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.

At least half of every person belongs to……..?

Some more than others are controlled by their own lusts, pride, ambition or ego. There was a country song back in 1995 called “Cain’s Blood”. I don’t know if it ever became very popular but it describes the human condition perfectly. On one side is our conscience telling us that we shouldn’t be doing something we know is wrong and on the other is “Cain’s blood” , or the bad side of us, telling us to go ahead if it feels good.

There are many temptations in our world and for many people there is no way out, as far as they know. The way out is there, you just have to ask for it. Jesus provides the way and the Bible is the instruction book. It has always been there throughout history. Some people find it and embrace it, others know it is there but take a long time to embrace it. There are some people who reject it completely and want no part in any church or service to Him.

Those teachings come from God because the Bible is His word written by human hands by the prompting of His Spirit. God has led me to write this blog, although some people may not agree with nor believe that. I have never been a “writer” for most of my life until a few months ago when I started this. Now, I can’t stop writing!

Each person has the choice to make in their life which side they will follow. Nothing is ever forced on anyone regarding your spiritual condition. God left it up to us to decide. If we choose to follow Him and His Son, Jesus, we will have eternal life with Him in Heaven. If not, we will still have eternal life but it will be in torment because of the decision that we made not to follow Him. It won’t be because of anything that we did in our life here on earth. Paul was a persecutor of the early church and stood by while Stephen was stoned to death for doing nothing more than preaching about the risen Christ. So the most prolific writer of the New Testament was a murderer, and yet Jesus saw much more in him.

Your life doesn’t have to be just your job or where you live. It can be your service to Him! I would rather go into Heaven and hear the words from my Lord, “Well done good and faithful servant” than to have a billion dollars on earth. I still live in a “trashy trailer” and have all of my life. I am not ashamed of it. I would like to have a “real” house but that is not what a home is. Home is where you are loved and accepted and can enjoy being with your family in reasonable comfort. It doesn’t have to be anything more than that.  My real home is where Jesus is and I am looking forward to getting to see Him.

Thank you, Lord for a wonderful year!

This year has been very different from all others. We have seen gas and oil prices reach levels that our parents and grand-parents never dreamed of. We elected the first African-American to be President. We have gone into a recession like none before it with the exception of the Depression of the thirties and are still coming through it. Banks have gone out of business, the auto industry is on the skids with possible bankruptcy looming. We had record heat during the summer, snow in New Orleans, more rain in December than we saw all summer and we are only half way through winter!

I know it sounds gloomy but God is in control of all of it! Every leaf that has fallen, every penny lost, every snow flake was His doing. But it was all planned to bring our attention around to realize that we are not in control, He is! Nothing that we do can change the color of he sky or the leaves, but He can. The salmon lives it's life in the ocean until it is time to spawn, then it makes its way back to its birth stream to do so. Science says it is instinct, the real reason is that God is in control and the salmon does His will.

We are the only creation to which God gave a free will. We can choose to do His will or we can choose not to do His will. He knows which one we will do but He also knows when or if we will ultimately come to Him. He also knows the trigger that will bring us to Him and He will use it. It may hurt, it may cause us to doubt Him for a time but ultimately, no matter how hard or how far you run from Him you are always running to Him. No one can escape God or His will for their lives. You can put it off, but if He truly wants you to do something for Him, you will. It may nearly take your lifetime to bring it about but He knows when your time is up on this earth and He knows when you can do Him and His kingdom the most good. Even if it is on your death bed.

Don't let it be on your death bed! Go to Him in a church, in your car, in your closet....wherever you need to meet Him, He will meet you because He is always with you no matter where you are or what you may be doing. To me, that is a sobering thought. Knowing that God is always at my side no matter what! He always sees what you do and when. Tell Him you are sorry for doing something which is wrong in His sight, regardless of how small you think it is it matters to God. It should matter to you too.

Our service is to our fellow man but it is also to the creator of the universe, God Himself.

