Day 6

Greetings My Friends

It Is Written 2 Corinthians 5:7 "for we walk by faith, not by sight".

If you listen to any amount of teaching from the Bible, you have probably heard this verse. It sounds pretty simple, but it is one of the toughest things to do for most people.

Sometimes, someone decides to try it. They go for a day or two, something comes up, and they decide that faith doesn't work. Does that sound like the proper way to do it?

Let's take it from the top, the correct way. This is how I did it, and it worked for me. Let me start out by saying faith is not a taste test. You must get serious.

Start out by asking the Holy Spirit for guidance, understanding, and to remember what you read. Take your Bible and go to the concordance. Find the verses on faith and trust. Read those verses in context, and meditate on each one. Do it over a period of a week or two, or however long it takes to sink in.

Next pick a problem that you have. Be determined to see itself by faith. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and to help you. Thank him every day for the result. Don't give up, just keep thanking Him for the result. Once you see the manifestation, your faith will grow, and eventually, you will walk by faith, and not by sight.

A few verses to get you started. Jeremiah 17:7, 1 Peter 5:7, Proverbs 3:5 – six, Psalms 9:10, Psalms 37:5, Matthew 21:22, Hebrews 11:1

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Thank You

Amen

Day 5

It Is Written in Acts 4:12
Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.
There you have it. Probably one of the top two, of the most controversial statements ever made. You can start an argument just about anywhere, without even trying, by quoting that verse.
The vast majority of the world's population does not agree. People get offended, because they think theirs is the only right religion. They all have an opinion about the afterlife.
You have people high in government, entertainers, and all kinds of other people who just miss the Bible and what it teaches. A problem people have, is that instead of changing themselves to live according to the Bible, they want to change the Bible according to the way they live. Most people have a pride problem, and do not want to submit themselves to our Creator.
Let us look at Christianity and Jesus.
1) Christianity is a relationship not a religion
2), Christianity is based on love, not impossible rules
3) Christianity preaches salvation through Jesus
4) hundreds of prophecies have been fulfilled by Jesus
5) Jesus died and rose again in order to save us and forgive our sins
6) His coming was foretold by the old-time prophets
7) no condemnation
I wonder how many religions can say the same thing. My own personal opinion, is that which religion you have doesn't matter a whole lot, if you accept Jesus as your Savior. If following rules and regulations, is what you like, that's fine, as long as you believe in Jesus and what He did for you.
And just a reminder of something I said a number of times in the past. God does not send people to hell. Each person makes his own choice as to where he will spend eternity. In spite of what many people think, good people and good works does not earn salvation. Salvation is a gift to all who accept Jesus.
Remember Jesus Loves You
Prayer of Salvation
Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.
Thank You
Amen

Day 4

It Is Written Psalms 31:14

"But as for me Lord, I say you are my God".

We say it in church, maybe even in a prayer, but is that what is in our hearts?

Many people say they believe God exists. A lot of those same people draw the line at saying He is their God. For that, I applaud their honesty.

Surprised at that statement? It is the truth. Many of those who say that God is their God, are talking through their hat. Many don't even know God. They didn't even take the time to find out about being saved.

A lot of people have other gods or idols they worship. Some of them are, sports players, entertainers, a job, money, stuff like cars or as they say, grown-up toys. The list goes on and on. If you think this is unfair, I challenge you to take 15 min. for the sake of your soul.

Make a list of five or 10 things you spend your time doing. Be totally honest. Rank them in order of the amount of time you spend on each. When you finish, take a look at your gods as listed. If you weren't honest you only fool yourself.

Was God or the Bible even on the list. If God was not number 1 and the Bible number 2, I suggest you re-examine your priorities, while you still have time. Maybe none of this ever occurred to you, but now you have an idea to get you thinking.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Thank You

Amen

Day 3

It Is Written Psalms 34:22

The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him will be condemned.

This verse sounds simple, but for quite a few people, the trust part is very difficult. We as humans always try to solve everything ourselves. Therein lies the problem.

