Tag: Jesus Christ

Do you need Jesus?


In our ever increasingly technological world there are so many devices and links and messages which demand our attention. How can we be attentive to each other as people? I have seen pictures of people who are supposedly having a dinner together and yet all of them are on their “smart phones” and not even talking to each other or even looking at each other! They may be “texting” each other but that is not a conversation! Are we, as people, becoming so insensitive to each other that if it doesn’t happen on the screen in front of us, we have no use for it and don’t even acknowledge it?

Many in the world don’t have cell service abundant enough to be this way. How would your day be if you couldn’t get messages or e-mail or cell service? Mine would be much quieter and yours would too. I know that I am using a medium which I am writing against, sort of, but it seems to be the only way to get a message to the world these days!

Peace With God is a website which points to the only real relationship that matters in this world and will give you the hope of a life in the next. The technology that we are exposed to and dependent upon today will not save you. Man-made religions and ones which have animals or the earth or even other men as the focus of their worship will not help you. Many people believe that Jesus was just a man. If He was then where is His skeleton in the grave that He was buried in?

He fulfilled so many prophecies with His birth and His ministry and His death and resurrection, with many eye-witness accounts of what He did after His resurrection, until there is no doubt about Who He is. Your life can and will be so much more meaningful, to you especially but also to Jesus! Especially when you have given your heart to Him. Jesus is the only way to salvation and an eternal life in heaven. We all have an eternity waiting for us, the decisions that we make here during this lifetime determine where we will spend eternity!

Romans 8:28-30 : 

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified;those he justified, he also glorified.

These verses point us toward Christ and the reason we are here now because it was through Christ that we received grace from God in order to justify us and allow us to be witnesses to the world for Him. If we are to enjoy an eternity with Christ, then we need to make the decision for Him now, during our lifetime! When death claims each of us and that can happen at any time, there is no second chance!

If you have not made that choice, please consider making it today. Eternity awaits and without Christ it will not be an enjoyable one, but it will never end. With Christ you will be with friends, family and many others who made the choice for life and you will be with them for eternity, but we will have so much more than that. I cannot name the things that we may enjoy because I don’t know the details yet. I just know that pain, suffering, agony, regret will not be part of the eternity that I wait for.

The world is in turmoil and trouble because of the lack of faith in God. We have pushed God out of every corner of our lives and we are paying the penalty for it. And it will only get worse from this point on! I don’t know when the world will wake up to this fact, but when it does it will likely be too late to change the course that we have put ourselves on. The prophecies contained in the Revelation of Jesus Christ tell that when the time for testing begins there has never been a time like it before and unless it is shortened, no life will survive. Read it yourself, it is not a fantasy but it is prophecy and according to God’s Word it will come to pass!

Are you OK?


How many times have I heard this on a day to day basis? I have no idea, some days I don’t hear it at all and some days it seems that someone is asking me this at least once every fifteen minutes. I must not look like I am doing very well when people keep asking me this, huh?

Is it possible that my own life or my anxieties show through the thin veil that covers my persona? Is that what the rest of the world sees, instead of what is in my heart and my life? I suppose the worries and anxieties that I have could have that effect on the way that I look or act, so the people see me as whatever that makes me. Normal.

Yes, I am OK. I am normal just like most everyone else, except I have an advantage that many people don’t. I have a risen and living Savior, Jesus Christ! He came to our world as a baby, helpless and unable to walk or talk. The amazing thing about Him is that even as a baby, He was and is God. We have to let Him grow up and get out of the cradle though, otherwise He will not help us to grow in our faith and learn more about Him.

I know, many people today don’t really want to hear about Jesus. Well that is too bad. If you don’t want to read about Him, then find another blog to read. I have been given  a wonderful gift from Him and that is to be able to write as well as the fact that He saved me from my sinful ways. He loves each of us far more than we deserve to be and He forgives us for all the things that we have said and done when we ask Him to come into our lives.

To answer the first question: Unless you have Jesus as your Savior, no you are not OK! None of us, regardless of our denomination or race or culture can truthfully say that we are OK. The rest of the world says that we are. Our friends may say that we are, but spiritually we are not. Because we cannot be OK on our own merit or with our own concept of religion.

