Satan was sent here…

When Satan was Lucifer he convinced at least a third of the angels of heaven to join him to take God’s throne. But God exiled all of them to the Earth. I never did understand why God would send him down here and I still don’t. We have our own “demons” to deal with every day without any help from them. My point in this is easy but it also is a warning to everyone who reads it, if Satan can convince angels to rebel against God, how easy would it be to get into your mind or mine and make us think about something that is sinful, even when we know better.

He tempted Eve in the garden and of course her husband went along with the temptation. Then the whole of creation was cursed because of their disobedience. I am looking forward to the day when Jesus comes back and sends Satan away for a thousand years. I know the King that rules the world during that time will be much better than any “politician” we have ever had.

During that time, the world will be much better than it is today and I hope that many people who live during that time will be followers of Jesus Christ. God loves all of humanity but He isn’t thrilled with the way many of us treat each other or the way we believe or don’t believe in Him. Seek to know Jesus by reading His Word and the more that you know about Him, you may find that you want Him as your Savior.

Do you believe in God?

Here is a simple explanation between believing or not: when asked if there is a God, a theist says “yes”, an atheist says “no”, and an agnostic says “I don’t know”.

You can choose to argue if you wish, but the answer is the same. Life and creation can prove that God exists, although most atheists choose to believe that evolution caused everything to form spontaneously. In my view, it takes far more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in God or the Bible itself. Where do most people seem to be in this description of beliefs?

Here is a breakdown of some beliefs or lack thereof:

When pollsters like the Pew Research Center survey people who are religiously unaffiliated (often called “nones”):

Nothing in particular: The majority of unaffiliated individuals (about 63% in the U.S. and similar majorities globally) describe their religion as “nothing in particular” rather than adopting the label of atheist or agnostic. Many of these individuals still hold spiritual or vague higher-power beliefs.
Agnostics: Make up about 20% of religious “nones” in the U.S. (or roughly 6% of the total U.S. adult population), identifying with the view that the existence of God or the ultimate truth is unknown or unknowable.
Atheists: Make up about 17% of religious “nones” in the U.S. (or roughly 4% to 5% of the total U.S. adult population), explicitly rejecting the belief in God or deities.

My blog has always been written by a Christian, so yes I do believe in God and His Word, the Bible. There is no reason to ask the question about whether there is a God or not because the heavens declare His handiwork. Yet, the most beautiful area of the United States, in my opinion, has the most non-religious people in it. I’m speaking of New England. I drove through there many years ago and the mountains and trees were so beautiful, I thought “God was having a good day when He designed this part of America”.

Belief in God is not a requirement for living but it should be. A baby is formed in the womb by cell division and multiplication and God places all of our characteristics inside each of us before we are born. He told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you…” God knows each of us in such an intimate way that it cannot be denied but many people choose to do so.

What will be your destination?

Many of us just live our lives as if they are going to keep going. We don’t think about “end of life” until we have to. Even then, we don’t consider our eternal life. So…what will be your eternal destination? Will you just go puff and that is it after your mortal body dies? Do you believe in an eternal destination? It seems that many people do because most obituaries seem to point to a heavenly destination. But what if your soul doesn’t go to heaven? How do you get to Heaven?

How do you get to Heaven?

According to the Bible and the Christian definition, you can only get there by believing in Jesus as your Savior. There are no work requirements and no other “hoops” you have to jump through. Is this the right way? Again, according to Jesus Christ, belief in Him is the only way to come into the presence of God in heaven. Accepting Jesus as your Savior takes all of the punishment for your sins away and you are wiped clean.

There are other religious ways in the world and I won’t list them here. But, in the past 25+ years that I have been a follower of Jesus, no other religion offers you an eternal relationship except Christianity. God loves all of us, but He knows our weaknesses and our strengths and He knows who will accept Jesus as their Savior and who will not.

Remember the thief on the cross? He asked Jesus to remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus told him, “today you will be with Me in paradise”. He couldn’t even be baptized, but he was saved. Just believe in Jesus and ask Him to forgive you of your sins.

High price conversation

I met a man in 1990 who I have prayed for ever since. Not every day, but I still pray for him. He may be deceased by now, I don’t know. I got into an elevator with him and I tried to strike up a conversation with him, just small talk while we were on the elevator. He interrupted me and said, “I’m going to stop you right there. I charge $800 an hour for my time.” I just said, “Okay”. The trip in the elevator wasn’t going to be very long, but according to his estimate, talking to me wasn’t worth his attention, even if it was just small talk.

I’m glad that God isn’t like that. He listens to every prayer, and every cry for help. Even if it is just one word spoken in anguish and pain. God loves us and cares for each of us more than we will ever know, until we are in Heaven.

