Tag: Salvation

If my people….


14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

What would really happen if Christians, not just in America but all over the world, took this to heart? Could a change happen? Would we be determined in our worship enough to keep on being humble in His presence until something..everything began to change? I would hope so.

The world sorely needs this to happen everywhere, in all countries, even those who don’t follow God nor believe in Jesus as the Savior! Especially in those countries! The church, the body of believers in countries where persecution is a daily practice, is growing just as it did in the early centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Some would ask, “Why?”, and the answer to that is this: when persecution comes the church leans on and depends upon God more than ever before.

So, why can’t we depend on Him when we aren’t being persecuted? We should be thanking Him and praising Him for living in a country where persecution is not so bad yet! We should be getting out into the streets and telling people about Him, so why aren’t we? Because we are afraid.

We are afraid that the people will see us as freaks or religious nuts. I would rather be a nut in God’s basket than a huge rock in Satan’s fortress!

Yes, we are afraid to let people see that we actually believe in something or Someone! Why? Because we don’t want to be lumped in with all of those “deplorables”! What is so bad about being seen as a true believer in Christ? Many seem to be afraid of being seen as a fanatic. The disciples were fanatics! The early church would be considered fanatical in their beliefs, so much so until they were killed and tortured in ways that are hard to imagine today.

God loves you and He doesn’t require you or me to be a fanatic with our faith, but He will give you the strength and the words to go with it if you will. You don’t have to walk around carrying a cross or stand on a corner yelling about the end of the world being near, but in the world that we live in people still need to hear the message. Many don’t come to church, so the only way they will find the message is to put it out on the web or be a nuisance enough to get your message on the news.

Jesus told His disciples to go and tell the whole world about the gospel and they did. It seems that the church has drawn back from being the voice of Jesus in our world. We will shine the light in our community, but taking it with us into our workplace or into the city and the towns nearby is another thing. We are supposed to be the feet of Jesus too! By taking His gospel with us at work, at school, at home, into restaurants (fast food or otherwise), people will see our faith, if they don’t want to see it they don’t have to look or listen.

We should turn our lives and our hearts back to belief in Jesus and serve Him in every way that we can, especially at home teaching our children Who and why we believe in Him! Because as soon as they leave home for college, their minds will be open to many things and if Christ isn’t in their hearts and minds, then something or someone else will get in there.

Are you a follower?


Of the many people who attend church on a fairly regular schedule, how many are really following Jesus in their daily lives? The answer may shock you. According to a study done recently, eighty-three percent of the people in the United States said they were Christians. But, when they were questioned further and asked about their relationship with Jesus and their belief about salvation coming through faith in Him alone and about the authority of the Bible and its inspiration by the Holy Spirit, the numbers tumbled to around eight to ten percent.

What happened?

Many people think that if you are a good person and you attend church once or twice a year, then you will go to Heaven. Not true.

Do you believe that Jesus was and is the Son of God? That He lived a sinless life and died for the atonement which is given to every person that is called by God? Do you have faith in God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit or the Trinity of Almighty God? Can you discern truth in the Bible and in your everyday life?

Or is there another pathway to get to Heaven through your works and donations? Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except by Him. Believing in Him and giving your life to Jesus is the ONLY way to get to Heaven. There is no broad road to walk on with no holes and no rocks and other obstacles along the way. It is a path to follow by giving your heart to Jesus and asking for His forgiveness of your sins, repenting of them and turning your life around to follow Him.

This doesn’t mean that you can say those things, get baptized, and then go back to your old life. If you do this, then your heart was not changed at all and you are still living like you did before you heard about Jesus. Your heart hasn’t changed therefore you have not changed. It isn’t a magic formula, but you have to realize that you NEED Jesus in your life before something happens and you stand before God without Him.

God loves each of us and wants us to have a relationship with Him and the entire body of believers, and the only way to do that is by giving your heart to Jesus by believing in Him and asking Him to forgive you and make you whole. Why do I keep telling ya’ll this? Because, it is my job! Because the numbers shouldn’t fall from over 80 percent down to ten percent. Deception and lies are being spread abroad all of the time, even inside the church today, yet there are many who don’t see it or can’t discern it because they are not in God’s Word enough to be able to see when something is taught and taken out of context.

