I am the way, and the truth, and the life…

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  John 14 6-7

A verse heard and read often, but have we really heard it?

In our present day society, there are many pressures to compromise on this.  We try to be “politically correct” in all aspects of our lives, but this is one area where there can be no compromise!

If we believe the Gospel and we believe the Bible is the true word of God, then this is the answer!  If we have given ourselves to Jesus because we believe, we have seen the face of God!  Isn’t that awesome?

Ron Hutchcraft had a great message about a week ago where he explored this and I want to share some of his points with you.

In 2 Corinthians 13:5. there is a warning for us:  Listen carefully, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?”

And more importantly do we want to take the chance that Jesus will answer us like this exchange from Matthew 7:21-23.  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven…Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you'”

I love this quote from Ron – Those are some of the most chilling words in the Bible, “You knew all about Me, but I never knew you.”  A very scary thought and one I don’t want to hear on judgement day!

I know this is a divisive subject, but as I have stated at the inception of my blog, these are my writings on my spiritual journey and I am sharing them with all.  I don’t ever claim to be the authority, but I do base my beliefs totally on what I receive from the Bible.

I truly believe that the way to God and the way to heaven is in a TOTAL UNEQUIVOCAL belief in Jesus Christ.  I believe that He shed His blood on the cross as total payment for my sins, past, present and future. I have given myself wholly to His will for me.

With this said, and not trying to insult anyone but sticking to my belief, unless you have given yourself to Christ and you truly believe that He died for your sins, you will not be saved on the day of judgement! Period.

Those who believe that there is a “higher power”, Buddha, Hindu, and yes Muslim also, and who do not believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, I’m afraid are going to be left behind. Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not saying there are not good people who believe other than Christ, there are.  And I’m also not saying that there are not some very bad “professed” Christians out there.

What I am saying is that, as said in scripture, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,” John 3:36

I also heard another great point this week, I don’t recall a name to give credit, but still it is a good statement.

For someone on the fence arguing the point of believing, I would argue this…Being a believer is a no-lose position!  For if you believe in Christ, and, He is who He says He is, what a great thing!  Everything He taught us is going to happen.  And on the flip side of it, if He isn’t then you’re in the same position you started in and have lost nothing.

This week’s post was a challenging one, but one I felt driven by the Holy Spirit to post.  My faith will not waiver, my trust will not waiver…….there is nothing Satan or anyone can do to me to make me waiver in my love, trust, faith in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I wish you the peace, love, joy and contentment that can be found in a commitment to Christ.  May He come to your heart and my you surrender yourself to His plan for your life.  I assure you it will be a journey better than your wildest imagination!

May this week bring you the peace and the love of Jesus Christ!

I’m knocking, will you let me in?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. – Revalations 3:20

What  a great invitation!

Jesus is at your door and wants to dine with you!  Are you willing to let Him in?

I love this picture, Jesus is at the door knocking, but if you notice, there is no knob on His side of the door!  He can only come in if you are willing to let Him in!

He won’t barge into your life, He won’t rush in the door and yell “I’m here!”  He won’t come in uninvited.  He just knocks softly and patiently waits.  And He is always waiting.  He won’t knock and run away, He just waits.

How often do we become impatient with each other, we try to plan events or we expect others to be there and accept us no matter where or when, but then we become angry or bitter when they don’t open the door for us.

Haven’t you had occations where you’ve tried to do something with others and you call or visit them on several occations but they either aren’t there or don’t have the time for you?  How do we feel?  Usually upset to say the least and at worst angry! Sometimes even to the point where it threatens the relationship.

Shouldn’t we be more like Jesus?  How many times have we shut Him out of our lives?  How many times have we said, “Sorry Lord, but I have other plans for tonight and You aren’t really part of them?  How many times have we hurt Him with these actions?  I know that He is a forgiving God, but when I think of this I can’t help but feel bad.  The one who can help us the most, the one who love us the most and at times I just leave Him out in the cold.  Makes me ashamed……..

Then I look at the time when I do open the door to Him…WOW… what took me so long?  He fills my life!  He makes me feel truly alive!  When I open the door and let His Spirit in, I feel like I can take on anything.  There is nothing that the evil one can throw at me that can hurt me or cause me to stumble because the Lord is with me.

