Tag: Satan

No matter the time….


I have read some sermons from C.H. Spurgeon and John Edwards lately and today I was listening to a sermon given at a crusade of Rev. Billy Graham in 1985 and what I have noticed is that the urgency of the message and the conditions of the world have been the same as today in each instance! Whether it was twenty-nine years ago, over one hundred years ago or even two hundred years ago, the conditions of the world with wars, crime, adultery, drunkenness, and all other sins being rampant in its time period! We were taught that the world of George Washington was a more genteel one, but not according to John Edwards’ sermons, then one hundred years ago during Rev. Spurgeon’s time it was also claimed to be a more genteel and Victorian era. Not so.

During the middle of the eighties we know that the world was trying to get as much as possible whether it was money, power, or possessions and it seemed that nothing could slake the amount of greed and hatred that was present in our culture. Much of that has not changed in the last twenty-nine years and a good bit of it has gotten worse it seems. So, why is the message of Jesus not being taken up by the world? What is it that is keeping the Christian faith from making inroads into areas which have been evangelised for a long time?

The reason is told and foretold in the book of Revelation. The spirit of Antichrist is rampant in the world at large! I don’t mean that there is a demon doing all of this, although they are out there, but the spirit of unbelief is alive and well and that is the spirit of Antichrist! So, how can we get past it? Just keep doing the same thing that Jesus told us to do. Tell the world about the Good news of Jesus and the salvation through Him that is offered to all by the grace of God!

That is the message that we, as Christians, need to get out to the world. Whether you go and tell those in far off lands or just your family and those that you work with and those that you meet who will listen. Time is growing short, the time that is foretold is coming soon. I don’t know when, nobody knows except God, but Satan knows that his time is coming to a close so he is stepping up his attacks on Christians and Jews. Any who claim faith in God or in Jesus, regardless of their nationality, are enemies of Satan and he has hated humanity since the beginning!

All of the time that we have had and the percentage of people who claim to be true Christians who follow Jesus faithfully totals up to only one-quarter of the population of the Earth?! Satan and his demons and powers have been very busy during the past couple of thousand years and they still aren’t done! Can we make a dent in those that need Christ and His message? Not on our own power! We have to be walking in step with Jesus and allow Him to help us with our message and with getting it out to those who need it. The Holy Spirit will take the message that we get out into the world and make it work because “the word of God never returns to Him void”!!

Beauty in the Cosmos


If, like me, you watched the series Cosmos on television then you were struck by the wonder and majesty of all that mankind has discovered. The beauty of the galaxies and nebulae, and of the planets in the system where we are at home. But…did you notice that they completely disregard any sort of notion that all of this was designed by a Designer? Nowhere did they show any kind of religious splendor and humility toward the discoveries of the universe itself. Everything in our universe came from a microscopic singularity that just exploded one day and blew out all of the matter, dark and otherwise, into the universe. Then, all on its own, everything just organized itself together into galaxies and stars and planet systems and bacteria, etc.

Come on! Entropy and the universe at large does not work that way and scientists know this! What happened? They theorize that gravity pulled everything together and then nature took its turn. Really?

Yes, the galaxies and nebulae are beautiful to look at and wondrous to behold, but their beauty points not to a random accident of gases and rocks coming together but to the awesomeness of God! He is the designer and builder of all that we see in the heavens. He is the One who put the stars in their places and called them by name. He is also the One Who called forth the light to begin the whole of creation in the first place. No super-collider of any kind is going to find God in a microscopic particle that lasts for a nanosecond and then vanishes!

God can only be found in the Bible, which Isaac Newton studied. They didn’t mention that in the series. Most of the great scientists up until Charles Darwin, believed what is in God’s Word and their research in the heavens was simply to confirm God’s Word not to deny it or to refute it. The answer to your problems, whatever they may be, is Jesus and the relationship that you will have with Him when you ask Him into your heart. God can heal the hurts in your life whether they are emotional or physical and He most certainly can answer your spiritual questions and confusion.

God is the answer when all other answers fail because He is our Creator and everything which is was created by Him, including all of humanity. The ones who have committed sinful acts such as rape, murder, sodomy, stealing, disrespect toward parents and other sins are still loved by God and He will forgive them of their crimes against His commandments if they will repent and ask for His forgiveness. Then follow His ways and His Truth. When they do this, they are adopted into His family forever. You don’t fall from grace after you have received it, you may stumble and fall down by doing something out of character for a Christian but you have not been tossed aside by God. Satan is just trying to make you think that is what will happen.

