Tag: Jesus

Rainbows, Light and Love


In the late sixties it seemed that everyone was into rainbows and “free love” was everywhere. It was all just noise to me that I heard on the radio or on the news, I wasn’t old enough to participate. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t conjure up some imaginative thoughts though. I was about eight or so at the time, didn’t really like girls too much, but there were some that I thought were sorta cute.

Anyway, the rainbows were being used on flags and on the TV, I don’t remember exactly for what but I remember seeing them on there a lot. You have to realize, 1968 has been a while back and parts of my memory don’t work perfectly like they used to. The entire country was caught up in the Viet Nam war and the astronauts going to the moon, as well as a couple of people being shot. To a young mind at the time, it was just news and not very important.

What else was happening? My parents got divorced or were in the process of doing so, I really don’t remember much about it. I think my mind blocked a lot of it out. Dad dropped us off at my grandfather’s house when I was five and I rarely saw him from that point on.

My point in bringing up my childhood? Mainly it is about what you may remember and what you don’t. I can remember going to church with my parents when I was three and going to work with my Dad about the same time, once. But, again, why am I bringing this up for you to read? So that some of you will know that I am just as normal, just as messed up from my past as the rest of us. My life has not been perfect, never was and never really came close to it.

Later, after their divorce, when I became a teen I rebelled a lot. I didn’t get put into jail, but I drank alcohol before I was old enough to do so. I wrecked cars and put myself in the hospital because I was drunk. I smoked marijuana although I didn’t get into anything any worse than that. Now, I am ashamed of my past, but it is a past that doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary today. Actually, it seems pretty tame compared to what you see and hear on the news.

The Light which I reference in the title is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. At the time that I was speaking of there was a song out by the name of “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and a play too I believe. The funny thing is, they were actually making fun of Him and of those who believe in Him. I never understood that and still don’t. Jesus is the answer for many of the world’s problems today, individually and collectively but many people don’t see it that way.

God loves you and me. He loved me when I was being rebellious, though He didn’t like what I was doing at the time. He kept me in His love and protection though because He had something for me to do later. He has something for you to do as well. I don’t know what it is and you won’t find out what it is unless you ask Him into your life so that you can work for Him. It doesn’t matter how much longer you have in your life, even if you only have a week or a month, God will use your testimony to touch someone else. He will also welcome you into Heaven when you arrive.

Christianity, the step-child


So many truths to be spoken of and told to those who will listen and yet many will still not hear them. The job, the command which our Lord gave to us in His words: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation..” (Mark 16:15) It has been nearly two millennia since He ascended to His place at the right hand of God, and there are still those who will not accept the gospel as the Truth. Why is this?

Mainly, because of the atrocities of the church, in ages past, which persecuted people horribly for believing a doctrine different from that which it taught or they followed a different religion entirely. This is my opinion of course, not the real reason. The actual reason is that Satan and his legions have been perverting the gospel in ways through the reasoning of man over the centuries. Changing it subtly, a little at a time, so that the change wouldn’t be evident immediately. Also, because he wants to cause people to think that they are serving God, when in fact they are serving him and worshipping him.

How else could we have so many doctrines and beliefs in our world today. Many of them professing to be “the true church”, serving God in ways that would not be acceptable if Jesus were here. Changing scripture ever so slightly in words or by paraphrase so that the meaning is close to the gospel, but not quite. Counterfeit gospels like counterfeit money sound good and look good to the eye and to the ear, but they are worthless.

How can we, as Christians, show others the Truth of the gospel? One way would be by living it ourselves, another would be by telling others about Jesus and His love for them. While it is true that some will not want to listen or accept Jesus as their Savior, they need to be told. Because without hearing the gospel and its Truth, how will they know?

Why do I call Christianity a step-child? Because that is how it is treated by the world today. There are older religions in the world, but none make the claims of Christianity. There are newer religions in the world today, but many of them are only made up or based upon the imaginings or “visions” of one man. The difference between Christianity and all of the other religions is permission and accountability.

