Tag: HolySpirit

What do you want from me, Jesus?


I feel that there are many who may have asked this question over the years and decades and even through the centuries. The answer surprises many people because they think that Jesus wants more than we can give. For many, their beliefs of what He wants causes them to back away from Him because they cannot imagine themselves giving Him anything, even when they know that He is the only One that can meet their needs.

How can we get around our own beliefs and cultural bias toward serving Jesus? What can we do that will make us be useful to Him? Is there anything that we can do that will answer these questions or even, can the answers be found? There is a simple, for many people too simple, answer to these questions and it is …. No!

Yes, we can get around the cultural bias, but the answer to the other questions referring to “what can we do” is nothing. We can do nothing on our own to help Jesus. We cannot assist Him in our redemption and salvation because only He could do what needed to be done and He has. His death on the cross that day in 33 AD, accomplished everything that was necessary for every person on earth to be able to come to know Him and to have access to God.

His sacrifice, His life that He lived in total obedience to His Father without sin, was what was required so that the gulf between us and God could be spanned by Him. So that we would have access to God the Father and forgiveness through Jesus as long as we believe in what He did on the cross and in Who He is.

Belief and acceptance as well as being able to follow in His steps to bring the message of the Gospel to others through our life and our witness. We don’t have to go on mission trips, you just have to represent Him through your life, your character by allowing Him to shine through your life into the lives of others, this is what Jesus wants from us. Obedience to the command that He gave to His disciples to take the gospel to everyone who will hear.

Obedience is our job in God’s kingdom. Faith and belief in Jesus and the work that He accomplished on the cross is our requirement, our part that we need to do because it is the only thing that we can do ourselves. He has already accomplished everything that was necessary for our salvation by His death, burial and resurrection because He was the only One that could do what needed to be done.

Mankind is not able to redeem himself in the eyes of a Holy and righteous God and Creator. We are His creation, the only ones who enjoy the ability to commune with God and have fellowship with Him. The angels worship Him but they don’t have the privileges which God gave to us and they long to know of it. No matter how many amino acids that are found in ice or how many theories that are put forth trying to explain our existence as some cosmic accident, there is no scientific proof of it at all. God is the only one who created this universe and each one of us!

We are the work of His hands and everything else was spoken into existence because He wanted it that way. The perfection and specific way that everything works and moves is by His design, not some accident. God loves you, each of you, and there is no denial of that if you are able to read this. Even our eyes are marvels to science because they can find no evolutionary trigger that would cause an animal to “evolve” cells which do what our eyes can do. God did it and that settles it!

Pentecost


Repentance is not a single event but rather a point of crisis along with a continuing relationship choice. Repentance is part of a Christian’s regular spiritual life and routine. When you repent of something, regardless of what it may be, you turn away from it and choose another, better path.

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
11 b, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Our lives in Christ are important to God, which is why He sent His Son to take the punishment for our sins and die on the cross so that we might be able to receive forgiveness through Jesus. The only requirement on our part..that we have to do is to repent and ask for the forgiveness that has been provided. Now, some might say that they don’t feel compelled to repent of anything in their life so why should they? In that instance, either you are not ready or it isn’t the time yet for your spirit to be called. Which doesn’t mean that you are not wanted by God, He is just waiting until the time, His time, is right. He alone knows when that may be, although you can still pray and ask Him into your life. You will not be refused.

God never will turn away a sinner who asks from their heart and truly repents of things that they know that they have done. It is not a one-time event in your life, just as changing the oil filter on your car isn’t a onetime maintenance item either. We are all sinners and we do it on a daily basis. Nobody is exempt from this fact, even Jesus was tempted but He didn’t sin. What can we do about those temptations? Are we able to control them and ourselves? In many instances, no we are not able to do this with our own strength. But God provided us with the same Spirit that was given to Peter and the disciples that day, which will enable us to resist temptation.

Many people think that He didn’t sin because He was God in the flesh, but it was because He yielded His will to God each and every day..every minute. This is what we are supposed to do, but many think that once they have given their life to Christ, they don’t have to do anything else. If you don’t do anything else, your life won’t really change at all from what it was before you accepted Christ.

