Tag: Jesus

Have you walked away?


I have worked with and talked to many people who have told me that they walked away from a church because of something. Many people won’t tell what the “something” was that cause the problem, but I doubt that it was God Himself. After my divorce years ago, I heard a sermon that was essentially attacking people who were in my place and it hurt. I thought that in church and by those who attend church, we were supposed to be supported and prayed for when we  experienced pain like that which comes in a divorce. I was proven wrong, so I did not go back for a long time.

This is how churches and congregations as well as individuals become broken and torn or pulled apart. There are hurt feelings and anger and later frustration, then the anger becomes deep and turns into something which won’t go away easily and it hinders our relationship with God.

Many people think that they will be able to worship Him just fine from home or at work or wherever they may be on Sunday morning and it is true that you can do this but what usually happens? We get started cooking breakfast and watching the morning show on Sunday morning, then the phone rings and we go to the mall. What happened?  Life, family, television, shopping, fishing, hunting, kids can all get in the way of learning about your Savior.

There are many excuses that get used when people don’t want to come to church or maybe get back into church. If there ever was a part of your life that was involved in church then you have heard the message of Christ‘s sacrifice for your salvation. Have you accepted it into your life and your heart?

If you did accept Him as your Savior and then something or someone at your home church caused you to leave then there needs to be some forgiveness. It is something that we, as humans have a hard time doing but with Jesus in your life it is possible. Following His example we are supposed to be forgiving to those who have wronged us, no matter what the slight is or was.

We can’t do it with our own strength, but through Him we can. Just as Jesus told Peter, we are supposed to forgive seven times seventy or four hundred and ninety times. It is what our Lord commanded us to do, and yet we are not able to do it on our own.

We have to decide to revive our relationship with Jesus, regardless of the hurt we received from a church-member or a pastor in time past. Even if the one who may have hurt your feelings is a family member, your relationship with Jesus is more important than this. If you have left the church or your relationship with Jesus by not attending church you are only hurting yourself.

When we are in a right relationship with Jesus and following Him daily, we should celebrate and worship with other saints at a church. Regardless of the denomination, worship is the key because of the sacrifice of our Lord and because He is worthy of our praise!

The Living Word, our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ and the Messiah came to be the way that we have to get into heaven, all that we need to do is to ask Him into our hearts or re-establish the relationship that has been on hold. If you have put Jesus on hold, He is still waiting. He never hung up, He has never nor will He leave you.

What is the truth?


Is the truth found in our everyday lives? Can each of us have our own version of what is true or not? If we did, then everyone would be fighting over which truth was or is the real one! How can we know which truth is the right one? Is it the one that we are taught as children by our parents or is the truth that we are taught in school or college the correct one? What about if we make up our own truth, wouldn’t that be the one for us? If so, then which truth is the one for my next door neighbor or the people who live in the next country?

People have been arguing over the truth or a lie for centuries without either side knowing which one is correct. So, how can we be sure about the validity of the truth? The only real, way is to ask the author and finisher of Truth, Jesus! How can we know what the truth is if we don’t read God‘s Word on it because His Word is truth!

The Word of God is the truth regardless of what truth you may be looking for. So how can we know that it is the truth? Simple, if God’s Word is not the truth, then we have absolutely no hope!Nothing in the mind of man can save us from the judgement to come if we have not accepted Jesus as our Savior!

There is no religion which was conceived by man which will get you into Heaven because we are sinful creatures! We are not able to save ourselves from destruction and judgement and we cannot be sinless on our own merits. Jesus came to pay the price for us because He is the only One who could and He did! He obeyed the Father‘s will and submitted Himself to the hands of man to be put to death on the cross! The only thing that we can do is to trust in Him and believe in Him and the work that He did for us, then submit our life to Him so that we can tell others!

The Truth is that God loved us before we were born and sent His perfect Son to be the sacrifice which would satisfy all of the requirements of the Law that we cannot! Jesus did this for all of mankind, whether we each accept it as a gift of grace from God or not is our choice! It is not forced upon us, we are not required to act on this knowledge but it is for our own good that we do so! It is provided for us, without cost or obligation, but we need to realize that it is for our own salvation and for the glory of God! It is our responsibility to give our lives as living sacrifices to God daily because it is the least that we can do in light of what He did for us.

