Tag: Jesus

Lies, lies, lies


In one sense all lies are lies to God. However, as the passage below shows, there is a particular type of lie that qualifies specifically as lying to God. I think of this as “lying on steroids.” Often, this lie is not about hiding things that are wicked, but about misrepresenting things that appear to be good, even righteous. This is where the greatest danger lies for children raised in Christian homes. That is why your parenting must go beyond addressing just their behavior.

“Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.” Acts 5:1-4

Each day you challenge your children to obey God. In each home this challenge comes with the promise of some kind of negative consequence for not obeying and some type of reward for obedience. Even when you neglect to follow through with the consequences of disobedience, the specter of accountability hangs in the air. Given their sinful nature, the tendency of children is to find ways to avoid these consequences. At the same time, there is also the promise of reward attached to requests for obedience. So again, even when the reward is not consistent (or even not biblical), human nature desires the reward, whether it is deserved or not.

For example, one sibling sees that his sister is rewarded for cleaning. So, he is careful to mention that he too, helped, even if he did not actually do anything. This child realizes that he can achieve what he wants if his parents perceive that he is doing good things. Thus, he might participate by appearing to be busy, but only when mom is looking. Internally, he may be resentful of having to do something he doesn’t want to, but he is motivated by the reward or praise he thinks he will receive. He may even agree that God helped him to obey because he knows that is what his parents want to hear. This deceptive, self-serving attitude may eventually lead to the kind of deception that Ananias and Sapphira practiced. They were seeking praise and status without the sacrificial spirit of truly loving Christ. It was in this way that they lied to God.

As parents, you must not become complacent when your children give only outward compliance to your directions. If you put up with a grumbling, complaining spirit as the price for your children following your directions, you open the door to lying to God. God desires obedience from the heart, not the outward form of ritual sacrifice. (Amos 5:21-23; Isaiah 29:13) So, the mindset that says, “At least he took the garbage out, even though he moaned and groaned about it,” totally misses the point of loving God. This child is not being shepherded. Rather he is being encouraged to believe that God will be satisfied with mere outward compliance to his commands, even when his heart is not involved in his obedience.

Ananias and Sapphira believed that they could trade the appearance of obedience for spiritual status—for recognition from others that they were devoted to the church. But God is not mocked. He cannot be deceived. Lying expresses the hypocrisy of the human heart. This is why the Lord detests lying lips. As lies progress beyond mere self-protection to the point of lying to achieve personal desires, the danger of lying directly to God increases. Ananias and Sapphira tried to manipulate the appearance of doing good. The fatal mistake they made was thinking they could deceive God as well as people.

Lying is not something to ignore, deal with lying whenever you discover it. Don’t allow the busy routine of life to cover patterns of outward compliance. But we must address this sin carefully and wisely. This requires a substantial investment of time and biblical wisdom.

Do you still carry your own load?


A man was carrying a heavy bag of grain down a country road. Another man in a wagon being pulled by a horse saw the man walking and said to him, “Mister, you need a ride?” And so the man got in the wagon. But he kept the load of grain on his shoulder. The wagon driver said, “Man, put that down and relax!” The rider said, “Oh no. It’s enough for you to carry me without having you carry this too.”

Have you ever done that to the Lord? Do you say, “Lord, I’ll let You save me, but I’ll carry my own burdens.”

How foolish to do this with the God who hung the stars and planets.

The idea that we are somehow saving God the burden of helping us or carrying our load for us is truly foolish. As stated above, He who created and placed the stars and planets can surely take care of our problems, no matter their size. We are individuals yet we are dependent upon our community, if we are being true to ourselves. We are also dependent upon God, whether we choose to believe in Him or not. The sun shines because He put it where it is, so does the moon. Every part of our physical world, from the smallest atom to the largest star or galaxy was created by God.

Those of you who don’t believe this, its okay that you have a different opinion than mine. It doesn’t bother me that you choose not to believe. But, because you don’t, doesn’t mean that I have to explain myself to you in any way. I also don’t need to apologize because of my belief. If you don’t like it, don’t read this. Go somewhere else which suits you better.

God loves you and has made a way for you to be sanctified and saved whether you believe in Him or not. The only thing that is stopping you is your choice to believe in Him and His grace or not.

God, Who is He?


To answer that question would take far more than this blog or this blogger can write, especially in a days time. God is the Creator, the Redeemer, the King of all that is, and He is our Father, our Protector, our Healer, our Friend. God is all of these and our Teacher because since He is present in the three persons of the Trinity He can be all of these at the same time.

