The Lord is your Rock of all ages. He is the foundation of the Christian faith, and He is your Savior. Trust in Him for your eternal foundation. God loves us because we are His creation and His love is deeper than anyone can imagine. The problem that we have is that we live in a fallen world. The whole of Creation was impacted when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s order not to eat of a certain tree and we have been living with the consequences of that ever since.
If you have ever read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you know that John’s gospel is very different from the other three. John focuses on a few specific miracles that Jesus did. He doesn’t write so much about His genealogy or that He is descended from David. John focuses on Who Jesus is and on the miracles that point you toward belief in Him. At the very end of his gospel, John tells the reader that “if all of the miracles and signs were written about Him, the world could not contain the books“. So, he only focuses on the important ones.
John tells about Who Jesus is in the first sentences. The Word made flesh. He was there in the beginning, He came to live with His creation and to bring the Love and Light of God to the world. John doesn’t embellish his gospel, he just tells what Jesus did in seven different miracles. Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life. He also changed six pots of water into wine for a wedding feast (His first miracle). Jesus said He was the good shepherd because His sheep know Him and are known by Him. Jesus cured a man of leprosy. He also brought sight to a man who was born blind.
Only God can do these things and Jesus is God the Son. He stopped a storm and walked on water, yet He gave His life for our sins because He is the only perfect Lamb that could pay for humanity’s sins. John introduces Him to us as we read his gospel. Jesus is not introduced as some kind of genie but as our Creator and our God Who cares for all of His creation. He knows when a sparrow falls dead and He cares about the animals as well as humanity. He created all of the various forms of life on Earth. According to science, there are millions of different species on Earth. Some haven’t been found yet because it seems that new species are being found in the ocean and in rain forests many times during the year.
God created all of the universe and He knows the stars by name, trillions of them.
Why do I bring this up on a site that shows the love of God to everyone? Because God loves all of us, but He doesn’t love the sinful ways that we live. The Bible gives us a plan and guidelines to follow for our lives. But many people don’t care to read it or to know the God found in the Bible. I heard a man in a video that I watched last week say that it doesn’t matter what God wants or what is found in the Bible, he had decided to live his life the way he wanted to.
Why am I writing this today? Because eternity is a long time and one day all of us are going to die and then we will face God as our judge. I wonder how living your life your way is going to feel then? When you are faced with an eternity of life yet you lived on Earth and chose to exclude God and His teachings from your life…what will you have to stand on then? Your idea of a good time? Your rules about what is right or wrong? You will be judged by God’s Law not your idea of it. Outer darkness and the lake of fire for eternity don’t look so good when you will live and feel the pain of your decision for all time.
I know that we can’t be like Jesus in every aspect of our lives, but we should try to. When He called you and me to be His, He enabled us to be a better person than we were before. The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts and teaches us how to be better every day. Life is not easy before or after we give our lives to Him and Jesus Christ didn’t promise us that it would be. He told me disciples the exact opposite.
He said that there would be trials and tribulations in this life until the end of the age but fear not because I have overcome the world. Tell everyone that you can about the grace that GOD gives to us that allows us to know Him in a way that is deeper than any relationship we can have on Earth in this life.
The time is growing shorter every day and Jesus will be coming for His Bride soon. We don’t know exactly when but all of us need to be ready when the day comes. If you haven’t given your heart to Jesus Christ yet, please read the book of John and the book of Romans too. You will get the best picture of Him from those books and a clear picture of the love He has for all of us.
Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in Paradise that day. Believe that Jesus is your Savior and like Job, you will see Him face to face one day.
The idea of asking someone, that you don’t know, to describe a smell or the taste of their favorite food or drink is something that crosses our minds sometimes. But…how would you describe such a personal thing such as a smell or a taste?
It would be similar to attempting to describe a color or love to someone who has never had sight or who has never had the experience of love. Impossible would be an apt description of the attempt. The description of warm feelings or trying to describe a color, even to someone who can see, is very difficult. When you don’t have a reference to build on or they don’t have a way to visualize what you are describing, the act of description becomes futile.
Many of our descriptions of the love of God are that way as well. His love is so deep and encompassing until we don’t have a reference to compare it to. The only human comparison would possibly be the love of a parent toward their child when they are born. This little person is a part of you and your wife/husband and just after they’re born you love them deeply beyond words. How does that happen? You know that they have been growing in the womb for the past few months and until they are born, you have never seen them until that day. Yet, the feelings that you have for them when they are born are indescribable to anyone except yourself and your mate.
