Division is great in math class but not in the Church

In the past one hundred years the Church has been divided so many times that it is nearly unrecognizable today. Christians, regardless of denomination, have become too permissive and meek. We allow people to run over us and around us in the guise of being “politically correct and inoffensive”.

Jesus said that He came to put friends and family against each other because of Him and His teachings. We are not to be so meek that we are run over by every religion that claims the title of religion. Just because Jesus said that the “meek shall inherit the earth” doesn’t mean that we take it to an extreme!

I am sure that there are some real Christians in our world today that could be called friends of God but they are so few in number that they would not fill the sanctuary of a small church!

Our life is to be in service to Him regardless of the occupation that we have and being divided in doctrine or belief in the authenticity of the Bible is not the way to do it. There is no middle ground of service you are either serving God or Satan, you cannot serve both.

The Bible is the true and inspired word of our Creator! Those who disagree with this are challenged herewith to find at least 66 authors from all different walks of life. Without telling them what to write about other than to say that they must all be in agreement and have their stories point to one truth alone, have them to write a coherent book which will rival the Bible. Even if our lives were un-naturally long, there would be no possibility of this book ever being published in a coherent form within the next one thousand years!

The Bible spans about fourteen hundred years and tells of history back to the beginning of the earth and yet the story points to one Savior, Christ, who will fulfill all of the prophecies in Himself and through His ministry and His death and resurrection will be the salvation for all of mankind who have been called by God.

Friends

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Our lives are touched daily by people that we know and some that we don’t, but the ones who make a lasting impression are friends. I claim Jesus as my friend and I hope you will too.

The friends which we have around us are those that we have found through work or school or in other circumstances in which we find ourselves. Whether it is through an accident, military, or other types of operations which puts us together, they are the ones that we rely on and miss the most when they are absent. The length of absence doesn’t make any difference between friends, there is always some common bond between you that will be there regardless of the circumstances life throws at you.

I had such an encounter recently with a friend that I haven’t seen in almost thirty years. Yet there was a bond which spanned that time and made it seem as if it wasn’t a concern. This friend and his family are important to me in ways that they do not realize and when the patriarch of their family moved on to his heavenly home it saddened me. But, I still feel joy because of it. I know that we will see each other in Heaven and we will have an eternity of service to our Lord together.

The friendship which Jesus offers to all is closer than those which we have here during our lifetimes. As God’s word says, “ I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6. This is the kind of friend we need, now more than ever in these troubled times. I pray that anyone who reads this will take this message to heart and accept Jesus into their lives so that you will have a friend forever!

Service is only service if you serve!

If you are a religious person, who/whom do you serve? No person on this earth serves no one. Some may think that they only serve themselves, but they are being fooled by the original trickster, Satan himself. As long as your priority is yourself and no one else you are serving his purposes and him indirectly. We were not put here to be his servants. We were all put on earth to serve the Living God!

Our lives are but small puffs of wind compared to eternity so why not serve the One who created it all, God! He gave us a choice to do so or not but once you realize that your life is worth nothing if you don’t believe in Him and His purposes, it takes on a completely different meaning. Because your life has meaning in service to Him!

There are so many “priorities” vying for our attention on a daily basis until it is easy to miss the one that is most important. There truly is a small voice from God which is there you just have to listen with an open mind and a contrite heart. Being willing to do whatever that voice says and not wavering will get you great rewards in the end. Read the Bible, hear the wisdom in its words, get an mp3 Bible and listen to it. You won’t be disappointed or bored and your soul will shout for joy!

Telling people about Jesus, should we do that today?

Jesus said before He went back to the Father, “Go and tell others” (paraphrased). Are we doing that? How are we doing that? Do you live according to principles that you have learned in church or from the Bible? Does your life reflect Him or does it reflect your interests and your life instead?

If you are a Christian reading this, do you tell people about your faith and why you have it? Our life, on a daily basis, should be a witness to Him and should reflect what Jesus taught His disciples while He was here. Those principles and teachings haven’t changed. The world has changed, people have changed, politics and governments have changed dramatically but God’s Word and the teachings in it have not changed.

Living according to those teachings is not easy now nor was it easy at the time Christ taught His disciples. The laws of God are still relevant today just as they were when God gave those laws to Moses before the Torah was written. Living according to those precepts has never been easy but with faith it can be done. Not in our own strength but with strength from Him.

If you are searching for answers to questions that have been bugging you, the answers you seek are in the Bible. I don’t know where to tell you to look, but there are many answers in God’s Word to any or all of life’s questions. There are some Bibles today which have topical indexes in them which will guide you to the place you may need to go.

God wants to know you from your side, He already knows you from the inside out. Once you give your heart to Him and begin living according to His principles, He will get to know you even more personally. He will be your true Father. He did form you in the womb you know! Read Romans chapter 8 and following. When you finish with it, pray for understanding and that He will reveal Himself to you even further.

Our Creator loves us all and He knows exactly when and where you are at all times in your life. The only separation that is between you and Him is YOU! Give God a call. The minutes are free and unlimited and they never expire.

