Tag: Messiah

Where do we go from here?


In the past few years there have been many books and movies about life after death and where we go afterward. It is a touchy subject because some people think that we don’t go anywhere and some think that we do and sometimes it can cause a heated exchange online and in person. Do you ever wonder about this? I used to but since becoming a Christian, I don’t worry about it any more but I do think about what the rest of the world may be looking forward to. Are you looking forward to eternity or do you even think there is an eternity waiting for you?

Some people even think that they will be having a party in hell with Satan, but according to God’s Word there will be no party. In fact, Satan HATES you and me! Specifically because we are made in the image of God but also because God placed us above him and above angels. We will judge angels one day, if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and believe in our hearts that He died for us and our sins! Satan is not a god, although he wanted to be above God. He is not omnipotent nor omniscient, but he was a powerful angel at one time and he continues to use the power that he was created with.

Where do we go in our beliefs from where we are? Many claim not to have a religious belief in any being, whether God or Satan, supreme being of any kind. Why? If there is one which some people claim to believe in and follow then there must be the other. Evil and hatred can’t exist without love, they are two sides of an eternal coin, just as light and dark or heat and cold.

God loves us, all of us and has since the beginning of Creation. Satan has been in opposition to God and His plans, whatever they were, ever since the rebellion which got him thrown out of Heaven. Satan is opposing God right now through wars, murders, diseases, and all sorts of acts which mankind is inflicting upon each other through his influence over them. He targets those of us who are serving God by tempting us and causing problems in our lives, some of which God allows to test us and our faith to make us stronger. I know that and am comfortable with it because God will see me through it all.

What about your future? Your eternal future? Not just tomorrow or next month, but after your life on Earth is finished, have you even considered it? If you haven’t, you should because it is by God’s grace that we have our being, our lives, even our next breath. If you were to stand in front of God before the dawn tomorrow, would you be able to give Him an answer to “What did you do with my Son?” Could you truthfully say that you accepted Him as your Savior? Would your Christianity hold up in a court of law today? Is there enough evidence in your life to prove to a judge on Earth that you are a Christian? Because, if there isn’t enough evidence beyond “he was a good man or a good father”, then how will God receive you?

It is something that all of us need to examine in our lives because eternity is a very LONG time and you enter it as soon as you draw your last breath in this life. Whether that is today or ten years from now or even fifty years from now, your eternity will begin that quick. Make sure that you know and are at peace with your choice because you will be stuck with that choice, and it will be because of your choice not because God sent you there.

What do you want someone to remember?


It is an easy question and it is a hard one to answer. So, what do you want someone to remember about you or about something that you did?

Many people today seem to want to be as anonymous as possible so that nobody remembers them or what they have done. Then, of course, there are some who truly want people to know who they are and what they have done in their lives. Then…there are the rest of us. Those who want to be remembered for their life or maybe something that they said or did during their life. Hopefully, you will have met them during a good time in their life, when things are going really well and their lives are just clicking along like they should.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have days or weeks like this. At least, not enough for someone to notice and they usually don’t until your life changes and something happens to you or someone in your family. Even then many people today don’t really care for their fellow-man, woman or children. We have become so de-sensitized to violence and accustomed to the distance between us, whether it is a few feet or miles, until we text and tweet to each other even in the same household or at the table.

Is that what you want people to remember about you? That you always had your head buried in the screen of your phone and you rarely looked up to notice life around you? I have seen many people in videos doing exactly that on streets and in the city but it also seems to happen in family gatherings and at church. Being distracted to the point of not seeing or hearing what is going on around you is dangerous. Not only to you but for your future as well.

What will people remember about me? Not much, I’m afraid. Growing up I was angry most of the time and a loner because of my parent’s divorce, but that was over forty years ago and I am over it now. My parents are dead and the memories that I have are just the good ones now. Today is the only time that we have that is available to us, so we should make it a good one. Tell those that you love how you feel and make sure they know it. Help someone if you are able to, get involved in a volunteer effort for someone.

Your life here will be remembered for only a little while by those who don’t know you well. Sometimes, even then you won’t be remembered for long unless you did something that got people to notice. In our society today you get noticed by the bad things that you do, but people rarely see or hear about the good that gets done behind the scenes.

