Monday, March 31, 2014

A Lazy Christian

Greetings My Friends;
Just a few comments about being a lazy Christian. I am writing about me, and not judging someone else. You may recognize a little of yourself. Dare to face the truth if you do.
For the last number of years, I have had some occasions when I was feeling like I was not a very good Christian. I felt condemned, and useless, and was convinced that there was no way, God could use me.
I followed the old tried and true words to rebuke satan. I didn't have very much success. I prayed and felt better, but it didn't last. I would be tormented for days at a time.
One day I felt like I got an answer in my heart. satan didn't have to condemn me, I was doing it to myself. I was listening to his lies about my faith. He was telling me that I don't measure up to what a real Christian is. He was telling me that whatever I did, really didn't matter much. I was wasting my time.
The truth, as I discovered later, was quite different. He was causing my lazy streak to exercise itself by planting all that negativity. He knows that if you get a little lazy about your faith, he has a chance to bring you down the rest of the way. Remember as I did finally, he can only do what you allow him to do.
I believe one of his favorite tools, is to try to plant doubt about prayers that have not manifested yet. Once he can convince you of that, he invites you to a pity party with you as guest of honor. While this is going on, you get even lazier about your faith, and sink deeper.
I have been there. Praise the Lord, the Holy Spirit told me to read the Word. It seems that as soon as I opened that precious book, peace came over me like an impenetrable blanket. Nothing could touch me except the word of God.
I was reminded of a couple of things. God does not see things the way we do. He sees our hearts and forgives. The other thing is, God says we are not to judge anyone. That my friends, includes judging ourselves. We are to do what we know to be right, and leave the results to Him.
Now, any time I feel any negativity, I pick up the word, and soak in the peace. If you have trouble rebuking satan, remember, just read the word. He will run in terror.
Be in peace my friends.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh causes face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
Yahweh lift up his face onto you and appoint unto you peace.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Look To Jesus

Greetings My Friends;
Have you ever really noticed what you are bombarded with on TV or in junk mail?
Commercials are telling you about all types of miracle solutions to problems you didn't even know you had. It kind of reminds me of stories about the old snake oil peddlers from years ago.
Advertisers prey on people's problems. If no problem exists, they will create one in your mind. One product will take care of a memory problem you didn't even know you had until  they told you that you had one. Improve your eyesight, sleep better, cure all your ailments, etc.
It seems a favorite target is the people who are overweight. A number of companies peddle what amounts to a magic bullet. Take their pills and lose as much weight as you want. You don't even have to change your lifestyle.
As with all of the sure cures, the only thing that gets better is the company's bottom line. A few people do get better in their own minds, because they believe the product works, and that eliminates the fear that caused the problem in the first place.
Well my friends, I am here to tell you about a real cure for any problem you have. It won't even cost you a penny. That solution is Jesus Christ. You see, God created you absolutely perfect in every way. satan messed everything up, when he caused Adam and Eve to sin.
God was not very happy where that left man, so He sent His only son to make everything right again. Jesus paid a heavy price to redeem us. He suffered, died and rose again in order to make us right with God.
Many of us don't realize what that meant to us. Through Jesus suffering and death, we again became what God created us to be. However, satan still operates in this world. He is trying to sell you things that he says will solve all your problems. The cost for what he sells is eternal damnation.
Jesus on the other hand can and will take care of all your problems. The cost? Believe and trust in Him. Besides receiving all He has for you, He also includes eternal life.
Jesus Christ is the real deal. Don't fall for a cheap imitation. It is your choice, how you live, and where you spend eternity.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
Yahweh lift up His face up to you, and appoint unto you peace.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Treasure In Heaven

