Tag: Salvation

Life, healing, comfort, hope


The title says most of what our lives in Christ are supposed to be. We have eternal life through Jesus Christ Who has saved us from an eternity away from God and His Love. We have healing by His power and by His grace toward us through Christ, not because we deserve it but, again, because He loves us. We have comfort in His love and His grace because of the promise of eternity, not because of a promise of riches or an easy life on Earth. The comfort that we have is in knowing that eternity is sure through the sacrifice which Jesus made to cover our sins and to give us His righteousness. We have hope because of all of these because of the Life, death and resurrection of Jesus! No other name, given among men is worthy to be praised than His name, Jesus! Why? Because of the things that He has done for us because of His love for us, each one of us. Not because we deserved it or earned it because you and I can’t earn salvation and we certainly don’t deserve it on our own!

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6 He is the Author of life, our Creator and Redeemer and since He is also part of the Trinity and God, then He can’t lie! No part of the Bible is a lie, many don’t believe it or they believe parts of it, but the truth is that even Satan believes all of it! He knows that it is true, because he has been here testing, tempting, trying the servants of God from the beginning.

Give your heart and life to Jesus because life without a point or a purpose is meaningless and empty. Hell won’t be empty throughout eternity because of unbelief and rebellion from the followers of Satan and all of those who have decided to do things their way instead of listening to the Word of God and giving their lives to Him.

Hope, comfort, healing, restoration, and life are gifts given to us by God at some point in our lives, specifically when we determine that He is truthful and that He is the One that He says that He is.

Think on this. Pray about it if you have questions. Seek Him in the Bible and learn of His ways because He loves you!

Living through Jesus


In life and in death, Jesus is the Way to a life more abundant. I did not say a life of riches and wealth or fame, an abundant life is one that has hope, abundantly and steadfastly in Jesus! You might say to me, “Why can’t I be good enough to get to Heaven on my own initiative?” Because the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. God had to kill animals in Eden to cover the sinful situation that Adam and Eve had gotten themselves into. Jesus died and shed His blood, as the Son of God, in order to cover the sins of the whole world. Everyone in the whole world is covered by His blood, all of your sins are covered by it, all of my sins are covered by His blood and it is offered to all to claim in belief and repentance with no other requirement than believing in Jesus’ sacrifice for them.

Simple faith and belief, like a child, is all that is necessary. When you feel the Spirit telling you that you need Him, that you need Jesus, don’t turn away. Don’t walk out on Him and the salvation that is being offered. God does love you, more deeply than you can know and He wants to call you, if you are willing to answer. The gods that are in temples all over the world will not help you. Belief in yourself and your ability to be a good, moral person is nice but it won’t take you into the gates of Heaven.

Doing all of these things, other than believing in Jesus, is like building a bridge over a huge river out of cardboard and paving it with paper. As long as the river is dried up and there isn’t any water (troubles) to cross, it may hold up pretty well for foot traffic. But, if there is a flash flood or lightning strikes it, your bridge is gone. Another analogy would be like standing on sand, it is fine and it feels good until the waves start raking it from under your feet. Then, you either go with it or you back away from it but it is no longer stable.

The only solid foundation for faith which can save your soul from hell, is Jesus Christ. Believe in Him and repent of your old ways, following Him by seeking Him in God’s Word every day. Pray about the things which are wrong in the world, ask Him to help you to understand the Bible and its wisdom. Look to Him for your strength in sickness and in health, on good days and bad because He is always near if you have asked Him into your life and into your heart. God and Jesus both know what you have done, when it was done and where. There is nothing hidden from them.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

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!

The true patience of our Creator


How far did God go for us?

His love is immeasurable, there is no limit to it whether you are trying to find the extent of it in height or length or depth or time. His love is limitless, so much so that we cannot understand it…no, we cannot comprehend it. We never will because in the world that we are living in today, real LOVE doesn’t exist it seems! You see lust on TV, you see it in movies, in cartoons for heaven’s sake. This filth should never be in front of children so young!

There is not possible way that we can see all of Him. We cannot comprehend what God has offered to us and yet, we don’t have to pay one cent for it. It is already paid for through the blood of Jesus. God created the universe to overwhelm us with awe and force us to think of the possible reason for all of that, and yet He pays attention to a speck of dust, our world, Earth.

When you look at the pictures which have been taken by our telescopes,
how far they reach, how many thousands and millions of galaxies that are out there. Each one with millions of suns like our own. We don’t know if there are other worlds like ours. We don’t know if Christ has saved others in other places like ours over the many years.

That is the God that we serve! Truly, we don’t need to know if there is life in those galaxies or solar systems because we will never go there. The distances which separate stars in our own galaxy are too great for us to travel. We have more pressing matters to attend to on Earth than to spend money going to a star that only our descendants will see and we will never know about.

