Tag: Jesus died for your sins

Is Satan a real being?


Satan was an angel or as the Scripture puts it “a covering Cherub” at one time. Now, cherub in this sense does not mean one of those fat little angels that flits around shooting people on Valentine’s Day. Lucifer was and is still a very powerful being who is described as a dragon, a serpent, a liar and a murderer in Scripture. He is also described as a roaring lion looking for those he can devour here on Earth. What does all of this mean?

The King James version of the Bible gave Satan the name of “Lucifer” in Latin meaning “light bringer” in Isaiah 14, but the description of him in Ezekiel begins by calling him the king of Tyre. Although the description cannot be of a human being because of the attributes being described.

Jesus spoke of watching him fall from Heaven and he tempted Him in the wilderness after His 40 day fast, so yes Satan is real and he is alive here on Earth now. We see his influence and his activity every day on the news when evil is killing people all over the world for no apparent reason. All of the diseases that Jesus healed people of, or at least many of them, were attributed to demons as the cause. These demons were the angels who had followed Satan when he rebelled against God and was cast down.

Is Satan real? Yes! The world is paying the price for not thinking that he is or rather by placing him in positions of power over it by worshiping money, drugs, witchcraft and other things in this world instead of our Creator, God. Those who are doing these things believe that they are getting ahead in life because of their efforts, when it is likely that he is pulling some strings to get things working for them. Why do I say this?

Because, if they are successful then they won’t go searching for God! Satan and his followers are all about keeping as many people from becoming Christians as possible. He is trying to hurt God in this way because he can’t hurt Him any other way. Is Satan real and do demons and principalities really work for him or with him? Yes, this is true but if you want to investigate it please don’t invite them into your life or your home! Check out news about possessions, which will not be in regular news. Read about Haiti and the voodoo which goes on there, which is powered by Satan and his cohorts.

You can choose to ignore him or his influence if you want, but seek out Jesus in your life. Eternity is a long time and regardless of what your “friends” may say about Hell, it will not be an eternity of partying. Life everlasting in Heaven is much preferred over that!

Consider….


Faith, religions, Christianity, and church, to some people these are all lumped together in one big mess. We bring religiosity into the church and create some doctrine around a couple of verses then go around telling others that our way is the only one. How arrogant and stupid is that? Religion is what crucified Jesus. Self-righteousness is what makes people act the way they do toward other religions.

Consider this too..God loves each of us whether we know Him, believe in Him or worship Him. Your salvation and your eternity depend upon your belief not on your actions or anything that you do in this life. The work was already done by Jesus, you just need to realize that you need Him and come to Him in humility asking for His forgiveness. No amount of money or donations or building projects or evangelism for “your church” will get you any closer to Heaven, only your belief in and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior can do that.

Life is hard and depending upon where you live it can be brutally so. God loves you and cares for you regardless of your location or your circumstances. This is why He sent Jesus to pay the price for ALL of humanity’s sins, not just a few. Seek Him out in your life and in your situation, even if He doesn’t change your situation now, your eternity will be assured and you will spend it with God! Place your faith and your trust in Him and let those other “gods” go, since they can’t save you or help in your situation now.

God’s Promises


This is the day that the Lord has made for you and for me. What will you do with it? Do you wake up with an attitude of “Oh no, not another day!” or do you thank God for waking you up so you can have another day?

This is the life that we are given, daily, and we should be walking with Jesus but are you walking with Him or maybe someone else?

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
God promises many things in the Bible but most of us either don’t understand that we are entitled to those promises or we haven’t read the Bible enough to know what those promises are! God loves each and every person on the Earth, which is why He sent His Son, Jesus, to be the sacrifice which could pay the debt which everyone owes. Why didn’t I put that in past tense? Because we are all still committing sins regardless of our status as Christians or not, the only difference is that those who have given their heart to Jesus know they are forgiven.
They will be convicted of that sin, no matter what they do and they will ask forgiveness for it. Anyone who is not a Christian will not because until the Holy Spirit convicts you enough that you seek Him out, or you won’t do it at all. Truly, God does love you more deeply that you know or even realize but unless you have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit and become convicted of your sinful nature, you will not seek Him.
God intended for mankind to have an intimate relationship with Him and, before they ate from the forbidden tree, that is what He had. What happened? Adam and Eve did not obey God. It wasn’t the fruit or the tree that caused the sin of disobedience, it was the disobedience which caused the rift between man and God. The curse which was placed on mankind and all of creation was because of his disobedience and we still haven’t learned from it yet…because it is still going on!
People go against the rules, the Ten Commandments, all of the time. Murder, rape, stealing, incest, disregarding parents and grandparents, all of this and more happens every day. The only cure for our world’s problems is obeying God, the True God of the Bible! Not the one in the Quran or any other “book”, but the One Who created everything and everyone. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One that we need to be listening to and following!
Seek Him out in His Word because His Spirit prompted and inspired the writers to write down His Words. The Bible is not made up by man because the prophecies that it contains would not have come true if that were so! The birth of Jesus was foretold down to Him being born of a virgin and in what town He would be born in. This was written at least six hundred years or more prior to His birth!
The same goes for the Psalm which David wrote almost one thousand years prior to His death by crucifixion. A type of punishment which wasn’t even being used at the time that David wrote Psalm 22, but it describes it perfectly even to the soldiers gambling for His garments. Give the Word of God a chance to change your life for the better and you will never be the same again!

