Month: April 2018

Forever

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“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” Mark 13:7. NIV

We have been hearing these things for years, but the end is sooner than we think. It may be twenty more years or tomorrow. It will come though so where will you be? Where will you spend eternity? This life we live in is really very short. It all depends on how we live this life as to where we will end up.

“By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35. NIV

“If you love me, keep my commands”. John 14: 15. NIV

It is easy to love God but not always easy to love others. It is not a request though. God has commanded us to love him as well as those who hate us. If we love, we will keep his commands. Boy we are extremely lucky we live in this day and age because back when Moses was in charge there were so many more commands to keep. You could hardly breathe without screwing up.

Now that Jesus has redeemed us it is so much easier, but our actions are so important. Imagine with me for a minute that the doctor just told you that you only have 24 hours left to live. How will you spend that next 24 hours? Where you will end up for eternity is in the balance.

We watched Scrooge for years turn from the Scrooge he was to the loving person he was meant to be. Yet we never really take it to heart. Every action we make has long lasting consequences. This life is but a blink of the eye compared to 10,000 years in eternity.

Back to my imagining. Would we not take seriously our actions for 24 hours? Do we obey his commandments or do we really need his forgiveness. All sin and all need forgiveness from those sins. One sin is not any worse or less than others. That little white lie is as bad as murder. Sin is sin.

Am I close enough to God. Is my relationship as good with him as I can make it. Many of these same questions would be going through your mind. We need to spend every day with him as if it will be our last, because it may. Nobody knows if they will wake up tomorrow or if we will be in a tragic accident.

We need to spend time with him every day. Get to know him just as a loving father and close friend. The more we know him, the author of love, the more we will be like him and be full of love. Love for him and all men. He will help us to love even the unlovely.

Then we can know for sure that we may close our eyes in this life, but when we open them again we will be in heaven. Spending forever in his presence. In that perfect place where no sorrow or pain exists. Only joy and peace forever.

Holiness

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“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 NIV

We need to learn what Holiness is. It is described in the dictionary as sanctity or sacred. Our God who we serve is sacred above all. We owe him the utmost respect over everything. He has done so much for us. Not only did he send his one and only son to willingly live a perfect life just to show us how to live, he came just to give his life up for each of us. He knew only he could be that perfect sacrifice for all of our sins.

Without Him we would not be able to be redeemed, we would be destined to die in our sins as we deserved and to suffer in torment for all eternity in the lake of fire. Separated from him and his goodness forever. What a horrifying thought.

“Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His Holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.” Psalms 99:9. NIV

He is worthy of all our worship, but worship is not just singing and dancing before the Lord. It Is doing what he has asked us to do. Keeping his commandments, and doing the right and true things he has shown us. This is true spiritual worship. If we truly love him we Will keep His commandments.

They say you can tell a tree by its fruit. We are his children, but how far have we fallen from the tree. It is important for any relationship that you respect the person you love enough to do the things they have shared with you. Those things that show respect and that you truly honor that person’s opinions.

How much more the one who made us and loves us more than anyone. He knows what is best for us and tries to get us there. By following him and his will we are actually helping ourselves.

Sometimes we just don’t understand why he is telling us to do something. I was reading in Exodus last week all the things he had for the Israelites to do. Some of it made no real sense. God seemed to be so nit-picky. But it’s just like my mom used to say. “ Because I said so,”. She was my mother and knew more than me. She knew what was best for me even if I didn’t know why.

Out of respect and love for my parents I obeyed them. I did just like they taught me to show them I loved them. I trusted that all they taught me was for my good and they would never hurt me. I respected them and now I can respect me Heavenly Father even more.

I wouldn’t do anything that could possibly hurt him. I love and respect Him so much that I always wish to do His will. He has rewarded me with an abundant life because of it. I look at so many people’s lives and see so much trauma and turmoil, but then they have chosen to do things their way. It seems so sad but how else can we learn.

I read a book last week talking about the good and bad kings who reigned over Israel. Some were Godly and some were wicked. God’s people fared far better when the King honored God. When they tore down idols and high places for worshiping idols and did all that God had commanded they prospered. The people lived in peace and were blessed.

I choose to be blessed in my life. I will love the Lord who is so worthy of my respect and honor. He has never failed me and never will. This is my act or true worship.

Childlike faith

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Without faith it is impossible to please God. But faith like a little child is what helps get us to heaven. When we were young we put our confidence in our parents to always take care of us. They were who we ran to when we were scared, worried and confused. When it was stormy outside and I didn’t know what to expect, in bed with my parents is where I would run. It made me feel safe.

I can remember times when we all ended up in there. No one got much sleep those nights but it helped. That is what our Heavenly Father wants. Run to him. Concerns, worries and questions. He wants to be there for us. Calm our storms. Defend us and care for us. He is stronger and wiser and more loving than any earthly father can ever be. With God all things are possible.

We need to know his words in the Bible and believe in them. All of them. I tell myself every day that I believe your words and choose to do your will, your way, always. I ask for him to help me do them always. It’s not my will but yours be done.