He spread out the universe and all of the stars and planets and He knows them all by name. It is possible that there are other people, we don’t know for sure, but God can do anything that He wishes…because He is God. Our life and our salvation depend upon Him and His Grace which He extends toward all of us and yet there are those that will refuse to accept this grace. They will refuse to accept Him or even the mention of His name, and yet they will put their faith in something or someone who has no regard for them.

Some will even go so far as to believe that there is no greater power than themselves and that when they die, they are just gone from this world. This is true, but they will be in His Presence and then they will know for sure. Many accuse me of trying to frighten people with this kind of talk and I admit it, yes I am! Why? Because I don’t want you to go to a place which was prepared for Satan and the rebellious angels that he deceived into following him. Their torment and punishment will last for eternity and anyone who has refused the Love of God and His Grace that is offered to all will share in that place…the agony and pain for all of time. There is no second chance because this life is the time that we have to find our way toward God or to choose to turn away from Him.

Which decision will you make, because it is your decision which determines your eternal state. God doesn’t condemn you nor sentence you to hell, you do that yourself by choosing to live according to your own rules and your own morality, good though it may be. If your life, spiritually, is not one that is following Jesus and seeking Him, then you are missing the point and the purpose of your life.

Think about it, pray about it if you have felt or heard any small voice in your soul, seek Him out before it is too late. The Bible is God’s inspired Word given to us through the writers and prophets and it says that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Please, pray about your life and what God may have for you in it.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!


Does it occur to you why we are going through so much right now in the world and at home? Many are saying on TV and other media that it is because of global warming or some other nonsense science. The world is changing because of us and because of all the damage that we have done to it over the past 150 years or so. Really?

Why in the world would the climate change around the entire world because of a few tons of carbon dioxide? Yes, I know it is a greenhouse gas, so is methane, but these have been in our atmosphere since it became an atmosphere. The world is changing more because of overuse of resources, such as fish, than because of fossil fuel use. This is a more plausible reason for the “warming” effect than our one hundred years of burning gasoline and diesel.

The thing is, there is a lot more happening in and around our world than just “climate change”. Except, most of the news outlets are not reporting on that part of the news because it doesn’t pique enough interest in viewers. What is being reported on is that people are giving up on their belief in God, that they have walked away from their faith (if they ever really had any).

Yes, there are questions that need to be answered, not so much about climate change but about the difference in religion, religious beliefs, and Christianity. Religion and being religious can be about almost anything that you want to put in the sentence. You can be a religious fanatic about fishing or hunting or even making money, although what will that get you? Broke in more ways than one.

A religion is defined as: the belief in a god or in a group of gods;an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods; an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group

You can make anything, activity or a god or interest into a religion and follow it religiously, even fanatically, but what is the eternal answer that it gives you? Does it have an answer for eternity at all? Many religions actually don’t have an answer and those who follow them will get angry with you if you ask them this question. Especially if you are trying to find out if they believe in Jesus as their Savior or not. It seems that His prophecy that “you will be hated because of Me” is spot-on for the time that we are living in for today.

Although many don’t believe that we are living in the “last days”, I do. We are not living in the “Tribulation” as spoken of in Revelation, but I don’t believe that we are far from it. Many people, believers and non-believers, need to truly wake up and read the Bible. Compare the prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel and the book of Revelation. Yes, they are hard to understand but with prayer and asking for God to reveal those hard parts to you, you can understand it enough to know the signs that are happening all around us. We cannot know specifics like dates or times, God alone has that information, but we can learn enough to be watchful of the events that are happening in the world. Even if the media won’t tell people the implications of what is happening, we can see it from a Biblical perspective which is what was meant by the Bible when it says “watch and pray” during this time.

Keep looking up, because our Redeemer and our redemption draws ever nearer every day!

You are a good work…


“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6

Being loved by the Creator is a wonderful feeling, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, then you likely think that I am delusional. God is our Creator, belief in this is possible because of faith and today our world is condemning people who have faith, especially if it is faith in Jesus! He is still in control, whether you believe it or not and your lack of belief doesn’t change this!

God loves you. Radical, huh? The Creator loves you because you are part of His Creation and He knows your life from the time the first cells came together to form you in the womb. He knows when and to whom you will be married, if ever, He knows what you are capable of doing for His Kingdom even if you don’t! You are created in His image! We are made specifically to be priests and prophets for Him, in our workplace and in our homes! This doesn’t mean that you have to preach on the street corner, it just means that you are supposed to let others SEE Jesus in your everyday life!

Tell your children about Jesus, if you haven’t already. Tell your family about Jesus, if you know that they don’t know Him (this is the hardest witnessing that you will need to do). Why? Because they know you! They knew you before you became a Christian and the type of person that you have been, so they need to see the person that you have become! The work that God has begun in your life when you came to Him, may have started years ago. You may have walked away for some reason and you have been away from church for years, but He hasn’t stopped. He doesn’t let go. There is still a voice, the Voice of the Spirit within you that has not been completely quieted. Listen to Him, trust in Him, learn more about Him and follow Him because by doing that you can make the demons surrounding your home flee!