So much hatred today…


I have seen pictures of animals, dogs and cats, abused worse than anyone would allow a child to be and yet there is very little outrage or even coverage of their suffering. I know that there are slave traders working today, trafficking in children of both sexes and women too, which should be locked ourlovingsaviorup but they won’t be. Why? Because their clientele are rich and powerful which is why the trade is not cracked down on, particularly in countries outside the United States. The worst of those clientele, I imagine, actually live in the United States, we just don’t hear about it because they are wealthy enough to keep people quiet and behind doors and walls which disguise what is happening to whom.

Why is our world becoming this corrupt and sinful? Yet, it seems that it is getting worse as the days and years go by and it seems that fewer people even take notice of these crimes anymore. Whether the media is ignoring these crimes or possibly because we have become numb to the plight facing us, I just don’t know. Has our world become so corrupt that we just don’t see what is going on around us? Do we actually care about those who are abused, whether it is an animal or a human being? Some days it seems that we don’t.

Jesus cares about them all, children and adults, and He never leaves them alone even when they feel that they are. He came that they might have life, abundantly, even if the fulfillment of that promise might be in eternity. Your life and mine are important to God and when you cry out to Him, He hears your screams and your cries. He knows your pain and suffering because He is there!

Trust in Jesus to be your Savior. Ask Him to come in and make you more like Him and to turn your heart and your life around, so that you can be useful to Him and to His Kingdom! He will do these and more, if you will ask Him. God doesn’t force Himself into your life or into your heart, because love can’t be forced on anyone! The wisdom of the Bible which is God’s inspired Word comes from Him. It is not words from the men which wrote it down, because there is no way that men could accurately predict hundreds of years ahead of the crucifixion that Jesus would be crucified.

So many prophecies which point to Jesus are contained in books which were written over five hundred years or more before His birth. David penned the 22nd Psalm which describes the crucifixion and the parting of His garments over 900 years before it took place! Read it yourself if you want proof.

Our world today is nearly at the point of where mankind was before the flood of Noah. Cruel, haters of humanity and all things created, murderers, rapists, pedophiles, honestly the list could go on and on, but my point is this: we are very close to the point where God will say “Enough!”. Then, what will you do?

A dangerous cancerous growth


Unfortunately, humanity is born with this condition and has been for many thousands of years. This cancerous growth is our sin nature. We are prone to it and will fulfill it even at the young age of two. Tell any child of toddler age that they can’t have something, but they know they can reach it. One day, they will do exactly that and if you ask them if they did, they will lie to you. Even with the crumbs from the cookies in their lap, they will lie about eating them.

They haven’t been taught to lie nor are they cunning little thieves but our nature is bent toward sinful behavior whether we have seen it or heard it or not. This growth, this nature is something that we can’t cure by any means of our own. We have not the idea of formulating a cure and we don’t have the ability to do so with our own resources.

Kidney cancer cells, SEMThis sin nature is like a cancer for which there is no cure and no treatment. Radiation will not affect it, chemicals of any kind will only make it worse but they will not kill it. It is, pure and simple, a death sentence to every human born since the time of Adam and Eve. Yet, God did provide a way for us to clear it from our system, from our hearts altogether. Through the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace given to us as a gift by God and the atonement bought with the blood of Christ. It is a very expensive treatment and a cure, but it is freely given to us by God…if we will, by faith, believe in the work of Jesus!