The love that God has for each of us is similar to that but His love goes deeper. All the way to the molecular level. Why? Because He knit your genetic structure together and activated your personality and gave you your eye color and all of the quirks that make you and I unique. So God knows you better than you do. He knows you better than your parents or anyone else. That is why He made the sacrifice that He did in order to bring each of us to salvation. He knew you and me before we were born and He knew where we would be born and who our parents would be. That’s what makes God’s love so fantastic and deep!
When you feel His touch in your life and it is drawing you toward being a born-again believer, don’t turn away from HIm. He loves you so much and even the slightest turn from Him would hurt Him and you don’t want to do that. He won’t take it out on you or cause you to hurt because of it because He is far more patient than we are. God’s love is so deep that I can’t give you any better description than I have given here. I pray that anyone reading this will take it seriously because He is coming for the church soon.
We hear many messages about our Savior and about His sacrifice for all of us, but have you considered the fact that He was God’s Son. Part of the Trinity in the flesh so He could die and pay the price for ALL of our sins. Granted, there are many who don’t believe that He was/is God’s Son and that’s okay, but He came and paid for every sin of every person who ever lived on the Earth.
Think about that and let it sink in a bit.
God came to Earth as a baby, wrapped in frail humanity to live and know the temptations that we live with and have to deal with on a daily basis throughout our lives. God has loved each of us since before He created everything, but that is something our minds can’t understand. The prophets in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament said that we were known “before the foundation of the world was laid“.
Jesus came to be the sinless, spotless Lamb of God Who took the sins of the world on Himself, dying on a cross after being flogged so brutally that He scarcely had any blood left to make it to the cross. God loves each of us deeply enough that if it had only been me or you to save, He would’ve still gone to the cross.
If you have never seen the movie, “The Passion of Christ“, I believe it will drive home the brutality of a Roman crucifixion.
I pray that everyone who reads this will take the time to read the book of John and the book of Romans in the New Testament. If you want to, watch the movie and you will feel the love of God shown in the sacrifice Jesus went through for the whole world.
That word causes more problems in people’s lives than any other. “But”, why do people try to put that word in a sentence referring to the Bible and what it says? Mostly its because they are trying to get around what it says. Either because it refers to a part of their lives that they don’t want to stop doing or it is a way of rationalizing something.
I’ve noticed that in TV shows and movies, the word “but” usually comes before something going wrong. Why do we go this way? God’s Word was given to it’s writers by His Holy Spirit so it is the Truth, yet many of us don’t want to listen to the wisdom contained within it. Our world would be so much better if people could follow even half of the wisdom God has given us in His Word.
Studying the Bible isn’t difficult or impossible if you have given your heart to Jesus. I’ve heard people say that it is hard to understand and it can be if you don’t have the Holy Spirit in your heart teaching you as you read it. Before I became a Christian, most of the Bible didn’t make sense to me. Yes, the stories of Creation and the Exodus from Egypt I could understand from watching the movie about the Ten Commandments but (there’s that word again), when I tried to read the Psalms or any of the prophetic books of the Old Testament it was hard to understand.
God has blessed me in the last fifteen years. I have served as a pastor of a small church and I’ve read through the Bible each year since 2011. I figured I had better know about what I was going to be preaching about. In my reading of His Word, He taught me more than I could learn from going to a school (which I couldn’t afford to do). This site is the only place I’m preaching from anymore, but I enjoy it because it is what God called me to do.
Turning away from God’s Word because it seems hard to understand is something a Christian shouldn’t do. You learn about God and what He likes and hates and how to get closer to Him. Through prayer and reading the Bible you will learn more about how we are supposed to live our lives every day. It is not a rule book or a book with a lot of do’s and don’ts. The Bible is really an instruction book about living as a Christian, especially the New Testament. Every prophecy that was written in the Old Testament is or will be fulfilled in the New Testament. It is likely that we will see the return of Jesus in our lifetime, so I urge you to give your heart to Jesus soon.
We are supposed to overcome evil with good as well, but we can only do it IF we have God in our hearts.
When you ask Jesus to come into your heart and save you from the sin that you were in, it is His power that gives you the ability to overcome evil. Life is full of good things that everyone can see and feel, but some bad things happen every day, too. Prayer is one of the weapons that we have to overcome evil in this world and we should use it. Will God stop evil in this world? Sometimes He will, but He won’t stop all of the evil in the world because even God uses the outcome of it to bring about His purposes.