Then you will be counted among the hypocrites because you didn’t allow the Holy Spirit which you received to really change your life. This is why there are so many who are not in church, they know the Truth, they may have accepted Christ but they have not followed through with Bible study, daily prayer asking for strength to get through the day, etc. The spiritual fire that some have and many do not and the reasons for the difference is found in that, follow through. The gospel could be preached simply by saying “Believe in Jesus who was sent to die for your sins and ask Him to come into your heart and cleanse you from your unrighteousness”. One sentence, but without prayer and study of scripture allowing you to get to know God, what will change in your life?

William Blake wrote a poem about Pentecost and a few lines from that poem read:

Unless the eye catch fire, God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catch fire, God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catch fire, God will not be named.
Unless the Heart catch fire, God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catch fire, God will not be known.

We are to be on fire for our Lord because He came down to us. We are to be on fire for God because a part of Him resides within each person who has accepted Jesus as Savior. If we are not on fire for God, why not? Do you not realize that the Creator of the universe came to earth specifically for each person here? Not only here in this church building, but all people are the ones that He came for, whether they know Him or not at this moment or even whether they care that He loves them, he still came.

I have seen a book called “gods at war” and it is written by a pastor who teaches a study based on it. The problem is that there are no gods at war, there is only one God, all these others are inventions of men. These man-made gods cannot fight with the One True God. They have no power because they are man’s imaginings of the “god” that he wishes to be the true god.

Even many people who are in church do this. You may hear people say that “My god would never condemn someone to hell”; in fact, it is not God that condemns people to that place but we ourselves.

Getting back to the day of Pentecost, those who heard the sermon in their own language wondered what they must do when confronted with the truth of Jesus. During the Festival of Weeks, many Jews would come to Jerusalem because they were required to by their religion. All of those that Peter spoke to were from Rome, Crete, Turkey, what is modern day Iran and many other places. Peter answered them and said that they must repent of their ways and be baptized. We can do no less than this.

Are you content in your life? Are you satisfied that you are in a right relationship with our Father in heaven? Many people are and the truth of it will condemn them. They are like the Pharisees, they see no need to repent because their religion and their practice of it feels just fine. As time and our lives will show that one day every person will bow before the King of Kings and we will all be shown the truth of our life. What kind of truth will your life show you?

Feed your faith!!


Background: Romans 10:17

Learn to feed your faith and starve your doubts. The doubts that you have can truly affect your life so eliminate them by getting into your Bible and in a Bible teaching church!

If you don’t come to church, read your Bible, and pray, then you have no shield of faith for protection from Satan. Sometimes college students go off and let some ungodly, unbelieving man make fun of their faith. And they fall apart like a house of cards. That’s because they don’t have a strong faith in God. Feed your faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” and it will be like a shield to you to protect you from all the fiery darts of the wicked world that we live in. It gives the believer certainty, certainty about what they believe and Who you believe in.

Again, you must actively, consciously clothe yourself in the armor of God. How much are you dedicating yourself to being in His Word, learning how to wield your Sword? If you are doing this only on a weekly basis, the destroyer can get to you!

If you don’t open God’s Word and read it at least once a day, you don’t have the shield with the faith to wield it against everyday things which rob you of your faith in the One who can and does save you. Yes, this is about you and God, because He wants to know you and He wants you to know Him! Only by hearing the Word preached and getting into the Word can you know Him. Only by reading the Word can you recognize God’s voice and His way of speaking to you. He does love us all, each of us individually so there is a reason for what He does and how He does it. Our Savior asks us to come in and eat with Him and He waits for us to invite Him in as well.

Jesus does stand at the door and knock, patiently waiting for you to let Him in and He does this every day. Believers and non-believers are in this situation because many of them seek Jesus once per week and then leave Him at the church when the sermon is over. You have to take Him with you everywhere, every day, not just when things aren’t going your way or when you think you are “good enough” to do so.

Clothing yourself in the armor of God means that you get into the Bible so that the Spirit can use it to teach you what He says and what you are to do. The armor of God only protects you if you have it on; going to church on Sunday for thirty minutes or an hour doesn’t take care of the rest of the week! It reminds you of what you are to do and who you are to be with daily, but the cares of the world and your daily routine gets in the way or at least Satan lets you believe that.