Greetings My Friends;
In Matthew 6:19 – 24 it tells us about storing treasure in heaven rather than on Earth. These verses are like many others in the Bible. When you see them you really have to think about them. If you meditate on them, the truth will come out.
In that same set of verses it tells you that you cannot serve two masters, God and money. Where your riches are so will your heart be.
A typical meditation might be like the following. It is written in Matthew 19:24 Jesus speaking "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God".
In pursuing wealth, almost without exception you must dedicate your life to it. God and family are usually left in the shadows. Wealth by itself is subject to laws of one kind or another. Wealth gives you no peace, because you worry about keeping it, or making more. It does not fill the emptiness you feel in your heart. What it usually costs you is eternal life when you die, your family while you are alive, and a life without peace.
This subject is so much bigger than a page or two, and requires someone much more knowledgeable than me. Read Ecclesiastes to get a much better picture of what I am trying to say.
Let's go on with the treasures in heaven part. The treasures naturally start with being there. When you pursue the kingdom of God first, with all your heart, you will be there.
As far as the other treasures you store in heaven, here are some of what I think they are. Love for your fellow man: feed the hungry, help the poor , pray for the sick, the generous to those in need, witness for Jesus. Any and all unselfish acts on your part add to the treasure pile.
Kind, thoughtful acts toward another person, also add to the pile. To put it in its simplest terms, love the Lord with all your heart, and follow and do what Jesus taught us to do to the best of your ability.
You may fall short a number of times, but unlike treasure on earth, treasure in heaven will not diminish because you made a mistake. On earth value can drop, but in the Lord's kingdom, his exchange rate never goes down.
When you dedicate your life to piling up treasure in heaven, you are also serving God. You are a rich man, that does enter the kingdom of heaven.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
Yahweh lift up his face unto you, and appoint unto you peace.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

What Bible Heroes Did

Greetings My Friends;
Many of us condemn ourselves at one time or another. In spite of being under grace, our thinking sometimes reverts to the law. We feel guilty about all kinds of things. Sometimes we create more serious problems, just because we worry so much. Worry blocks prayer, and causes even more doubt and condemnation that we put on ourselves.
I believe that God is grieved by these actions. He gave us His son for our forgiveness. When we carry on the way I just described, it is like telling God that we don't trust Him, and it makes it look like what Jesus did had no value. Time to rethink and trust.
Old Testament heroes had all sorts of problems. Being under the law didn't help them very much. When we look at some of the things they did, and were forgiven for, we should realize even more  how blessed we are being under grace. I name a few of the problems they had, as an illustration,and is not as a condemnation of them.
Abraham was a liar, and had a child with Hagar because he didn't trust God completely.
Isaac was a deceiver and a cheat.
Jacob was a deceiver and a cheat.
Moses was a murderer.
David was an adulterer and a murderer.
Solomon allowed idols in spite of what God said.
They were quite a group, but God did look at them with carnal eyes. They paid for their sins, and God forgave them. If you get technical about it, if they went by God's standards of sin, they were probably pretty horrible.
If we look at ourselves, we are probably as guilty or worse than they were. We however are under grace not the law. Jesus died and rose again to forgive all our sins and make salvation possible. In many ways, we have a real advantage over them, because after Jesus, we became a lot more aware of God.
Grace is not a license to sin, but a reflection of God's love for us. Treasure it, and make praise and thanksgiving, a big part of your life.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Yahweh bless the and keep thee
Yahweh causes face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee
Yahweh lift up his face unto thee, and appoint unto thee peace.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Stretch Your Faith

Greetings My Friends;
Faith is quite a subject to meditate on. Let's look at a couple of ways people deal with it.
Quite a few people will tell you that they don't have faith. These same people will worry about every little thing. They will tell you that they don't know how to meditate.
As you probably noticed by now, worry is negative meditation. Being so sure everything will go wrong, is faith in the negative. Same effort, different results.
As usual I have a theory. This concerns negative faith. It is much easier in many people's minds to have no faith. You don't have to read and trust the word. You don't have to be disappointed if your prayers are not answered. You think miracles don't happen anymore. Negativity becomes like a security blanket, very comfortable.
In some ways, having real faith is like being adventurous. You read the Word, and believe what it says. You start to exercise your faith with little things, such as a parking space. I did.
As you study more and expand your prayers, you start getting bigger results.You might consider a prayer unanswered if it doesn't turn out the way you expected. When you think about it, you can see it makes sense that it turned out the way it did. So your faith does not go into a tailspin.
No sincere prayer goes unanswered. You will get to the point where you can write down a prayer that is so detailed that most people would say it is impossible. They probably don't know, that nothing is impossible with God.
I find that writing a prayer down, in detail, and quoting a couple of Scriptures that fit the situation brings a prayer to life. After you write it, pray it out loud, and you put it into the spirit world where it can work. Immediately thank God that you have received your answer, and just believe. Thank God every day for the answer to prayer, and speak only positive words. Faith is made to be stretched, because that Is the way, God made it.
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
Yahweh lift up His face unto you, and appoint unto you peace

