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.

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.

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.

Our service...is it really all that hard?

What would you say to someone who offered you an eternity to live if you would only do one thing? Sounds crazy, right?

Well, that is exactly what God did when He sent His son to die for our sins and pay the penalty for us all. Now, if it involved some monetary gain in this life before we died, there would be more converts daily than the churches of the world could handle! But, isn't eternal life much more valuable than that!

I know that there are those who would like for me to stop posting here, but this is my calling from God Himself and I will not stop. There are too many of you out there who have not heard or maybe you are looking but don't know who to ask about these things. I am going to try to answer as many questions as I can and if I can't answer them I will find the answer somehow. Fair enough?

The people of Israel know God and know about Him but some are not willing to admit that the messiah has already come. I have heard that there are some Messianic Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah and they believe that He came when the scriptures and the New Testament say He did. I hope that this is true and I pray that some of you will let me know about it. My e-mail is posted here so you can reply to me about anything which I have stated wrong so I can correct it. If I have offended anyone, I apologize in advance and ask your forgiveness.

Our Lord and Savior is waiting for you. Please let Him come into your life, He will make it so much more rewarding than it already is! The Scriptures really do spell out how much God loves all of us, regardless of being gentile or Jew. Let Him show you just how much by coming to Him in faith as Abraham did when he believed God about the promise of a son in his old age. Give Him a chance to melt your heart and write on it with the Holy Spirit who He truly is and why He loves you!