Tag: Savior

Life….


Where do we find life? Here on Earth we can see it in all of its forms and shapes. It is all around us, everywhere. We can’t escape life except when we take it.

Do people here respect and revere life today? No! The evidence shows on the television and on all news media outlets that there is no respect for life anymore. Why has this happened and who allowed it to happen? The answer to both questions falls to our love of convenience and our disdain for rules. We have allowed our country to be overrun with people who have grown up with instant communications, drive-thru windows, microwave meals and popcorn, even drive-thru marriages in Las Vegas. Why would anyone care about life when things are so easy and simple and quick? What do you care that someone just shot a child because his dad was from a rival gang? It isn’t your kid, so stay out of it!

Our hearts have become numb and hard to the point of being heartless and uncaring in this world. What happened? Fifty years ago prayer was taken out of schools along with the Bible and gradually we have moved any mention of God away from children, unless their parents brought them up in church. Yet, today almost any mention of Jesus’ name is called offensive. Prayer isn’t even allowed at sporting events for the most part. Is it any wonder that our country is about to go the way of Rome? We have pushed God away so many times that, if He was human He would never come around here again!

Jesus was and is human but He is also the Son of God and He has not forsaken us nor has He forgotten us. He is the Author of Life, the Creator and the King of Kings! One day, likely very soon, He will come back and everyone will bow to Him and call Him Lord! Life comes from Him, eternally and yet we throw it away as well as our own chance at eternity because of unbelief or rather we choose not to believe because “we are not ready yet”. Today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow because it isn’t here yet and yesterday is already gone! He seeks out those who will have Him, He waits patiently for those who are seeking Him, so what will you do?

Do you believe?


I do! It is evident in my preaching and in the content here, so yes I do believe in Jesus as my Savior and I know that He can be your’s too! If you will believe in Him. Will you?

Remember, today is the only day that we have. Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, neither one of which we can do anything in, but today is the day of salvation and life and love. Use today as if it was your last day, seek the Savior’s love and find it today while today is still here.

The significance of th cross


Not much more to say, other than “Amen!”thecross

Changing times…


The world and everything in it is changing. The problems which we have to deal with, the good and the bad things which happen every day rarely give any of us a break in our lives. How can we handle so much change from day-to-day? With prayer and seeking God it is possible but there are many people in the world who either refuse to do that or they just don’t believe in God in the first place. Have you ever noticed the stars or the pictures taken by the Hubble telescope? Our universe is not an accident! The stars and their galaxies were placed by God in their orbits and in their places so that we could wonder at His power and majesty.

This world that we live on was put here specifically for our benefit with just the right amount of oxygen and nitrogen to sustain life. This didn’t happen by accident either. The placement of the outer planets and the comets were planned and placed for God’s majesty and for our wonderment. Why? Because we cannot explain these things away with mathematics and calculus. Philosophy and mankind’s intellect can’t explain these collections of stars and gases nor can it explain our own chemical make-up. No amount of education can explain the chemical signals which produce emotions like love or hate or rage and we never will!

They are out of our grasp but one day we will know as we are known by Him. How do I know that? Because it is in His Word! God said so and the world and everything except us was formed by His Word. He specifically came to the garden and formed man from the ground, with His Hands not by His Word, that is why we are fearfully and wonderfully made!!

One of the most worrisome beliefs that I hear about and read about today is that there are many (only 2 to 5% of the population) who either don’t believe in God, are not associated with any religion or who just choose not to associate with an organized religion. That is fine and you are entitled to your opinion, but don’t expect me or any other believer to stop believing in Jesus and the Bible just because you don’t! As I have stated many times before, disbelief or not believing in something or Someone doesn’t get rid of them!

Yes, our culture has changed drastically in many ways over the past fifty or sixty years, but God is still real and so is Satan. Two opposing sides trying to either save mankind or drag as many into hell as possible, the choice is ours. We are not automatically damned to hell, unless that is our choice, and we don’t get a free pass into heaven either. Many do believe that if a child dies before they are old enough to make a rational and conscious choice then they do get to make that choice in the presence of God. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know because it isn’t revealed in the Bible.

Change is coming soon, though I am not sure of the severity or magnitude of that change but it is coming.

For God so loved…


The beginning of the passage from John 3:16 is a beautiful and gracious statement, “For God so loved the world”. Because He did and He does love all of us regardless of the country that we live in or what religion that we cling to in our daily lives. Whether you are a religious person or not, there is something that you use in your life to guide you and direct your life. It may be your own personal feelings or abilities or it could be a religion that you aspire to be a true follower of. But…God still loves you even if you are not a Christian and haven’t accepted Jesus as your Savior.

That is the very reason that Jesus came to live as one of us, blamelessly and sinless in His life so that He could die on the cross and make atonement for all of us. This was His purpose while He walked and preached to those who would listen and really hear His message. He loved us first so that we could come to Him humbly and broken, knowing that our sin and our version of “righteousness” would not avail us any honor or acceptance in God’s sight.

