What is sin?

The dictionary defines a sin like this: an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.

TenCommadments God’s divine law is given in the Ten Commandments: Exodus 20

1 “You shall have no other gods before me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

In some way, each of us has broken at least one of these commandments on a daily basis. None of us are perfectly able to keep even these commandments every day, all day. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

We may not have a graven image of our job or our wife or any other thing in our home but if we place more importance in those than we do in worshiping God, we have created our own “god” from something or a person who can’t fulfill that role. Your position cannot fulfill your life and neither can your home or your car or any person in this world. You can find happiness in your relationship or in your job, but it is not an eternal happiness because your job is not permanent and your wife or husband is not a god.

Placing someone or something on a pedestal and elevating them or it to a position which cannot be true in the sense of being a “god” is foolish, but some people do exactly that. They may not think that they are or they may not recognize their behavior as worship toward a person or some other thing besides the True Creator, but God knows their heart. He knows exactly who it is that they revere and have placed in His position and on His throne but God doesn’t share His throne.

Make sure of your worship and your salvation before the time of grace runs out.

Wounds which don’t heal…

The little saying which many of us used to say when we were children is not exactly true. Consider it today: Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me.

TasteyourWords In today’s social media and in the news, as well as in everyday life, words CAN cause much pain and hurt. Many times cutting so deep until healing may never completely happen. Not because we don’t forgive but maybe because our mind won’t let go of the hurtful tones, whether it was in a comment on FB or over the phone or even by text.

Healing from a misspoken word or phrase is difficult, especially when the tone of it was harsh even if it wasn’t intended to be harsh. Your tongue is described in the Bible as a fire which cannot be tamed and many times in life that is exactly what it feels like. The damage which a word or the tone of a phrase spoken can cause irreparable pain whether it was intentional or not.

Between spouses, words can cut deeply when anger is involved and at times this can separate a couple and even be the cause of a divorce. The same can happen between friends or even in a congregation in church when there are opposing opinions and an argument over something happens. Words spoken cannot be taken back just as a bullet fired from a gun cannot be halted before injury or death occurs.

The only difference is that the injury caused by a comment or a word, whether spoken or written, can cut so deeply until the injury may never heal unless the Spirit of God gets involved in the healing process. God is a great Healer and He can bring healing to a painful wound from a friend or even an aquaintence.

I pray that I have not written anything which has hurt anyone’s feelings, but if I have caused any hurt feelings in any way, please forgive me. I have been told that I do “open mouth and insert foot” before and many of us do just that and sometimes we do cause pain by our words or the tone of those words. Maybe unintentionally but the hurt and the pain are real and the pain sometimes takes a while to heal, if it ever does. Unintentional pain caused by a word or a tone cuts deeper at times whether it is from a comment on FB or a spoken comment to someone which is overheard or spoken directly to them.

God’s persuit of mankind

I read C.S. Lewis’ books off and on for the past few years and one entry that the man included in one was a reference to the fact that he was an atheist at first. I will let you be the judge of his writing:

C.S. Lewis said he remembered this, “…night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.”

God pursues those people which He knows can make a difference in the world and He does it even when they don’t believe in Him at the time. He knows the impact that each of us can have whether it is through writing books or blogs, the seeds of a relationship or the possibility of one can be planted and He will make sure those seeds grow into the relationship that He wants with that person.

GodsBlessing There is no place that you can go to get away from God so there is no reason to try to escape Him. If you have been denying His existence over your lifetime but He sees that you could have an influence in the lives of others for the good of their salvation, then He will cause something to bring you to Himself. Even if He has to do it through a dream or a vision or a book or even a blog! He knows each person in this world and He knows what they are capable of doing, whether it is for good and for His Kingdom or for evil and to their destruction one day.

God does NOT send you to hell for the least of your sins or even the worst of them. You sentence yourself to hell by refusing to give your heart and life to Jesus and believe in Him for your salvation. When God’s Spirit is seeking you, He will find you. Don’t push His love away from your life because your life and your soul is more precious to Him than all of the gold and silver in the entire world! Even if you were the only person that Jesus had to die for in order to bring salvation to you, He would’ve gone through it just for you!

Why would God want me?