God sent His Son to Earth to purchase your pardon through His blood. He went through a scourging which left Him bloody and bruised, then He was nailed to the cross and withstood the shame and scorn of His people for six hours and then surrendered His Spirit into the Father’s hands. All of this was done to purchase us, our pardon for eternity and for our forgiveness. Would you turn away from something which is given to you without cost to you, but which Jesus paid for with His blood and His life?

Everything that could be done for each of us in order to purchase our souls and our place in eternity, has been done. It doesn’t require anything from you except that you believe in the One Who gave it all for you and that you repent of your sinful life and follow Him. Telling others with your life and your witness because we are supposed to tell others! Why? Would you be satisfied in Heaven without your children or your parents? Then tell them! Tell your friends and your co-workers, your students and anyone who will listen. If they won’t hear or refuse to accept Jesus, their blood is on their hands, not yours. It is God and His Spirit which will bring them to Himself, if they refuse then there is nothing else you could have done.

Be a follower of Jesus and tell others about what He has done for you. Satan will try to convince you to not follow Him, to go back to your old life, your comfortable life and your friends. When you stand in front of God after your life is over, which one of your friends will be there to help you? Will Satan stand there and say that you didn’t know what you were doing? No, he will be waiting for you to exit the room because he has a place for you…in hell.

Trust and faith


What do you put your trust…your faith in? When Moses realized that God was going to use him to deliver Israel from Egypt, what did he put his trust in? It wasn’t the stick that he had used as a shepherd, it was God! Moses wasn’t a magician who could turn the stick into a snake, God did that! God doesn’t use magicians because their magic comes from Satan and his demons!

With God all things are possible, to those who have faith in Him. Our lives and the fact that we live today on this Earth are not guaranteed, we did not evolve here, we as a species were created by God! The Bible is His Word given to man to write and keep records so that we would have wisdom and knowledge to know Him and how to be civilized in our society.

It does take faith in God to understand the Bible and to be able to grasp His wisdom there. It can’t be done if you just read it as a book, without faith or prayer for His Spirit revealing it to you the Bible is just a book. Which is why many people who don’t believe in God can say that they have read it and they don’t understand it. God’s wisdom in His Word is foolish to someone who doesn’t have faith and who doesn’t believe the words which are in it.

God loves us and He has promised to come back and make the world new again and since He can’t lie, then He will do it. When? I don’t know, but if you look at the prophecies in the Bible telling about the condition of the world just before His return then we aren’t far from it. I won’t be foolish enough to give a date because only God Himself knows that day and hour, and it isn’t written in His Word.

The world around us is changing dramatically in scope and in what we are trying to do in science and medicine. The Internet has enabled us to communicate around the world in seconds. Life is easier in some places and harder or even impossible in some other areas, yet God hasn’t abandoned us. We are His creation and this small planet is our home. When He comes, it will open many eyes to His existence and also to their regret because they didn’t believe in Him.

Search Him out diligently, seek Him in the Scriptures and at church, pray for His guidance and direction in learning about Him in the Word. Because, when your life is over there are no do-overs and you will meet Him, but in a very different way.

Problems in our lives


How many problems do we all have today? That question alone could fill up many pages of text. Suffice to say, all of us have problems of one kind or another. Some of them are of our own making, some are caused by the economic conditions in the world today.

So, what can we do about our problems? Not much really. Individually, we have to notice what is going on before it becomes a problem. The same is true for states and nations, but that doesn’t always work. In our lives, as short as they are, problems are going to be a part of them and there is no reason to think otherwise.

Sounds pessimistic doesn’t it? Jesus told His disciples that we would always have trouble (tribulation) in this world but to be of good cheer because He had overcome the world. Will that help in today’s climate with wars happening all over, earthquakes and hurricanes happening in places where they haven’t in a while if ever? For some people, no it won’t because they don’t want to give their hearts to Jesus. They don’t want the peace which comes with knowing Him.

