that God wouldn’t do this or that, even though it may not be written down in the Bible that way you can bet that many were thinking it!

God knew their thoughts and their ideas of how He was and how He was supposed to be, at least in their minds. We have made up ideas and images of “the Man upstairs” or “a Higher Power” for centuries, it is nothing new at all. But…it is something that is about to change soon. As I have said before, I don’t have a clue about the return of Jesus or about the church being taken up but the signs are too numerous to ignore! It will not be long before the entire world sees Him or the results of His Trumpet’s sounding, but at that point many of you will say that it was just a weird sound or something.
People will be looking for all kinds of explanations for why so many people vanished and what caused all of the cars and planes to fall or wreck with no pilot or driver in them! The answer has always been in God’s Word, most people just ignored it or called it a fable or a fairy tale. What will you call it then?

Prayer…does it work?


Does prayer work? Yes, it absolutely does work! Praying for healing or comfort and just a better day or week than you had last week all work and God answers them IF you have faith that He will answer your prayers. Faith and belief go together, you can’t have one without the other and when your belief and faith are strongest is when your Christian life is usually better and more productive.

Jesus prayed every day. Many days He prayed more than once, whether it was for a healing or for strength or even for lunch, He always prayed to God for these things. Thanking Him for His gracious mercy and love and asking for something specific, not just a general blessing. If you read the gospels, Jesus never prayed in a general way. He always asked for something specific, such as multiplying the fish and the five loaves or for a blind man to receive his sight.

We tend to ask God to bless us, but we don’t ask for a specific blessing such as health or prosperity. Most of us just ask for His blessing on our life and then wonder why we didn’t get what we wanted or needed at the time. God knows what you need but He wants you to ask Him for it. Also, God bases His answers on needs more than wants, necessary things rather than luxury items.

He gives us our air and water and the ability to earn a living wage so all of this is part of the blessing which we already have from Him. Prayer is our link to the Creator for our comfort and our blessing in ways that those who don’t know Him can’t understand. It is the most reliable wireless service available to us and yet many people don’t make use of it.

We muddle our way through life, thinking that we can make it without God or His help. But, when life or some other circumstance throws a curve ball in our direction then we cry out to God. Sometimes we do it the first time this happens, sometimes we wait until there is no human alternative and we have to seek Him for our help. If you are wondering what the point of this missive is, it is this: God listens to your soul, if you belong to Him but He would like to hear from you too.

Just as human parents know what their children need, we would like to hear their dreams and their ambitions, their aspirations for a life away from home but we would like to stay connected to them too. That is the kind of relationship which God desires from us. Not a once per week visit for an hour or so. Not a once every year visit on the day that the resurrection of His Son is celebrated. God desires to be in your life, in your day and your nights, in your family, in your business and in your work!

It is a daily walk with Him that is most fulfilling, not just a weekly or yearly visit. I mean, how would you feel if that is all your wife or husband was around you or if that was the only time your children came to visit? It would not be much of a relationship at all, would it?

Seek His Kingdom and His presence daily because that is the best way to live a life of love and compassion toward others and with your Creator too.

Moral guide


Romans 1:27
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

1 Timothy 1:10
For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

Genesis 19:5
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Leviticus 20:13
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Deuteronomy 23:18
Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

Another article about a humanist organization wanting the church to drop the Bible as a moral guide. If we don’t use the Scriptures as a guide for truth and morality, then what is there to use as a guide? Human wisdom? Give me a break! The wisdom of the Scriptures, the Bible, God’s Word is inspired wisdom given to mankind by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity!

No wisdom contained in ANY book written by man, other than the Bible, is as true or completely reliable. Did medicine exist back when God told Abraham about the circumcision of children of eight days old? The clotting factors of a baby aren’t active until the child is eight days old, we know this now, but it wasn’t known at the time of the Books of Moses. It was known by God because He is our Creator!

The words given in the scriptures above were given to Moses by God. They are not some made up restriction or law, but ordinances of God Himself. This shouldn’t be debated by our churches today, if they are still claiming that the Bible is the infallible Word of God! This is what most churches believed in the times before men began inserting their own ideas and disciplines and doctrines which are not Biblical but man-made!