The world and the cosmos are all God’s handiwork, there is no denying it. You can’t say that these things just miraculously came together without a Miracle Worker! It isn’t possible! As I have said before, your life and everything in it came from God. Your talent, your family, your job, your income, and yes even the pets that you enjoy the company of all came from God’s hand. Many are prideful enough to think that they did all of these things, but you can’t even change the color of one whisker let alone have an effect on your life! God loves you and if you have felt His call…His pull on your heart and have not answered it, I urge you to do so as soon as you can!

Think about it and ask Him to show you what He has for you.

Cults, idols, and people


What can you say to people who won’t listen? Nothing and even if you do say or discuss your belief with them, it is like talking to a dog or a cat. They hear what you say, but it means nothing to them because they choose not to really listen. It is the same with cults and their beliefs. They think that they are right and everyone else is wrong. No matter the proof that you give them, until God changes them and opens their eyes spiritually nothing that you say or show to them will make any difference.

I have been burdened by the Spirit to attempt to bring the Truth of God’s Word and His Son, Jesus, to those who are caught up in a belief which isn’t much over a century old. Yet, the followers of this “religion” claim to be the only inhabitants who will be in Paradise. They also refuse to look at or believe any other book (Bible) other than their own. I am talking about the Witnesses or Jehovah’s Witnesses. Now, I don’t claim to have the knowledge of God, just the facts as stated in their history so here is a sample of it:

The Jehovah’s Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He was born on February 16, 1852, the son of Joseph L. and Anna Eliza Russell. He had great difficulty in dealing with the doctrine of eternal hell fire, and in his studies came to deny not only eternal punishment but also the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. When Russell was 18, he organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1879 he sought to popularize his aberrant ideas on doctrine. He co-published The Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder, N. H. Barbour; and by 1884 Russell controlled the publication and renamed it The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom and founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society). The first edition of The Watchtower magazine was only 6,000 copies each month. Today the Witnesses’ publishing complex in Brooklyn, New York, churns out 100,000 books and 800,000 copies of its two magazines–daily!

Russell claimed that the Bible could be only understood according to his interpretations–a dangerous arrangement since he controlled what was written in the Watchtower magazine. This kind of assertion is typical among leaders of cult religions.

I have had many friends over the years who are Witnesses, but we never tried to convert each other. Now that I am a pastor, I need to get the word out to those who may be caught up in this deceitful practice. I know that there are many who are genuinely righteous about their religions and many of them are good people, but we can all be deceived at some point, especially when the deception is convincing.

The times ahead of us will see many who will be led astray, even as the Word says “to fool even the elect of God” but we must adhere to the Truth of the Word and not someone’s opinion of it. The NWT was born out of a man’s mind and because that man and religion didn’t want to accept the punishment outlined in the scriptures as well as the God-head including the Holy Spirit, the Son and God Himself.

I am not going to expound upon the evil of man or the cult behaviour of certain religions in our world, but the point is that Christ is the only way to salvation! Works look good, but the entirety of the Old Testament was God’s way of proving to the nation of Israel that man’s works and mankind’s religious expression was useless without faith in God and also in Jesus. Disbelieving Jesus’ deity and putting Him in the same category as an angel will get you nowhere near Heaven’s gates except in judgement.

How you believe is important but the most important part of that belief is Who you place your faith in and it must be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the only way to eternal life, He is the Door and the Good Shepherd and He should be the One leading you daily. Not your meeting place, not your church leaders or your work for the church! Nothing that we do here will last except that which we do for Him and through Him for the Kingdom of God and not the kingdom hall.

A Christian is not somebody who simply believes that Christ died for his sins. The devil believes that. A Christian has repented of his sins and has invited Christ into his heart to be his Savior and Lord. You can intellectually believe that an air-plane can fly, but in order for you to fly you must try out its wings by getting on the plane. In the same way, when you give your heart to Jesus Christ, He takes control of your life and begins to make you into the person He wants you to be, yet you also have to give Him that control every day. That is what Jesus meant when He said “take up your cross daily and follow me”. Your life doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect for you to go to heaven but you do have to be “under the blood” of Jesus and be clothed in His righteousness.

At the moment you trust Christ as your personal Savior, you are eternally saved, eternally secure, and God begins to work on you and in your life daily giving you the words needed and the ability to get through that day’s temptations and be an example to others as they see your life and His through your actions. Ask God to show you these truths and pray about the salvation that only comes through Jesus.

