Tag: Savior

United we stand


There are so many divisions in the body of Christ today, until I am sure that Satan is truly amused by it all. We have many denominations, some of which don’t or won’t talk to each other. Then there are divisions between black and white congregations. Many people call this racist and segregationist but the problem is that we are not different races! If you truly believe the Bible, then look to our original parents, Adam and Eve. They were both likely of a dark complexion, not one or the other, and yet many or all of the “races” came from them.

The body of Christ cannot be and should not be divided during this period. Why? Because we are nearing the end of the age, the body of Christ shouldn’t be divided. We need to be standing together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, not pointing out our differences and our doctrines which don’t line up exactly.

Our life as children of God needs to be in cooperation with each other and with Him. Our beliefs as Christians shouldn’t so far enough apart as to separate us this much. But, just as the political parties which can’t get along or agree about much of anything, we seem to have the same problem. One church believes that the Lord’s supper should be done at least once every month, another might say that once or twice a year is good enough.

Traditions and man-made rules and regulations are the kind of burdens which Jesus spoke against in His Earthly ministry. As long as we are communing with God through prayer and study of His Word and celebrating our freedom in Christ by having fellowship with other Christians, rules…especially man’s rules need not apply!

A written copy of a church’s “discipline” or creed doesn’t carry the same weight as God’s Word, yet some treat them as if they do. How can we call ourselves Christians, when we treat those in the church like cattle and we don’t even show the love of God to those outside the church doors! Today, there seem to be many “houses of worship” which don’t worship much more than their own self-image!

Get back to true worship of God and His Son. Come back to your first love and if you never really belonged to Him or He to you, then humble yourself and stop being so self-centered! The only place that kind of thinking will get you is on a very slippery slope to hell! If you have never heard of that place in a sermon, then you certainly need to read God’s Word, because you don’t want to spend an eternity there!

We, as Christians, need to be united because there are so many people against us these days. Even the DHS has evangelical churches on their watch list. Don’t believe it? Look it up! I have seen and heard this in the news. Maybe not on the “major networks” since they only report things that they are told to report, but on Fox and on Glenn Beck’s network they do. Yes, this labels me as a radical Christian, but I don’t cut people’s heads off, I am trying to save their souls by showing them the true Savior, Jesus Christ!

If that is a crime, then I am guilty of it and will go to my death with it if need be! My eternity is secure and I pray that yours is too.

How do I get to Heaven?


This is a question which many people seem to want the answer to, and today it seems that most think that they can get there on their own. Which is strange because I only know of One way and that is through the grace given to us through Jesus Christ by God Himself. The Bible clearly states that there is no other way except through Him, yet many religions on Earth tell many people a much different story.

Many of them say that there is no Heaven, or that you can do many good deeds for people in your lifetime and you will be granted a place there, so say that you will come back here until you get everything just right and then you will be allowed in. All of them are wrong.

You can, of course, believe what you wish to believe about life after death in this world but when that day comes then the Truth will be known. What will you be able to say when you stand before God and Jesus on that day? If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you will bow before Him and thank Him for your salvation. If you have rejected Him during your life here, then you will be shown the things that you have done in your life, things which you would’ve been granted forgiveness for, then you will be shown the times that you had heard a message or felt a call from Him and you ignored it.

It is your actions, your decision in this life which will determine whether you go to Heaven or not, the choice is yours to make and it must be made while you yet live. It is not God’s choice to send you to hell if you choose not to accept Jesus as your Savior, it is yours. God doesn’t want people to be sent there, but if they reject the grace offered through the atonement that was bought with Jesus’ death, then He has no choice. Nothing that we are capable of doing during our life, if we are without Jesus, is good enough to get us into Heaven.

Only through accepting Jesus as your Savior and asking Him to come into your life and change you, to make you what He knows that you can be, is it even possible for you to be forgiven and get into Heaven. You can yell and scream about all of the evolutionary theories and atheistic nonsense that you want, but rejection of the grace offered by God is the only unforgivable sin. It is your choice, which will you choose?

What are you looking for?


Many people today are searching for something in life to give them hope and joy, but many don’t find it. Why is that? Mainly, it is because they are looking in the wrong places and trying the wrong things.

People tend to give all sorts of stuff a try to see if it fits or if it might fill the need in their lives, hoping that one of them might fill the spot which seems to always feel empty and hollow. Is this because they are ignorant or maybe it is because they haven’t found the right combination yet? No, there is no specific combination or specific thing or drug which will fill this void in your life. But, there is a person Who can do all of those things and more and His name is Jesus.

