Tag: Jesus

Who is this Man?


 “Nobody knows the exact date of His birth, and yet His birth has divided all of history to A.D. and B.C. He never, so far as we know, wrote a book, and yet more books have been written about Him than any other person. He never painted a picture or composed any poetry or music that we know of, and yet He has been the inspiration of the greatest music, art, and poetry that the world has ever known. He never had any formal education, yet more schools, colleges, universities, and seminaries have been founded in His name than any other person who ever lived.” – part of a devotional that I received from Love Worth Finding Ministries

Of course the man in the reference above is Jesus the Christ, our Messiah, the Son of the Living God. His influence on the world is undeniable, whether you believe in Him as the Messiah or not, and the effect that Christianity has had in the past two thousand years is polarizing. So, what is it about Him that makes people either love or hate Him and His followers? There is not middle ground concerning Christianity either, it is black and white.

He said it Himself, “And if the world hates you, know that it hated me before you.” John 15:18; so why does the world truly hate Christianity and Jesus in particular? Because of many things which don’t have much to do with the religion, such as His race and because His blood had to be given in order for us to be justified and sanctified by belief in what He did for us. Those are the two main points that I have noticed about those who are against believing in Him. What has that got to do with anything?

Just because He was born into the Jewish culture and God required a blood sacrifice to atone for sin? Big deal! The sins of Adam and Eve were covered by the blood of an animal that had to be killed in order for them to have clothing and from that point on the blood of an animal was required as the sacrifice of atonement for sin. The only difference is that on the cross, the perfect Son of God is the One Who gave His life as a ransom for all, not just a few but all! That is the part which the world wants to reject. Nobody wants a gift that cost that much to be given to them for free, everyone wants to earn it, but there is nothing that you or I can do to earn and be worthy of His sacrifice! Everything was done on the cross that needed to be done and we can’t add to it!

No amount of work on your part or mine will aid in any way your entrance into heaven. Accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord and believing in what He did for you and for everyone else is all that is necessary. Though, you will be led to do more after you are saved by His grace it will not add anything to your entrance into Heaven except that you may bring a few people with you. Please, pray about the scriptures that point to Him in the Old Testament while you read them, then look up the references in the New Testament that show the fulfillment of the Old. Once you realize that He was there from the beginning as the Son, until He came as the Son of Man and He will come as the King of Kings, you will know your Savior is Jesus the Christ as the Son of the Living God!

 

 

Life today?


So, what do you do? Is your so-called “life” bound up in your occupation or in something else? Does your family enjoy most of your time or do you spend it working at the office? Do you travel a lot on business? These are occupations or at least the reflections of what is important to you. So, does your life reflect what is really important in your life or even what is important to you? Or does your life reflect things that you desire or “stuff” that really doesn’t count for anything?

These questions are some that we all need to ask ourselves at least once, not just once a year but once a week and sometimes once every day! Your life will be far more and have much more meaning if you latch on to Jesus and His message today! Living your life with Christ in the center is the best way to live it, even if it costs you your stuff, it may not cost you everything but it will cost something. Some of your friends may not like it that you are really following Jesus, they may not want a “Christian” as a friend because it will make them look bad!

You know what? If they feel that way, then they weren’t your friend anyway! Being a friend of Jesus and following Him is far better and more rewarding than having friends here which are just friends during the good times. Life comes from God, the air that we breathe comes from Him, the ground that you walk on every day was created for you by Him. The beating of your heart and the heart of everyone around you is His grace toward you for today. You are not guaranteed tomorrow, so the beating of your heart will only go on as long as God decrees that it will.

He loves you and me and everyone else on this planet and only He knows why!! He may not like some of the things which we do or say about Him or against Him, but He still loves you regardless because He is God! We need to love Him in return for the air that we breathe and the job that we have and the family that we have because He gave all of those things, good things, to us. I know that if you are in an abusive relationship you might not think that it is a blessing and you may be right, but God is still with you in the place where you are no matter how dark or hellish it might be.