God loves you and He wants the best for you. You may not get the best in this life, but if you follow Him and do the best that you can at being a follower of Jesus then your reward will be far above anything you could have here! Confess your sin to Jesus and ask Him to come into your life and cleanse you of the mess that you made. Ask Him to guide you into a new life that will be worthy of His Love so that you can reflect Him into other people’s lives so they will want to know Him.

Here is the basis for a sinner to receive Jesus into their heart:

Romans 10:9-10: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Simply it could be summed up in a prayer like this:

Dear Lord, I have been messed up in my life. Please forgive me and help me to bring You and your story to others. Come into my heart, Lord, and make me a student and a teacher for your Kingdom. Thank you for your sacrifice for me and my sins. Amen.

Think about it.

What are you waiting for?


Many people seem to want to wait until their last breath to make a decision about their eternity. Some, even at this point, don’t believe in eternity or God yet when they are faced with an incurable disease or a child that is sick they begin to pray. For what, mercy? To whom? If you don’t believe that He exists why should He answer your prayers? God really does love each of us more than we can imagine, and thankfully He doesn’t react the way we would if we were ignored or shoved away like our country and almost every person living here is doing today! If He was as cold and cruel as some think that He is, this world would’ve been remade thousands of times since the time of Noah! But, He made a promise then and in the other prophetic books of His Word He says that the world will be tested by fire the next time. Many people have speculated that He means a nuclear war, but God doesn’t need nuclear weapons to destroy with fire. He could cause a comet of a size that would cause a fire storm to ravage the planet to hit in a desert area or in a rain forest. He could cause ALL of the volcanoes in the world to erupt at once, even the ancient ones like the one in Yellowstone which would take out most of the United States.

It is true that, if you truly believe that He doesn’t exist, scientists would say all of this was happening due to “global warming/cooling” depending upon which direction you want to go. Consider, just for once, that God is the Creator and that He does exist. Also consider that with Him being the Creator that nothing is outside of His power to create since He created all of the known universe. Our planet is a very insignificant speck of dirt in comparison, BUT He decided to make us special. He created man in His image, regardless of color of skin or hair or ethnic origin. Then, after Satan corrupted our ancestors to go against God’s commands, we were influenced by him to worship things, both animal and inanimate as well as the sun and the moon and the stars. Mankind did all of this by Satan’s influence on our minds, because of our fallen nature we came under his influence to such a point that God regretted making man at all. If God didn’t exist and doesn’t care about us or this world, why would He care what we do here or how we behave? If Satan exists then God exists because Satan was known as Lucifer the Covering Cherub, one of the most powerful angels in Heaven and God created him that way.

But, Satan became proud of his strength and of the power that God had given him and he coveted the place of God. He wanted to be God, and he got one-third of the angels in Heaven to follow him in a rebellion to usurp the throne of God. He should’ve known that his rebellion wouldn’t work, but he was blinded by pride and his own ego, thinking himself above the Creator that created him. At times we think this way too, but we can learn from our mistakes if we will listen to our hearts and to the Spirit of God within us.

We are loved by God because of His image in us but also because He took special care to create us the way we are, not to be servants or slaves but to be His children. Any parent can understand the closeness and the feelings that their relationship with their child gives them, how much more would God feel for those living here? That is why bad things happen to people today….Satan hates us because of who we are in God’s plan and what we represent…a relationship that he could never have with the Creator, even if he had not rebelled!

It is for this reason that the world suffers so much. It isn’t because God can’t control Satan, He doesn’t allow him to have completely free reign of his anger and hatred or we wouldn’t exist! God holds him in check enough that there will be more people who will turn to God for His help and for salvation. Just as God used other nations to judge Israel in times past, He is doing that today not only with Israel but with the world at large. He is trying to bring as many people into the Kingdom as He knows who will respond to Him.

So many things happening


It seems that every day there is something new happening. It could be a new disease or some decision by our government that is going to change things or it may be something happening in the Middle East. It seems that much of the news every day has something to do with that area and it gets more and more intense each day. Every day more people die from diseases which were eradicated years ago, but now they have come back and are more resistant to treatment. Some of the diseases are not old ones but new ones or even some that are familiar but different in a bad way. Life just seems to be getting worse in some ways for everyone. Of course if you have the money to pay for the treatment, then your problems don’t seem to be so bad.

The problem with the money is that many people tend to use it as their “god” and depend upon it and what it can do for them more than they depend upon God. That is why Jesus spoke these words: “23And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24“Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”…. (Matthew 19:23,24) Rich people rely on their riches, their money, more than they rely and depend on God. They don’t think that they need Him because with their money they believe that they can do anything. The problem is that money can’t and won’t take care of you like that. It is just paper and that is all that it is!

