Tag: Salvation

Who was your builder?


Psalm 127:1 says this: “Except the Lord build the house, the labor in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

Your body was put together by God for a purpose in this life. It did not happen by chance, nor did it happen without His knowledge. God is our Creator regardless of what the critics say about our world or the universe itself. One day, this will be evident to all but until then I must go on telling people about Christ and His offer of salvation and about our Lord’s will for all to come to repentance in Him. There are many today who reject this teaching, many more who are deceived into thinking that the road or path that they are on will carry them into His presence when they die.

Life has a way, and by life I mean that God has a way of working things out so that His purposes are fulfilled. We are not in control, He is, and we had better realize that before it is too late. There are many people who think that just because they have been to church a few times in their lives that they are “OK with the Man upstairs.” What a load of baloney! First and foremost, calling Him that is insulting to God! Second, going to church once or twice a year or for special occasions is a good thing, but being in church even for a lifetime doesn’t get you into Heaven! Being a preacher won’t even get you in the gates of Heaven if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior!

You can memorize the Bible from beginning to end, but unless you believe in what it says and in Jesus as your Savior, being able to quote the Bible from memory won’t help you either! Until God’s Spirit calls you and touches your heart, drawing you to Jesus in faith, you won’t turn to Jesus and you can’t just decide to do so unless He has called you!

I have even heard some so-called “pastors” saying that they were going to ride their congregations until they could find a bigger one. Sounds to me like they weren’t called to be pastors, they chose to act as a pastor in order to get money from the church and the prestige of being a “pastor” when they really aren’t one at all! These are the “pastors” which give Christianity a bad reputation and they are actually leading people in the wrong direction too. God will deal with them in due time.

When we are called to be a Christian, each of us knows it because you can feel it in your heart and your soul. The person which God speaks to is the soul living within you and when He calls, your real self knows it. It is not a wrong number and it can’t be faked. You can choose to ignore Him for a time, but eventually you will listen and obey His call. How do I know this? Because I tried to ignore Him for a while. I could feel the call on my life, my heart or soul could tell Who was calling, but I didn’t want to answer yet. He kept calling until one day, I did answer and my life hasn’t been the same since…it has been so much more, well more!

When we have finally come to our spiritual senses and come to Him in repentance then He can use our talents that He gave you for His purposes and for the good of the Body of Christ. Think about it, seek Him out and He will come into your life and change it into the life that you were meant to have!

Love the people, not the lifestyle


Regardless of what you call it, a sin is a sin in God’s eyes.

It can be a lifestyle or a life-choice or it could be a religion or a belief. It can even be a church or a temple or a synagogue but the truth is that regardless of the place that you worship or the religion, belief, or lifestyle that you practice…when God is NOT the object or the center of your life, then you are worshipping an idol. We can make anything into an idol, from our spouse to our car or even a job and it’s paycheck. We can also worship our grandchildren or children or someone else who is dead and gone. We can worship or rely on money or position in a company or life in general, but what about the Creator of Life itself and all of the things which we see, feel, hear, taste and touch on a daily basis?

It seems that we are more concerned with our senses and our surroundings than we are about the One who created it all. It is okay to look down your nose at someone it seems but to put down their religion or their belief is uncalled for, especially if you are talking about Christians.

Oh, I am sorry, I got that one backwards! You can’t put down anyone or their beliefs UNLESS they are Christians!

That is how the media and the world look at those of us who believe in Jesus these days. We are bigots, and we are intolerable, and we are totally against whatever it is that you like to do with your life?!? REALLY!?

Honestly, I don’t care what you do or who or what you may worship or even if you choose NOT to believe or worship anything or anyone! My writing…my witness here is simply because my Redeemer told me and the other disciples to “tell all of the world about the gospel”, that’s it!

Jesus died for us, all of us, so that our sins could be forgiven. God doesn’t like sins of any kind, whether it is the lie being told about taking a pen from work or being a homosexual or even being a mass murderer. To God, a sin is the same regardless of how you rank it on a scale.

Just as you wouldn’t let me come to live in your house, if you didn’t know me, God won’t let you into Heaven if He doesn’t know you! It doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done in your life, God has always pursued a relationship with each of us. He did it with Adam and He is still seeking that relationship now with each of us, but it is your choice whether you will seek Him out and continue in that relationship.

