Take up Your Cross

It Is Written, Matthew 10:38-39, and he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

Does that scare you? Do you need a little help understanding these two verses? What I now say to you, is what I believe from reading a few sources concerning these verses.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we should commit to living our lives by Jesus example. It does not necessarily involve physical pain or suffering for many of us. It should be pointed out however that even today, there are what is known as martyrs, in this world because they believe in and love Jesus.

Our daily cross is pretty simple, but hard for a lot of people. We are to love our neighbor, help those in need, be kind, forgiving, generous, nonjudgmental, and be thankful for all the blessings we have received from God. We are to live as God directs us. He has the plan and we are to follow it without complaining. When you look at what Jesus did for us, there is nothing to compare to what we go through. His cross was to bring salvation, our cross helps us to get there.

Losing our life, is basically our will for our life. Putting it simply, if we follow our will, and let the world dictate who we are and what we do, we run the risk of not receiving salvation, because the things of the world are against God. By accepting Jesus and loving His way, we will spend eternity with Him. Have a blessed day. 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

Amen

Blessings Are Free

It Is Written, Proverbs 10:22, the blessings of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.
At first glance many people think this proverb is about money. What this proverb is really referring to is, the riches of blessings. We are all blessed in different ways, but the problem is most of us don't recognize the blessings, because we take them for granted.
If you have never been sick, you probably don't realize what a blessing good health is. You can probably name dozens of these blessings without thinking too hard. How do we get these blessings? Well that is simple, and a puzzle at the same time. We get them because God loves us. How He decides who gets what blessings, is known only to Him. He does not have favorites, so that doesn't enter into it either.
Since God operates His plan in our lives when we let Him, He knowing all things, blesses us  with the right thing at the right time, for as long as we need it. There is no way to earn God's favor or blessings. There is absolutely nothing we can do to deserve them. God gives us the blessings because we are His children, and He loves us. All we have to do is receive them. By being thankful for everything He has done for us, we are giving Him back some of the love that He gave us. Just as when you give your child something wonderful, and your child really appreciates it, it makes you happy, God is happy when you appreciate what He gave you. Have a blessed day. 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
Amen

Wait on the Lord

It Is Written, Psalm 27:14, wait on the Lord;  be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart;  wait I say on the Lord.
Waiting on the Lord seems to apply to prayer, and seeds we plant, most of the time. The outcome in any case is dependent on faith and trust in the Lord. Lack of faith or trust will always produce negative results. In that way, God does not fail us, we fail ourselves.
First let us take a look at prayer. When we pray, we must trust in and have faith in God, that we will receive what we say. We must see the result as already accomplished. Don't pay any attention to how things look, or what someone says. Your physical eyes lie to you. They show you faith inhibitors,  conjured up by satan.
Planting  seeds works the same way. Seeds do not just apply to money. It applies to everything you do. If you plant seeds of kindness, you will get kindness back. Be helpful and you'll get help. If you sow hate, you will get hate.
Most of us do not realize that everything we do, is a seed. Good or bad, sooner or later, it comes back to us. God sees all. Payback may happen instantly, or take a long time. God adjusts what we get, and when, by whether we believe or not, and in the case of bad actions whether we repent or not.
God's timing is perfect in every situation. He already knows the outcome. He is never early, and He is never late. He knows and orchestrates each step, so all we have to do is wait and see. He never goes back on His word. We really control our own lives, through love and power of God, by what we believe and do. Have a blessed day. 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
Amen

Repentance Is the Key

It Is Written, 2 Corinthians 7:10, for Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
It is a fact that God sent His only son to die for the sins of the world. He did that because man is expert when it comes to sin. Man has a great imagination and comes up with all sorts of ways to sin, because man cannot keep God's laws.
When Jesus was here, He was here as a man so that He could experience what man had to deal with. He was tempted all the time, but He did not give in.
God knows man is full of sin, even the best of us, when we go by His standards. It doesn't matter how many or how horrible the sins are, He forgives us.
Sin hurts God, because He does not want to see His creation acting that way. What hurts Him more is the lack of repentance. It not only is disrespect to Him, it is condemnation to man. Man cannot have salvation without true repentance from the heart. It deeply sorrows God that even one should perish.
Repentance is more than just being sorry for what you have done. True repentance is a change in the way you look at things, and the things you do. The best way to describe it is, you do a complete turnaround in your life. Repentance, is not frivolous, it defines your relationship to God, and quite possibly where you will spend eternity. Have a blessed day. 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
Amen