God had this idea or plan in place even before the Earth was formed or Adam was created. Because, He knew that it would be needed and necessary for all of mankind. It was not something which was an afterthought, nor was it something that caught God by surprise! It was necessary, which was all of the reason that God needed to put His plan in motion. You might wonder, why would God choose to allow part of Himself, part of the Trinity, to take on the form of a human and live among them, teach those who would listen and hear the words and working of God and His grace and then die a death on a cross in order to redeem mankind?

The answer is very simple but it is also hard for us to understand, which is why so many people have trouble with this word and the actions and results which come from it. The answer is: LOVE.

God loves His creation, not just the planets and stars and galaxies, but He loves each of us because He knows each of us. How is this possible? Because God is outside of our time. He can look at any point in time that He chooses, from the beginning to the end and HE can see each of us at any point in our life. He knows what you said yesterday and what you will do tomorrow. You are known in a way that you can’t understand or comprehend, but it is because of this knowing that He loves us. It is also for this reason that He did send Jesus to atone for all of mankind’s sins, even though much of mankind will not accept it nor believe it.

As the Scripture says: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

God didn’t do this because He had to, but because He wanted to. He wanted to have the same relationship that He enjoyed with humanity in the Garden. If this was the only way to do this, then that is exactly what He would do. He knew that Israel, as a nation, would reject Jesus. Which is why Paul was blinded on the road to persecute more of the young church. God wanted him to be the apostle to the Gentiles (those outside of Israel), which is exactly what he did. God uses the weak things or people to prove His power and glory and to bring to redemption those who might not hear of His grace and mercy through any other means.

If you have felt the call of the Holy Spirit, the feeling which tells you that something inside needs to change, then seek Him out at a church which teaches from His Word. Read His Word and pray that He will show you what you should do. Give your heart to Him by asking Him to come into your life and save you from this “cancer”, so that you can be made new and whole, into a new creation. One which will be used in His Kingdom to bring others to Him as well. Each of us has a purpose that nobody else can accomplish. This is why those of us who are called to Him are called in the first place, because we can have an effect on someone’s life that is very important to God. That person may be the next Paul or Peter or John, but if we aren’t available then they may never come to know Jesus at all.

A little at time


This is exactly how I recommend for people to learn about and read God’s Word…a little at a time. Why? Because our Creator’s Word and His Wisdom is better suited to learning and understanding a little at a time. That being said, we should all try to read the entire Bible in a year’s time, but it only takes a chapter or two every day!

Like the old commercial said, “A little dab’ll do ya!”. I am showing my age. 🙂

In any way that you want to look at it, God’s Word is worth more than any education, any college course you could take today! It covers finance, life situations, business, religion and relationships so there is no need for any self-help course or book! God loves us and has loved each of us since before the world was formed, He doesn’t give you bad advice and He wouldn’t harm you in any way.

Satan, the serpent from the garden, God’s adversary and ours, will seek to destroy you and he will send all kinds of problems your way in order to steer you away from God and His blessings for your life! Make sure that you know which one is hurting you or trying to steer you in a direction which is counter to what you know God would do. If it isn’t good for you and it is causing problems in your life, then it is from Satan and his demons, so get rid of whatever it is and seek God’s strength and His provision to do so!

He never leaves our side, but He will only come to your aide if you ask Him to. God doesn’t jump into your life and take over, He is only waiting to make His blessings available to you when you ask Him to, although some of our blessings are given to us as life itself. Breathing, walking, talking, thinking, going about your everyday work and play, all of these are blessings which most of us take for granted. We don’t look at any of them as blessings, yet that is what they are.

God gives us those blessings a little at a time just as we should learn more about Him a little at a time. He is the Creator in the first part of Genesis, He is a friend in later chapters of it. As the Word evolves and we learn more about Him, His attributes become clearer and sharper to us, eventually making sense to a point. Why do I say it that way? Because, we will never understand God on this side of life and we may not fully understand Him even in eternity, although we will know Him better.

God loves you and me with a love which we can’t comprehend because there is no human analogue for it. We can’t know a love as deeply because He is God! So, we can’t truly understand His love for us in the light of His being our Creator! He knows us fully and knew us this way, even before our world was made or anything in our world was even formed. The atonement which was given to us through the sacrifice of Jesus is given to everyone, freely, all each of us needs to do is ask for His forgiveness (which we have already), because we can’t receive it unless we ask for it.

Please, seek out His Truth in the Bible. There is no other book on Earth which is like it because the words in it came from Spiritual inspiration by God!