I am not going to tell you that being a homosexual will keep you out of Heaven, but it is the sin of practicing homosexuality and the rejection of Jesus that will do that. Repent of the sin, ask Jesus to come into your life and change you into the person that God knows you can be! Rejection of God’s grace toward us is the unpardonable sin, there is no specific sin other than that which will keep you from being forgiven!

Turn your eyes and your life toward Jesus…spiritual eyes can see Him and the forgiveness that He offers. You can read and understand His Word too, if you will ask Him to reveal its meaning in your life, because it has a different meaning to each person. What one person gets from the Psalms may be totally different from what another person may get. This is true for each book in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Seek God and His Kingdom through His Word and ask Him to show you what you need to know and do from His Word. Then join Him every morning or evening by learning more of Him.

Grace under fire or not, we have it.


God’s grace is given to us by Him through Jesus. We can’t earn it, our lives don’t require it, but it is given to us because of His love for us. Why would God love the people who are actually responsible for His Son’s death on the cross? Because He chose to reconcile us to Himself by Jesus’ death on the cross long before anyone uttered a prophecy about Him. When God told Eve that one day a redeemer would come through the seed of the woman, He was speaking of Jesus then.  The actual wording of the text in Scripture was: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen. 3:15).

But, from that point on, the “seed” which God had spoken of was expected and looked for until His arrival. Jesus was born through the grace and mercy of God by a woman, but with the essence of God inside Him and not mankind. That is why He was able to be the “sinless Lamb of God” to be brought to the cross and give His life for all of us so that we could experience His grace and love through Jesus. The grace that humanity has enjoyed these past two thousand years is particularly and specifically for those who will come to Jesus and ask Him into their lives and into their hearts.

It is God’s grace!

By definition it is many things: skills that are needed for behaving in a polite way in social situations; disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency; a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace.

Truly in the sense of this writing, it is the unmerited favor of God toward each human being on Earth. We do not have to earn it, it is given by God to us through His Son, Jesus. Whether we want it or not is irrelevant, we already have it, it is the acceptance of it that we seem to have trouble with. Grace is God’s love shown toward us in that “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. (Romans 5:8)

The grace that we and the world enjoys now was given to all that day when Christ died for us, all of us. The part that many don’t understand is that it is available, freely, if they will accept it and give their lives to Jesus.

It seems that some think that they will have to give up much of their enjoyment of life and truly, they won’t. The difference that will be made in their lives by accepting Jesus, will change their joy and the things that they enjoy to be like the things which Jesus Himself would do. Granted, your “old friends” may not like the new you, but if the change was/is genuine then they will see a better person than they knew before. One that is more caring, more compassionate, more trust-worthy, more like Jesus Himself!

Would that REALLY be such a bad thing?

Grace is given to each of us by the compassion of God toward us because He cares for us, each one of us. Jesus told His disciples that God knows when even a sparrow falls to the ground. If God cares for His creation enough that He knows when a small bird dies, don’t you think that He notices you and your life EVERY moment of every day!? We are above the birds in His scheme of things, but God notices all and sees all of it from time past until the day time will end.

Your life and every breath that you take is important to God. Don’t you think that you should make Him important in your life too?

Think about it because time is growing shorter by the year and we are not promised tomorrow or next year to live it, so make sure that your eternity is secure in Jesus.

Understanding the Bible, is it possible?


The reason some of us don’t understand the Bible any more than we do is because we have not been living up to the light God has already given us! If you want to understand the part of the Bible you don’t understand, begin to obey the parts that you do understand and then you’ll understand what you didn’t understand. Understand?

I know, its kind of cryptic to put it that way, but it is only by reading a letter that we can understand what the author meant about the story. It is also the only way that we will ever know the end of the story or its beginning. Your lives and mine are products of our educational system, a system which was broken many years ago and has never been fixed. Broken because we chose to take out the wisdom which our forefathers knew were necessary for us and for our country.

God’s Word, the Bible, was the main educational book used at the beginning of our country. When people began printing the Bible in English so that the common man could read it and understand it, it took away the control from the “church” and gave it back to God and the people who were reading it. This was deemed heresy by the Catholic church and the church of England! Many believers were killed for their beliefs because the teaching found in the Bible were slightly different from the “church” at the time.

