Psalm 19:1 – 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Just a scripture to reflect on the obvious and yet man would rather take the position that the universe happened on its own out of nothing.
Absurd!
Just another reminder that man will go to any length to make it where God is not to get glory and try to convince others that He shouldn’t get any. It’s not science, it’s evil.
Genesis 3:1-2 – 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Confirmation from Eve’s own lips. If they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden or even touched it they will surely die. No confusion here. She heard God’s words completely correct.
So what happened?
Genesis 3:3 – 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
She listened to Satan and bought the lie. Why did she buy the lie? Because she wanted what it offered which is the same thing Satan wanted and why he fell.
She bought the lie that you can be like God. It wasn’t good enough that she was ruling the earth with Adam and God was their God. No she wanted to be like God.
That was the reason she grabbed and ate the fruit. No tricks. Probably regret. Satan was telling her what she was longing for and she bought in.
Satan is still selling the same lie to many different religions in this world. You can be like God.
To say that we can be Gods is to say that Satan in the form of the serpent was telling the truth. I think
most of us who read the Bible can make it out that Satan wasn’t telling the truth to Eve. He tricked her and when she got Adam to come along, it allowed Satan to take the reins of this world.
How much does Jesus believe that Satan is a truthful person?
John 8:44 – 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he
lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The devil is peddling every known lie he can to keep us from the Father. Our only protection to know
if it is a doctrine of demons or the true Word is to know the Bible. Take time to know His Word, because in these last days, more apostasy is being dealt through the Church then anytime during our lifetime.
Psalm 37:7 – 7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Many people will sit back and see what’s going on around them. They see that people who aren’t
doing things the way they should be succeeding.
Then the voices start talking to them. Hey, do what’s best for you. Look out for number one. You have the world at your finger tips and you should be at the top. Pride. Wealth. Worldly Success they all can be yours.
There’s one problem with all that. One, the devil is the one selling that. Two, Jesus is warning constantly that it’s not about the world, but about God.
The scripture says you can’t serve two masters.
Luke 16:13 – 13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
In the world today, the argument is you can serve two masters. Or worse one really chases money or success and still thinks he is serving God.
I don’t believe God has any desire for us to live anyway but blessed, but the question I want to pose to everyone is what or whom is your master?
The answer is: Where your heart is, that is your Lord! Something is going to be your number one and that is going to be where your concentration is. How are you geared?
We need to stay the course. We need to make Jesus number one. Our families need to be centered around Him, not things, not activities, not even each other without Him.
So when you see someone playing the worldly game and the worldly riches are coming in, and all the toys appear to be really neat, just remember that our Lord reminds us that God and our devotion to Him is
ultimately matters.
Satan wants you to believe you can have you can make your own cake and eat it too, just listen to him.
However, the only way that works is if we completely serve God and then he’ll give us the all the cake we need. Now and forevermore. He knows what are needs are as He is the One who created us.
Stay the course. Don’t chase after the world, but after Jesus and God.
There is some popular teaching lately that there is no hell or the Lord would never send anyone there.
I got news for you. Hell is for those who don’t repent and accept the free gift of salvation that God himself provided. To say it doesn’t exist is to say one doesn’t believe in the Word of God.
Warnings! Stern warnings are throughout the whole Bible from our loving Lord.
We as humans warn each other. Don’t jump off that cliff, the fall will kill you. Now what if someone looked at someone else and said, “Oh, if I jumped off that cliff God would never allow
that to happen to me.”
Actually God wants you not to put him to that kind of test and two doesn’t want you to jump off the cliff or there is a bad result waiting.
Don’t touch a power line with a metal rod. Don’t jump in a fire. Don’t go out in the middle of 20 below
weather without warm clothing.
Warnings! The Bible is full of LOVING warnings.
Hell is defined as a place of torment. A lake of fire.
Luke 16:22-24- 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s
side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and
send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
2 Peter 2:4 – 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
Revelation 20:11-15 – 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
There is no benefit to man on preaching against hell. The only thing preaching against hell does is
makes someone more secure that nothing will happen if they do whatever they want on this world.
The Lord is loving and does not want anyone to have to suffer Hell. But the law stands and justice will happen for those who reject Him. No one has to. The free gift of salvation is for ALL to accept. If you
haven’t accepted Jesus, I pray that you do so now. I have a page to walk you through on the right hand side of the blog.