Living without Him is possible but it is unfulfilling. Yes, you can get through life without Him in it, but you will always feel lost and alone regardless of what you try or who you may be with. When you have felt a tug from the Holy Spirit, whether it is by a dream or a church service or someone witnessing to you, that is Him calling to you. You can walk away and ignore Him, but the call will be felt again. It won’t go away. When that call comes to you, it will come whether you want it or not, because there is something that God knows about you that you do not. That something is a particular thing which only you can do. It may be a message that you can bring to someone or it might be that you will be able to touch someone’s life in a way that nobody else can. But, only you can do it and God knows this which is why He is calling you.

Yes, there is something that you can do or someone who you and only you can speak to or bring the Light into their life and until you let that Light into your life they might never see it. Jesus is the Light and the Life and the proof of it is in God’s Word. All that you need to do is seek Him out because until you do, that part of you which feels empty will never be filled with the One and only Person that can and will make you feel like a whole person.

Think about it and allow Him to come into your life and give you His Life.

How can we make it better?


Many people today don’t seem to want to make anything better, have you noticed that? It seems that everyone wants things given to them but nobody wants to make life better and give back. What a waste. I know that the world in general is getting worse because that is all that you hear on the news and on radio and television these days, even though I would question the truthfulness of the reporting from both of those outlets sometimes.

Does anybody even care about each other any more? It seems that we are more worried about being politically correct and being non-offensive to everyone, except Christians of course. We also can’t bring ourselves to put any part of natural habitat in danger or even a fish or a bird, and yet people are being killed by the hundreds every day!

The thing is, people are trying to ban guns but the places where they are banned is usually where the most violence WITH guns is! Huh??

Giving back to your community is what we were commanded to do, yet when that is brought up people tend to laugh about it as if it is a joke. What has happened to our world and the society that we should be developing? It seems that we are more barbaric now than we were hundreds of years ago. We couldn’t do as much damage back then because our weapons were more limited than they are today, so maybe that is why it is so bad now.

In many ways, there really is no way for us to make this world a better place to live and work and go to school, because no matter how hard we try our efforts aren’t good enough. Why is that? Because we are living in the closing years of the age, that is why. Oh, yes there are people who don’t believe this because the Bible has been saying that we are living in the “end times” for hundreds of years. Why should today be any different or even ten years from now?

Because, if you really take a close look at the prophecies in God’s Word, you will notice that all of the players from Asia to the Middle East are coming into play just as God’s Word said that they would. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe it or if you don’t want to believe it, it is happening. Like it or not, we are coming to the end of the road in a way that is going to get the attention of the world in a very immediate way, one which can’t be denied or explained with “natural phenomena” as its cause.

The only real way to make things better is to commit to give your life and your heart to Jesus because He is the Hope of the World! No person or “savior” or man can make this world any better, only Jesus can bring peace to your soul and to the world. There is nothing else which will fill that void in your life and no drug or amount of money can fill the empty feelings that you feel at the end of the day. Jesus is the One which is able to fill your empty life and make you whole for the first time and forever! Giving your life to Him is the only way to make your life feel the way that it was meant to feel.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend[a] it. (John 1:1-5)

These words testify to the fact of Who Jesus really was and Who He is today. He did not die on that cross permanently, He rose again on the third day just as He told His disciples that He would. The world and those in it don’t want Christianity to be true, they never have, but God intends for the world to hear the message of Jesus whether the world wants to or not and it will.

Jesus is the answer for the world’s problems and for yours too. No, He may not fix things immediately, but He will be with you in the storm and through the storm and give you strength enough to get through it! Seek Him out, learn about Him from the Word of God, pray that He would show you the things that will help you to know the Truth and He will do that and so much more.

Differences…


There are so many divisions in our world today. Between people and countries and religions, and even those can be broken down into many categories which I really don’t want to address here. We divide our churches and our schools by popularity and wealth and we divide the towns and cities that we live in along those same lines as well. Then there are the racial and cultural divisions and a host of other problems which follow those lines. What is the reason for all of the divisive feelings and issues which crops up along all of these lines? Who or what started it?

The answer can be found in Genesis. Satan came along and divided the first couple from their idea of Who God is and what their portion should be in the world. Once that was done, it broke the relationship between Creator and creation and from that point on there has been a dividing line in every area of life on Earth. Why?

The reason for the divisions between religions and people and all of the other areas in life is specifically to keep us from unity. Unity of mind and purpose as well as between cultures, but especially keeping us from being united in our fellowship of believers and in worship of God. Think about all of the denominations which were created simply because one group in a church didn’t agree on the way to worship or how.

Divisions between cultures and individuals caused many problems for Jesus and His disciples as well as the problems which we see today. The message that He was teaching was not popular and today, He would be put out of the church because of the hard teaching which He said in His day. What happens when these things happen to your family, whether it is your family or the church family that you belong to?

The dividing lines are sometimes easy to see and sometimes they are invisible, until you see it happening in your life and in your church. Why do we allow these divisions to happen when we are supposed to be united in Christ? The reason? Because we are human and we don’t consider the One that we serve or should serve! Our lives are taken up in minutes and seconds every day and we let little things creep in and steal what little time that we have to give to each other and to God.