Why don’t they want this? I haven’t got the slightest idea. Jesus and the Holy Spirit give me the strength to get by and get through the problems which come up in my life and they can do this for you too. I don’t have the problems that many people have with their health, but I can’t work because of my disability (at least not at an 8 hour a day job). I preach on Sunday and I give these sermons here when the words come to me, but that is about all that I can accomplish.

It saddens me that I am like this, but I like to think it was because I was making a difference in some people’s lives and Satan tried to stop it. It didn’t work. I am not letting this get me down and you shouldn’t either! I have days where I am depressed, but I do my best to read in the Psalms and give it to God and let Him take care of it. I can’t get rid of the depression on my own, but He can.

Your problems may have to do with money or lack of a job or an illness, but God can take care of them all if you will let Him. God doesn’t move at our pace, He works in His time which is why we sometimes try to help Him get things done. That is the wrong thing to do because it just postpones His answer! He will let you give it a try, and He will give the problem back to you if you think you can do better, then He will sit back and watch. When you figure it out, then He will ask you in a small voice (if you are listening), “Are you ready for my solution yet?”.

God loves each of us more than we can imagine and since He lives outside of time, He can see down the road, so to speak, what is coming and what is best for us. He wants us to wait for His best! We just get impatient. It is important to add here something that I learned a LONG time ago: DON’T ASK GOD TO TEACH YOU PATIENCE! You won’t like His class on that at all!! Learn it at your own pace, teach yourself patience through the reading of His Word and then listen to Him and wait.

I promise, it will be worth it.

More like Christ


This is the example that we have, the very one that we are supposed to try to live up to in our walk with Jesus. It is not enough that we try in our own strength, because we will fail!

Encouraging words, huh? We will fail to be like Christ if we do it in our own strength, yet that is exactly what Jesus taught with the sermon on the mount. Teachers and preachers have, for the most part, taught His Wisdom as it was pointing to those in attendance when it really means that we are all to live this way.

How can you and I be more like Christ? By giving away our old natural self! Sacrifice it, our old way of living, just as Abraham was going to do to his son when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. We have to give up our life, our way of doing things, and start living the way that Jesus taught His disciples to live. As a servant of God to others in love and His Truth! If you wake up on Monday morning and thank God for getting you up, that’s a start.

What else are we supposed to do after giving thanks for our health and our life to serve Him one more day? We have to ask Him to give us the words and the opportunity today to show someone a reason why God loves them. It may not be a big thing, it could be only a few words, but if it is given to and shown to them in the love of Christ…it will accomplish what it was meant to accomplish. Get up with a gladness in your heart, a thankful spirit that God gives you, so that others will see it and wonder what you have that they don’t? Then, they may ask you and you can tell them.

God gives us such grace every morning by giving us the air that we breathe and our ability to get up from the bed and walk! We can look outside and see the birds and the sun and the clouds and all of it was provided by God for our benefit. Why do I say it that way? Because even David said so in the Psalms, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”.

God uses the Sun, the moon and the stars to show His works in the Heavens, but they also declare His goodness and His greatness! Seeing all of these things, we have to wonder about the Creator, if you believe in Him, who put it all there. Why would He care about us? Because He loved us enough to send His Son to die, to be sacrificed for all of our sins, so that we might have the opportunity to become sons and daughters of God! Yes, we float in space on a tiny speck compared to the majesty of the cosmos, but God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.

All that we need to do is sacrifice our life, our sinful life, and give it to Him so that He can take what is left and make it into a mighty, servant of the Most High God! Don’t get all hyped up about being somebody in His Kingdom, because without the Holy Spirit nothing that you write, say, or do will amount to anything! Follow Him every day, read His Word every day, pray a few  prayers thanking Him for His goodness and mercy every day because without Him, you and I are nothing.

“Take the gospel to all people..”


This is part of the command which was given to the disciples by Jesus before His ascension to the Father. We, as Christians today, are also recipients of this command by extension because we are supposed to be His disciples today! Have we taken His gospel to all people? Not our version of it, but His gospel! That is another of my problems with some churches, in the past and in modern times. It seems that many of our “denominations” have taken their creed, their ideas, their doctrines too far and they give equal weight to their man-made rules and the Bible.