I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

Great verse to amplify this – If I open up and let Christ into my life, I truly can do all things thru Him who give me strenght!

My prayer for you this week is that you truly open the “door” to your heart to the Lord Jesus.  May you open to Him, freely invite Him into your heart and into your life.  May He fill you with His spirit so that His love flows into you and through you as you encounter others.  May the world see that you have opened the door to Jesus and that they see Him in all you do!

Friends, God bless you all!

Praise You With A Song

Songs and singing in worship, another area that I’ve been watching.  Why is it that we have no problem singing with the radio or out having a good time with friends, but we don’t open our mouths and sing in church?  Sorry, I love to sing in church!  I don’t think I’m very good but when I’m in church I’m singing the Lords praises with all my power!  For those around me this could be a challenge, but sorry you’re going to hear me anyway.

I feel that song and praise are an escential part of the worship service.  My take is that if you don’t participate in the singing, you’re missing a very important part of the service.  Song and praise has been an very important part of worship going back to the Old Testament, and to top it off you see written that it was the men  who did most of the singing and made most of the worship songs!  Men where are you now?

We don’t need to look far to find examples of this.  Just go to the Psalms – the songs of David!  When you open your bible to the Psalms, often there are notes explaining how the instruments are to be played and how each is sung and lead.

Look at 1 Chronicles 6:31-32 These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there. They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

And, 1 Chronicles 15:16-24  David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals. So the Levites appointed Heman son of Joel; from his brothers, Asaph son of Berekiah; and from their brothers the Merarites, Ethan son of Kushaiah;  and with them their brothers next in rank: Zechariah, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.  The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals;  Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyres according to “alamoth,” and Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel and Azaziah were to play the harps, directing according to “sheminith.” Kenaniah the head Levite was in charge of the singing; that was his responsibility because he was skillful at it.  Berekiah and Elkanah were to be doorkeepers for the ark.  Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer the priests were to blow trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also to be doorkeepers for the ark.

Nehemiah 12:45-47 They performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did also the singers and gatekeepers, according to the commands of David and his son Solomon. For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there had been directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.  So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel contributed the daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers.

These were important duties!  Why do we shirk on them now!

And don’t think these were only “ancient” teachings of the Old Testament!

Let’s go forward to Ephesians 5:19 singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.

I want you to think about this the next time you’re in church.  Since we believe the Bible is divinely inspired, infallible, and all-sufficient, it is our sole authority for all that we do.  We believe we cannot add to or take away from the Scriptures, nor can we preach another gospel than that contained in the New Testament. We are to be singing and praising the Lord with all our might!  We shouldn’t feel ashamed, or self conscious about how we sing or how loud we sing.  We are to sing out with joy and thanksgiving, raising our hands in praise to the Lord.

So, here’s my warning! If you sit near me or stand near me when I am at a worship service, you are going to hear me!  And don’t be surprised to see my hands go up in praise either because I do love the Lord and I love Jesus Christ and I want Him to know how much I do love Him and thank Him for all He has done for me.

I pray that you think about this and that more so you pray about this, that the Lord will open your heart and fill you with so much joy that you cannot help but sing out His praises!

Sing to the Lord a new song!  Sing it from your heart!

God Bless you all!

I’m so glad Jesus likes golf!

There is a term used in golf called a mulligan.  The best way I can describe this is a “do over”!  That’s why I believe Jesus likes the game of golf!  You see when you’re playing golf with your friends, there are times when you have a terrible shot and they either tell you to take a “Mulligan” or you ask them to allow you to take a “Mulligan”.

In our human walk, isn’t it nice to know that Jesus grants us many, many “Mulligans”?  And to top it off, many of the times he grants us one, we REALLY, REALLY don’t deserve a do over!

It is such a comfort and relief to know that my belief that Jesus died for all of my sins and all of my mess ups, that I am forgiven if I believe in him through the power of his blood sacrifice for me!

“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do. Acts 13:38-39

Also, lets look at John 8:1-11,

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd.

“Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?”