The truth is that God does not need us, but He wants us to know that He loves us and has provided all of the provision, the sacrifice needed for us to have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us through our acceptance of Him! God created each of us with knowledge of Him and the moral goodness that is needed for us to live in our societies, whether we have lived that way or not is our own choice and the product of our upbringing. Even those who have never had a sermon preached to them know that there is something more than what they have, and they search for it. They try to find it in many things or in drugs or alcohol or even sex but none of these satisfies their craving because the only way to fill that empty space is with Jesus!

 

Why don’t more people attend church?


Is it because they are not interested or have become dis-interested in the message? Is it because of the media today that pushes references to God out of the news most of the time? Maybe it is because our culture has collectively walked away from belief in God and just doesn’t want to get into church. I am not sure of the cause in our nation, but in many parts of the world, belief in Jesus is exploding yet in our country belief and attendance of church services is declining. Being the only country which was founded on Christian principles, I am not sure what has happened to our belief system.

God and His Word have not changed, so what has happened to us?

Many of our beliefs today reflect our society and its beliefs, so why is our world changing in such radical ways? It is because our society and the beliefs that we have held as a nation have changed drastically in the past fifty years or so. We were considered, at one time, to be a Christian nation but even though many people still say they believe in God they don’t practice their beliefs.

If this is hard to believe, you can look up the statistics on the Internet. Many people who are college age or have graduated recently don’t attend any religious gatherings on a regular basis. Many, who were part of a family that attended church, have just walked away from their faith altogether. Even in the so-called Bible-belt, less than thirty percent overall attend church regularly. What happened?

We, as a nation, have pushed God out of our lives. We pushed Him out of our schools, we have declared that He is dead, we have mocked Him in many areas, especially scientific circles. Theories that maintain that He wasn’t present when the universe was created are taught as if they are factual. It seems that we take little notice of the miraculous in our lives, regardless of how much it impacts our daily lives.

Can anything be done about this situation? Yes, something can and will be done! The Christians who are devout and steadfast in their faith must step up and pray for a revival in our communities, our counties, our states and our nation! If we don’t do this, the next generation will be the one which pays the price and the entire world will suffer for it. If we, collectively, don’t decide to humble ourselves and pray, asking forgiveness for our lack of faith and judgment, then we will be responsible for the downfall of faith in God which will be the forerunner for chaos in our world.

I implore you to listen with your heart! Get down on your knees, ask God to forgive us, each of us, so that we can begin the healing process in our lives. So He can begin the revival in our hearts and our minds because if we don’t, there will be little hope left once He is gone from our culture. Don’t let this happen by executive order or from a judge’s gavel, pray hard and long for our revival, let God know that there are still people who believe in Him and who care whether He is present in our lives.

If we don’t revive our belief in God in our nation, and spread the news to the world, then we are dropping the ball. Jesus told His disciples , as well as us, to take the gospel to the end of the world so what are we waiting for? If we don’t tell people what Jesus has done for us and what He can do for them, then who will? How will they hear about Him, if there is nobody telling what He has done and is doing in their life?

It is a challenge for all of us who are believers but it is a challenge that we must meet. Even if you never set foot in another country, at least pray for those who are missionaries around the world. Prayer is most powerful when we do it on purpose and our purpose is clear, people must know about Christ! If we don’t tell them, or pray for them to come to know Him then who will?

Our cluttered, busy lives


Have you noticed that your life and the lives of many people are so cluttered with stuff to do and things which need to be done that there is no time to do them all? All of these electronic devices and gadgets which were supposed to make our work life and our daily lives more relaxing and easier to manage have actually done the opposite! Those of us who have cell phones and the coverage to use them, are constantly connected to e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or some other service that pings us all of the time. We are never disconnected unless we get to an area that doesn’t have coverage and even then…we panic! Until we are connected again, then we feel that life can go on. Why?

Why do we have to be connected all of the time? Our data, our lives should not revolve around a device or a service that is not much more than a way to keep up with everything and everyone that we have added as a friend! Your life was not designed to be this way, your brain was not created to do this! Even though the use of these devices (I have one too) has caused many to seemingly attach them to their ears and never put them down, we are supposed to be following and speaking to God in this way as well! In Deuteronomy 6:7 it says: “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Of course it is referring to the Ten Commandments, but the point of this is that we are to think about, meditate on God’s Word during our day, using its wisdom as a guidebook for our life. Many of us have replaced it with our cell phones. Granted, there are “apps for that” which will allow you to read God’s Word on your phone, but do we do that?