Pride gets nopleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next
man.
C. S. Lewis
This is a hard one to understand unless you get around it
and see it happening first hand. Our natural
instinct is to want blessings, however, the fall has caused the appetite of man
not be able to be fulfilled.
Why?
Man is trying to quench his wants rather than his needs. He’s trying to do it without God.
Since there is never enough to satisfy in this world without
God and Jesus being number one, pride steps in and the want is never quenched.
Matthew 6:28-35- 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well.
Psalm 39:6 – 6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.
Mark 8:36 – 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
Luke 12:16-21 – 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
Matthew 19:23-24- 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Funny there are a lot of get rich and dare to be wealthy books available in the world. I don’t see any of them in the scriptures though.
Matthew 6:19-21 – 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The problem with wanting to be rich and wealthy is it takes your passion and time to do so. Where should our passion be? Where’s your heart?
Matthew 18:5-6 – 5 “And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. 6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? Do you believe these are the words of Jesus?
I do.
To cause a young mind and little child to not know Jesus or tries to get them further away from Jesus, has a stern warning.
“It would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
The first thing that echoes through my mind is the people that want their children to be whatever it is they want to be. Hmmm, that’s not what Jesus appears to be saying. It looks like he is saying whoever welcomes a little child in HIS NAME welcomes Him. That sounds like a blessing. Not only for the person who welcomes the child to Jesus, but for the child themselves.
On the flip side to encourage them not to seek Jesus, help them to stay away, or cause them to sin, sounds bad. It needs to be taken seriously. If one believes the Word of God, they need to make it a point to help reach the youth and their own children to know Jesus.
To say it would be better to be drowned at sea, is to say Hell is not a good place. We’ll be talking more on that Monday.
Romans 12:1-2 –1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
The above scripture is what God has been putting on my heart since I started my blog. Most of the inspiration portion of my blog is based on one way or another these two verses.
Why has God put this on my heart? Because, especially in America and in our time period, most of the church has even fallen off the wagon. If we can get the verses above to be our guide, we will be seeking God on a daily basis.
Nope, not Santa.
Proverbs 5:21 –21 For a man’s ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.
You’re not only being viewed at all times by someone who can view everyone at once, but I have no doubt like a computer it’s all recorded and on record.
Don’t worry, I don’t think there is too many people out there to excited about that since we are all sinners.
However, we need to view our own lives under a microscope and realize that life here isn’t just about selfishly pleasing one’s self before cashing it in. On the contrary I don’t think anyone would want to sit in front of that home movie when it’s time for us to present it to the Lord.
He knows the number of hairs on your head.
Matthew 10:30 – 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
He is all seeing and all knowing. Even before you do it.
We need to care about what God thinks of our lives. I know, most people drown that out. Satan does a good job of telling us to do that.
Today is a new day to live your life for your Lord.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 – 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Do you know how powerful your will is?
It’s so powerful that no one can make you decide how you are going to think.
Oh they can be convincing, even persuade you to think a certain way, but ultimately you have to go along with it. You have a free will. Choices in your mind are made by you. People can physically be controlled, but not their minds (unless their foolish enough hypnotically and then they still have a conscience).
God wants us to choose Him. He can’t make us. We have to seek Truth. It’s right there in front of each and every one of us because we are programmed by the Creator. We have a conscience when were born. How bad we dull the senses or get further away from God is determined by choices that are made.
No one can tell me that any teenager can walk up to a homeless person and start beating up just because they feel like it, doesn’t know it’s bad. They know it’s bad, they just don’t care. Their thinking is far away from God. And the farther away from God the worse the thinking continues.
God doesn’t want any to perish. He wants all of us to come back to Him.
2 Peter 3:9 – 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
He is the Ruler of the entire universe. Satan wanted to be that and not controlled by God at all. Everyone who feels the same way has the same fate awaiting.
Revelation 20:10 – 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:14-15- 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
It’s the same fate for those who rebel and don’t choose God as that of Satan. Do I personally think that those who are more wicked will be punished more? I personally do. I think it’s like rewards in the reverse order. Never-the-less Hell was created for those who REJECT God. The most serious of all crimes and people on earth today don’t even give it a second thought.
The Lord doesn’t want any of us to perish. Please seek the God who loves you and gave you life. Ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus as Lord who died for you so you don’t have to. Also it should be our goal that none of our loved ones suffer this fate either, without us putting our best effort forward.