Tag: Religion and Spirituality

Our world is (mostly) lost


There are many who, I imagine, would agree with that statement and many who would disagree as well. But, from a salvation point of view, it is true. Many people, billions of them in fact, are lost. They are looking for something, yet they don’t know what it is, and they are looking in the wrong places. The look to things or people or religions that offer no real hope. Nothing proven to be a future hope, just feelings of belonging to something that is temporary. Life itself, the one that we all live on this planet, is temporary. It may seem to be an arduous task to live it, however you may do so and wherever you may live and yet the time that we have is but an instant.

Eternity lies before us, all of us, regardless of the place we may go to after our physical death. We should choose whether we will serve our own lusts and desires in this life or will we give our life to Christ and do the work that He has for us to do. Many people think that living for and through Him is boring and not fun and that couldn’t be more wrong. Once the Creator has taken up residence in your heart, He is with you regardless of what you are doing or where you may be. He sees and knows the things that you do before you belong to Him and it grieves His heart to see you going through so much heartache without Him.

To be useful to Christ doesn’t take going on a mission trip or being a pastor. Just doing little things for people who haven’t know Him, but they know that you do, will have a BIG impact. Even if you don’t do those things every day, just once a week will get them to thinking. When we act like Jesus toward others, that is when they see Jesus in us, and many times they will want what they see.

I learned this morning that a wonderful man of God went to his reward and went to his eternal home yesterday. He was over one hundred years old but I know that he won’t look it when I see him in eternity. I didn’t know him personally in this life, but I will in the next one. His name is George Beverly Shea and I don’t consider him to be dead at all. Just as Jesus spoke of Moses and others as being alive and not dead, I consider all those who have gone to their reward as being alive forevermore.

Regardless of what you may have learned in college, this life doesn’t end when your eyes close in death. That is only the death of the physical body. Eternity is for all of us, the place where you spend that eternity is up to you!

What will you do with the time that you have? The decision must be made while you are here because there are no “do-overs”, we don’t get to come back and fix things and do better next time. The dress rehearsal is the life that you are living and you only get one.

 

How can we know that we are saved?


Is it possible for us to really know that we are saved? According to the Bible and most preachers, yes it is possible for us to know for sure. How many people know for sure? There is no answer to this question because the relationship that you have or don’t have with God is your business and it is between you and Him. There is no foolproof way of knowing if someone is saved by talking with them or looking at them because we don’t look any different from the outside. The proof is on the inside and that is where God sees the change and knows that there has been a change. We see it from the outside by the lifestyle that the person leads or the changes in their lifestyle.

When there is a true spiritual change in your heart and your soul, then it will show by your character and the changes in that character. If you were a person who got drunk every weekend, like I did when I was young and foolish, and after you accept Jesus you don’t want to do that anymore then that is the first visible change in your life. The language that you used before may change immediately or gradually, but eventually it will change. People will notice these changes.

I am not saying that it is required of every person to go through these changes, but consider this: if you wouldn’t do certain things in front of your mother or grandmother, then you shouldn’t do them when you have given your life to Christ. Mainly because He and His spirit are with you constantly after you have accepted them into your life. So, they are with you no matter where you go or what you are doing or saying from that point on. Would you take your pastor to a strip club? If you wouldn’t then you shouldn’t be going either is the point I am making.

In the book of Romans, Paul wrote: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. Christ died for your sins and mine and everyone else on the planet, but He was raised to life everlasting on the third day. He did all that was necessary for us to become Christians, all that we have to do is believe in Him and ask Him into our hearts. Then, follow Him like the disciples did. Follow Him like many people follow their favorite singer or sports figure, but follow Him!

The change that comes into your life after receiving Christ is not immediate, but it is miraculous because you are not the same person that you were before and you can’t go back to the life that you had. Your life and your outlook on life is different, because your heart has changed. Once that has happened, everything that you are and everything that you do will reflect Christ to the rest of the world. You are responsible for your witness and everyone will be watching!

Is atheism better?


