Tag: God loves you

What is most important to you?


There are many, many answers to this question and they are not the same for everyone. Some of these would include our family or our children. Other answers may be more generic like world peace or just to live a good life. But when you get right down to the “brass tacks” of what is actually most important to you…in today’s politically charged world and in our culture, most people really wouldn’t know the true answer to that question.

If you were held at gunpoint and your life was threatened could you come up with an answer which makes sense and is the actual truth of your life? I honestly don’t know if any of us are that certain about what or who is the most important in your life. I have been thinking about it since beginning to write this and I just don’t know for certain. Isn’t that a little weird?

I have been married to my wife for twenty-six years and a few months but is she the most important person in my life? What about my son? Is he the most important person in my life right now? Even if I changed the wording a bit and asked: Who is the most important person in your life? Would that clear the water a bit? For some of us it might help but for others, I’m not so sure.

What is my point with this question? For one thing, it is to get us to think about it because we rarely do in today’s world. We are so busy running around doing things, going places, getting things done or going to the doctor’s office until we seem to be in a continual spin cycle. We never really settle down long enough to think about who or even what is most important to us or to our family while we have the time to think about it.

And really, if you sit down for about ten or fifteen minutes you will realize exactly what I am talking about. We don’t sit and talk much anymore. We are texting each other or liking a post or a picture or something funny which we share with our “friends” on Facebook. What did all of that accomplish? What does our electronic “friends list” actually mean in our lives? Do you really know these people or did you accept their request because you both have a friend in common?

What about taking one day every week and spending it with actual friends while learning more about our Savior at church. No pushing to make a change in your life. No asking for money that you don’t think you have to give for the work of the church. Just friends meeting at church and listening to a study of God’s Word for about an hour or so. God loves you and me and everyone else in this world but He also knows which ones will spend time with Him whether it is daily or weekly or just occasionally.

How would your friends feel if you only spent time with them on special occasions? How about once or twice in a month? How would your family feel if you did this? God loves each of us more deeply than our family members do and yet many of us don’t give Him or His Word much time at all in our lives. Many of us don’t spend as much time reading the Bible as we do liking pictures on Facebook each day or even in a week’s time!

There would be a massive revival in America if we could get off of Twitter or Facebook and pay attention to God’s Word at least as much as we did to those social media pages!

If we read God’s Word as much as we read social media in our country, the world around us would be impacted in ways that we cannot imagine right now.

God should be more important to each of us than our “friends” or even our family because He made it possible for us to have eternal life with Him. Eternity without Him is a pointless existence but it will happen if you leave Him out of your life until you die and then its too late to change that outcome.

Think about it while you can today…right now in fact because you don’t know when your time is up.

How does the love of God compare?


There is no comparison between God’s love for His creation and for us in all of the Earth. No human can understand God’s love because His love is deep and without limits. He loves us because we are made in His Image and we are to be His servants into eternity. We will not be as slaves in this but we will be willing servants as bondservants in ancient days. They loved their masters and did not wish for freedom and would serve him even if they were to be set free.

God’s love for humanity is fierce and limitless and yet the angels have no understanding of His love for us. Why should God love mankind so? Because He is God and if it pleases Him to love us in this way then He will do it! God is our Creator and has made us be His adopted children, we are not forced to be His but we are voluntarily His children because of His love for us!

So, why do we live as if He doesn’t love us or doesn’t care for us? Mostly because of the fact that we can’t see God even though we can see all of His Creation and it shows His majesty and His creativity and His artistry in Creation! It is His Creation after all! We didn’t have any part in it except when He created us. He knows your talents and abilities and all of your problems. He gave you your talents and your sense of humor and your abilities so He knows more about you than you do about Him.

Why not pick up the Bible and learn more about your Creator and your Savior and get to know Him personally. Then when you hear His voice speaking to you, you will recognize Him and then you can respond accordingly! God wants the best for you but only if you know Him and He knows you can both of you benefit from what is best for you. Give your heart to Jesus and let Him come in and clean up every part of your life so that you can represent Him in every area of your life as well.God is good all the time

How do you see Genesis?


The first book of Moses. The beginning of the Bible. The beginning of everything. All of these are true! Historically and physically and as the very beginning of Creation, that is how I view the book of Genesis. There is no discontinuity or falsehood in His Word, from the beginning to the end. Because if any part of it is false then that makes all of it false.

