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Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Meaningless

09 Jan

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 – 1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 “Meaningless!  Meaningless!” says the Teacher.  “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
3 What does man gain from all his labor 
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

The bad thing about a bucket list is people live their life like there is nothing in the future to live for.  Is this what God is trying to portray?

No!  This is a lack of faith to not believe what God has promised for those who love Him.

Matthew 10:39 – 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

This world will pass away and so will the meaningless things we do in it that don’t pertain to God.  Heaven isn’t eternity of sitting around in a retirement home bragging about how great you scored in your earthly life.  It’s a chance to show the Lord you love Him and you can be faithful in your eternal relationship with Him.

 
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Proverbs 8:17

06 Jan

Proverbs 8:17 –  17 I love those who love me,
   and those who seek me find me.

It speaks alot.

I don’t know about you, but everday I see less and less people seeking the Lord.

Seek the Lord and you will find Him.  With that comes wisdom of life, because the Lord is Wisdom.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration

 

Reality

05 Jan

Romans 11:33-36 – 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?”  35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Man is pretty arrogant in our fallen state.  The God that can number the hairs of 7 Billion people in the world right now is a little bigger than we are.  He’s a lot more important than we are.  So how come people get selfish and only care about themselves?  Part of the fall.

How great that such a magnificent God would not only love us, but love us enough to die for us even when were rebellious.

He’s Big, were little.  He’s Good, we’re not without Him.

As humans we need to know our place.  He’s God, were not.  Sorry New Agers or Hindus.  If you’re seeking yourself, your missing the God who made it all.

 
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Who or What Are You A Slave Too?

04 Jan

Romans 6:16 – 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

You’re a slave to someone or something.

People who are unsaved are slaves to sin.  There are a lot of people who seek God that are still choosing to be a slave to sin.  We choose.  It can be very hard to the point of addiction, but we still choose.  The reason we choose is because Christ has given us victory so we can say no.

Romans 6:17 – 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  

A slave of righteousness!  Now that’s a good title.  We need to work as hard as we can for our Lord and righteousness.  Taking a stand against what we know is wrong, because we love our Lord.

 
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Resolutions!

03 Jan

I have only one for everybody.

Matthew 22:37-37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

I’m not sticking my neck out on this one am I?

I pretty much can go on record that we ALL need to do it.  This isn’t a Patrick opinion.

How do I know that?  The next verse –

Matthew 22:38 – 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

One hundred percent guaranteed you will not ever feel like you have wasted your time, by making the Lord number one and putting your first and most important energy into it.  You’ll have no regrets.

However, if you waste your time like I have in the past doing pettily little things that have no significance, we’ll regret those.  How do we know what they are?  Bang, you’re dead.  You’re leaving everything behind when it comes to this earth.  Your love and what you did in the name of the Lord and for the Lord is what is waiting for you in the future.

Today is a new day.  Your resolution even if you’re already doing it?  Jesus first!

Happy New Year!

 
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Nothing Else Makes Sense After Testing

02 Jan

We are told to seek the Truth.

John 14:6 –   6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 8:32 – 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The wonderful thing about the Truth, is if your honest then things that are not truth will soon be exposed and make no sense.

Here is a simple analogy.  You put on a blind fold and someone asks you to reach out your hand.  They pour a liquid on it.

So what can you now conclude?

You can conclude that the substance is not sand, rock, wood, toothpaste, anything that is hard, etc.

That’s how it is when finding truth in God.  Some of the religions out there are so silly that the very first couple of questions and answers will tell you it’s false.  Some on the other hand take more in looking at them.

You then bring you hand to your nose and smell.  It’s not perfume, gas, oil, nothing with a powerful smell.  Okay you now have eliminated more possible things in your research.  The next level of belief’s are now debunked because they are not truth.  You wouldn’t have gotten this far had you not taken a little time to look into it.

Next you taste it.  Ah, it’s not pop, it’s not water, …..it’s milk.

This may sound silly, but people don’t even take two seconds to look into what they do believe or that long to debunk what is totally different and cannot be true since it’s the exact opposite of what their supposed to believe.

E-F-F-O-R-T-!

When I speak to people about simple truths, many of them look at me with a blank stare on their face.  Many will say I don’t know anything about that.  These things I’m talking about usually are simple Christian truths.  The reason they don’t know anything is because they put zero effort into it.  Very few people in life put zero effort into their whole lives, so where is their effort going?  Wherever it’s at that’s where their heart is!