Many people would tell me that “I don’t have my own religion!”, but today many people actually do. They may not realize it but it really is possible. Your doctrine or your church may have specific “steps” or rituals that have been used in the church for years and these can become blocks that get in the way of your relationship with Jesus. Even your job or the amount of money that you make can get in the way of your relationship with Him.

“Why do I have to have a relationship with Jesus?” is a question that many people want answered. The answer or the reason for this is because your salvation was purchased with Jesus’ blood and His death and resurrection. In more modern terms, if you were about to go to prison for a life sentence and would never be able to get out and before you served your sentence someone came forward and said that they would take your place, how would you feel? If you owed about a trillion dollars and were unable to pay and were going to lose everything and go to prison and someone came and paid the entire amount for you, wouldn’t you want to know this person? I would!

God loves each of us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins just so each of us can be OK in His sight! The spotless Son and Lamb of God came to be the sacrifice that would take away the sins of the entire world.

Righteousness, can we have it? Do we get it?


In the book of Romans, Paul writes in chapter three verse ten: “As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one”. Does this preclude anyone and everyone from obtaining it? Can we be righteous?

We are able to be righteous, but not on our own or by our own strength. Anyone can be righteous. Everyone can be righteous, but there are conditions for our ability by itself is not sufficient. How can it be obtained for us? Is it possible for us to be righteous?

Yes, we can be righteous but our own power and will, cannot accomplish this. At least, not to the satisfaction of a righteous God although in many ways He doesn’t condemn our efforts. It’s just that there is nothing that we can do to be good enough compared to His perfection. Our efforts and our own goodness can never be good enough without Christ and His righteousness covering us with His perfect righteousness.

The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6

6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness is as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

The apostle Paul wrote again in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”

None of us can hope to attain a level of being as some today teach that we can that is comparable to God and His perfect righteousness. The only way that we can be righteous is through the transforming power of Jesus and by accepting Him as our Savior. When He comes into your heart and your life, then you are made a new creation, righteous through Him toward God!

We can’t accomplish this on our own in any way that mankind has devised. Through morality, or charity, or any of the good things that man can do. None of them are good enough, even though the world looks at them as being good. In comparison to God’s perfection, they are not.

Yet, according to Paul in Romans chapter six verse twenty three: “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. Again in chapter 5:8, he wrote: “But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.

Can we ignore these things that God has done for us even though we don’t deserve any of them? God’s grace and mercy toward all of mankind is more gracious than we could possibly deserve. Truly, God could have just destroyed the earth and started over someplace else but He chose not to. We can’t understand why He did this or what His reasons are for loving us enough to be this merciful, but that doesn’t discount the fact that He does love us, all of us and He will never stop loving us.

What about our love for Him? Do we show that love in service or in dedication to Him? Why not? Doesn’t He deserve our love? If for no other reason, He deserves it because He loved us before we decided to come to Him. He loves you even while you are a sinner and He loved all of us in that way, before we felt the call to give our life to Jesus. God doesn’t require you to “clean yourself up” before you come to Him. Jesus didn’t ask the thief to “clean up” before he would be in paradise. He told him that he would be in paradise that day!

If He can accept someone who has done something bad enough for the Romans to crucify him, then we certainly are able to come to Him at any time in our life. There was no time left to “clean up”, all the thief did was ask Christ to remember him when He came into His kingdom and he did this in faith. Can we do no less than this? Jesus told His disciples that they needed to have the faith of a child but in many ways, that may be why so many can’t or don’t come to Him.

It is too simple and easy and they aren’t required to do or give anything for this grace. That is not exactly true. We are required to give our life to Jesus in exchange for His righteousness and forgiveness of every sin that we have committed or will commit. Giving your life or my life is not an easy thing because we must continually do it on a daily basis. That is what Jesus meant by taking up your cross daily and following Him because in doing so you have to stop doing what you have done before. Giving your life to Jesus is a daily process; it isn’t finished when you ask Him into your heart, it is just beginning!

I know that is not what many people have heard or been taught but it is the truth because that is what Jesus taught. Taking up your cross means laying down your life (your old self) daily to follow Jesus and it is a process that doesn’t stop until you meet Him face to face. As you walk with Him daily through your life, the process of laying down your “old self” will become easier. The beginning of your journey with Jesus will be a little rough because your friends and your habits will still be around and that will complicate things.