For the same reason that He spent time with Adam in the garden of Eden, fellowship. God knows each of us intimately because He is our Creator. He knew us in the womb before the world even began not just before our birth! He knows what your talents and the gifts which He has given to you so He knows what you can do even better than you do. Your life will be more valuable to Him if you have given your life to Him through Jesus Christ.

IAMComingBack Why? Because unless you are working through the Spirit of God with His power and love in your life and heart, much of what you do in this world is only for your benefit and not for others. If you don’t believe me, ask someone why they do their job or anything that they do in this life. Google it even. You will see that much of the world is concerned with only me, myself and I. Occasionally you will hear of some good-hearted souls who do things for others but they are in the minority these days.

Why am I so cynical about “human nature”? Because those who have left the church or those who do not believe in God have caused me to be this way. Their lives don’t reflect Him or His Presence in them. Even Satan believes in God but he doesn’t serve Him, and that is where much of the world stands today.

Wisdom is found in God

Proverbs says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom“, but what does that mean? Fear in this instance is reverence, not fear as in being afraid of. God is holy and perfect so consider being in His presence, how do you think you would feel? Humble? In awe of Him? Unworthy of being in His presence?

You would likely feel all of these in such a way that you would worship Him on your face at the time. God is our Creator and He is the power which holds all of the cosmos in place. There is no “dark matter” or some other unseen force which is keeping the planets and galaxies from flying apart, it is God’s power which holds all things in check and in place!

God’s Word is our guide for our life and we should be studying it in order to live by it but there are many people who are ignoring it altogether in the world we live in today. His love for our lives is what is keeping His wrath in abeyance until the day when the church is taken from the Earth. When that happens, those who are still here will find out what a world without His influence really feels like. During those seven years, the punishment will get progressively worse and there is nothing that mankind can do to stop it.

This is foretold in the book of Revelation, yet many people don’t believe the prophecies of this book. Because it uses fantastic imagery to describe what is happening and how it is happening. The apostle John saw things which his mind had no way of interpreting so he had to use images which were known at the time. Animals and stones and fire which his readers, the churches of the day, could understand in some small way. Even today we can’t quite understand many of the meanings which these images portray but they are frightening.

Why are they so fearsome to us? Because we don’t understand the meaning of them and what they portend for the world itself. The time of Tribulation will not be a time of joy and happiness for those who reject God and His Son in particular. The Earth and the inhabitants here will experience the wrath of God and it will not be a “fairy tale” or a myth! Not believing in Him will not keep His punishment from falling on you and everyone around you.

I pray that any who do not believe in Jesus for salvation today will get on their knees and ask Him into their hearts because when this time does come on the Earth and you are here, it will be even harder, if not impossible to decide to ask Him into your heart. The system in the world will be telling everyone that if you don’t worship the “one in power” and take his mark, you will be killed. Also, if you don’t take his mark, you will not be able to buy food or water or electricity. Make this decision now while there is time to do so.

Christ is the answer!

You may ask “To what question is He the answer?”; He is the answer to every question! He is the Good Shepherd, the Alpha and Omega, the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of the Passover and the Pearl of great price! Jesus is the Treasure of which we are all seeking to have and never lose!

He was spoken of in Genesis and He is alluded to in every book of the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. He is our Savior and our Rock which gives Living water for our salvation and our regeneration into eternity. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer and our Strength in troubled times.

JesusistheAnswer

Jesus is the One Who gave His life to pay for all of our sins. Not just for a few people but for every person on Earth and yet there are those who will not accept Him because they enjoy their life the way it is. They don’t want to change and they don’t want Him to change them so they don’t or won’t accept His offer of salvation even when they feel convicted of their sins and know that they need Him!

God is patient and He knows who will and who will not accept the offer of salvation, but that doesn’t stop Him from making the offer to those who will notice it. Whether you accept His offer or not is entirely up to you. You are the only one who decides where you spend eternity believe it or not! God doesn’t send you there but that is your destination if you don’t repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

It is likely that many who read this have never heard that before, but it is the truth. I have heard that some say that God doesn’t love everybody but He does! He would’ve sent Jesus to die on the cross even if there was only ONE person to save, but Jesus paid the price of everyone’s sins all the way back to Adam! Does God love each of us? YES!! He is like most parents who love their children, He doesn’t like some of our choices in this life but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t love you more than you can imagine.