We learn through His Holy Word, the Bible, which was written at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We are saved and sanctified by Him as well through the cleansing power of the Spirit which creates in us a new heart and purpose for our lives when we accept Jesus as our Savior. When we have taken on His Holiness, then we are able to come before God at any time for any reason, no matter how small or insignificant we may think it is.

Consider the names of God and all that they imply about Him and His holiness. All that He is and all that He has done for the universe and for our lives is done and has been done because He loves us. Each of us, not just collectively as a race on Earth, but each individual that has been born and those that will be born. The time is growing short though, so I would consider giving my life and heart to Him if I were in your place. He gives each of us the time and the opportunity to come to know Him, all that we have to do is believe in the grace that has been given, and in Jesus’ sacrifice for us.

That is it, that is all that is necessary for us to know Him because He already knows you.

God’s will


Anything that is happening in this world, good or bad, can and will be used in the will of God. Like it or not, you are too. Why there are so many people who are going against this, I don’t know. Yes, there is much in the world which is seen as bad by many people and it is hard to understand why such things are happening. It doesn’t make sense to us because the things which are happening seem to be heinous and evil, God permits those things to happen but it is not His will that they do. Whether you believe it or not, the heart of man is full of evil and wickedness and it is because of our collective sinful nature. This is the reason that things, bad things, happen in the world today.

I have been asked by some “Then why doesn’t God stop it? If He is God, couldn’t He force us to behave?”

Yes, He could, but forced obedience doesn’t engender feelings of love and compassion does it? If you were forced to do something, like go to church for instance, would you be worshipping God while you were there? Not likely, you would be angry and resentful toward the person who made you come. You wouldn’t be thankful or grateful for the sermon or for the person about whom the preacher was speaking. Being forced into something, whether it is a worship service or a marriage like some women or girls are forced into in some countries today, doesn’t engender love for the arrangement regardless what it might be.

God does love each of us and it is His wish, His will that all of us would come to Him, to know Him willingly. But, it is our decision to do so. He doesn’t force us. Therefore Allah doesn’t exist. Allah and God are NOT the same person. The Koran is not God’s word, it is something which was given to a man by a demon from Satan disguised as an angel from God. The concepts from God’s True Word about love, dignity, purpose, and life are not reflected in it anywhere. Oh, yes, there are some good points and some of it is about peaceful living. But, the surah which talks of lying to the infidel and attacking him, killing him if he will not convert to Islam. Waiting for a chance to kill a Jew or a Christian when the time is right…these are concepts born of a hatred for God’s people.

Compare those concepts with Jesus’ teaching about love your neighbor as yourself, do good to those who persecute you, give to the enemy which takes your cloak your tunic also, these are not the same as the “teachings” of Allah.

Now, I am not attacking anyone’s beliefs with this. If you wish to worship Allah, that is your right and ability to do that, those who worship Zen, or any other Eastern religion are welcome to their religions too. Yes, I said that Allah doesn’t exist but if you worship him, then feel free to do so. Worship is not up to me or you or any other person, at least in the sense that someone is in control of your worship. Religion and religious worship are individual decisions, just as following Jesus as your Savior is an individual decision too.

Think about it, pray about it, seek God and He will come to your heart and your life and change it for the better.

Revival of the Church


Is this something that is needed or is it already too late?

Yes, it is needed and it is absolutely NOT too late! Although many churches, or at least those who make up the body of the churches need revival in a BIG way. Revival of spirit, revival of conviction and of their purpose as Christians. It is not too late, but to most of the world, especially in America, we are silent about things that we should not be silent about. Yes, Jesus said to turn the other cheek but even He overturned the money changers tables and those tables which were selling animals for sacrifice in the courtyard of the Tabernacle!

We are not supposed to just roll over and say, “Oh well, so it goes.” Would Jesus be quiet right now in the face of all that is going on in this world? I don’t think so. When He comes back there will be many who will be wishing that He had not!

I know there are some who don’t believe in our God or in anything that the Bible says, but it is the Truth of God and when He comes they will see that it is and always has been true. As Ezekiel looked on the valley of dry bones, he did not know that they would live again but God knew. God could revive them and in the vision that he had, God did just that. He can do that to the church today! He can bring us up from the grave, no matter where we are in life or death because He is God the Creator.