Genesis is the beginning and the story which was written was given to Moses during those forty days which he spent on the mountain with God. How do I know this? Because that is the only way that he could’ve been told of all the things which happened prior to his birth. The Creation story, the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the Flood and Noah, the Tower of Babel, the call of Abram and then the miraculous birth of Isaac to a man and a woman far beyond the age of childbearing.

The Bible is the history of the world and of the Jewish people but it is also the story of God’s love for mankind and the lengths that He would go to in order to bring salvation to mankind too. His patience and mercy toward us are so great and powerful until we cannot understand His reasons nor His love for us. The rest of the Bible shows us that He is patient and loving toward us in ways which we cannot understand or even fathom with our limited minds compared to His!

We are His creation, made in His Image and given a special place in this universe which nobody else can claim. God loves each of us and He gives us a chance to live our lives for Him because His Son gave His life in order to bring us salvation. What we do with our lives after we accept Him as our Savior and believe in Him for our salvation is largely up to us. God shows us the path to salvation through His Son, it is our choice to follow that path every day and show that path to others so that they can find it too.

That is our job, our purpose on this Earth. Not living to make as much money as we can or to have as much stuff as we can get, but to be as useful to God while we are still here! That is our true calling and purpose as Christians and followers of Jesus.

dare-to-be-a-disciple_t

The unknown is scary


You know, everyone that I know is looking forward to going to Heaven to be with our Lord but nobody wants to die to get there. We don’t know what death is other than the end of this life. We don’t want to know how it feels or even if we feel anything at that point in time. We hear about some people who see Jesus just prior to closing their eyes for the last time, but we aren’t sure that we are ready for that, at least not yet.

Jesus said that He would take us to a place where we would be with Him, so why aren’t we willing and ready to go? We don’t know and really don’t want to know how death or dying feels like. Some say it’s like going to sleep. Of course, none of us really knows how we are going to die. I mean dying in your sleep would be perfect, to me. Go to sleep in your bed and wake up in Heaven. That doesn’t sound so hard or scary or even painful.

But…we don’t really know how or when God will call us home and that is another unknown. The only advice that I have about dying is that you need to be ready and make sure that when that time comes…dying is all you have to do.

Lord or Judge

Freedom from depravity


The Christian faith gives believers the grace they don’t deserve but so desperately need. The depravity of humankind is obvious, especially today. Our faith grants us , as believer’s, a direct relationship with God, whom we can approach with freedom. Once you understand the value of your salvation you understand how tightly the relationship needs to be held onto. Many people today think that Christianity deprives you of fun and having a life but that is not true.

God’s rules, the Ten Commandments, are guidelines for us to live by and after you have given your heart to Jesus and have begun following Him in your life they are easy to follow. Why? Because your relationship with Jesus is more important to you than your old life and your old ways. This is why believers need to treat their salvation as their most valuable asset.

I know the word “depravity” sounds offensive but think about all of the sex trafficking and child slaves that are kidnapped for perverts around the world. If that isn’t depravity I don’t know what is! Our world is under the control and rule of Satan and his agents so much of our world is part of his world. Granted, God allows him to do this and He is in control by limiting what he can do and how far he can go but it is still our adversary that is in charge on Earth.

God has always been in control of him and has placed limits on what he can do and what is not allowed by God. We see some of these things as either God is not in control or He is a mean and hateful God. He is nothing like that at all! If God were not in control I imagine that Satan and his cohorts would’ve made sure that mankind would likely wipe himself from the Earth long before now.

We should seek out God and learn about Him and His love for us, because there is no other way you can learn of Him if you don’t seek Him for yourself. God provided a way for your sins to be wiped clean so that you could interact with Him and be in Heaven one day as a redeemed child of God.

Remember, God has always had a plan for each of us and yet we try to live as if He doesn’t exist at all. He hung the stars in space and placed all of them in their places so that their light shines on us and we behold His glory by His creation. I ask that you give your life to Him while there is still time to do so. Seek Him out for your salvation, learn about Him by studying His Word and listening to Bible teaching and preaching. Because there is no better way to know someone than to read their letters.

The Tapestry of Life


When God said, “Let there be Light!”, He wasn’t kidding. The work which He started way back when His Creation was just starting. It began with that thread of light in the darkness and it continues on today in all of the colors of the biggest rainbow that anyone could possibly imagine.