Is being a Christian easy or fun? Yes and no. It is easy to believe in Jesus for your salvation and if you truly believe in Him and not just the idea of Him then you will be changed into the person that God knows you can be. Is it fun? Not in the same way you would enjoy life without Jesus! You can’t or shouldn’t want to go to bars and pick up women and get drunk. You will be changed from the inside out into a new person, a new creation is one way that scripture describes it.

Give Jesus a chance to change your heart and soul into the person that God wants you to be for His Kingdom and glory. Don’t put it off because you may not get another chance to give your heart to Jesus and there are no second chances when you appear before Him after your life is over.

God is able

In all of creation, from one part of the cosmos to any other, God has placed so many wondrous sights and stars and galaxies until the pictures from our Hubble telescope astound and amaze even the scientists who study the stars. The picture below shows a star which is reported to be the largest ever found, yet we can’t see into other galaxies enough to know what might be there.

Sun;_VY_Canis_Majoris_and_UY_Scuti_size

Since God created these magnificent stars, how much could He possibly do in your life or mine? If we believed His Word without doubting and our faith in Him was unwavering how much could we accomplish for His Kingdom and glory?

Today mankind denies God and His Word so much until we can scarcely believe in Him or His ability to heal sickness and disease. Let alone change our hearts into true believers! Why do we doubt Him? Because the world around us doubts Him and His message. We are taught in school about evolution and there is less evidence of that happening than there are proofs of the Bible’s truth which have been proven by archaeology!

God is the Creator and there is no other god or gods out there who can do the things which He has already done. You can choose to believe this or not because He gives us a choice but when His Spirit touches yours and you feel the weight of your sins and know that you don’t deserve eternity in Heaven, you will choose to give your life to Him and believe in Jesus for your salvation.

How do I know this? Because nearly every person who has been touched by Him and brought to the knowledge of their depravity and their lack of righteousness have given their hearts and their lives to Jesus. I said “nearly” because some people love the sinful condition that they live in more than they do the hope of eternity. It is those few who refuse to follow Jesus and they turn away from Him, even when they KNOW they need Him!

God loved humanity enough that He clothed Himself in humanity and lived with us in our infirmity, being rejected and slain on a cross for our sins, all of our sins, so that we could have an eternal relationship with Him. It is our choice to give our lives to Him, and when we feel the need for Him in our lives most of us ask Him to come in and change us into the people that He knows we can be! Not to make us better for our sake but for us to be better equipped to be useful for His Kingdom and glory!

God is perfect in all of His ways which is why we, who are sinful, cannot be in His presence without the blood of Jesus cleansing us from our sinful stains. We can’t do this on our own but by giving our heart and our lives to Jesus we can be better than we are and we are forgiven of our sins as well. This doesn’t make life easier, in fact, it may get a bit harder because Satan will attack us when we are doing those things which God has appointed us to do.

Each of us has a gift from God. Many Christians have more than one gift and these are given to us by God so that we can do the work which He wants us to do. Please don’t turn away from His call on your life when you feel His hand on you.

Bridge2Salvation

Love one another

This is a command which Jesus gave to His disciples and also to us. So…why don’t we exercise this toward each other? Some churches don’t even do this in the communities where they are the house of worship. Why can’t we follow this command of our Lord? Is it because we are still sinful men and women and not regenerated by God’s Spirit?

Love one another as I have loved you, this is the command of our Lord. He gave it as a new commandment and yet our churches and our congregations only extend His love to those who attend church and rarely bring it outside the doors of our church. Why do we do these things? Is it because our salvation isn’t genuine? No one knows your heart and its condition except for God Himself.

GodNeverFails

God did not fail Daniel or Moses and He won’t fail you or me! Jesus said that He was coming back for those who believe, and He will!

What will you do?

When you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, what will you do? Will you act on it like you should or will you ignore it and decide to do it later like so many others do? We are not guaranteed the rest of the day by God let alone next week or next month, so why put off a decision which will affect your eternal home?

If you don’t think there is an eternity, then you haven’t read the Bible much. Even in Genesis God told Isaac that He was the God of Abraham. Not in the past tense but in the present tense meaning that Abraham was alive in Paradise at that time. Jesus said that He would come back and receive us unto Himself, meaning that there is an eternity which we will be welcomed into one day.

