Closeness of God

 Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Have you ever felt alone and helpless? Have you ever felt that God abandoned you? Many people have experienced these feelings. Let's figure it out together.

First of all let's consider the facts, and determine if God really did abandon you. To that end let's make a checklist to see just who was abandoned.

Is your heart clean? 

How often do you dedicate time to God?

What is His ranking in the things of your life?

Do you read His Word? His plan for you?

To follow His plan, or yours?

 Do you treat people as Jesus would?

You can probably find many more examples that would help you determine who abandoned who.  As a matter of fact, none of us are perfect, but God expects us to do the best we can with all our heart.

It is also very important to remember these valuable truths. No matter how much or how bad we mess up, He is there, ready to forgive. God cannot lie, so it follows that, He will never leave you. You have His Word on it.

If you ask the Holy Spirit to help you, He will, because He is the helper, teacher, and guide, that God gave us when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, and Jesus rose from the dead. So my friends take heart, don't be discouraged, it's tough being a human being, but our Creator understands that. He judges the heart, and that is what saves us.  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

The Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:7-11

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge, through the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He welts.

While meditating on why some prayers get answered and some don't, an amazing thought came to my heart. People get good at what they do the most, an example being sports.

Many Christians go through life, with little or no growth in their relationship with God. The reasons are many and varied, but the most common one is lack of knowledge. Many new Christians are completely unaware of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts He brings. The biggest reason for this is, the Word of God is not a part of their life.

Upon salvation, God gave each of us the Holy Spirit, in what is called the fruits of the spirit. They are listed in Galatians 5:22-23. These fruits, when exercised, lead us according to God's will. The Holy Spirit helps us all the way. These fruits in turn lead us to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is where we use the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, to accomplish our mission from God. All of this is mentioned in our verse for today.

So ask yourself, why would I not take advantage of the same Holy Spirit that worked in Jesus life, His miracles, including His resurrection. When you realize the awesome power in Jesus name and the Holy Spirit, you will realize that God is always with you.

In the next two or three weeks, I will give a brief explanation of how you go about getting baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is not some big ordeal, all it takes is wanting it in your heart.

So, if you aren't ready to step up, you will stagnate, and not fulfill God's plan in your life. If you are ready, it will be one of the best decisions you ever made, next to accepting Jesus as your personal savior. 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

Let It Shine

 Matthew 5:14-16

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Are you a collector of things? Is there anything in your collection that you are proud of, and take especially good care of? If you have an especially beautiful item, do you hide it, or do you show it off to others? How much attention do you give to your prized possessions?

This was obviously a set up. If you are a real Christian, are you proud of it, or do you hide it? Do you share it in a way that tells everyone you meet, that Jesus is Lord of your life?

You may have many reasons in your own mind, why you hesitate to tell others about Jesus. As the old saying goes, talk is cheap, or actions speak louder than words. In the beginning, most of us didn't know what to do. Our heavenly father knew that, so He gave us the Holy Spirit when we repented and accepted Jesus as our Savior.

When we received the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit told us what to do in Galatians 5:22-23. Just as a refresher the verses go like this. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering( patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Besides the promise of this Holy Spirit, Jesus also promised that the Holy Spirit would be a helper to us in order that we may do the things we are supposed to do. This is especially true of all the gifts I just mentioned in this verse. 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. 

Being a Christian

Romans 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

1Thessalonians 5:18

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Many people have the idea that if they become a Christian, everything will be perfect. Not so. Jesus, the son of God, obeyed the will of His Father. The Bible makes it plain that the life of Jesus was by anyone's definition, extremely difficult. Jesus was the perfect example. In Luke 22:42, Jesus prayed, Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done.

Job 1:21

Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 2:10

But Job said to his wife, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks; shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Life is a test. Are we sincere or not? Are we saved or not? God gave us the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us when we were saved. He didn't leave us to figure it all out. Most of the tests we have in life are for us to see where we stand with God. It certainly is no surprise to God what we do.