The time is nearly here that we truly NEED men and women of God to rise up and be counted in our homes, in our churches, in our states and in our nation because God has been reviled in the news media and in many countries and it is getting worse. This is just the beginning of troubles for the church of Jesus, the body of believers in the world that claim Him as their Savior. Stand firm in your faith, read and study God’s Word, pray about what you read and think on it (meditate) because the time that we are in now is very close to the trouble times. I don’t know when the treaty with Israel will be signed or when the ruler of the world will be brought out into the open, but I don’t believe that it is far off.

Yes, very possibly in our lifetime, it will happen and it will happen because God said so in His Word! Give our God the credit for being our Creator and our Redeemer because that is Who He is!

What is there to say?


So many are against Christians today. Dredging up slights from the distant past, like the Crusades. Yes, it is sad that it happened but the “church” at the time also oppressed and killed many believers too. Just because they had obtained a Bible which was in English and not Latin and they had learned to read it and what it REALLY said. They had put their trust in Jesus as their Savior and they did not have to come to the church to be forgiven anymore! Many were burned at the stake for this belief and for the possession of an English Bible, and they were Christians being killed by the “church”! How sad and horrible!

The world is full of atrocities by different people and religions or by countries which have no religion or conscience it seems. Some are even speaking out about how Christians persecuted people in the past. Many are still doing it, just a bit more subtle than others. So, what can we say about all of this bickering and persecution? Really, not much. It was prophesied to happen toward the end of the age and in my opinion that is where we are right now. No, we are not exactly in the seven years of tribulation foretold in Daniel and Revelation, but we are getting close.

There really isn’t much that can be said except to do what Paul told his protégé to do:  “2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly handling the word of truth.” See that these things are foretold to happen in God’s Word and accept it in faith. He has history, past, present and future in His hands and we don’t need to worry.

Yes, many of us are the worrying type, but don’t do it to extreme. There is nothing that you can do to change yourself or your hair color (without chemicals), your height or anything about yourself which matters. We are not gods, we are the creation of God. We also have no control over our situations in life, good, bad or otherwise. I know, I am stating the obvious but it seems that these topics are part of the conversation on social media sites.

What changes in your life from day-to-day? You may feel out of control in some things, some have lost loved ones due to disease or other mechanisms but, these are part of life and until Jesus comes again it will be this way. Seek Him out in your daily life, through scripture and study of God’s Word. Learn to know Him and love Him every day. He went through many things for our sakes to redeem us to Himself and to God, it seems that we could at least attempt to return the love that He showed toward us!

If you see these things which are foretold in Scripture happening on the news media, then you should realize that we are getting closer to the “end of the age”. Please, seek Him out in your life. Read and study God’s Word so that you can know the One that loves you beyond your own understanding. I will be praying for all of those who come here, even if I don’t know your name or nationality and I thank God for you all.

There is always a way which seems right…


You hear it many times on the television and radio that what someone in power is doing is the right thing to do. It may be at the time, it may be for that situation, but our leaders don’t seem to look toward the future anymore. Many of them don’t look much farther down the road of time than the next election or the end of their term in office. Then the “problem” becomes someone else’s responsibility and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

In Proverbs 16:24-26 the Bible says: 24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. 25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. 26 A worker’s appetite works for him, For his hunger urges him on.…

Many times in the past one hundred years out leaders, not just in America but all over the world, have made decisions which would have a lasting effect on many people for years and even decades to come. Some of those decisions were good, some not so much, and we are still paying the ransom for the bad decisions and our children and grandchildren and in some cases great-great-grandchildren will be paying for what has happened in our governments.

Many of these things can’t be undone by the next administration or even succeeding administrations for the next century…but at the time, “it was the right thing to do”. Is there a way for us to fix some of these deplorable conditions? Actually…NO! We can’t do it because human weakness and greed won’t allow it to be done!Politicians know this, that is how they make their fortunes! Once they have their future secured, their selfishness prompts them to finally “retire” on our tax dollars, for life and many of them could not care less.

Yes, I do rant about our country and its debt problem and I do apologize for that. As the verse above states, “there is a way that seems right” and many times that is what we do instead of consulting with our Creator on the best decision or action for us or our country. We as a people and a nation, as well as many all over the world itself, tend to follow our own wisdom thinking ourselves to be wise enough to do what is right.

For a time, that which we do may be right for a while but years down the road that may change. Wisdom and the idea that we are wise is like a two-sided coin. On one side there is your ideas and your wisdom that you have gained in your lifetime, on the other there is what should be done according to what is right in God’s wisdom and that comes from prayer, seeking His counsel and His wisdom. The world sees a three-sided object in this situation though and the third side would be “what’s in it for me?” What will I get out of the deal? Selfish so-called “wisdom” which does nobody any good except the one who gets the most out of the consequences.

