Tag: Salvation

Loving yourself


Many people seem to think that this means being selfish, but that isn’t it at all. Learn to love yourself because you are the only one who can love you that way, except for God. He knows you better than you know yourself and He loves you more than you ever could. Loving yourself is the only way to undo the damage done to you by Satan and the depression and self-hatred that he brings into our lives. Can we do it without being vain and selfish? Yes, through God’s Spirit and with His strength we can.

Do many people think this way? Not many do in our society, I’m afraid. We all seem to be caught up in the latest “reality show” or the latest news on Facebook and Twitter and we don’t seem to have time for each other, let alone ourselves. At least we don’t until something goes wrong in our lives, such as a wreck or an illness, unexpected or not, then we get down on our knees in NEED of God, right now! The only problem with this is that once the emergency is over and there is a healing or an improvement moving us toward being healed, we tend to just say, “Thanks, God, I’ll take it from here.”.

How arrogant we are? Yes, we are independent and we have a choice of whether to be a Christian or not, but the relationship needs to be a deeper one than that. We know it, we just don’t think that we want God hanging around everyday. But you know, He never really leaves your side.

Its like telling your spouse, “I don’t need you today, but don’t go far.” How hurt and unnecessary would you feel if someone told you that? I am not going to presume that God is hurt in the same way that we are, but I imagine that it does hurt Him in some way when we reject Him, even once, let alone on a daily basis. So, what can we do that will help our situation in life and be of service to God too?

Love your neighbor as yourself and for that you have to love yourself first. Because if you can’t or won’t love yourself, how can you love others? Seek God’s wisdom in this through the reading and study of the Bible. We learn how to do things everyday in one way or another, so why not learn of the Creator and how to be His through learning about Him? How can I learn about God? By reading the Bible! It was written by men who were inspired by God to write His wisdom and His laws down so that others could study them and learn to be His and why they should be His.

God loves each of us, far more than we could understand and truly more than we deserve. He has loved us since the beginning, before the Earth was created. In His Wisdom, God created everything so that we would know that Someone had to have been the Creator of this, and up until the turn of the twentieth century, scientists really didn’t deny His existence but tried to use science to prove that He is God.

I know that some people will not believe that statement, but it is true. To love yourself and your neighbor is to show and exhibit the love of God to others as well as experiencing it yourself. To experience something, like love, you need to know love and since God is love you need to know Him. Seek Him while the time to do so is on your side. Read His Word with an open mind and with prayer so that He can teach you that which you need to learn.

Come, let us see Him!


Nativity-29The angels told the shepherds about the birth of the Christ child. The wise men from the east knew of Him from the scriptures and from the prophecies in them. Yet, the teachers and Pharisees didn’t pick up on the prophecy of Bethlehem being the birth-place of the Messiah. What happened? Could’ve been that nobody considered the birthplace of David as the birthplace of the Messiah or maybe they just weren’t thinking about the timing or possibly…well who knows what or who they were looking for if anyone.

Our Lord, part of the Trinity, clothed Himself in flesh to become part of our world in order to redeem us to the glory of God. Whether you believe in Him or in the Bible or not, it doesn’t matter because in the end everyone will see and know He is the Redeemer and the King of Kings.

But, when He arrived He came as a little baby but He was still God, enrobed in the flesh of man. Many deny that this could happen, but the Bible clearly states that He was born of a virgin, God created Him inside her, therefore He was of God the Father and not man’s nature. Jesus is and was God in the body of mankind and grew just as any child did. It is not a hard thing to believe this, if you believe that the Bible is true and inspired by the Spirit.

The angels told the shepherds about Him and they came to see this thing which God had deemed necessary to reveal to them first! After they saw, they went out and told others of their knowledge of Him and Who He was, even at His birth, the Messiah. People considered this and pondered over it, but in time they forgot about what they were told. “It was only told to us by shepherds, how could they know?”; this was very likely the words used as people scoffed at the news and whether it was true or not. How much like today this is, when people come up with all sorts of explanations for the miracles of God, whether it was the miracles that brought the Israelite people out of Egypt or the parting of the sea. Science and man have thought up all sorts of “explanations” to discredit God as the cause of anything from Creation to the return of the Jewish people to their home after nearly two thousand years.