They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Here we find Jesus with a woman who had sinned terribly, but yet Jesus in his great mercy has forgiven her.  He gave her a do over – “Neither do I (condemn her) go and sin no more”

That is truly amazing and truly inspiring.  I am so undeserving of His grace but He loves me that much, that I too, can have a “Mulligan” to try again tomorrow

Friends, we all try hard to do what is right and good, but as humans we all mess up, we all make mistakes and we all fall short before God.  The great thing is that thru Jesus Christ, and what he did for us on that day, we are forgiven, if we believe.  We are forgiven by Gods grace and mercy and given the chance to have a Mulligan, a “do over”.

I have one more request, if you are a reader of this blog and have not given yourself to Christ, I encourage you to really pray on this and take that step.  It will profoundly change your life, that I promise you, because I can tell you He has changed mine and it is fantastic!

If you ever need someone to talk to about your faith or have any questions, please feel free to contact me, my email for this site is thecatholicdropout@comcast.net

May His grace and mercy be over you in this next week and always.

Why do you go to church?

I’ve been observing and pondering this for several months now.  So now I’m going to pose the question to all of my readers?

Why do you go to church?

Do you go because the sermon/message is short?
Do you go because the minister gives a great message that you can relate to?
Is it because the church is air conditioned?
Maybe you like the hymn selection and the singing?
Or even quite possibly, the food! Donuts and coffee before service or maybe the pot luck lunch afterward!

Well, I’m going to challenge you now.  Isn’t the REAL reason for going to church to spend time with the Lord, in worship (songs and prayers) and in the Word?  Aren’t we called to church, not for our physical needs or comforts or likes, but to further develop our relationship with the Lord?

I’ve observed people coming to church or more like not coming to church depending upon who was giving the message?  I’ve seen families consistently not come to church if someone other than the minister was holding service or even if there were a guest minister or a special program.

I’ve also seen families totally stay away from church because they either don’t like the minister or feel his or her service is too long, the message too controversial or challenges their comfort too much, or they don’t like something another family has done; only to return to church once that person is no longer there!

These actions I’m really wrestling with!  I know it is not my place to make judgement, and I also know that we all will have to answer to the Lord for our actions or our in-actions during the time we are given here on this earth, but I am also human and I do notice these things and wonder.

Again, I ask you – Why do you come to church?

Is it for self gratification?  Is it out of a sense of obligation?  Is it to socialize?  Is it to put on the appearance of an “upstanding church goer”?

OR

Do you truly love the Lord and cherish the time you can spend with Him?  Do you get so excited and pumped up to be in the house of the Lord that you really, really want to shout and sing His praises? Do you want to be there to ask forgiveness for something that is troubling you or to put you burdens upon Him as He instructs us to?  These I feel are true reasons to be in His house.  Any other reason, is purely our selfishness!

In my humanness, I find I really do get upset when I see what appears to be personal agendas in how people worship.  It does bother me when there is the appearance that factors outside of a personal relationship the God Almighty dictate whether a person or family comes to church or not.  I am constantly praying for his guidance on this.

As, I return to writing the blogs, I ask you to pray over this issue.  We are at a time in history where we truly need to refocus our attention to God.  We all need to develop a very personal relationship with Him, through His son Jesus Christ, and allow Him to guide our lives.

So I’ll ask you for a third and final time…Why do you come to church?

Just remember, you may get asked that question once you leave this earth, and the consequences of how you can answer may determine eternity!

God bless you all, thank you for your patience, sorry for the delay between blogs and there will be a new post next week!

The 4 a.m. wake up call …

I have to admit, that I’ve come to the conclusion and have accepted the fact that the Lord likes the hour of 4 a.m.! Once again He decided to wake me up at what I always thought was an un-Godly hour because he had plans for me, plans much different than mine. Mine would have involved at least another 2 hours of sleep, but apparently he had work he wanted me to do.

First he wanted me to finish what I started last night, and that was to complete and submit my application for admission to the Licensed Local Pastor program. I am praying that it will be accepted and that I can move forward on my calling to ministry. I ask for your prayers as I begin this step in my life.

Then he had me make contact with someone that’s been heavy on my heart for several years now. I pray that I used the words that He wanted and that it does open the doors to reconciliation.