Being connected to the world through our phones is fine, but we need to stay connected to God as well. If you are not saved or have just brushed off religion or Christianity all together as a bunch of nonsense, I pity you. Many of you will be thinking at this point that you don’t want my pity, but the reason for it is simple. If you don’t accept Jesus as your Savior, then your eternal destination will not be an enjoyable experience at all. Each of us has a choice and it is simple, which is why many people think that it is too simple! That choice is between doing what we feel like doing or giving our heart and our life to Jesus and submitting ourselves to His will and not our own.

The consequences of not giving your life and your heart to Him, in this life, are few. You will be able to live and go on with your life without Him, but the comfort and strength that you would’ve had access to won’t be there. There will always be an empty space in your soul and in your heart where He should be, and you will feel it. Trying to fill it with something else or someone else won’t work until you realize Who needs to be there and ask Him to come in.

Being connected to the world all of the time is fine, but being connected to Jesus is much better! It is better for you, it is better for your friends and family, and it is better for eternity! Think about it.

Our Amazing God!


I have written about this before, but it bears repeating. That our God, the Creator of the universe is amazing! All of the life that is on our planet, not just humanity, but all of the living organisms from single celled life, to the blue whales which traverse the oceans and every tree and blade of grass was created by Him with a word, how amazing is that!

Can any other “god” claim to have done this? No, they cannot because they didn’t and cannot do what our God can do. Have you considered the wonders of our world and the universe that we live in? This did not happen by chance, nor did it happen by accident, it came together because God wanted it to!

He sent His Son to earth as the final sacrifice for our sins and if you believe in Him and the grace that is given to you through Jesus, then you are part of His family and joint heirs with Christ in Heaven! Isn’t that humbling? Isn’t it a powerful expression of love from God to each of us? Yes, it is on both counts because if God didn’t love each of us He wouldn’t have done the things that He has done for us.

He would not have sent His Son and He wouldn’t give us this place that we call home, if He didn’t love us beyond any love that we can comprehend. If God is drawing you to Himself, please don’t walk away from Him, reach out and ask Him into your life and your heart. You will know if He is drawing you to Him and when you recognize it, please don’t ignore Him. Your life before accepting Him is nothing compared to what it can be after accepting Him. Serving Him through your job and the life that you live before your family is an awesome responsibility, because they need to know Him too and if they only see Him through you then that is needed, you are needed by Him to be that witness.

There is so much darkness in our world today that many people can’t see or even tell that there is a light and that light is the love of God and His Son! John wrote in his gospel that:

16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16,17)

The world doesn’t know Him because it and those who are in it don’t want to know Him. They are like the ones in Jesus’ time that refused His message, and refused to believe in Him. In the book of Matthew is this verse “For many are called but only a few are chosen” Matthew 22:14

Those who are chose are the ones who will answer the call of God on their spirit, because some will and some won’t. If you think you can live your life without God, you are right, you can…but your life will be limited to this world. Once your life is over here, you will face God Himself and when you do He will ask you what you chose to do with Jesus even though He knows the answer. If you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, then He will send you into a place of punishment forever because of your decision!

Please don’t let that be you! Give your life to Jesus, ask Him to come into your life, read a Bible and learn Who He is and how He much He loves you. Learn about Him, find out what He can do for you and what He can do through you. Your life will change into one of significance not only in this life but into eternity. Pray about it and ask Him to show you His wisdom for your life, because He will.

 

Marriage by any other name?


Our country is venturing down a dark path, one that our grandparents or parents wouldn’t have gone down. This is a very contentious and charged issue politically and otherwise. So, why are we having this issue in our country anyway? America is a free country so why is there any dis-unity in our laws? It is because this country was founded by God-fearing people and the foundations of our laws are or at least were based on the Ten Commandments and biblical principles. One of those principles happened to be that God established the union of a man and a woman as a marriage, the first marriage was performed by God Himself.

In nature, there are aberrations occasionally in the “orientation” of the sexes, but they are just that…aberrations! God did not design nature or human beings to have relations that are unnatural. Procreation cannot happen unless there is a female and a male together as a couple, other than that it is an aberration of natural law. Animals of any kind know this by instinct, that only males and females will continue the species, anything other than that you are just following the lust of your own self and lust for unnatural relations.