The Creator Who can bring about creation by His spoken Word, can do anything that He desires or plans to do. He is not surprised by any of our problems and yet we try to see Him as being limited as we are, how foolish! Paint cannot tell the painter which color to put here or there and it cannot request to be blended a certain way so that it is a prettier shade of purple or blue. The creation, whether it is an animal, a star, a planet or man cannot dictate to God how or when it is to be used and for what purpose, He is the Creator and our place and purpose are dictated by Him. The difference between us and the other parts of creation, except for the angels, is that we can choose not to obey Him. We have a choice regarding whether we will believe in Him and trust our lives and our purpose will be used by Him in the manner in which He desires. If we choose to follow Him and serve Him because He loved us before we made that decision, and loved us enough that Jesus died and was the first born from the grave so that we would be granted His righteousness if we humbled ourselves and became His through Jesus.

Eternity is granted to us through Jesus’ sacrifice, forgiveness is granted through the blood of Jesus, adoption into the family of God is granted through His Grace. What more could you possibly ask for? In the world today, many people see this question as a silly one. They want everything! A bigger house, a nicer car than their friends, more money and enough of it to retire and never work again, these are the blessings that the world and everyone in it seeks. The problem is that these things are temporary and only for this world. Your eternal home is Heaven, where there will be no more death or sorrow or burning heat or bitter cold.

The place prepared for Satan is entirely different altogether. Darkness rules there. Not the kind that we know, but one that can be felt and it burns. The heat and the lack of water and coolness for an eternity will be part of it too. I am not speaking of a heat like we feel on Earth, I am talking of a kind which would kill us but in that place you will have an eternal body, but you will be totally out of God’s presence. Away from any semblance of life and you will be near or in the lake of fire which burns for eternity as well. This place was not prepared for man, but for the demons and Satan who rebelled against God and for the Anti-Christ and his false prophet. Anyone who is, by choice, against God and chooses to reject Jesus as their Savior will end up here too.

Christmas is the time that we are to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, the One Who can save us from this place if we will believe in Him and ask Him to come into our lives and live His life through us so that others can see Him too. God bless you all for reading this and pray for our country, it sorely needs prayer and God’s grace.

In His Service.

So much to do, so few to do it


Every day we see things happening around us, down the street and around the world. On the news, on the Internet, alerts on our phones, calls from family and friends, all of these things alert us to the problems around us and it is overwhelming! We look at all of these things and it increases your stress in this life beyond what you normally have to deal with every day. What can we do about it? Can we do anything that will help the situation and not make it worse?

It depends….

It depends on what you can do personally in your area of influence, however big or small it may be. Your effect on the crises in the world around us may not be so big, but there is still something which we all can do…pray.

I know that sound like something that you would hear on a television show or a broadcast from a church somewhere, but it is the most effective way that most of us have which will produce results. Those results may not happen tonight or even next week, but in God’s time the effect will be seen and felt wherever it is needed. God does work quickly when it is in His will to do so, like in a life-threatening situation or a disaster, and other times He moves when He deems it time to move on a problem. That is where we have a gigantic problem with Him.

We are not patient. We want results NOW! We want results today, like they were supposed to have happened yesterday! God doesn’t work that way though. He works according to His pleasure and His glory, for our good. Many things that we see in this world could have God’s hand working in the background, but we don’t see it that way because it may not be visible to us yet.

Such as the healing of a cancer in someone’s life or the healing of someone in a wreck as they are treated in the hospital. Many of the ways that God moves in our lives, for our good and His glory, are unseen by us until the result is done and it comes to fruition in us and our life. The command which was given to the disciples and by extension to us, was that we should go and tell all of the nations, tribes and tongues about the good news of Jesus. Whether they accept Him or not, it is their choice after all, we are supposed to go and tell. But, it seems that there are so few who are willing to go. Telling is not so hard, because that is what I am doing here. Regardless of who reads this, I pray every day that someone’s heart will be softened by the Holy Spirit and open to receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Our lives here are fleeting like smoke in comparison to eternity, and yet we can help people to come to know the Christ, Jesus, Who died for their sins and rose from the dead. Your sins have been paid for, all that you have to do is accept it and believe it and in the One Who accomplished it, because you can’t! There is no amount of works or money or any other “man-made” thing or accomplishment that you can do which will gain you access into Heaven! Only your humble repentance of your sins and accept the grace that God has extended to you through Jesus and His death on the cross, only this will gain you access into God’s presence as an adopted child in His Kingdom. Otherwise, you will stand before Him and be judged for the sins that you did during your life, but the only sin which will send you to hell is the rejection of Jesus as your Savior and Lord. The sins committed otherwise would be wiped clean by His blood if you would just accept Him as your Savior when you heard or felt the call in your heart.