And lastly, He said………..WRITE! So here I am writing and rambling a bit.

This week in church I had the privilege to lead service and bring the message, so today I thought I’d share the message I gave with all of you. Some of you have heard it already, so forgive me for repeating, but some of you haven’t.

The title of my message was Biblical 3’s.

As a born and raised Catholic, one of the things that we did not do was spend a lot of time reading the Bible or studying the Bible. When I first started reading the Bible, it began to occur to me there were a lot of 3’s appearing.

• In the Old Testament:

God is omniscient, omnipotent, & omnipresent:
omniscient – is the capacity to know everything infinitely, In Latin, omnis means “all” and sciens means “knowing”.
omnipotent – is unlimited power.
omnipresent – the ability to be “present everywhere at the same time”

Noah had three sons (Gen 6:10) and Job had three daughters (Job 1:2; cf. 42:13);

Israelite men were required to appear before the Lord three times in a year: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles” (Deut 16:16)

In the instructions for making a burnt offering there are three types of animals that could be used: the bullock from the herd, the lamb or goat from the flock, and the turtle-dove or pigeon from among the fowl.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;

• There are also some interesting occurances of 3’s in our every day life – coincidence? I don’t believe so…

The basis of all things, the atom, has 3 basic parts, proton, neutron & electron

The basic elements – earth, wind & fire 3 again

To survive we need 3 things – food, water, & air

Properties of matter – liquid, solid, gaseous i.e. steam, water & ice

Primary colors – red, blue & yellow

• In the New Testament:

The Trinity – Father, Son & Holy Spirit
It is the number of the Godhead, it stands for the triune God. It is formed by 1+1+1, but if the 1’s are multiplied, the result is still 1. So God is three in one and one in three.

When Jesus parents left Him behind, how many days did they have to search before they found Him? Three days.

When Jesus was driven into the wildness to be tempted of Satan, how many times did Satan tempt Him? Three times was Jesus temped by the devil.

Jesus answered Satan’s threefold temptation by citing three scriptural passages Matt 4:1-11).
Jesus raised three people from the dead. The only son of a widow from Nain [Luke:11-4]. The daughter of the religious leader Jairus [5:22-43]. Lazarus [John 11:1-44].

When Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed three times to His Father to remove this cup if at all possible, after the third time Jesus collected Himself and said not My will, but Thou will be done.

Jesus fell three times on his way to be crucified

Jesus was crucified the third hour [Mark 15:25].

When Jesus was crucified how many do we see being executed? Jesus and one on each side of him, bringing the total to three.

Three nails

At Jesus’ trial, how many times did Peter deny his Lord? He deny Him three times. Each denial was for one in the Trinity.

After His resurrection, how many times was Peter asked to confirm his love? Three times one for his denial of the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit.

Paul experienced three shipwrecks (2 Cor 11:28)

How long did Jesus ministry last? Three years.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 speaks of how “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two.”

If you read Ecclesiastes 4:8-12, it discusses the struggles of a singular person, and the benefits of two people working/being together, but it ends with the single line above – “A threefold cord cannot quickly be torn in two” I believe this was telling us, that if any two of us keep the Lord, keep Christ, woven into the cord of our lives, we will be stronger and we will be closer and we will never be separated from each other or from him. It was showing us that we need to keep Christ in our lives or the things of the world will pull us apart. I used two young people in our church to illustrate this principal.

I also used another example. I had two items, side by side on the table with a cord between them. The items were touching. The cord represented God/Christ in the relationship. This represented, a relationship between two people, could be a husband and wife, mother/daughter, father/son, you and your job, whatever kind of relationship.
As with most new relationships, they start out really close, happy, fun, but as time goes on, the world starts to impose, we get busy, we get distracted, we get tired, and we may even forget that God/Christ is still present. This was represented by the items starting to get further and further apart. All this while stretching out the cord that binds them. If this goes on for too long, and the relationship drift too far apart and Christ is forgotten, the cord can become frayed or even snap, leaving the relationship broken. But there is good news here! The cord is Christ! If we keep Christ in our lives, if we keep Him as the center of the cord and if we start to elevate Him, what naturally happens? As the center of the cord (Christ) gets higher in our lives, the space between the items or the relationships, gets closer together! Christ brings our relationships back, He brings and keeps us close, He binds our lives with his love! We need to keep Him the center of our lives!