This is wrong and no amount of legislation will convince me otherwise. In the church where I am the pastor, there will be no same-sex “marriages“, period because I will not perform them. You are welcome to call me a bigot if you wish, but I follow Jesus and the Word of God and God doesn’t condone this type of behavior in any shape or form, whether it has been legislated into our culture or not. We are accountable to God for anything that is against His laws, because His law is above our laws. So, regardless of the law here, you will still be accountable to God for what you do in this life. Give your life to Jesus, follow Him so that you will be cleansed of your sinful ways.

Do you see the love of Christ at your church?


In our world and our culture, the love that we are commanded to show to one another seems to be in short supply…even in church. So what are we to do? Well, the first thing that you can do is make sure that your heart is right with God! If you don’t have Jesus in your heart, then the love of God won’t be there either and if it isn’t there then it won’t show up in church or anywhere else. People will wonder about your walk with Christ, whether it is genuine or not, if the Spirit of Christ doesn’t shine through.

This is something which can’t be faked. You can act like a Christian, you can attend church for decades and teach Sunday school, you can even be a pastor and still not be saved if you know the words and what is expected of you! In other words, you can walk and talk it and still not have it because you are just going through the motions and that is all! Many people in our country are doing just that because if there really were over ninety percent of Americans that were real Christians, then every church in the country would be full to overflowing every Sunday!

I am not trying to upset anyone with this, although I may get a few feathers ruffled, but some people do need to wake up! We need a revival in our country, a revival and an exodus back to God, back to morality and knowing the One who helped to make this country into what it has been for over two hundred years! If we don’t put Him back in charge of many areas of our collective lives in this country, we are going to reap the penalty for our refusal and for turning our backs on Him and for pushing Him out of schools and each person’s lives as much as we have.

God loves each one of us with a love that nobody can come close to understanding, except maybe a mother. The love that most mothers feel for their children is the only bond that imitates God’s love for us. I am also emphatically not calling a mother’s love imitation! It just happens to be the only bond that comes close to that which God has for us and would like to share with each of us. Just as when you talk to your mom, God wants to talk to you, but we need to learn to listen. Get away from the computer and the cell phone, leave the e-mail out of it because He doesn’t do e-mail. You have to be able to hear His voice and His voice is one that is quiet, so you have to be, as the Word of God says, “in a quiet place” away from the distractions of life so that you can hear from Him. Personally, I used to talk to Him and try to listen while I was driving to and from work. If you are alone in the car, turn the radio off and tell Him that you are listening…talk to Him just like you do to any other friend that you have, He will hear you.

His love will show through you and others in your church when you are connected to it. When you are listening to Him, you will find out things that your Bible doesn’t have in it..you will come to understand scripture better when you pray about it. God reveals His wisdom to you when you come to Him. Many people today seem to deny the existence of God, they don’t want Him to hold them accountable for their actions but He does and He will, like it or not. Life is given to each of us by Him, daily to live, to love, to serve, to witness to others. What we do with our life is our choice, but our choice has a price. If you choose to follow Jesus and live through Him, other people’s lives will be impacted by your choices and yours will too. If you choose to live your life selfishly, doing only what you want to do, how you want to do it, you will affect some lives too but at the end of this life what will you have to show for it? Some people have big homes, fancy cars, money to burn and fame and all the “fair-weather friends” to go with all of this, but you can’t take any of that with you when you die! When you are gone, so will your so-called friends be, they will be off looking for someone else who has the money or toys that they like, but where will you be?

Many people say that when they die, they will just be dead period. Jesus said that this life is not the end, it is just the beginning. We are created with an eternal soul and that soul will live on, according to what your life was here and through your life on earth. This is the training ground for eternity, so what are you training for? A life of love, compassion, hope, and knowing that you have all of that secured through the sacrifice that Jesus made for you? Or will your eternity be filled with regret and pain, knowing that you could’ve made the right choice which would change your eternity…but you didn’t. You only get to change your mind while you are here in this life, once you pass to the other life the choice has been made.

 

What is the difference between religion and Christianity?


There are thousands of religions in the world, but there is only one Christianity. Religion from a Christian perspective and viewpoint depends upon the doctrine that you hold to, whether it is Mormon, Baptist, Methodist, Protestant, Episcopal, or Catholic or any number of other doctrines in the world. Religion can be anything that you might want to worship and there are enough religions in the world to prove that, and yet other than Christianity none of them have a living Savior! Their founders are dead or imagined, made up in the minds of men, and yet each of those religions may have thousands or millions of followers, some may have billions of followers. The point that I am making is this…has anyone thought about which way, which path or road should you be following?

