Tag: Jesus

Confusion in our time


Much has been written about creation and confusion in the time that we live in. Some of it is the truth, most of it is opinion and disinformation made to confuse those who have not read and studied God’s Word. Jesus said that there would be many who will come in my name in the latter days who will deceive many, even the elect but He admonished us to stand firm in our faith and not waver in our beliefs.

Yes, many of those who are placing their own opinion out on the web and teaching it in churches and Sunday schools are doing so with the full cooperation and endorsement of their church. The messages that they teach seems to be true and right, but when you are placing one created being in the place of another Who is more important and Who is not created, that is blasphemy! Like the one who will come and declare that he is “the Christ” one day, it is blasphemy and yet it will deceive multitudes all over the world!

Even many who are in the church today have not believed in the true Christ but of those only God knows who they are. We, as Christians, are not to judge a person’s heart because we don’t know their heart…but God does. All that we can do is preach our messages in our churches and here and then hope that those who come will seek God out and turn to Him, to Jesus and ask forgiveness for waiting so long.

There are many different denominations in the world and just as many versions of the Bible, but there is only one truth and it can be found by seeking Him out in all of Scripture and asking for God to show you what really is the TRUTH and what is a lie! Your Spirit will agree with those things in the Bible which are true and that is the Truth that you should be paying attention to. There is so much confusion in our world today over what is a right or a privilege, or which group of people wronged someone in the past and who is going to pay for it today.

If the courts spent their time doing that, no justice would ever be done for modern crimes. The past is just that..past, and there is no responsible party to file against when a case is over one hundred years old. Yes, I am sorry that our forefathers used slave labor, yes I am sorry that we displaced the American Indians in America and that many of them died for it. But, I can’t pay reparations for something done before my father’s time! Is our world today confused? Yes, it is! Terribly confused!

When the news and our leaders continue to call evil as if it was good and condemn those who are trying to live their lives according to the teachings of Jesus in the Bible, then we are in a bad situation. Times are changing in ways that were predicted in the Bible and that these days would come upon us before the time of the Antichrist. We are living in those times right now and it is only going to get worse in the near future. Seek God in His Word and learn about salvation from the gospels. Jesus is the only way to be saved from the punishment which will follow. I pray that all of you who read this will seek the Truth from God’s Word and find it for yourself.

Who is in charge?


Have you ever wondered about this today? In the world, in America and other countries, who really is in charge? Do you wonder about this at times? I do.

It seems that many people are against one thing or another, especially when it involves religion and its viewpoints and in particular the Christian religion. An interesting article was on ministrymatters.com about the American Library Association’s list of books that were challenged due to their content. Here is a small sample of that article:

“The Christian Scriptures are a “regular” among the complaints forwarded by public libraries and schools to the ALA, according to James LaRue, director of the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. But it’s been seven years since the Bible received enough complaints to make the Top 10 list, LaRue said.

“There’s almost a little retaliatory feel to people speaking up against the Bible because they want to go on record as being opposed to Christian opposition to LGBT (issues) or Christian opposition to Islam,” he said.”

So, who do you think is in charge in this situation? God is still in control whether we see it or not. He knows the reasons and the outcome of these opposition matters which are against the moral laws brought out by the Bible. He knows which parts that every person on each side of this discussion are against and which ones they are for. So, in today’s world as the sides draw lines and begin pounding on desks with gavels, how can we understand the part about who or Who may be in charge?

Truthfully, our understanding is limited by our own viewpoint and on which side we may be standing on. Our understanding is also limited by our knowledge of Scripture and what it tells us that we should do and how to do it. The problem with this lack of knowledge is that it involves each of us and how much we have studied God’s Word. Not just read it, but actually, prayerfully, study it word for word. Asking God to reveal to us what He wants us to know about Him and what we should do with this knowledge in our world today.

