My Time With Jesus Tuesday

Prayer Is The Key

Since the time that I was young, I have been amazed by well-meaning people telling probably every kid alive, “to be successful, you must study ''. As far as I was concerned it was a great idea but, no one explained how. 

Prayer is pretty much the same way. Innumerable people tell you to pray and believe, but no one tells you how to pray effectively. I am here to explain what the Holy Spirit told me. By the way He answered me because I asked Him to. I will explain the way I pray in a way that will make you feel confident that your prayers will be answered. As a matter of fact you may like it so much if you try it, that you pass it on to family and friends.

First of all, prayer is talking to almighty God, and telling Him what is on your heart. It is a personal conversation with someone who has unconditional love for you. He loves you and wants the best for you. I look at it this way. God is a king who has control of everything, and he has the final word on all things.

Isaiah 33:22, For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, The Lord is our king, He will save us.

Since God is a judge as well as king, He must make decisions in the courts of Heaven. I'm not suggesting that our Supreme Court is even a shadow of God's court, but I am just using the Supreme Court as a reference point.

When you pray, you are actually taking your case to the highest court. When we do, just as any good lawyer would tell you, you must be prepared and follow the law. You need a worthy cause. You learn applicable information from the law, in this case the Bible.

When you present your case, you must set precedents, you must have credible witnesses, you must have knowing in your heart that this judge will decide in your favor.

All of this is a conversation with our God and judge. He is totally honest, loves you, and will do everything for your good. Everything you need for this case is contained in the Bible.

Tell the judge that you stand on his own words, and you will not be moved. Mention three or four quotes that you are standing on. Here are a few you might like to use. Every Bible has a concordance, that is like a dictionary that will direct you to any subject you need versus for.

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

Mark 11:24, Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. 

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

Philippians 4:16, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 

These verses are an example of what you might want to include in your prayer or petition. As a follow-up to this message, the one on Thursday evening will be an example of the way I do it, in case you are interested. This will just be an example. Modify it to suit what is in your heart. 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 Day to Treasure

Psalm 118:24, This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.

We have a small patio in front of our house. About 6 AM this morning, I went outside to have my coffee. I thought about this verse, because every day before I get out of bed, my wife and I both say it.

My wife of many years joined me. There was a pleasant breeze, birds were singing. We talked about how good the sound of the birds was, because we both feel that when birds sing, all is well with the world.

As we sat there, my wife commented about what good neighbors we have. That led to thanking God for them, and the town we live in. Well when we get started, we realize just how much God has blessed us. He really does supply all of our needs. We aren't rich  in this money, and have been on a modest income over 18 years, and I can honestly say we have lacked nothing.

Think about every breath you take, everything you see, hear, and feel. Start realizing the blessings all around you. Appreciate them, and realize that God is always there, even when times seem hard.

I have had a triple bypass, a heart valve replacement, and half of my liver taken out because of cancer, to name a few things that have happened to me. My wife has had knee replacement and hip replacement. The really funny thing is, because we trusted God before these problems, we had peace in our hearts. As a result of God's love and the power of the Holy Spirit, today my heart is good, my cancer is gone, and I feel great. My wife gets around like she hadn't done in years. I would like to add that these medical problems came up in our middle and late 70s.

Maybe you'll think I'm a little bit wacky, but we think everything in our lives has been a blessing. It is during hard times, that we see and appreciate how much God loves us, and takes care of us. I tell you all of these things in order to help you in your life. Prayer does work my friends. The Holy Spirit still works incredible miracles. Jesus still loves you and will never let you down. The only regret we have is that we are human and we can't love God the way He loves us. It is not possible in the flesh so will have to do it when we see Him in the future in our spirits. 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

An Analysis Of Prayer

Mark 11:24, Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for-believe that you have received it and it will be yours.

The biblical  meaning of prayer is; how the people of God talk to Him. Prayer has always been looked at as positive or negative, usually determined by how you were brought up.

When I was young, people used a prayer book. This book had prayers for all kinds of things, such as finding something that was lost, to making faith stronger, and anything you could think of. As a matter of fact people believed in praying to Saints. There were patron saints for anything and everything.