Once you decide to trust and believe in Christ for salvation, wholehearted surrender and Christ-likeness becomes a goal to achieve with the help of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of believers. The only way to have the fellowship of believers is to be in fellowship with them, regardless of whether they are family and friends or not. The Bible says, “And we should not be forsaking our meetings, as is the custom for each person, but plead with one another all the more, as long as you see that day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:25

The “sword of God” is His Word and if you don’t learn it and how to use it to counter the things that you hear and read every day, then Satan can get into your mind and change things just as he did to Eve in the garden.

Then, there are many who will say that the thief on the cross didn’t do these things so why do I have to do them? The thieves on the cross were divided in their view of Christ. One of them extended the condition, “…if you are the Christ, save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). The other placed his faith in Christ, asking, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (vs. 42). Christ’s response was the best news a dying man can hear. “Surely I say unto you, today you’ll be with me in paradise” (vs. 43).

There was no way this dying thief could have told others of his salvation. He was saved by recognizing Christ as who He said He was—the only One who could save him from his sin. He also showed Christ that he believed in Him as who He was, so it was the belief…the faith of the thief that saved him. Their death was imminent so they had no way of getting baptized or of learning the scriptures, but that is not required, yet belief in Jesus is!

It is true that they didn’t have the opportunity to do the things that we can do, but we are not to use the thief’s inability to do these things as an excuse for us not to do them! As long as we can do what Jesus wants us to do then we should, the Lord is coming back and He will require of each of us an explanation of the words and thoughts that we have had as well as why we heard the Gospel and did not act on it. Don’t be part of the crowd which is cast away because they didn’t act  or believe in what they heard before He came!!

Our God loves each of us as shown by Jesus’ sacrifice for us, even before most of the world was even born! No one can claim immortality without belief in and surrender to Jesus! Your life here is meaningless without Him in it, guiding you daily to do those things which He would do if He were in your shoes. We can be the feet and hands of Christ in a world that is going dark, but we must carry His words in our hearts and our minds to do so. We must tell others what Jesus has done for us and for them, so that they will know.

Many people have died during the course of writing this sermon and the time that it takes to give this sermon many more will die. Will any of them be on your mind or conscience? Were they your responsibility to give account of the joy that is in your hearts? Did they see the joy and peace in your life that Jesus brought into your life, and if they did, what evidence did you give them of Who was responsible for that joy?

These are questions that we all must answer, whether we will have to answer for them in front of Jesus or in front of the people that we see every day, I don’t know. Jesus gave each of us a job to do. How well we perform that job is our daily responsibility. It is not an easy task, because each of us has our own gifts and strengths and weaknesses too. But, with the power of the Holy Spirit living in each of us, we can do the job that we were given. Whether we choose to do that job or not is our choice, but in the end we will have to account for that choice. Which choice will you make?

Can we live with Christ?


Our lives were created to be more complete with Christ in our hearts. The area that feels empty in our life, that you may have been trying to fill with something is the spot that was designed for Christ to inhabit. If He is not in that spot, then your life feels empty regardless of how much success you may have according to the world’s standards. So how can we be filled with Him and have a life that is truly meaningful? The simple answer is for you to just ask Him to come into your heart!

I know that sounds way too easy, but it is the truth. In our lives on a daily basis, we are confronted with many problems and different things that get in the way of our true lives, our life with Christ! I know that many people look at this and say “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I have Him already!” or “I don’t have a problem with Christ because I don’t want Him in my life!”

Many people think that because they have gone to church for many years, maybe even from the time they were children, that they are Christians and they don’t need to ask Him to come into their hearts. That is like someone living in a garage who thinks they are a car or truck. Just because you have been in church for years doesn’t mean that you are a Christian. You have heard many sermons and served as a deacon or Sunday school teacher, but unless you have asked Jesus to come into your life and change you into the person you were meant to be, you are not a Christian. You are just a religious person who attends church.

Can you get past the religious part of your life and just accept Christ into your heart? As I stated, it seems too easy and some people think it is a waste of time. But, that is exactly what the world and Satan want you to believe. If Christ and your belief in Him is a waste of time, why does the world and Satan try to keep Him out of your life? What is the point of pushing God away if belief and having faith in Him don’t mean anything?

Your life and mine are very short compared to eternity, so where do you want to spend it? I have heard all of the stories of how people will party forever with Satan in hell and they will have a grand old time. Nothing could be further from the truth!!