Monday, March 24, 2014

Plant Seeds In Your Heart

Greetings My Friends;
I watch about a dozen preachers regularly. I have boosted Amazon's book business. I am  on a quest to learn as much as I can about everything connected with the Bible, such as faith, and prayer.
As you can imagine it takes a little bit of sorting out. I stick to the old-time preachers for most of the books. People like, Bosworth, Wigglesworth, Lake, Spurgeon, plus newer ones like Hagan, and Copeland.
I managed to get quite a bit that has really helped me personally. My personal faith has really grown since I have been doing this. I have come out of my comfort zone, and into something incredibly exciting. As I said recently, I thought I had faith. That was nothing compared to now. Now when I pray, I have so much faith that you could not not talk me out of it.
With help from the Holy Spirit for understanding, you can read something a man of faith wrote, and something clicks in your head. You can see how what you just read applies so well to what you are learning.
Even if only one thing in the entire book has that kind of an impact on you, it is well worth it. Having your faith blossom is worth whatever price you pay. I honestly believe that when you really make the effort to put the kingdom of God first, the Holy Spirit has much more to work with, and makes you much more receptive.
Faith in prayers can become pretty easy. Forget what your carnal mind thinks, and just put your faith and trust in what the Bible says. Instead of just reading that Jesus loves you, you will begin to feel it.
Jesus loves you
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you
Yahweh lift up His face unto you, and appoint unto you peace

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Say Only What You Believe

Greetings My Friends;
We have had several messages on the power of words. The importance of the right words cannot be exaggerated.
Many times you get negative thoughts in your mind. They were probably put there by satan trying to get you to accept those words. Don't say anything except, satan, those words are your words not mine. If you say his words anyway, even as a joke, they open the door for him.
It is a fact that if you hear your self say something, it will make a big impression on you. It all boils down to what I call the spiritual world. Doctors might call it your subconscious.
You are a spirit. Your spirit operates in the spiritual world. The spirit world operates in a very precise way, kind of like a computer, only better. The spirit must be trained in order to bring results. The spiritual  world acts on your words to make things happen in the natural world. It takes every word you say and starts to act on it.
The big problem comes up when the spirit world gets words that can cause harm to you in some way. What I mean is, it cannot separate real words from unreal words an example is "my job is killing me" or "this makes me sick". The spirit tries to act on everything, because it cannot judge if you are serious or not.
You can get the spirit so confused with constant junk talk, that it cannot act effectively on prayer words. The best results will come if you train the spirit only with words you believe. You will find prayers answered much sooner, and a lot more peace and joy in your life.
Jesus Loves You
Yahweh bless you and keep you
Yahweh cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you
Yahweh lift up His face onto you, and appoint unto you peace

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Nit Picking The Bible 1

Greetings My Friends;
Probably one of the most common forms of nit picking occurs when people don't understand something, and their imaginations run wild trying to show the Bible is wrong.
Taking something out of context distorts what is written. Whether it is the Bible, or war and peace, you can take something and make it look like the opposite of what it meant.
For instance. Someone I know called one day and said that he and his brother were disturbed that God put a thorn in Paul's side, and would not take it out, so that Paul suffered for years. How could God do that if He loved someone?
I pointed out that they should read a few verses before and after Paul receiving the thorn.  I explained that it wasn't a physical thorn, but a messenger of satan,according to the bible.  God told Paul that he had sufficient grace to get rid of it. The one who called me could not accept the explanation,and he is probably still looking for an answer.
When we read the Bible, we must remember to look at the context and not just  a few words and call it what it isn't. Always ask the Holy Spirit for enlightenment before reading the Bible. You don't want to base your faith on something you don't have all the facts on. As I said earlier, read the whole thing, don't just pick out a few words or a sentence.
God Bless You And Remember
Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