The life which we live in today is not the only life that you have. There is an eternity which all of us will go to one day, which destination that we spend it in will depend upon our choice here and now. Give your heart to Jesus and follow Him in this life, repenting of your sinful ways and you will spend eternity in Heaven with Him. Refuse the Holy Spirit’s call on your life and continue in your own ways, living like the rest of the world around you, and you will spend it in hell with Satan and anyone else who refused God’s offer.

This is the only time which you will have to make this decision and it is while you still have breath in this life. Don’t be foolish enough to think you will get a second chance to change your mind after death because that is not possible. God’s Word says so.

Why do I bring this up now? Because, if you haven’t heard about any of this before now, then you need to know as soon as possible! God made it possible for each of us to have a wonderful eternity in Heaven IF we will trust and believe in Jesus as your Savior. There is no other way to gain your way into Heaven, even though many people think there are many different paths to get there.

Satan has been working through the different “denominations” and their pastors behind the scenes so that many people are led to believe a lie. That lie is that you can work your way into Heaven. Another one is that you have plenty of time before that decision needs to be made. The biggest lie is that you can get to Heaven by worshiping any way you choose to worship, even if you don’t worship God.

Heaven is available to anyone who feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit and responds to it by inviting Jesus into their life and repenting of their sinful ways. Even if you don’t think your life is sinful…answer one question about your life: Would you be okay with Jesus walking with you for a few months and going everywhere you go, seeing everything that you do and hearing everything you say? You know, God already knows all of this because He can see and hear everything that you do, whether you have given your heart and life to Him or not!

There is nothing hidden from God, so don’t think that He can’t know what you say and do because He certainly does. Make the right decision and turn your life and your heart over to Jesus before your time is up because if you have a wreck tomorrow and stand before Him there are no second chances to fix the decision that you didn’t make before your death.

Consider…love

There is so much hate and discord in the world today, why are we seeing all of these terrible problems all around us? In my opinion, it is because we haven’t tried to love people more. I don’t mean physical love or some kind of superficial love. The kind of love that I am speaking of is God’s kind of love.

“Well, now how do we do that?” you might say. The same way that Jesus did. If He can do it and His disciples did it then why can’t we do it today? If you truly are a Christian and you’ve been changed by His Spirit then you should be able to love someone in the same way that Jesus loved them. Not by looking at their skin color or how beautiful or handsome they are…but by seeing them the way that God looks at them. By seeing the value of their souls to God!

Jesus said if a man gained the whole world but loses his soul, what good would it do that man? In this, Jesus was speaking of the wealth of the whole world! I am not sure how much that could be but I know it would be in the trillions of dollars! That is still less than the value of your soul to God.

AngelsRejoice God created the entire universe and your soul, your salvation is worth more to Him than all of the wealth of the entire world or even the world itself! Imagine what the souls of every person on Earth are worth to Him. The blood of His Son, Jesus (Yeshua). That is what every person on Earth is worth. When you accept the atonement which Jesus’ death provided for your sins and for my sins, you have to agree that we are not worthy of His sacrifice. But He considered us worthy, which is why He did what He did for each of us.

It is not a great stretch to look at the Scriptures and realize that God has loved humanity since He created Adam and Eve. Even though they rebelled against His command and ate from a forbidden tree, He still loved them. He could look down through time and see you and me and each person who will choose to follow Him and believe in Jesus. He could also see those who will choose not to believe, but that doesn’t mean that He loved them less than anyone else.

God’s love for us is not dependent upon what we do or what we say or even if we believe in Jesus or not. God IS Love, so He expresses His love for all of us in that Jesus died for all of mankind’s sins. Whether we choose to follow Him and give our lives to Him is still our choice but I think when you realize everything that is provided for you in this life, then you will make that decision. I just pray that it will be a decision to follow Jesus and give your life to Him.

Our God is Awesome!

Psalm 47

Clap Your Hands, All You Peoples

(2 Kings 18:13-16; 2 Chronicles 32:1-8; Psalm 46:1-11; Psalm 48:1-14)

1{To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.} O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

2For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

3He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.

4He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

5God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

6Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

7For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

8God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

9The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

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