God cares for you and for your family. He loves us, all of us so much that He sacrificed His Son so that we would have the covering of Christ’s blood to allow us to come into His presence every minute of every day if need be! We don’t have to go to a priest, we don’t have to have a certain amount of money or power to get God’s attention! All that we have to do is be humble enough to tell Him that ” I messed up, God, please forgive me and cleanse me from my sinful ways. Come into my life and my heart and fix what is broken. Thank you, Lord, for loving me enough that I can come to you for this and for all of my troubles and trials. In Jesus’ Holy name I humbly ask this of you, Amen.”

That is all that it takes to be a child of God. Just a simple, humble prayer. No haughty spirit will get this, no prideful person need come, no un-repentant person should “try God” because it won’t work! God knows your heart, He knows where you were last night and what you said on the phone to someone who you shouldn’t have been talking to. Nothing can be hidden from Him because He sees each of us as we REALLY are at all times. Even a prayer that is said humbly as the man in the temple did, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!”, is heard when it comes from a repentant heart! Please, give Him a chance to show you His love and mercy while there is time to do so. Don’t just read this and think about it, do it!

 

What do you do?


In the New Testament book of Colossians in chapter three and verse seventeen it says: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in (dependence upon) His person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.” AMP

In this verse of scripture, Paul is writing to those who have come to faith in Christ who are trying to reconcile their vocations with their new beliefs. He is telling them that regardless of your vocation, do it as if you are doing it for the Lord. If you dig a ditch, do it as if Jesus asked you to do so. If you are a doctor, treat your vocation as if you worked for the Supreme Physician.

All of us cannot be missionaries or preachers or evangelists, but we can do what we do as if we are doing it for Jesus. If you are a professional football player or golfer, play like you are playing for Jesus and the same goes for any other sport. Regardless of the work that you do, do it as if you are working for Jesus because you really are.

He gave you the talent and the ability to do what you do and the job or the business that you have so that you can be and do your work for Him. I know that many people don’t treat their job as a gift from God or a blessing from Him but it is. God gives to each of us a measure of faith as well as skill in an area that nobody else can match and we have that skill regardless of our education, it was given to us from birth. We may not find out about it until later, maybe after we have attended school or finished school, but it has been there nonetheless. I never thought that I could write much, until years after I graduated from college. I finally found my voice through finding my Savior and He gives me the words to write or say, I am just the messenger.

Your vocation, whatever it may be, is a doorway to other people’s lives. If you work in a hospital, you see people who are hurting in many ways almost every day. I used to work in the laboratory of a hospital and the specimens which we processed were from many people every day who were dealing with cancers of all kinds, HIV, viruses, you name it they were suffering from it. Nurses, Doctors, and all who work in hospitals should be on their knees every day praying for those who they have to care for, regardless of whether they might know any of them or not.

We should be praying for our country and those in Washington who are in charge of the laws of this land. We need to be praying for our military men and women who are serving and putting their lives on the line every day. Prayer should be in our minds and on our hearts for the whole world to come to know Christ, because Satan is busy changing the minds and hearts of as many as he can to turn against Christians and Jews. We are in his sights as a nation founded upon those principles, even though our country is trying to abandon them as fast as it can it seems.

Even though it has been two thousand years since the crucifixion of Jesus, He is coming back! We need to be prepared for His return by doing as much for His Kingdom as we can, whether it is just by praying or if we can preach or teach others to know Him. Teach your children about Him and your grandchildren because they need to know as well. Your family and your friends are the hardest to tell about Jesus if they don’t already know, so in many instances you may just have to pray and invite them to a Bible study at your home. Prayer can cover many things, especially in the lives of those who haven’t come to know Jesus.

Give your heart to Him, tell others about Him, live your life and your vocation as you would with Him by your side. This is the way to eternal life, follow it…follow Jesus and He will guide you.

Beauty in the Cosmos


If, like me, you watched the series Cosmos on television then you were struck by the wonder and majesty of all that mankind has discovered. The beauty of the galaxies and nebulae, and of the planets in the system where we are at home. But…did you notice that they completely disregard any sort of notion that all of this was designed by a Designer? Nowhere did they show any kind of religious splendor and humility toward the discoveries of the universe itself. Everything in our universe came from a microscopic singularity that just exploded one day and blew out all of the matter, dark and otherwise, into the universe. Then, all on its own, everything just organized itself together into galaxies and stars and planet systems and bacteria, etc.