This is the very thing which Jesus warned the Teachers of the Law in His day. He said they were “laying burdens on people that they didn’t carry“. We are supposed to be teaching people the gospel of Jesus and His atonement for every burden and sin that people carry. God doesn’t condone or excuse our sins just because we don’t want to listen to His wisdom and He won’t excuse it to allow any person into Heaven that is teaching others the same. Will He forgive someone of the sin of sodomy or any other sin? Yes, if that person repents of that behavior, and gives their heart and life to Jesus.

If there is no change in that person’s life, no matter how well they “preach” or what office in the church that they hold, then they haven’t been changed by their “profession” of faith because it isn’t real.

Jesus in the Old and the New Testaments


God saysTo show how much God wanted us to see His Son in Scripture, just look to the Psalms:


1. The Messiah will be rejected by Gentiles (Psalm 2:1; Acts 4:25–28).
2. Political/religious leaders will conspire against the Messiah (Psalm 2:2 Matthew 26:3–4; Mark 3:6).
3. The Messiah will be King of the Jews (Psalm 2:6; John 12:12–13; 18:32).
4. The Messiah will be the Son of God (Psalm 2:7a; Luke 1:31–35; Matthew 3:16–17; Hebrews 1:5–6).
5. The Messiah will reveal that He is the Son of God (Psalm 2:7b; John 9:35–37).
6. The Messiah will be raised from the dead and be crowned King (Psalm 2:7c; Acts 13:30–33; Romans 1:3–4).
7. The Messiah will ask God for His inheritance (Psalm 2:8a; John 17:4–24).
8. The Messiah will have complete authority over all things (Psalm 2:8b; Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 1:1–2).
9. The Messiah will not acknowledge those who do not believe in Him (Psalm 2:12; John 3:36).
10. Infants will give praise to the Messiah (Psalm 8:2; Matthew 21:15–16).
11. The Messiah will have complete authority over all things (Psalm 8:6; Matthew 28:18).
12. The Messiah will be resurrected (Psalm 16:8–10a; Matthew 28:6; Acts 2:25–32).
13. The Messiah’s body will not see corruption (natural decay) (Psalm 16:8–10b; Acts 13:35–37).
14. The Messiah will be glorified into the presence of God (Psalm 16:11; Acts 2:25–33).
15. The Messiah will come for all people (Psalm 18:49; Ephesians 3:4–6).
16. The Messiah will cry out to God (Psalm 22:1a; Matthew 27:46).
17. The Messiah will be forsaken by God at His crucifixion (Psalm 22:1b; Mark 15:34).
18. The Messiah will pray without ceasing before His death (Psalm 22:2; Matthew 26:38–39).
19. The Messiah will be despised and rejected by His own (Psalm 22:6; Luke 23:21–23).
20. The Messiah will be made a mockery (Psalm 22:7; Matthew 27:39).
21. Unbelievers will say to the Messiah, “He trusted in God, let Him now deliver Him” (Psalm 22:8; Matthew 27:41–43).
22. The Messiah will know His Father from childhood (Psalm 22:9; Luke 2:40).
23. The Messiah will be called by God while in the womb (Psalm 22:10; Luke 1:30–33).
24. The Messiah will be abandoned by His disciples (Psalm 22:11; Mark 14:50).
25. The Messiah will be encompassed by evil spirits (Psalm 22:12–13; Colossians 2:15).

The last ten references to Psalm 22 refer to His arrest and crucifixion, this Psalm was written many centuries before crucifixion was ever used as a form of torture and death, but it describes it very literally. The Holy Spirit gave this Psalm to David and I am sure he wondered what did all of this mean. What it means to us is that God had already planned for this before the birth of Jesus or Mary or Joseph.

Nothing in our world happens without His hand in it or knowledge of it. Does God cause all of these bad things which happen to people, good or bad? No, but HE allows them to happen to bring His Glory into people’s lives as they turn to Him for answers! Satan’s time is running out and he knows it, so all of the evil and vile things that people are doing to each other and the torture which is going on in areas of the Middle East is all caused by or prompted by him and his demons and spirits.