I am not saying that you have to get rid of your friends, but you are not the same person once you give your life to Jesus. If there has been a change in your heart, it will show and they will see it. It will shine through your heart and into your character so that the world will see that there has been a change whether you tell anyone or not!

When your friends ask you what has happened to you? All that you have to say is that “I have met Jesus, and I am His and He is mine!” If they want to know more, well, bring them to church with you. Show them some things that you have learned in the Bible. If you don’t have the answers for them, call someone who does and let them answer their questions. Your life in Christ is your witness to the world, but only if you allow Him to change your heart and your life into a reflection of Him. If you decide that you want to go back to what you were doing before, then there may not have been a change. You may have felt an emotional high when you came down the aisle, but that could have been it.

Only God knows the condition of your heart, no one else can discern your spiritual condition except Him. Give your heart to Jesus and He will strengthen you and help you to do His will in your life because you can’t do it alone and you won’t unless you have Him there.

Why do we abandon our search during the holidays?


I have noticed that on the blogs that I have the testimony of God, the traffic seems to dry up around the holidays. I realize that we are more busy during this time with many things to do but the reason for our thankfulness and for the season itself is God and the Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our thankfulness and being thankful to our Creator just for giving us life and the blessing of living it is what we truly need to be celebrating during this time! Not the football games, or the turkey and dressing or eating too much, but the risen Savior who came to save us from our own nature! God loves each and every one of us more than we can imagine and He wants the best for all of us. Unfortunately, Satan, hates mankind because we are loved by God and he only wants to make our lives as miserable as he can. If that means killing us or one of our family, he will make it happen. If it means causing some illness that will cause us to question God’s purpose, he will do that too!

We are not without hope though because our Savior, Jesus Christ, has overcome Satan and made a way for each of us to come to Him with no strings attached. All we have to do is come to Him and ask that He come into our lives and our hearts. Once we believe in Him and His saving grace that has been paid for through His sacrifice, we are His! Then the fun begins!

Our changed heart and nature will cause us to want to serve Him in whatever way we are able. If we can teach, then as a teacher. If we are able to be a missionary so someone can learn of Christ through us, then that is our calling too. Whatever your job is in life, be the Christian that you are in that job so others can see Jesus in you and through your life. That is all that we are required to be is a reflection of Him! He has already done the hard part and all we have to do is let people see it in our life–see Him in our life!

Our search for meaning and purpose is not hard once we realize what we were created for and by whom we were created. He is the only one who can re-create your heart and your life from being a sinner in a sin-sick world to being an evangelist to the world. Some of you may become even greater than other well known evangelists of our time but only if you preach and teach the gospel of Christ and His crucifixion for our sins. At one time I was like Moses, I did not want to be or do anything that God was calling me to do. Especially if it had anything to do with being a teacher or a preacher!

God changed my heart and my attitude toward doing what He wanted me to do and He can give you a peace about your troubles that will enable you to be His servant as well. You have nothing to lose from giving your heart to Him and only eternity to gain. How could anyone argue against that!

Did you know this about Jesus?


1. He is the first-born son of God; 2. He fulfilled over 300 prophecies about the Messiah during His lifetime on earth; 3.Pagan wise men (astronomers/astrologers) recognized Him when His own people did not; 4. He is alive today at the right hand of God; 5. He will judge the nations when He returns to rule on the throne of David.

These are just a few of the facts about Jesus and there are many more. The big question is this: Do you know Him? I am not asking if you are a “fan” of Jesus because churches are full of fans. I am asking do you KNOW Him? In many ways our culture has changed to the point that it would be disgraceful to someone from the generation of WWII. I know a few people from that generation and they can’t believe that our nation has gone so far down the path that we are on. The reason behind our decline in the world and in other areas of life is because we have replaced Jesus and God with something which doesn’t resemble them at all!

God created man to have a daily walk with Him, to fellowship with Him the way that we do today with our friends and family. Although the family is increasingly under fire today because of our “culture”, it is the most important institution that God endorsed from the beginning besides marriage between a man and a woman.

