Divisions…

Why is our country and much of the world so divided? We, as human beings, can’t seem to agree on anything, especially religion. Even the church in America can’t agree on how we believe in our Lord. We seem to have polar opposite ideas on how, when, and Who we are worshiping. I am not speaking of one specific religion, although Jesus prayed for us to be united in our worship. Our religion is fractured in America and in some areas of the country Christians are hated almost to the point of violence. Last week there was a Christian speaker gunned down because he was speaking about the Truths of the Bible. Yet, the shooter said “I can no longer stand to hear his hatred” or something like that.

Our world is becoming more dangerous every day and even more intolerant than ever before. The message that many preachers and other speakers have been telling the truth from God’s Word is categorized as “hate speech”. Why is this happening?

Jesus foretold this in Matthew 24 and in the book of Revelation. He warned His followers that they would be hated because of the message He was giving them to take to the world. God expects us to be His ambassadors in the world but not of the world. We are to take His message of love and salvation to those who need to hear it which means everyone who hasn’t heard the Word of Truth. God loves all of humanity but their sins keep getting in the way of a relationship with Him. He still watches over all of us and He is patiently waiting for us to realize that we need a relationship with Him as well.

We are living at the end of the “Church age” or the age of grace. With all of the wars and violence in nearly every country, it is certainly getting close to the coming of the Lord to take His Bride, the believers of His Church, home to be with Him. I pray that many more people, young and old and from many countries, will come to know Jesus as their Savior soon. Seek Him while there is time because none of us is guaranteed tomorrow.

The Unseen Hand

Many people struggle to see God at work in their daily routines or during difficult times. This post could encourage readers to look for divine appointments, small mercies, or moments of grace that reveal God’s active involvement in their lives.

In John 8:4 the story about the woman caught in adultery is a good one to look at. Granted, all of us cannot relate to this story but it happened because of the Pharisees wanting to see what Jesus would do in this instance, since the Torah demands that she should be stoned. They forgot about the rest of the law that says the man should be stoned as well.

God is present in our daily lives even when we don’t acknowledge His Presence every day. He is there giving us peace at the times that we need it and guidance when we can’t see the way forward. Even if you don’t believe in Jesus or God, He is still there watching over you. God will not interfere in your life because He gave us the ability to choose but He is still with you. God loves us because He is the Creator and He formed each of us in the womb so He knows you better than anyone.

Our lives would be much worse if He wasn’t around every day, but because of His love for us He watches over us all of the time. So…to get back to the story about the woman, the Pharisees were testing Him to see what He would do. I really wish that the Bible recorded what He wrote in the dirt, but that is what Jesus did. He stooped over and began writing on the ground. Some commentators have postulated that Jesus wrote the sins of the Pharisees in the dirt but whatever it was I think they might have noticed it when Jesus said, “The one of you who has no sin, can cast the first stone”. Of course they all dropped their stones and left because Jesus was the only person who could’ve cast the first stone.

Then, He does something that nobody expected. Jesus asked her, “Where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you? She said, “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more”.

Jesus doesn’t condemn us, He paid the price to redeem us from the penalty of our sins. All we have to do is believe in Him for our salvation.

Life ahead

Have you ever thought about where you will be after you die? Some of us do but there are many who don’t think about it or they don’t believe there is a “life after death” to look forward to or dread, whichever the case may be. God provided a way for us to have salvation from the penalty of sin, which is separation from Him. The only way for us to be in His Presence is to believe in Jesus for our salvation. No work can get you into Heaven and money has no place in Heaven. God loves each of us at such a depth that we cannot know His love until we are there.

The one other emotion that we feel here but rarely acknowledge is…JOY! I have read about people who have died and gone to Heaven for a little while then they were sent back with a bigger purpose for Him. They describe the feeling in Heaven as joyous and “like being surrounded by joy”. They even describe the trees and grass of Heaven having a part in the celebration of God. Your life in Heaven will be joyous and filled with praise and worship for God and His glory and His provision of eternity for the church, the Bride of Christ.

This doesn’t refer to a church/worship service like we know here but the type of worship of all of Creation. The birds know that God will feed them. The fish of the sea know that God feeds them and they rejoice in that knowledge. God loves you and He has prepared a place for each of us. I pray that more people will come to know Jesus as their Savior because the time is drawing near that the end of the age will come to an end soon. Be ready.