Why do I say we need to do this? Because our world, everywhere around us and where we work or go to school, NEEDS Jesus! The more we know from His Word, the better we will be prepared to defend our faith or tell someone about our Savior. Time is growing shorter, and many people are searching for Him. They may not realize that Jesus is the one they are looking for, but He is the One that they NEED!!

So much..so little


It is a contradiction but, with God in the picture even a contradiction works. How do I know? Read the story of Jesus feeding so many with so little, like the five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men. Some say that there were likely fifteen thousand souls there at least and yet there were twelve baskets left over from a lunch meant for one child.

God can use even a little talent in a big way, no matter how you see yourself or where you may be in the world. But, you have to give Him control of your talent and yourself before He can use it to bless others. Just as when a farmer plants a seed or a plant in the ground, it is only one at the time. But with water, air and sunlight it can become much more than one seed or one plant.

We, as Christians, are like that as well. God places His Spirit in us when we are saved and we are supposed to nurture it with care and feed it by prayer and the Word of God. By studying God’s Word, we feed the Spirit and like Jesus said “it will overflow as a river of living water” to all who are exposed to it. True, it may not be His exact words but that is what we are supposed to be, springs of living water to draw the world to Him by what they see or hear in us.

God can use each of us in ways that we can’t imagine or even believe that we could do. But, with His Spirit guiding us we can do so much more than just be ourselves. We can be His ambassadors and representatives to anyone who is searching for the Truth. It doesn’t take much. A prayer here or helping someone with their load in some way. Opening the door for someone, praying for someone who you don’t know.

These things are “works” true enough, and they don’t get you a spot inside the gates of Heaven. Giving your life and your heart to Jesus gets you into Heaven, the “works” are part of the life that you live after you accept Him. These are the results of your salvation, the fruits of your life in Christ that never would’ve grown out of your life if you had not given your heart to Jesus.

Just as James wrote in his epistle, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” James 2:18, he wasn’t speaking of works being required by your faith but as a result of your salvation. The works that you do will prove your faith and your salvation! God loves each of us so deeply that we won’t understand it until we are in His presence, but He hates the sins that we have lived with in our life. Repent and turn to Him, give your heart and your life to Him so that you will be saved.

Life is…..


Personal and individual and collective and cultural. Do you know what I mean by this? It is very touching and personal to each of us, because each of us who wakes up every day we experience it anew again. Each day and night is special because it will never be again. This minute has already passed while I have been writing, and it will not be back.

Why is it so fleeting? Because time flows like water and one ounce of water that has passed you in a stream will never be back. It is the same with the seconds and minutes of your day, the one that is passing right now will never be back again. Your life started with your first heartbeat in the womb, and it will continue until that last heartbeat.

For some, this line of thinking is circular because it is just double-talk to some of you, but the comments that I made in the first two paragraphs is true. This minute right now will never come back, yesterday is gone and the future is still a minute ahead of us at all times. Your life is and always has been lived in the moment, right now. You can plan for tomorrow or next week if you wish but you are not guaranteed that time until it gets here.

God loves you and He prepared to give you an eternity of time with Him through Jesus and His atoning sacrifice on the cross. It is your choice to believe in Him and the grace that is extended to you through Jesus, because it is the only way for you to have an eternity in Heaven. No amount of work or money or attendance will open the door for your salvation, only the redeeming power of belief in Jesus will do that.

Yes, it is simple. Some claim that it is too simple, because there must be more that I can do or you can do to be saved. Unless you confess your sinfulness and ask Jesus to forgive you for waiting so long and ask Him to come into your heart and change you from the person that you were to the person that He needs you to be…your life means nothing and it will end with your last breath.

By giving your heart to Him so that you can be cleansed and changed by Him, you become like Christ. Little by little, day by day, in reading and prayer through the Holy Spirit and His Word you will become more like Jesus and less like your old self. You won’t be perfect and sinless, but you will be forgiven! Your name will be in the book of Life and your life will be eternally with Jesus and all of the other Christians.