I cannot give you the answer to the world’s problems or the answer to America’s problems. The answer lies with God in all cases and we all need to seek Him in our life and in all of our decisions, those which affect others and those which have an eternal effect on us in particular.

Seek Him first in all things, big or small, buying a house or finding your keys. He is there and with faith in Him comes understanding and wisdom. Don’t fall back on your wisdom or your teacher’s wisdom because we are all human and we fail, sometimes spectacularly and miserably. Seek out Him Who doesn’t fail, but Who works for the good in all things, that which glorifies the Kingdom of God. Amen!

Torture and anguish


IMG_20150417_213008I thought that might get your attention. Yes, I am speaking of what Jesus went through during His Passion week, although I don’t like that term. He was tried unjustly, whipped mercilessly even though only thirty-nine times, and then crowned with a crown of thorns and crucified with six-inch iron nails in His arms and ten inch iron nails through His feet.

The movie which came out a few years ago tried to show the gruesome details of this, but it would’ve had an X rating for bloody violence alone if it had. I have a copy of a three strand flagellum with the lead tips which have glass and bone and a nail embedded in them. It does a terrific job on a cardboard box, I can’t imagine the damage that it would do to a human body. The damage that you see in the picture is just 1 strike on the box that it came in. Consider that cardboard is a bit tougher than human skin and use your imagination a bit and you can imagine a little of the damage that it might do to a body. Jesus was a man and that is the type of tool that was used on His body before He was crucified!

I truly can understand why He was asking the Father about allowing the cup to pass from Him if possible. But, He told the Father “not my will but thine be done”, what an AWESOME Savior we have. I can’t imagine the pain that one full force hit from this would feel like and I don’t want to experience it, but thirty-nine lashes with it? I imagine most of us would pass out well before that point from the pain.

Jesus truly loves us far more than we can ever imagine or know, until we are with Him in Glory! Even then we wouldn’t be able to describe it or how it feels to anyone alive, this was the problem that John had when he was writing the book of Revelation. The sights and the feelings of Heaven and the majesty and glory of God as well as the pure joy of being in His Presence had to be beyond what words can describe to someone who can’t see it or feel it! The difficulty would be like describing a color to someone who has never seen a color or describing a tree to a blind person. If they can’t touch it or feel it, they can’t understand it.

That is how it is with our faith in Jesus and the wisdom and glory of God. You can’t understand it or know of it without faith and if you don’t have faith it is like you are blind. You are spiritually blind because it takes faith to see and to know about these things from God. Consider what Jesus went through for our salvation and that He did it because He loves us, each one of us, far deeper and more real than any emotion that we can know on this side of Heaven.

Read Romans chapter 8 and Psalms 22 which describes in detail the crucifixion of Christ over nine hundred years before crucifixion was even known or used. Please, realize that you are special to God and that He loves you and that you can come to Him now, where you are by prayer and repentance.

The healing power of God


Anger, resentment, fear, impulsive rage are all emotions which Satan uses to begin a rip or a split in a community or a church. All of these can be overcome by God’s Awesome power to heal, but NONE of them can be overcome by our own strength or our own will. Consider these verses in His Word and think about what they are saying to all of us:

  1. “… But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness …” (Nehemiah 9:17)
  2. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8)
  3. “But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” (Psalm 86:15)
  4. “Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness …” (Joel 2:13)
  5. “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” (Psalm 145:8)
  6. “The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting …” (Psalm 100:5)
  7. “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him … But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:11,17)

God loves each of us as I have said before in a post or a sermon as some call these words here. One of the main attributes in all of the verses above is His patience with us and His kindness toward us. His mercy and the fact of His character being “slow to anger” are also mentioned. The Lord is merciful and His mercy and His love for us is everlasting, meaning that no matter what we do or how we act or feel toward Him or His actions, His love and mercy will endure for eternity.

Satan is always quick to use any tool that he can to break a church or a community apart, especially if he thinks there might be a revival coming soon, or even if there is one coming at all! Our community and our nation NEEDS a revival of faith in God and in the power of Him Who has called us out as Christians. We are supposed to be different from the world around us! Not the same nor are we to be melded into the world enough that we can’t be seen as different because of the One that we have in our hearts!

God loves each of us, no matter what we have done or said to each other or about each other or even about Him! His love is not fickle like ours. One little word or even the tone of your voice can set off a chain reaction between friends or church members that can tear a church and a friendship apart. Come back to God in prayer and fasting, repent of your thoughts and ways which you know are against Him. This world needs Christians to stand up for Jesus and what the cross means to each of us and what it should mean to all who need hope and healing.