satan is a bully

Greetings My Friends;
Have you ever run across a bully in your life? Do you remember the one in a Christmas story ? He pretty well typifies a real bully. Have you ever thought of satan as a bully? There are certain things all bullies have in common.
Bullies live in fear. That may sound strange, but it is true. They live in fear because they are afraid that their victim will find out that their antagonizer isn't so tough. satan is afraid that we will find out that he has no power over us in Jesus name.
Bullies usually look for the person they feel might be the easiest to intimidate. Physical characteristics are important. Just as a lion will look for old, young., or sick victims because they are weaker. satan being the bully he is, is no exception. He looks for what he considers shaky Christians. I believe he goes by the actions he sees, and picks out what he thinks is his weakest victims.
Many of satan's victims are not much of a challenge.. They generally are weaker Christians who in his opinion have little faith, and aren't aware of what they have. His favorite tools are doubt and fear. Both of these work real well with weak people, and even make stronger Christians sometimes question their beliefs.
The big thing about satan is what caused his downfall to begin with. And that was his pride. His pride sometimes outweighs his fear and he attacks strong believers. Strong believers however have the armor of God and the word to defend themselves. When he encounters a believer set for battle, he does not have a chance. The bully, becomes the one who is bullied.
However, because of his incredible pride, he doesn't give up, because he thinks he can wear a believer down if he tries often enough and hard enough. He cannot accept the fact that he is a defeated foe.
If you stick to your faith, he will become a minor inconvenience. He will try a little harder once in a while, but just remember, like all bullies, if you stand up to them they run.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Numbers 6:21 – 24
"The Lord bless you and keep you;
 The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Being A Real Christian

Greetings My Friends;
That may sound a little strange for a title, but as they say, there is method to my madness.
How many times have we been told to meditate on the Bible, not just read it? I knew what that meant, but I guess I really didn't know. Let me explain that statement this way. As with any words, many times a word will mean one thing to this person, and something else to someone else.
I know a man personally who probably memorized most, if not all of the Bible. He can recite chapter and verse, and is quite proud of being known as the Bible encyclopedia. To him, I would guess that meditating on the word meant concentrating on the words in order to memorize them. It seems there are many parts of the Bible where the concept totally escaped him. There are key truths in the Bible, that he does not accept, and will get into a somewhat heated discussion defending what he thinks.
Like many people and religions, he believes that many things that are in the Bible were for the time of Christ in order to get converts to the church. For instance, he believes things like healing, and other miracles, do not apply today.
Personally I think if you don't memorize the whole Bible, but know the heart of it in your heart, you are pleasing to God. What works for me is, I pretend I am one of the early disciples of Jesus. Everything He told His disciples at the time, I believe applies to me. Jesus didn't tell His disciples that everything He talked about and gave them was over when He died.
He made statements like, do this in memory of me, or when I go back to my father, you will do greater works that I in my name. Does that sound like He meant that everything He did and suffered was to be over? I think not.
We need to get to the heart of God's Word, and meditate with a clear, prayerful heart, and do what He says we are to do. Sometimes it is hard to keep our two cents or opinions out of it. Sometimes we try to analyze what God was thinking, and interpret what we read. He knew what He meant, and does not need us to second-guess.
Solution: take what the Word says and believe. The next thing is to act on what you know is true. Just follow the Word.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Numbers 6:21 – 24
" The Lord bless you and keep you;
 The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you His peace.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Observations on Prayer