Come on! Entropy and the universe at large does not work that way and scientists know this! What happened? They theorize that gravity pulled everything together and then nature took its turn. Really?

Yes, the galaxies and nebulae are beautiful to look at and wondrous to behold, but their beauty points not to a random accident of gases and rocks coming together but to the awesomeness of God! He is the designer and builder of all that we see in the heavens. He is the One who put the stars in their places and called them by name. He is also the One Who called forth the light to begin the whole of creation in the first place. No super-collider of any kind is going to find God in a microscopic particle that lasts for a nanosecond and then vanishes!

God can only be found in the Bible, which Isaac Newton studied. They didn’t mention that in the series. Most of the great scientists up until Charles Darwin, believed what is in God’s Word and their research in the heavens was simply to confirm God’s Word not to deny it or to refute it. The answer to your problems, whatever they may be, is Jesus and the relationship that you will have with Him when you ask Him into your heart. God can heal the hurts in your life whether they are emotional or physical and He most certainly can answer your spiritual questions and confusion.

God is the answer when all other answers fail because He is our Creator and everything which is was created by Him, including all of humanity. The ones who have committed sinful acts such as rape, murder, sodomy, stealing, disrespect toward parents and other sins are still loved by God and He will forgive them of their crimes against His commandments if they will repent and ask for His forgiveness. Then follow His ways and His Truth. When they do this, they are adopted into His family forever. You don’t fall from grace after you have received it, you may stumble and fall down by doing something out of character for a Christian but you have not been tossed aside by God. Satan is just trying to make you think that is what will happen.

The world and the cosmos are all God’s handiwork, there is no denying it. You can’t say that these things just miraculously came together without a Miracle Worker! It isn’t possible! As I have said before, your life and everything in it came from God. Your talent, your family, your job, your income, and yes even the pets that you enjoy the company of all came from God’s hand. Many are prideful enough to think that they did all of these things, but you can’t even change the color of one whisker let alone have an effect on your life! God loves you and if you have felt His call…His pull on your heart and have not answered it, I urge you to do so as soon as you can!

Think about it and ask Him to show you what He has for you.

Time…is…ticking…away…from…us


We have a certain amount of time to live, but only God knows how much each of us has. What are you doing with your time?

Do you spend it worried about your bills? Working to make more money so you can pay more of them off or are you trying to buy more “stuff”?

We need to be concentrating on things which have an impact in our life and in the lives of others. Not just as workers or business owners or …. well you get the picture, but as people who genuinely care for one another. In today’s world that is something that is sorely missing. I don’t want to bring up any news headlines, but people are not taught to respect each other nor are they taught, it seems, to respect life itself. Too many news stories are on the web and television about life being taken for no apparent reason. Yes, this has happened in the past, but not to the extent that it is happening today.

You and I only have today. We are not guaranteed tomorrow or next week, let alone next month or next year! We may live to be seventy-five or eighty-five if we are fortunate, but then there are those who may not make it to the end of this sentence or even to sundown today. The point of this is that time is precious and it begins ticking away the moment that we are born. Your heart beats many thousands of times during the day, pumping blood to all of your vital areas. But, it will only beat so long and God knows exactly how many beats that each of us has left.

Yes, God knows how long you will live and how you will die. He knows when too, so what are you going to do with the rest of the time that you have? What will you do about the eternity that you will step into when this life is over? Regardless of what you may have heard, there is a life after this one and it doesn’t end, how you will spend it is dependent upon your decision in this life, here and now. Will you give your life to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you for your sins, regardless of the sin? Will you ignore what that empty area in your life that you feel needs something in it but you don’t know what it is? That is the part of you that God created which desires Him to fill it with Himself!

Only the Spirit of God fits in that part of you, and if it feels empty now, just try to put something else in there…it will feel worse. It will feel as if it gets bigger and bigger until you decide to fill it with Him. The emptiness in your life will not go away until Jesus fills it with Himself, so to consider something else is foolish.

It has taken me about forty minutes to get this far and that is forty minutes that none of us will get back. Seek Him while you can. He will empower you to do things for His Kingdom that is true, but the rewards in heaven are such that we can’t imagine while we are alive now.