How can we, as created beings, give our laws and doctrines the same weight in spiritual places as God’s Word? Did any of you bring about a world today? Can you stop time and make the sun do your bidding? We are not gods! So why would laws made in a church conference meeting have the same weight in worship services as God’s Word? Mankind’s words should never be taken in any context as being equal to the Word of God! Yet, there are some congregations which do this on a regular basis.

I believe that we are going down a very dangerous path if we are doing this. The church today, regardless of the name or denomination, should be based upon the whole Word of God and nothing more. If you must have rules in your church that are different from the words found in the Bible, then they should be just rules for your church and nothing more.

God doesn’t share His throne with us, nor does He share it with a specific denomination which follows their man-made rules more than His commandments!

When men and women in a church think that their words are equal to the Word of God, there is a real problem. The church today HAS a real problem. We need to get back into God’s Word and stand on His Word because if we represent Him it is His Word that we are supposed to be holding up for the world to see, not our ideas and our “rules”. His Word has proven true time and time again in prophecy and in its wisdom and content. How many of our representatives in Washington or anywhere else can you say that about?

God’s Word is the Word of Truth and if we are not going to believe it and at least TRY to live by His Word, then we should stop claiming to be Christians or believers!

John 3:16,17 says:

16 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.

If we are not teaching and preaching these verses from God’s Word and the other truths contained within it, then we shouldn’t be teachers nor preachers at all! When you hear a “sermon” which sounds like it came out of a “self-help” book rather than the Bible, you should RUN out of the building and leave that place! Even though much of the wisdom written in self-help books does sound like it has some basis in God’s Word, the sermon in a church should be from God’s Word, not from a man’s own wisdom.

Are you satisfied..with God?


You know, it sounds like a very silly question doesn’t it? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about His satisfaction with us? Actually, it really is a give and take relationship…a two-way relationship between you and God! Why wouldn’t we be satisfied with Him? Maybe He didn’t answer your prayer the way you thought He should or maybe something happened to you or a family member and you prayed to Him about it and got no peace about it or no answer at all.

God is not a genie! He is the Creator of the entire universe from the largest galaxy to the smallest particles of matter! He doesn’t have to answer your prayers the way that you want Him to! Especially, if your ideas and your wants conflict with what He has waiting for you! God loves you more than you know, but you need to realize that He is in control and learn to be satisfied with Him!

Satisfaction with God is not something which is automatic because we are not satisfied with out own lives most of the time. Being satisfied with God is knowing that He has your best interests in mind and knowing that He can see the future of this action or this prayer and He is going to work in your life for the best outcome, no matter what! Granted, there are times when the best outcome may be to bring you home to Heaven rather than allowing you to suffer here on Earth. We may not have the ability to heal your problems, but God can.

Although, sometimes His way of healing happens to include your travel to Heaven to stay. The connection between believers and God has to do with your Spirit which changed you into a born-again, sanctified Christian is always in communication with God, even if you are not. The Spirit living inside you is part of the Trinity and it is that part which is always in touch with God, as long as you haven’t quenched the Spirit’s influence or grieved the Spirit in any way.

The question about those two things weighed on my heart for a long time until recently, so I will give you the definition that I received. Quenching the Spirit is concerning something that God wants us to do and we don’t do it, grieving the Spirit is when you do something that is against God’s command or purpose in your life, like drinking a beer or smoking a joint especially when someone else may see you do it. You have grieved God’s Spirit in your life and you have ruined your testimony in front of someone else who knows that you claim to be a Christian.

We are complicated beings made in God’s image with a physical body, an immortal soul and if you are a Christian you have the Holy Spirit residing inside you to teach you, comfort you, strengthen you and guide you through whatever life throws your way. In order to live that kind of life, you need to learn about Him and His ways so you can listen to His voice and recognize it as God. The only way to do this is by reading God’s Word so you will know what His voice, His Word sounds like. It will always involve a relationship to either Himself or Jesus and it will never seek to do something which is against a command in the Bible.

Learn His ways by reading His Word and praying about what you read. Go to a Bible teaching church, regardless of the denomination, so that you will hear from His Word and not just someone’s ideas about God. Being satisfied with God and His provision for your life is something which we all need to do, even though it isn’t easy sometimes. It is a learning process just as being a Christian is. Yes, you can become a Christian by giving your heart to Jesus, but you have to learn to walk with Him on a daily basis and learn from Him and the Word so that you can be an effective witness to others.