His ways are best for me and that’s what I want. Because I love and adore him I will keep all his commandments. When I screw up, and we all do, I run to him in repentance. Asking for forgiveness . I don’t want to sin and hurt him.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous and wrongdoers will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived : neither the impure or immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who participate in homosexuality. Nor cheats, nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foul-mouthed revivers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the Kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10 AMPC

I do not wish to be separated from God. I want my ways to please God. So many people do such things and believe they’re going to heaven. Oh I do not wish to be deceived. It is important to read and know God’s word. How else can you be sure you are obeying.

We don’t think of ourselves as robbers but do we pay tithes? Do we cheat on our taxes? Do we take things at work? The money we use is just that. Ours to use as we obey him and help others. We came into this world with nothing and leave with nothing. It was God who taught us how to earn that money and he deserves his tithe. I would rather be blessed on ninety percent than cursed on one hundred percent.

It is through our tithes that he uses us to serve the orphans and widows. Help those in need and support our churches. I love seeing all the great things my church is doing in hurting and lost lives.

I may be naive but I know Gods plans work. I want to be apart of what he is doing in my community. And one day I want to hear ‘ Well done my good and faithful servant’.

I want that more than ever.

This is Love

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“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” John 4:10. NIV

God loved us, each and everyone of us. At any given point in time that would be several billion people for several years. The God who created this wonderful planet and everything on it. Thought of each and everyone of us, before even time began, and he loved each of us with a perfect love. He is the great creator and He created love in the first place.

Propitiation means being reconciled with my God. I have been redeemed and nothing can separate me from the perfect love of my Father.

No one or nothing can ever love us with a perfect love. No one is perfect but God. We will all fail to love perfectly because we are not perfect. When men separate themselves from God, thinking that they are better or all they need, they are missing out on the greatest that this life has to offer. Saying, basically, I don’t need it!

The mercy and grace that my Father has for us, as well as the hope of eternal, forever perfect life, is not to be missed out on. I can wake every morning with a joy that is unbelievable but it is mine through his great love for me his daughter. I never ever want to lose that.

I have listened to so many people talk of their endeavors for that perfect life apart from God. There is such turmoil and striving after perfection. Happiness isn’t really an option. It’s just making sure you are better off than the next guy. That you have more than the next guy. Having more on your own is supposed to make you the winner. It doesn’t matter that it might never be enough to make you happy.

So many people go through life this way and it’s so sad. I don’t care if I have the most toys when I die. Not even if I have no toys. I can have nothing but the love of my Heavenly Father and a life with him forever. That’s all I want. I have learned over my time in this nursing home that our earthly bodies are failing. We can not know forsure that we will always be in the race for success.

But all I need to do is keep his commandments and love him all I can and love all others. That is simple to me because I have his help. In myself I can’t do that but with him I can do all things. This makes me happy! When someone asks me, ‘How’s your day going?’, I think of all I have and can’t help but smile.

I may be wrong, I don’t care, it works so great for me God’s way. I have a future and a hope that carries me through anything. When I face my final days on earth I have an eternal faith that God is waiting for me at the end with dessert. His glory.

He is Alive

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As I look back to all God has done for us this Resurrection Sunday I see a picture in my mind of a young man. With all the love of the Father in him. Remember this is a picture of what God is like a God that jealously loves us more than ever and wants us to have and be everything we can through him. He is standing at that door.

There is no hardware on the door, it can not be opened from the outside, only we can open that door. Open it to all the love, joy, peace and life out there that he has available for us. It is totally our choice. Life abundantly or death. Not only is it an eternal choice of life ever after we die, but true life right now.

Freedom from sin, death, hell, and the grave. That same power that raised Jesus back to life from that tomb of death, brokenness and darkness is available to everyone. It is free for the asking.

Are you suffering from an addiction that you have no control over that has you imprisoned in a spiraling downward motion of destruction. Are you hurting from unforgiveness towards someone who has caused you great pain in the past, something that has robbed you of all your joy and peace. Are you struggling from day to day with why you are even alive.

You can be free. Jesus is reaching his arms out to you. Arms that want to hold you and never let you go. To give you answers and hope. To make you happier than you have ever been. Help you have purpose and meaning in this current life. Won’t you let him in. Change is available through that door for you just open it.

It says in the Bible that all we have to do is ask Jesus to come in. Tell him that you have sinned and are not perfect. Ask him to forgive you for your past. A past that you have tried to do on your own. One that we truly need his help and power to enjoy. Ask him to help you to have the life he has for you. Ask him to help you do his will.

He will gladly hold your hand as his child today. He will give you a future and a hope.

The prison doors will swing open and you will walk into that glorious light.

That is not all! Talk to God have him show you what’s next. Read his words in the Bible so you will know how to live right. And lastly find good Christian family to unite with and to help you grow in this new life. They can show you truths that can help you have the most successful life ever.

May God our Father and Jesus his son richly bless your lives with the help of their powerful spirit to fulfill all they have for you forever and ever. Amen!