When we were children, we trusted  our parents for everything. We believed everything they said, and that whatever they did was for our good, even if we didn't like it. How much more do you suppose, that our heavenly father takes care of us?

Matthew 18:2-4

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. 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

Finding Trust

It is written Psalm 32:10, many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.

Have you ever trusted in someone with something very important? Did they let you down? Were you surprised?

Some people just naturally don't trust anyone, even God. Most people however will at times trust someone else, to do, or not to do something.

The level of trust we assign to someone, is usually based on how well they do what they say they will do. Take your parents for instance. As you were growing up, you trusted your parents because you knew that they loved you and would not hurt you.

Even your parents let you down at times, probably due to circumstances they could not control. If parents let you down, think about how friends can let you down. The ugly truth is most people care only about themselves and not others.

If you look at the track record of our Father God, you'll find that He loves you more than anyone else can. He controls circumstances, circumstances do not control Him. He will keep you from things that will separate you from Him, and ends up giving you more than you expected. So just relax in God's love, and enjoy trust in someone who will keep his word always. God bless you and your family. Praise The Lord!

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 Lord

Amen

A Bit of Judas

 John 13:21

When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “most assuredly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me”.

If we know anything about Jesus, we have heard about Judas. Judas was disloyal to Jesus in the worst way. Betrayal is going against someone's trust, and that is exactly what Judas did.

If we are real Christians, we trust in God, the name of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. How would we feel or react if God didn't follow through on His Word? What if He abandoned us when we needed Him most? What if all of a sudden we decided not to trust God when things got a little tough?

Christianity is a relationship with God. To put it in simple terms, we trust God will direct us for our good, and God trusts we will follow His guidance. So ask yourself this. If God or you broke that trust, wouldn't that be a betrayal? Would you or I be any different then Judas? Think about that. 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 life as my personal savior. I want to serve only you. 

Praise the Lord!

Amen

Sincere Prayer

 Matthew 6:7

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think they will be heard for their many words.

I don't know how you feel about prayer, but I do know that for most of my life, it was just hollow words. When I was growing up, there were quite a few sources of prayers. There were and still are prayers for anything you can think of. I am not knocking this, because I realize, many people need these prayers, because they find comfort in them.

There are however some people like me, who have more of a personal conversation with God. I want to pour my heart out to Him. I want to tell Him about what is on my mind. I want to thank Him and praise Him in my own words.

I always felt that prayer was a conversation with God, just as you have conversations with someone that you have a personal relationship with. I have come to know in my heart that the Holy Spirit will take my clumsy words, and turn them into a perfect prayer to God.

So my friends, get comfortable talking to God about anything, anytime, anywhere. It is easy if you ask the Holy Spirit to help. There are no set rules about prayer. The big thing about prayer is it has to be from your heart. Look at it as talking to your 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

It Is Time

 1 Corinthians 2:14

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know then, because they are spiritually discerned.

When we look around in this world, common sense should tell us that something is dreadfully wrong. Most of us do not realize that the problem is caused by spiritual forces at work. Namely satan himself.

Make no mistake my friend, there is the war of all wars going on right now in this world. It is a war not fought for land or money. It is a war for our souls. This is no exaggeration. God and satan are locked in the ultimate battle with the highest stakes ever.

Whose side you are on, is your choice. You have free will to choose God over satan. Choosing God however is definitely not the “Woke” thing, but it is the right thing.

Think about when you were a child. You probably learned right from wrong from your parents. You found out laws are made to keep you out of trouble, if you follow them. Guess what, the Bible is God's instructions to us.

1 Corinthians 15:33.-14

Do not be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

If we follow the crowd, we will eventually reap the same reward that they get. Remember these important truths. God never did, and never will send anybody to hell; WE make that choice.

We all know that death is waiting for each of us, we just don't know when. The fact is that eternity waits for each of us.  We don't know when, or where we will end up if we don't accept Jesus as our Savior.