We have been trying hard and succeeding at getting the Bible and its teachings watered down and taken out of educational settings, particularly in the past fifty years or so. It’s really not a stretch to see why our world is so crazy today because of the influence of the world and the culture which pervades our everyday life. Can it be fixed? Not by us!

We need to pray and get God and the Bible back into our culture and our country! Our laws were based on the Ten Commandments in the Bible, but our judges and our government have watered them down and changed words around so much, that most of our laws bear little resemblance to the ones that were put into the constitution in the past. God’s Truth and His laws are the only way to get our world back on the right path. I am not saying that we need to be a theocracy, but our world needs Christ not just America! I know, I am offending some by saying this but it is the truth!

One day in the not too distant future, people will wake up to a world where all of the Christians have gone missing. They are no longer working or flying planes or driving their cars, and their disappearance will happen while people are asleep in some parts of the world, but in others there will be wrecks of all kinds. Planes falling from the sky because there are no pilots, people missing from buses and trains, cars crashing because their drivers just vanished. I don’t know the date, no one does except for God. The world is going to be a very messed up place at that time, because many who have been in church but have never given their hearts to Jesus are going to know what is going on. It will frighten many people to the point of suicide, many will be going to churches and trying to find the answer.

It isn’t too late at that point, to come to Christ, but you will have missed the rapture of the Church. Life will not be easy for Christians because they will be blamed for all of the deaths in the world. Persecution will increase everywhere. If you become a Christian after the rapture, then you may need to go into hiding, but never give up on your faith in God. He will strengthen you and carry you through this time, even if it means that you have to give your life or have it taken from you, you will live in eternity with Him. Our redemption draws near. Seek Him in Scripture, pray and attend a Bible teaching church, ask Jesus to become your Savior before this time comes upon the world.

What will it profit you?


It is written in the Bible, “What will it profit a man, to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?” All of the riches and power in the world today, if they were available and given to only one man, it would corrupt him so completely until his life would be over. Worry and hatred and bitterness would be his constant companions, even with all of the wealth of the world, if he were not saved by Jesus and a Christian. Moral living and a life of wealth on that scale has never been had by one person. If he were a Christian, I am not saying that the wealth wouldn’t corrupt him even then because it could and likely it would.

He would forget his faith in God and put it in money, because he doesn’t need God since he owns the whole world. God would say to him the same thing that He said to the farmer who said to his soul, “We can be at rest now, we have barns full and can take life at ease. God said to him, “Thou fool, tonight thy soul is required of thee”. Even all of the wealth of the world, and it would be in the trillions of dollars or whatever currency that you choose, could not extend your life or make it more comfortable. It is true that you would be able to take life easy, up to a point, although you would have teams of lawyers to watch over your wealth and CPA’s to take care of your taxes and investments. Many people would be getting wealthy from your wealth, and for some that would nearly drive them mad.

Money, gold, silver and wealth measured in any way over the Earth by title to land or oil or jewels is just stuff. It it true that by the world’s standard that much wealth would be seen as a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of all the good things that you could accomplish with it for those who are in need physically and financially, and a curse because everyone would be trying to profit from your wealth in some fashion. Yes, by the world’s standards, you would be a king and wealthy enough that you could do anything and live anywhere that you wanted to. But, if your moral compass was pointing toward yourself rather than toward helping others, then this much wealth would make you a very bitter and cruel person because of the things which you could do and get away with in order to keep your money.

What would you do with all of that wealth? I can’t even imagine having one billion dollars to use any way that I choose, let alone having all of the wealth in the world at my command. No one person has ever had that much and likely no one person ever will, but the good that could be done with it is extraordinary and hard to imagine. Yet, it pales by comparison when you consider eternity with God by accepting Him as your Savior.

Think of it. A pile of money that could cover the entire United States more than a mile deep, but what or who will it benefit when you die? Wars would be fought over it, people would die to have part of it, for what? Your life and your charity would be forgotten within a century, and where would you be spending eternity? Life doesn’t end with your last heart beat and breath, you were created with an eternal soul and it will go on…somewhere. Choose today where it will be, either in Heaven with God or in hell with Satan and his demons.

How much does it take?