Feelings- A Two Edge Sword

It Is Written, 1 Peter 1:8, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
We are all familiar with feelings. They usually come upon us just as reflexes do, without even thinking about it. They are a part of everyday life, and how we read other people. Most people make decisions based on feelings, or maybe you call them emotions. You can get some pretty bad decisions that way.
The Bible tells us to walk by faith and not by sight. It is basically telling us to keep feelings out of it. If you look at what feelings can produce, there are some good and some bad results. I don't think anyone would be happy if they could suppress all their feelings; they would just get depressed and possibly even worse.
Take salvation for example. You are likely to see great joy in some people when they are saved, and not much change that is apparent in others. Both people are probably saved, but one shows outward joy because of their personality, and the other has joy in their spirit.Feelings cannot decide if you are saved or not, faith does. People are all different, so you can't compare yourself to someone else.
Another example is when you pray for something, such as the healing of a sickness. You must have faith that you received it, according to God's promise, and you will have it. If on the other hand you wait for feelings to tell you, you are blocking the very thing you prayed for.
Feelings can also allow you to sin. You may have strong feelings about something the Bible says is sin. Feelings can help you distort the truth and you end up going against what the Bible teaches because you listen to your feelings.
As you can see, feelings can work both ways in any situation. A little "Lord help me decide" Really can keep you out of a lot of trouble.
One last thing, feelings can never replace discernment and faith. Don't judge your faith by feelings, judged by the person you are. Galatians 5:22 will give you an idea. The Lord's plan for everyone involves faith and trust, and not things satan puts in your mind. Have a blessed day. 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
Amen

God Has It Covered

It Is Written, John 10:28, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
Only a big, Almighty God could make that statement and guarantee it. Our God is that God. He can make that statement, because He planned every single detail ahead of time.
Take the ancient writings, the patriarchs, the prophets, all was foretold many hundreds of years ahead of time. Most of us think that the Israelites should've known, and the Pharisees should have been teaching about Jesus. Sometimes it is very hard to believe that they didn't accept Jesus.
God knew ahead of time who would believe and accept salvation through Jesus. He also knew what it would take to convince us, and save us. He knew every single person who would not believe.
Based on all of this knowledge, God created a plan for mankind. He decided even before Adam, that man would have free choice, even though He knew that some would not believe. He adjusted His plan to cover everything. Jesus saved us, and we received His instructions through the Bible. We are in His plan. If you are His now, you will be His forever. Have a blessed day. 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

Trust in God

It Is Written, Isaiah 26:3, you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts you.
Think about when you were a child. Most of us were blessed with loving parents. When we had a problem, or there was something we wanted, we told our parents, expecting them to take care of whatever it was. We felt no problem was too big for them to take care of. We then had peace in our hearts, and didn't think about it anymore.
As we grew up and had our own families, we saw things from the other side. Our children were looking to us for answers. On top of this, we saw many occasions of ugliness in the world. Lying, cheating, stealing and worse. It seemed like everyone was trying to hurt someone else. No peace.
So, a small recap. When you were a kid, you went to your parents. When you grew up, your kids came to you. Now, who do you pass the buck to? Can you?
There is an answer, and that answer is the father of us all. When you get to the point where you realize that your life is beyond what you can handle, you can pass it all off to God. Ask Jesus to help you, accept what He did for you, and give Him your whole life. Just as you trusted your earthly father, trust Jesus and your heavenly father, and you will have perfect peace in your heart no matter what. Leave everything to Jesus to take care of, and don't take it back. Have a blessed day. 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