Tag: God

Are you lost?


Today, we enjoyed a sermon about the prodigal son. If you’ve never heard of it or read it, it is about an entitled young man who wants his inheritance before his father dies. Then his father gives it to him and he runs off to a place similar to Vegas. He enjoys his money for a time, but he soon runs out of money and his friends desert him. Leaving him alone and destitute. In the story, Jesus said there was a famine in the land as well and he couldn’t find a job other than feeding pigs. For a Jewish boy, that was at the bottom of the ladder for sure. He became so hungry that he even wanted to eat the food that he was giving the pigs, because his employer wouldn’t feed him.

Then, he had a great idea! He thought to himself, “The servants in my father’s house have more than enough to eat. I will go home and apologize to my father and ask him to hire me as one of his servants.”

But…as he was nearing his father’s house, thinking about his speech, he saw his father…running toward him! He started his speech for his father, but his father wasn’t having it. He told the servants that arrived after him to get his son some new clothes and a pair of sandals and the family ring! He told another to fetch the fattened calf and prepare it for a feast!

Why would his father accept him back as his son after what he did? Because his love for his son didn’t depend on work, or obedience to the rules, only that he wanted to come home and he believed that his father wouldn’t turn him out. Just like we love our sons and daughters, God loves us even deeper than that. He won’t turn us away when we sincerely turn to Him for forgiveness and ask to be allowed into the family. Belief in Him (Jesus) and asking forgiveness is all it takes! God isn’t a tyrant or a bully, He loves us far deeper than we can know because He formed each of us in the womb. He knows every part of us and our personality and He knows when we will come to Him.

Think about your life and seek out your Savior in Him. His forgiveness and His love are available to you. Give your problems and your failures and those pesky slip-ups in your life to Him and He will untangle all of them and make your life better than it was and your eternal future will be in His house. As Christians, we have the right to call God, Aba (Daddy).

What excites you about eternity?


Has anyone ever even asked you about your eternity? Many people have likely never been asked this question. But, have you thought about it? Eternity is a long, long time and since Jesus talked about it then it surely is your destination. Where will you spend it is the question that needs answering. Some people, even pastors, have questioned where we will be after our life here. If you have read the gospels or heard a sermon from them, you have heard about it. Jesus died for us to have a chance at being in Heaven with Him so there is a life after this one, the only question that needs to be answered is will you be with Jesus?

If you haven’t given your life to Him then your eternity looks very different. You will be outside the boundaries of Heaven and outside the presence of God. Have you ever thought how that would be? Life would not be here without God’s sustaining it, including each of us.

When things go wrong…


All of us have those days that try our patience. We lose our keys or our glasses. The car won’t crank or maybe its making some awful noise going down the road. Hopefully, these things won’t happen on a Monday or a Friday but we don’t have control over any of it. God will help you through it. I know when these things are happening it doesn’t feel like God is anywhere near you, but He is.

God loves us and He is there with us wherever we may be. That is why I pray while I’m driving. I need Him to be near so I can get to my destination and back home again. I know He’s always near, but it makes me feel better when I’m in traffic. Our lives can be so useful to Him in many ways. When you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you have access to Him all of the time, every day and in any situation. You are loved more than you realize because the love of God is like nothing we can imagine.

God gives us the strength and the faith to make it through many situations so don’t think you can do it on your own. For some things you might be able to get by without His help but even those could’ve been easier with His help. We are very stubborn at times and I know that I’m not the only one. Allow God to come into your heart and your life so you won’t be going through bad days or good days without Him.

Are you okay?


I get this question asked of me at least once or twice a week. Sometimes I answer it with, “Yeah, I’m fine”, but sometimes I really don’t feel fine. Life does that to you when you pass the age of fifty or sixty. The “okay” feeling that you had when you were younger just doesn’t show up as much as it once did. But, God has a plan and I’m letting Him lead me these days, instead of taking off on my own and hoping that He will get me out of trouble. God loves you and me and everyone who lives on this little ball of water and dirt. He doesn’t like the way many of us live and worship gods who aren’t gods at all. He is the only God and Jesus made a way for us to be with Him if we will believe in Him and turn away from our ways.

Read God’s Word and learn more about Him than you know now. Seek Him out and you will find your Savior and Redeemer because He has been waiting for you. All of us don’t have to be evangelists or preachers, just be willing to tell your own redemption story if someone asks where you get your strength from. I wouldn’t be able to even do this if God didn’t give me the words to put here. Being okay with God is not answer when someone asks about your salvation. You have to believe like the thief on the cross, knowing that Jesus will save you when you call on Him.

Is it possible to be a follower of Jesus and not tell others about your Savior? I don’t think so. Because your life will change and your behavior will change when you have given your heart to Him. So, even if you don’t actively tell everyone about your Savior, they will see it in your life and your actions. Some people may say that is the coward’s way of telling others about Jesus, but St. Augustine did it that way a long time ago.

Being a follower of Jesus Christ demands that your life changes and many people will notice it immediately. If your life hasn’t changed, then the Holy Spirit hasn’t made a change in your heart. Some people claim to be Christians and I don’t doubt that some could be, but if their lives haven’t changed significantly from the life they lived prior to their claim of finding Jesus they should seek Him in a Bible-teaching church. Being okay in this life is fine, but consider that eternity is your destination after you die or Jesus returns for the church. Make sure of your eternal destination because you don’t want to go through the wrong door.