You probably know someone who insists, that God does not answer prayers. There can be many reasons for unanswered prayer. Do they know God? Did they pray with proper motives? Is there anger, forgiveness in their heart? Maybe their prayer was answered but not in the way they planned.

Unfortunately, people have many reasons in their own minds that they feel justifies not trusting God. To these people I say, you don't know God.

If you read the way Jesus spoke and acted, you'll see that He expects us to reflect Him. If you really know Him, you will trust Him more every day.

If you trust for one thing, you must trust for all things. When you were saved, it was by faith. If you are really saved, it is forever, He said so. Call it faith, or call it trust, it basically amounts to the same thing. The best thing you can do, is choose to trust in God for everything.

Trust is a two-way street. God's trusting you is based on how well you represent Jesus. He is the creator, not us. He deserves our trust, do we deserve His?

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Thank You

Amen

Day 2

Greetings My Friends

It Is Written in James 4:7

I am submitted to God, and the devil flees from me, because I resist him in the name of Jesus.

satan is a defeated foe. When you get to the last pages of the Bible, you plainly see, we win. We are victors through Jesus.

satan is a powerful foe. Those who are saved, know he has weaknesses just as people do. If you know your enemy, you can defeat him. He is not invincible as some people think.

Here are some basic facts about satan.

1) he cannot make you do anything.

2) he can only suggest, you don't have to act on his suggestion.

3) what he puts in your mind cannot happen without your permission.

4) he does not know what is in your mind.

5) he flees at the mention of Jesus name.

6) he puts thoughts in your mind, then tries to condemn you. They are his thoughts, and not a sin unless you act on them.

7) guard your tongue. That is one of the best ways he can get you to sin.

Just be aware of his tricks. 1 John 4:4 says it very well. I am of God and have overcome him(satan). For greater is he that is in me, then he who is in the world. The two most important things to remember when you are saved, is that Jesus is in you, and satan is a liar.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Thank You

Amen

Day 1

Greetings My Friends

It is written Philippians 4:13

I will do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

At first glance, you may or may not realize just how much power is in this verse. This is not just a feel-good verse. It's meaning is exactly what it says.

I will give you an example of how I started using this verse, a couple of weeks ago. As I said in a previous blog, I started riding a bicycle after many, many years.

As I got older and my lifestyle changed, my legs no longer had to work as hard as when I was young. As a result, my legs are not as strong as they used to be. Bad news for riding a bike.

About my third time out, I set a distance goal for myself. The trail had a series of hills. Nothing really steep, but to older legs a challenge.

As I wrote, my legs started to get tired, and then I started to get pains. I was determined not to give up. Almost automatically, I started repeating this verse over and over, as I was riding. To make a long story short, I made it.

I have found that every time the going gets tough, this verse gets me through. The Holy Spirit really is the helper Jesus said He would send. When you use this verse any time you don't think you can make it, it will help you too. You might as well do it, what have you got to lose?

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Thank You

Amen

Religion

Greetings My Friends

There our many religions in this world. Almost all of them claim to be the only way to heaven. Then you have nondenominational Christians. They also claim the only way to to get to heaven.

Religions, depending on denomination, have various forms of what I call bondage. Bondage is any man-made rules. There are all sorts of rules that are supposed to be followed in order for you to get to heaven. The Pharisees in Jesus time had so many man-made rules, that even the high priest probably didn't know them all. I think they pretty much made up the rules as they went along, and blamed the law of Moses.

The law was given by God to Moses so that the people could see that they weren't as good as they thought they were. When Jesus came He changed everything. His death and resurrection released man from bondage to law, by His grace. He said that the only way to the father is through Him.

So which religion is right? If a religion follows the Bible, and teaches that Jesus was crucified for our sins, and rose again from the dead, and salvation is through Him as the Bible says, they are correct.

It all boils down to what the word says. If you are comfortable with man-made rules, that is your business. Salvation through Jesus is God's business. If the Bible says that the way to heaven is through Jesus, no amount of rules and regulations and traditions that don't support that can change the Word of God.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Amen

Is it Demons?

