How do I know that I know God and His Son?

There are three “tests” that John put forth for a person, a believer, to know that they know God without a doubt. These tests are that we keep His commandments, to walk as Jesus walked in obedience to the Father and to show unconditional love toward our brothers. The first one is usually the hardest for some to understand. It is to keep or obey His commands. Not just the ten commandments, but the two which Jesus put forth in Matthew 22:34-40. Jesus said, “Love God with all of your heart, and with all your strength, and with all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself, on these two commandments hang all of the Law and the Prophets”.

Those who say that they know God, but do not keep his commandments are liars and the truth is not in them. Belief is not enough, reading the Bible, God’s Word is not enough, your life has to show beyond a doubt that you belong to Him. We are put where we are to be “salty” and to be reflections of Him, not of ourselves or our personal views. Our mission, if we are Christians as we claim to be, is to be the best reflection of Jesus that our lives can be. How we live our faith on a daily basis shows what is in our heart, not what may be on our minds at the time. At least, that is what the world should see.

To walk as Jesus walked, in total obedience to God’s will, is our goal and purpose. As Christians, we are to submit to the Spirit’s leading influence in our life on a daily basis. This does not mean to give up entirely, but we are to give Jesus and His Spirit control of our lives daily. This is a hard concept for us because we do not like to give up control of our lives.

How can we, mere humans, accomplish this? The only way that we can do this is through Him and His Spiritual control of our lives. The only way that we can be truly effective for Him is by the power of His Spirit in our life. If we did good things (works) for others before becoming a Christian, how much more could we do with Him in our life? Those works that we did before becoming Christians may have been good but they did nothing more than to make us look good in other people’s eyes. What about the ones we are led to do or accomplish after becoming Christians? As long as we obey Him and accomplish them, we are doing His will and fulfilling His purpose in our lives.

Even though we are not bound by Jewish law, are we required to act as if we are regarding the Ten Commandments, as well as the commandments Jesus gave in Matthew 22? If we are truly His, yes! Our life is to reflect that His spirit lives in us and that we live through Him. If our lives do not reflect what is in our hearts as the truth of God, we need to re-examine our faith and our beliefs. We can only pass the test when we are led by the Spirit on a daily basis.

Is there a broken relationship in your life? Is there any prejudice or animosity toward any particular group of people? Do you fail to demonstrate love for others through tangible actions, not just  giving people “stuff” ? Is there a way we can fix these failures? Yes! Come to Jesus and show that you truly love those who love you and those who don’t.

As followers of Christ, we are to love Him so that we can resist the attraction of the world and all that it tries to offer us. To serve Him in whatever we do, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to us is our calling and purpose. In that way the light of God and His Son, Jesus, should shine through us so that everyone we come in contact with will see that we have something that they need and in doing so we will be the true followers of God that we were called to be.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

We have started a new year and so far the same news is around today as it was yesterday, nothing new yet! Our lives are in God's hands and He knows exactly what will happen and when, and yet we worry needlessly about things we cannot control. The weather, the stock market, gray hair, aching joints, our job or whether we will have one in the next six months. These are things that we do worry about and there is nothing we can do to change any of them. Even our job is in His hands so actually we don't have control over it either. There are many situations where we feel in control but He always is in control. If He were not, the whole universe would be in disarray and our world would be dead!

Fulfilling lives and our destinies in the world are dependent upon God, no one else. Your mother can't give you those, neither can your earthly father. Only in service to Him can you truly find fulfillment in everything you do, no matter what it is. If we really want to live out our lives with hope and confidence, we should put our confidence and our faith in God and His Son, Jesus! They are in control of everything and will cause every good thing to work for those who serve them.

There is no higher calling than to be a servant of God, the Creator of the universe and everything in it. He owns everything so I would rather work for the owner of it all than the one who only has a little! A few billion dollars is nothing compared to the entire universe!

In your service to Him, think about how small we are and the insignificance of our little planet in comparison to the universe. Yet, He knows you more intimately than anyone on the earth! He knows all of us on this planet just that intimately because He created us. He formed us in the womb and knows everything about us and our future selves. All the science and mathematics in the world can't explain why your personality is what it is or why, but He knows and He knew it before you were born!

No matter what your age or what "religion" you happen to believe in He still knows you and He will call on you at some point in your life. Listen for that call, it will be repeated until He has your attention no matter how He has to get it. Your Heavenly Father loves you and is waiting to hear from you. Make the decision today to come to Him in prayer, even if you have never prayed before, He is always by your side regardless of what you may have done in your life. He will forgive you if you will repent and believe in Him. That is all He asks!

Once you do that, He may inspire you to write or preach or be a missionary. Then again, you may just be a changed person and inspire someone where you work with what they see in your life. It could be a different job that He wants you to have but He has to have you first before you will be able to do it. Our Creator and our God is the best boss you could ever hope for because His retirement plan is eternal and has already been paid in full, it is not affected by the economy or the stock market either. Give God a chance in your life and you will never regret it!

How much is too little?

Do you have the time to give to God? He gives us twenty-four hours in each day and all He asks for is a bit more than one hour in the morning and in the evening before bed. Do we give Him that? Most of us don’t unfortunately. I give Him my time while writing here and at my blogspot.com blog of the same name, but I don’t post here everyday.

I am sorry to say that my life, or my perception of it gets in the way of my service to Him. I have to ask His forgiveness for this everyday and sometimes I just don’t. I see my responsibilities to my family and the things I do for them as more important. They are NOT! My service to Him and His kingdom is more important than anything that I can do for my family.

We are a weak race of people, the human race not Caucasians, African-Americans, Indians, etc. These just separate us by skin color and culture and sometimes religion. But we are all of the same race, God made us that way although we can’t see it that way most of the time.

Our lives, our service to God and to our fellow man should be our way of life. Our religion should be to follow Christ’s example of service to each other not for ourselves. Selfish desires have caused far more pain and suffering in the world than all the war and disease combined. Religious wars and disputes have also caused their share but most of the real suffering was due to selfishness and greed.

Don’t let your life be defined by things that don’t belong in it. God put you where you are for a purpose, His purpose! Every person, every animal, every plant, and every microbe on this earth does the will of the Creator at one point or another. The human race is the only one that has the free will to do otherwise. He gave us that free will so we would come willingly to Him when He calls us.

If you are feeling that call or have heard it and not responded please consider doing so. God will bring you to Him once the call has been sent. You will answer Him but if it is a negative answer, you may not like the consequences afterward. He is not a vengeful God, but like your father here on earth He expects to be obeyed when He calls. Give your life to Him willingly and you will never regret it, I haven’t. He has taken care of my family’s needs ever since I was told I wasn’t needed at a former job almost two years ago. He will take care of yours too! Give Him the chance and He can make your life more than you ever thought it could be. It won’t be because of you, but because of Him.