The relationship of 3, has also been illustrated with a triangle with Christ at the top and the husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend at the bottom points. If the husband and wife remain at the bottom without Christ, all they have is a straight line, and they usually are going in opposite directions. But, if the relationship has Christ as it’s focal point and they actively keep their relationship focused on Christ, the closer they move up the triangle toward Christ, the shorter the space between them and the closer they get to each other.

I know this may be harder to visualize without the actual demonstrations, but my main focus of the “3’s” was this. No matter what the relationship, be it husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, mother/daughter, father/son, you/work, etc. There is and should be a third party involved and that is Christ! If you keep Christ as the focus of your group of 3, you can never go wrong and you relationship will remain strong.

As in Romans 8:38 – For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to be, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Friends, may you welcome the third person into your relationships. May the joy and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen the bond in your relationships and may His presence be a visible sign to those you touch that He is present and He is in control.

God bless you all!

Christ be Beside Me!

I should know better by now, but it still amazes me how we tend to feel good about ourselves when we think we have it all together. When we think and feel like everything in our lives is coming together and things are going to settle down and we can relax and enjoy for awhile.

Guess what, that’s being human!  In reality, that’s when you need to put on the helmet, strap on the seat belt, grit your teeth and hang on, because the road is about to get bumpy and the battle is about to begin!

God’s plan is not for us to be comfortable!  God’s plan is not for man to “feel good” about his situation, God’s plan is for us to worship him!  It’s for us to take him fully into our hearts and allow him to use us as He sees fit, to use us to complete His plans for us.  He wants us to take care of each other, wants us to make a difference in the world by showing others His love and the freedom it brings.

The hard part for us as humans and especially as Americans is that we’ve become complacent in our love and Worship of Christ!  We live “the good life”! The poorest amoung us would be extreemly wealthy in any third world country where survival is the only concern on a daily basis.

We have chosen to remove Christ from our lives, our schools and our government.  When we do this we lose the blessings that He has given us in the past.  We need to wake up and come back to Him, we need to return to the core values of our forefathers.

Our God is a God who is slow to anger, but whose wrath is mighty!  We have been putting His patience to the test for too long and the time may be short before we see his wrath.

The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.  Nahum 1:3

I hate to sound negative today, but I worry where we are heading as a nation.  I worry about what the future holds for my children and grandchildren.  I pray the the Lord Jesus will come into the hearts of our leaders and more importantly into the hearts of all Americans that we turn back to Him.  That we allow him to use us all to fulfill His plan.

You’ve heard this before from me on many occations, when we try to control our lives and the lives of others, I guarantee you we will find a way of messing it up.  When we let God control our lives, when we let Him lead us in our ways, everything works out for the good of all.

21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; 23 who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.  Isaiah 40:21-31

I pray to the Lord Jesus, that He will come into ALL our hearts.  That He opens our eyes that we truly see what is around us.   That He causes us to really let Him work within us, use us to right the wrongs we see, lift up those in need, spread the Good News to all we touch.

Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,

Christ be behind me, King of my heart.

Christ be within me, Christ be below me,

Christ be above me, never to part.

Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,

Christ all around me, shield in the strife.

Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,

Christ in my rising, light of my heart.

Christ be in all hearts thinking about me,

Christ be on all tongues telling of me.

Christ be the vision in eyes that see me,

In ears that hear me Christ ever be.

But my greatest wish today is that when someone encounters you or I that they no longer see us as the individual, but they see and feel the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ!

That is my prayer and wish for you this day, have a blessed, Christ filled day today!

It’s your choice! Choose wisely!

Last week I talked about the great love of our God and about how wonderful that can be.  This week I thought I’d look at the flip side of that story.It is true that we have a wonderful, loving, forgiving and powerful God.  This give us great hope, but there is also a side of God that I don’t want to be on.  There is a side of God that is there for those who choose to reject Him.  God’s wrath is reserved for those who reject Him and don’t recognize His power and the great gifts He has given us!We don’t have to go far in the bible to find reference to this!Genesis –  and the fall of Adam and Eve. Genesis Chapter 3

Genesis 3
The Fall
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

the new testament –

Romans 2:5-8
“ But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of Gods wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed.”