Greetings My Friends

Perhaps you know someone who is going through life constantly facing problems. Most of us probably know someone like that. Usually they're good people, that as we say "can't catch a break". It seems that everything they do, for whatever reason, doesn't work out the way it was planned.

Most of the time, when meeting someone like this, it seems the common thing to do, is to judge or criticize them. We all have a tendency to judge someone by our own yardstick, and quickly decide that they don't measure up. We may get the impression, that they are lazy, or just not very bright.

After reading in the Bible that we should not judge people, I began to think about situations like the one I just mentioned. I think most of us have heard statements from some so-called expert, or psychiatrist, that pretty much blames everything on a person's childhood. I used to laugh at that, but now I believe there is some truth to it.

I believe that people that I just described, start life out in early age with a handicap. I am not talking about someone that is crippled, or possibly retarded. I am talking about a person who at a very early age, was teased by someone. That someone in all likelihood used some very negative words. Words such as, boy are you dumb, you are stupid, how come you're so fat and clumsy.

What most people don't realize, is the power of words. As this person grows up, they believe these negative words. Usually the older they get, the worse they get. Most of the time ,they make bad decisions, or they exhibit some type of unusual behavior. The reason they do this, is because their subconscious, is telling them that that's who they are.

When a person is facing this, I believe it is because, satan painted a picture in that person's mind, and tells them that they have no choice because that is who they are.

The evil one wants to get someone early, and keep them for life. He uses people to plant those negative seeds. Most of these people think it is harmless fun to tease, and don't realize they are a tool of satan. Words can be so devastating that they could ruin the lives of the person hearing them. The lives of their spouse, their children, and even generations to come can be affected by what is sometimes called a generational curse.

I think that we need to pay close attention to the words we use when we speak to anyone. Remember, words produce what is said. If the words are positive, they produce positive, and negative produces disaster. Remember if you tease someone, you may be helping satan destroy that person's life.

We probably have all heard the expression, that if you want to know where you will be in 10 years, pay attention to what you are saying about yourself today. You or anyone else, will be what you say.

If you see someone that exhibits characteristics that you would normally judge as bad, lazy, or uncaring, don't judge, just pray for them.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior.

Amen

Choice or Chance

Greetings My Friends;

Most of us go through life doing our thing. Each of us has a little different way of doing things. I would like to briefly describe a few character studies. They are  the result of years of dealing with all kinds people. These descriptions cover a couple of general characteristics of each group. Naturally there are exceptions. You will get the point of this exercise, about halfway through this message, so please bear with me.

First let us look at people who are successful in the eyes of the world. They are usually intelligent, hard-working, and able to focus on whatever they are doing. If they are professional, they are generally very dedicated. Most pursue their goal and are seldom sidetracked. They are prepared to sacrifice to achieve their desired goals. Their self-esteem level is very high. As a matter of fact, the problem with most high achievers, is that they honestly believe that they did everything on their own, and have no need of God.
The next group is usually in the bottom 50 or 60%. And this group of people generally have less education, and average or below incomes because of any number of circumstances. Most of these people seem to be in a constant state of unhappiness or even depression. Relationships suffer the farther down you go. Most, usually have a lot of debt to deal with. A general sense of hopelessness is fairly common. Their self-esteem level is generally pretty low. These people however, in fairly large numbers, are looking for God to help them, because they know they cannot do most things on their own.

If you talk to the well-off people about the other group, they will probably tell you that the people at the bottom are mostly just lazy. They have no ambition or discipline. They don't know how to sacrifice anything. The well-off feel that the less fortunate don't try very hard, so they deserve what they get.
The less fortunate feel that the people on the top are lucky, know the right people, or have success at the expense of the little guy.

The plain truth is that God loves all of us. Our lives are influenced by God, satan, and ourselves. We make the choices in our lives, and we generally live by the results of our choices. God does not have favorites, he wants everyone to come to him. satan however hates everyone and wants them to come to him. Everyone else has a decision to make as to who they will follow.