Hell was created to punish those angels who rebelled against God and followed Satan. It was not created for us at all, but if you don’t accept Christ as your Savior and follow Him, you are on the wrong side! Eternal punishment for simply not believing and accepting Christ is what you will get and it will not be a party!

Of course there are many people who have said that a loving God would not put you into an awful place like that. The truth is that He doesn’t put you there, you do! If you stole a million dollars from a bank and then were caught with it, what kind of punishment would you expect? Maybe a job at the bank that you stole the money from? If you killed an important person, would you expect to be given the responsibility of taking care of their children? NO! You would expect the punishment to be severe.

God looks at us as children, rebellious and un- disciplined but He also sees our potential if we come to know and love Him and His Son, Jesus. Our life will change, our outlook on everything will change because when your heart is Jesus’ home, you look at things around you the way He does. There are only two sides to life, serving yourself or serving Jesus. Life on one side can be hard, full of sorrow and pain and emptiness but on the other side you have Jesus’ strength and assurance and hope!

The life that we have here only lasts for a short time, but once you cross the threshold of death, eternity waits. Which eternity will you have to look forward to? One where you get to meet all of those that your life influenced to come to Christ? Or one where you get to spend eternity alone, in pain and torment because of the wrong decision, the one decision where you rejected the Son of God who came so that you would have eternal life, if you had  just asked Him into your heart?

Religion may put you in hell!


In Paul’s day and in our own time, people keep traditions alive and you hear “that’s the way it has always been done”, as proof of their Christian lives and their beliefs as well as the “proof” of their conversion. We see people in church as well as on the street that we know as “church people”, meaning that they are in church every time that there is something going on there. It could also mean that they volunteer in church to drive the bus or to help in the nursery or any number of duties. These people feel sanctified and saved because of their deeds or their work for the church and they may be, but what about the Person that they are serving? Are they working for Jesus or themselves?

In Paul’s day there were many who were “religious”, all of the priests, the Pharisees and Sadducees were religious and yet Jesus condemned them. They were convinced that they were right and everyone else was wrong and they would not listen to any “new” teaching. They were stuck in the past with all of their laws and rules and they had hardened their hearts against anything new.

Do you know people like that? I do, but what can you or I do about it? We can’t change them because they don’t listen or won’t listen just as those in Jesus’ time wouldn’t. So what can we do? Love them, and pray for them daily.

In reference to the title of today’s sermon, there will be many people in hell who are or were religious while they were here and they were that way their whole life. They were convinced that their way was right and that they were doing things right, so what happened? They weren’t shown the error of their ways? Maybe or maybe they just didn’t listen or really hear sermons which they attended. When your ears are closed to Christ and His way of living, your heart is too. So how do you get people like that to listen? By prayer and fasting. Even Jesus said that some problems can only be solved by prayer and fasting.

I am not speaking of fasting for forty days or even two weeks, but if there is someone that you love who hasn’t given their lives and their hearts to Jesus then pray for them and fast for one day! Drink water and juice during that time and pray.

Their life will be impacted and yours will too! God listens closely to those who combine fasting with prayer. The answer may not come immediately after the fast is over, but you can be sure that your prayer was heard!

When Paul wrote most of his letters to the different churches, he was usually in prison at the time. What does that say about his ministry? It says that it was effective for one thing because he was getting someone’s attention! He was striving for the prize, but what was that prize? The prize that Paul was striving for was to be more like Jesus and if it meant that he was stoned or imprisoned for the teaching that he was doing then so be it! The prize that Paul was seeking was also to be considered worthy of being a “good and faithful servant” to his Lord, which is something that we should also be striving for.

To live for Christ and with Him in your daily life is a conscious decision that has to be made daily. It doesn’t automatically happen when you accept Him as your savior. Many people think that once you have accepted Him into your heart, you have done your part. That is not where your part in your new life ends but where it begins! You have to decide every day to take Christ with you everywhere you go! And if you wouldn’t take Jesus there in person, then you shouldn’t be there either!