Is your culture affecting your religion?


In many areas of life, it seems that culture trumps religion, regardless of which country you might live in. What kind of religion do you practice? Today, it seems, every religion is acceptable in the public square except Christianity! It doesn’t matter if you are a practising witch or an Imam, you are accepted by everyone as long as your religion doesn’t involve belief in Jesus!

Culturally we are all accepted in the grand scheme of things, nobody seems to have any trouble with other cultures as long as they are not trying to impose their culture on others. So, why is it that we label Christians with that sort of label? Like they are pushing something on everyone around them? According to God’s Word, no one is going to Heaven apart from Jesus, period. It doesn’t matter what cultural background you have, where you were born or what color your skin might be. The fact is that you need Jesus in your life and His Spirit dwelling inside your heart.

The only way that you get this is by believing in Jesus as the Son of God and not just some prophet. A prophet cannot get you into Heaven. Being a member of a church or a religious organization will not save your soul. Giving your time, your money or a few hours per week while attending church services will not save your soul! The only Savior that we have who can save us is Jesus. Belief in Him and the atonement that He bought for us on the cross is the only way to be saved from the condition that you are in.

Money, power, prestige, the size of your house or the car that you drive makes no difference at all! Because, when you die, someone else is going to get all of it! None of it goes with you and it makes no difference to God how rich you were or how poor you might have been in the world’s eyes. Like the beggar who went to Paradise and the rich man went to hades, the ground is level in front of God. If your heart is right with God and you have faith in Him and His Son, then you will be richer than anyone on Earth. If you have not accepted Christ and the grace that has been extended to you through the death and resurrection of Jesus, your money will not make any difference and neither will your nation of birth. Jew or Gentile, we are all the same when we stand in front of Almighty God.

You will be asked, “What did you do with My Son and why should you come through the gates of Heaven?” If Jesus puts His arm around you and says “This one belongs to Me, Father.”, then you will have nothing to worry about. If you hear the words, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”, then you are to be most pitied. Your eternity will be a long, hard, and painful one.

Consider this and pray about your life and your eternity, please.

 

What happened?


Many have seen my post about cults and yet no one seems to like it at all, well….tough!
There are people in our world today who need to hear it and if those of us who have been called don’t say it, who will!! I am not putting one religion down, even though it may seem like it at first, the problem is that idolatry and cultism have entered the church regardless of the denomination and we need to root it out and get our eyes focused on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and the Only way to get to Heaven!

The times that we live in are desperate because the time of our age is coming to a close and it is no time to wait around thinking about our loved ones or how much money can we make or which car we might purchase today or tomorrow, there might not be a tomorrow for you or your friends or even those that you love. Time is not guaranteed to anyone, we have today, right now! We are not guaranteed even an hour from now, if the grace of God gives us the rest of today, how many people can you tell about Jesus? Will you?

Yes, I have been posting many “sermons” here, some of them were the words that I used in the church where I preach but it seems that the most effective that they were was when I put them here, except for this last one preceding this. No one wants to be told that they are doing something wrong, nobody wants to hear a sermon or the words from a “preacher”, telling them that the way they are living is wrong according to God’s Word and His laws. I am writing today to let those who frequent here that my messages are going to be a bit more “to the point” from this point on. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. You can always go to another website which sounds more religiously tolerable and doesn’t hurt your feelings.

I don’t know you, but God does, and He is watching you. He knows who you are, where you are and where you were last night or last weekend. You cannot hide from Him, so don’t try. If your life has not been lined up with His teaching in His Word, then you need to get down on your knees and thank Him for keeping you alive long enough to realize it. Then, you need to ask His forgiveness and ask Him to cleanse your heart and soul and come into your life so that you can live for Him for the rest of your life. Many people seem to be denying that the Bible is true, many of them don’t believe that anything in it is true. For those people, I can only say that “I am sorry you feel that way”, because for people who have closed their minds to the Truth no amount of preaching will help.

A closed mind is like a piece of granite, nothing can get into it but the body which is attached to a closed mind can do a lot of damage. In James 3:6 it is written that the “And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.” Why is the Bible against someone with a closed mind and a hard heart? Because with their tongue, their character shows itself to the world through their words and once those words are out there, they cannot be taken back or erased. The effect my be local to the person which hears the words, or in the case of the Internet it may go global and be such a devastating thing as to be like a raging fire which destroys towns and forests and lives.