The colors have changed and run together to make different colors over the years. Sometimes the changes were caused by floods or war or slavery or just our own greed and stupidity. Because when we try to weave the colors together on our own with our ideas of how they should be, usually we end up with knots and broken threads and hurt feelings. We say things which shouldn’t have been said or we cause hurts in ways that we don’t know about with those words.

We are the cause of our own separation from God. We are the ones which move away from Him when we should be getting closer to Him. Your life and mine are important to God and He wants each of us to be a part of His Kingdom, but when we decide to do things our way or say things which hurt others, even if we didn’t mean what we said at the time, it places a barrier between us and between us and God.

But God still loves us and if we haven’t been pushing Him away for too long, He will take us back. He will forgive and forget and He does it completely. He doesn’t bring it up again to hurt us or to make us feel guilty.

The tapestry of Life on the Earth has had many colors in it and it has had a lot of blood spilled over greed and anger and problems which we brought on ourselves. There are many threads in this tapestry and each of us has a part in it, but the finished work won’t be visible until God is finished with us and we see the completed product. He wants you to see it and be a part of it, but if you choose to go your own way and walk on your own path without Him, He will let you do that too.

This tapestry is part of our life and a part of our journey on this journey. God has placed people and circumstances in our lives which leads to more strands in the tapestry of life here and for each person on Earth. How will it turn out? Only God Himself knows that answer, we just need to make sure that we are along for the ride.

Who is in control?


It’s not the United Nations. It is not the President or Congress.

The One Who is in control of all things is God Himself! He allows things and He causes things to happen on the Earth and in the universe around us. Nothing happens by fate or coincidence and nothing happens without God’s knowledge of it!

When Jesus showed up to be baptized, what happened? John the Baptist declared that He was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. Yet, the teachers of the Law didn’t accept Him as such. They accused Him and mocked Him at every turn in His ministry. Yet, one of their members after His resurrection told them that if this belief and this movement was of God there was no way to stop it. Regardless of how many times His disciples were put in jail or flogged or told not to preach in His Name, His church was built on one immovable rock and it wasn’t Peter…it was faith!

God is in control and He is the One Who wants to bring salvation to you and to those all over the world. But many in the world don’t want to accept Jesus as their Savior, they have their own ideas about finding the pathway to Heaven or their afterlife. God loves each of us and yet He knows who will accept His Son and who, ultimately, will not accept Him.

Does He want everyone to be saved and come to Jesus as born-again believers? Yes, He does but God knows human hearts and He knows how people are with their beliefs and their fears and their pride.  So, have you ever considered your life and the meaning of it, the purpose of it? Have you looked at God’s Word and read it and realized that your life can have much more meaning if you are a part of His plan for your life?

Life is much more than we truly think it is and it can be much more if you are a part of His Kingdom and live your life according to His Word. Many people think that we have to live by His rules but if your heart has been changed by His Spirit, it isn’t quite the same. When your heart is changed and He is living with you then you won’t want to be in the places where you were before. You won’t do the things which you did before you met Jesus and asked Him to come into your life.

The Holy Spirit makes a change in your heart and that change makes a difference in your life and the way that you live it. You live by God’s rules after this not because you have to or because He makes you do it but because you want to do it as a way of showing others that He has made a change in your life. Because Jesus cannot come into your life without a change taking place. You are a new creation! Your old, sinful ways and your old life have been replaced with His Spirit changing you from the inside out.

Don’t turn away from His call in your life or in your heart! God is calling you for a purpose and He knows that you are the only person who can take His message to the places where you go or to the people that you meet.

Faith, what is it?


Have you ever wondered what faith really is? Faith according to the Bible is defined by this:  Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

In Ephesians our faith is part of the equation which brings us to salvation through our Savior: Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

Also, without faith it is impossible to please God in anything that we do: Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith, it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

When God calls you or me to Himself through the conviction that we need Him, He gives us the faith which we need to believe in Jesus for our salvation. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the faith which is necessary to bring us to that knowledge. It is a gift of God to us so that we can effectively believe in the promises which He has made to us in Scripture. That is what Biblical faith is.

We have faith in gravity or in our heart to keep beating and to keep us alive, yet we don’t usually acknowledge it. We have faith that the sun will rise in the morning, not gifted to us by God but because it has always come up each morning. That is faith in things which are seen. Faith in things which are not seen but are hoped for with a conviction that we will have them one day is the faith which is spoken of in the Bible.

