Speak the Truth but only in love!

Why do we tend to make up stuff to say in front of people? We want to make people think that we are more than we are. We want to be more important in the eyes of other people than we are supposed to be! Why do I think this? Because it is true! We, as Christians, are supposed to be examples to everyone that we meet and if we are not committed to being Christians then we might as well not be.

God loves you and all that you can do because He knows what you are capable of, especially when we are doing His will or at least trying to be in His will. We are able to be prophets and disciples for Jesus and bring His Truth to everyone who needs to hear it. No, we won't be giving the news ahead of time unless we are glorifying God with a prophecy from Him. God's prophecies are all in the Bible and unless you are repeating them, then you are telling something which is not from Him!

The Truth is from God because He is the Truth. We are here because of His Truth and grace. God loves you more than you or I can understand and the only way that you can learn of it is by reading and studying God's Word, the Bible. Yes, there are wars in the Bible, yes there is incest in the beginning of the book, there are people who kill their children and other people's children while worshipping other gods. The reason for this is because the people went into the land that God promised to them, but they didn't kill all of the people that had been living there. Why was this important? Because God knew that if they did not, His people would stray into another religion and worship other "gods".

We make up our own gods today and people do it all the time. We can't get by without our phones, our jobs, our families, our churches or the prestige that we have from our wealth and we turn those things into our "gods" today! The truth is that we look at all of these things as parts of our lives that we can't make it for a day or more without them and we need to put God in that place! He needs to be the One that we can't get up without in the morning or go to work without or drive home without! He needs to be more important than our cell phones? People walk around with those things stuck to their faces everywhere and yet they supposedly they don't have time for God!

God is in control, even when it seems that He isn't

Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, the list could go on and on. These are the signs of the end of the age and it is because of this end that these things are happening. God knew that they were going to happen and how many people would be affected by them long before they happened. He is not the cause of them but many people are asking "Where is God? Why didn't He stop this from happening?" Because it is part of the birth-pains of creation that is why.

Our Creator and His Son, Jesus, knew these things would happen before the end of the age. That is why Jesus told His disciples that they would happen before the falling away and before the end of the age. He did not specify where or what would happen only that it would be a sign to watch for.

4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24: 4-13)

In many ways verse 13 confuses people when it refers to the "one who stands firm to the end will be saved", this verse is not a reference to those of us living in Christ now because we are supposed to be taken to heaven before the terrible part of the tribulation begins. This verse refers to those who come to Christ during the tribulation and hold onto their faith without giving in to the Antichrist's demands that they worship him. Even though they may be killed because of this, their souls will be saved.

The time to come to Jesus and give your life and heart to Him is NOW! We are not guaranteed any time past each breath that we take and each breath is given by God. So, when you draw your last breath only God knows when that will be and hopefully you will be ready to meet Him at that time. No one can save your soul and grant you entrance into Heaven except Jesus and belief in Him, other than that you are wasting your time!

God loves you all and wants you all to be His, but that will not happen by wishing or hoping that you have been good enough. None of us can be good enough to merit a place in heaven on our own, even Abraham had faith in God and that is what was credited to him as righteousness. Your only hope of eternity is through Jesus, that is it! The pope can't get you there, praying to Allah can't get you there, Buddha can't get you there, Scientology can't get you there. None of these man-made religions can get you into eternity and Heaven! Only belief in and following Jesus can do that!

Give Jesus a chance in your life and leave everything in His hands from this point on. Once you do that, your Hope in Him will sustain and keep you until you meet Him and when you do, you will have an eternity to get to know Him and the Father and everyone else in Heaven.

Our life in Him, His Life in us!

Some people think that Christianity is just like other religions. That there is no difference other than the person that we believe in. We still have to try hard to be good enough to “get saved” before Jesus will accept us as His. This view of doctrine is not from God’s Word.

Jesus’ words were “I will abide in you and you abide in Me”. The word translated as “abide” can mean many things like “walk, live with, or trust”. Our responsibility as Christians is to daily live as Christ would have us live. Follow Him daily or as scripture puts it “pick up your cross daily and follow Me”.

God expects us to be holy as He is holy but He knows that we cannot do this without Him. We are not able to be holy on our own, our righteousness is as “filthy rags” before a holy God. Without Jesus in your heart, nothing that you do or say can ever be “worthy” enough.

Other religions of the world try to get us to work our way toward heaven so that it is our accomplishment and our way which brings us to heaven. These religions have been and are being deceived by the ruler of this world, Satan, the adversary of God. He can and has done this for many thousands of years and is still doing it. The world doesn’t like Christians or our message because our message is against their way of life. It makes everything that they do or say look foolish because it is when judged by God’s Word.

Before the troubled times come at the end of this age, please read the Bible! Ask someone to explain it to you, pray about it and ask God to show you what you should know and what you need to know. He will if you ask.

Our world, a beautiful blue jewel

In the beginning God created this world to be perfect and it was for a time. Then sin entered the world and everything started dying, not just mankind. We were created to be sinless beings to have communion with God anytime He wished it or anytime we wished to contact Him. This condition will be restored to us when the New Earth comes down after the reign of Christ on the Earth during the millennium after the Tribulation and the binding of Satan. Our lives will not be as “angels” strumming harps and singing praises to God for eternity, although we will do that at times. We will never be made as angels, we will be restored to fellowship with God as it was meant to be from the beginning.

