Tag: Jesus loves you

What do you see?


When you look at the world today and the news and all of the terrible things that are happening in it…what do you see? Is it evidence of how corrupt and perverted humanity has become? Is it prophecy coming true on a daily basis or is it just our evil and corrupt world and the people in it who are doing all of these things?

Actually, it is prophecy coming true AND it is the people in the world who haven’t accepted Jesus as their Savior who are fulfilling those prophecies. The evil and corruption and violence in our world are part of those prophecies which are coming true.

Yes, they are coming true every day and it seems with more frequency. The signs from the heavens like the solar eclipse this year and the next one in seven years, both of which will be seen in America. Then another pair of eclipses which will be seen in northern Egypt and Arabia beginning seven years after the two in America and the second seven years later. Both of the pair of eclipses are total and will make an “X” in the countries where they are seen.

The signs are showing up and are increasing. Please, don’t ignore God’s Word and the signs which He is using to bring attention to His Creation and Himself. God loves each of us and has provided atonement for each of us but if we don’t accept it and live according to His Word then it is as if the provision is refused and you are on your own. Just like someone telling you that you have an inheritance that you can claim but they won’t tell you what it is or how much. If you don’t claim it for yourself, then it is given to someone who will claim it.

Salvation through Jesus blood is the same. If you don’t claim it and live according to His Word, then it does you no good at all and it is the same as not having it at all. God knows who has taken His offer of forgiveness and who hasn’t or won’t, whether you believe it or not, He will judge you….not someone on Earth. Your own decision about what to do with Jesus’ gift is the very decision which will condemn you or bring salvation to you. The choice is yours.

In truth, the very person who decides that they will wait until later to get saved, “when I have got my life on track”, is the one person that will end up dead far sooner than they ever thought. They will be standing in front of God and that question will come up: What did you do with your knowledge of Jesus? So…what will be your answer?

Anything besides, He is my Savior, will not be enough and will not get you inside the gates of Heaven. If Jesus doesn’t step forward and claim you as His own, then your eternity will be without God, without His Love being expressed in your eternal home. That is just a taste of what hell will be like. Then, there is the heat and the flame and the pain of separation which will haunt you throughout eternity. God did not send you to hell. Jesus did not condemn you to hell…you did. It was your decision…it is your decision today.

The signs are all around us today that the age is coming to an end. So, what will you do with Jesus? Is He your Savior or will you continue on your own?

Acts of kindness


No matter how small they may be or what they may cost, any act of kindness is a blessing. If the world could experience more real acts of kindness, especially in places where even the smallest act of kindness would mean a lot… it could mean living just one more day for a child and we could change the world!

But…what do we see today? Murder, bombings, shootings, suicide bombings killing twenty or more people, wars, famine, diseases…can we do any act of kindnesses to help with these?

Other than prayer, I am not sure what can be done until Jesus comes back.

You hear about these in the news and on social media about “random acts of kindness”, but why do they have to be random? Do we as people, who were created in the image of God, have to be kind on a random basis? I think we could be kind and caring to each other on a regular basis, if we had the Holy Spirit living in our hearts and we were truly living the way that Jesus told us to be!

I know, it is corny and a pathetic way of being in our world today, but why do we have to hate each other so much? Can’t we show the love of God to others like Jesus did? You know, love isn’t deadly and it won’t cause cancer, as a matter of fact love and laughter makes most healing processes move along faster.

Life comes from God through His love for all of His Creation. Every being on this planet was created with a purpose, many of the more disgusting ones we don’t know their purpose but God knows why He created them. He is still creating because every year science finds some new creature which has never been discovered before. Some of these live in places where we thought that there was no way for life to be, yet it is.

It is likely that the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have some form of life. I don’t know if we would recognize it as life if we saw it. But I feel sure that God didn’t put those moons and planets out there just to look pretty and make us wonder about the universe that we live in.