Today, I went to see a movie about an American hero, Chris Kyle, and I just finished reading his memoir too. He was an incredible human being, but most of all, he was genuine and totally committed to everything that he did. As his wife said in part of the book, “when he loved you, he jumped in with both feet”. That is how we are supposed to love each other and Jesus as well!

Think about it this way: God cares about us all and He jumped in with both arms and His feet when He went to the cross to redeem us! He didn’t consider it below Him to bring us into a true relationship with Him, that is just what Jesus did..He was all in when He loved us and showed it by going to the cross for us so that we could be redeemed by His blood.

There isn’t supposed to be any half-way Christians because being half-way doesn’t count. You either are or you’re not…you are either all in with both feet or you turn away and say “Let someone else do it, not me.”

Christians are not supposed to be trying to walk a thin line between being a sinner or a Christian and truthfully it can’t be done! It is simple…you either are or you’re not. Yes, I am repeating myself, but the point is important and it is so simple even a child can understand it. Consider your soul and your eternal home while you have time. Chris didn’t know that his time was up that day, and we don’t know when our time will be up either.

What is wrong with this world?


Exodus 33:19,20:
“And He said, I will make all of my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 And He said, Thou cannot see My face: for no man shall see my face and live.”

God is Holy, Righteous and Steadfast. He doesn’t change neither does He sleep, and yet people in this world think that He doesn’t see what is going on around us. He does and He knows who is responsible for it, Satan. Because Satan hates us with an utmost hatred that cannot be fathomed by man. We are here enjoying whatever we have in life, not because of the graciousness of Satan, but by the grace and the love flowing from Almighty God!

If God’s presence were not here, with each of us, everyday, then Satan would unleash his hatred upon the Earth and the inhabitants of the Earth. Jesus said that “if those days were not shortened, no one would survive”. This is the first part of the Tribulation times which are coming to us soon, Satan will be loosed and all of the Earth, not just humanity, will groan under his hatred. No one will be saved from it except for those who are God’s children. I am not speaking of the Jewish people, I am speaking of the Christians who may still be here at this time.

God loves all of us, even those who don’t know Him, but He will not tolerate the sinful lives that people live today. Living together, lying, stealing, murderers, those who practice homosexuality, idolaters, and those who exploit and use children for sex and other crimes. It is the sin that God hates, not the sinner.

Repent and ask Him to cleanse you and bring you into the family of God. Believe in Jesus and be saved because the time is coming when it will be hard and almost impossible to distinguish between the Anti-Christ and the real One, because of the spirit of deception which will be released into the world. Yes, Satan is powerful BUT he is a created being like you or I am, God is in control!

The world which we see every day is being attacked, spiritually, by Satan and his demons. They cause disease and death all around us and incite hatred among religious people and different religions. All of the conflicts which are going on in the world have his hatred of us as the cause, in one way or another. The reason for this is that Satan hates everything that God loves. The people here on Earth but specifically the nation of Israel and the Christian church.

This is why he masqueraded as an angel of light to bring false religions to this world, from Mormonism to Islam. God loves each of us, but when we follow a god of this world, which is a demon or Satan himself, then we are on the wrong side. Unless you repent of this and accept Jesus as your Savior, then you will suffer the same fate as Satan.

God wants you!


God

God wants you, not your bank account or your stuff(whatever that might be), He wants you!

There is nothing that we can give to Him which is more valuable than ourselves. He is the One Who gave you what you have anyway, but if you haven’t given your heart and your life to Him then you are missing the point of life itself! He is Life and Truth and when you give your life to Him, then He can begin to work in your life and through you to reach others for Jesus. Allow God to change your perspective this year from a point in front of you to one which is in eternity! God wouldn’t have given His Son’s life on the cross just to blot out your sins unless He wanted you to come to Him in love and be in fellowship with Him every day! Believe it or not, God loves every person on this planet even though He doesn’t like the lifestyle that they live in or even the paths that they have chosen in life. When you give your heart to Jesus, don’t just put Him in the passenger seat and let Him ride with you, it needs to be and should be YOU who is riding along with Him! God can take you places and help you to do some things that you can’t do on your own, but fellowship like this is done on purpose, every day. This what Jesus meant when He said to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). Seeking God and His wisdom is not a one time meeting every week, it is daily prayer time and reading of the Bible. Meditating on it so that you will understand the lessons contained in it.

This year, many of you need to be coming closer to Jesus so that you can learn from Him and find what you have been missing all of the years of your life. That part of you that feels empty or unfulfilled is the part which Jesus can give meaning and purpose to.

A brand new you!