The differences between traditional Protestant Christianity and Jehovah’s Witnesses are trivial. Yes, there are doctrinal differences but there are those between Baptist and Methodist and Episcopalian churches, so what is our problem with the Witnesses? Their dedication to God? Their willingness to go out to tell others? Jealousy? Because of their faith in God, in YHWH? I think that that is the very thing that most people have against them, many Christians don’t have the faith and the confidence in their faith to go out to people’s houses and try to talk to them about the Bible and what it says! If the church, all denominations, would go out and do this just half of the year the whole of the nation would be experiencing a revival that would rival that which happened in the past two hundred years!!

All denominations are similar and they all have differences, but as long as we are following Jesus and giving our life and our heart to Him it doesn’t matter which name is on our church. Even Jesus told His disciple’s that those who were teaching about Jesus who were not of their group that “as long as they are with us, they are not against us” regardless of their position.

Think about it carefully because we are all going to be in Paradise one day.

Why are we so critical of others?


In the educational arena as well as in everyday life, people seem to be critical of cultural norms, regardless of the consequences. If someone doesn’t think that you should be doing something, such as walking barefoot or wearing an earring or whatever it might be, they don’t mind saying so. Even if your religion offends them in some part or point, you will hear about it if your religion is Christianity. It seems that nobody cares if there are those who try to change your mind about other religions, but if you happen to be a Christian then you should just keep your mouth SHUT!

Criticism of a Christian point of view has been going on for a long time, but it seems to be getting much worse and out in the open today. Even our culture, whatever it might be, seems to offend some people. Going barefoot, wearing shorts or earrings, allowing your pants to ride down on your….well you get the point. Offence can be taken at any point in your daily life from someone who doesn’t go along with your ideas or your viewpoint or you culture and also those who share or attempt to share their religious views and beliefs with others.

In the Bible, we are told by Jesus Himself that because we belong to Him the world will hate us because it hated Him first. Mainly because of the Truth that is contained in Scripture about Him and about our beliefs, there is no loss of animosity toward Christians, actually it seems to be getting worse. The time of this grace period for the world is growing shorter each day, yet it is something that nobody wants to hear about.

We are given every necessary provision for our lives and yet we crave more “stuff” that doesn’t satisfy, things which can’t help in any way at all because we want all of the toys we can get our hands on. Why? Is it because the life that we have simply isn’t enough? The car or the house that we have been given isn’t enough? What happens to those things when we die? Someone else gets them or they are sold but there is no way that we get any benefit from them after our death.

The truth is that we are eternal beings, created with an eternal soul that science cannot understand or explain but that doctors know that it is there. That part of you continues on and according to the words of Jesus, we will be as He was when He came out of the tomb…flesh and blood but also so much more because we will never taste death again. We will be immortal and no longer subject to disease or death, isn’t that wonderful! I know, it is hard to accept now because we don’t have this advantage now and we can’t have it in our life now but it will be granted to us when we die.

Some people look at it and wonder what happens to those who are not Christians when they die. Do they have an eternal, immortal body too? The answer is…Yes! The problem that they will face is that they won’t enjoy their immortality. They will endure pain and suffering for eternity. These people are also the ones who say, “My God would never do that!”.

God does not condemn you to this punishment, you do by your own decision to reject His offer of grace and forgiveness through Jesus. It is your own choice which sends you to the place that was prepared for Satan and his demons alone. This place, Hell, was never meant to be a destination for humanity but when you choose to “live my life my way”, then you are following Satan’s path because that is what he did. He chose to go his way instead of listening to and living through God’s will and purpose for him.

Please, consider the consequences of your own actions and decisions. Decide to ask Jesus into your life and to live according to the Bible and His teachings every day. It really isn’t as hard as you might think.

Are you a child of God?


Jesus_Loves_UHave you given your heart to Jesus? Have you even considered it? You know, when Jesus told the disciples to let the children come to Him, he was talking about the little children. But, now He is speaking of the children in faith. Babes in Christ, like you may be. We are to come to Him, just as we would to our Earthly father or brother for comfort and help and to feel loved!

He cares for each of us, whether we have given our heart to Him or not. He will give you love and grace even more when you are His child, even though many say that they don’t want to be a child of God we are really His anyway because He is the Creator. Many of the things which we have been taught in school, and sometimes at home, tell us that we are worthless and that we came from an ape. We are not responsible for our actions because we are just animals and prone to do things by instinct.