We ask this many times in our lives, if you aren’t wealthy to the point of not asking the price that is. “How much is that?”, is usually how we look at all sorts of things from cell phone contracts and phones to Internet service and food from the grocery store. Most of us have to look at the price of things and decide if it is worth the price and whether we want to or can pay the price for it. Looking at our economic situation in this country it is easy to see that our government has no problem with skipping over this question, they just print more money and keep going. What a wonderful world they live in!

People don’t have that luxury because if we try to print money we will be put in jail, but they do it legally. I am not going to get off on this tangent today, but the world does exactly what it wishes and nobody seems to be watching or paying attention. We are all too interested in our Facebook friends and their lives or the cute picture of a baby or a kitten to care about what is happening all around us. So-called “reality” shows have taken over the TV and cable industry and people are being paid for ridiculous shows which chronicle their lives in order to cash in on this trend.

What for? Is it educational? Most of it is not, but all of this was foretold in the Bible. Not specifically, but that we who live in the “latter days” will be lovers of self and money, running here and there and we have many people and industries which are taking advantage of our intelligence by genetically modifying our food and all sorts of things. The Bible puts it as “knowledge will increase”, but knowledge without wisdom to guide it is not really smart at all. Living in this time is intoxicating at times because of the advances in medicine and technology, but it is also dangerous.

I don’t mean that we are in danger every day from something like wars, although some people are very much in danger from this, but much of the GMO food that we have been eating for years is very likely responsible for our health conditions. Especially those so-called “new” conditions which doctors seem to have trouble pinning down the cause of, but of course it isn’t the fault of our government approved food. Yes, our knowledge of genetics and technology has increased a lot over the past thirty years or so BUT did we gain the wisdom of how to use and when to use it to benefit the most from it? Are we using this knowledge to help as many people as possible to live healthy lives or have we pushed the envelope in order to make more money?

In the “real” world of business, I believe that we have done the latter. Cancer research has stagnated so that the treatments only treat symptoms and not the cause. Chemical companies, whether they produce medicines or herbicides, have not fully tested the outcome of the ingredients that they push out to consumers because it would cost too much to do that. They would rather do limited testing, get it stamped as being safe under certain conditions but with all sorts of legal jargon warning of possible side effects and then push it out so that they can reap the cash off of it before the lawsuits start coming in.

Wisdom comes from the fear and admonition of God and we have not exercised that kind of wisdom in a long time! We have stepped away from God and the Bible. We have allowed the schools to push out any reading of it or study of it in the sense that we will offend someone or that we might be seen as promoting a “state religion”. Then the schools and teachers wonder why we have such delinquent behavior in our schools and so many in the prison system. Come on! The Ivy League schools like Princeton and Yale and Harvard were begun as theological schools to teach ministers, it was only recently that they became so focused upon “higher learning” within the past 150 years or so.

How much does it take, really, for us to learn that we can’t live our lives in a vacuum or look at life-like it was a test tube? We are and were created to be dependent upon God’s wisdom and knowledge and fellowship with Him in our lives. We are not created to be “self-gods” because we can’t be! Romans 8:28 states this: 28. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church: 2 Corinthians 5:17: “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We are new in Christ because the Spirit renews you from the inside out when you become a Christian. Life without Him can be fun for a moment or a day, but your life here is but a speck compared to eternity. Consider this: if you were to die tonight or even today, where would your eternity be spent? Many people think that they would enjoy hell, but the rich man told Abraham that he was in torment and that he needed just one drop of cool water. How long would you think the so-called “party” will last in torment and heat for an eternity?

If you aren’t sure of your salvation today, then you need to seek Him out and make sure of your decision while you can.

So many who need Him, so little time!


I know, I am trying to scare people into accepting Christ…right? NO! But I am trying to make you realize that regardless of how young you are or how long you may have lived without Jesus, your life does have an expiration date. It is known only to God, but we all have one. Mine may be in the morning or next week, yours…? Why am I starting off like this?

Because in the past few weeks, if you have been following my blog here, two teens in our community were killed in a wreck. Did they know the Lord? Yes! Both of them did and they are enjoying eternity and their life in Heaven right now! I know, the families are still hurting and they will be for a long time, but they do have the assurance that those girls are in their homes with Jesus.