The church today is not dead, but asleep and not doing the work that Jesus gave it to do. We must keep working for Jesus until He comes again. It is our duty and His command that we take His message to all of the world and we can’t do that sitting behind the walls of our churches. Jesus is and always has been the Son of God, the Living Word and He is the Creator because of the Word that was used by God to create everything.

We have to get out of our comfort zones even if it takes getting our shoes dirty and going places that we might not want to go, but where He commands that we take Him! He prompted me to begin this ministry online and it is His prompting that gives me the words to write. I am not and never have been a prolific speaker or writer, but in the past few years I have been writing what I was given by Him…here and elsewhere (my other two sites), in order to get His message out to those that might read it.

I don’t do this for my sake or for any kind of recognition, but for your sake and for your salvation in coming to know my Savior as yours. The church is not a building it is the people who meet there and come to worship Jesus there. Whether the church happens to be in a large building or in a home, the people gathering there are the church. We need to be inviting others to join us in our worship so that they can come to know Jesus too.

Do you know that God loves you?


He loves you in such a DEEP and intimate way until you cannot fathom exactly how much He truly does love you! Satan and the world at large try to tell you that God doesn’t care about you or anything that goes on in or on this Earth, but He honestly does. I mean, honestly, do you think that He would’ve allowed His Son to die for you or me or the rest of humanity if He didn’t love us?

You may not believe in God or in His Son, but God does love you. Why? Because God IS LOVE! He can’t help but love His creation and you and I are a part of that! Yes, there are many people in this world who don’t believe and may never believe in Him or His Son and truly that is too bad. There is nothing that I can do or say that will change their minds and unless they feel or hear the call to their heart from Him and answer it, they will never know Him. The problem is that they will blame Him for it when it is their decision to believe or not!

Can anything be done to prove to anyone that God exists? No, not really. People in our world are deceived by their eyes and by science and by Satan, although many don’t think that he exists either. I have met many who don’t want to change their minds, even if you could prove God’s existence. But…one day they will meet Him. Because we will all stand before Him and give account for our lives and the deeds done by us..each word, each syllable uttered that was hurtful or may have caused a child to disbelieve in God. Every action that we did in life, if it was not covered by the blood of Jesus, will be accounted for.

When you are not a child of God what are you exactly? You are a human being just like everyone else, regardless of the color of your skin or the culture that you grew up in. God knows this because He knows you! He knows exactly where you…each of us is at any time, no matter how dark the place may be or if you feel that God is not in this place, He is. God loves you no matter where you might be, all that you need to do is allow Him into your life.

He will not push or poke His way into your life, you may feel a tug at your heart when you hear a sermon but unless you answer that call it will be unanswered until the next time. If you close your mind and your heart to God though and decide for yourself that it isn’t worth giving your life to Him, He may stop calling and just allow you to be the way that you want to be. Grace is available to all but unless you make the decision to let Jesus into your life it won’t happen.

Jesus came and died on a cross and rose again so that we all could have eternal life but we have to believe in Him and in the fact that it is His blood that purifies your sinful life before God. You can’t do it, Muhammed can’t do it, Buddha can’t do it…there is no other person or priest who can pray for you and absolve you of your sins. Jesus is the only way…the only Shepherd that can bring you into eternity.

Believe it or not, it won’t matter whether you are a good person and have given your life to doing good things or maybe you have given thousands of dollars to charity to feed the poor and the sick and disabled. These are all wonderful things to do, but unless you are a Christian and have the love of Jesus in your life and you did them for His glory and not your own…they don’t mean anything.

People will think well of you for doing this but it will have no lasting significance, no eternal reward for you because it was done for your recognition and not for God’s glory! He will enhance your life and your eternity with His love and His grace and He will help you to be more of what you are supposed to be in Him and through Him. Think about it and seek Him!

Hell, what is that?


HELL-105818653518Sounds crazy doesn’t it? But, many people don’t believe that it exists. God speaks about it and Jesus speaks about this place, so it must exist somewhere. Why do people think that they will be having fun by going there though? I don’t understand that at all!

Even Milton wrote something quite unusual to me: “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven”; since when does anyone think that they will be “reigning” in hell? There is nothing to reign over! Heat that is eternal, sulphur that burns and those in hell have bodies which will not die, they will just feel pain! The pain of rejection and loss of Heaven and opportunities to be with loved ones will also be there.

Your life will continue although it will not be like many people think that it will. I have worked with many people who think that they will be living it up with all of their friends while eternity rolls on, when in fact it will be nothing like that at all.