Truth strengthens your faith, which strengthens your relationship with the Lord.

It starts with wanting Truth.  It doesn’t start with effort.  You can be ambitious in learning and if you’re not seeking the Truth, you’re going to get lost in a different direction.  The devil masquerades around as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 11:13-14 – 13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

1 Peter 5:8 – 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Seeking Truth will help you find It and at the same time expose all other things for what they are, which is untruths.

 
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Are You Good Enough?

30 Dec

God is good!  Nobody else is outside of Him.

Luke 18:19 – 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

When God made everything in the beginning, it was good.

Genesis 1:31 – 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

After Satan in the form of the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, the earth, human race, animals, all became cursed.  It’s not good in the sense that it was when God had control of it in the beginning.

God entrusted man to rule the earth and the animals, etc, after He made them.  They fell and handed it over to Satan.  Satan is NOT good.  He was before he decided to be proud and took the fall.

To be saved, you have to be good.

Romans 3:12 – 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

So since man isn’t good, who can be saved?

Matthew 19:25-26- 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”   26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Romans 5:12-21- 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It takes someone who is good, dying and paying the penalty for those who are not good.

Second it takes those who are not good to receive willingly, while turning from their old sinful nature.  Perfection isn’t part of the transformation on this earth in how we still will act.  When it comes to turning from your old sinful nature it is in the effort, seeking, fighting the best you can.

Once you receive Christ and make Him Lord, He now sees you as perfect.  That’s some pretty powerful blood.  God’s blood to be exact.

You can’t ever be good enough.  The One who is good enough has you covered if you are willing to come back and follow Him.

 
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If You Love Me, You Will Obey My Teachings

29 Dec

No, those are not my words to you.  I only tell my wife and kids that.  🙂

These words come from Jesus.

John 14:23-24 –23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

I could go on and on about this and it would be six pages long.  However, short and sweet still reminds us of the point.

Luke 6:46 – 46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

The sinful side of us says “OUCH!” 

However, it makes all the sense in the universe.

 
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Like A Thief In The Night – Part 1

27 Dec

I am going to write two days on “Like a thief in the night.”

As a Pre-Tribulation Rapture guy, this is one of the things I’ve always struggled with on Jesus coming at the end of the Tribulation.

Luke 12:40- 40 You also must be ready, because
the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 – 1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Have you read the book of Revelation?  Anyone and Everyone should know the Lord will be coming back soon by the time they are in about 5 years into the Tribulation.  It’s a supernatural hell on earth.  No business as usual during the Tribulation.  At least half of the population on the earth dies during that period.  People will almost be able to figure it out to the day when the Lord is about to return.  There is a 7 year peace treaty, the 3 and half years after the Abomination that causes Desolation spoken in the book of Daniel in the middle of the 7 years and then the Lord returns.

Thief in the night?

However, it makes perfect sense if He does come for the Church right before the Tribulation. Will He catch people off guard?  Look around you….it’s getting worse every day on two fronts.

First as the older generation are dying off, we are losing people who sought Christ faster than those looking for Him today.  Second the Church itself as a whole isn’t looking for Jesus to come back.

A thief in the night?  Yes it will be like a thief in the night for those (many) who have not been looking for Him.

Tomorrow we will stay on the subject and give a scary example of what Jesus was telling His disciples.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, End Time Prophecies, Reflections

 

Destiny Of Our Born Savior

26 Dec

John 18:11 – 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Jesus became a man to die for the sins of the world.  It’s why He was snuck in as a baby that we just celebrated.

Peter’s actions to protect Jesus were humanly natural and brave.  However, where he failed is because he wasn’t looking towards the Lord on what was supposed to be.

We are created to worship and serve our God and Lord, not to run off and do what appears best humanly possible.

The destiny of our Lord was to come and die for those who would accept Him and crush the curse and the enemy.  He is going to be King of this earth for one thousand years and rule the universe for eternity.

We have a destiny that awaits us and because of free will it is ours to choose.  However, right and wrong is not determined by what we choose.  We just choose rather we will do one or the other.  The right or wrong choices in the end determines our future.

As simple as that sounds I believe in America today we’ve been brainwashed that we can call the all shots and make our own destiny.   Yet we have no final control on rather we even live through the end of the day.

Make your destiny serving the Lord.  It’s the one He wants for each and every one of us.

 
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