Your Jordan river…


All of us have a Jordan to cross or be baptized in or even to be cleansed in. Whatever your Jordan may be, don’t turn away from it because it looks dirty or muddy. Jesus stepped into the Jordan because He came to be our Savior. He didn’t need cleansing. He didn’t need forgiveness. He was being washed with the water because His ministry was just beginning. The Spirit sent Him into the wilderness to begin His testing. Not because He needed to be tested, but because His ministry needed to begin with the testing and His victory over the one testing Him.

Our Christian life is our testing ground after we come out of the baptismal water. Every day is a test that we have to pass by leaning on and depending on Jesus to get us through each day. One day at a time, one step at a time. Some of us try to do it on our own and God will let us try it that way but we are more likely to stumble and fall when we do it “our way”. Walk with Jesus every hour and every day, praying and being in a prayerful attitude each and every hour. Why? Because the devil doesn’t stop trying to trip you and me. Every step we take, he puts something in front of us or in our thoughts to cause us to trip and fall. But, we have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus. As long as we confess the stumble or the fall, asking for forgiveness we are forgiven fully and completely.

Life is a constant walk toward Heaven. God knows the date that you will arrive. He is in control and will give us the strength to finish that journey. Follow Jesus into the Jordan and out the other side and your life will have the meaning that God had always prepared for you.

Your Savior is waiting


We have sung a song with these words in it. We have heard this in sermons if we have attended church, especially a Bible-teaching church. Jesus doesn’t track you down or stalk you, He does wait for you to open the door to your heart. God loves you but if you haven’t given your heart to Jesus and allowed Him to come in and change your life, you are following the devil and his demons. You may not know it, but the difference is clearly black and white. There is no gray area that you can straddle between the two. Life is similar to a fence or a tight rope, you are either on one side or the other. Walking on either is a dangerous prospect.

God knows you and He knows when His call to your heart went out. Either at a sermon or when you heard a Christian song or even when someone tells you their testimony. All of these usually points toward Jesus Christ. He came into this world to save those who were lost. His death and resurrection proved that He completed the task of paying for our sins. All we have to do is accept and believe in Him for our salvation, then allow the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and follow Him for the rest of our lives. It sounds hard but it really isn’t. After you have given your heart to Jesus, get a Bible and read the book of John in the New Testament. Then, read the book of Romans. Both of these books will give you a complete picture of Who Jesus was and why He came. Romans will help you see how to live your life for Him.

The Lord delivers you


In today’s climate, we should be depending on the Lord to deliver us from evil people and those who would bomb us into oblivion. Some might ask, “Why are we having all of these troubles?”. Jesus told His disciples that they would have troubles in this world but He also told them that He would not leave them nor forsake them. For believers, this is comforting in so many ways. So what can the rest of the world expect from Jesus?

His love and compassion in times of need, if you will seek Him out during those times and give your life to Him by believing in Him. Jesus died and rose again to pay the price for all of mankind’s sins but He waits for you to allow Him into your life every day. The only requirement for being His and obtaining true salvation is that you believe in Him and determine that with His help, you will live your new life as His disciple.

Yes, many people come to church and get baptized and they leave convinced they are saved. Some are but there are some that may never come back to church unless it is a holiday or some other event. Some people who have been “in the church” ever since they were born think they are saved just because of their presence in the church or because Mom or grandma was a Christian. Many of these are actually “cultural Christians”, they believe that their salvation is due to family or just getting baptized in the church or even being there every Sunday. But if you look at their lives, you can’t see a difference between what they did prior to accepting Jesus and their life after their baptism.

Jesus coming into your life is supposed to deliver you from your old life and habits and bring you into a new life with Him. All of the disciples’ lives changed after their time with Him, except for Judas. Their livelihood didn’t change, Peter and John were still fishermen but mostly they were “fishing” for men and women to come to belief in Jesus. Even Paul’s vocation as a tent maker didn’t change but he made the vocation that he followed hard was his preaching about Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection. This was his main focus until the end of his life.

I pray that all who read this will seek to know Jesus as your Savior.

God is there, wherever you are


This is a post which should give you peace. Regardless of the problems that we live in and through in our lives, God is there with you. God said it in the Old Testament and Jesus taught that worry is not good and said for us to “not worry about tomorrow”. There is nothing that you can do about what you think is coming, it may not come at all. Tomorrow is not here until after midnight and even then it is not tomorrow at that time. God was/is there before you and He can help you in every good or bad situation because He is there. For those who believe in God and His salvation through Jesus, there is not one day that you are alone.

If you don’t know Jesus as your Savior…then you do have a problem. Living life without Jesus as your Savior doesn’t work very well. It is like an unsharpened pencil because it is useless and it has no point! Your purpose is found in serving God and believing in Jesus as your Savior. There are people who live their lives with their “version” of God and say that they are Christians. You will hear them say things like: “My God would never send someone to hell”; “My God is forgiving to all people”. God didn’t let the Israelites get away with any transgression, so why do you think that you are so special? Having a “version” of God ISN’T the real God.

Seek Jesus Christ in the Bible. He appeared to Abraham. He appeared in the bush that didn’t burn when Moses was commanded to take of his sandals. He appeared to Joshua before the conquest of the promised land as the Commander of the Lord’s armies. Jesus came to protect the Jewish boys who would not bow to the statue in Babylon and they walked out of the furnace alive and without the smell of smoke.

Life goes much better for those who believe in Jesus as their Savior. It is not without problems, but Jesus is with you through those problems. Your life will not be perfect but you do have the peace of Jesus to comfort you in all of your troubles. Regardless of the trouble, He will give you the strength to get through those troubles. God loves you and He will be with you in all things, place your faith in Jesus for your salvation so that your eternity is secure in Him.

Trust in the Lord


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.

The gospel of John


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.