Every day we are exposed to all of the news. Good news, bad news, and every kind in between. Today we have “smartphones” which expose us to all sorts of information that we actually don’t need to know. If you are on Facebook, then you have that on your phone and you get all of the relevant “stuff” that comes with it. Any of the other social media sites that you may be a part of and your exposure just goes up exponentially. Does anyone remember when daily life was a lot simpler? I do enjoy having my phone and the fact that I can use it to look up information is just a plus. But, how many people are truly addicted to their phones and the networks that we have on them?
I saw a young man last week walking around with his smartphone in his hand and in front of his face as he walked. I pray that he doesn’t drive that way. What is my point about all of the news and exposure that we have day after day? My point is that we should be using all of that time that our phones take from us to be with our family and friends. I don’t mean texting them or giving them a like on something they shared. I mean actually putting the phone down and talking to them. If you have children, put the phones down and talk to them.
God allowed the smartphone to be invented but I don’t think He would agree with how we live almost 24 hours connected to social media and all of our “friends”. What do I mean with the “friends” being in quotes? I’ve seen people on Facebook who supposedly have over two thousand friends!? Really? I don’t have 500 and I actually try to keep my list of people that I actually know or have become friends with.
Regardless of the number of friends you have on Facebook or any other social media page, the friend that you truly need is Jesus. The world around us is reflecting the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation and from Jesus in Matthew 24. If you have never given your heart to Jesus and allowed Him to change your life, you need to be seeking Him today. We don’t know how many days we have on this Earth, so today truly is the day of your salvation! I pray that everyone who reads this will turn away from their “life” and seek your true Life in Jesus Christ.
We seem to be at a crossroads moment in our lives whether we are Christians or not. Each of us gets to a place where we look around and wonder if this is all there is. How can we live a blessed life each and every day when we can’t see or touch our blessings? The problem with this kind of thinking is that our life and our breath is a blessing every morning!
Job 33:4
“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”
King James Version (KJV)
It seems that many Christians have forgotten about that but God’s Word says so in many places. God has blessed each of us with a planet to live on that is tolerable in its climate, gentle with its gravity, and has a stable orbit that gives us four seasons in a year to plant, harvest, and enjoy the fruit of our labors. These blessings are just a few of the details that God did for us to be able to live and work to praise Him and give Him the glory for our lives. But…do we? Most of the population dismisses all of these details out of hand because of our schools and the curriculum that is taught in them.
Astronomy and physics classes teach that all of these happened to our solar system by chance when the opposite has been proved by the number of exoplanets that they have found. Years ago many scientists believed in God and the order of how our solar system was laid out was considered to be His blessing for humanity. In fact, it truly is a blessing because most of the planetary systems that have been found show planets that are far too close to their star for life. Many of these systems have no rocky planets with water, that we know of. In fact, most have gas giant planets whirling around their star so close that they are nearly touching it. If the study of other systems has shown anything it is that our solar system is completely unique because they have not found others like it within an observational distance of our home planet.
God designed the universe and placed us in the precise place that was perfect for our lives to exist. Many scoff at this and say that out of all of the stars and other star systems that there must be other life-giving planets out there. There could be some but I don’t believe we will find them by using our telescopes and our intellect. God may have placed other people and planets out in the vastness of space but if He did they are too far away for us to hear them or for them to hear us. So the opening line from Star Wars is very likely the truth “…a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”.
We are blessed by God in that we are isolated from other civilizations. Not because we should be but for the same reason that the Jewish people were told not to mingle with the people of the land that God had given them. Because their ways and their religions were not compatible with the blessed life that He had given them. So we should truly count every breath and every step that we take on a daily basis as His blessings for us on that day. Give thanks for every one of them, even if it hurts to take those steps and those breaths that we are given each day.
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord , and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord . Isaiah 54:17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.54.17.KJV
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalms 16:11 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.16.11.KJV
He gives us fullness of joy as we walk the pathway with Him. It’s our decision to walk with Him.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/php.4.7.KJV
Peace is something that is not easy to find these days. Every time the news comes on, our peace is taken away. All of the things going on in the world and the way they are reported takes your peace away. Lean on God and His Word every day, not just on Sunday!
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.6.34.KJV
Worry is practical atheism. You don’t think God is going to come through for your needs. There are many other ideas that we get in our minds which get in your way, keeping our minds all stirred up. Put your trust in Jesus, give Him your trouble and your problems and LEAVE THEM THERE!