God’s act of kindness toward us is this: we are still here. He shows His grace toward us every day that we are alive and we have another day to live for Him. If we aren’t, then we should be. When your life is over, do you think that you are good enough or righteous enough to merit stepping through the gates of Heaven? God’s grace toward each of us is His kindness and love allowing us enough time to hear His voice and to understand that each of us NEEDS Jesus in our heart and in our life!

It doesn’t matter if you have had ten years, twenty or fifty or even one hundred years on this Earth. If you have lived here and have heard His Word preached or read the Bible, then you know about His love for you. All He is asking for you to do is to return some of your love to Him by following Him and doing His will in your daily walk with Him. It doesn’t cost you anything, but in return you will have eternity with Him to do even more!

Quiet time with God


Have you ever thought about having real, honest, quiet time alone with you and God and His Word. No distractions, no television or radio, no children or pets or spouses to interrupt your time with the Father and your Creator! Wouldn’t that be wonderful! Jesus made sure that He did this regularly during His ministry.

The Leper’s Prayer
(Leviticus 14:1-32; Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-45)

12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 13 And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. 14 And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15 But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. 16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Jesus did this not because He had to, but because when He communed with His Father, He would be told what to do and where to go next. He would also, very likely be refreshed through the Spirit and His time with His Father. Just as we can be, if we make this a part of our life every day. Prayer and reading God’s Word can be a refreshing time, especially if it is done on a daily basis and in a solitary place.

God walked with Adam in the garden, Jesus prayed and sought the Father’s guidance during His ministry so if it is important enough for Jesus to do it almost daily, it should be for us as well.

The Word of God


john317At the very first chapter of our Bible, God spoke into the void and into His creation His will, the breath of God filling all of Creation with all kinds of potential life and good and the possibilities of death and evil too. His very voice is the most powerful force in all of nature because He is the Creator of natural laws and nature itself! Because, the energy of every star, every galaxy and any powerful structure contained therein is only there because of God and His Word being spoken into the cosmos!

In the gospel of John, the very first few words tell what is believed about Jesus, the Word made flesh:

John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Jesus was and is the Living Word of God, so it is by Him all things were made and through His power all things, including you and I and every other living being on Earth, live and have their being even now. It is by God’s Grace that we are here to do His work and His will in this life while we yet live. Not the grinding away that we chase after money and fame and family, but living for Him and to spread His Word and wisdom in this cold world that doesn’t know Him.

That is the will of God for all believers and whether you embrace it or not, it is still true. God intended for us to have a relationship with Him and through Him in this life into eternity. We should be receptive of that grace and His gift because it is something which we can’t afford in any way, yet it is given. We are loved by Him enough that He gave Himself, His Son, to pay the debt that we cannot. A debt that He didn’t owe but He knew that it was the only way to balance out the debts owed by all of humanity.

By giving His life, His blood and the suffering which went with it, that debt was paid for all of us. When the Spirit convicts you that you are a sinner in need of Jesus, then you will and you should seek Him out at all costs, even your life. Because He is the Pearl of great price and the lost sheep that was found, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He is your Savior and mine, all we have to do to receive His grace and the gift of eternity is to believe in His work and in Him. Like a child believes her father will catch her, we should believe in and trust Him.

Please, take the time to read about Him and learn about Him because He is the ONLY way to be forgiven and to obtain that which cannot be bought…eternal life with God.

Truth in the Word


How much truth do you see in God’s Word? In the gospel? If it isn’t true and there is no Truth in it, then why believe?

The Trinity has existed as three in One…as God for a very long time, long before we or anything else in Creation existed. How can we so arrogantly believe that God sent His Son to die and then abandoned Him there? The Holy Spirit was there, God was there and Jesus was on the cross, so He wasn’t abandoned at the cross exactly…He just felt that He was. His humanity felt that way!