The Bible should be part of our educational system now, but it isn’t because of politics and because a small minority doesn’t want it there. They are afraid of the Truth that it contains because it exposes their own sins and the failures that school systems have heaped upon our children for decades. People who like the darkness don’t like it when a bright light is shined into that darkness, because it hurts and it exposes the lies and the inconsistent stories which have been used to make us and our children go along with the “status quo”.

God’s Word is His letter to us…His way of speaking to us and it has been that way for more than four thousand years. Jewish scholars have accurately copied the scrolls which have been passed down to them for generations and this is our “Old Testament”. The followers of Jesus have copied the letters, epistles, which the disciples wrote to the churches so that we would have the “New Testament”. When one part of the Bible validates the other, there is no doubt about where it came from or Who had a part in its writing. The Spirit of God inspired the writers from both “Testaments” so that the New would validate the Old and verify it as authentic and it does this perfectly.

How can you know for sure that it is the valid and truthful Word? First, the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to write down what they wrote. Second, the prophecies in the Old Testament are proven and validated in the New. Third, and this is the most important reason, because it is the Word of God! He doesn’t lie, He cannot lie! So the inspiration that was given to the prophets and disciples through the Holy Spirit has to be the Truth!

Many people today think that you can take parts of it as the truth, and others are just metaphors for something else and can mean whatever you interpret them to mean. The Word is Truth and the laws and the wisdom contained in it is the Truth, like it or not. You cannot pick and choose! Either you believe it as the Truth or you don’t, but that doesn’t change its Truth. The love of God for us and the Truth of His Word is shown throughout the Bible and in our everyday lives. Seek Him out, read His Word and learn of Him and His wisdom because it is life to you now and in eternity, if you ask Jesus into your life and your heart.

Is the right person in charge?


Is idolatry real in today’s world? I would say so. If a man takes his own ideas and uses his hands to create something which represents that, then decides to worship it, that is idolatry. Yet, he is worshiping himself.

You might say that, “I’m not guilty of doing that.” Okay…is there anything or anyone that you love more than God? How about fearing something more than God? Do you serve something more than God? Do you trust something more than God?

Then you might say that “I gave God a place in my life”, God doesn’t want a “place”! “Well, I do give God prominence in my life”. He doesn’t want that either, God demands to be first, preeminent in your life and He will take nothing less than that.

If there is anyone or anything in your life that takes precedence over God, confess it and repent of it. Then put the One on the throne in charge who has the right to be Master of your life…the Lord Jesus!

Your life should be in His hands not your own, but our culture especially in America points toward individuality which means “I am in charge and I do what I want with my life”. That is a bold statement and one worthy of an American, but if you are a true follower of Christ then Jesus is supposed to be the One in control of your life. He is supposed to be the One who is driving your life, your family and your business EVERYDAY, not just on holidays and the days which you attend church!

We are supposed to be “little Christs”, that is what the word Christian means, but are we doing that? Everyday, not just on Sunday or holidays! People should be able to look at you and your family and, without you telling them, know that you and your family worship Jesus! We shouldn’t have to tell anyone that Jesus is Lord of our life, it should be evident in our lives ALWAYS!

If it is not, then something needs to change! The signs of the end of the age have mostly come true, so time is growing short! Don’t wait because your tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, give your heart and your life to Jesus because He loves you and He wants the best for you. It is true that His reward may not come to you in this life, but what is this life compared to eternity? If you want the best that can be had in eternity, then decide to follow Him and not yourself because on your own without Christ in your heart you can do nothing!

Life is ours only for a little while, whether it is fifty years, eighty years or one hundred years BUT what is that compared to eternity? A tiny puff of smoke, that is all. Consider the time that we are told in school that the dinosaurs lived, sixty-five million years ago, even that is but a tick in the clock compared to eternity.

Think about it.

Life equals struggle but….