Turning away from the Holy Spirit when you felt Him call to you is the “unpardonable sin”, nothing else in the world qualifies as such except for that. No, we are a very impatient race of people and have been since the beginning. It has been getting worse and worse and today it is so bad until we can barely wait in line for anything, whether it is at the bank or at the drive-through window at a “fast food” place! God’s time is His time and we don’t like it and never have, but if you can surrender to Jesus and seek His counsel daily then His blessings will follow and flow into your life.

Do you know that you are loved?


“For God so loved the world (everyone in the world past, present and future), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.” John 3:16

How much more should we love and honour God’s gift to us? God loves each of us even when we are sinners and we don’t deserve anything that He has blessed us with. This is not a fairy tale and it is not an imaginative story, it is the Truth of the Living God. He carried the children of Israel through the wilderness on their way out of Egypt. He made the way through the Red Sea so that all of them could escape from Pharaoh’s army and from their bondage in slavery. God made a way for the people to destroy the city of Jericho, not by their own power but by His. He took the blocks down that were holding up the wall around it, all they did was walk around the city for a week until God told them to blow the trumpets and the wall came crashing down. He loved them enough that their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out during the entire forty years of their journey through the desert.

Today, it seems that many churches are trying to “water down” the gospel, to make it more tasty to those who are fighting against its message. Making it more palatable, like putting four ounces of cream and sugar in a cup of coffee which only holds six or eight ounces. At this point, it isn’t much as coffee goes and the same is true of a message or the preaching from a church which has watered down the words taken from God’s Word! When you take out the words and the meaning from God’s Word, you are preaching another gospel, one which is not approved of by God but by men. Yes, many churches are doing exactly that today because they want new members to give their tithes, and offerings to the church.

That is all good, but the message being taught and preached by those who water down the gospel is a message which Jesus said to flee from because it is not the True Gospel! It is a false gospel taught by false teachers and it needs to stop! Why? Because the path that we as preachers are supposed to be leading people on is one that is narrow, not broad! A gospel that has been sweetened up and made pretty and acceptable is not the gospel of salvation but of damnation and it will lead many people to hell! The church today in many ways sounds much like the church in Revelation from Laodicea  which Jesus said that He would spew from His mouth because they were a lukewarm church. They had gone astray from Him and from the gospel and they were neither hot and on fire for Him nor were they distant and cold. The city and the church there was wealthy from material goods but spiritually they were poor and naked.

A watered down gospel is a lukewarm gospel and it will cause the church to be like that church and being that way is a terrible thing. Why? Because you are putting yourself and your congregation on the side with Satan because of what is being taught. Making Christian “church” more easy and palatable to many is not the way to go. Ignoring the words of the Bible that are against lifestyles which are offensive to God, such as homosexuality or belonging to a cult are not the way to salvation. Yes, God loves all people regardless of their sins but He still hates the sin itself. Because of this, an unrepentant person (one who will not part ways with their sins), will not be able to be saved and enter into Heaven. When your heart is broken spiritually and you feel God calling you to Himself, answer this call on your life. Don’t turn away because sometimes, the call to be saved is only given once and if you turn away from it you may not get another chance to change your life for  the better.

I don’t want to mislead anyone, Christianity is not a “prosperity cult”, you will not prosper so much that you are wealthy beyond belief if you turn to Jesus. The wealth that you gain with Christ is the kind that is stored in eternity for you, not here on Earth for people to see and steal. Eternal life is also misunderstood. We will all have eternity to enjoy our choices, although enjoy is not the right word for those who reject Jesus. Eternity in hell is reserved for those who have sided with Satan and it doesn’t matter if Satan himself has promised you that you won’t be in a “lake of fire” for eternity, because that is his destination and all of those who have rejected Jesus and the grace of God will be there too.

Seek out the wisdom found in God’s Word, pray about what you read and that it will illuminate your heart and open your eyes. Give God a chance to show you Who He is, ask Him to come into your life and help you to walk with Him daily, because it is a wonderful journey in the right company.

Living your life


Yes, we can live joyfully, but what about living for Jesus? Living with Him, waking up with Him, praying to Him about everything, no matter what it is. We can do it, if we choose to do it. It is our choice, we are never forced into a relationship with God. Can we live this way?

Yes, we can! But, we have to do it by choice! Wake up in the morning and thank God for giving you another day to serve Him and live on this Earth, enjoying our family and our blessings. Where do those things come from? God, of course. He provided you with the ability to do the things that you do, whatever your vocation.