 

Is is possible to believe in nothing or no one but yourself? It seems that it is in the culture that we live in today.

The number of books on the rejection of religion and God has exploded in the past few years. Is this something which could have been foreseen? Yes and it was foretold but there are many who have refused to teach or preach on this subject.

Your life and mine would never have happened if God did not exist. Chance and accidental combinations of chemicals can produce nothing. If that were possible, Europe and all of the countries and towns that were bombed during WWII would have never had to rebuild. The pieces would have flown apart and rearranged themselves and all would have been as it was.

Chaos does not create order, it destroys it by rearranging order into disorder. It seems that it would take an awful lot of faith in accidental order causing what we see in the universe. Is it possible that all of the whole cosmos came from an explosion with no intelligence directing it? According to scientists in our day and time, it is possible because natural forces would take all the matter from that explosion and arrange it where it needed to be. But..what about you, the fish in the ocean, the bacteria that live in total darkness at the scalding vents in the ocean, the redwood trees? These did not come about by accident and they did not evolve over millions or billions of years. The Creator, God, created those and many more. He is the “director” of the universe.

He is the one who put you together in your mother’s womb to be the person that He knows that you can be. Not what society says or dictates but what God knows you can do and be in His kingdom! Since the world that we live in is part of His kingdom and everything in it belongs to Him, why not accept it? A belief in the existence of something does not dictate whether it exists or not. If it exists then your belief in it or not has no effect on its existence. We can’t change the way the universe is or the order of things just by our thoughts and feelings.

If that were the way that things worked, then we could choose not to believe in the tax code and just not pay our taxes and everything would be fine, right? No, because as rational people we have to go along with the laws in the country that we live in and belief in those laws has nothing to do with the consequences or whether we think they may be right or not.

The world that we live in was created by God and the laws of the universe were too. Regardless of your belief or unbelief in the existence of God, He is there and always has been. His love for each of us has been there from the beginning as well and your belief or not doesn’t change that. God did not trouble Himself when He created you or this universe because it was no trouble for Him at all! He spoke and the universe and most everything in it came into being. The only created being that He took time with was man and He didn’t have to do that, but He did. God used His hands and formed mankind out of the clay of the earth and blew into his nostrils the breath of Life. We hold a special place in creation because of that.

Belief or not doesn’t change it and never will. God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to take the sins and the punishment for them on Himself so that we could find grace in Him and put on His righteousness. He died and then rose again so that we will be able to have eternal life through Him, if we will just ask Him into our lives. Being saved by God’s grace through Jesus is our choice, just as believing in God or Jesus is a choice. The choice that you make will determine your place in eternity. Which choice will you make?

 

Your life’s purpose


Did you know that just twenty-one days elapse from conception to the first heartbeat when you are still in your mother’s womb? From that point on your life is begun and your parent’s lives will never be the same. The things that you desire in life that give you a purpose or worth, make you feel significant or accepted, give you security or cause you to feel loved or allow you to experience the beauty of God’s creation. These are the things which you will follow after and crave  most of your life. Can they be found in one place or person?

The answer is yes, they can be found in one person and His name is Jesus. The creation, of which we are a part of, is His doing. We are special to Him and to God, so why don’t we feel special? Did we do something wrong? Can we fix it if we did?

Some of us do feel special because our parents and grand-parents reinforced that feeling. But are we special? To God we are special because He created each of us for a purpose and we are made for that purpose especially by Him.

The second question: Did we do something wrong? No, not exactly. We all do or say things that we regret later, it is just our human nature. That is the problem but we can’t blame everything that we say or do on that. We cannot abrogate or refuse to acknowledge our responsibility in life because of “human nature”. It is that nature that we have been handed down from antiquity that we must take control of but we cannot do it on our own strength. We have to allow Jesus into our life and our heart so that we can become someone better than we can become ourselves.

We can’t do it on our own. Regardless of the science-fiction stories of a utopian future where we all get along and disease and poverty don’t exist. That world is not possible without the rule of Christ in our lives and even then it would not work unless He was the ruler of the world as He will be.