I have heard many people say that they would rather be in hell than in Heaven. They don’t know what they are saying or what awaits them. The eternity that will be spent in hell will be torture and painful. It will not be, as some believe, an eternal party. You will not know joy or peace though you will remember them. It will be unbearably hot but with an immortal body you will not die, although you will wish for death. This will come upon all of those who have rejected Christ and His grace. A very simple act of accepting Jesus as your savior is all that you have to do escape an eternity of punishment.

We were not created to be punished in hell, it was created to punish Satan and those who followed him. The only reason any human will be there will be because of their rejection of Jesus and His gift of Grace. That is it! No other sin will send you there although you will pay for the ones you committed since they won’t be covered by His blood and His sacrifice. Please, ask Jesus to come into your life and heart today and start living a life of service to Him. It is such a small price to pay for an eternity since He paid the ultimate price to redeem you.

Ain't God Good!!

Our lives would not be worth much if it weren’t for Him and the grace that He gives us each day. He gives us the grace and strength to get up each morning, the air we breathe throughout the day, our minds and our health to serve Him in whatever job we have and the grace to know when we have messed up so we can confess it and leave it with Him.

God loves us all, not just the ones who serve Him willingly. He created every living being on this planet but he gave us humans the ability to know Him and that is very special. Our lives are special to Him because He created each of us and knew us before we were even born!

Our experiences in this life, good or bad, are our own doing. He doesn’t cause us to fail or stumble, we do. Even in our Christian walk with Him there are going to be days that are tougher to stay focused on Him and His purpose for us. Our enemy in this world is satanic in nature but it is everything that can draw us or our attention away from God.

Truly, that is a lot of STUFF!! But with His strength and guidance, as long as we persevere in our walk with Him daily, we can be overcomers and bring Jesus and His love to the world. Not in a “holier than thou” attitude, but by loving those who would otherwise not be loved or not see or feel loved. In 1 Corinthians it says that all the gifts in the world are useless if we don’t have love to back them up and that is the truth.

Ain’t God Good!!

It is just the way life is but how can we live it?

Today, with all of the violence, abuse of all kinds, wars, etc., it is truly miraculous that we can live our lives period. When we look at the television and the internet it seems that all of the news is bad, regardless of what channel you may be watching or where you live. But, there is hope for all of us.

The way to live it fully and completely can only be found in the Bible and by faithfully walking the Christian faith daily. I know that this is an unpopular topic these days, but listen and you may learn something. I was sleeping soundly when I was awakened with this message and was compelled to get up and share this with the world.

God’s wisdom, found in the Bible or the Talmud, is timeless and applies now just as much as it did when it was written. Some of the concepts from the Old Testament may be a bit dated, like slavery, but the whole Bible points to the end of the age which we are living in now. I don’t know how much longer this world has because Jesus said, “Only the Father knows when that time will come”. I don’t claim to be a prophet, just a messenger. I don’t and cannot predict anything, only God knows when things are going to happen because nothing takes Him by surprise.

The books that are supposed to be “self-help” books just re-package the wisdom found in the Bible. None of these so-called “gurus” came up with this on their own. The ideas and concepts have been with us for centuries and were handed down by those who read the Bible and put it to work in their lives. God’s wisdom is timeless and no amount of advertising or marketing is going to change the core of the beliefs that most of the world has heard they just didn’t know exactly where it came from.

Please, if you are reading this, pick up a Bible somewhere. Read it, especially the book of Romans in the New testament. It outlines the way to salvation and peace with God and eternal life with His Son, Jesus. Here is a link to an important part of this book, I hope you will read it and read more after that:  Romans 8

God loves all of us and does not want anyone to perish in the pits of Hell. That is why the Bible and its message have not gone away like the courts and may others would like for it to do. It is the Living Word of God and therefore timeless. When someone goes to Hell, they do so not because they are being punished by God but by the choice that they made during life by not accepting God’s free gift of salvation through Christ. Yes, salvation is a gift although some see it as a binding or a curse. It is neither of these! If you are to truly live the Christian faith, it is a daily and at first it can be an hourly walk with Him. Because our nature is sinful and we are prone to follow it because it feels good or because that is what all of our “friends” are doing. This life is temporary and only lasts for a small amount of time compared to eternity. Our souls and the bodies that we are given for eternity never die, regardless of where you go after your earthly body dies.

Give yourself the chance to live fully because only through faith in Jesus and the message brought through Him can you be saved. The things you do on earth, regardless of how good they may be, will never be good enough to get you into Heaven. Rejecting Christ and His message is all you have to do to go to Hell. Think about it! Before it is too late.

Life as we see it

"My life is mine to do as I will!" This is the position that most people have about their lives and that is fine except that is not the way that God intended. We have the ability to choose, but we should be seeking Him and His way for our lives. I have noticed that many people profess to be Christians but their lives do not show it outwardly. In many people's lives the world cannot see any change in their life at all and that is sad.

Sad because in the end it is going to send them to hell. Sad because it is going to rob them of the joy of serving God now and forever. Sad because the people that they come in contact with, in this life, will think that Christians act this way and that they are hypocrites.

Our service to God should never be a question which needs answering, it should show in and through our lives and our actions. If your walk and your faith do not show, how will anyone know? Jesus called all of His followers to be in the world but not of the world so that we can be examples of His teachings. If we are not living our faith, then don't claim it! Don't tell someone that you are something that you can't show by your actions! If your faith is too weak, ask God to increase it and help you to be more like Him. He always answers a prayer such as that, especially from a Christian who is slipping from the path and needs to be nudged back up on it.

God loves us all, prove to Him that you can love Him in return!