The same way that His human heart and His brain told Him to be afraid and anxious before the scourging and the crucifixion. It was His humanity which made Him feel alone, scared and helpless on the cross, but He wasn’t. Our truth is relative today because as psychologists put it, “your truth is not my truth”. This is a very clever lie from Satan. God loves each of us far more than we could ever know or comprehend, until we are in His Presence of course.

You have the freedom to believe in Him and His Word or not, because it is necessary. Love doesn’t come to anyone unless it is free to be given in return as well as received from the other person. Yes, we are free to refuse His love for us if we choose and to live our lives in complete self-righteousness, thinking that we are good enough without Jesus. That we deserve to be allowed into Heaven on our own merits.

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it is totally WRONG!! Until you give your heart to Jesus and allow Him to come in and fix the problems which you caused and to show you what real love actually is, you will always feel empty and without hope. This is what God wanted to save us from in the first place…ourselves. Because ever since the Fall, we have all been born with a seed of sin in our hearts. Toddlers will lie to you without even knowing what they are doing, so that proves that sin is there.

God loves us anyway!! He created all of us and He knows the desires and needs of our heart even when we weren’t born yet. From the moment you were conceived until your death, God knows what you will do, when you will do it and why. He doesn’t force the decisions on you, but He knows what those decisions are or will be, and until you give your life to Him, He will watch you and be with you regardless until you figure out that you really need Him.

Seek Him out before it gets too far or before your life gets out of control! He is there and always has been, so make sure that you know Him before your life is over and your chance to know Him as Savior is gone for good.

So much anger


angerIn today’s world, on the news, in your home town even, it seems that there is a lot of anger. You see the effects of it every day on the news and in your neighborhood. You see it and hear it sometimes in your own home. But…everyone seems to brush it under the rug and ignore it until, one day something blows up. Frustration with our government or with your family builds and builds until one day it is in the news on television. A couple kills each other over supposed infidelity, whether true or not the end result is that two people are dead. Someone straps a bomb to themselves because they were taught to hate other people who worship differently and they go to a marketplace and blow themselves up and kill as many people, men, women and children, as they can. What did that accomplish?

It is hard to understand these things because we don’t know what happened to cause them. Sometimes, it is a senseless thing which is happening, at other times it seems that there is a reason for it. Outside the culture or the neighborhood or even the family, the reporters and the rest of the public just don’t understand what caused this? Why did it happen the way it did? Is anyone responsible?

We don’t understand the reason even if one is given via email or post on social media, so how can we help? Can we help? Is there anything that someone could do or say to help in these situations?

The truthful answer is: we don’t know. I can’t understand the mindset of a person or a group of people whose intent is to do these things. Is there a way to help?

The only answer that I can come up with, comes from God’s Word: Love your neighbor as yourself. So, why aren’t people being taught this instead of hate? Because the world and those in it don’t like to hear the truth from an indisputable source. The world and its religions, besides Christian religions, doesn’t want to hear this and they can’t come back with a saying or a truth from their religions which is better!

The advice and love and mercy which comes from God’s Word can be disbelieved and thrown in the trash but you can’t find better wisdom and knowledge because it came from Him. God is the ultimate Creator and King of all and His wisdom is beyond our understanding. His wisdom is above us as we are above an ant or a snail, yet each of those is wise in their own way. The ant does his gathering for when things are tough, the snail does what God designed him to do because he is a snail.

We are created in His image to be like Him and in order to be like Him we should learn about Him and walk with Him daily. Not weekly or once every month or just a couple of times in the year, but every day that you wake up thank Him for that day and be thankful for the opportunities that you may have during that day. Living daily with Him and through Him is not something which is easy, you have to purpose and decide to follow Him daily. Christians all over the world, those who are saved by their belief in Him Who saved them, neglect to do this even though they belong to Him. Why?

Because, after their salvation they feel that they have all that they need from God until something happens and then they call on Him to give them help and healing. It is something which you see in the Old Testament from one chapter to the next, following God while they are without enemies or without drought. Then, they forget the One Who saved them from their enemies or from a drought and go back to living as they wish to until some other calamity comes upon them.

