Living for Him and through Him is the same

Our life in Christ must be through Him daily. We cannot attempt to do it ourselves without Him. Because we can’t! If anyone is going to live a life dedicated to Christ and in service to Him they have to admit that they are sinners on a daily basis. Just as someone who smokes cigarettes has to admit that they have an addiction to cigarettes before they can possibly quit. We have to depend on Him daily for the strength to resist sin and the temptation to sin, no matter what the sin is or how “small” we consider it to be. In His eyes, there is no small sin. Just as there is no little lie or a little bit of murder. They are what they are and nothing else.

No one should consider themselves a Christian if they cannot say, truthfully, that they pray daily for the strength and wisdom to carry them through each day. Some people have said that being a Christian should be easy and that after accepting Christ we are supposed to be perfect. Jesus did say that we are to be perfect as the Father is perfect but He only meant that we are to strive to be perfect by confession of our sins and prayer for strength to resist temptation. We cannot be perfect in our sinful earthly body because anything that is corruptible cannot be perfect and our bodies are not perfect in a spiritual sense. God made our bodies perfect in the ways that they need to be so that all of the parts of our bodies work together, at least until something starts going wrong as we get older or due to disease or accidents.

Living in the times that we are living in is getting harder for Christians because we are considered to be the ones committing “hate crimes” and being non-conformist because we live according to our beliefs. Jesus said that we would be hated because of Him and we are seeing more and more of that everyday. It is going to get worse for all of us but we, as followers of Christ, are going to be targeted more and more as time moves closer to His second coming. I truly look forward to the day or night when He calls us home. Then the world will truly see what hard times really look like. Be in prayer for all who haven’t acknowledged Him and especially for those who don’t know Him at all.

The time we have here is important

It is important to us, to our families and to God. Our lives are and always have been important to Him. If many of you would listen and check out His word, the Bible, you would see this is true. 

Psalms 118: 8  It is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in people.

The Lord of Hosts and the Creator of the Universe loves all of His creation, especially us! He created us in His image, all of us! It is about time that we realized this. The word of God is full of passages which point to this out in detail.

We were put here to serve Him and His purposes on earth. Many people are confused about what this means. The Bible tells us if we only take the time to come to Him and pray about it while we study His word. He will reveal exactly what we are to do for Him and how to do it. The Bible is the only Living Word of God. It was sent to us to guide us and reveal to us what our purpose on earth is. Jesus was and is the Living Word and is manifested in the world now as the Bible itself. He is the Son of God and the savior of the world.

Give your life to Him and  live fully dedicated to Him and you will never regret it. He can and will reward you with more than you could ever hope for…. a life that will never end and more satisfaction in your life here than you can get from the world.

Something died in me

I was prompted this morning to write about, of all things, death!  I have never experienced the death of a sister or brother through war or by evil things that men do or even by accidents, but the feelings of betrayal and loss are the same. I have a half-brother and sister and I was very worried when she was serving in the Army because she spent most of her five year enlistment in Europe and some in Iraq. God answered my prayers and protected her, somehow as only He can do.

There are many people who have lost loved ones to the evil and hateful ways of men and I am sure that they question God’s love and His divine love when things go terribly wrong. He is still there and He does care. In fact, He will avenge their deaths in ways that we cannot possibly imagine. “Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord.”

The first death that I experienced was the death of my marriage, then my grandmother and finally my mother, grandfather, and my Dad. A few years later, my mother-in-law, my son’s grandmother, died. I was questioning, searching for the answer when I came to realize that He had a plan in all of this. I did not like nor enjoy how His plan for my life worked out but after a while of prayer and crying out to Him, I came to know Him better than I ever had before. I know that death is something that we all have to come to grips with at some point in our lives, and it is not a pleasant part of life at all but it is necessary. Even the loss of someone by gun or by an accident on the highway or even by drugs is not overlooked by God. He knows when your life will end and how, unfortunately He can’t prepare our family or us for it unless we let Him.

I wasn’t ready for any of the deaths which occurred in my life, but He knew that unless I experienced them I would never grow into the person that He intended for me to be. I know, that seems to be a cruel way to cause someone to “grow-up” but even in the Bible there are times when people would die so that a new leader would be brought into their place.

Bitterness, anger, frustration, feelings of resentment, loneliness, grief, frustration….these are all feelings that we experience when someone dies before their time or before we are ready. God knows and cares about all of us and for those who were Christians, He was there to greet them when they came into His presence. The sad truth is that many people die not knowing Him, but sometimes this is the only way to get another member of the family to come to Him and God knows that. It is not pleasant and it is never easy on the family regardless of how the person died.

God loves you! Give Him a chance to show it by coming to Him and crying to Him about your hurt and your anger. The only way that these feelings will be helpful to you is if you let Jesus heal the damage they have caused in your life. There is no way to bring back the people we have lost except through our memories of them, but those memories can be much sweeter if we will talk with the One who can help. The only One who can truly help spiritually, emotionally and eternally. Give Him the chance to show just how much He cares and you will be amazed.