Just because some people are well-off, it doesn't mean that they belong to God. So it is that just because you are poor it does not mean you belong to the devil.
If God is your God, you are blessed and usually make good decisions. The opposite is also true. God has a plan for each person. We are free to decide for ourselves if we follow his plan or ours. Social status does not reflect how much God loves us. Who we follow does determine our future. Everything else in the meantime is just stuff, and everyone has a job to do. It's all part of God's plan.

It is said very well in Ecclesiastes 9:11, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, not favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. As I have said before, and believe with all my heart, if you seek after God first all the rest will come to you.

God Bless You And Remember Jesus loves You

Prayer of Salvation;

"Oh God in Heaven, I believe with all of my heart that Jesus has been raised from the dead. I receive Your Word, and I repent of sin. I renounce the past. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I receive my forgiveness. I receive the new birth, cleansed and washed in the Word and in the precious blood of Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen"

Posted by Sebastian Minarcik at 6:29 PM

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The Bible

Greetings My Friends

Many people find the Bible hard to understand. l the average person reads a parable, and may or may not understand it. They can tell you the story, but usually not what it means.

The way to know Jesus, or the Bible is the same. If you read a parable, And the way, Jesus explains it to His apostles who didn't understand it either, and take the time to meditate on it, until you really understand it, you'll see what I mean.

After doing these exercises for a while, you'll begin to understand most parable's with little extra effort. Jesus and the Bible will become real to you, and be in your heart.

I played a little game with myself, and still do once in a while. I took the Old Testament prophets. I would read five or 10 verses, meditate on them, and write down what I thought they were about. I then took two or three study Bible's to see what they said about the same verses.

Sometimes I was close. Sometimes I was way off. When I was way off, I tried to figure out where I went wrong. The Holy Spirit is a big help in helping you understand.

It isn't necessarily how long you read each day, but the meditation you do. To me, that is the best way to get Jesus and the Bible from your head to your heart. It really isn't very complicated, and if you devote some regular time to the meditation of Bible verses, you will probably amaze yourself.


Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. Amen.

Opportunities

Greetings My Friends

Many of us have a tendency to look at opportunity in the context of a job or business. Opportunities often come in disguise, or in many cases, not even recognized. We have a tendency to look for opportunity as something that benefits us in some way.

As you probably figured out by now, if you read my messages, God figures in here somewhere. Most of us rack our brains trying to figure out how to thank God for all he does for us. As a matter of fact, he presents us with opportunities to give him a gift and Thanksgiving.

It is written "love your neighbor as yourself" God smiles when you do. When you choose to take advantage of an opportunity, it is a gift to God.

Give someone a break in traffic, if someone has a couple of items at a store, you have a full cart, let them get ahead of your. Be pleasant and helpful to those you meet. He even gives you opportunities to forgive people.

No one is perfect, but the more you do for someone else, the better you'll feel, plus God is happy, and you are blessed. Remember that you are an opportunity for someone else to please God.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer Of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. Amen.

No Condemnation

Greetings My Friends

As we all know, condemnation does not come from God. It comes from satan in various ways. It is his intention to destroy man, and he is a champion deceiver.

I was talking to someone recently, who was feeling a little depressed. She said that the other day she was meeting some friends, so on the way she prayed to have a nice time.

I won't get into details, but the get together got a little rough for a while. One of the people has super tender feelings, and apparently an innocent answer to a question, triggered a short quarrel. Both parties quickly made up, hugged each other, and continued the get together in peace.

My friend however was feeling very guilty about the whole thing. She was condemning herself, because she got upset, and had words with the other person after praying for good get together.

I explained to her that even sincere prayer is no guarantee that something wrong won't happen. I happen to know the parties involved. I explained that the other person probably has some real issues in her life that added to her super sensitivity. satan who is always looking for a way in, probably instigated the whole thing. I believe that without the prayer ahead of time, it would probably have turned really ugly. They did make up after a short while. God wins. There is absolutely no reason to condemn yourself or anyone else, just thank God for the outcome, and let it rest in the past.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. Amen.