You can’t tell God what to do, but many people are so proud and prideful in their way of doing things until they try to do just that. He loves you, but He is going to answer your prayer in His time and when you are ready for the blessings that He will provide for you. How do I know this? Because He has done it for me and for many others, that is how I know His provisions and His love.

Can you know Him like this? Yes, you can. All that you need to do is to decide to listen to His Word and ask Him to come into your heart, when you feel the calling, the prompting of the Holy Spirit which calls to us. Answer that call on your life and your heart and you can be saved. Many people will think that they don’t need saving, they are doing fine on their own without Jesus. Are you really?

Have you had a time recently which caused you to question your life or your place in life? Many people today question whether God cares about us, but if you look at all of the blessings which we see every day in the light of His love, why would you question Him? You woke up this morning with a new day to serve Him or yourself, which will it be? You were able to get up from your bed and go about your day, isn’t that a blessing from God? Many of you had food to eat and a warm place to live, those are blessings from God. Your job and income comes from the One who owns it all, so that is a blessing.

Can we be His in our daily lives? Yes, it is not something that you can do on your own, but you can do it with His help! God loves you and is concerned about everything that happens to you, from losing your keys to forgetting to pick up the milk. Yes, I pray when I go to the store or when I am driving to the store (especially when I am on the road with all the others out there). I need Him every day, all day, how else would I be able to come up with the content found here? My mind is not filled with words enough to fill these pages like I have these past few years.

God has given me a small church to pastor every week and I enjoy it, but I have a larger audience here. Why? I think it is because there are many more people outside my local area who are looking for God or evidence of His love or even just an encouraging word in the times that we live in. I can’t be in all the places that you live, but the words that God gives me to put here can, so I do this a few times a week, sometimes more if I am given the words for it.

I don’t want you to think that I am anyone special, because I am not. I am a servant of Jesus, gladly, until He comes again. Whether He wishes me to serve here or in a church doesn’t matter to me, I will do one or the other or even both as long as I can. I will only be able to do it with His wisdom and His strength, and I pray that all of you who read this will pray for me to be able to do this as well. We all need prayers, and I pray for my fellow bloggers as well. Have a wonderful, Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Living Joyfully!


For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭9-10‬ NKJV)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (‭James‬ ‭1‬:‭2-4‬ NIV)

These two scriptures encourage us to live with joy in the knowledge that Christ has forgiven our sins and if we have accepted Him as our Savior, then we are truly complete in Him! But, what do you do on the days that things aren’t going so well? Those times when you get a bad report from your doctor or a pink slip from work, what about those days? Are we still supposed to be joyful in those situations?

Not exactly joyful in the way many people think of it, but in the knowledge that Jesus is in our hearts and that we have His strength to get through them. God is in control of all things on the Earth, He knows what is happening and when and for His children He has prepared a way to make it through the storms of life, those times when things are not going very well. Yes, God allows trials in our lives and trouble too, but He provides the strength and the way through those times if we will lean on Him, trust Him, seek Him in all things.

Smooth sailing in life is good, but it doesn’t prepare you for the times when things get rough. If you ask for patience, you will surely find this out, which is something that I advise you not to do. Because it will take patience to get through the trials that come with learning patience, which is the reason that you never ask God for it unless you are truly prepared for the consequences. You may forget that you even asked Him for it by the time the trials come, but if you seek Him about their reason then He will let you know. I made that mistake once, and I won’t do it again.

Joyfully living in Jesus is knowing that He loves you and cares for every part of your life. He even cares where you may have lost your keys or the ten dollars that you can’t find or any number of “little” things that we wouldn’t normally pray about, but He wants to help you in all of the life that you live. If you will let Him. As Christians or someone who may be looking for that something that they feel is missing in their life but haven’t found it yet, your life and every part of it is important to God. He loves you enough that He sent His Son to die on a cross for your sins. Jesus chose to die in our place so that we could have eternal life, He wasn’t forced into this decision but He willingly accepted God’s will in this so that we would be the beneficiaries of His Grace.

Knowing this, how could you not want to praise Him joyfully and thank Him for this blessing of eternity and forgiveness? It is a debt that we can’t repay and we don’t deserve it, but God freely gave it to us through the sacrifice of Jesus so that we would be able to come into His presence in the holiness of Jesus. Our own “righteousness” is as rags, found in the garbage that have been there for a LONG time. God is Holy and we cannot stand in His presence without the covering of the blood of Jesus in our hearts which gives us the righteousness of the Son.