Look at a pure white canvas or sheet of paper. It is as pure as we can make it, yet allow just one spot of dirt or ink, even one as small as a period like this (.) and it isn’t pure anymore. True, we can and do overlook a spot like this everyday but when we are exposed to the Holiness of God, we won’t be able to cover our sins because only the blood of Jesus can do that.

The next part of that verse is “that He gave His only begotten Son”. This is something that we cannot understand! Could you give your only son as a sacrifice so that one other person could live? I don’t think anyone could do that, even for a close friend! God gave His Son so that ALL of us would have a possible way of forgiveness for ALL of our sins, big and small, if we would put our faith in Jesus and in His atonement for us!

Believe! The next part of this verse, “that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”; belief in Him and His sacrifice is the requirement for eternity, is that too much to ask?

The eternity that I am speaking of here is an eternity in Heaven, with God and His angels and His Son! Many people seem to think that if you die without God or Jesus in your life, then you are just dead, period. Not so! Jesus spoke of hell and there is a place of torment for those who have rejected the grace and mercy which is offered to all! The reason that I mentioned this is that you are the person responsible for your eternity due to your own decisions in this life. God does not sentence you to hell or an eternity of torment, your decisions are responsible for that.

Can I know Jesus?


It seems that some people do wonder about this question. Is there a real honest answer? Yes, there is! You can know Jesus and have Him as your personal Savior. The first question is: Are you seeking Him today? If you are, then the rest is easy.

The sinner’s prayer goes like this: God, I know that you are real and that I have messed up in my life. I have heard that you can help me to be more like your Son, Jesus. I am sorry for the sinful life that I have lived, the things that I have said or done and I ask you for Your forgiveness. I open my heart to You and I want You to cleanse me and make me more like Jesus. I need Him to be my Savior, Lord. I thank you for your grace and mercy and for my new Life in Jesus. Amen.

Belief in Jesus and His saving grace that was finished on the cross is the first step, then a simple prayer like this one. It doesn’t have to be word for word like this. This prayer is just an example, and it doesn’t have to be this long either. Knowing Jesus is not hard to do, learning about Him is a daily walk with Him by reading the Bible and prayer. He loved each of us enough to come to Earth and live like us, but His nature was from God not from man so He lived a sinless life. We can’t live a sinless life, but by submitting our life and our heart to Him we can become more like Him.

 

Opinion, everybody has one


It has been said that the realists and moralists are on opposite sides of a fence. Are they really? Education in high school and college tells us that Darwinism and Creationism can’t exist together. Why not? Modernists demand freedom from a moral code for individuals but they turn around and demand a moral code for society at large.

You can’t have it both ways. Either you have moral codes for individuals based upon an actual moral code or you don’t. Taking morality out of education and then expecting the product of that education system to abide by a moral code in society is just dumb. Everyone will have their own idea of morality but mine won’t be like yours, neither will line up with the other because there is nothing to compare them to! We as a society seem to be against any type of moral code or moral truth, and yet we expect our children to know how to act in school and society. If they aren’t learning it at home and we can’t or won’t teach any type of morality to them in school, where will their morality come from?

Human beings in the past and in today’s world are not the moral giants that Darwinism wants us to believe. If a child is not brought up from an early age to know right from wrong and have something to turn to as a standard or an example of how to act and be in the world at large, how do you think they will know? They won’t. Their perception of behavior will be whether it is right for me, not if it is right as compared to…what?

The only standard that they will have will be what they have been taught from an early age. Whether that is “kill or be killed” or “do unto others and you would have them do unto you”, today it is dependent upon the parents to teach their children about morals and what is right or wrong. If they don’t or if they weren’t taught themselves, what standard do we need to look at then? Each of us can live our lives one way or another, even without the Word of God as a guide. This is true because many people in the world do just that.

So how can I or anyone else say that taking the Bible out of schools or taking prayer out was the wrong thing to do? Look at the statistics of the children and their performance after these events took place. Grades in school began to go down, teenage pregnancies began going up, problems in school and out began getting worse almost every year. When you don’t have a standard or an edge or a line to follow, how can you possibly keep a line straight? Whether you are drawing a line on paper or trying to point a person in the direction that they should be going, there needs to be a standard which doesn’t change.

God created us with a need to know Him and to know about Him, and when we can’t find Him to fill that need, then we search for something or someone who makes us feel like it is being filled. Whether it is drugs or alcohol or money or things…stuff like everyone else has, we will chase after it until we can fill that empty place or at least feel that it is full for a while. God loves you enough that His Son came down here, became a human being and died on a cross, shedding His blood so that ALL of our sins would be forgiven! We don’t have to do anything other than ask for His forgiveness and determine that we will follow Him daily in our lives from that point on. None of our works or our money will avail us any extra points, because to God without the love of Christ in our lives, they mean nothing!

Some deny it, others await it….


Many in the so-called “liberal”media deny that Christians are right. I don’t mean that we are on the right or the left, but that we believe the Truth of God’s Word! Watching the news, seeing all of the prophecies coming true before our eyes, if you can’t see it then you need to get into God’s Word! Pray about what you are reading so that He will open your eyes spiritually and allow you to see what is there!