I am not saying that living with God daily, reading His Word and praying to give Him praise for His grace and mercy will give you a life without problems, it will not! We are not perfect, we will all fail in our faith at some point, but God is gracious and will forgive us if we will confess it and turn back to Him again. Life, even the life of a Christian, is not easy but as a follower of Christ, Satan will attempt to cause you to fall in the sight of all so that your witness to them is taken away. Sometimes, your witness will be stained not by Satan but by your past. If you are called to be a minister in an area where people have known you for most of your life, like Jesus when He came to Nazareth, many won’t hear the Word of God that you preach but will be listening to you as you were when you were younger.

Do not fail to deliver the Word in your calling, regardless of their view of you or their opinion, because that is what God called you to do. If they accept it and repent then God brought it about, if not then they weren’t listening with their spiritual ears to begin with.

What will you do?


If someone asks you for the reason that you have joy in your life when you should be sorrowful, what will you say? What would you tell them? Would you say that “I take a happy pill every day!”, even if that is truly a lie? What answer would you give them? Would it line up with your beliefs and your faith? Do you have faith in God, the One that can give you peace and joy during times of pain and even heartache?

These are questions that many churches and pastors seem to be missing or even not teaching it at all, because they are trying not to offend people in order to get them to come to church. Since when did Jesus not offend people? He called the Pharisees hypocrites and sons of their father the Devil. Some of His teachings offended people to the point that many people turned away from Him. We are supposed to tell people about salvation and do likewise in our ministry, not coddle them with soothing tones in a sermon which will do nothing but send more people to hell!

We, as Christians or followers of Jesus, are not supposed to be politically correct. That is the job of those in office! We are supposed to show people the Savior Who saved us from our own stupidity and selfishness, not water the message down until you can’t tell it from a self-help book! God’s Word is the only self-help book that you need, because it takes self out of the equation when you put Jesus into your life and your heart and live daily with Him!

Being saved is not being perfect, because we can only strive toward that goal…we won’t attain it until we are in Heaven with Him. Even then, we will not be perfect, just more like Him because we will have our glorified bodies and will live for eternity! Praise the Lord!

Tell someone about the God that you serve, the One Who created everything and inspired the writers of the Scriptures to pen His Wisdom and not their own.

Racism and hate


Can we overcome these two demons? It is possible, but not under our own power and motivation. Unfortunately our independence and our ability to choose what we believe or not, on an individual basis, is what grew these two into mankind’s conscience. We are not born this way, but over time and exposure to other ideas and teachings at home or school, we do develop our own version, our own opinions toward others. That is where these destructive attitudes or emotions grow from.

Sometimes, they aren’t very potent in certain individuals but with a bit of prodding from someone who can stoke them and get your emotions involved in the matter then, like a small fire with alcohol or gas poured on it, they will explode. We see this everyday and hear about it on the news, if you can stand to watch it. Pride, arrogance, and greed follow along with these two and all of them together can cripple a country.

Why is it so hard for humanity to get past these kinds of problems? INDIVIDUALITY. We seem to be resistant to being in any kind of real, true relationship with each other. Oh, we may do so with our family, maybe our close friends, but anyone outside of that circle is out of luck. Even…God.

Oh, we may say that we “believe” in Him, but we mostly believe in our idea of God. Why is this? It is also because of our freedom which God allows us to have, because love cannot flourish without the freedom to choose. Many times we look at God’s Word during church and see that God allowed His people to choose many times in the Bible. He didn’t stop them from walking away from Him or worshiping Him, because He loves us.

Love is above hate and bitterness and racism and true love does not allow these emotions to flourish at all. It is mankind’s evil and hatred for other opinions which causes so much strife and trouble in our world today. God didn’t create evil, though He allows it to be. We should seek Him, the God of the Bible and there is no other. His Word is Truth and salvation offered to all who will believe in Him and in His atonement which is offered through Jesus the Christ.