This kind of faith cannot be proven or shown to anyone who doesn’t believe in God or Jesus or the Bible because it takes faith to believe in those things. If you don’t have it, you can’t get it except by belief in Jesus and His atonement for your sins and you won’t believe that unless God gives you the faith to do so!

I know, it is a spiral which goes from faith to faith to faith but if you have it, you’ve got it and if you don’t then unless you are seeking Him, you won’t get it then either.

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” Reading God’s Word and seeking Him in it will bring you into a closer walk with Him so enjoy His Presence in your life by cultivating a friendship with God. He is always present with you so treat Him as a treasured friend and talk to Him, walk with Him, seek His advice and act on His advice that is given to you.

By faith in Him and through Him we can conquer any problem in our lives, so make sure that you seek Him and His Son’s friendship while you can. Life only lasts for a little while, so make sure that you are friends with the Author of Life!

How long, O Lord?


The spirit of the anti-Christ has been a part of our world ever since the Garden. Why do I say that there was such a thing even before Jesus the Christ came to us? Because the spirit of rebellion against God has been in the world ever since there were people who knew about God on the Earth.

After Jesus ascended to Heaven and His disciples were taking His teachings to the ends of the Earth in those days, the people who were spreading hate and lies against their teaching were part of the anti-Christian movement and it kept spreading. But…so did Christianity. It seemed that the more there was persecution and a spiritual push-back against this message, the more the church grew. The plans that Satan had were backfiring on him. He wanted to stop this message and kill all of those who believed in the Son of God and His message!

But it didn’t work. Everywhere that there was great persecution, those who escaped from it took the message with them and it kept spreading. God’s Word will not return to Him void and it will accomplish that which He sends it out to do. It doesn’t matter if the message is spoken by a young farm boy or girl or a well-known evangelist!

The Word of God, our Bible, is the infallible Word of God and it is the Truth which our world and every person in this world needs it and the message which it has for each person.

6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6

God loves each person in the whole world, but He knows who will accept Him as their Savior and who will not. So make sure of your salvation and seek Him today because you need Him. If you don’t know Jesus yet, I ask you to look for Him in the Bible because He is waiting for you.

John 3:16 says this: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Please don’t turn away from His call on your life and your heart because you will spend eternity somewhere and I would love to see you there in Heaven one day!

The hurt will heal


Sometimes we look at our lives and wonder, “Why am I going through all of this?”. Most of the time we can’t truly find an answer to that question, at least not one which makes sense anyway. The pain of a lost loved one or of a child taking a step toward a life of addiction or crime will be ongoing and in most cases may never go away entirely. So what are we supposed to do with this kind of pain?

The solution may sound simple and uncaring but it is this: give the problem to God. There are too many people who will read this and say “Are you serious?”; my answer is “Yes, I am!”.

Just how are we supposed to give our problem to God is the answer which many people have sought for centuries and unfortunately there are few who have found the best way to do this. We will walk down the aisle and place a token which represents our problems on the altar but when we leave the church we pick it up spiritually and take it with us. We never REALLY leave it in God’s hands until we have come to the point where we can truly see that there is nothing which we can do to fix this problem.

We use God as the last best hope for solving our problem when He should be the first Person that we leave the problem with, no matter what the problem may be! Remember, God created the entire cosmos, so since He did that your problems and mine are easy for Him to handle if we will give them to Him. Why do we try to keep our problems until we finally realize that we can’t do anything about them? Because we are prideful and we think that we can handle the problems in our lives regardless of how involved or how big those problems might be.

God never intended for us to do everything in our lives alone or by our own strength. He had intended for our existence to be a cooperative life between Himself and us. But we know that Satan crept into the scene and changed that, but God already had a plan in mind before that happened.

Jesus, the Son of God, was going to be born of a virgin in Bethlehem and He would take the sins of the world on Himself and be sacrificed on the cross to pay our penalty so that we wouldn’t have to. Then, on the third day, Jesus came out of the tomb and taught His disciples for another forty days and then ascended to the right side of the Father. He conquered death and the grave and gave us a way to be saved from hell if we will believe in Him and His sacrifice.

Give your life and your heart to Jesus and give your problems to God so that you can serve Him and be His representative until He comes again. Because He said He was coming again and God can’t lie!