God sent Jesus to provide all of us with salvation, if we will accept it. That is like a rich man who might give you one million dollars, but you have to accept it with some limitations. You can only use it to help people in ways that make a difference, like helping with their medical bills or building someone a better home to live in. You can use it for yourself, but only for things that you NEED. It can’t be used for buying a sports car or a mansion. If you can accept those limitations, then you can have it. If you can’t or won’t, then it will be offered to someone else.

Salvation is the best gift that we can be given. Why is it so good? Because you are being saved from an eternity away from God’s love and in the torment that was reserved for Satan and his demons. Salvation also gives you eternal life, which everyone seems to be chasing on Earth, yet we can’t get it in this life. We all have an eternal soul, but unless it is rejuvenated by Jesus and the Holy Spirit it will spend eternity with Satan and it is not going to be a party!

The Life that we get from the Holy Spirit is a gift from God for our belief in Jesus and His atonement for our sins. We can’t do anything to get it, purchase it or work for it because anything that is done in our own strength during this life is left here when we die. No tickets that we buy, no amount of gold or silver that we own, absolutely nothing that we acquire during this life will go with us when we die. The only part of me or you which goes to the judgement after we die is our soul. If you are a believing Christian when you die, all of your sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. If you are not, then you will be judged according to what you did and the words that you said during this life…ALL of them!

Seek Him while you have the chance and the time to make the commitment to live your days for Him by reading the Bible, prayer and learning about Him. Even if you only have a week left to live from some illness or if you may live for fifty more years, do it while you can. Because if  you were to have an accident on the highway tomorrow and get killed, you will be standing in front of God then and there won’t be a second chance.

Rainbows, Light and Love


In the late sixties it seemed that everyone was into rainbows and “free love” was everywhere. It was all just noise to me that I heard on the radio or on the news, I wasn’t old enough to participate. That doesn’t mean that it didn’t conjure up some imaginative thoughts though. I was about eight or so at the time, didn’t really like girls too much, but there were some that I thought were sorta cute.

Anyway, the rainbows were being used on flags and on the TV, I don’t remember exactly for what but I remember seeing them on there a lot. You have to realize, 1968 has been a while back and parts of my memory don’t work perfectly like they used to. The entire country was caught up in the Viet Nam war and the astronauts going to the moon, as well as a couple of people being shot. To a young mind at the time, it was just news and not very important.

What else was happening? My parents got divorced or were in the process of doing so, I really don’t remember much about it. I think my mind blocked a lot of it out. Dad dropped us off at my grandfather’s house when I was five and I rarely saw him from that point on.

My point in bringing up my childhood? Mainly it is about what you may remember and what you don’t. I can remember going to church with my parents when I was three and going to work with my Dad about the same time, once. But, again, why am I bringing this up for you to read? So that some of you will know that I am just as normal, just as messed up from my past as the rest of us. My life has not been perfect, never was and never really came close to it.

Later, after their divorce, when I became a teen I rebelled a lot. I didn’t get put into jail, but I drank alcohol before I was old enough to do so. I wrecked cars and put myself in the hospital because I was drunk. I smoked marijuana although I didn’t get into anything any worse than that. Now, I am ashamed of my past, but it is a past that doesn’t seem to be out of the ordinary today. Actually, it seems pretty tame compared to what you see and hear on the news.

The Light which I reference in the title is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. At the time that I was speaking of there was a song out by the name of “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and a play too I believe. The funny thing is, they were actually making fun of Him and of those who believe in Him. I never understood that and still don’t. Jesus is the answer for many of the world’s problems today, individually and collectively but many people don’t see it that way.

God loves you and me. He loved me when I was being rebellious, though He didn’t like what I was doing at the time. He kept me in His love and protection though because He had something for me to do later. He has something for you to do as well. I don’t know what it is and you won’t find out what it is unless you ask Him into your life so that you can work for Him. It doesn’t matter how much longer you have in your life, even if you only have a week or a month, God will use your testimony to touch someone else. He will also welcome you into Heaven when you arrive.

So much to do, so little time


Yes, I know, I am trying to scare you. I’ve heard it before…Boo!

Life goes on, it always has, even in the midst of riots and wars and natural disasters like the earthquake in Nepal or the volcano in Chile. I get it, nothing new has ever happened because it has all happened before at some point in our past. These are the same musings which the Preacher, Solomon, wrote when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, and yet it is true.

The only new stuff that is happening now is that technology is exploding! So is the population of the world. Can we stop or take a breath in this rush to oblivion? Not really. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it has been prophesied for many thousands of years that all of this would happen when the “end of the age” drew closer.