That is a radical concept for many people to accept even Christians who have been in church most of their lives. You can get up and have a bad day and from that point you may un-invite Christ or decide not to ask Him to be with you that day. Of course He will still be there but you may not know it because you choose not to recognize Him. We are supposed to know and come to know Him daily because of Who He is and what He did for us and yet we sometimes choose not to allow Him to be a presence in our daily life.

Why would you decide such a thing? The Creator of everything wants a relationship with you and everyone else in the world, doesn’t that sound cool?! We are enamored with all sorts of celebrities and sports figures and would enjoy spending time with them so why not be just as excited when the Creator wants to be in your life and share it with you? The disciples had that relationship for about three years and yet they didn’t fully comprehend it until He ascended to the Father. We have the Bible, God’s Word, to tell us all that we need to know about Him and about the Father and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us daily in our walk with Him, what more could you ask for?

Our world and the one who influences people everyday tries to tell us that the things of this world, right now are more important than anything we could have with Jesus in our lives. Money, power, and possessions are all temporary because when our life is over those things won’t mean anything. Some of them may have sentimental value to our family but other than that, nothing in this world makes the trip past death’s door only your soul and spirit do that.

The way that many people see being a Christian is that we live with lots of rules and regulations about what we can and cannot do. That is not the way this works! Following Christ and keeping our eyes on Him, spiritually and physically is the requirement that we should live with every day. It is not hard to follow Christ, once you get the hang of it. The hard part is the tug of war between your old self and the new one that now lives in your heart.

Until your faith in Christ can keep your new self in place and kick the old one out, you will be in turmoil because you can’t serve them both. It is a decision that you have to make every day. Get up with Christ on your mind, not what am I going to do today? But Who am I going to be with today? Am I going to go back to doing the things that I did before I met Jesus? Or am I going to read the Bible a few minutes and pray for strength and guidance from Him to carry me through the day?

We are living this life to get ready for the next but you have to make sure that you are going to have a life, a real life, after this one. Many people think that there is no life after this one and the Bible says just the opposite from beginning to end. Give yourself a chance to experience that life because the alternative is eternal separation from loved ones who are in heaven and from the love of God too. The only chance that you have to make this decision is during this life, now. Once this life ends, there are no “second chances”. Ask Jesus into your life, follow Him every day, learn about Him and the love that He has for you during the time that you have now.

The universe shows us every day the power and majesty of God so we are without excuse when someone asks if there is a God. Isn’t it wonderful that the Creator of everything wants to know you and have a relationship with you? Don’t you want to know Him too? All you have to do is ask Him into your life and your heart and you will have that relationship.

Ignore the world at your own risk!


It says in the Bible that we are not to be part of the world, and yet we are supposed to take Christ‘s message to all of the world. Kind of contradictory isn’t it? Not really, but we can’t let the world and the things in the world affect our life and our witness to those who may not know Christ. How can we do this?

We can’t do it on our own strength or with our own power because Satan and his demonic forces are far more powerful than we are without Jesus in our life and our heart. Without Jesus, it is impossible for us to do good outside the influence of evil. Regardless of how good we think that we are or can be, we cannot withstand the influence of the principalities and powers that Satan has at his disposal.

The reason behind your failure to withstand him is that he hates you with an undying hatred! The reason for this is that he knew that God intended to put humanity above angels in the hierarchy of Heaven one day. That is the one reason beyond pride that Satan had for his rebellion. Everything else pales in comparison and he intends to do everything that he can to corrupt as much of God’s creation as possible.

So, in a word, no we cannot ignore the world! It would be very dangerous to do so because he is the ruler of this world and ignoring the world would be just what Satan wants, in a sense. He doesn’t want to be ignored, but if enough people regard him as a myth or a fairy tale then they won’t know to defend themselves from his attacks or even know that they need to.

Many Christians don’t even know that they need to take care of the thoughts that they have and give them to Jesus. To walk with Jesus on an hourly basis is the only way to defend yourself and if you choose not to be that close with Him then Satan can get into your life, even if you go to church. Mainly because he is there too! He and his demons are in every congregation in the world. They never miss a Sunday or a Sabbath, yet many don’t have any idea that they are there.

When you give your heart to Jesus, He comes in and cleans out anything that has been there before and makes you into a new creation! Your heart becomes the temple for the Spirit to live and work in and through you and for you. When this happens, your life can have so much more meaning not only for you but for God too.