Christianity sets rules and boundaries which morally make sense and whether you are a Christian or not, those boundaries are known. The Truths which go along with them are known, whether you are a believer or not. These are known as the Ten Commandments and they are accepted as moral laws whether you are a believer or not. The problem which most have with them is that they tell you what you should do or not and they convict you of the things that you have done wrong.

This is what many people can’t stand. It is the conviction and the “rules” in Christianity. These rules are not so restrictive as to tell you what to wear or what to eat or who to marry or not, but they do show each of us that we are sinners regardless of how “righteous and holy” we think we may be! Without the grace extended to us from God through Jesus’ sacrifice, our holiness means nothing! When you accept Jesus as your Savior, then your life will be very different from what it was before. When, like Saul, you meet Him then your life and your heart changes and you are a new person. No longer caught up in this world and its problems and heartaches, even though there may be some afterward.

Jesus didn’t promise His followers that life would be without trouble. Satan doesn’t care about you or your life unless you decide to follow Jesus and tell others about Him. Then, you and those you love have a target on you and he will be after you from that point on. God’s angels will protect you and keep you safe, but if you let your guard down and allow him to get into your life somehow…even by accident, then he will cause you pain enough to turn you from God if he can.

Do you have everything that you need?


Many in the world’s countries don’t, at least from the world’s viewpoint. You notice that I put in the title “everything that you need“? I did not say anything about stuff that you want!

Wanting things and more things doesn’t give you anything but a storage building that you didn’t need but it is necessary because of the stuff that you wanted. So, now what will you do with it all? Store it in a building? What good does that do you?

What about the garage with status symbols in it that cost you more than your house payment every month? You have to put a hundred dollars worth of gas or diesel in those every week at least to keep them going. You have to replace the tires on them at about two hundred dollars apiece every so often. I know that they are necessary for you to go to work or maybe you use one of them for your job, and that’s fine. They are useful, but some stuff just isn’t and it gets your money and barely any notice after that, at times.

Our needs involve food, shelter, clothing, and health. I am not speaking of having more of any of these than others but just what you truly need. The best is good as long as it doesn’t cost you more than you can afford. Enough food is great for anyone, but more than you need is bad for you. Everyone knows this, but there are many who don’t seem to care because they want more.

Did you also notice that in your needs list, I didn’t have wealth. Why is that? Because in order to have your needs met you don’t need more money, you only need enough to take care of your needs. Wealth is for those who want to do it all and have it all and it is a good thing for some people. But, Jesus said that is would be “harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”. Why is that? Simply because a rich or wealthy person doesn’t feel that they need Jesus, because they have every “thing” that they want and they have money to get what they need if that need arises.

Wealth can’t buy happiness or health though. Yes, you can pay your bills so it makes the stress level go down somewhat, but that isn’t happiness. If your health takes a turn toward the cancer ward or something happens to your child, your money can help you to have the best care that money can buy. But, what if that isn’t enough? What if there is no cure or amount of medication which will take care of the problem? Money’s just paper at that point.

Your needs, your life, your happiness, and your health are all important to God because He created you for a purpose. He cares for you and loves you far more than you even love yourself. I am not saying that all of your needs will automatically be taken care of if you trust in Jesus for your salvation. Your bank account won’t suddenly swell up with cash after you become a Christian (although that wouldn’t be a bad thing as long as you give God the glory for it). But, the love and the peace which comes with knowing Jesus and His Father will make even a diagnosis of incurable cancer bearable because you now have eternity in Heaven to thank Him for His love and grace for you. No amount of money or fame will ever fill that void in your life unless Jesus fills it.

The power of Love


This word has been used so much since the sixties until it seems that few people know or even care what it really is.

Love is a powerful word, one which can begin a relationship which will last a lifetime. It is also one that is used so flippantly today that much of its meaning has been lost. There are many kinds of love. One is meant for friendship, one is meant for erotic love, one is a type that has no boundaries at all and that is agape love. It is the kind that exists between parents and children who are loved by them. It is also the kind of love that is between God and all of mankind. There are no limits to it and nothing can stop it. Time nor space has no meaning to this kind of love and it is referenced in 1 Corinthians 13 as the highest form of the gifts which we are given by God Himself!