 

This is not the TRUTH!!! We are created by God, destined to do His will in our lives. Whether we choose to do so or not is our choice, but the path is there. Yes, whether we choose to follow it is our own choice. It is not forced upon us nor is it required that we do so. God has a plan for your life, but you do still have a choice and that is what separates us from animals of all kinds. The choice to do or not do things based upon what we know in our hearts is right or whether we choose to do them because of our selfish and prideful side.

Also, the price for your salvation has been paid in full already. You don’t have to do anything except claim it and ask for Jesus’ forgiveness. He loves you enough that He willingly gave His life so that each of us could come into the family of God. He wasn’t forced into that decision, yet it was required so that mankind could be reconciled and justified by Him to God the Father. There is no other way into Heaven, no back door or loophole, only Jesus can let you in and He will if you follow Him daily and do the things that you know that you should do as a child of God.

I don’t mean that you have to have a worldwide ministry, just being who you are in Christ everyday is enough but if you are called to do more or be more than that don’t refuse or hesitate. Just follow Him and He will give you the power and the ability to do that which He has called you to do.

Noah and the condition of the world


Have you seen the movie or read the story in the Bible? Jesus told His disciples that at the end of the age, the world would be exactly as it was in the days of Noah. The world at that time was so bad that God decided that mankind was so evil that He was sorry that He had created them.

Our world is unfortunately coming very close to that point. People are ignoring the truth found in the Bible. Nobody wants to hear a message of hope that hinges upon belief in Jesus, but they are perfectly fine with any other “god” that you want to mention. People are being imprisoned and threatened with death for their belief in Jesus, let alone telling someone about Him!

I haven’t even started on the drug trade or the slavery that is going on, sexual and otherwise. Then there is all the crime that is rampant in the nations, not just America but most prevalent here as well. Crimes against children, murder, kidnapping, rape,….the list could go on and on. The point of this is that our world has gotten to the point of being very close to the evil ways that was present at the time of the Flood.

Of course, there are plenty of people who deny that there was a flood or even a Creator-God for that matter. They don’t seem to want to admit that many of our phrases and sayings that we are comfortable with actually came from God’s Word! Why???? The arguments against His existence and the Truth found in His Word are many and varied but the main point of all of them seems to be that nobody wants to be held accountable for their way of life, regardless of what they may be doing.

Everyone seems to want to make up their own version of “god” so that he is tolerable of whatever they are doing and will still allow them into Heaven anyway. By denying the Bible and its truth, they are turning away from the Creator just as the people did in the time of Noah. Even if the world doesn’t end in the next fifty years, the truth and the veracity of the Bible can’t be questioned although many would argue that point. The end will come when God decides that it is time and not before. It can’t be rushed, nothing that we do can make Him speed up the date. He already knows when it will happen, but many of the people in our world are ignoring the signs.

The signs in the heavens, the condition of mankind on Earth, the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the crazy weather that we have been having and that is getting more destructive…all of these things are foretold in the Bible. Maybe not specific places or types, but the warnings are there. We, as Christians, need to be telling as many as we can about Jesus because there isn’t much time left. This generation that is alive today will very likely be the one which will see the Tribulation and the coming of the Son of Man. It is not an “if” it will happen but “when” it happens, it will still come as a surprise to many even though some have heard it for their entire lives.

Please, be on the watch. Read, pray that you will be given the understanding to see the signs. Tell your family and friends about the Lord so that they won’t have an excuse for not knowing and hopefully they will make the decision to follow Jesus too. Every minute that passes by is one that we can’t get back, but it also brings the Second Coming a little closer. Watch and pray that you don’t fall into temptation.

In His Service.

A red moon and a black ring


Both of these have been seen in parts of the world this week (or at least since Friday), but what do they mean for us? The black ring I have no clue about, likely it is exhaust from some smokestack somewhere that just floated close enough to alarm someone. But, who knows? The possible explanations will likely be numerous as well as humorous too.

The “Blood moon”, is a full eclipse of our moon but the dates that it is occurring on this year are significant. This week’s eclipse happened on Passover. The next one will happen on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles in October. NASA says that there is no “prophetic warning” to be seen or interpreted in these events but there could be in my opinion. In the past few hundred years, these events have been seen by historians and they all came before an event in the lives of Jewish people and the state of Israel itself.