I am not trying to cause any more divisions between churches or denominations. What I am trying to point out is that true Christians are in all denominations, Christian denominations. There are also many who believe that they are Christians when their heart and their life doesn’t show it.

Here is a graphic which shows how much the world’s beliefs have changed in the past one hundred years or so: christianity-graphic-01

In 1910, America had 27.1 percent of the world’s Christians while Europe had over sixty-five percent. In 2010, the percentage in America has grown as well as other parts of the world, while the Christian population of Europe has shrunk to 25.9 percent. In the same amount of time, other religions have taken hold in many parts of the world which were Christian at one time. This graphic is seen more clearly if you open it in a new tab of your browser. The point that I am making is that our world is changing rapidly, especially when you consider cultures and their religions. Many things have happened in our world to cause this such as airline travel and other technological advances. The point is that there are more people claiming to be Christians but there are also more people who claim to adhere to other religions or even no religion at all.

What can be done about this situation? If you can evangelize those who have not chosen a religion or a belief, great. But many people who have chosen or may not have chosen, don’t want to be bothered by us or the religion that we represent at all! They don’t want to hear it and have closed their minds and hearts to anything that might point them in the direction of salvation.

It wouldn’t matter if you were the greatest evangelist in the world for some people, they have their minds made up and nobody is going to change their view except God Himself! If God has determined that they are going to be used by Him for some purpose, then He will get their attention eventually.What about those who are modern day Pharisees? They see themselves as Christians and don’t believe that they need salvation but are not followers of Jesus. I am not trying to be a judge of their faith, but if the fruit is not visible in their lives, then what are they?

Usually their reasons go something like this: “I have always been a member of this church, since my youth. I have served as a teacher in Sunday school and on various committees in the church as well as giving my tithes on a regular basis. How dare you question my faith!” Well, as a comical story I heard once went, “I could live in a garage all of my life but I still wouldn’t have four wheels and an engine!” You do not become something or absorb a faith and live it just because you have been exposed to it for many years! The messages that you have heard over the years may have been good, but they did not penetrate the soil of your heart and take root there!

We are accountable to God for the light that we have heard and read and lived by whether we have taken it into our heart and our life or not.Because of this there will be many who will be astonished on that day when Christ says, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Don’t let that day be the day that you hear those words, give your heart to Jesus while there is life in your body so that you can serve Him until He calls you home! Then you will hear something like: “Welcome home, good and faithful servant!”

Are you accountable for you?


There are so many opinions on accountability in the news and social media today until I was wondering if we as a nation and as individuals are accountable for our actions? Does anyone really take responsibility for the things that they say or do, whether on line or in person? I would say that many people don’t or wouldn’t take responsibility for their words or actions if someone brought it to their attention. Many people would get upset and voice that “You are judging me!” or “It’s none of your business so leave me alone!”; isn’t it possible that we are all like that in one way or another?

Will we take responsibility for our own lives? Sometimes we will, if we get caught or if what we have said or done has caused enough heartache and anguish that we feel the weight of responsibility on us. But, what if we don’t? What if it doesn’t bother us? If you call yourself a Christian and think that you belong to Jesus, then you might want to check again! Because, if you have said something or have done something that you wouldn’t do while Jesus was standing next to you, then you may need to fall to your knees and ask Him to come into your life for the first time! See, thinking that you are a Christian, believing that you are a Christian doesn’t make you a Christian!

You may have grown up in the church, regardless of the denomination, by going with your parents whenever they went but going to church, reading your scriptures, singing hymns, getting baptized in one form or another doesn’t make you a Christian!

The only thing that can change your life is Jesus and belief in His atonement for your sins! Asking Him into your heart will begin that transformation, but to complete it you need to walk with Him by learning about Him through God‘s Word. You need to get to know Him by learning about Him and Who He is, just as people who are fans of certain athletes get to “know” their favorites! Now, I am not saying that you should be a fan of Jesus, what I am saying is that you need to be a follower of Jesus! He is the only way to Heaven and all of these other so-called “paths” to heaven are just trails which will eventually lead you to hell! They all combine into a road which is wide and crowded because there are so many people who have been fooled into thinking that their little “religion” is the only way, and yet they will find that their “way” is the wrong one! But by the time that they do, it may be too late to change their mind or their life!