But, the most important decision that you will make is whether to accept Him as Lord and Savior in your life and your heart. When you give your life to Him and give up your way of doing things in favor of His way, your life and the influence that it has on others will be changed dramatically. God loves you far more than you or I can possibly imagine and He wants the best for you. That does not mean that you will have millions of dollars or houses or anything that the world recognizes as “success”, but you will be successful in other ways, eternal ways.

The life that we have does not end when our physical body dies because God created us with an eternal spirit which will live on. Eternity makes this life seem like a puff of smoke so the influence that you have here needs to be based on following and loving Jesus, not on following what the world wants you to do.
Think about it. Pray about it and seek the wisdom that only God can provide through His Word, the Bible. Don’t just read it like a book, because it is the Creator‘s conversation with us and His people. Pray and ask Him to show you the wisdom that is intended for you and your situation. He will open your eyes and your heart so that you can see and understand that which you need.

This post is for Aurora, Colorado


I am praying for all the families and the victims of the horrific shooting that occurred last Friday morning. God‘s grace and mercy was shown in one young woman’s recovery though and I am posting the link to her story below. I pray that you will join me in donating whatever you can to help and send a prayer for God’s healing in her life and her family’s lives as well.

http://igg.me/p/177903

There have been so many tragedies in this, I pray that we, as a nation, will not allow this kind of violence to be used by the media.

The Hands that Pray


When you pray, do not do as the pagans do. With their many words they seek to impress; yet when you pray, do so in secret as your Father is in secret. (Paraphrase of Matthew 6)

 

Your hands were made by God as you were so when you pray take note of them.

Your thumb is the nearest finger to you when you pray. So, begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember.

The next finger on your hand is the pointing finger. Pray for those who are teachers or who instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need our support, and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction, so keep them in your prayers.

Next is your tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president regardless of who you voted for, and then pray for leaders in business and industry and administrators. All of these people shape our nation and guide public opinion and they need God’s guidance.

The fourth finger is your ring finger. It is usually the weakest finger as most piano teachers will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need our prayers day and night. You can’t pray enough for them.

Last is your little finger, it is the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. The Bible says, “The least shall be the greatest among you.” Your pinkie finger should remind you to pray for yourself because by the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your needs will be in their proper perspective and you will be able to pray more effectively.

This is just a prayer suggestion which came to me through email and I thought I would share it with you.

What do you mean, “die to self”?


It is a question which has been asked many times since Jesus was here. It is a question which is easy and hard to answer but I will try to shed some light on it here.

Our selfish nature or it could be called our childish nature, is what gets us into so much trouble and we don’t realize it until it is almost too late. Anyone who is a parent has heard a child say “I can do it myself” and it is that “self” that we have to get away from! If we don’t, it will get us into more trouble than we could possibly imagine!

I know that many people feel that this is just some preacher rambling about something that doesn’t mean anything. Well, I am a preacher but I have also been called to get these bits of wisdom that I glean from God‘s Word out to a dying world and in this instance our “self” is usually the bad guy. Satan will help our nature or our “self” to be a real problem, against our better judgement and our Christian nature, but it is us who cause much of our own problems!

As the old cartoon said, “I has met the enemy and he is us!” We are our own worst enemy in many ways, least of all to ourselves and the life that we live. It is our nature, the sin nature that was born in the garden of Eden, that has caused and is still causing heartache and pain and suffering today.

Can we do anything about it?  No, not on our own we can’t! With God in our life and in our hearts we can overcome our self, the old self that is at war with our new creation after Christ comes into your heart. It is a battle that we cannot afford to lose which is why we are admonished to put on the armor of God by studying His Word and taking its wisdom into our life on a daily basis. When we do that, we are able to do exceedingly more for Him and through Him than we could ever do on our own!

Give your heart to Jesus, the only One who loves you regardless of what you have done or will do! He will never leave you nor let you down so give your heart to Him and your life will never be the same, it will be BETTER!

Five minutes after I die….