We all struggle in our daily lives at some point, but can we do anything about it? The people in marketing and finance say that we have to build up our portfolio and we will be financially secure. The so-called gurus on television or those who write self-help books point you toward believing in yourself and the goals that you set for yourself. Living your life daily is not hard to do, really, you just get up in the morning and go to work, right? Not everyone can do that though. Some are not able to make that drive or even to get out of bed, then what do you do? Complaining doesn’t help, getting angry at everyone and everything doesn’t help because anger just hurts you from the inside out. Resigning yourself to be the way that you are is like giving up and that is counter productive too.

There is something or rather Someone that can help more than money, power, drugs or anything else that man can dream up. It is turning your life and your heart over to Jesus. Following Him daily by reading and studying His Word. Listen to sermons, regardless of who may be preaching. Yes, times are changing and whether many people want to believe it or not, time is growing short. Yes, we have been waiting a long time…a little less than two thousand years, but the signs which point to the end of that waiting are coming faster every week.

It is a struggle sometimes to get through life on a daily basis and there is a strength that is available to you from your Savior, if you will seek Him out. Please don’t struggle through this life alone, seek out Jesus and He will give you the strength to get through your problems no matter what they are.

Daily living with Jesus


Do you get up wondering and worried about things which are planned for the day or do you rest in the presence of God? Do you realize that He is interested in your day and all of the happenings in it? It’s true, the Creator of the universe is interested in your life and in everything that happens to you.

I know, there are so many people who have said that “God, if He exists, is not interested in us nor does He care about us at all”.  WHY would you say this? God did not create mankind and the world which He gave to us for our life and our sustenance just to turn away and go to some part of creation and turn away from us! Of course, we don’t know that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe, but God told Moses how things were created and we should accept it as the Truth.

If there are others, we will find out when God is ready for us to find out. In the mean time, we should use each and every day as we were commanded to by Jesus Himself, “Go into all of the world, teaching and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God”. Those may not be His exact words, but that was the commandment that He gave His disciples and since we, who are Christians, are His disciples in this time, then we take up our cross, our mandate to tell others about Jesus.

Your day, like many others in this day and age, begins like the rest of us…by waking up. This act alone deserves our gratitude and thanks to Him! Then, if we are able, we get our coffee or tea and eat something to break the fast from the night before. If we are able, we get ready to go to a job which we should be thankful for as well to have one, and we work at that job until it is time to get off work and come home. All of this happens without you or me having to do much more than put one foot in front of the other. We don’t have to worry about our heart beating or our breathing, it just happens. God designed us this way, just as He did every other animal on Earth that breathes air, the big difference is that He gave us part of His life, our eternal soul.

No other created being has this! God wanted someone who He could have fellowship with, daily, which is why He is interested in you and me and the life that each of us has. There is no difference between a rich man or a person with little more than the clothes on their back. In God’s eyes, we are all equal and we are all guilty of being sinners unless we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. No amount of giving to the poor or volunteering for charity will give you an edge over someone else, if you have not asked Jesus into your heart then you are just as lost as the murderer on death row that has killed someone!

In God’s eyes, because He is Holy, even a sin like telling a lie is just as bad as killing someone in cold blood! But…if you have given your life and your heart to Jesus, your page which has recorded all of your sins is cleansed just as white as purest snow. From that point on, you are His and you are forgiven. Oh, you will stumble and fall just like the rest of us do from time to time, but the Spirit which lives in you will bring it to your attention and when you ask for forgiveness, it is gone because of the work which Jesus did on the cross.

Walking in fellowship with God and having the Spirit living in your heart is just a small taste of the Kingdom of God. Daily learning from Him, by reading and studying His Word, meditating on it during your day, praying about the day that you are having and then thanking Him for your blessings of your health, your family, your job and the salvation which was provided by Jesus..this is just a part of the daily life that we are to have in Christ. It is a way of life that needs to be embraced, especially now in the time that we are living in. Time is growing short for Satan and for the age of grace. I don’t know how long we have, no one knows that except for God, but according to the signs which are happening around us, it is likely that we don’t have very long until the proof that the world has been seeking will be revealed about Who God is and that His Word is true.

Think about it and look up, because He will come quickly when that day dawns and then the time is up.

Crossroad for hypocrites


“Thus says the LORD:
‘Stand at the crossroads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way lies: and
walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’” Jeremiah 6:16-17

We are at a crossroad where our community meets and goes separate ways and yet also comes together as friends and family. God meets us here and in our everyday life at whatever crossroad we each happen to be on, whether we are starting out our life in school or college or maybe a new career. God is always there with us at the crossroads of our life and our faith.