Today, love seems to be missing from our lives in its truest form. Many people really seem to mean that they “like” something or someone, but they use the word love. Its power is from God and yet we misuse it just as we misuse His name. Love puts up with many things and helps us through some of the toughest times in our lives. When you really love someone you want the best for them, sometimes to the detriment of your finances but that is how you feel and how you would like to treat them! It takes time and maturity in your love to know how much and what to do for those that you feel so deeply about.

Love that has grown deeper with time doesn’t fade and it doesn’t go away, ever. It is a smouldering emotion that is always there, but it never fizzles out or dies. True and genuine love cannot be expressed by someone who you just met a few weeks ago. Erotic love burns HOT like a flame which has gas thrown on it, but unless the lust can keep it hot over a period of time it will flame out and grow cold and heartless. This is the kind of love which will make you hate someone and divorce them or worse.

Seek out the Source of Love in God’s Word and you will know the Power of Love and if you really want to feel His Love, ask Him to reveal it to you and you can truly know of His Love forever!

Acceptance or Rejection


Which would you choose? In life, we would rather be accepted as friends or classmates. Rejection is something that most of us try really hard to avoid if possible. So, how do you feel about an offer of eternal life? We all get this one you know, it just depends on your acceptance or rejection criteria regarding where you spend eternity!

Humanity was created with an eternal soul, so it doesn’t matter how good or bad or indifferent you may be, we all have eternity stretching out in front of us. We don’t go into an abyss and we don’t just go “poof” after death, like a bowl of bad chili.

Yes, there is a heaven and a hell and whether you believe in one or the other doesn’t matter, they are both real. God doesn’t send you to one destination or the other based upon His whims either. It is your decisions in this life which determine your destination in the next one. Actually, it is just one decision in this life and that is whether you will accept Jesus as your Savior and live your life following Him or if you will reject Him.

That’s it!

Your eternal life and the destination in which you live it, depends upon that ONE decision, before you die. After you are dead, you can’t change your mind. Eternity starts when you breathe your last breath in this life. So, the question is when are you going to die? You don’t know for sure do you?

That is so true. None of us knows our expiration date, if you wish to call it that, so you are gambling with a future that you really can’t pin down with any certainty aren’t you? This is your decision and yours alone, no one can make it for you. My messages are just here for information, whether you follow any of these suggestions about salvation or not is your decision, nobody can make it for you.

Acceptance of the gift of salvation is an individual decision, just as taking any gift is…it is up to you. The value of your salvation is far beyond any amount of money on Earth, though you can’t spend it here. Which is one of the drawbacks of many people looking at its value today or even if it has any value for them at all.

Truly, God loves each one of us. Whether you believe in Him or not, He knows and cares for you. The truth of Scripture cannot be known or understood by reason or science, only by faith. If you don’t or won’t seek Him out by faith, then your eternity will be decided whenever He calls you into it. Rejection of God’s gift is a choice, just not a very good one.

Where does your strength come from?


To many people in this world today their strength comes from themselves and their own actions. It comes from their ability and their job or from their family and the strength that they gain from them. But, what happens when one of those is not able to strengthen you or keep you going? What do you turn to then?

Where do you look for strength and compassion when just one of those pillars cracks, when something goes wrong in your life? The people that we depend upon and the strength that we depend upon in life usually are just as weak as you are, spiritually and physically! We are weak, some of us are physically strong but without spiritual strength and our dependence upon Jesus for our strength in Him you will not be able to stand.

Not only to be able to stand up in the morning, which is not the strength that I am referring to, but the spiritual strength to stand against the sins which can drag us down. Standing against Satan and his demons and the temptations which are placed in our way every day, that is what spiritual strength is for! You can’t get it from a job, your family, your bank account, your friends, none of these worldly things can provide for you spiritually!