Money

Greetings My Friends

Here is a word that gets a lot of attention. It can be a good thing, or a bad thing. You can own it, or it can own you.

We all need money in order to get the things we need. Some people have more needs than other people. What is a one man's wants, is another mans needs.

Money in itself is not bad. What is bad, is how we look at it. An honest days work will produce an honest days pay in most cases. It is a blessing from God. We are to help the less fortunate, and contribute to our church. If done with a thankful loving heart, it is blessed and multiplied back to us.

Money can also be a curse. Some people accumulate money just to have it. It becomes an obsessions, and becomes more important than God to some people. It never does them or anyone else any good. When they die, they do benefit someone at that point. Their whole life was spent with a false God consuming them.

Then of course you come to the people who are obsessed with stuff. They have to have everything they see, as well as more than anyone else. When it comes to stuff, they can't get enough stuff, and stuff is there God.

In the last two cases, people work themselves to death. Some are misers, some just spend. Many will do anything to satisfy their obsession. Crying, abandoning the family, and even following the devil.

You may think this statement follow the devil is exaggerating, but think about. If your obsession is fired up to the point it becomes your God, who else are you following if it isn't satan.

Money and its uses can be a blessing from God, or a means of destruction from satan. Do yourself a favor and read Ecclesiastes. It was written by a man who had more of everything, than anyone else in history. That man was Solomon, supposed to be the wisest of all men. If he can be taken in so can we.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. Amen.

Born Again, Again

Greetings My Friends

This may seem like a strange title, because when you are born again, that's it right? Right. It does however go deeper than that, I found out recently.

Many people including me, have been born again, but did not experience it the way some people do. I'm talking about the excitement part. We feel like we missed something. The fact is, we did. But it was revealed to me just recently.

When you see people on TV, web who have been saved, they all appear to be very excited and happy. They tell you about a life-changing experience. They do a complete turnaround. Some even end up as pastors.

Their stories are all pretty much alike. Drugs, alcohol, sex, violence. It seemed that most of them have broken most or all of the Commandments. Then one day they are saved. All is forgiven and made new. I think some of us at one time or another felt that we would be better off if we were more like them to begin with. I'm not making light of their experience, I'm just pointing out what would be a logical reaction by someone who did not go through what they did.

I don't know about anyone else, but I looked at my past life is fairly sin free. Of course I was comparing myself to the people I described. So when I was saved and receive some of what went with it, as far as blessings go, I was happy but not greatly excited. Somehow something was missing.

It was just a few weeks ago that the missing part started to trouble me again. I prayed about it and ask the Holy Spirit help me find what I was missing. Last Sunday, I spent the whole day after church listening to preachers. Each one said something that caught my attention, and went into my subconscious.

By the time evening came, I felt an urgency to talk to the Lord. I went to my private space, and before I knew it, I was confronted with all of the things in my life I was not proud of. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit to remember, at the same time I didn't feel as though I was being condemned. In my own mind, I was condemning myself. I poured out my guts to God, and felt repentance like never before.

I realized in a new way that a sin, is a sin. None of us is any better than anyone else. We all sin.

To make a long story short, I said the sinners prayer again, this time with as far as I know a truly repentant heart. I knew I was safe for the first time, but my inflated opinion of myself that allow me to see the truth. The song amazing Grace is my favorite, and I cannot listen without stopping and shedding tears. I guess it describes me pretty well. When you don't think you're so bad, there is too much that you overlook without even realizing it on your way to a repentant heart.

I now feel the power and excitement I was missing. If you feel something is missing, ask the Holy Spirit to tell you what it is. You'll be happy you did and don't be afraid to face the truth as I had to do.

Remember Jesus Loves You

Prayer of Salvation

Lord Jesus, I thank you for what you did on the cross for me. Your blood washed away all my sins, by your stripes I was healed, your death and resurrection brought me salvation. Please forgive all my sins, and come into my heart as my personal Savior. Amen.