What can we do when we get there?

a. we can choose to follow Him, whichever way that He leads us to go.
b. we can turn in a different direction and decide not to follow His lead right now.
c. we can turn back and leave Him at the crossroad and possibly miss out on something wonderful.

Crossroads in life lead us in directions that we may want to go in or they can lead us to something which may not be the best for us. It is our choice and God gives us each a choice so that we can make it, whether it is the choice which He wants us to make or if it is ours which may lead us down a long road which we will regret taking.

Our choices, good or bad, define us in this life. Whatever those choices may be, we should consult the One Who knows the end from the beginning because ultimately, He knows which choice is best for you.

As people do, we tend toward thinking that we know better than God what is best for us and we make our choices based on our own limited thinking. But, our thinking about us and about others is usually what gets us in trouble. We think that someone is too big or too “this or that”, we don’t agree with the way they dress or their ideology or which belief or non-belief that they might have. Isn’t that what makes us human? We all make mistakes in one way or another and nobody is perfect, but God wants to know us just the way that we are. Whether we are wearing pajamas or blue jeans or a three-piece suit or if we have sandals or beach shoes or the most expensive shoes in the world, God wants you as you are. He doesn’t need your money, just your fellowship and your love because He provided the way for you to have eternal life. All that you have to do to get it is to accept it in faith and believe that He really did it for you, that’s all.

God did this through His Son, Jesus, the name which causes all others to cringe in the world because of His name. God is not so bad it seems, but when you bring Jesus into a discussion then you have committed the ultimate jab at other religions and non-religious people. Why is that? Is it so bad that He gave His life so that you could have eternal life? What makes you so special that you think that you can get into Heaven without the forgiveness found only in Jesus’ sacrifice for you? It doesn’t matter what you have done in this life, no sin will put you into hell except the sin of refusal, refusing to accept the grace offered through Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf. By rejecting Him, that is what puts your eternity in line with Satan and his demons simply because they rejected God and by rejecting Jesus you are on the same level as they are.

Yes, we have a choice and it is what we choose with that choice that defines us, now and into eternity as well.

The fields are ripe unto harvest…


Those who are coming to Christ, especially those in countries which persecute and kill Christians, need our prayers more than ever. We may not be able to bring them out of the situation that they are in, but He is able to strengthen them and carry them to their reward in Heaven.

Yes, our lives are on display for the world to see. Many people don’t want to see it, and they don’t really want to hear the message of Jesus and His grace toward us, but there are many others who do want to hear it! They need to hear it. Many people need to hear about the One and only risen Savior of mankind and yet there is a vocal minority that makes so much noise that the media can’t help but listen to them first. Because of their boldness and the volume that they exert in the public arena, that is why they are heard over the Christians, the real followers of Jesus.

If we were only speaking of God, then there wouldn’t be any problems because those who are Jews read His Words and those who worship Allah (supposedly another name for God) claim to worship Him too. But, when you bring Jesus into the worship service or into the media, then it seems that everyone has a problem. Why? In some people’s minds, Jesus is just another prophet. But, that is not all that He is…He is the Son of God, the Living Word, the Prince of Peace, the Good Shepherd.

Jesus is all of these and more, yet He is also a stumbling block to those who don’t want to accept Him for the One that He is. He is our Savior. He came so that we would have access to God and eternal forgiveness of our sins. What more could you ask for? The Gift has been given by God, all that we have to do is accept it into our hearts and believe it, that’s it! It is not hard to do, but many who think that they don’t need Him for whatever reason just refuse to humble themselves and ask Him into their lives.

The problem with doing this is that we all die, someday. It may be tomorrow or this afternoon but our time is not guaranteed for X amount of years. And, while it is true that I am using this to get your attention, what can  you do when you find  yourself standing in front of God one day and you are shown all of the times that you have heard the message of salvation? Think of all the times that your friends invited  you to come to church with them and you didn’t go, or even the times that you may have heard a sermon on television. What can you tell God when He asks you, “What did you do with my Son?” “I didn’t believe the things that I heard”, “I didn’t want to go to church”, “I didn’t think that the message was the truth”, the problem with all of these answers is that many of them are exactly the thoughts and words of people who don’t believe or don’t want to believe.