We, as Christians, serve a living Savior that is in Heaven at God’s right hand. He is interceding for us when Satan accuses us of wrong, or points out where we have stumbled along the way. Jesus’ blood covers everyone’s sins, but you don’t get to enjoy the benefits of it until you are called by the Spirit and you answer that call by asking Him into your heart. God knows exactly who will answer and who will not, but the offer is still open to all who will make that decision to follow Jesus daily.

A birth certificate


A little girl was supposed to take her birth certificate to school. Her mother had solemnly warned her not to lose it because of its tremendous importance, but lose it she did. Later she was sitting on the steps of the school, crying. The janitor asked her what was wrong. She replied, “I lost my excuse for being born.”

We also have a “birth certificate” in Heaven too! When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. You were born into Heaven spiritually at that moment and it can’t be lost, just as you can’t be lost. As long as you are following Christ, seeking to do His will and not following in the lusts of your previous life, then you are His and always will be. I don’t believe that anyone who has truly accepted Jesus into their heart can turn away from Him and go back to the life that you had before. Your Spirit would convict you of the first sinful word that you said, and you wouldn’t feel right in it.

No, the people who may have “slid back” into their old ways very likely didn’t have salvation through Jesus in the first place. They felt an emotion during the service, they may have shed a tear or two, they might have felt a warm, tingly feeling during the service, but that is not salvation! When your Spirit agrees with and is in sync with God’s Spirit, your heart, your character is forever changed and you are no longer the same person that you were before. You are as it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”.

You don’t ever have to worry about losing your Heavenly birth certificate because it is sealed in the blood of Christ, just as you are when you accept Him as your Savior. There is no other way of saying or believing it, that is it.

He died for us, each of us, and when we feel the Spirit calling to us and we respond and as Jesus into our hearts and our lives, the change is eternally permanent. Have you given your life to Him and asked Him to share your life? It is a relationship after all, one that continues one day at a time. The Spirit teaches you through God’s Word and through prayer and fellowship that you have with Him daily. It has to be treated as a relationship because you wouldn’t just visit a significant person in your life just once every week or once a month would you?

Think about it. Pray about it, visit the Prayer House and submit your prayer request if you need to. I would be honoured to pray for you and with you for whatever the need might be.

Forgiveness


In Psalm 51, David comes to God with a broken and contrite heart seeking forgiveness for his sins. Shouldn’t we do the same?

Psalm 51 King James Version (KJV)

51 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
King James Version (KJV) by Public Domain

The reason that I included the text here is because it is easier for you to read it here, than to find a Bible and read it somewhere else. God knows your heart and He knows what you have done in your life. Nothing is hidden from God, whether you belong to Him or not He sees the evil and the sins in the world. Everyone’s life is open to Him and He can see all of the things that you do or think or say, so don’t think that you can hide your life from Him because you can’t.

Jonah tried to run from God but God knew where he was all along. He made sure that His wayward prophet got to the place where God had told him to go and He can do the same with you, but He will not force you or me into doing something that we have not chosen. He will, however, convict you of the sinful life that you are leading and bring you into fellowship with Him, especially if He has a plan for your life in His Kingdom.

Please, consider your eternal life now and seek God while you have the time. When your life and mine are over, we will stand before Him and give account of the life that we have lived, like it or not. Pray that you will learn of God’s love and kindness through Him and His Word and not through trouble and pain.

God is great!


God loves each of us. It is His will for you to be great at whatever you are doing, regardless of what you do or who you are. Isn’t that a great way to look at life! Why am I in such a great mood? Because, Thanksgiving was yesterday, but God is absolutely in control and is the most gracious God and He is in control of all, not just my life or yours if you are a Christian, but He is in control of every nation and all of the world!

Yes, there are some terrible things happening in the world, but those are not caused by God but by Satan, who is trying to take God’s glory and any person that he can away from God! Whether it is through war, or death or disease, Satan will do it just to poke his finger in God’s eye so to speak.

The difference with God is that God doesn’t give up on us, because He knows where you are and He knows where you are going!

He will be there in the darkness and the hurt and the painful days. He will be with you when you are on top of the world, and nothing seems to be going wrong. God is there, wherever you are no matter what the situation.

God loves you and will be with you regardless! How do I know? Because, when I was sick a couple of years ago, He was with me. In the night with fever and the dark dreams that were keeping me from seeing Him, He was there. He was beside me when a tornado went over my house while I had fever and couldn’t get up if I had to.