Most of us pray about our needs and our trouble but we don’t thank Him for the life that He has given us. We may not even pray about our friends and family. We just ask God to take care of those on our prayer list. That’s not specific prayer, it’s just a general open prayer.
Make sure that you are praying specifically and purposefully for everyone on your list. The list may be long but God hears your prayers.
Have you found the path which carries you to Life itself? Some of us tend to get lost while trying to find it when it is right in front of us. Life with a capital “L” is the life which you will have in Jesus and the pathway carries us through this life until we get to the next one. So…what is the pathway? Following Jesus and not listening to Satan’s lies about your life and your ministry being useless and worthless!
Jesus gives our life, here and now, a meaning and a purpose. We are to live each day, each moment striving to be more like Jesus than trying to be like the world around us. Is this hard to do? Sometimes it is. Usually when we feel down and depressed life seems hopeless and you feel useless, like I did yesterday. But Jesus said that “we can live a life more abundantly“! By following His example of living for the Kingdom of God, even though you can’t see it yet.
God loves you and has provided a way for each of us to have a life of meaning and purpose through Jesus our Savior. He is the pathway to life everlasting and He is preparing a place for us to dwell with Him forever. Some people might want to know, “Why would I want to live in heaven forever?” Do you really and truly believe that you will have nowhere to go when you die?
God’s Word says that we all face His judgment when we die so what have you done in this life to give you an eternity in Heaven? None of us, not even one person on this Earth, can be perfectly sinless because we are sinners and we are that way from birth. Jesus came so that we can have a life with Him into eternity but apart from being saved through faith in Him not one of us will get there.
Your life here is like a puff of smoke compared to eternity so why waste it chasing after stuff which rusts and fades away or is given to someone else when you die? Money doesn’t last and neither does gold or any other type of wealth but it seems that in the world today these things are what defines us. Why not define your life by the example of Jesus and His teachings? Live your life as His disciple and tell others about Him and what living for Him means!
Why? Because God values your soul more than all of the wealth in the world! Each individual person that He calls to become an adopted child of God is worth more to Him than all of the wealth that exists in this world! Why is that? Because each of us has a specific purpose ordained by God and that purpose is to reach one other person that only we can reach.
If we tell thousands of people and they turn their lives over to Jesus that is wonderful, but there is one person that each of us can reach that nobody else can. That is the person which God has placed you here to touch and show the love of Jesus to them so that they can come to know Him. There are many people who need to know Jesus as their Savior but until their spiritual eyes are opened and they know that they need Him, they will never seek Him. Live your life in view of eternity because this one is going away but your life in Christ is eternal.
In My Father’s House are Many Rooms
1Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me as well. 2In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”b
The Way, the Truth, and the Life
5“Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
9Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. 11Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves.
When God said, “Let there be Light!”, He wasn’t kidding. The work which He started way back when His Creation was just starting. It began with that thread of light in the darkness and it continues on today in all of the colors of the biggest rainbow that anyone could possibly imagine.
The colors have changed and run together to make different colors over the years. Sometimes the changes were caused by floods or war or slavery or just our own greed and stupidity. Because when we try to weave the colors together on our own with our ideas of how they should be, usually we end up with knots and broken threads and hurt feelings. We say things which shouldn’t have been said or we cause hurts in ways that we don’t know about with those words.
We are the cause of our own separation from God. We are the ones which move away from Him when we should be getting closer to Him. Your life and mine are important to God and He wants each of us to be a part of His Kingdom, but when we decide to do things our way or say things which hurt others, even if we didn’t mean what we said at the time, it places a barrier between us and between us and God.
But God still loves us and if we haven’t been pushing Him away for too long, He will take us back. He will forgive and forget and He does it completely. He doesn’t bring it up again to hurt us or to make us feel guilty.
The tapestry of Life on the Earth has had many colors in it and it has had a lot of blood spilled over greed and anger and problems which we brought on ourselves. There are many threads in this tapestry and each of us has a part in it, but the finished work won’t be visible until God is finished with us and we see the completed product. He wants you to see it and be a part of it, but if you choose to go your own way and walk on your own path without Him, He will let you do that too.
This tapestry is part of our life and a part of our journey on this journey. God has placed people and circumstances in our lives which leads to more strands in the tapestry of life here and for each person on Earth. How will it turn out? Only God Himself knows that answer, we just need to make sure that we are along for the ride.
The Living Message of Christ 