Whatever happens in the near future, will be hard on the world and on the people of Israel too. What is going to happen? I don’t know and I am not going to make a prediction about it. We will all just have to wait and see what happens. I imagine that it will be something which the entire world will notice in one fashion or another. How will everyone know? The signs will be unmistakable, but most of the “enlightened” world will come up with an explanation for them in one fashion or another.

If you care to look up the tetrad (group of four) of lunar eclipses which happen infrequently, you will see that they have occurred at specific times in the history of the Jewish people. God uses the heavenly bodies as sign bearers so that the world can see the signs. Our world and the people who refuse to admit that God is real are kidding themselves into not believing in the only One who can truly save us from our own idiocy.

Yes, the Bible is real and the prophecies contained in it are true and will come to pass. Whether you choose to believe that or not, it will not change the outcome. As the cartoon shows an ostrich sticking its head in the sand hoping that the danger will go away as long as it can’t see it, we seem to be doing almost the same thing today.

The rising debt of governments and the people, diseases which were gone are coming back and are resistant to most treatments, tyrants and governments all over the world are trying to control the people that they govern by spying on them and taking their freedoms away bit by bit, specifically these things were not predicted in the Bible but the troubles of the world at the end of the age were.

All of the things that are happening around us amounts to “trouble” I would say, wouldn’t you? Prayer can fix things if you expect it to because you are depending upon the One Who can fix your problem, even the world’s problems. Living in the world doesn’t mean that you have to agree with what is happening, it means that you need to show Who lives in you so that others will see it and want it!

Just because everything else is going down the tube, regardless of the destination, you and I need to depend upon the One who can strengthen us so that we can resist any temptation as well as know Who to go to for the solution to our problems. We can’t do it on our own because in our own strength, we can only do so much and usually it isn’t enough. We can’t resist the temptation that comes in the form of money, or prestige or drugs or sex on our own.

We have to have Jesus in our lives giving us the strength to get through today and then depend on Him tomorrow for the strength to get through tomorrow. One day at a time is how you have to live with Jesus. Tomorrow is still in the future and you don’t know if you are going to get there or not. Don’t hang on to yesterday because it is already past and all of the decisions made then can’t be undone, but today is what you have! Live it with the presence and the power of Jesus in your life and it will be a good day, every day!!

How many times is the word “believe” found in the Bible?


How many times does the word “believe” or one derived from it show up in the Bible?

The word or one with believe inside it, appears 249 times in the Bible. You would be astonished at how few times it really shows up in the Old Testament though. I have published this elsewhere on another site of mine under another name, but I am putting the same disclaimer here: I researched this information using the search function on my Kindle Fire inside the King James Bible. The results may be different from other areas or concordances but the numbers that I have here came from this search alone.

In Exodus, it shows up six times. That is all of the times that the word believe or believeth is present in the book of Exodus, the chronicle of Israel’s journey out of Egypt and on the way to becoming a nation.

In the book of Numbers, it only shows up one time and that is in chapter 14. Why does belief or believe not show up any more than this? God is the only One who knows that answer.

In the book of Deuteronomy, the word only shows up one time in chapter one. Strange isn’t it? A fundamental word that goes along with and that the Christian faith hinges on seems to be absent from the very books that were written at a time when belief should have been easy because of the miracles being done by God for the people of Israel.

In the Christian Bible, the next time that it shows up is in the book of 2 Kings in chapter seventeen and it is only present that one time.

The next time is in 2 Chronicles in and it shows up twice in chapter twenty. Then once more in chapter thirty-two.

After that, it shows up three times in the book of Job, once in chapter nine and twice in chapter thirty-nine.

It also shows up in Proverbs in chapter 26 once, and it isn’t referring to belief in God even then.

Then it makes an appearance twice in Isaiah in chapter seven and in chapter forty-three.

In the Old Testament, the word only shows up twice more after this. Once each in Jeremiah chapter 12 and once in Habakkuk chapter 1.

So, altogether in the Old Testament believe or a word derived from it shows up a total of 20 times. Even during the time of their liberation from Egypt when God was doing so many miracles and wonders, belief or believe never came up much and out of the thirty-eight or thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, depending upon which Bible you have, the word “believe” only shows up twenty times, why?

The New Testament seems to have most of the occurrences of this word. Why? Because belief was and is necessary, along with faith, in the One that we should believe in, Jesus.

In Matthew alone believe shows up nine times!