Life is tough sometimes and it is hard some days, but mostly life is something that we each live through. What our life means in eternity, the outcome of our influence in this life, will be apparent only when we enter into Heaven. For some, you will see many people who you had influence in their lives positively, even though you may have never met them. Everything that you say or do for Jesus like saying thanks for your food in public, giving back money that you got in change that was too much, helping out someone who needs help without them knowing who did it…all of these things show that part of Jesus in you.

It gets noticed by everyone. You may not know who sees it, and it may not make much of a difference in your life here, but you will be surprised when you get to Heaven and find a person that your actions or words made an eternal difference in their life. Consider life today because the moments that it has taken to write this or read this will never come back, but what you do with the rest of your life could have eternal consequences for you and for others too!

Whom do you believe?


Many religions in our world today purpose to worship men. Men who are dead and have turned to dust or dried up husks in the grave. Why would you worship these who are nothing more than portions of creation itself? Living and breathing in our world is a wonderful grace that God gives to us, hard though it may be at times. Dead men don’t give any such grace or knowledge to us while we live or dream, only God our Creator will do this. We will not see Him, but our spirits will recognize our Creator and God when we hear and feel His calling.

So, whom do you believe in and determine to follow? There are many so-called “prophets”, even to hundreds of years before Christ. Some were in Eastern nations such as India and China, some came a few hundred years after Christ in the Middle Eastern nations. The difference between them and our Lord Jesus is that they lie in graves or have turned to dust while Jesus stands at the right hand of God, alive and well.

Some portions of the Middle Eastern religion say that Jesus is a servant of Allah, which is not true. God the Creator is not Allah, He is God. It is easy to place a name upon One whom you have not seen and give Him a name which you want Him to have and yet is a name which is not His Name. God doesn’t share His glory with any other god because He is God and there is none other!

The Bible speaks of God in three persons. The Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God, the Angel of the Lord or the pre-incarnate Christ and Jesus and of course God the Father. The One that we, as Christians, worship is a Triune Godhead. Being God doesn’t diminish His Spirit nor does it take away from the Son, Jesus the Christ. Trying to make the Son of God into a servant of Allah is blasphemy and is completely wrong.

God sent His Son into the world in order to redeem the world and all of those in it from the consequences of their sins. The only requirement is that they each believe in Him and that He did this for them, repenting of your sins and my sins and following His example in our lives. Following Him every day so that others may see the joy and the example that He set for us to follow and to do. We are not to do it selfishly or in response to the dictates of man, but selflessly and by the order of Jesus. Be a reflection of Him in all that you do every day, in your words and deeds so that you will glorify Him until He comes to take us to our eternal Home.

Will it matter that I lived?


I am not asking this question just for me but for  every person who reads this. It is a question which begs to be answered. Will it really matter that I lived? I don’t know the answer to that question. Have I done or said anything that is profound enough or thought-provoking enough that it will be noticed when I am no longer posting? Some may say that they will notice, but there are many more who don’t know that I am here even now!

My family will notice, of course, but will the words and the wisdom (if you can call it that) be noticed enough that the words that I write will be missed? Honestly I can tell you that I really don’t care and that is the truth. If you have noticed and read some of the things that I have posted, great! I pray that some of what I have said here has made a difference in your life.

NO! I am not dying nor have I been diagnosed with some fatal illness. I read something recently which asked this question and I became curious, so I thought why not put it out there and see if someone might notice or care to comment on this question. Just as an experiment if you will.

Before I go and finish this missive I want to make sure that you know this: God LOVES you with a love that is above your emotional feelings for your children or your spouse. This is why He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our sins. The only requirement for your salvation is that you believe in Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask Him to change your heart and your life into the one that He knows that you can be. Join a church that teaches from the REAL Bible, not a paraphrase or watered-down version of it! Learn as much as you can learn about Who God really is because He is not the Man upstairs nor is He a genie that grants your wishes! He is the Creator of all the stars, the galaxies, our planet, the Sun and every atom that exists in the entire universe AND He cares about you!Inspiration

Preoccupied with what exactly?