Yes, they can give you advice, but is it Biblical advice? Did they get it from God or their own mind or their own experience? What good will that do you? Your own advice and experience has not really helped, so why would you listen to them? God knows you and He knows what today had in it and what tomorrow has coming. He will be with you through all of these problems and pain and He will give you the strength to get through today and tomorrow and the next day.

Life is always one day at a time, one minute or hour at a time. Days don’t go by any faster for you than they do for me. The problems that we see each day, the pain that we feel each day are ours, but we don’t have to handle it alone because God is always available and He is with us no matter what or where we may be.

Seek God through His Scriptures, especially in the Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. These three books have more wisdom in them than all of the “self-help” books combined. Learn of God’s ways, not just the way that He guided the Israelites but also the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. He loves us, all of us, so much that He sent His Only Son to die on a Roman cross for the atonement of ALL of humanity’s sins, not just a few but all of them.

He will strengthen you in all of your problems and give you the wisdom to get through them. He will do this, not because He has to but because He wants to help you with your life. The lost keys, the misplaced bills, the bad grades or the forgotten birthday. He will get you through them all and give you wisdom in all that you do, IF you will trust in Him and follow His teachings for your life every day.

Drama and life


It seems that today with the Internet and all of the social media outlets that we have, there is more drama than ever about things which are happening all of the time. I know, years ago this was all gossip on the phones. The problem with today’s version is that this stuff never really goes away! Births and deaths, accidents and graduations, heart attacks and strokes, family reunions and funerals, they will ALL be there until the Internet and Facebook are gone! Even then, some trace of this will be available to future generations to read and wonder about.

Dramatic situations and life seem to go hand in hand today, but they really shouldn’t. Yes, life goes on no matter what is happening around us and we can make it dramatic or dramatizing if we want it that way. But…why? I know that tragedy strikes and yes, that can be dramatic and traumatic at the same time but God will see you through it! If you haven’t given your life to Him, then you really should. If you need to know why you should do so, then you haven’t gotten there yet.

God doesn’t want us to go through life alone without Him, yet we merrily do so thinking that we can do it all on our own with no help at all. Many times, we are right…as long as everything is going smoothly. Get one of those phone calls from the doctor or a pink slip from your job, and things could change in a hurry! If you have a teen in the house and you get a call from the hospital or the police or sheriff and your life may change forever.

God is there with you through these times, and all that you need to do is call on Him. His Strength is available to you through the Holy Spirit and His Grace is always available, just ask Him for it! There is no shame or disgrace in admitting that you need Him because we all do!

Granted, He doesn’t shower us with gold or silver when we ask for it but that is because He knows what is best for us at any given time. His Grace and mercy and His Peace is always available through His Word, the Bible. We don’t have to pay much for it, we don’t need psychologists or self-help books to find the wisdom for life’s problems because it is all found within the pages of the Bible.

Seek Him first for your needs, your peace, your health, your life and He will provide all of those and more because He loves you! Any who have lost children or spouses to an illness or death, seek Him out and pray for His peace and comfort and He will gladly provide it. Though it won’t rid you of your grief and the pain that you feel, it will make it more bearable because He loves you!

Think about it.

Family life, is it?


I don’t know how to be a good father.

Is there a way?

Have you wondered about this too?

What, really, should we do?

Can it be done, today!

I feel inadequate to the task,

I don’t know what to do.

I watch my child sleep,

See the rise and fall of his chest, and

Yet I don’t yet have a clue.

I love my child because

God gave him to me.

A gift, a person to show the way

but how can I when I don’t know it?

The only thing that I know

for sure is that Jesus is the way.

I follow Him and I’ve shown my child

The One Who can affect His life the most.

It is the only real knowledge that I can give

that matters. The knowledge from his studies

won’t matter, the games which he plays

won’t matter, his friends won’t matter.

My life doesn’t matter unless

I can make sure that at least he

knows the Truth and has given his

heart to Jesus.

I pray that He lives in

my son’s heart. I can’t discern

his heart, but God can.

God knows whether my child belongs

to Him. I pray that I have done

at least enough to see that

him grow into Life

eternal.