In Mark it shows up 18 times, almost as many as in the entire Old Testament!

In Luke, believe shows up nine times, but in the book of John alone it shows up 94 times! Now, this sounds like a lot and in some results that I have searched through it showed up only forty-three times.
That is because some searches on the Internet Bible boards only show exactly the word “believe”, while the search that I did shows it and the word of believeth as well because I was searching through the King James Bible.

The point that I am making is that John’s gospel and the books written by him all focus on our belief in Jesus and in Who He was and Who He is. Yes, the demons of Satan and Satan himself believe in Jesus but they don’t have the same belief as we do. They will not bow to Him nor will they serve Him because they have chosen to be against Him and against God. So, how many times have we charted the word “believe” so far? At this point, only 150 times between the Old and New Testaments up to the book of John. So, there are about ninety-nine more occurrences of the word believe or believeth in the New Testament.

Why so much emphasis on belief? Believing in Jesus does save your soul! It is the first step toward a life of service to Him and in your sanctified life with Him. Belief doesn’t and cannot come to someone without God’s grace touching your soul, your heart and bringing you to a point of realization that you truly NEED Jesus as your Savior! Believing that Jesus accomplished everything needed for you to be saved doesn’t come to you from works and it doesn’t come to you when you decide to do so because you don’t decide to become saved. God is the One Who calls you to be saved through your belief in Jesus as your Savior.

Being a Christian is a process that begins with belief in Jesus and in His message for our lives and taking that message into your heart, striving to become more like Jesus daily. What does that mean? Asking forgiveness for your sins by confessing what you have done and accepting God’s forgiveness because of your decision to accept Jesus as your Savior is just the beginning of your walk with Him. Searching through the scriptures for references to Jesus is a wonderful exercise that will increase your faith in the truthfulness of God’s Word, but it will also humble you because you will find that God has loved us, not just Israel, for an eternity. He has known each person and how they will choose to live their lives since before the world began. Your life after accepting Jesus as your Savior doesn’t require you to work out your salvation. But…you will want to learn more of God’s Word because you will want to know your Heavenly Father and reading His Word is the best way to learn how He speaks from it and to us.

That is why belief in Who the Trinity of the Godhead is important to your salvation, because all three Persons of the Trinity are involved in your salvation every day. Belief in Jesus is the first step, accepting Him as your Savior is the second step, confession of your sins is another step along the road of becoming a Christian. God sent Jesus to do the work of reconciling mankind to Himself by being the perfect sacrifice for all of our sins, which He did. Then, the Holy Spirit, which is another part of the Trinity, comes into your life when you are saved and teaches you while you search for more of His Truth. So, the entire Person of the Trinity is involved in your becoming a fruitful Christian, not just Jesus.

Please forward this to anyone that you know that needs to come to Jesus. It is important because God thinks that they are important and that you are important. We all have a part to play in God’s plan, some may have a small part and some may have a bigger part. Just as the different parts of our body do their jobs, we as Christians need to do our job regardless of the role that we play in God’s plan and His Kingdom.

Give God the Glory that He deserves, because I cannot continue doing this alone. I am not alone of course, I have Him and His Spirit to guide me and you do too. The words that I have put here don’t come from my mind alone, but from His. I am just a messenger, but don’t disregard the message.

What will your eternity be like?


We do it all of the time and yet living and life itself has consequences that come from the things that we do every day. Is it possible that each of us might impact someone’s life in a way that is harmful? Can we make a change in our life so that the impact on others is good for them and for us?

The answer to that last question is actually “no, we can’t”, but God can! Do you truly know where your soul will go when you die? Are you sure of that destination, whatever it is? Many people think that when they die, that is it and there is no more living to do. In a way they are right about that because in the body that you have now, life will end at some point. But, we have all been created with an immortal soul and it will live on in eternity. The question is…where?

You can choose not to believe this if you wish and I am only trying to bring you to the realization that there is an eternity in which we will all live. The matter at hand is which eternity would you rather have…one which is loving and care free with work that you will enjoy for an eternity being with friends and family and with Jesus and all of the saints from the Bible?

Or would you rather be partying with Satan and his demons and all of the murderers and rapists and other scumbags in hell, where you will not enjoy eternity but will be tormented and in agony? Eternity in hell is not going to be a party, it will be filled with pain and misery not for just a while but for eternity.