God has given each of us a grace period in a way. One that allows us to come to our own conclusion about our eternal destination but there are so many that reject this gift and think that they have a better and more fun-filled way of getting to Heaven on their own. There is a problem with that though, because nothing that we do on our own is good enough to get us to Heaven. Jesus did everything that is necessary for our salvation and all that we have to do is believe in His sacrifice for us and accept it as the wonderful gift that it is!

No amount of work or money will add to what He has already done because nothing from our point of view and our strength is worthy of recognition by God. Jesus’ sacrifice and the blood that He shed for us, all of us, is enough and it doesn’t need anything added to it. Look at it like this:

If you had committed a truly heinous crime, one that deserved the death penalty and you were convicted of it. What could you do about it? Once you are convicted, unless there has been a terrible mistake, there really is nothing that you can do to reverse the situation. All that you can do is wait for your execution date. Then, one hour before your execution, a man comes to the judge and asks to be put in your place so that you can go free. Unbelievably, the judge agrees and you are set free and he is executed in your place. Did you deserve to be set free? Do you deserve the gift that you were given…life in the place of death?

This is exactly what Jesus did for each person on Earth. None of us, not even one person, deserves the life that is provided, the eternal pardon that has been given, but that doesn’t keep each of us from reaching out and taking it if we want it. So, what is keeping you from taking the gift that has been given? What part of your life here is so important, so wonderful that you would rather choose it over the future that you have in Christ? We have no idea how life will be in Heaven, but it will be far better than what we could have here, even if we had everything that we could possibly want it will pale in comparison to what is waiting for us.

Give it some thought, read the Bible with an open mind, pray about your future with Jesus. Don’t throw away the chance that you have been given freely and without cost to you.

Thinkin’ about stuff…


300px-Pooh_and_Piglet,_Thinking

I really like Pooh Bear. His philosophy of life is profound and simple. Eat, enjoy life with your friends, think about…stuff. Like, how clouds look and how they get around, why is the Sun so bright, could I fly to the moon? All important questions, especially when you don’t want to think about the REAL world and its problems. Life is a question from the time that we can talk and make sentences until the day that we, in the words of Commander Data “go offline”. How can we really enjoy life when there are so many questions? Do we have to answer them all? I am only adding to the number of questions by asking all of these.

The point is that we are beings who think. Our minds work all of the time, except while we are asleep and some say that we actually solve many of our problems while we are asleep we just don’t realize it at the time. Unconscious thoughts, words, meanings and emotions cloud our thinking and crowd out the really weird stuff, but only while we sleep. When we are awake, we have news and Facebook and Instagram and conversations over our phones and computers as well as with other human beings. Not to mention the things which we really have to do, like go to work, drive the car, watch for the other people on the highway around us, then do our job (whatever that might be) and then drive home and either fix something to eat for our family or get it as take-out from a restaurant.

Your life and mine are constantly in motion. Our minds rarely have a chance to catch up with everything that we are doing, and yet I haven’t even mentioned giving time to God or Bible study and meditation, prayer, etc. It is possible to do all of these things but when you write them down…they look so overwhelming! God gave us the ability to do this but we take it for granted, because from the time we first start going to school, more things are added to our daily menu of things to do every day! It seems that we are never really caught up or that we ever will catch up. Why?

More questions. Think…think…think..what can we do that doesn’t require so much energy, so much brainpower? I don’t have the answer to that, unless you might want to play some games on a console or on the computer, that is a mostly brain-less activity in my opinion. So, without being brain-less, how about getting into God’s Word? The wisdom contained in it doesn’t require us to really think, just believe in Him and His wisdom, as well as in His Son Who made it possible for us to come to God at any time that we need Him, regardless of the circumstance.

Once Jesus took care of the atonement or payment for our sins, all that we have to do is to believe in Him and what He did and ask Him to forgive us and to help us be more like Him in our daily lives. So that we can bring His message to others and, if the Holy Spirit draws them, maybe they will want to give their lives to Him as well. Christians don’t go on jihad (except for the ones that were deceived by their church in the Middle ages), Christianity cannot be forced on anyone and neither can any other religion!

Please consider your eternal soul and really think…think this through before deciding to follow Jesus or not. The decision can be the most valuable in your lifetime, because then your true, eternal life won’t end at all! 

Does God care?