What is your foundation?

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? It is a concrete question and one that is hard to answer for some people. Many people believe that He existed and that the stories in the Bible are true to some extent but that is as far as many will go with their “belief”. The Bible is a book of stories. It is, in fact, a love letter to the world from God. It tells how He brought about the Jewish people to be a people and a nation. It doesn’t cover up the good or the bad that happened in the distant past, but it does give us hope for the future through Jesus Christ.

For those who believe in Jesus for their salvation, the hope that we look forward to is His coming back for the Church, His Bride, to be with Him forever. Will it happen as some books have portrayed, or will it happen as the Bible says it will? We don’t know the day or the hour and that is a good thing but it could happen at any time. It might be keyed to the last person to be saved and their decision to follow Jesus. Only God the Father knows when it will happen and it could be in a few minutes or a few days or weeks or even a few years from now. Your foundation will determine whether you will be in the group that is taken up or left on Earth to live through the Tribulation that is coming afterwards.

Your foundation is the belief-system that you live by. Whether you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior or not will determine your position and your place after the rapture of the Church. I am not writing this to shame anyone, just to let you know that the Earth will be a very different place when this does happen. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit the “restrainer” and when the Church is taken up, He will be taken from the Earth as well. You might ask, “Why does this matter to me? I don’t believe in God or Jesus.” If you don’t believe then the world may not look much different to you when the church is gone, but it will get much worse in the days and weeks afterward.

The Book of Revelation tells about many things that will happen during the next seven years after the church is taken up. With the Holy Spirit gone, since He lived in the hearts of all of the believers, demonic forces and other evils will have free reign to do as they please. If you think the world is bad today, it will be much worse during the next seven years. Read the book of Revelation and seek out a pastor to help you understand what is coming because the news won’t tell you and it is likely that Bibles will be banned during this time, so find out about it today before it is too late. God has always cared about you and every person on Earth and He doesn’t want any to be sent to hell in the future but if you choose not to believe in Jesus as your Savior, then you will be in hell with Satan and his demons.

The Lord goes with you

Deuteronomy 31:8 KJV [8] And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. https://bible.com/bible/1/deu.31.8.KJV

Wherever you go in life, God is only a prayer away. Why am I writing this today? Because there are many out there who need to hear it. God is closer than you think. He knows where you are and what is happening in your life every day, even if you don’t.

God loves each of us with a love that we can’t understand or even imagine. Life would not exist without Him and He is the Creator of everything and everyone so why not seek Him out and learn from His Word, the Bible. Today’s translations are very easy to read and understand so there isn’t a reason for anyone to say that the Bible is hard to understand. God does watch over us, even if we haven’t given our hearts to Him but He especially cares for those who have given their lives to Him.

I’ve been reading about some near-death experiences that people have had and some of them were Hindu or even Muslim and God still revealed Himself to them during that time. They did see what hell looks like but they were still given a choice to learn about their true Savior, Jesus Christ. The Man in a white robe came to give them a tour so they would know what was ahead depending on their choice.

Don’t wait! The time is near!

Jesus promised. The apostle wrote of His return to take His Bride to the Father’s house. Yes! We have been waiting for two thousand years, but God is trying to get as many people as possible to come to Jesus. When that call comes it will be in an instant and the church, the real believers will be taken to Heaven. There is no time to become ready, if you know of Jesus and go to church then you know the Truth. Don’t wait! He is working through dreams in the Middle East and bringing as many as possible to the saving grace of Jesus.

In America we can freely go to church or have a Bible at home to read and learn about salvation, but in the Middle East particularly in Muslim controlled areas, you can’t have a Bible nor can you convert to Christianity without some severe consequences. So…Jesus is coming to many in dreams and talking to them and explaining Who He is and where they need to go to find out more about the way to know Him and be saved. Jesus is going to each person that He knows will come to Him and He sends them to another person who can explain the salvation that they need, in other words He sends them to a Christian.

God loves us and the time is short. Don’t wait because not one of us is promised tomorrow, but the taking up of the church will be in an instant and we don’t know when this will happen. Nothing has to happen prophetically prior to His coming for His Bride. Life will be more than we can imagine when we arrive in Heaven. The best thing that I’m looking forward to is no more pain or cell phones and I won’t need glasses to read! My body will be free of any and all diseases and I will be more alive then than I am now! Please make sure that you will be included in the group that is taken up!