Greetings My Friends;
I am writing this message about common problems to getting prayers answered. It applies to anything you pray for.
When you pray for something, you are to thank God for the result, planting that seed in your heart. God will make it grow. Prayer is answered by what is in your heart. Remember, hope is in the mind, faith is in the heart.
Some people are so positive something bad is going to happen that it becomes self-fulfilling 100% of the time. Try the opposite and believe something good is happening. It still works 100% of the time.
We all know that unbelief and doubt  all-black answers to prayer. All of these are inspired by the devil. He looks for ways to stop your blessings. If you begin to accept these negative thoughts, you are letting him do his worst. Look at it this way. If your doorbell rang, and you looked out and saw a serial killer with a bloody butcher knife, would you open the door?
Another problem that I see a lot, is really very common. People hang onto their problems. They do this by constantly talking about their problems. They can't seem to let go of them. They pray every day, but since they won't let go of the problem they won't get what they pray for. If you own it, God will not take it from you.
I am not saying people take pleasure in distress, but did you ever see two people comparing ailments? It seems at times that they try to out do each other. In a nutshell, that type of thinking is what blocks most blessings.
Remember, it is a proven fact, that  positive words and thoughts provide a positive life. Negative words and thoughts, produce a sick depressing life. So be on guard for the words and thoughts that you accept in your life, because what you accept, you will get.
God Bless You And Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior and to help me live my life according to His will.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Back on Track

Greetings My Friends;
Many of us go through life, trying to figure out what life is all about. If you have been blessed by receiving Jesus, you have a head start on everybody else.
It does seem however that for most Christians the questions get harder. Now you have to deal with faith and God. You get confused and frustrated because you can't come up with answers on your own. There are a couple of answers to your problem.
The first is, your mind is used to dealing in the natural world. Answers are in the spiritual world. Another problem is that we generally look for answers based on how we think. God doesn't think the way we do, so the answers are likely to be quite different. Praise Him for that.
We run around trying to figure out what God's will is for us. Everyone says they want to do God's will, and most are sincere. When it comes to that, most of us need a building to fall on us. I guess most of us think that we should be doing something great for God, or we are doing nothing. That could not be farther from the truth.
Okay, now we get to the part that may help you understand. Everyone has a job from God. If you are a believer, this is especially true, because you realize that fact. You can spend years in the job that you were put into, to do God's work, and you don't even realize it. You may be the only believer where you work. Could it be you are supposed to be a light to the rest of your coworkers?
God has a purpose for everyone. It is up to each person to find out what that is. Have you ever thought that a couple of people you work with were put there to be led to Christ by you?
No army has all generals, or all privates. The whole idea is that each of us has to put what we think aside. If we give our lives to Christ, and do the best we can at all times, he will make sure we are in the right place at the right time according to His perfect plan. It usually works out, that if you do the best you can in what you are doing, He will take you to the next step when you are ready. Just have faith in the Lord, and realize you are doing His will, or He would change it, by putting a new desire, or opportunity in your path.
I must confess I am just as guilty as most of the people who read this. Praise God I am waking up to the fact, that what I have just said, is correct.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father I truly repent for all my sins and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Faith Unveiled