God allows it to happen because it is part of the prophetic time-line which He saw thousands of years ago and He has known about it from even before the world was created. These things will happen without our involvement, including the melting of ice in the Arctic or the Antarctic as well as the storms and earthquakes which seem to be getting out of control…like things are coming apart.

Seek out your Creator and He can save your soul because He has already paid the price for you, all you need to do is believe in Him, in Jesus, and your eternity will be much better than the alternative.

Kneeling in prayer


There are many places in the Word of God, where a man or a Savior, bends their knees and gets down to the business of faithful prayer. It is something that many in the Church seem to have forgotten about. We stand and pray, we sit and pray, some of us bow our heads with eyes closed, some don’t close their eyes during prayer.

PrayerPrayer..is talking with our Savior and our Creator, if you don’t revere Him enough to close your eyes and bow your head then I am sorry for you. God loves you more than you realize, but He expects some respect and reverence from His Creation.

When he had thus spoken, he knelt down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.

And they accompanied him unto the ship.  [Acts 20:36-38]

They took him down to Caesarea and by journey to Jerusalem—his last visit to that city in which he was arrested, imprisoned, and taken to Rome in trial for his life. But the word that describes this last meeting with the people in Ephesus is most poignant and meaningful. “And when he had thus spoken, he knelt down and prayed with them all.”

What does this say about Paul? He desired that they would continue in the faith that he had taught them before his arrest. Paul knew that his time there was over. He knew that he may not see Jerusalem again, so he knelt down and prayed with them all. What did he say? We likely won’t know until we can ask him face to face in Glory! The point is that, as Christians and ministers of Jesus Christ we should pray for our families and our country. We should pray for our friends and our students and those who need God’s healing touch.

Prayer can bring about many things, good and bad. It just depends upon who is doing the praying and what they are praying for. In a parched, drought-stricken land, they may pray for rain, in a world on the brink of war they might pray for peace, even if it would take a miracle for that peace to come. Once there was a man who believed in prayer in our country and you may have heard of him. His name was George Washington. Here is a small picture of something that he did early in our history whenever it was called for.

There was a visitor to the Continental Congress of the American Republic from Great Britain.  And as he stood in the chamber of that august assembly, he turned to the man standing next to him and said, “Which one is General George Washington?”  And the man standing next to the visitor turned to him and said, “When Congress goes to prayer, the one who kneels will be General George Washington.”  Kneeling in prayer.

It happened that this was the way that Congress used to begin each meeting and some say that they still do this…but are they truly sincere about what they are saying and to Whom they are praying? In our society today I doubt it.

Daniel knelt and prayed for God to show him the meaning of his dream and although it took three weeks for the angel to come and give him the meaning, Daniel still prayed. In the eighteenth chapter of 1 Kings, Elijah said unto King Ahab, “Get thee up…for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”  So Ahab went up.  And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, “Go, look toward the sea.”  And he went up and looked and said: “There is nothing” [1 Kings 18:41-43].  And Elijah said, “Go the second time, the third, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh.”  And it came to pass, after Elijah had prayed, down on his knees for the seventh time, that the servant said, “Look, there is a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.”  And Elijah said unto Ahab, “Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.”  And it came to pass… that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain [1 Kings 18:44, 45].

Elijah was the prophet who had prayed for the drought and he prayed that it would abate as well and his faith was rewarded to the glory of God.

There are many other times in Mark and Luke where we read that “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” (Luke 5:16, Mark 1:35)

Why do I bring this up at this time? Because we are at the doorway of a time that has not been in history before. We are at the very threshold of the prophecies of the book of Revelation! This is the time that we should be on our knees in prayer every day! Not just for our country or for the person who may be elected to be the next President, but for the entire world and its collective salvation.

I pray that all of us will be in prayer for our world and those in it, especially those who have sickness or may be dealing with treatments for cancer or surgery or the recovery from either. There are also many who are living in areas where there is very little to eat and no clean water to drink, so be in prayer that someone can bring them food and clean water soon. Life outside of America is hard but there are also people here who live in poverty and wonder where their next meal will come from. If you can help them, even in a small way, I am sure it would be appreciated.

God loves all of His children even if they don’t love Him or show His love to others, but that doesn’t mean that He will not hold them accountable for any suffering or pain that they may cause to others.