Happy New Year! So far, everything seems to be going well since I haven’t looked at or read any news stories this year.

madewholeinHeavenWe can all be made whole in Heaven and in our walk with Jesus. Seek Him out this year, learn of Him and His ways through reading the Bible. Your life will never be the same again, it will be better!

God loves us all, dogs too, and He cares for all of His creation. In order to enjoy our eternity, we should come to Him when He calls, please don’t miss that call from God! Jesus said, “”I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6
Jesus is the way to life eternal, the only way. You cannot do it yourself, nor can you come through some other religion or god. Realize this, come to know Him so that your year can be far better than it has been

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you will become a new person if you seek Him and read His Word believing that He is the Savior of your soul. Ask Him to come into your life and your heart and change you into the person that you are supposed to be for Him, when you do this then you will change from the inside out. Your habits, your life and your speech will all eventually change to reflect the person that you are becoming on the inside.

It isn’t an instant change, but by seeking Him in His Word and prayer asking Him to give you the wisdom and strength to be the person that you can be, then you will change. The problem in our world and our society is that people don’t want to change or they get dissatisfied with the change, and they think that somehow their heart was changed but they just gave up on the seeking part. That is not how it works!

If you have truly changed and asked Jesus to come into your heart and you have repented of your old ways. Then, pray and seek Him daily…every day! So that you will have His power and Presence with you daily, then you can complete the change inside you so that it can show on the outside. Jesus loves you and cares for you far more than you know, but it takes repentance from your old life, as Paul stated you have to “work out your salvation daily”, it is not instant nor is it easy.. It is a process that has to be worked through daily.

Seek Him in the morning and in the afternoon and before going to sleep, especially during the first year of your new life. Why do I say this? Because, just as in any relationship, you need to get to know Him and the best way to do this is to read, and study the Bible and pray for the Spirit to open your heart to it and help you to understand it.

Happy New You!!

On that night….


Long ago there were shepherds keeping watch over their flocks and the angel of the Lord came to them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid. The angel said to them, “Fear not, for I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign unto you, that you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

What would you think if an angel announced this while you were out camping somewhere? Many people would wonder what might have been in their food? How did I have such a vision as this? Many people would’ve hidden under a bush and then run off, had the sky filled with angels or even just one angel telling you this.

The shepherds were likely tired and just didn’t realize what they were seeing at first, until they heard the message of the Christ child. Then, they said amongst themselves, “Let us go see this that the Lord has told us about.” What do you think they were thinking? They were shepherds and were supposed to be watching over their flocks during the night! Why would they want to walk away from them and see this child?

Because, God had never spoken to anyone for about four hundred years and all of them had heard of this news about a Savior, the Christ! They had heard the Scriptures and had been taught by their parents from them. They knew about the prophecies, but when they became shepherds they were declared unclean and couldn’t go into the Temple. But, they went to see Jesus, the Babe that was in the manger, Immanuel, “God with us”, God in human flesh, the Son of God!

And when they came to the manger, they worshipped Him! Then they went out from there and told all who would hear the news about what they had heard and the One that they had seen! Isn’t that what we are supposed to do when we meet Him? Tell others about the One that you have met, and what He has done for you in your life from that moment on. Why do we have to do this? Look at it like someone who had a REAL debt!

You get a letter one day after many years, and somehow in your past there is a debt that you have owed that has accrued a LOT of interest! So much interest that if you can’t pay it, you will either go to prison or if you owe someone who is a criminal, like a bookie or something, and they could kill you or your family if you can’t pay this debt! It is in the millions of dollars and there is no way for you to do it! You begin to pray like you have never prayed before, because you only have a week to pay this debt! Six days go by, and many phone calls which were not nice at all, you can’t sleep, you feel as if the world is falling in on you and there is no way out. Then, as the people who are owed the money are coming up your driveway, the mail comes.

There is an envelope, addressed to you. You open it and there is a check for the exact amount down to the penny. You sign it over to the people who you owe this amount to and they take it in payment for this debt. How would you feel? Relieved? Absolutely! Free of the burden? Yes!! Where did that money come from? You want to thank this person. How could you do this? What would you be willing to do?

This is just a small showing of what Jesus has done for each of us. He didn’t owe any sin debt, because He was God’s Son. He didn’t have our nature, the nature of Adam, in Him and yet He willingly gave His life for us. That is what He was born to accomplish and He did. He paid the debt for ALL of mankind, past, present and future. All that we have to do to have forgiveness is to believe that He did what He did and ask for it. That’s it.

There is no amount of money or work that we can perform ourselves that will be of any use in our salvation, because it was all done by Jesus. That is the message that we should be telling everyone, no matter who they are. If they receive it with joy and gladness and accept Him as their Lord, that is wonderful! But, the choice is theirs and yours. Adam had a choice and Eve did too. So did the angels who followed Satan in his rebellion against God. What will you do with yours?

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.