Hell was not made or created for us at all, it was created to punish Satan and the angels which rebelled against God. But, if you have decided that you know better than God how to run your life and how to be a “good person”, because you don’t need Jesus in your life…then you are on the side of Satan as well. There is no middle ground, no possible way that your “good works” will save your soul. Jesus did the work that was necessary for your salvation on the cross! All that you have to do in order to receive it is to believe in His atoning death for your sins and ask for His spirit to come into your heart. When that happens, you will be changed into a new person!

You will no longer be the person that you were, but you will be in Christ and you will have Him dwelling in your heart. You will never be alone or away from God and He will always be beside you, near you whenever you call on Him for help or just simply to talk things out. How you choose to live your life is up to you but God has given us an easy way to come to Him and enjoy His strength and guidance in your everyday life…by simply asking Him to and believing that He will do what He says in the Bible. Since God does not lie, He will do what He promises.

Give Him a chance to show you what life can be like and what success in life with Him can be like because once you experience the success that God gives you, then you won’t go back to living without Him. If you have truly asked Him into your life, He will never leave you. You might walk away from Him for a time, but He is always there waiting for you to return.

Think about it….what if the Bible is true and everything that I have said is true? What will your eternity be like without Him?

Time off


It is something which we don’t take unless we really need it and that is why I have been absent for a while. I have been having to deal with an auto-immune disease for a while and with the prayers of many people and God’s grace, I will conquer this at some point. It may just go into remission, but if it stays that way for a while then I will be grateful. I have used my time to rest and be the pastor that I need to be and to find ways to cope with this in a natural way rather than taking all the chemicals that the pharmaceutical companies want our doctors to prescribe for us. I don’t need all of the so-called “side effects” that are likely to be worse than the disease itself!

Anyway, enough about my problems.

Time off…is it something that we do or is it necessary at all? It actually is both. We have to decide to really take time off from our vocation and get away for a while. Do people really do this? In today’s society with all of the cell phones and tablets and laptops, it really isn’t very likely that many people get completely out of touch. I can do it, somewhat, because I live in a rural area where there is little or no cell coverage and I have to get my Internet access through a satellite. Granted, I am not out of touch because I still use my cell phone to check in with my Facebook friends and some other friends that I send text messages to over the wifi in my home but that is just my life.

Real time off should be a complete getaway from technology, although I don’t know if that is really possible in our society today. But, twenty years ago we didn’t have such a pervasive invasion of our time and our lives. Cell phones were present but the networks that supported them were sparse and there were no smart phones and no Internet to speak of yet. We and our parents and grandparents lived just fine without all of the technology that we have today and we made it alright. What happened? This technology was supposed to give us twenty hour work weeks and a better quality of life. It seems that life is more complicated and hurried and harried because of the technology that is so prevalent today!

Where can we find a peaceful alternative to all of the technology and the intrusion that it has brought into our families and our lives every day, almost twenty-four hours of every day? Can we possibly find a way or a place that we can have real peace and joy in our lives? Actually, it is not a place or even something that we can do to have peace and joy…it is a person, the Person of Jesus Christ.

Giving your life and your all to Him because He gave His life and His all to redeem you from the penalty of sin is the way to a joyful life and one that can be filled with peace. Contrary to what many believe, the sin which He saved us from is living outside of obedience to God’s grace and the belief in Jesus’ sacrifice for each of us is what saves us. The acceptance of His sacrifice and the repentance that you experience because of it will give you the joy that you seek.

The drug dealers and killers, serial and otherwise, along with those who persecuted and killed hundreds in the past as well as today will pay for what they have done. So will those who have swindled money from unsuspecting victims in the stock and bond market, the war criminals which killed millions during wartime, whether it was during the second World War or during a country’s “modification” of its citizens to a “new way of living” will pay for what they did.

Hell was created to punish only one creature and his followers and that is Satan, but if you have not given your life to Jesus and truly become a follower of Him, then you are on the same side as all the legions of fallen angels who followed Lucifer and were cast out of Heaven with him. You will suffer the same fate in hell because of your rejection of Jesus and the Grace extended to all of us by God the Father. It doesn’t matter what sins you have or have not committed in your life, the unpardonable sin is the rejection of God’s favor and grace through Jesus and the acceptance of your pardon through Jesus’ sacrifice. If you will not accept it, believe it and repent to be a new creation in Christ then your punishment will be no different from Satan’s.

Your life, your joy can be complete through Jesus. But, if you reject Him, your destruction will be complete and eternal as well.