Our Father

Isaiah 64:8, Yet Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter, we all are the work of your hands. 

Most of us never stop to think about our real father, Father God. We think He is aloof, distant, and unreachable. We don't realize that there are important things on God's mind that are somewhat similar to how we think.

If you are a parent, you will get the idea pretty quick. For this message we will look at a human father.

A loving father wants the best for his child. He knows the child will mess up at times, but that is okay because he loves that child unconditionally.

A father takes great pride and joy in their child, even for a relatively minor success. He's right there to encourage and support that child. He will make any sacrifice to help the child succeed, because he wants them to be happy.

A father comes up with little surprises for the child that he knows or thinks will make the child happy. When the child is happy about something, the father is even happier than the child.

When a child starts to imitate the father, even in a small way, the father is overjoyed, and constantly brags to his buddies.

If however a child seems to be heading for some kind of trouble, it is time to step in and help the child find his way. When a child is hurting in any way, it hurts his father even more. No effort is spared in order to help that child. No sacrifice too great.

A father is someone you can talk to, tell him what is in your heart, and even your deepest secrets, without fear of losing his love.

Both parents share these examples, but I used  a father to try to give a tiny idea of how our Father God looks at us.

God is an unimaginable number of times more than these poor examples, and much more. No one can describe God and His love better than: 

John 3:16, for God so loved the world in this way; He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 

God bless you and your family. 

Praise The Lord!

Remember Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation.

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins, and come into my heart as my personal savior. I want to serve Only You. 

Praise The Lord! 

Amen

My Time With Jesus Tuesday

 God’s Plan

Romans 12:12, Rejoice in Hope, be patient in Affliction, be persistent in prayer.

Have you ever wondered why you weren't born at a different time, or in a different place? The answer is simple. God the Creator knew each of us before creation, so He planned where and when each of us would spend time on this Earth and what we would be doing for his kingdom.

Let us look at some facts from life to show us the purpose of when and where.

No matter how hard the times or how hopeless the situation, a leader always emerges. A determined and tenacious leader brings out the best in those who follow him. A couple of examples. These are no comparison to each other; these are just the examples.

Jesus of Nazareth came at a time that could have been a tipping point and no return for mankind. I expect it was getting something like just before the flood. That is only my opinion. By the way, it is not biblical.

President Zelensky of Ukraine by his actions, and determination, he inspired his people to fight for freedom. He is the least likely of his people to do that because he had no experience.

Every Great War or advancement in history came about from a leader that inspired confidence and seemingly came out of nowhere. Those are the obvious ones. Very few of us reach such noteworthy status. Don't forget there have probably been a million or more people in history who accomplished great things in small ways.

There've been many versions of Mother Teresa or people like Father Damien who spent his life working with lepers. Many people do all sorts of work for God.

Then there is us, you and me. God has a plan for us too. We can help others, pray for salvation of others, reflect Jesus by the way we live, show kindness, mercy, forgiveness, even to those we don't like. If we pray to the Holy Spirit for help and guidance, in God's time He will provide us with an answer and the means to accomplish the task that God has for us. We cannot compare anyone to someone else. God's plan is individual.

Remember this important fact. if we help one person to be saved, and that person helps another, and so on, we will serve the purpose our creator had in mind for us. We may never know about who got saved, when and how many , but that doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is we filled the hole that God had waiting for us.

Remember one other thing. God Almighty and you are a majority that can't be beat. God bless you and your family. Praise The Lord!

Remember Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation.

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins and come into my heart as my personal savior. I want to serve Only You. 

Praise The Lord! 

Amen

A Long Road

James 1:12, Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

I write this message, because I believe there are many people who were, or are like me. I spent most of my life like the majority of people. I went about doing what I had to do. I almost never thought about God. I was too busy taking care of my family and making a living.

One day, back in 1972, I was coming home from work after a tough day. Between that and a few other things, I was so desperate that I thought about God. And like we all do, run to Him when we have a problem that overwhelms us. I do remember it though like it was this afternoon. I said, God if you are real, show me.

The day was dark and cloudy, but my eyes were blinded by the brightest light I've ever seen. That moment I knew it was God.  I wept uncontrollably. When I pulled myself together I realized that all my cares had left me I felt such total peace I can't describe it.

Everyone I knew was asking my wife what happened to me, because I was acting so different. We started trying to take the next step. All we knew was Catholic, and we didn't follow that, so after a couple of weeks, we gave up. Can you believe that? I must've been a nut. 

My mother-in-law loved Jesus. She always talked about how much she loved Him. I must say, she didn't just talk, she lived it. She wanted everybody to know how great Jesus was, and how much He loved them. Well one day she offered a book to me. I guess no one else wanted it, so I thought I would humor her.  I took the book and thanked her. The title of the book was praise the Lord anyway. I believe it was written by Francis Gardner.

Well, it was actually years later when I started to read that book. I can't even tell you why I started to read it because I don't know why I started to read it ,except I was led by the Holy Spirit. That is the only thing that makes sense.  The fact is I not only started to read it, I started to follow what I was reading.

Well sometime after that, I felt, in my heart that I should try to help others find Jesus, by telling them what I learned by writing blogs. It was about eight years ago.

As time went on I kept trying to learn as much as I could so I could pass it on to others. I really believe the Holy Spirit inspired me. In trying to help others, I have grown. The Lord said give and it shall be given to you. My faith has returned a hundredfold to me. I reached the point ,that I have no doubt when I pray in Jesus name that it is done. The Holy Spirit never lets me down.