Making Jesus the Lord of your life makes you one of His disciples and they were able to do many glorious, miraculous things as long as their trust and their faith stayed focused on Him. Can we do the same? Yes, we can if we truly believe in Him and repent of our old ways and truly change. Don’t go back to the same places that you went to before, make new friends and tell your old friends that you are a new person!

Take them to church with you and introduce them to your Savior so that they will come to know Him. God loves them, they just have to realize it and accept His love and grace and they will become part of His family too!

Jesus feeds us today


Feeding the five thousand

Matt. 14: 13 through 21

(paraphrased in my own words)

When Jesus heard of John the Baptist being beheaded, he departed into a deserted place. John was his cousin so naturally, it bothered Jesus that this should happen to him. While He was there, many people found out where He had gone and followed him on foot to be near him. When he became aware of them he had compassion on them because they were far from home and he healed the sick that they had brought with them.

Afterward, toward evening, his disciples came to him saying for him to send them away so that they could get something to eat. Jesus said “they need not depart; give them something to eat”. What do you think Jesus was trying to do at this point? Have you any idea?

He was trying to get them to exercise their faith in Him. They told him that they had five loaves and two fishes. The multitude numbered about five thousand men not counting women and children and yet he told them to sit in groups of fifty and an hundred. Then He blessed the food and brake the loaves and fishes and gave them to his disciples to distribute. They all ate their fill and had twelve baskets left over.

What was shown during this feast? The power of God and His Son to be sure but what else? The power of faith in Him. If the disciples had not had faith in Jesus when He gave them the pieces of fish and bread, would they have distributed it as he had told them to? I don’t think so. Their faith was rewarded with substance, just as ours is today. When we have faith in the prayers that we pray and the outcome of those prayers, then the result with be answered prayers.

When Jesus came into history and chose His disciples we began to learn about Him and the Father because they wrote down their experiences with Him and what He said and did. Jesus and His Father worked together and that they loved all of us, not just one people. We learned by Jesus’ words and His work that He wants all of us to come to Him. Many people look at this and say that we are to be slaves to Jesus. Is that actually so bad? Considering that He will reward us with eternity in Heaven, is that so bad?

Granted, God may not answer our prayers in the way that we want Him to but they will be answered.

Can we have faith as they did when they were with Jesus? Yes, we can because we have the testimony of the Bible to bolster our faith. Many people today think that the bible is outdated and useless for the twenty-first century but God can see the time we live in and beyond so His Word and the promises contained within it is never outdated.

We, on the other hand, have our own agenda. We gravitate toward discounting the Word of God and not give it the power that it actually has. Is it possible that we don’t look at God the way that He is portrayed in the Bible? Why would we do such a thing? God created all that is around us, for our benefit and for His Glory. He created us the way we are, warts and all, to reflect His glory so that others will see what we have in Christ and want it too.

Do you look at the bible as being an old book full of children’s stories but not something that we should not pay attention to today? God revealed Himself to Israel through His prophets and they wrote down the words that He gave them to say and to write down. In those writings, we can learn who He is and we can learn about Him. We can learn what He wants of us today, not just Israel. How we are to treat others, how He will treat us, how much He loves us.

Some religions today say that we can be gods. Can you, by willing it, be any taller or slimmer than you are? I know we wish we could at times, but we can’t. Our Creator, Jesus, loves and cares for each of us. Right down to the last hair on our heads. How can you possibly understand a love like that? It is hard for anyone to understand it, but He does. He and the Father have loved all of us since the beginning, long before we were born because God sees the end from the beginning. Time was created by Him and yet He is outside of time. We cannot understand the concept of this, but it is true.

The universe was put together by Him for us so that we could see His majesty and power, even if we never heard a sermon preached. Nature cries out that the Creator is here! He has been from the beginning. The smallest life-form is perfect in its ways because He made it so, not because of some accident.

We cannot make it without Him. He is the One who sustains us, protects us, gives us our faith and our courage for everyday living. Oh, we can pridefully do it on our own for a while but what happens when the really bad stuff happens and our way just doesn’t cut it anymore?

What about the times that we have lost someone dear to us or they have been diagnosed with cancer that is inoperable? Can you hold up to that on your own strength? Maybe for a while, but eventually your strength will fail, then where will you turn? To what or who will you turn to? If you don’t know Jesus, will you blame Him or God for all the bad things? Many people do, which is exactly what Satan wants us to do.