Romans 12:19
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

God has given us free will, he allows us to chose “life” with him or eternal “death and suffering” should we chose to reject him and his plans for us. He loves us but the problem is when we reject his love.

The fall in Genesis is where sin entered the world. We all inherited this sin and are doomed as humans to commit many more. But Christ came into the world to save us from this sin and all of our sins, past, present and future; if we choose to accept Him as our Lord and Savior.  It’s our choice, he will not force himself on us, we must choose… eternal life with Him and the Father in heaven…or eternal suffering in the fires of hell if we choose to reject him.

It’s your choice!  Choose wisely!

Have a blessed week!

Psst: it’s me, that little voice, you know temptation….

Hi everyone, I’m back again!  First I must ask forgiveness again.  Forgiveness from the Lord and forgiveness from all of you who follow my blog.  My humanness set in again and I’ve been lax on my weekly blog posts.  I let the daily activities of life wear me down and I let them “talk” me out of writing.  That little voice in my head would say, it’s ok to put it off today, you can write tomorrow.  then tomorrow came and the day was full and again, he’d say it’s ok, you can do it tomorrow, it’s alright.

That leads me to this weeks blog.  How often does Satan use this method to divert us from what we know is right?  How often does he use that little voice to tell us, it’s ok you don’t need to go to church this week, it’s only one Sunday you can go next week, God will understand.  OR it’s ok if you take those pens from work, they can get more, no one will miss them.  Or its ok to take a sneak peak of those “websites” that you know you shouldn’t be on, no one’s watching. He’s always looking for those little cracks to gain a foothold!  He’s always looking for the little things he can use to get us to compromise our values and principals.

Look at Matthew 4:1-11 (also in Luke 4: 1-13) – 1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ “ 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,”he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ” ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ “ 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him,“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ “11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

In the verse 2 we see the Lord was hungry, he had just finished fasting for 40 days, Satan saw this as a possible weakness and immediately struck!  Turn the stones to bread… but because of Jesus faith he rebuked him.  Then in verse 6 the devil tries again, he thought that because Jesus used scripture to rebuke him in verse 4 that he’d try and trick him with a twisting of scripture meaning. “for it is written: “He will command….” But again Jesus rebukes him with a different scripture more powerful verse.. “it is also written “Do not put he Lord your God to the test”.  And lastly Satan trys to “buy” Christ – “All this I will give you” and Christ has had enough and dismisses Satan with one last rebuke – “Away from me Satan! For it is written “Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

Oh to be that strong in the faith!  We continue to strive to have that faith, at times it is shaken, at times we fall, at times we fail, but isn’t it great to know that He is always there to pick us up if we reach out to Him?  Isn’t it great to know that His love for us never fails!  He wants us to be with Him, He wants us to know the joy and peace that He has available to us through Him and with the Father!

Everyday I try to give Him glory and praise first! He is an awesome God, a forgiving God and a loving God.  It is such a joy to give Him thanks and praise for everything He has done for me.  He’s seen the good in me, even when I’ve been pretty ugly and bad to look at.  He still loves me even when I fail.  Knowing that, just makes me want to get to know Him more, makes me want to be more like Him, makes me want to do His work with the time I have left on this earth.

Kind of sounds like a child/parent relationship doesn’t it?  Do you remember as a little child following your mom or dad and wanting to do things or be just like them? This is exactly how I see a healthy relationship with the Lord.  We are all His children and the more we know Him the more we want to be like Him!

My prayer for you today, is that you come to the Lords presence as a child.  May the childlike wonder and desire to emulate Him overwhelm you and enable you to grow into the person that God truly wants you to be!

God bless you all!  See you next week!

The Bible – Life’s instruction book!