Greetings My Friends;
This message concerns a discovery of faith that can drastically change how you look at it. I have prayed for myself and others many times. Sometimes I saw what I prayed for, sometimes not. Sometimes it was a struggle to believe, but you try anyway.
About a year ago, I bought a book by F. F. Bosworth. He lived over 100 years ago, and was a great man of faith, especially for healing. This book is about faith for anything, not just healing.
I thought the book was pretty good, but for some reason I pretty much forgot about it after I read it. I have it on my Kindle in the archives, so I haven't really seen it since then.
The other night my wife asked me to read something inspirational. She felt it might help when we pray, especially at church. I looked at a number of books by famous church people, and decided on the Bosworth book.
Well I tell you what. All of a sudden it came alive. I read a chapter and we discussed it. We did this for several nights in a row. It was downright hard to put it down. We discovered a new meaning to faith. Bosworth said when you pray, see the result, and act in faith, trusting in God's word. We knew all that, but we felt there must be more to it.
We were led to do a three day fast as Thanksgiving for our prayers. We are to thank the Lord for our answers before anything happens.
The first day of the fast, we had our private time with the Lord. We read the Bible, listened to a couple of CDs on faith, read a few more chapters from Bosworth and discussed them. In the evening we watched a couple of inspirational movies.
The next day, it was as if a veil was lifted. All of a sudden we could see where our faith was not as good as we thought it was. That explained a lot. All faith is, is trusting the word of God for results. The difference was, we became much more aware of the blocks to answers. You must keep your eyes focused on the result 100% of the time and totally ignore the slightest attempt by satan to sabotage your prayer.
You have heard all of this before, so have we. Sit down and really think about an unanswered prayer. Analyze it, and you will undoubtedly find a couple of reasons you didn't realize.
When you pray, trust God completely, see the result, and put your carnal  mind in park and shut off the engine. We realize this may be just ho-hum to most people, but we mention it anyway in the hopes that our experience in this little episode will help someone.
The book is Christ the healer by F. F. Bosworth
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father I truly repent for all of my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Operate At Your Level

Greetings My Friends;
Just what does that mean? It is simple and helps a lot to understand what I am talking about.
I think most of us have seen preachers on TV, or have heard about the famous old-time preachers. We marvel at some of the unbelievable things they did.
There were for instance famous healers 100 years ago. Thousands and thousands of people were healed of all sorts of sicknesses. Miracles happened daily through the healing ministries.
Millions of people came to Christ through the evangelists. You see some great evangelists today. Most preachers can quote the Bible chapter and verse, and some can even recite the whole Bible from memory.
I guess I used to be a little envious of these people. The part that I was overlooking without even realizing it, seems like a no-brainer now. The people that you see or hear about, that are bringing thousands of people to the Lord, and operating healing ministries, pay a price that most of us including myself are not willing to pay.
I think it takes a special anointing from the Lord, and dedication that requires a very large percentage of your time and effort. I believe these people are called to do what they do, and receive some kind of special help from the Holy Spirit, in order to fulfill their mission.
I came to realize, just how ordinary I am. That's okay. I think we all have something that the Lord wants us to do. If He wanted us to be more than what we are,the Lord would have put on our heart just what that was. So the next time you see someone on TV, remember that he is doing what God told him to do, and if you really think about it, reflecting the light of Christ by being a good Christian, is a calling too.
Jesus loves us, just as much as he loves the highfliers.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Patience

Greetings My Friends;
When we think of patience, I think a lot of us probably think about the time we spend waiting for an answer to prayer.
Sometimes a miracle starts, and takes some time to come to fruition. Sometimes many things have to happen in the spiritual world to make arrangements in the natural world.
Miracles also require God's timing for maximum benefit to us. Patience also helps us to fight doubt. Sometimes we need to prepare. When we leave it to God, we can't try to figure out how He is doing it.
Patience also describes the way, God deals with us. He has infinite patience. We inadvertently put road blocks in front of Him. We worry, we doubt, we don't trust like we should, and we become impatient.
Many of us go through life and don't feed our faith very much. Sometimes this goes on for years. Because our faith is not fed regularly, we have a life that is far less than what it could be. Through it all, God still loves us, and waits patiently, for us to get out of the way, and to let Him bless us.
When we pray for anything, we have to trust His word and not give up. He never gives up on us. For maximum results, patience works two ways.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Forgive How Many Times

Greetings My Friends;
When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother who sinned against him, Jesus answer probably shocked him. It amounted to as many times as it takes.
When someone does something that offends us, our pride jumps right in. We become angry at that person, and sometimes we get so angry, all we want to do is retaliate.
We judge other people and forgive them or not, depending on how they do or do not measure up to our standards. We all think our way is the right way. A repeat offender is the most difficult to forgive. We make a judgment that the other person is an idiot, doesn't care, is ignorant, or does it for spite. They don't deserve our forgiveness.
Imagine if Jesus felt that way about us. If He did, we would not have salvation because He would not have died for our sins. We would not have any of the blessings He paid for on the cross.
God created us and set His standards of behavior. The creator has that right, we don't. If you look at what God calls sin, none of us would last a minute without sin. We would all perish. But our loving God, forgives us over and over and forgets our misdeeds. All He wants is for us to love Him and each other. When you consider how great God is, and the fact that He believes what He does about forgiveness, we should all try to forgive each other no matter how many times we have to do it.
When we forgive someone, it takes the pressure off of us. The problem does not have a chance to become a tool in the devil's hand to eat away at us. Besides that, most of the time, the other guy doesn't even know or care if you are angry at him. I didn't always feel that way, but I have come to realize the truth about it.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Jesus Choice