I listened to a program a few minutes ago talking about the prayer shawl (Tallit) that every Jewish person knows about. The prayer shawl represents God and all of His attributes. His name YHWH is represented by the knots on the corners (Tzitzit) of the prayer shawl. All of the threads mean something, in particular the commandments of God. I apologize if I have gotten parts of it wrong. My point is this, in reference to the “corner of His garment” mentioned in the New Testament, the woman touched the name of God. She had faith enough to know that if she could only touch that, her medical problem would be cured.

God’s economy doesn’t work by how much money you have or what value you can bring to Him. God is the Creator of everything! You are worth the life of His Son, Jesus, so you are worth far more than any amount of money, including the entire wealth of the whole world! God could create a planet-sized diamond if He wanted to, so there is no amount of gold or silver that you could offer Him to gain His attention.

Your life and your soul are worth Jesus’ dying on the cross and coming out of the tomb on the third day. Jesus is God in human form, with all of our feelings and temptations and it was only because He had the nature of God in Him that He was able to live a sinless life to pay for our sins. If you can place your faith in Him and give your heart to Him, like the thief on the cross, you will be saved. No amount of work required. No giving away your wealth, although that would take a burden from you. Just give Him yourself as a living sacrifice each day and walk with Him until He returns. It is a daily walk, one step at a time.

Why do I have faith in Jesus?

Because God, Who is part of the Trinity, knew me before the beginning of the world. He knows you too, if you are destined to be a Christian. He knows every person on Earth and He knows whether you will believe in Jesus for your salvation, so don’t cry about whether you have been chosen by Him or not. Many are called to be saved by accepting Jesus Christ, but few actually accept Him as their Savior.

There is also another reason that I have faith in Jesus. It’s because He loved us, each of us, before the world or anything else was made. God’s love is deeper toward His creation than we can imagine. Our love for our children is one that can’t be explained or taken away. God’s love for us is deeper than that by a LOT! He knew us molecule by molecule as He formed us in the womb, so His love is that deep.

He loved us when we were not lovable. Long before we were born, He knew how our life would turn out and when we would “get it” and give our heart to Jesus. I lived through more than two decades of life before I really found Him and knew that I needed Him as my Savior. Read the Bible, whether you begin at Genesis or with Matthew, sit down and learn about Him and His love for us. Yes, He chose the Jewish people first but He still loved us (Gentiles) before the beginning of everything.

God loves those who are down on their luck. He loves those who have made mistakes in their life, big ones and small ones. He loves those who are prison and those who have been pardoned. Don’t believe the lie that you have been too bad to be useful to God. He used Moses and David, both murderers. He used Saul, who became Paul, and he had been a willing participant in the death of Stephen. He pardoned Peter after Peter denied that he knew Him. God can use your strengths and your weaknesses in His service.

The Truth of Christianity

How do you know that Christianity is true?

Wow! I’ve been a Christian for many years and I’ve never actually thought about the truth of it. Not because I wonder about the truth of it, but because that question is silly. The word of God is what is recorded in the Bible and the story of Jesus begins in Genesis and comes to fulfillment at the end of Revelation. Since all of the Bible is made up of words that were given to people by God Himself, it cannot be untrue because God cannot lie.

God is the Creator and my belief in Him and all that He has done is bound up in the Bible and the words that are there. The Old Testament begins the journey toward Jesus Christ because God tells Adam and Eve that there will be one that will come in the future that will restore the relationship between mankind and God. He was speaking of Jesus. I may have embellished the words a bit about what it says in Genesis, but the idea is the same. Genesis 3:15 says: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is referred to as the first gospel, it is the first words of hope given to Adam and Eve. It shows that God had planned for Jesus to come in history and bring salvation to us.

God made this promise at the very beginning, before driving Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden. Jesus came at the right time to begin the salvation of mankind and a restoration of the relationship that we had with Him in the Garden. We cannot earn our way into God’s presence by our own works, it is a free gift of God by grace through faith in Jesus that we can be reconciled and forgiven of our sins. Any other “way” will not work.

Are you lost?

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

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

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

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

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

What excites you about eternity?

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

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

Are you okay?

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

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

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

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

Which world do you live in?

All of us live in the world, mainly the three dimensional world that everyone else lives in. But, there is a world here that is darker and more malevolent and evil than we can imagine. We, humanity and anyone who believes in Jesus, are hated there with a deep and abiding hatred that we cannot understand. So we actually live in both worlds, except the world that the devil and his minions inhabit is a spiritual world that occupies the same area that we live in. But, God doesn’t allow him to do as he wishes with the Earth and its inhabitants thankfully.

God is gracious enough that He protects us as we live our lives every day. Life here is literally held in God’s hands because if it were not, the devil would likely kill every person on the Earth. But, God won’t allow him to have that much control on Earth. The devil can only do things that God allows him to do and we should be very grateful for that.

God loves all of us, yet He cannot save all of us because of our stubbornness and refusal to believe in Him. Life can have an extension into the future but only if we believe in Jesus for our salvation from our sins. I ask all of you who may read this to seek a church that teaches from the Bible and learn about your Savior. Then give your life to Him and believe that He saved your soul from an eternity apart from Him.