The whole point of this little story is that it's never too late, and even if you screw up along the way the Lord is always there to catch you. He patiently waits for you to come back so if you're not there yet, don't give up. Just ask Him to come into your heart, and relax about it, because believe me when your time comes there's no escaping it, you will know in your heart just as I found out in my life. So praise the Lord.  He is a good Lord and I can understand totally, how my mother-in-law came to love Jesus so much. I do too. God bless you and your family. 

Praise The Lord!

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins, and come into my heart as my personal savior.I want to serve only you. 

Praise The Lord!

Amen

When Do You Pray

Philippians 4:6-7, Don't worry about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

 Let's look at some situations that are common to all people, in order to get what we assume will be the correct answer.

Someone gets into a situation that looks impossible to get out of. He can do nothing to help himself except to cry out to God. That is a good move, but the problem is that most people in that situation do not know God, so it is desperation not faith that is speaking.

Jesus told them the parable of the persistent widow. This Parable is in Luke 18 from 1- 8. This Parable demonstrates what persistence can do. That's why the Lord tells us to pray without ceasing.  Stand on the truth and don't give up.

Okay, so everything looks hopeless. Not so. The journey of life is like any other trip. You plan everything you can think of to have a good trip, except maybe you forgot to take a map. 

When you don't have a map you can trust, you might end up in the wilderness with no gas. If someone came to you and asked you if you wanted a map, compass, and 10 gallons of gas, would you take it? 

The point is, life is a journey we take that has many twists, turns, and potholes. Since we cannot see these, we need the help of someone who can. That someone is the Holy Spirit. He is the map and set of directions for a successful life’

John 14:26, But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

When Jesus was ready to ascend back to Heaven after He rose from the dead, He told the apostles that He would send the Holy Spirit to help them, by teaching them and guiding them in the way they should go.

We have the instruction book, The Bible. The Holy Spirit will explain it and help us live it if we listen to Him. If we don't get to know our creator( Father God),( our Savior Jesus} and our helper(the Holy Spirit) We probably won't hear the Holy Spirit's voice.

Ephesians 2: 8-9,  for you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's Gift- not from works so that no man can boast.

Romans 10:9, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

When you are saved, talk to the Lord everyday, and read His word. At that point you will have everything you need in this life. As long as you believe, you will find that if you talk to the Holy Spirit about what you want to do, He will help you. One important point that I cannot stress enough, WAIT ON GOD!!  God's timing is perfect.

I have found out the hard way, that if you just charge ahead without waiting for God to give you the go-ahead, it's probably not going to work. One last point. praying is just a matter of talking to God. If you read the Bible you will see all through the Bible how people constantly talk to God. Jesus Himself always talked to His Father. God bless you and your family. 

Praise The Lord!

Remember Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation.

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins, and come into my heart as my personal savior. I want to serve only you.  

Praise The Lord!

Amen

My Time With Jesus Tuesday

 

World of Choices

Romans 8:6-8, For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

John 15:16, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the father in my name He may give you.

Life is like a game. In this game, each player is on his own. Most people don't even realize what the prize is, or its value.

If you play football for example, or you play chess, sooner or later you realize it is almost impossible to win if you're on the defense all of the time. Winners of attack, attack, attack.

As the average person goes through his day, whether he realizes it or not, he is reacting to circumstances that surround him. He is constantly playing defense in a world that is increasingly aggressive.

I found out when I was very young, that if you follow everyone else, you'll end up like they did. If you choose the right people, you can learn a lot, and make choices that will give you a good life. The big problem for most people is, that doing the wrong thing is easy, the right thing is very hard most of the time.

God gave us a free will in order to make our own choices. Here is an important for instance. Most of the world hates and rejects Jesus. No one ever says why. A good thing to do is investigate God. Read about Him, talk to Him, and those who know Him. Have the courage to get the truth, then make your choice. Almighty God gave that right to you. Lead, don't follow others who don't know where they are going or what they are doing, and where they will end up. God bless you and your family. 

Praise The Lord!

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins, and come into my heart as my personal savior. I want to serve only you. 

Praise The Lord!

Amen

Prayer Is The Key Pt 2

Almighty and merciful God, Creator of all that is, ruler and judge of all, I come to you with this petition on behalf of ……………………..

I/we present the following requests.

List Requests

Gracious Father, we make these requests to you, because we know your judgment is fair and your words are true. Dear Lord  these requests are in line with your word, and your word the Bible gives us the authority to present this petition through the Lord Jesus. We stand on the following verses as evidence for a judgment in favor of…………………

John 15:7, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 14:13-14, and whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name I will do it. 

1 John 5:15, And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know we have what we have asked of Him.

There is no specific number of verses.

Father, we stand on your words, and  expect our requests are fulfilled, because we have your words as proof. We know that if You said it, it is true.

Father, we receive our request right now. We thank you Lord with grateful Hearts. We thank you, praise you, and love you, because you have never let us down.

Philippians 4:6

 Luke 1:37

 Matthew 21:22

 James 4: 3 

You might want to check out the four verses listed above to help you in your petition.

Miracles are real. People still get healed and have all types of miracles happen to them. God does prefer to use natural ways to answer prayer, such as using a doctor or medicine. Miracles are usually reserved for the impossible, at least that's the way it seems. Remember this also,  that since God likes to use natural means, sometimes it takes a little longer for an answer. Don't give up hope, but keep believing because God's timing is perfect.

As I mentioned before this is kind of a guideline that you may want to add  to or your own words or form. The whole point of the petition is we know God's word is true , and we stand on that word according to what  He promised.

God bless you and your family.

Remember Jesus loves you.

Prayer of Salvation.

Lord Jesus, please forgive all of my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. I want to serve Only You. 

Praise The Lord! 

Amen