God loves us all, all His children of the World

People don't care what you know until they know that you care and that God cares for them. This should be our goal, to let the people of the world, the veterans, Americans, and most of all, people who feel they are without hope know that they have hope in Jesus and His salvation for their lives. No other religion gives people the hope and security of eternal life like believing in and trusting Jesus for our everyday lives and our salvation.

There is a concept of humanity embodied in an African word which comes from the Zulu and Xhosa languages. Ubuntu (pronounced "oo-boon-too") is seen as a traditional African concept, is regarded as one of the founding principles of the new republic of South Africa and is connected to the idea of an African Renaissance.

A rough translation of the principle of Ubuntu is "humanity towards others". Another translation could be: "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity". This description of the word and principle of Ubuntu comes from the version of Linux I use and it describes a concept from the Bible that we are all here because of the grace and mercy of God. He created us where we are and in the station in which we find ourself, whether we are writers, teachers, Senators or the President of the United States. The very concept of ubuntu is why there is no word for "cousin" in African language. Everyone is thought of as brother, father, mother, or sister regardless of their relationship.

Jesus regarded those who were his disciples as brothers, sisters, and mothers so why can't we? I know there would be some people who would be against it, but if Jesus did it, why not? Our enemies can be our brother if we can just learn to live and get along until He comes back. There are so many people we could help and show the love of God to if we would do the will of the Father and go to them. Let them know that He loves them no matter what their circumstances are. No matter where they live or what they have done in the past, it can be forgiven by Him who loves us even when we are sinners. He doesn't love what we do or our behaviour but He loves us because he formed us all in the womb. When we come to Him in humility and let Him into our hearts and lives completely, the whole of Heaven itself rejoices for every sinner who comes to the knowledge of Jesus and His saving grace.

God doesn't choose who He will let in or not. I know the Bible says that we who are predestined to be conformed to Him will be and those who are not won't, but that is there because God knows the future and He knows ahead of time who will choose Jesus and who won't. He doesn't create you and point his finger at anyone's life and say, "I will take this one but I don't want that one". That is our choice and ours alone, even though He knows the choice we will ultimately make, He doesn't interfere with our choices. Sometimes it is hard to hear God's small voice but it is there, and our spiritual hearing gets better as we read and study His word. Don't wait, pick up a Bible today. Read it, pray over it, read it again. God speaks through His word and it is powerful. He will not leave you or forsake you, ever. If you don't believe me, ask Him to prove it. I guarantee that He will.

Eternity! That is a loooong time!

My life these past couple of years has been eventful and rewarding. God has taught me a lot about Himself and about me. I regret to say that there are still things about myself that I don't like but I suppose God looks over them and forgives me for them. I am not perfect and never will be until I am in Heaven with Him. At which point I won't have to worry about this world and its troubles anymore, and I will serve Him forever.

That word implies that our lives don't end and, if you are a child of God and have accepted Jesus as your Lord, they won't end. Oh, the earthly body will die unless Jesus comes before your time on earth is up, but either way eternity will be glorious. My acceptance of this was not easy and I did not come to this lightly. My grandparents and my parents died before I became truly committed to my walk with God. I am still not sure why I held so tightly to my own ideas and ways, but until my dad died about seven years ago, I wasn't ready to cling to God's way. I think God used my son and my responsibility to him as a way to get me to really commit to His service.

In reference to eternal life, whether you accept Jesus or not your soul will live forever. The big question is what will you be doing and where you will be for eternity? Eternity is a very long time and we cannot comprehend with our human mind the magnitude of it. It is hard for me to think about life as it was two hundred years ago or so. Jesus' followers lived two thousand years ago. Scientists say that our sun and planets are over four billion years old (although I don't believe it). Jesus is still alive and was alive before there was anything so regardless of the age of the universe, He is.

Just knowing that you will live forever is enough to make me commit my life to Jesus. I don't understand why anyone would want to spend eternity in hell. I know that many people think that it will be a big party, but it won't. There will be no laughter or merry-making there. If you have rejected God's provision of eternal life with Him through Jesus, you will be in torment and agony forever. Those are facts spelled out in God's word so they are set in stone and will not be changed. The only way to avoid that fate is to accept Jesus as your Saviour and live for Him and His kingdom.

Many people think that it couldn't be that simple and it really isn't. All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Saviour, then the work begins! Just because you accept Him your old nature won't go away, you will have to struggle against it for the rest of your life. But when you get closer to Him and study his word, it gets easier because you are becoming more like Him. You are not becoming a god, but you will become more like Christ by doing His will for your life. That can be as simple as doing a good job at your work whatever it may be. As long as you are following Him and studying His word to become a faithful servant of His, He will direct your life and “God causes everything to work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” Romans 8:28