Knowing God is far different than being a fan of Him. I know about or have met many people but I only know superficial knowledge, just the surface. Intimate knowledge is reserved for my family and for Jesus. To have that kind of knowledge of Him, you have to have a daily relationship with Him. I don’t mean to say that I am in constant contact with Him, but I try to speak and allow Him to speak back to me at least once per day. Our lives can be far more than just living, we can be doing His work for Him on a daily basis. This is actually what we were created to do, though many of us never find this out until it is too late.

Some, find out about it and embrace it as their calling in life. Some are called to be ministers and evangelists and they fulfill this calling very well. As long as they keep God in the place that He is supposed to be in, things will work out just fine. On the other hand, if they try to be the one who is being served, they will find that their reward will not be what they expected.

We only get to experience the joy of knowing God when we are doing His work for Him and not for ourselves. Why does it have to be that way? Because that is the way He ordained it to be, just as the farmer reaps his harvest after planting the seed and nurturing it to maturity so our life is to be. If we are to be useful to Him and His kingdom, we must do His will every day.

We are longing for meaning, can it be found?


Over the past few years I have noticed that people are searching, longing for meaning and purpose in their lives. We all do at one point in life. Some of us find it in our family, some find it in meaningful work, some never find true meaning or purpose and go on searching, wondering what can possibly fill that empty space. There is something, someone, who can fill that space in our lives and in our heart. But, we must search Him out, He will not force us to come to this knowledge. Force, coercion, and pain are not the ways to find Him or come to Him.

Granted, the so-called “church” has done many evil things in the past and some people are causing more pain in His name even today, but that is the way of our nature, not His. We are the ones who have perverted and soiled His name by claiming to be doing things which He would not condone and yet claiming that we do this for Christ. All that is happening when this is done is that the name and glory of the Christ and God Himself are being tarnished like old silver by the actions of people who only have their own interests at heart.

The reason behind this is simply Satan himself because even though he was created to worship God, he was given free will like we are and pride was found in him and he was cast out of Heaven because he wanted to be exalted above God. He is now the ruler of this world and all that is done on earth, especially things which are evil and which can cast doubt toward God he will do. Although, he is not totally in control because God only allows him to do what is truly in the will and knowledge of God. God knows exactly what will work to bring about our obedience and our recognition of Who He is, so that we will ultimately fulfill our purpose. We are in control only to the extent that what we do affects our lives and our immediate surroundings. We are not gods and were never intended to be.

We were created by God to be in this universe and to be servants to Him. That is not to say, that we are slaves in the sense that many people and the devil himself tries to make us believe that we are. As Christians, we do it because we were loved and known by Him first and considered worthy enough that He died on the cross to save us from our own stupid, prideful, decisions. People do things, good or bad, on their own which cause others to fall into a life which will be ruinous to them and to others. It is just our nature, because of the fall from grace in the Garden and we must be redeemed from it through Jesus. He is and always has been the way to life everlasting.

It has been called many things from many cultures and I am not saying that there is another way, by another name but one day everyone will know that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Whether you get it in a church or from an evangelist or from the Bible itself, when God calls you it will become clear to you that what you need was there all along, you just didn’t know that it was so easy. Easy to claim the life of being a Christian, yet it is hard to live it daily. Many churches will tell you that the life of a believer is easy but it is not. Our nature keeps us from getting up every morning and laying down our own nature and taking up the nature of being a Christian. It can be done, but not under our own strength. We have to ask for His strength and through Him we can do what He wants us to do.

I know that all of this sounds very cryptic because I am not going into specifics about Christian life and service, but the reason that I am not is because it is different for each of us. You may be gifted in one area, your wife or son or daughter may be gifted in another. Yet, through the Spirit, once you surrender your will to His will in your life, you can and will be able to do whatever He asks of you and shows you what He wants you to do. God loves each person on this planet and wants each of us to come to know Him but until we do, He will not force us. It is not in His nature to do that and God cannot change because He is unchanging.

Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come unto the Father except by Me” John 14:6. There is only one way which will get you to Heaven, and that is through trusting in the saving power of Jesus and the sacrifice made on the cross for you, believing Him for your salvation. No other religion or ceremony will do, no one can do what He did and yet He lives and will come back for His own. We will be tested and some will be found lacking in faith and there will be a falling away but if you will put your faith in Him and trust in Him, and cling to the Bible and the wisdom contained in it, you will find peace and life everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.