Christianity is called a “religion of blood” and it is called a “religion of intolerance”, but what about those religions which are so rigid that any doubt or straying from the faith might get you killed? Sounds sort of intolerant to me, but that is not Christianity. People don’t like the fact that our religion has as its hero, a man who gave His life for everyone and He did it by being crucified on a cross. That is the blood and the symbol that most people reject, along with Jesus.

We have a responsibility to those that oppose us, to tell them about Him and to let them see His love through our actions and our words. If they can’t see Him by seeing us saying or doing something that would be impossible for us to do otherwise, then we may need to check our own life out. Can you be gracious to someone who hates you? Do you respond in kind when someone cuts you off on the interstate? If you have a bumper-sticker identifying you as a Christian, then you had better think about it before you get on the highway…better yet, pray and seek His council every time you get behind the wheel! People watch those of us who claim to have something that they want, whether they recognize it or not.

It is our responsibility to let them know about the only One who can help and heal their lives and their illnesses because He told us to. What we have freely received, through Jesus, we must freely give away to those who are in need of it! Can we call ourselves followers of Him and not do that? I think not! Your life, if you have given your heart to Jesus, was changed because someone gave away what they had received from Him. The least that you can do is to give Him or the news of His love to someone else, regardless of who they may be or what they seem to be! Before you do, turn your scrutiny upon yourself and make sure that your life belongs to Jesus. If it already does belong to Him, that’s great! If you are not sure, fix it!! You can’t fix it, but He can!!

 

Live according to the Spirit


“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” (Romans 8:5)

What do we do when we get into a bind? Usually, we cry out for help in some way to someone or sometimes some “thing”. Whether it is a friend or co-worker, a family member or even Facebook, we lean toward finding someone to help us deal with whatever the problem may be. When the One who can help the most in any and all situations is not even consulted in whatever the problem is, then your life could take a very different direction.

I am not saying that God will punish you for not consulting Him but the results could be very different than what they would’ve been had you spoke to Him first! Remember, we are to seek Him first in all things…this is what God’s Word says. We are not to seek out help from those who are powerless to help, especially if the situation requires the One who can affect all parts of a problem, even those that we aren’t aware of yet!

Can you have an effect on all parts of a problem? God can and He does, but only when you ask Him. Many people blame all of the bad things which happen on God, but all things are known by Him yet this world is under Satan‘s rule at this time. He cannot do things without God allowing him to, but he is in control of all the evil and bad things, whether it is natural disasters or from mankind’s own evil ways. We, as Christians, can have an effect on this world through prayer and by living our lives according to the Spirit’s leading.

We have a responsibility to do just that. It is not thinking that you are better than anyone else, but we are to let people know that there is a better way, the way that Jesus lived! By allowing yourself to be led by the Spirit of God, submitting yourself to Him daily, you can be a force for good in the world. Others will see what you have and they will want it, although many will persecute you for not following their religion instead of yours.

Religion by itself is not bad, but those who try to push their religion on others is. Telling people the truth about Jesus and letting them make up their own mind is not the same as forcing them to be or worship one way over another. We, as Christians, don’t force anything on anyone. We just tell others like our Lord told us to do, and then let them make up their own mind whether to believe in Him and change their lives or not…it is your choice.

Your salvation is exactly what Satan doesn’t want you to have! He doesn’t want you to belong to God, because he hates God and us with a hatred that we cannot know. Don’t fall for his lies and the lies of the world. Listen to your heart, read God’s Word and ask Him to show Himself to you through it and He will! There are many in the world who don’t want to believe what the Word of God says and they try to convince others that it is false, but it wouldn’t have been such a popular Book and one for whom many people died for if it wasn’t the Truth! You wouldn’t die for a lie and nobody else would either. God’s Son, Jesus, came to give us eternal life through Himself and belief in that is what many have sacrificed their lives for over the centuries. We are awaiting His return now and I believe that it will be soon, although no one knows when except God Himself, although all of the prophecies have been fulfilled leading up to His return with the exception of the appearance of the world leader that will usher in peace for Israel for a short while.

When that happens, the world and every religion of the world will take notice, but those who have truly been following Jesus will still have hope and the assurance of life everlasting.