“…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”– Ephesians 6:17

Today I just completed a milestone on my “life” to do list!  Today I finished reading the Bible from cover to cover.  This project took me two years, but I made it.  If you have never seriously read the Bible, you need to give it a try.  It isn’t an easy task! There are definitely some difficult reading sections, like the genealogy sections and the book of Numbers where it seems very repetitive, but the Bible is a very interesting book.  There are family battles and struggles, there are love stories, there are great battles between kingdoms, and there are miracles, natural disasters and stories of great triumphs.  There are life instructions in Proverbs and there are reassurances in the Psalms.  There are stories of dynasties and then there is the Greatest Story Ever Told, the birth, life, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Growing up and always going to church, I heard many parts of the Bible each week, short clips of what can be found in this book.  These weekly readings gave everyone some of the basic bible stories, such as the Genesis story, Noah and the Ark, the Wedding feast, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude and most of the story of Jesus’ life, just to name a few.  But there are many, many more interesting stories and facts in the Bible that I rarely heard!  These stories were fascinating to me, to read through the entire story of Jonah, David, and King Solomon.  To follow the writings of Paul on his missionary journeys, just reading his writings are captivating.  This follower of Christ endured so much to spread the Good News!  He was beaten many times, run out of many towns, arrested, thrown in prison, shipwrecked, bitten by a poisonous snake, but never relented on spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.  What an example for all of us.  How many of you are like me at times, a little hesitant to speak when the topic of religion comes up in a non-church setting?  I am much better now in speaking out; there was a time when I would just keep my mouth shut, but no more.  When we continue to stay silent, then we slowly lose the right to proclaim our faith.  That’s one lesson that I’ve learned on this journey!  I will not be silent any longer, I will speak for those that can’t and I will act for those whose voice has been silenced!

As I stated in the title, this is life’s instruction book. Better yet, life’s “How to Book”!  There is guidance on raising your family, how to best use your finances, how to deal with heartbreak, loneliness, sickness. If there is something you question, you can find guidance in the Bible.  There is no life topic that is not covered.  And to top it all, it instructs you on how to get to Heaven!

Best of all, we Christians, believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God.  What better way is there to live your life than with the instruction book from God himself?

One of the most intriguing and enlightening things I found in reading the bible was that many times, God didn’t work with the most powerful people of the time. He didn’t pick the strongest, smartest, and wealthiest or best looking people!  Most of the time he chose the exact opposite! Abraham was a shepherd, David was a shepherd.  Moses was a shepherd, (I think he had a soft spot for shepherds!) became a slave to the Egyptians, and to top it off, had a speech impediment.  Gideon was a farmer, John the Baptist was probably looked at as a crazy man with what he wore, and what he ate! Peter was a fisherman.  God used these “common” people to do great things!  Abraham was the father of all of Israel; David defeated the giant Goliath, became a great King of Israel and was the ancestor of Christ! Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt by parting the Red Sea, brought water from a stone, and through whom God gave the 10 commandments. John the Baptist in my mind’s eye must have looked like a wild man!  He traveled throughout the land clothed in camelhair, eating honey and locusts; I’m sure looking very unkempt and sounding, to many of the people of that time, like a crazy lunatic.  But he was the “set up” man.  He knew he was to make way the path for the coming of the Lord.  He knew the Jewish law, he knew the prophesies, and he knew his purpose.  God used him in great ways.  Gideon was another fascinating figure to me.  Here was a farmer who the Lord sent into battle with about 300 soldiers against thousands of Midianites and they were victorious. And most of us all know a little about Peter, the fisherman.  He’s an interesting character!  He strikes me as the good but naive friend.  He always speaks up, usually has an opinion and more than not the one who can find trouble without looking too hard! But he becomes the rock, the solid one that the Lord uses to build the church.  I find he’s easy to relate to in that he has the traits of most of us, all the good and bad points, but yet it’s very comforting that the Lord still uses him as the anchor for us.

So if you’re looking for a book to read that has an abundance of adventure, intrigue, and mystery; or if you’re looking for the “How to, book of life”, pick up the Bible and start reading!  You don’t have to try and read from front to back as I just finished, just open it up and start reading a section.  Proverbs isn’t a bad start if you want to do a monthly read, there are 31 chapters, one for each day of a month, but as I’ve described there are many wonderful things to be found.

Pick up the Bible, it’s a life changer! You’ll be glad you did!

God bless you all this coming week!