When the time comes, it will be too late to decide. Reality is, we don't have any idea which breath will be our last. Five seconds from now might be too late. Here are some verses to think about.

Mark 4:12

seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn in their sins be forgiven them.

Romans 11:8

God has given them a spirit of stupor, I said they should not see and ears that they should not here, to this very day.

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

There Is Hope

 Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

You would probably agree with the idea that the vast majority of the people in this world, live without hope. Does it have to be that way?

Adam and Eve were cast from the garden into an increasingly hostile and dangerous world. God however wanted them to know that He did not forsake them. He gave them hope.

God knows what is going on, and what we are dealing with. God provided His Word, the Bible as it is known today. The Bible is about love, forgiveness, redemption, and instructions to return to God our Father. The Bible is however difficult for many people to understand what it really is. For whatever their reasons, they are lost for now.

If anyone ask God for forgiveness, and a relationship with Jesus, he will receive what he asks. The Bible covers that subject and the subject of hope in many verses.

Hebrews 11:1 says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Romans 15:13 says, now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says, be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid; for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Isaiah 41:10 says, fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Jeremiah 17:7 says, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

As you can tell from these verses, it is God's will to give us hope. He included everything we need in this life, in His book of instructions. Those instructions were designed by God to get us back to heaven someday, in order to spend eternity with Him. Remember the Bible also says, it is by the grace of God that we are saved, not by our works, lest any man should boast. 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

Jesus In The Boat

It Is Written, Matthew 8:24-26, and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves, but He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying Lord save us! We are perishing! But He said to them, why are you fearful oh you of little faith? Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

We have all heard the story many times. To most of us it is unbelievable that His disciples were afraid, with Jesus in the boat.

If we apply this story to our lives today, we might find ourselves in a panic over some difficulty or other. We may not be in a storm with Jesus in the boat, but we may be in one of the storms of life.

It is pretty common to forget about everything God has given us, and the countless times He rescues us. Sometimes we don't even notice.

Well my friends, I pass on to you,  what the Holy Spirit put in my heart. I never thought about what I am about to tell you.

The undeniable truth is, Jesus is in each believer, the way He was in the boat. In may seem that He is asleep sometimes, but that doesn't matter.

Whether Jesus is asleep, or awake, we will make it through the worst storms, because He is always with us. No storm is too great to overcome Jesus so we, because of Him, cannot be overcome either. God bless you and your family. 

Praise The Lord!

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 Lord

Amen

Our Part

 Romans 13:1-2

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

In John 19:11 Jesus told Pilate, “you could have no power at all over me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin”.

If Jesus himself submitted to the government, that should be pretty plain to all of us, it is God's will. Most of us complain about our leaders, because we don't know, or don't care about what God says.

Thomas Jefferson once said “the government you elect is the government you deserve”

Harry Truman during his presidency said “once a government is committed to silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all of its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear”.

Pretty strong stuff don't you think? How does all of this fit in with God's plan? The answer is simple. If we follow God's Word, we will get Godly leaders. If we don't, we do get what we deserve.

Each of us has a responsibility to vote. Voting should not be with emotion. We must ask God to help us vote for the right people, and that involves checking out how they represented us in the past. This goes for all offices. We can't just sit back and hope for the best.

A vote is precious. Don't waste it on the wrong people because you don't do due diligence. Votes can mean years of good government, or years of hardship.

If you read the Old Testament, you'll see that people got what they deserved. Unlike our society where no one is accountable, or responsible for their actions, God does not play around. If you want good government, vote for good people. If you can't be bothered to make an informed choice, the choice will be made for you, and you probably won't be happy with it. Our God does not allow us to have bad government for fun, it is instead a wake-up call.

Just as being a Christian requires us to keep in touch with our Creator and to follow His Word, we must put effort into keeping an eye on the people we elect, or are planning on electing, to make sure that they follow the path of a godly country that was foreseen by our forefathers. 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. 

Praise the Lord!

Amen