Matthew 6: 7-8, When you pray, don't babble like the gentiles, since they imagine they'll be heard for their many words. Don't be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.

I found it very difficult to believe in written prayers. They were someone else's words. Reading prayers never worked for me. We never knew there was a direct path to almighty God, so that is all we could do at the time. As a result, I just fell away from the religion I was brought up in.

Ephesians 6:18, Pray at all times in the spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

John 4:24, God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

When I became a Christian, I found out that unlike religions that teach of a far-off untouchable God, Christianity is a relationship with almighty God, the creator of the universe. This changed everything. Now, instead of praying and hoping I discovered praying and knowing. After getting into God's Word, I discovered a number of things. I didn't just know that God and Jesus, as well as the Holy Spirit existed, I knew who they were and what they did. I also found out that all believers are saints according to the Bible.

John 15:7, If you remain in me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

I gave myself a question and answer( prompted by the Holy Spirit) that made the difference. If my son had a need, and asked me to help, would I turn him down? The answer was no, I would help.

If I would be that way with my son, my Father in Heaven would do even more. That was the convincer. I started talking to my Heavenly Father knowing He would help.

A couple of other things. When Jesus was ready to ascend to Heaven after He rose from the dead, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to help, teach, and guide us.

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

When you know the promises God made to us in the Bible, and you stand on those promises when you talk to Him in prayer, in my opinion , and speaking from experience , there is no way He will not answer a prayer according to His will. His will of course is plainly written in the Bible. 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

Another Look

Revelation 21:8, But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars-their share will be in the Lake of Fire that burns with fire and sulfur which is the second death 

Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

While most of the world believes the Bible is out of date, or just a bunch of stories and fairy tales, our creator sticks by His word.

Numbers 23:19 , God is not a man, that He might lie, or a son of man, that He might change His mind. Does He speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?

Out of all  of the sins that will bring someone to a bad place in eternity, the most common one is lying. Why do you suppose it is? Let's examine it.

The first thing we must consider is, God will not and cannot lie. He has been that way at least from the garden where satan lied to Eve. Going by what happened to humanity after that, we can easily see the destructive power of lying. It became the origin of all kinds of sin.

Most people do not hesitate to lie. They either lie directly or lie by omission that is not giving the whole truth. When a person lies, it doesn't just affect the one that was lied to. It has a life that can continue forever as in the case of satan in the garden. That lie is even affecting the world today.

Proverbs 19:5, A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not Escape.

What I am about to say will cause you to make a choice that will determine where you spend eternity. So here we go. Lets start with unintended consequences. Naturally situations differ, and outcomes are of different severity. I must stress the fact that this is an example that does not reflect any political party.

Let's say a presidential election is coming. The media sends out a constant barrage of lies and misleading stories with their spin on. The voters don't get the truth. A misinformed voter casts a ballot based on bad information and lies. The wrong person wins. He lied during the campaign, and when he wins, he surrounds himself with inept liars.

Through the term, people are hurt, physically, emotionally, and financially. Hundreds of people lose their lives resulting from inept leadership. Families can be affected for generations. The destruction comes about because of Lies. The people that put out these lies, also share in the murder of innocent people.

Before you dismiss this story, think about it. James Madison said , “the government requires a virtuous public and virtuous leaders, or the whole system will fail”! The saying about how computers work is “garbage in, garbage out” 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

Pray for America!  

Uncertainness Of Life

Ecclesiastes 2:11, Then I looked on all the work that my hands had done and on the labor in which I would; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for when there was no profit under the sun.

Did you ever just relax empty your mind, and just let it wander?  It is truly amazing to come to the realization that you can beat the system.

Maybe someone you know walks in fear, and worries about everything. This type of person never seems to enjoy life because he lives in a fantasy future. By living in a fantasy future, he is trying to somehow put what is going on in his life in the past.

Think about this. Suppose you have a dentist appointment in two weeks. You can worry yourself sick by imagining every single thing that can possibly go wrong, and even some things that are so far out that it is basically impossible

Now for the truth. The dentist visit will take about an hour. If this person spends 14 days, 24 hours each day, being controlled by fear and worry he is destroying those 14 days. The poor guy cannot get a good nights sleep because his mind is going all the time.