Greetings My Friends;
I don't know if you ever sit around sometimes , and just think random thoughts. I do quite often.
For instance, I saw the movie the passion of the Christ several years ago. What He suffered was much worse than the movie showed. Isaiah said, He didn't even look like a man.
Well the other day I happened to think about the crucifixion. Jesus knew every little detail of what would happen to Him. I cannot imagine how He could function days or weeks before. He was loving and healing the very people that were yelling for His death. How is it possible?
I don't know about you, but I would have considered my options. He could go far away and be safe, by not doing miracles. He could have just decided to give in to the Pharisees. He could have gone through it all with no pain. I guess I am a coward, because there is no way that I wouldn't be looking for a way out.
Jesus knew that the only way to defeat satan and death, was the way he did. He knew there would be many who would seek salvation and love him in the future.
He did it because he loved us beyond measure, and wanted us to spend eternity with him. There are no words to describe His love for us. It would be very nice, if we could love Him even a little, of the measure He loves us.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to His will.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Bible is a Plan

Greetings My Friends;
I start this message basically in the form of a parable, because it will give some people a better idea of what the Bible does for us.
You would have to go pretty far to find anyone that does not know what a recipe is. The whole idea behind a recipe or a written plan is for the person using them to duplicate something.
When you bake a cake, you carefully measure all ingredients. You don't use old ingredients, you follow the recipe exactly, and you get great results every time. If you don't do it, what you get may not even be edible.
The Bible is the word of God. It is a recipe for salvation, and a fantastic life. You may not agree with something in the word, and that is your choice. If your results are disappointing, don't blame God, it was your decision.
As far as I am concerned, when you read the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and follow what they tell you, you are on your way to a wonderful life. Now take what Jesus says in the Gospels and imitate that as much as possible. When you put this whole recipe together, you will not only have salvation, but you will have one happy, exciting life.
God gave us this plan,the Bible so that anyone who follows it will have great success in this life, and be with Him for all eternity.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior, and to help me live my life according to his will.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Things We Have Faith In

Greetings My Friends;
I just thought of something pretty interesting, at least it was to me. Many people including Christians say that faith is a real problem for them. Let's take a look at some facts.
The average person expects to get up in the morning. They plan on taking their car to a job that is still there. And so on. When someone gets sick, they go to a doctor to get well. They believe the doctor is qualified to diagnose the problem and give them medicine that will work.
Maybe you buy a car, and end up with 60 payments you expect to make. I think you get the point. These are all examples of ordinary things that we have faith for or trust in without even realizing it. If you sit down and think about all of the things or people you count on or trust in, in your everyday life, you will shock yourself.
So you see, you do have tremendous faith just to live your life. When you think about the creator and how much he loves you, how can you have little or no faith? Is it because you can't see Him? Think about this. E-mail your stockbroker to buy or sell a hot stock. You don't see him. Still trust him?
The difference between the Lord and all the people that you do trust  without blinking an eye, is that the Lord loves you and they don't, and they can lie, or be wrong, but the Lord can't  lie, and is never wrong. So you see, if you had faith in the Lord like in everyone else, all your prayers would be answered.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I truly repent for all my sins, and ask Jesus to come into my heart as my personal Savior and to help me live my life according to His will.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Predestined