Simple Christianity

Faith don’t need to be fancy. Holiness don’t need to be haughtiness. Ministry don’t need to be a misery. Wisdom don’t need to be wily. Christianity don’t need to be complicated…it just needs to be shared with those who need to know about it and the Savior that we, as Christians, follow.

Holiness sounds haughty but it refers to being “set apart” and as Christians we have to be in the world but, according to Scripture, we don’t have to agree with it and it’s ways. Being a follower of Jesus can be simply doing what He told His disciples to do, even when it conflicts with our life sometimes.

God loves us, all of us and for some that seems to be totally against their idea of God. But consider that He had a part in forming you in the womb and He knows your personality and your strengths better than you do. If you look around you in the world and at the heavens at night, God is bigger than all of your problems and He can handle all of them…if you will let Him. Even the little things like feeding the birds and the fish, He is involved in their lives as well. “Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s notice.”

Temporary are our lives

We are living a life that is so fleeting that it is described as a puff of smoke, why do we think we have plenty of time to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior? If you have asked Jesus into your heart but you are still living the life of a sinner, one that doesn’t look like a Christian life, then you are fooling yourself by saying “I am a Christian”.

When Jesus is truly asked into someone’s life and heart and it is sincere…there is a change that comes over your heart. Yes, you will slip up and say things that you shouldn’t but you will be convicted by the Holy Spirit, that what you said or did is wrong. You feel the wrongness of it because you do belong to Him. If you never feel that conviction, then you don’t belong to Him and you are not saved.

Saying a prayer and having someone tell you that you are a Christian doesn’t save you. If your behavior doesn’t change, then you haven’t received Jesus as your Savior. There is always a change in your life and your heart when Jesus comes in to be your Savior. Your life changes because the Holy Spirit comes into your life and into your heart and you are saved by believing in Him and the sacrifice that He gave His Life for all of us and it is a gift from God through faith in Him by our acceptance of Jesus as our Savior.

Outsider?

Do you feel like you are an outsider at times? All of us were at one time but God chooses people, even outsiders or those who feel that they are unworthy, in the way that He wishes. God chooses each of us when He deems that we are ready and useful. Sometimes, His call on our lives is the very thing that will change us and make us ready to follow Him. Sometimes His call on our lives does change us in radical ways. We become His followers and His Spirit changes us so much that “we are a new creation” from that point on.

We are changed in our heart and in our soul because of the Holy Spirit’s work after we have accepted Him as our Savior. From that point on we are “made new” in Him. Our witness for Him will be changed and so will our lives be changed when we learn and read the Bible and learn how we can serve Him from this point on. Many people think that our lives in Christ will just stay that way but we should sanctify our lives by studying His Word and learning more about Him and about our place in His ministry

The Bible is our guide to knowing how to serve God and be useful to Him. We must read it and study it every day, not just on Sunday at church. Being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is not an easy task like many people think it is. Belief in Jesus is easy but following Him every day of our lives from that point on is not easy because much of the world and many people we are around during the week don’t make it easy. Even our “old self” is still at odds with the new person that we are living as Christ-followers, so we struggle to keep the old sins from overpowering our new way of life.

God loves each of us, whether we believe in Him or have asked Jesus to save us. Life has a way of confusing our outlook toward becoming more like Jesus, because we feel that we are truly at odds with our new nature when the Holy Spirit has changed us to be a new person in Christ. That is why we need to read God’s Word after we become Christians. We have the Holy Spirit that will help us understand His ways while we read it and the understanding will come later. Salvation comes the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, we have the Holy Spirit in our heart from that moment on molding us into the person God intends for us to be but the understanding doesn’t come immediately. It is only after we have read His Word and prayed over it, sometimes for years, that the “light” will come on and we begin to understand the why and the reason for our salvation and the struggles that come with it.

So it is our job to learn more about Him and to do that we need to study His Word daily. Even a chapter every day will get you through the Bible and help you to understand more about who you and I are in Christ. Many pastors and churches don’t tell us that we have to study to grow in our Christian walk. The body of Christ, the church, should be involved in teaching new Christians to be more involved in reading the Bible and learning about God and our place in the church, the Body of Christ.

Seek to know Jesus as your Savior if you aren’t sure of your salvation. He died for you and we should put our old self to death and live for Him until the day that He comes for His Bride.