He was with every person that I have prayed with during my time of being a pastor, as I still am. He has been with my nephew after a really bad accident on a four-wheeler, and He is still healing him. Life is precious to God, no matter what the life is. He notices a sparrow when it dies, He knows when a baby is aborted and when one is born. Regardless of the life, He cares for them all. If you will give your life to Him, then you will care for them too. He loved each of us whether we were born yet, or whether we had accepted Jesus yet or not. He cares about all of the life, the creation that He created for us to be stewards of and to give glory to Him.

Psalm 148
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens!
Praise him from the skies!
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
Praise him, sun and moon!
Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
Praise him, skies above!
Praise him, vapors high above the clouds!
Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being. He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.
Praise the Lord from the earth, you creatures of the ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds,a wind and weather that obey him, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all livestock, small scurrying animals and birds, kings of the earth and all people, rulers and judges of the earth, young men and young women, old men and children. Let them all praise the name of the Lord. For his name is very great; his glory towers over the earth and heaven!
He has made his people strong, honoring his faithful ones—the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the Lord!

Amen! Come Lord Jesus!

What else do we need?


Since tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year, or one of them at least, what is it that we need? Any suggestions?

Peace.

Hope.

Caring for one another.

No bills would be good.

No more diseases or death.

More love and compassion.

Are these impossible to have in the world that we live in? No, not impossible, just improbable. Why is that? Because we are flawed, human beings. How many years have we enjoyed peace in the past few thousand years? Just that factoid will give you chills and here is the answer that I found: There has been NO time in the last 500 years where there has not been armed conflict somewhere in the world.  

Very likely, if you are talking about peace all over the world, there has never been a day in which there were no conflicts somewhere in the world from the beginning of mankind.

All of those positive things that I listed above, are good to think about, and pray about, but until Jesus comes again our world will not enjoy those much. Yes, we can give hope to others, we can care for those less fortunate, bills are an individual problem and another problem altogether, disease and death are under God’s control so only He can eliminate them, love and compassion have to do with our lives spiritually and that has everything to do with whether we are totally committed to life with Jesus in our hearts. Because, without Him we can’t be loving and compassionate like He is.

Can we be more like Jesus? Yes, as I said above, if we are committed to Jesus and seeking His Wisdom in our everyday life. If you don’t do that, then you are living and trying things on your own strength and wisdom. That is a combination which doesn’t work very well at all. This has been tried for thousands of years, and yet it doesn’t work. Oh, yes Satan will “help” you in ways behind the scenes to make your life seem to be on track and everything will be fine. The money that you are making, the home and the family that you have, everything looks and feels real cozy but how do you feel inside? Most people who are following this road, this path in their life feel as if something is missing, that is why there are so many people, successful people who are addicted to so many things like sex or drugs or even spending money. They feel like they need to buy the one thing that will make them happy, they need one more sports car, one more mansion, one more ???

The problem with this is that money cannot buy happiness. It helps in ways like being able to pay your bills or to not have many bills, you will have many so-called “friends” if you have a lot of money, but they won’t last any longer than the money will. Having money will help with your health too because you can afford to go to the doctor or to the gym and make sure that you are as healthy as you can be, but when your time is up on this Earth money can do nothing for you except pay for your funeral. You cannot buy any more time, because when it is your time to go, to die, then you will find what you have been looking for. You will find God waiting for you when you open your eyes in eternity. “Well, that is a good thing, right?”, not necessarily, if you have never asked Jesus into your life and into your heart and truly given your life to Him then you will meet God as your Judge, your final Judge. He will show you every opportunity that you have had to accept Jesus as Savior, and you didn’t do it. You will see all of the words and their effect on the people around you while you were alive. God is the Creator of all things. He doesn’t need your money, all that He has ever wanted from each of us is fellowship. A relationship with Jesus enables us to have this every day and it doesn’t prevent you from making money, but your relationship with Him will determine what you do with the money that He allows you to have.

Many of the things which I listed in the list above, in fact every one of them, won’t come to fruition until Jesus is ruler of your life and the King over this world. He will be coming back soon, so I advise you to contemplate your life in relation to Jesus and if you don’t know Him yet, then read His Word, the Bible and ask Him to show you what you need to know and understand in it. Ask Him to come into your life and forgive you of the sins that you have done and to give you the strength to serve Him in whatever capacity that you can. I promise, you won’t regret knowing Him, because He is really all that we need now and into eternity.