It sounds wrong to say that God would use evil to accomplish His purposes, but He does. God loves us all, but many of us have not given our hearts to Jesus. He is still trying to bring as many people in the world to Jesus as He can, but He knows who will respond and who won’t. The age of grace is coming to an end, and if you want to spend eternity in Heaven, you should give your heart to Jesus as soon as possible. I don’t know when He will call the church home, but it is much closer than many people think.
I pray that anyone who reads this post and hasn’t given their life to Jesus will consider it and make that decision soon. The Tribulation spoken of in the book of Revelation will not be a pleasant time for anyone on Earth, so be sure you get your life and your heart right with Jesus before it is too late.
The preacher tells us that we should strive to do this, but I don’t remember him telling us how to do it. It depends on your relationship with Jesus. If you are a new believer, you will be seeking to know Him on a daily basis. At least for a while. I did that because I wanted to know Him, so I got into reading the Bible every day. The problem of reading the Bible every day is that life gets in the way. Your morning routine gets rushed because you slept late or for some other reason. Living your life with Jesus is something that you have to be determined to do, and eventually it will become a habit. Bible reading and prayer will just happen, but it won’t happen unless you make a daily decision to do it.
As you become more mature in your walk with Him, your prayer life and reading Scripture will become second nature. You won’t have to think about it; you will just do it. It may not be at the beginning of every day, but you will do it at some point in the day. I like listening to the Bible reading on my phone with the You Version Bible app. For over ten years now, I have picked a year-long plan to give me a certain number of chapters to read/listen to each day. I enjoy doing my reading this way because I don’t have to sit and open the Bible to read it. I can do so and read along with it, but I have to be at home to do that.
Living with Jesus every day is a choice, and some people choose to do it as their Christian walk. Others choose to only learn about Jesus when they come to church. Sometimes they come every Sunday, while some come only when they feel like it. Living your life with Jesus is not supposed to be a part-time life; it should be like a marriage. A marriage wouldn’t last very long if you only came home sometimes, and that is what I mean when I wrote “part-time” life with Him. Any relationship will only work if BOTH partners are dedicated to each other. In a relationship with Jesus, He is intent on His part of the relationship; it is on you to choose to be dedicated to Him. That is why it should be a daily relationship, not just a “part-time” relationship.
Rejoice in your life, whatever might be happening every day. God loves you, and He doesn’t leave you, regardless of how you feel. Some people will tell you that God doesn’t care, but He does! God loves each of us more deeply than we can imagine because His love is elemental. He created you in the womb, and He knows every part of you because He knit your DNA together, especially for your purpose. What that purpose is, only He knows for sure. Seek Him so you will learn about His love and about your purpose.
The entire Bible is a book about God’s love for His creation. Yes, it does focus on Israel and the Jewish people, but when Jesus came and died for the whole world…that includes each of us. Don’t go through life thinking that money will solve your problems. It does help, but money is not the only thing. Your life matters, regardless of your status or how much money is in the bank. Allow God to guide you every day by reading His Word and seeking to know Him better. He does have a purpose for you, so find it and ask Him to help you fulfill it.
He created you and me and everything in this world, so why not thank Him for everything in your life? I know that we all have good days and bad ones, and sometimes the bad ones may outweigh the good ones, but God provides His promise for us all.
God talked to Adam, Noah, and Abram. God also talked to every faithful king in Israel and every prophet that He sent to Israel. If we acknowledge that He talked to all of these people, then we can infer that God likes to talk to His people, whether they are Israelites or Gentiles.
So, why does the church only talk to God when we pray for others? Why can’t we talk/pray to God about everything that we need to talk to Him about? I’m not speaking of prayer for things that we want, but prayer about being thankful for our blessings. I’m not saying that prayer for others is a bad thing, but do you pray to God about your day? He knows what is going on in your day, but like a parent asking their child, “How was school today?”, God wants to talk to you about you!
God loves each of us, whether we love Him or not. He cares about you and me. He may not like your lifestyle if you live a sinful life, but He loves you. When you wake up, thank Him for a night’s sleep and for waking you up again. When you have a good day, thank Him for it. If you have a bad day, pray about it, and He will help you with that problem.
Read the Bible and ask Him to help you understand His Word. God speaks to each of us through His Word, and you can know what He is saying IF you read His Word. We are living in the beginning of the end times, so I encourage you to seek His knowledge and wisdom by reading His Word, and come to know His will for your life.
The Living Message of Christ 