When you give your heart to Him and truly ask Him to forgive you and make you His, you are a babe in Christ and just like babies we all have to grow and learn. Being a Christian is not automatic and it isn’t the easiest job to learn either, but it is well worth it! Satisfaction with Him will come as you learn more about Him and mature in your faith. Put your trust…your faith in Him like you see children trusting their parents or like your dog trusts you and you will learn quickly that it is the best relationship that you have ever had!

What is important to you?


There seems to be many people who are running around searching for something which makes them feel good. The travel to places which are beautiful, they go to sports arenas and watch football games and baseball games, some go to race tracks and watch professional drivers run around in circles. Many go on trips called vacations to places that they do not live, to see things for a few days and live there for those few days, sometimes in the lap of luxury. Then what?

You come home. The excitement and the newness of living has worn off. You are sitting in a house, a home, with the same people who went on the vacation but..something is missing. You feel restless, unsatisfied, nervous, anxious, what do you do? Many who can afford to will be off on another trip, somewhere. Anywhere but at home, in a place that is boring and uninteresting.

Contentment is hard to find, unless you have allowed it to find you first. Contentment is a state of mind where you know where you belong and to whom you belong. You don’t have to be married to be content, but it doesn’t hurt! Paul wrote “I have learned to be content in whatever state I find myself in” Philippians 4:11 , wouldn’t it be great if we could all find that place?

Contentment, what is important to you, these two are not exclusive, they are the same. Have you found your place, your “happy place”, the place where you are content and fulfilled with where you are and who you are? Sadly, some people never find that place. Many search for it their entire lives and don’t realize it until they are on their death-bed. By then, it’s too late to enjoy it. I see it in many of my friend’s lives and some of my classmate’s lives as well. Over the years I have watched many of them chase after something which is elusive like a puff of smoke.

A few have found it, but some are still looking even after their children are grown and they are retired from their jobs. Why? Your job doesn’t usually give you contentment and sometimes neither does your family. It seems that many people are content until one or the other is gone, the job or the family and children. Then what do you do?

We identify with our jobs or our family during the productive years of our lives and then when we get to a point, whether young or middle-aged or past 65, where we have the option or maybe we have been forced to “retire” from work, we find that our identity was our contentment. Now that we are past the point of being productive in work or raising a family, life is a big question mark now. Who am I? What do I do now?

Seek out your Savior! If you have not done this during your so-called “productive years”, then truly you need to make it a point to do it today! Why? Because, that place where you have placed your contented feelings during your career or while raising a family is now empty. It was supposed to contain the Holy Spirit all along! Ask Jesus to come in and clean out the space which has been occupied by life and all of its busyness and place His Spirit in there!

That is where Paul got his contentment from. He was a murdering, hunter of the followers of “the Way”, until Jesus stopped him and got in his face. If you have felt the call of Jesus, but you have pushed Him aside, it isn’t too late. Seek Him out in scripture and in a real Bible teaching church, then ask Him to come into your life and clean out the cobwebs and the left over stuff from your life. When He does, you should begin to study and read His Word!

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t understood it before, with His Spirit helping you, the meanings will be clearer. If you can’t grasp something that the Bible says, ask Jesus to make it plain to you so you can.

Then, the things which are important will rearrange themselves and begin to line up from His perspective and your perspective will be lined up with His. That is contentment and being in that place is more rewarding than any “vacation” or any amount of fun that you could have before. I don’t mean that you have to stop doing those things, just keep your eyes focused on Jesus first. Take Him with you, learn to love things from His point of view. He is the Creator, so enjoy His creation, and when you do it in that order…contentment will come to live with you.

Seconds, minutes, hours….


We are very attached to our measurement of time. We seem to obsess over how little we seem to have, but the issue has always been with us. From the moment of our birth until the day that we die, the seconds, minutes and hours tick by whether we use them or not. Yet, we complain about not having enough. We have 86,400 seconds allotted to each of us every day. What you do with them is up to you. From midnight to sunrise there are approximately 21,600 seconds which most of us sleep through (if we sleep until 6 am).