It seems that in our daily lives, regardless of our religious faith or lack thereof, we are preoccupied with all sorts of things. Some of it is relevant to our lives, some of it is not but most of it seems to be of very little value in the scheme of our lives and those around us. We, and I say this openly, worry more about our twitter feeds and our Facebook friends than we do the homeless man who sleeps under a piece of cardboard to stay warm. We chase after our phones far more than we seem to chase after our spouses or our children. We worry more about our status on social media pages that we “belong to” more than we worry about our relationship with Jesus Christ! Technology has become an addiction for many people. From games and game systems to phones and tablets which many of us didn’t even have fifteen years ago because they weren’t available or were too expensive at the time.

Now, they are so cheap that Amazon is selling a five pack of Kindle Fire tablets for 250 dollars! Everyone in your family can have one so that nobody will pay any attention to each other when we all have our heads buried in our tablets! Most will be used for games, although as the saying went thirty years ago for Playboy “I just read the articles (books).” The problem with all of this preoccupation with games and electronic books and distractions is that we aren’t paying any attention to EACH OTHER!! And we aren’t paying any attention to God or His message because in many churches, they are using tablets and apps to spread the message as well! It is good that the message is getting out to more people this way, but many will just ignore the alerts from the church app just like they do any other alert.

We need to be talking TO each other more, not AT each other which is what happens when technology gets in the way. What can be done about this? Unfortunately, not much. The generation which came along around the turn of the 21st century called the “digital”generation has never lived without technology of some kind and they have always had access to the Internet. If something like an Electromagnetic pulse bomb or a nuclear explosion were to happen and cut off our technology for weeks or months or more, many people would go through such a withdrawal that it would be like a nation of drug addicts all going cold-turkey at once!

I know this sounds like a rant against technology, and I am using technology to write this but I do have a point to make. That point is this: we need to get our collective selves BACK into God’s Word, the Bible! A digital version will be better than no Bible at all, but a written one would be better because it wouldn’t need to be charged up to read and it wouldn’t be affected by a nuclear electromagnetic pulse which might send us back at least one hundred years technologically speaking. Our world and every person in it needs to get to know God, not Allah or any other pretender! The God of the Bible and specifically His Son, Jesus, because without Him you are doomed to an eternity of being out of the presence of God which will be hell.

God loves each person who reads this and He does care about every little thing in your life, but He doesn’t like the lifestyles that some of us live every day. If you have not given your heart and life to Him, then ask Him to help you with the decision…He will. Remember John 3:16,17: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Why do we push God away?


This is a question which I have wondered about for many years. I know that many who don’t want Him in their life do this. The problem is that many Christians seem to do it as well. Oh, they come to church and go through all of the motions of being a Christian but they usually leave God and their Bible even sitting on the pew when they go home. We wouldn’t even do that to our cell phone, why do we do it with God? He is far more important and able to help us in everyday life than a piece of plastic and circuits and glass ever can.

The world, our country and many people in it have been pushing God away for a very long time. That is no way to keep a relationship alive, especially with your Creator! You wouldn’t expect your wife and family to put up with that kind of treatment, so why should God? Because He loves you far beyond any measure of human love or compassion, that is why. He is patient and loving in ways that we just can’t understand because His ways are not our ways, they are incomprehensible to us.

We just can’t understand Him or His Word, so many of us just quit trying. If we would put as much effort into reading and understanding the Bible as we do working on our taxes or following the Super Bowl, our country and our world would be a very different place. Our lives would be much better as well because we would be following Jesus, and His path is always the best.

Seek Him in order to know Him, why? Because He loves you more than you can imagine!

You are special!


11226182_931043076949751_7809076474956911366_n God loves you and He created this world and each of us in it to be a blessing to Him and to each other. Do I believe this? Yes, I do. Why do I believe this? Because He says so in every book of the Bible. The entire Bible is God’s letter of love to us and an instruction book so that we know how to live in this life and prepare for the next life!