Apathy is catching


It seems that many church members and those who previously attended church are becoming apathetic about their faith and what they believe as well as whether they need to go to church or not. Is this happening elsewhere, all over the world or is it just here in the USA?

Specifically the area where I live, in central Mississippi, the apathy is catching on to the point of some churches serving food just to get people to come to church on a Sunday morning or night. This is happening in what is called the Bible Belt! Mississippi even has the distinction of being one of the most religious states in the America.

I painted a painting that I called “Creation” this past Sunday. I had told about this at least four or five days in advance of the sermon on Sunday morning. One family showed up to watch and listen besides my own wife and son. I know, I shouldn’t take it personally but painting is like a performance and the reception was far less than what I had hoped for.

creationpaintingHere is the painting which I did while I was preaching about Creation and the Fall of mankind:

The white at the top is not supposed to be clouds, it represents the Host of angels watching as Creation unfolds. I know that I am not a “performing artist”, I am just a pastor, but it seems that this could’ve been something to come see. The only audience I had were children who really didn’t believe that I was painting it to begin with.

The love of God is so pervasive in our world, yet people ignore it and don’t recognize it when it does show up, even in small doses. As Jesus stated, “a prophet is without honor in his own hometown“, and it is very true.

Many people know me in the area where I live. I went to school with many of them and I have lived here for about fifty years, so they have seen and heard many things about me whether they were all true or not! Even when they were true, that is not the man that I am now but it seems that I am still painted (no pun intended) by the reputation that I have had for years before I became a preacher.

I suppose that may be the problem, to some degree. But, I am not moving. I can’t afford to move away just to be a preacher. So, here are my words and my painting, like it or not, it does represent Creation and the Beginning of all things.

 

Hope and ?


No, I am not posting about hope and change, we have had the first dashed to pieces in the last eight years and the changes in some areas are almost unbearable. Enough soap boxing. (Jedi mind trick–forget what you just read, it isn’t important).

Hope is a cousin of faith because both of them run together. You can’t have much hope without faith and faith without hope isn’t expecting much. Abraham expected (hoped),with faith in God’s ability to fulfill it, that he would have an heir just as God had told him. How it was going to happen wasn’t important really, he had faith that God could do it even at his age and his wife’s age as well. Would doctors today recognize this birth as a miracle? Absolutely, in light of it being one because there was no way it could have happened without God’s intervention!

Faith is important to our life in Him because we were never meant to live apart from Him. Though, now we need faith to do so because He is just outside our limited human vision just as the beauty of His Creation is as well, although we will see it one day. Amen. God loves each of us, whether we belong to Him yet or not. He has a plan for our lives in His Kingdom if we will accept our place in it!

52050-my-hope-is-in-youHope is where we should put our faith and our trust totally in the Lord. God loves you with an everlasting love that never dips up or down. He doesn’t love you today and hate you tomorrow! We and everything around us, every person, every animal, every star and planet are His Creation and He cares for all of it!

We are not special because we live on Earth, we are special because God loves us! He know what you can do and what you did yesterday or last week or even last year, but He loves you anyway! Why? Because He is God and He is Love perfected! There is no darkness or shadow in Him, He is Light and the Giver of Life itself!

Satan cares NOT for you, in fact he HATES YOU!! You and I are made in the image of God, he hates God, so you are hated by Satan and his demons. That is why there is so much war, so much disease, so much cancer attacking children and older people, because of demonic influence in your life, against your life in Christ, trying to turn you away from God by getting you to blame Him for your problems!

That is the way of our world because he, Satan, is the ruler of the air on Earth…but only temporarily. He knows that his time is coming to an end and that is why problems are getting worse, wars and more intense, diseases are harder to cure. He knows that he has already lost, but he is going to try to take as many people into Hell with him as possible. Not to have a party, but to torment them for eternity because they were offered a way out of Hell through belief in Jesus and they chose not to believe in Him