We have a responsibility to let people know about Christ and His sacrifice for us! He gave up far more than anyone on earth has ever given up. If you could imagine being in the presence of God Almighty and how glorious service to Him is, you might have a tiny idea of what Christ left to come and give Himself as a sacrifice for those whom He suffered and died for. Our human minds cannot comprehend the majesty and beauty of Heaven nor the love of the Father which He left to come to our rescue.

That is why the book of Revelation is so hard to understand, because Jesus took John up to Heaven and showed him what must come to pass. The descriptions which John gave were the best he could do to describe what he saw and heard. The human mind just can't comprehend nor understand Heaven in its glory. God is now giving man the insight to see and understand the prophecies contained in His word because time is growing short. Jesus is coming soon. Regardless of what the world or television media or other “news” agencies may tell us, the Creator's patience is coming to an end.

This world has had two thousand years to come to Him and realize who He is and what our purpose is and it has largely ignored Him and His word. Mankind has made up gods or made gods out of animals or possessions or jobs or things such as cars, toys, computers, etc. Our imagination has run rampant over the past millennium or two to include things like ET, or dogs, cats, cattle, “wise men”, or men who could coerce people into following their ideals and make them think that they were “prophets”. None of these “gods” can do anything for you nor will they. There is even a “pseudo-religion” that says that we are gods in human form and that we were put here by some E T's who lived trillions of years ago. My Bible doesn't say anything of the sort!

If you add up the lives lived by Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan (Cainan), Mahalal, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, or Noah, the world before the flood was not here much more than two thousand years or so. Not TRILLIONS! God was around at that time, but nothing else was. Granted, I may have gotten their names out of order from the Genesis account but the fact is that our world, our universe has not been here for billions and billions of years. God can create a star fully formed as our sun is just by saying so.

The Creator...God who made all things knew that man would disobey Him and His commandments. That is why the Old Testament is the preparation for the Messiah's birth. The entire Bible tells of His coming and of His fulfilling of prophecies about Him. The Old Testament foretold His coming and how man should receive Him and the New Testament tells of His life and death and resurrection to give all of us hope and the ability to come to our Father as sons and daughters, regardless of our nationality or race.

These are truths found only in the Holy Scriptures, God's Word, the Bible. No other book could have been written by so many different men and women, in three different languages and all point to the same person, Jesus Christ!! Scholars may try to discredit it but there is no possible way anyone could explain how this book was written except to be the inspired word of the living God! Please read it today! Pray that God will show you that you need Him and His Son, Jesus, through the words of the Bible. It is the breath of life to all who find it and all who believe! I pray that God will richly bless you through the reading and hearing of His word and that all of you will come to know Christ.

God Loves You!!

It seems that every time I post, the devil himself gets offended. Which is fine with me as long as he leaves my family alone. I know that many people don't think that the devil or Satan exists but he does. The problems in our country and all around the world attest to that. He has dominion over this world but God has dominion over him. The only way that he can hurt you is if God allows it to happen, if you are a Christian. Otherwise, he can do whatever he wishes until you realize that the only way to protect yourself and your family is to come to Jesus and ask Him into your heart and life.

Now, I am not saying that everything will be perfect after you accept Him but your spiritual life and your physical life will be under His protection from Satan's influence. And that is always a step in the right direction.

Christ said that when he came into the world it would cause conflict and that we, as Christians, would be hated because the world hated Him first. His love for us is spelled out in the Bible in so many passages that it would be hard to miss.

The Old Testament is usually seen as the history of the nation of Israel and it is to a certain extent but it is also where God shows just how much patience He has. He has far more patience than any human father would and He is our true father since He formed us in the womb.

Our universe was created by God, not some "big bang" or other random events. All of us and every star and galaxy was created by Him as well. The millions of species on this planet were designed by God to do exactly what they do and for the environment in which they live. There isn't enough time in the universe for all of these things to have happened by "random events" or evolution. God watches over all things that He created whether it happens to be something which He created in His image, like man, or not. You are special to Him because you were and are made in His image and the image of His Son! No one can take that away from you and if you would acknowledge it and accept Him as your Lord and Savior you will feel it! Like a BIG hug from your Dad, even if you never got one of those, that is how it feels when you surrender to Him. Give God a try....you won't be disappointed!