The message of Jesus


Have you ever HEARD the message of Jesus?

Jesus said for us to believe in Him (and the atonement provided by His death and resurrection), and we will have eternal life. Repent of your former sinful life and allow the Holy Spirit to transform you into a likeness of Him. Are these things possible? Yes, if you have faith like a little child. One who trusts their father completely and without reservation. That is the kind of faith that it takes to live or rather to begin to live this life in Jesus Christ.

Are all Christians like this and do they have this kind of faith? The real and truthful answer is “NO”. All Christians or at least those who claim to be Christians, don’t have faith which would measure up to this standard. Many of them believe that they do and that they are true Christians, but when persecutions come or real trouble comes into their lives, the true person will show through. Hardship, pain, disease, financial loss, or loss of a family member will bring the real person out so that all will see. Sometimes, that is why we are allowed to go through trouble and trials.

In order to bring out the beautiful person that God knows is in there and the one that He needs for you to be for the duration of your life, sometimes He allows those trials. They can come in the form of a disease or the loss of a loved one. Sometimes the trial comes through the loss of a job or something which disables you. However it comes, treat it as Paul did and “count it all joy”. Look at the trial as a test in and of your faith then seek out God and His Wisdom through His Word. Pray deeply and fervently every day if need be so that you can get through this time. He will give you the strength and the wisdom to do so, and He will provide the comfort during your suffering too.

There are many people today, young people, who are turning away from God and religion which is their choice. It is the wrong choice but it is the one that God allows us to make. If He has something for you to do, then He will bring you back eventually if you will listen to His voice in your life. Our God, the One Who created everything and did all of the miracles in the Old Testament and the New, is an AWESOME God! Don’t turn away from Him, if you have given your life and your heart to Him then seek Him out in His Word!

God loves each of us and wants the best for us. Many cannot see this right now, because God doesn’t reward us the way the world wants to see rewards. Everyone sees reward as money, fame, a house, fancy cars, etc. but God doesn’t always reward us this way. Our reward, in many ways, waits for us in Heaven not here on Earth so we can’t use it or touch it until we die in this life and are born into eternity. Many people don’t look at this as a reward so much as a “bait and switch” game. Satan will do that, but God doesn’t.

“Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added (given) unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Today is the day!


It seems that most everyone treats tomorrow or even next year as if we are guaranteed to get there…well sorry to burst your bubble but we’re not! Your life and mine can be much more than it is, but we truly have to live life in God’s hands, every day. Your strength can’t get you through all of the troubles of this life, but God can take you through it all and then some! I am not speaking about using God as a crutch or even suggesting that Christians are weak because we are not. The martyrs of hundreds of years ago could not and should not be considered weak because they endured torture and mutilation for their faith in Christ and would not give up that faith even in the face of death!

Why did they do this? Not because of some fantasy reward for their death, but because He died for them and they had placed their faith in Him! A legion of Roman soldiers froze to death, naked on a lake because they would not recant their faith in Him. John’s disciple, Polycarp, was burned at the stake because he would not burn incense to the Roman emperor. I pray that we will be faithful enough to follow these saints if that time should come.

I believe that we should give our lives to Jesus and seek Him and His strength to carry us through the trials that we have in this life. Why do I believe in Him? Because the Bible is true, every word of it! He came to give us life, not just life here but life in eternity! He loves us enough to give us the grace through Jesus to have eternal life, if we will believe in Him and trust Him. This is not some fantasy nor is it a fairy tale. The prophecies which God spoke about through His prophets have all come true except for the ones in the book of Revelation. Those are reserved for the world to see during the time of tribulation and testing.

When that day comes, and it will come, many will wonder why they didn’t believe in Jesus or God while they could. Many will want to begin to believe in Him at that point. It won’t be too late, but it will take a lot of faith and determination to do it with the persecution that comes on the world during that time. Our lives and the purpose that we have in this life are determined by God for us. We just need to seek Him out to find that true purpose. Please don’t put this off! God loves each of us and will answer your prayer of repentance and come into your life, if you will only ask Him.