These answers all have one thing in common, “I”. Too many of them. Selfish answers, selfish thoughts, selfish lives that don’t amount to more than a grown up child looking for the next toy to buy and play with.

Your life and mine are too short to think in such terms. God created all of us for a reason and you can’t find it out with an “I” in your life all of the time. Our reason for living and the reason for our blessings is because of Him, because He wants us to fellowship and be friends with Him and other Christians and other people. Yes, so that we can tell them about our joy in knowing that we have an eternity to look forward to, not one to be dreaded and feared. The number of souls that need Jesus grows every day, God needs us to go and tell them about Him and His grace. Won’t you decide to follow Jesus and give the rest of your life more meaning and purpose than it would ever have without Him?

Treasure…pleasure…sin, which is it?


A few days ago, I wrote about giving your heart to Jesus. This post is about figuring out what to do with your life and with Him after you have felt the call of the Spirit in your heart and you have answered it. We have so much that gets in the way of living our lives for Jesus in our world today. From bills to school to relationships, married or not, our jobs, our phones, email, you name it then it can take up time in your day and before you know it, it is time to go back to bed and start over again tomorrow!

In our lives today, just as it has been going on for thousands of years, pleasure or happiness is something which we all strive for. We yearn for it. Many times as we are growing up we really don’t understand what it is that we are looking for, but we know that it is something. We look in many places until we find something that gives us happiness and joy. When you are very young it could be as simple as a toy or your favorite candy. As we get older our mind or something tells us that we need something more than that and we go searching again. We may find that sports or the opposite sex fills that need, that pleasure spot for us at that time…but yet it is a fleeting feeling. Soon we are looking for something else. At times we find something or someone who takes care of that need and as we grow a bit more and have a family, sometimes our family takes over that spot in our lives, for a time. If you have gotten past your twenties at this point and haven’t given your heart to Jesus or felt the Holy Spirit speaking to you, then you don’t know why but something just doesn’t feel right. Even though you may have a nice house and car, a healthy family and a good marriage…something is just not fitting perfectly. And you can’t put your finger on it and say, “That’s it!”

The things or people who you treasure, those that you love are the ones who get the most of your time. Sometimes, it happens to be your job or the kids, then sometimes it is other things. How can we get the priorities of each of these to straighten out and line up in our daily lives in the order that they should be? The first thing that we need to do is…pray. Since we belong to God, then prayer is the communication line that needs to stay open EVERY day and it should start at the beginning of the day, before anything else. God will help you to prioritize your life and your days, but you have to listen to Him and not your own desires. He knows what you need to do and when, and when you put His priorities first then your priorities will line up correctly too.

No, I am not saying that your days will be perfect and nothing will go wrong if you do this BUT they will be easier and smoother to handle because you are not handling the days problems alone.

Okay, lets pretend that we have done this and our first day is going pretty good. Then you get a call that one of your kids is sick or got hurt playing ball. What you do in the next few minutes will determine how the rest of your day goes. Does this situation throw a wrench into the workings of the day and everything just goes to pot from there? No, it shouldn’t. God has an answer for this and if you take the problem, whatever it is, to Him first before you grab the keys and rush out the door, then everything will work out the way that He knows that it will. PUT GOD INTO ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS! Nothing is too big for Him, the One who hung the stars and the moon, all of your problems are small to God even though they aren’t small to you.

Can we do this? Some people will and some won’t but the point is that God is not a crutch and not a figment of people’s imagination. Satan is not a figment of someone’s imagination either and that will be proven soon. Our world and all of the people in it are very important to God. He has not abandoned us nor will He, He is present in every area of your life good and bad. God doesn’t cause the bad parts of it, but He will allow them so that you may realize that you need Him. Satan hates humanity and will do anything in his power to keep us from turning to God and if that doesn’t work then he will cause problems which show up all over the world. If you are a born-again Christian, Satan has to ask permission to do anything to you. If you are not, then he may help you to have a life that is more successful than you deserve just to keep you from needing God or he might cause an illness that you will blame God for just to keep you away from God.

So, it is your choice. Choose carefully and prayerfully before proceeding.