Some people, even professing Christians, don’t believe that the Bible is a document of infallible words and promises. I do believe it and I will tell you why. Because simply if there is an error or a man-made lie in any part of it, that invalidates all of it. Jesus said that “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Matthew 24:35 If the words written by the disciples will not pass away then it is inspired by the Spirit of God and that inspiration proves that God cannot lie! If He did, then He isn’t God! Also, if the New Testament is valid and it validates the Old Testament because when Jesus came that was the only Scripture available. God’s Word is true, Jesus was the Living Word, so there is no part of Scripture from the first line in Genesis to the last line of Revelation which isn’t true, period.

we obey

He loved us, so He obeyed the Father and went to the cross to pay for humanity’s sins. It is just that simple! The Creator became a human so that He could live a sinless life to pay for our sins. Is that enough to make you think that maybe I should be grateful and ask His forgiveness for those things which I have done? Consider that God, the Son and the Holy Spirit all were present and with each other before they created the universe and it was brought into being by the Word of God until they decided to make mankind in their image. Then, God formed man from the mud or clay and breathed the breath of Life into him and he became a living person, with a soul and the Spirit of God in himself!

Each of us has this same privilege and honor because we were known by God before we were born! He knew each person on Earth before they became a person and He knew their personality and how their life would be. We are created in His image uniquely because no other person on Earth is exactly like you or me. Even twins or triplets are different, although they may look similar to each other. Give Jesus a chance to show you how your life is supposed to be and what you can do with His strength and with Him working in your life. It is far more than you could accomplish alone I can promise you that!

Worry, doubts and fears


It seems that every day people are bombarded with more things which cause fear and anxiety. We doubt ourselves at times, and we have fears which cause us to worry about things which we can’t control. What can we do about this? Can we do anything about this situation? It depends upon your situation and your faith.

Some people claim that they can handle their own lives and they don’t need to have “blind faith” in religion to help them get through life. The problem with this kind of attitude is that when push comes to shove and things get a bit out of hand, most will seek out a “higher power” for comfort and direction even if they claim that they don’t believe in a “higher power”. God is that One Who is higher than all, Jesus is the One Who can relate to our suffering and our pain and they can help in all of life’s situations no matter what!

With all of the news that is available to us on the Internet and television today, there is very little which goes on in the world that we can’t keep tabs on whether we truly want to or need to or not. All of this information can cause us to worry far more than is healthy, and the worst part is that we shouldn’t worry about it at all. God is in control of it all. He is watching and guiding your life and mine toward that day when He will call us home.

Yes, one day the whole world will see that we are important to our Creator. Important enough that He will be returning soon, much sooner than most think. Many people are going to be surprised and terrified when that day comes and the church, the believers who are waiting for His call, all disappear and are taken to Heaven. Then they will want to believe, but it will be harder to do so. Many explanations will be given which have nothing to do with God or the Bible’s prophecies but just as in the days of Noah, when the door to the ark was shut the only ones saved were the ones inside.

We don’t have “blind faith” in a God Who is not there. He is the Creator because there is no way that all of this universe could come into being as it is because of an accident. Our own solar system, out of all the ones that have been discovered, is the only one that is stable and with orbits for all of the planets that allow for life to flourish. All of the hundreds of solar systems that have been discovered are too close to their star or too far-flung to harbor life.

God loves all of us, no matter what your skin color is or your culture, but we refuse His provision and His grace when we try to take His place. When we think that we know better than He does how to fulfill our lives in this world, we are deluding ourselves. Seek God in the Bible or at a church which teaches from His Word. Pray that your life can have meaning in and through Him and seek His wisdom every day. This is the best way to relieve stress and worry because He is the One Who holds tomorrow in His hand. All that we have is today.

Live today for Jesus and then do it again tomorrow, then repeat until He comes again. That is the prescription which will conquer worry, doubt and fears far better than anything that a doctor can give you.