The provision that Christ showed to the five thousand, He will give to us if we only turn to Him. Whether we turn in our hour of greatest need or we turn because we are drawn to Him by the Spirit. He loves us, which is why we are all still here to begin with. If it were not for the love that God has for us and the mercy that He bestows on us daily, the world would have ended years ago. We might never have been born, but God knew that we would because He has a purpose for each of us. That is why the mouth of hell is not yawning beneath us, because of His pleasure and His mercy toward us and those who have not accepted Jesus yet.

We are loved by the Creator! The One Who put all of this together perfectly so that we could see its majesty and His Glory! Can we comprehend a love like that? I can’t and I would imagine that you can’t either! Almighty God, His Son and the Holy Spirit did an awesome work in this universe and man cannot fathom why we are special enough to be the only life here. In reality, we may not be or God may have something else in mind, who knows? Only God Himself knows why He did what He did.

The love and mercy of Jesus, His compassion toward the people that He fed and healed and toward us, is what is keeping hell and the end of the world at bay and Satan too. What will you do when the time comes that Satan’s wrath comes to earth? If you are still here, who will you turn to?

Jesus is the only way to eternity, regardless of the promises you may hear from any “false Christ”. The end of our life is only a heart beat away or one more breath away, what will you do about Jesus? You don’t know when your life could end. It might end tonight or tomorrow. I may not make it home, but I will be with Jesus. Some might ask me: “How do you know that you will go to heaven?” Because the Spirit within my heart gives me peace in the knowledge that I am His. Are you?

New creation, same old body


How can I be a new creation after Christ has entered my life? Is it possible that I let Him in by mistake? The answers to these questions are: you can’t and you didn’t!

We can’t be a new creation on our own, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you truly accepted Jesus, you are. It is not something which will be heralded by angels or by some miraculous healing, but it is a transformation of your spirit. You become aligned with one of the Trinity and by His power you are a new creation!

The second question from above is not possible because unless God calls you spiritually and you respond by giving your heart and life to Jesus, you can’t and you won’t be His. You may go to church and be a deacon or a Gideon, you might even become a missionary overseas but you will be doing these things under your own power and not by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That being said, I do not mean that you aren’t a good person, but you can be a “fan” of Jesus and not a follower. By that I mean the same as someone who is a fan of a particular sport. You are a true fan but you don’t play professionally. You know about the sport or the person Jesus, you have heard and read many parts of the Bible, but until you let Him into your life and your heart and truly become a follower like His disciples were, you are just a fan and nothing more.

It is wonderful to be a fan of Jesus, but until you can say truthfully that you love Him and know Him from His word, that is all that you are. You are not a new creation because you don’t have Him in your heart! This is a hard truth that many in the church today have a problem with and many who have been in church and who have left also have a problem with it. Being a member of a church and attendance every time there is a function at the church doesn’t do anything for you spiritually anymore than being in a garage makes you a car!

Until you can ask Jesus into your life and your heart and live that way daily, not just on Sunday, you haven’t changed! Until God calls you to be that new creation and you answer that call by asking Jesus into your heart, you aren’t a new creation!

Oh, but when you do answer His call on your life, everything changes! Your life takes on a new meaning, your relationship with everyone becomes more meaningful, your whole character changes because you are not the same anymore! Your heart and your mind will begin to reflect the attitude and the person of Christ and everyone will know it, even if you don’t say anything about your decision.

God wants all of humanity to come to Him. Whether we choose to do so is our individual choice. It is not forced because love cannot be forced. He won’t make you love Him because that is not love. Choose Life from the Sustainer and the Creator of all life because when you do, you will be a new creation! All of the old habits won’t have the same hold on you, your friends will either like the “new you” or they won’t. Give Jesus a chance in your life and your heart because He is the longing that we have been searching for and didn’t know that He was it!

What will you do with Jesus?


After you have asked Him to come into your life, what then? Can you just go back to being the same person you have always been?

If there was true repentance and acceptance of His Lordship over your life, it is not possible for you to return to your old life and habits. Your heart and your Spirit won’t let you and your conscience won’t allow it either.