It is something which we must guard against. If my words have hurt your feelings, whoever reads this, I apologize. The fact remains that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and if you want to be there you need to come to Him soon. God loves you and cares for you, realize this and come to Him like the prodigal son and humble yourself before Him. He will soothe the pain and the anguish in your life and make your life useful to His kingdom, so that you will enjoy His Kingdom for eternity.

Think about it and pray to the only One who really cares and loves you, no matter what you have done.

Sacrifice


Today, there are many speeches being given about “sacrifice” or “sacrifices” which have been made by our servicemen and women over the years, so what have we done in our lives that qualifies as sacrifice? Have you really sacrificed much in your life? Most of us who live in America, especially those who have been born in the past forty years, have not really had to sacrifice much at all.

Our soldiers have sacrificed their time with family, their safety during war and many have given the ultimate sacrifice…their lives for their love of country and the freedoms that we have and enjoy everyday. We have had such freedoms because of their sacrifice or the sacrifices of earlier heroes in earlier wars like World War 2.

I must confess that I did serve for a while in the Air Force, but I had to get out due to medical reasons and because a family member needed me at home since I was the only son. I am not complaining about this, I enjoyed my time in the service and had the intention of making it a career at the time but circumstances got in the way.

The point of my post being sacrifice, we are privileged to live in a country that has enjoyed the freedoms that we have that have because of the sacrifices of others. The same is true of our salvation through Jesus Christ. He sacrificed His life for our sins in order to pay the debt needed for the atonement of ALL the sins of every person on Earth! He was the only person that could’ve paid this price and He did it willingly! Can we deny Him our life and our service and sacrifice after He gave so much?

Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father and Creator of all, waiting for the time when everything is accomplished on Earth before He comes for the believers who await His return. The world doesn’t recognize Him but it will one day soon, although I fear that for some it will be too late. They have already made their minds and their hearts up to be lovers of the world and of themselves, some even attend church every Sunday. But, they are being deceived into thinking that being religious and going through the motions will get them into Heaven…it will not.

Satan himself, as well as some of his demons, follows a few of them into pulpits of any number of denominations as well as into the pews. They agree with all that deception and believe in God because they knew Him before their fall from Heaven, but even that belief will not save them because they will not repent and choose to serve God through His Son. We are known by God more intimately than anyone else and it breaks His heart to know that many will choose not to come to Him through Jesus.

You and I and every person on Earth are important to God, otherwise He wouldn’t have sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins. All that we have to do is accept the gift of that redemption, confess that we know that we are sinners and ask God to forgive us for our rejection of Jesus, then ask Jesus to come into your life and turn from your old way of living to living by His power and grace in your life every day from that day forward. At times, the life and the walk of a Christian is hard because of the struggles and the persecution and many people turn away from it because of that. They thought that when you came to Jesus, all of your problems would go away.

On the contrary, Satan will attack you more savagely because you are a Christian. You may get sick more or a family member will, there may be accidents and a host of other problems but the test can be overcome by relying on Jesus and His strength to get you through those times. Seek Him first every day and each day will be better, walk with Jesus daily and you will never be alone again.

Think about it and pray, because the time is growing short.

 

Why are we so critical of others?


In the educational arena as well as in everyday life, people seem to be critical of cultural norms, regardless of the consequences. If someone doesn’t think that you should be doing something, such as walking barefoot or wearing an earring or whatever it might be, they don’t mind saying so. Even if your religion offends them in some part or point, you will hear about it if your religion is Christianity. It seems that nobody cares if there are those who try to change your mind about other religions, but if you happen to be a Christian then you should just keep your mouth SHUT!

Criticism of a Christian point of view has been going on for a long time, but it seems to be getting much worse and out in the open today. Even our culture, whatever it might be, seems to offend some people. Going barefoot, wearing shorts or earrings, allowing your pants to ride down on your….well you get the point. Offence can be taken at any point in your daily life from someone who doesn’t go along with your ideas or your viewpoint or you culture and also those who share or attempt to share their religious views and beliefs with others.