Greetings My Friends;
1 Timothy 2:4 "God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth".
People being predestined has been a hot topic for years. A lot of people feel that if someone is predestined or as it is put, one of the elect, that God is not fair.
Their arguments are that if you are among the elect, no matter what you do you cannot lose that status. They also say that if you aren't among the elect, there is nothing you can do to attain it.
I believe that Jesus died for all people who were and are to come. He as far as I know did not pick out individuals to be saved. He invited all to be saved, and told them how through His word.
I believe predestined means simply that because He is God, He knew before we were born, if we would believe in Him. The fact is my friends, He gave each of us a choice. believe in Him and what He did, or reject Him. If you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and repent of your sins, you are saved. It is really that simple.
Read Romans 5:9–11, and think about this. God calls each of us to repentance and salvation. As I said, it is your choice.
God Bless You And Remember
Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I come to you a sinner, and I ask forgiveness. I truly repent, and I believe with all my heart that Jesus died and rose again. I also believe I am washed in His blood, forgiven of all my sins, and by His stripes I am healed. With all my heart I accept Jesus as my personal savior.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Pride and Forgiveness

Greetings My Friends;
The Bible tells us that pride is a sin. It also tells us we should love one another and forgive those who hurt us in some way. While we are at it, we are not to judge anyone.
Something most of us don't give a thought to, is that all of these sins, are a part of the same package. Let me explain.
When someone hurts your feelings for instance, pride makes you angry. You judge this person as inconsiderate or maybe ignorant or mean. It is hard to forgive, or to love this person, but you pray about it, and let's say you forgive this person, in your mind.
As time goes by, there are other incidents, so the whole process is repeated. The difference this time is, the new incident brings to mind all past incidents. Just when you start thinking that you are happy that you forgave, satan hits you with another incident, and here we go again.
As long as old memories keep coming back, I believe we have not truly forgiven. When Jesus forgives us, He says he will remember it no more. Forgive with no limit, with your heart. I just came to grips with this recently in my own life, and felt compelled to pass it on. Now I know what really forgiving someone is.
Praise the Lord!
God Bless You And Remember
Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I come to you a sinner, and I ask forgiveness. I truly repent, and believe with all my heart that Jesus died and rose again. I also believe I am washed in His blood, forgiven of all my sins, and by his stripes I am healed. With all my heart I accept Jesus as my personal savior.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Tithing Brings Blessings

Greetings My Friends;
Whenever tithing is mentioned to a group of people, the usual reaction is deafening silence. I think many people don't believe what it involves or what the Bible says.
Proverbs 3:9 – 10 "honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine".
I believe among the reasons the Lord has for tithing is that it is a way for us to show we trust Him, and a good excuse for Him to bless us. There are any number of verses in the Bible that refer to tithing.
Tithing can be contributions to the church, or I believe to charities. The Bible says we are to help the less fortunate. The Lord said that if you have, and turn your head from someone in need, you're hurting yourself. I heard for years that all we have belongs to the Lord and we are to use some of it to do His work. It is written to whom much is given, much is required.
I have always given to charities. I wasn't cheap, but I wasn't exactly a philanthropist. About four or five years ago, my wife and I decided to give 10%. So I figured out what that would be. My thinking was I didn't want to cheat God, but I did not want to overdo it either.
After about six or eight months, I noticed that the increase in our giving was offset by a reduction in expenses. As time went on,  more reductions took place. It soon got to the point where we were getting back more than we were giving.
One day not that long ago, I was telling my wife that I would like to be debt-free. I had a credit card I was getting nowhere on, so the solution in my mind was to give more. That seems to be the smartest thing to do.
I have reached the conclusion that giving is absolutely necessary. The difference now is we pray about it, and give what our hearts tell us, and we don't worry about  percentages. You cannot out give God. Love and compassion has no boundaries, just as God's love for us has no limits or boundaries.
God Bless You And Remember
 Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation;
Father, I come to you a sinner, and I ask forgiveness. I truly repent, and believe with all my heart that Jesus died and rose again. I also believe I am washed in His blood, forgiven of all my sins, and by His stripes I am healed. With all my heart I accept Jesus as my personal Savior.