Can you ignore the prompting of the Spirit and your conscience and return to your old life? Yes, you can and each time you ignore the prompting of the Spirit, it will become easier and easier until you quench the Spirit entirely. Then you will be just another hypocrite who said they got saved and then turned away from it.

Will you feel good about doing so? At first you won’t, but eventually that small voice in your heart will go silent. Like ignoring your wife or your parents, it becomes easier with time until one day you don’t notice it at all.

Satan loves it when a “Christian” returns to their old ways because he has been watching you closely and so have your friends. If this was genuine, true repentance you wouldn’t turn away like Lot’s wife did. Why does this happen? In our society today people look for easy ways to get their way or what they want.

This has been happening ever since humans have been on the planet, so it is nothing new. Society hasn’t changed all that much in the thousands of years that we have been here. The facts speak to us from the pages of the Bible.

When they were in the wilderness and thought that Moses had died while talking to God, they begged Aaron to make them a god like the gods of Egypt. The Israelites wanted a god they could see and touch in the wilderness, even though they had seen the miracles that were wrought by God to bring them out of Egypt.

Then when they were in Canaan, they did not do as God had told them and they intermingled with some of the inhabitants of the land. Eventually, they began worshiping their gods and doing the detestable things that the Canaanites did, like sacrificing their children to a piece of wood or stone.

Our so-called modern society isn’t much different. We work more hours than our fore-fathers did, sacrificing our family life and our relationships with our children in the process in order to have “stuff” like everyone else. Our neighbors buy a new car or truck, so we think we have to have one as good or better. Your child comes home and tells you that Jordan or Sarah has this kind of game or toy, so you go get then one just like it.

Why? Why do we have to do or be like everyone else in the world when our Lord said that we were to be in the world but not of the world? This is not in the Bible word for word, but He meant that we are no longer ruled by sin which is of the world. When we come to Him and give our heart to Him, we are His and to be that which He wants us to be we have to be different. Different in ways that the world can see and therefore want to have. But, it is striving each day that makes us this way because the temptations are there every day. As children we may not see it as much as adults do, but the world, Egypt, whatever you call it is there and the ruler of our sinful world is Satan.

Satan and his fallen angels are real, whether we can see them or not and they rule over this world by tempting us and causing us to fall from the grace which we have been granted through Jesus. Some might ask, “Will I lose my salvation because of this?”. Losing your salvation is not possible in a real sense, except when you walk away from it yourself. Your witness to others will be affected because they might see that your life changed and then when you walk away from it for some reason they question if you were saved to begin with.

A person who has truly given their life and heart to Christ cannot just walk away from it because you have been changed from the inside out. If that change never really took place, if you never truly gave your heart to Him who sacrificed everything, then you never belonged to Him in the first place. Churches are full of people who think that they are Christians because they are in church and have belonged to it for a long time. They tithe, they volunteer for projects and help in the church, some may be deacons or even lay ministers. You can do most or all of these things in the church under your own strength and still not be a true Christian!

The ones you know that are easily identified as Christians, may not have Christ at all. True Christians, those who have Him in their life and in their heart, are humble and are usually behind the scenes. Not all of them are this way, but many are. Their life reflects the humility of Christ and His way of serving. Many so-called “upstanding pillars” are more like the priest who told God how great he was and that he was glad that he was not like the sinner who was in the temple with him.

As Jesus’ story illustrated, the person who went away justified was the sinner because he acknowledged that he was a sinner and asked forgiveness for it.

The priest only magnified himself in the eyes of those who may have heart him, not in the eyes of God. Pride was the sin he was guilty of that day and he didn’t even acknowledge his sinfulness.

God knows your heart, so bare it to Him. Ask Him to show you how to be His, ask Him to help you be the vessel that He knows that you can be. He will give you the strength and the wisdom from His word, the Bible so don’t neglect the reading of it. Even a few minutes each day can make a big impact in your walk with Him and in your service to Him.

God, the Creator of everything, is waiting for you to answer His calling on your life. We are important to Him, He cares for us and wants us to know it and to show it to others by allowing others to see what He has done in our life.

Through modeling and reflecting Jesus’ character by what we do and say everyday, we magnify God to the world. Isn’t that an awesome and humbling responsibility? Think about that as you go through this week.