If God did not care, you wouldn’t be reading this. Whether you believe in Him or not isn’t the point and whether you want to believe in Him isn’t the point either. God is, period. He cares, He loves each of us and He knows when and where you will die and how. He is omnipotent and outside of time, so He can see the beginning and the end and everything in between.

Your lack of belief will not change any of these facts and you will believe when He comes again, there is no denying that. Just like voting against gravity or sunshine will not make them go away, not believing in God is your choice but even Satan knows better! YES, God cares about you and every person on this Earth because He had a hand in your life at one point.

Choosing to disbelieve this will not change anything. God is eternal and He has a plan for us all. We can’t find out that plan until we seek Him and come to know Him though. Walking around or sitting around watching TV, fishing, hunting, or whatever you do that qualifies as ‘recreation and relaxation” doesn’t get you any closer to God. You are experiencing His creation and all the wonders of it, but until you decide to repent and allow Him to come into your life, the experience of it won’t mean much.

God is as near to you as your heartbeat and your breathing. He allowed you to get up this morning and begin a new day so don’t waste it! Use it for Him, decide to come before the Creator and humble yourself asking for His forgiveness that it took so long for you to find out that you need Him. Yes, God cares. He cared enough to send His Son to take the sins of the entire world on Himself, so that when you realized that you need Him, all that you have to do is believe in Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and make you His. That’s it.

It is not hard and there is nothing that you can do to make it better or easier. Actually, it couldn’t be much easier than: Father, I have been a sinner all of my life. I ask that you forgive me of all that I have done and cleanse me. Make me into a new creation through the power of your Son, Jesus. Thank you for your love and mercy, God. In Jesus’ name I ask this today and look forward to a new life with Him. Amen.

That is it. That simple prayer is all that you have to…no, need to do if you have never asked Him into your life before. Believe in Jesus, trust in Him and the Creator, God, because when you do everything changes and becomes new. Then, get a Bible, read it, study it, pray about it while you study it because He will help you to understand it and how it applies to your life. Then, tell someone about what Jesus has done for you. They will see it and know it whether you tell them or not because the change will be evident.

God’s character


He is El Shaddai (The Almighty)
He is El Olam (The Everlasting God)
He is El Ohiym (The Strong One)
He is Adonai (Master)
He is Yahweh Shalom (The Lord is Peace)
He is Jehovah-Rapha (The Lord Who Heals)
He is Jehovah-Hoseenu (The Lord our Maker)

These are the names of God..the names of our Lord, but you know He also occupies places in your life that are important as well.
He is our Deliverer. He is our Rock and our Fortress.
He is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He is our Saviour. He is the One Who Sees our troubles and carries us through them.
He is our Creator. He is the I AM. He is our Rod and our Staff.
He is our Healer and Protector.
He is our Shepherd and our Friend.
He is our Father in Heaven.

God is all of these. Jesus is all of these. The two of them and the Holy Spirit make up the Trinity and they are One. They rule over the universe and watch over all of our lives and our troubles as well as our fears and our heartaches. God is all that you or I will ever need, even when we have nothing that this world calls wealth, we are rich in Him. When we realize this and begin to act like it, then the world will see it and want what we have because they will know that it was not bought with money. It was given to us by God Himself and nobody can take it away.

Yes, I admit that I have been very deeply depressed for over a month. I have thought of ending my life. I have felt worthless and useless but God has been with me through it all. I have cried out to Him and I have yelled at Him. I have cussed and fussed about the way that I feel and asked Him why do I feel this way? Through it all, He let me rage and fuss. He allowed me to vent and cuss and then ask forgiveness for what I had said. I am not finished with my depressed state because it is not something that goes away like a cold or the flu. Unfortunately, it is what our society calls a disease of the mind. They used to put you in the mental hospital for it and depending upon how bad you are, they still do. But…I am not there yet.

The point that I had to make today is this: God never leaves you where you are, no matter what you are doing or what may be wrong in your life. He is always there with you, holding you in His hand. Giving you strength and comforting you like a child, which we are. But, He is also very patient with His children as well. His patience is far greater than ours and it goes deeper, like His love for us, than we can comprehend. God cannot do anything to you or for you except through love because that is His character and His being. That is why we can’t understand it, because we can’t love that deeply or completely and yet the love expressed between a man and woman and their children is as close as we can get in this life to it. If you haven’t given yourself to Him, please do it before it is too late. Because once this life is over, you don’t get another chance to make it right. Think about that, please?