Remember this, everything has an end, the good and the bad. None of us know when you do something for the last time. I am not talking about death As an example suppose you like to play golf. If you knew you would never play again, would you make the most of it?

The fact is my friends, you will never know when you did something for the last time, until at some point in the future, you realize that fact. Whenever you do anything, put your whole self into it, without fear, and enjoy it, because you may never do it again. Someone once said, live each day as though it were your last, because some day it will be.

In order to get it right, and beat the system, at the same time, you have to give up fear, and uncertainty, and go to the truth. In the world we live in, the only source of truth is God's Word, the Bible. Every morning, give your day to Jesus. Thank Him for giving you another day. Live it like it is your last. Trust in Him gives you peace, while fear creates stress and unhappiness. You may not realize it, when you fear anything, you're putting your faith in satan. I say that because when you fear, you are believing in what he is telling you.

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, He accepts you as part of His family.  He takes care of everything you trust Him with. You no longer have to be in the trap that most people are in, you have beat the system.

1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you.

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

Authority

Matthew 8: 5-10, When Jesus entered into Capernaum a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, Lord my servant is lying at home paralyzed in terrible agony. He said to Him, am I to come and heal him? Lord, the Centurion replied, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I am a man under Authority having soldiers under my command. I say to this one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, And to my servant, do this! And he does it.

Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following Him, truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith.

If we understand exactly what these verses  mean, we have a pretty good idea of what we call the authority of the believer. Authority means the power or right to give orders, make decisions, enforce obedience.

Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came near and said to them, all authority has been given to me in Heaven and on Earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember I am with you always to the end of the age 

As we see in this verse, the Father gave all authority to Jesus. At that point, Jesus would act in God's place on this Earth. He had the power and backing of God His father.

To help you understand the authority if you aren't sure, I will explain it this way, from my own everyday life. When I was working, I was in charge of quite a few people including supervisors. When I gave instructions concerning things at work, everyone obeyed because they knew the company gave me the authority to make decisions.

If my company was involved in business with another company, I discussed any problems with whoever had the authority at the other company to resolve an issue.

When sales people came to sell something to my company, they talked to me, because I was the decision maker.

The Centurion in our story recognizes that Jesus had the power to grant what he wanted. It would have accomplished nothing if he had talked to any of the Apostles.

Luke 9:1-2, summoning the 12, He gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. Then He sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

When Jesus gave us authority over satan in His name, satan regarded it as an order from Jesus, because satan realized Jesus was backing the authority He gave us. Jesus gave believers authority over many things.

Matthew 10:8, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with Leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you receive, freely give.

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

Ask Yourself, What If

Acts 4:12, There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to People by which we must be saved.

It never fails to amaze me, when someone says some negative thing about the Bible. People often refer to it as a book of fairy tales, written by men, nonsense, or too hard to understand. Minds are shut tight and locked on rejection of the Bible.

The part that really baffles me is, the vast majority of these people never even opened a Bible. They are deciding their eternity, and don't even realize it. They prefer to listen to friends and acquaintances rather than check it out for themselves.

2  Timothy 3:16- 17, All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The one question I always ask is, what if? What if the Bible is actually the key that will open the door to a better life, and Heaven after life?

If someone offered you a treasure map to the greatest treasure in history, would you take it? How about if it is written in Chinese or Russian? Would that stop you? The Bible is the map and instruction book to a never-ending peace and happiness with God. As a former president once told voters  “ what have you got to lose”?

Matthew 24:35, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

Think about this. Suppose you die and find out you were wrong, rejecting Jesus and God's Word. No do-over, it would be too late. On the other hand, if you follow Jesus through His Word, wouldn't the effort be a very small thing to pay during your life?

Remember this. Jesus died for each of us to have eternal life with Him. We have to decide in life if we follow Him or satan. Not everyone goes to Heaven, but man will go to the other place.

The fact is, God does not decide where we go. God gave us the choice to decide where we spend eternity. Think long and hard, because when we die, and see the truth, it will be too late.

Luke 11:28, He said, rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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