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!

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!

Merry Christmas!!!

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”   Luke 2:10-14

Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

How true that verse is today!  This is the day the Lord has chosen to send his beloved son to earth to redeem us!  What a glorious day!  A day of great mercy and compassion by our heavenly father!

We gather with our families over this joyous season, we enjoy the company of friends. We celebrate this festive time, but let us not forget what happened that blessed morning over 2000 years ago.  Our Lord and Savior was born, he came to earth for us!  That’s the true reason for all the celebration.

As Christians we need to be visible and vocal to the fact that it is CHRISTMAS that we are celebrating! Not “Happy Holidays”, not some generic spin that is put on our special season to make it more “politically correct”.  The Savior, the Light of the World, the Hope of the Ages was born this blessed day, that’s why we celebrate “CHRISTMAS”

We also have to remember that for some, it may be a time of difficulty.  For those who are morning and are alone, it’s not an easy time of year.  For those who are out of work, or are working for low wages trying to support their family, it may be hard to celebrate when you’re only concern is survival.  And there are also those who really don’t know Jesus. They have never been told about the new life that he brings, so they don’t understand the celebration.

I’m challenging all my friends and anyone who reads this blog.  Be a light shining in the darkness!  Tell others this Christmas, about the love, hope and peace that comes from Jesus Christ.  Tell them the real reason you are celebrating Christmas!

And, one last thing… go to someone who may be hurting, alone, or depressed this season, talk to them, let them know that you really do care and that they are not alone.  Let the Holy Spirit work thru you to bring them some peace this Christmas. Remember Christ came to the lonely, the sick, the outcast, the children, the poor.  These were his flock.  It is our responsibility to now in the words of Christ to Peter – “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. John 21:17

May the Lord bless you and your family this Christmas!  May the New Year bring in you a renewed hope and passion to spread the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ to all those you touch, and most of all I wish that you personally experience the deep love, compassion and peace of Jesus within you.

God bless you all and Merry Christmas!

New Poll – Lion or a Lamb? How do you view Jesus?

Please take my poll…….