Ask yourself, “Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I would have given on behalf of the helpless while I still had the chance?”

Many people may say that this is a foolish question because there is no afterlife, but what if they or you are wrong? What will you say or do after this life is over and the next existence begins? Will you have a real existence after this life?

The answer to all of these questions is “It depends”. It depends on what you did in this life and whom you were following through life. If you took care of yourself and your immediate family, that is good but it is also selfish. Did you give your life to anything greater or any One? Could you have made a real difference in other people’s lives if you had been a Christian? Yes! There are many things which you could do to help others with our own strength, but with Christ living in your heart and working through you, you can do so much more.

Is it possible for us to go through life without Christ? Yes, but why would you want to? Having Him near everyday gives me such peace and the knowledge that I can speak to Him about anything at any time is reassuring. I feel that part of my life that was empty at one time is full now and the One that filled it was Jesus.

It also gives me the assurance that when I die, I will be with Jesus and the rest of my family who are in Heaven already. We will serve the Lord with gladness throughout eternity and that assurance gives me hope because it is a future without end!

Ask Jesus into your heart and ask forgiveness for your life before He came to you. Once you do that, your life will never be the same but it will be better than it was!

 

What we should be doing


praying-hands-258x300In our time alone with God, when we are not alone but with the Creator of everything, we should be praying. Our lives are merely His to work out His will on this earth, regardless of how we feel about Him or even if we acknowledge Him at all. If by some chance, you know Him but don’t pray much, He is waiting patiently.

All of the gifts and blessings of this life come from God. Satan has a hand in all of the bad things which happen to people, but only so far as God allows him to go.  God is in control and always has been, so there is no reason to worry about your life or what you will eat because God feeds the birds and He cares enough for you to do the same in your situation.

There is so much more that God can and will do for you and all that you have to do is ask Him into your heart and life. When you have done that, I am not saying that your life will be rosy from that point on, but He will give you the assurance that His love brings and the strength to carry you through.

Did you know this about Jesus?


1. He is the first-born son of God; 2. He fulfilled over 300 prophecies about the Messiah during His lifetime on earth; 3.Pagan wise men (astronomers/astrologers) recognized Him when His own people did not; 4. He is alive today at the right hand of God; 5. He will judge the nations when He returns to rule on the throne of David.

These are just a few of the facts about Jesus and there are many more. The big question is this: Do you know Him? I am not asking if you are a “fan” of Jesus because churches are full of fans. I am asking do you KNOW Him? In many ways our culture has changed to the point that it would be disgraceful to someone from the generation of WWII. I know a few people from that generation and they can’t believe that our nation has gone so far down the path that we are on. The reason behind our decline in the world and in other areas of life is because we have replaced Jesus and God with something which doesn’t resemble them at all!

God created man to have a daily walk with Him, to fellowship with Him the way that we do today with our friends and family. Although the family is increasingly under fire today because of our “culture”, it is the most important institution that God endorsed from the beginning besides marriage between a man and a woman.

Knowing God is far different than being a fan of Him. I know about or have met many people but I only know superficial knowledge, just the surface. Intimate knowledge is reserved for my family and for Jesus. To have that kind of knowledge of Him, you have to have a daily relationship with Him. I don’t mean to say that I am in constant contact with Him, but I try to speak and allow Him to speak back to me at least once per day. Our lives can be far more than just living, we can be doing His work for Him on a daily basis. This is actually what we were created to do, though many of us never find this out until it is too late.

Some, find out about it and embrace it as their calling in life. Some are called to be ministers and evangelists and they fulfill this calling very well. As long as they keep God in the place that He is supposed to be in, things will work out just fine. On the other hand, if they try to be the one who is being served, they will find that their reward will not be what they expected.

We only get to experience the joy of knowing God when we are doing His work for Him and not for ourselves. Why does it have to be that way? Because that is the way He ordained it to be, just as the farmer reaps his harvest after planting the seed and nurturing it to maturity so our life is to be. If we are to be useful to Him and His kingdom, we must do His will every day.