In the Bible, we are told by Jesus Himself that because we belong to Him the world will hate us because it hated Him first. Mainly because of the Truth that is contained in Scripture about Him and about our beliefs, there is no loss of animosity toward Christians, actually it seems to be getting worse. The time of this grace period for the world is growing shorter each day, yet it is something that nobody wants to hear about.

We are given every necessary provision for our lives and yet we crave more “stuff” that doesn’t satisfy, things which can’t help in any way at all because we want all of the toys we can get our hands on. Why? Is it because the life that we have simply isn’t enough? The car or the house that we have been given isn’t enough? What happens to those things when we die? Someone else gets them or they are sold but there is no way that we get any benefit from them after our death.

The truth is that we are eternal beings, created with an eternal soul that science cannot understand or explain but that doctors know that it is there. That part of you continues on and according to the words of Jesus, we will be as He was when He came out of the tomb…flesh and blood but also so much more because we will never taste death again. We will be immortal and no longer subject to disease or death, isn’t that wonderful! I know, it is hard to accept now because we don’t have this advantage now and we can’t have it in our life now but it will be granted to us when we die.

Some people look at it and wonder what happens to those who are not Christians when they die. Do they have an eternal, immortal body too? The answer is…Yes! The problem that they will face is that they won’t enjoy their immortality. They will endure pain and suffering for eternity. These people are also the ones who say, “My God would never do that!”.

God does not condemn you to this punishment, you do by your own decision to reject His offer of grace and forgiveness through Jesus. It is your own choice which sends you to the place that was prepared for Satan and his demons alone. This place, Hell, was never meant to be a destination for humanity but when you choose to “live my life my way”, then you are following Satan’s path because that is what he did. He chose to go his way instead of listening to and living through God’s will and purpose for him.

Please, consider the consequences of your own actions and decisions. Decide to ask Jesus into your life and to live according to the Bible and His teachings every day. It really isn’t as hard as you might think.

Are you ready for Jesus?


One time I told someone who came into the place where I worked that I was ready for Jesus to come and the very next words from their mouth was, “I am not, I have too much I want to do before He comes back.” The attitude expressed in this statement is that life is over when He comes! Why would you think that? If you belong to Jesus, your life will never end so when you arrive in Heaven so your life is really just beginning.

Why would someone think that life ends when Jesus comes? If you are a sinner and there are some things that you want to do that Jesus wouldn’t approve of then from that point of view, I can understand. But, if you don’t belong to Jesus when He comes to call the church to Heaven then you will be left behind during the worst time on the Earth.

During the flood of Noah’s day, when the rain and the fountains of the deep broke open, the people of Earth drowned except for the eight that God saved on the ark. During the Tribulation, there will be seven seals, seven bowls and seven trumpets with each one being a specific plague or punishment for those on Earth. The difference during this time will be that there will be some who will still be able to come to faith in Jesus, although it will be hard and dangerous to do so.

Many people think that God will remove the possibility of salvation when He takes the church to Heaven, but I believe that He will not do that even though faith and believing in Jesus will be dangerous for those living at this time. This belief is mine, and it has not been taught in seminaries because they have been taught that the Holy Spirit will be taken from the Earth before this time. God may do this but I think that He will give everyone who chooses not to worship the Antichrist the opportunity to learn about and come to faith in Jesus the Christ.

My own beliefs may have been influenced by some of the books that I have read about the end times, but also by my own prayer and study of God’s Word, but your own life and the message that you get from the Bible is yours. The truth contained in God’s Word is God’s Truth and since He cannot lie, then I accept it as such. The writers who were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the words were men, but those forty men could not have produced a book of such accurate and truthful proportion without the Spirit’s guidance. Especially the books from over a thousand years before Christ, which describe His death on a cross exactly and all of the other prophecies which point to Jesus which were written so long before He came into the world. Men could not have made this stuff up and then it came to pass!

Please, if you are a Christian get into a deeper relationship with Him and serve Him in some way until He comes. If you are not a Christian, but you are searching for meaning in your life then look to Jesus and read about Him in the Bible. Ask Him to show you what you need to know and Who you need to follow, the answer may surprise you.