From that point on until midnight the next night, you have 64,800 seconds until the next day begins.

Looking at our days like this, it seems that we waste more time than we thought we did. Is there anything that we can do about this? Not really. We have to sleep, we have to eat at some point, and many of us have to drive to and from work every day. By the time you factor in all of that, most of your day is spent.

Jesus said that we should work while the day is here, because the night comes and no man can work. There are many who do work night shifts, but in His day the only people who did so were shepherds who watched over their flocks at night. During the night hours, the only other people who are out are criminals who steal, kill or otherwise commit crimes. Today, there are the police and firefighters who are also working during the night, along with nurses, doctors and emergency medical personnel.

Why am I writing about time here? Because, we all have a limited amount of it in our lifetimes and we must be about the work that we are assigned by God while we can. It is true that we may have other jobs to perform as well, but if you are a Christian then you have a job assigned to you to let others know about His love for them! They need to know because they will be sent to hell and if you have the chance to tell them and you don’t, then you will have to answer for it.

I don’t mean to frighten anyone, and you won’t lose your salvation but you may lose a reward in Heaven for not telling the people who you could’ve and you didn’t. Compared to eternity, our life passes by like a second on your watch. We should be trying to do all that we can to tell those, particularly those who you count as friends and relatives, about the love of Jesus and that He died for them! If they don’t accept the gospel and accept Him or they tell you that they are already saved, then you have done all that you can to help. It is up to the Holy Spirit to convict them and bring them back from the far country.

Time is precious and it is coming to the end of the church age as I type this. It is true, we may have another ten or twenty years, but in my heart and according to all of the prophecies which have been fulfilled I am not sure how much time we really have left. Do what you can and then give the matter over to God.

In His Service.

So much strife


Today it seems that is all that is on the news, whether it is a cable channel or a national network. Everyone seems to be having truly hard times in the world that we live in. From wars and persecution in the Middle East and Asia to natural disasters like the flooding in South Mississippi and Louisiana. Is there anything or anyone who can help or even cares enough to help?

It seems that the government has taken a holiday since the beginning of the flood in the South and nobody seems to care one bit about the people caught up in it. Is there anyone who will help? Yes, local people and police and fire departments are helping. Some churches and other organizations are helping as much as they can. The national guard has been called up in most of the areas, where the flooding is the worst, to help with rescues and to keep the looting down.

Why do these problems and disasters bring out some of the good and some of the really bad in people? It seems that the bad is more pronounced because of these situations rather than bringing out the better side of people. So what happened?

I am not sure exactly. Many of the people who are looting and doing other crimes are young people who should know better! Why aren’t they being taught right from wrong and how to be productive citizens rather than being people who demand everything be given to them for free? I am sure that our schools had nothing to do with this, because they don’t teach morals in schools anymore because the teachers aren’t allowed to.

What happened? Well, about fifty-three years ago prayer was taken out of schools as well as teaching from the Bible and lately our pledge of allegiance has suffered the same fate because of being politically correct and not being offensive. All of these things have taken pride in your country and the sense of right and wrong out of education. Life isn’t fair to everyone and our progressive government from back then and today has made it harder for those on the lower socioeconomic scale to get out of their situations and make life better.

Jesus came to do the same thing. He did not intend for everyone to share equally in all things, like socialist countries do, but Heaven is meant for those who belong to Him. In Heaven we will all be equal because we will be serving Him in His Kingdom! We will have different jobs to do and abilities to use to do so, but in God’s eyes we are equal but different. Not due to the color of our skin, but because He gave each of us a talent and a purpose before we were even born and we will fulfill our purpose in His Kingdom!

Have you asked Jesus to come into your life and to forgive you of your sins? If you haven’t, what are you waiting for? None of us are guaranteed to see another sunrise, but we have today, right now. If you have felt the Spirit calling you to repent and come to Jesus, don’t put it off. Come to Him, ask Him to forgive you for waiting so long and then make sure that you find a Bible teaching church or at least someone who knows Him and can lead you in studying the Bible.