Why am I asking many of you who DON’T  believe in Jesus or God to at least try praying for Him to show you the Truth in His Word? Because if you don’t find it out, if you won’t go to a church or read God’s Word, then when you stand before the One that you don’t believe in…uh-oh won’t cut it! Your life will be shown to you in vivid detail down to the words and thoughts that you had. The time for learning the Truth is now, not at the end of your life! Yes, you could be saved on your death-bed, but you may not get that chance.

Ican'tmakeitChristians don’t say these things to scare you exactly, but what if you had a wreck on the way home from the bar or from a meeting. What if you had a heart attack on the way home or in your bed tonight and didn’t live long enough to ask Jesus into your heart and life? We are trying to get as many people to open their eyes to the reason that Jesus and the Bible are REAL! This is not a “fake religion” like so many of them are!

Being religious can get you a ticket straight to hell, being saved by Jesus will cover your sins and allow you to get into Heaven. If you are able to do some things for Christ while you are here, you may have some rewards in Heaven, but the reward that I am looking for is eternity with Him! God in the person on His Son came down and became as we are so that He could provide a way for us to be saved from an eternity away from Him! He planned this long before any of us were born, even before our world or the universe was made by Him!

God loves you! It doesn’t matter what you have done, when you did it or how, all He wants is a repentant heart and your realization that you have sinned and you want Him to come in and fix the broken pieces and make you whole in Christ! Believe me, since He made the universe and mankind in six days, I think He can handle anything that you ask Him for, don’t you?

Freedom of choice


It is what God gave to all of us who have it, angels and mankind, and we must use it for the right reasons. Not to choose to be evil or sinful or a killer, but to make a choice to be a follower of Christ! It is by God’s grace that we have our being in this world and to reject His gift of life and the atonement of His Son’s death on the cross is the truly unforgivable sin.

Why many people choose to do this and think that they can live their lives without Him in a world full of sin and death and corruption is something that I will never understand. Yes, I was a sinner once and I still consider myself a sinner saved by His grace. I remember going out and partying and getting drunk as a teenager, I also remember that the results of that behavior usually weren’t very enjoyable the next day either.

Even after I thought that I had become a Christian, I still fell in with the wrong crowd and went down the wrong path for a long time. It wasn’t until I became a father that I realized that if I wanted my son to grow up to know Jesus, then I was going to have to be a true follower of Jesus so that he could see me doing it. I began to seek Him out in the Bible and learn of Him more and when I did that I finally “got it” and realized that the voice which had been there all along, was His.

I had ignored it for a long time, but I remembered it being there telling me things weren’t right. I had just thought that it was my own conscience or my own thoughts, I didn’t recognize it as the Spirit speaking to me until I got to know Him better. We have the freedom to choose, even after we become Christians, but we should choose to follow Christ every day. That is the part about “pick up your cross and follow me” that Jesus was talking about.

God doesn’t like sin, but He loves you


In your life and mine there have been times where we fall, whether we are Christians or not. When you haven’t given your life to Jesus, it doesn’t make much of a ripple in your life when you sin. You don’t really notice it much, unless you have been to church and listened to a sermon or two, but your Father in Heaven does. When you are still lost, your sins are..well, expected. Because you don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit to help you to resist the temptation. The sins which we commit in our lives before Christ are those which are designed to draw you away from God and keep you away from Him if possible. An example of these is found in this passage from the Bible:

sinswhich God hates You see, God hates the sins BUT He loves the sinner. Which is why Jesus spent so much time with tax collectors and publicans and others which the priests deemed as undesirable. It is also why Jesus said that “it is the sick who need a physician”, He was speaking of those who were lost and in need of salvation. The song which is sung in churches, “There is room at the Cross for You”, is one that is meant for all of us who are in need of salvation. There are no steps to reach the cross, the ground is level at the foot of it and all are equal there. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how much resources you may or may not have, God loves all of humanity because we are His creation. Salvation is offered to everyone, but only if you will reach out and take it and repent of your sins.

If you were offered one billion dollars but there were some requirements before you could have it, would you gladly do them? For instance, if you were a pornographic movie producer and you have made some money at it but you are also into drugs and alcohol and all sorts of occult practices and you were offered the one billion dollars with the catch of going into rehabilitation for all of your sins, repenting of those sins and becoming a true Christian person…would you? Some might, but for many in our world today even the allure of that amount of money would not be enough to draw them away from their lifestyle. Some would try to fake it, but that would fail too because the change which comes when you truly give your life to Christ is a visible one and something which can’t be faked.God

He cares about your life, your impact in someone else’s life and you in particular because you are a part of His Creation. You are not a number or some nameless person to God! If He knows when a sparrow dies and falls to the ground, don’t you think He knows about your pain and suffering too? There is no power in the universe which can come between you and God except yourself. You are the deciding vote whether you will give your life to Jesus and truly become a child of God or if you will just stay lost and on the side of Satan. There truly is no grey area in the spiritual realm, you are either a Christian who is working for God and eternity or you are lounging around in Satan’s camp hoping that your side wins. If you have ever read God’s Word you will know that Satan has lost every time he went against God and he will lose again in the end.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15