To Live in His Service is to gain eternity

I don’t know how many people have thought of this before but in the interest of salvation and your immortal soul it has to be brought to mind. On a daily basis our lives are bombarded with messages from the secular world. Messages which contain violent images, hatred for Christians, war, disease, natural disasters. And this is just from our morning news! How much more are your children exposed to at school or through commercials? If they aren’t learning about Jesus from you at home where are they getting their information? What information are they getting daily? Is it something that you would be proud for them to tell Jesus about?

Children are the next generation and if we are not teaching them what they need or if we haven’t learned it well enough to teach it to them, how will they learn? What will they learn? Sometimes, that question scares me because of the amount of information out there and the ease with which our children have access to things that we would not be proud of them learning or seeing.

Eternity is a concept of time that we cannot understand because it has no end. Our service to God begins at home by leading our families to Christ so that we will have them with us for eternity. Then we have an obligation to tell others about Him and mentor them in their walk so that they will not be crowded out by the “thorns” of society.

If we are to gain eternal peace with Jesus in Heaven we must live in service to Him while we are here on earth. It doesn’t take being a martyr of any kind nor is it required of us to do anything. The most that we have to do is believe in Jesus and what He did for us and accept Him into our heart. Once that change happens, you will no longer want to go back to your “old” life. Even if you do, your new spirit will not allow you to be happy with it.

There are many ways to find out about Jesus. Go to a church and listen to the sermon, listen to AFR on the radio, read the Bible (especially the New Testament). He is the only way to get to Heaven though. At least belief in Him and asking Him into your heart is the only real way to get to Heaven and to have salvation from an eternity in Hell. Many people don’t believe in the existence of hell or that God would send you there. He doesn’t. You do. By rejecting His grace and the sacrifice made by Jesus and rejecting Jesus from your life, you condemn yourself to hell. Our spirit is eternal, whether we spend that eternity in torment or in service to Him is our choice. Personally, I would rather serve Him! I don’t like pain.

Our Moral Character is Broken

The character of our society is broken, spiritually. Is it possible to fix this?

Yes, it can be fixed but it is going to take real effort on the part of all Christian Americans to do it. It can’t be wished, or prayed away. Prayer is a good start, but by itself it will not fix the problem. Our country is going further into spiritual brokenness every day. Christians, pastors, Gideons should all be mobilizing to get the Word out to teens and the rest of our country. If we don’t, there will be more people left behind to endure the Tribulation than there should be.

God knows who will accept and who will not regardless of how much they know or hear about Jesus. But that should not stop us from getting out there and letting people know that God loves them and cares about them deeply. The time is now and it cannot be put off because our society is just getting worse. The lack of God in our schools and in everyday lives is eroding the fabric of our nation. I would say that people of even one hundred years ago would not recognize our country anymore. They would be appalled at the way our people have put God out of nearly every area of America’s government and out of people’s daily lives.

Something must be done and that something is getting Christians out as missionaries in our own land, not just going elsewhere to spread the news of Christ. It is needed here just as badly if not more because we as Americans should be the leaders of the world not following it to destruction. We were called to be lights in the darkness, and we need to be doing what Christ called us to do?

God loves all of us because He created each of us as individuals and He knows us intimately. Read His Word, pray about what you read and ask Him to show you what He wants you to do and how. All of the New Testament is good training for us but the whole Bible is good for your soul. Read it, think about the message that is contained in it.

Don’t throw it out or treat it like it is an old book that doesn’t have anything to do with today. God can see the past and the future. He knows exactly what is going to happen tomorrow or even the next minute. Give Him your life and allow Him to work through you. I can guarantee you will never regret it.

Can you know the Father and the Son?

Is it possible to know both the Creator and His Son? Yes it is, in fact it is part of being a Christian to know them both. They know us more deeply than we can ever imagine, down to the DNA which makes us who we are. Doesn’t it make sense that the creation would want to know the Creator intimately too? This is a relationship which the ruler of this world does not want to happen and will do anything to keep it from becoming the relationship we were meant to have with God and His Son, Jesus.

Satan loves to entice people into doing things which he knows that they want to do. He knows your weaknesses and how to tempt anyone into doing that which they know to be wrong. He even can entice us into doubting God’s love for us. He has been doing this for a very long time so he is very good at it. Jesus called him the “Father of lies”, and he knows how to make them sound so convincing, even using scripture in a twisted way to make it sound good.

The only way that we can withstand his assault on us on a daily basis is to submit to the Lord daily. Ask for Jesus to come into your heart and to give you the strength and faith to be able to say to Satan, “Get behind me,Satan, I have the Lord on my side”. Although I wouldn’t want him behind me and by quoting scripture he will leave you alone, for a time. But, you have to have Jesus in your heart otherwise he will come back stronger and possibly meaner than before.

When you are making a difference for God you are fighting him and he doesn’t like it, especially when, by the power of Jesus’ name and our faith in Him, we are winning the fight. I fully expect him to come after me in the days to come, but I know that in the end he has already lost regardless of what may happen to me.

Give Jesus a chance in your life and then go out and let others know what He has done for you. He will work through you and bring others to Him and the result will be even greater than you can imagine. Think about it this way, you comfort someone and pray for them in their time of need. When they come to Jesus, then they speak to someone else about Him and what He did for them. Then that person tells a couple of their friends about Jesus. Later, they tell someone else what Christ has done for them. In a few months or years, one act of kindness from you has spread out to hundreds or maybe thousands. I pray for all who read these pages in His Holy name so that He will call you to Him.