Well, like it or not we are getting closer. How much closer? I don’t know. Nobody on Earth can answer that question. Although, each one of us has a date that is immovable and irrevocable and that is the day that we die. It is different for us all of course. My death may come tomorrow or twenty years from now, just the same as yours. Thankfully we don’t know our “expiration date”, although there are times that I wish that I did.

I am not going to be arrogant enough to take that date into my own hands and force the end to come sooner rather than later. Some seem to be destined to do this and I suppose that is fine, but it isn’t for me. I don’t know that I could take another human being’s life, let alone taking my own. I am just not made that way and never have been.

God gives each of us a job to do. Whether we choose to accept that job and follow through with it or not is our choice, individually. He doesn’t force the issue on us nor does He punish us for taking a bit longer to get around to it. Why? Because, if He has something specific for you to do that only you can do then He will make sure that eventually you will come around to being the “right person for the job”.

God loves us, regardless of how small our planet may be in the grand design because He is God. He can love and care for whoever He wishes to and since He lives above time, He knows exactly when or if you will choose to come to Him and give your life to Him. From that point on, your life will never be the same…it will be awesome!

I don’t mean that you will have fame and fortune like the people in some places do. I do mean that just thinking about being a servant to the King of Kings and the Creator is…well, enough. If you aren’t a believer and don’t have spiritual faith in God and Jesus, then this concept is a little beyond your pay grade. I am not saying that Christians are better than you, but we are forgiven.

The best part about this is that God loves you and has made His grace available to you without cost. All that you need to do is to acknowledge that you are a sinner and come to Him like a child and ask Him to come into your life and fix it. Help you straighten things out…get your heart right with Him by allowing Him to do the work. If you try to get things right first, you are just in the way. Let Him do it because He is the only One that can!

Look for it and expect it


There are so many blessings that we seek and need sometimes, yet we tend toward either ignoring what is around us or we just take most of them for granted. Something that I am just as guilty of doing as anyone else is. Yes, there are days…different times where I take the blessings that I have for granted, such as waking up in the morning or breathing during the night. These things are the very blessings that most don’t truly realize or acknowledge that our breath and our very life itself comes from God!

It is a revelation which is hard for many people to understand. God is our Creator! He cares about us, even though many may think that He doesn’t because of the problems in the world today. Those problems, even though He knows about them, are not brought on by Him. Many of them are because of mankind and our intent toward being hateful toward our fellow human beings. Other problems, such as natural disasters, happen because they were just going to happen.

There are many who will not believe this and that’s OK, but God knows the suffering that is going on in the world. He knows about all of the suffering and He is there with you in it and through it. Our world and everyone in it is being targeted by Satan because God loves us and he knows that the best way to hurt God is to hurt us, whether the ones being hurt are Christians or not. Christians are his primary target and will continue to be until he is put in his place at the final judgement. Until then, everyone will either benefit from his influence in the world or be targeted by it, there is no grey area, no middle ground where things are safe.

This is the beginning of a new month and our time on this Earth is, in many people’s eyes, never going to end. That is not true at all. Yes, it has been two millennia since Jesus ascended into the sky. The church in some form has been around for about that length of time too and has caused much suffering and hardship rather than helped with it. All of this is true and there isn’t any denying it. There is also our penchant for taking the long road in terms of getting things done, and taking most everyday things for granted as well.

As long as God is in control, and He will always be, the Sun will rise in the East and we will have four seasons during our year. Children will be born and die, at times, people will die of age related problems and other means too. These things are the very things that we see and hear every day and we become hardened to them, we don’t notice them much until there is some horrific crime or disaster which yanks our attention around so that we can’t ignore it. Those are the events which sometimes cause people to truly wonder “Where is God?” and “Doesn’t He care about us?”.

The answer to both of these questions is that “He is right here” and “He has always cared for us, no matter what is happening.” Can you see Him? No, but if you are a Christian then you can get strength from knowing that He is with you. You can also get hope in situations which people who don’t have a relationship with Him can’t seem to find! Be thankful for the little things and thank Him for all of them, not just the healing or some other big miracle that you attribute to God. Thank Him for help in getting across town for a job interview, for the car starting in the morning, for the wind blowing when you are hot and sweaty outside, even for your home and your family and their good health if you are so blessed.

He is part of all of these and it is His hand that guides us toward the better outcomes in our daily living, not our own selfish ways or abilities.