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Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

We Need To Be A Light On A Hill

27 May

John 8:12 – 12When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

What is darkness?

Well by reading the scriptures, most of the time it refers to a lost place you don’t want to be or it describes evil.

Darkness happens when one gets away from God.

When one walks blindly in the dark they stumble, fall, can walk off the edge and get seriously hurt, or die.  Their acts many times are considered evil by God, even when they aren’t trying to be that way.  Because when you’re in the dark, you can’t see the problem unless someone else sheds some light on it.  Ah, great saying and I think you know where we are going with this.

Who is the light of the world?

Jesus is the light of the world.  This is what Jesus has to say to all those who have accepted him as Lord.

Matthew 5:14-16 – 14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

So the Light of the World just got done telling us what he expects from those who have accepted Him and love Him.  Jesus is stating you now need to be a light on the hill because you are a part of Him.

Are you hiding your light under a bowl?  You need to really answer that question.  If you are, Why?

Would you like it if a so called friend ignored you every time someone else came along.  Let’s imagine you are walking along with a guy named John and you bump into Bob.

John: “Hey Bob how’s is it going?”

Bob:    “Hey John, I’m doing great.  Hey who’s you friend here?”

John:  “Who?”

Bob:     “The guy you appear to be walking with, Him.”

John:    “Oh yeah, him.  You know he’s a personal friend.  We talk sometimes when no one else is around.  But now you’re here and frankly I just don’t feel comfortable in introducing him to you.”

Bob:    “Oh, are you upset with him or ashamed of him.”

John:   “No!  Are you kidding me?  He’s everything to me.  It’s just that it takes me out of my comfort zone to introduce him.  You know?”

Is this a friend?  This is the way many treat their so called important friend Jesus.

There is nothing in the Bible that I recall that states if you’re shy don’t worry about sharing Jesus with the world.  Nothing that says if sharing God and Jesus takes you out of your comfort zone, don’t worry about it.

Anyone can be a light on a hill.  Anyone can share what the Lord is doing in their lives.  This world is full of hurting people that are constantly put in our paths and you can be a light to those people.

Jesus has another verse that comes to mind.

Matthew 10:32-33 – 32“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.”

I’m not saying that this verse is aimed at a timid Christian who doesn’t share the Lord with others.  But this verse does point out how important it is to Jesus that you acknowledge Him before other people.

Be a light on a hill for everyone to see.  The world is full of darkness and it needs Jesus.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

The Truth Isn’t Based On What You Want It To Be

26 May

We live in a time period when nobody wants to step on toes. 

Confrontation constantly is not a good spirit, but to avoid the facts all the time has lead to a society that has no belief in truth.  We are all taught from a young age, you believe your way and I will believe in mine.  Ironically that is changing today and media is using some tactics to get people to think a certain way, but most of us were raised to think for yourself and if it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone, you’re fine.

There is one problem with this philosophy when it comes to your belief of truth versus factual truth.

One example is that 2 + 2 = 4.  Now you can believe 2 + 2 = 5.  You can look at someone and you can say I have always believed it was 5, I was taught it was 5 before most of you could even count to 5.

This may be so, but it’s not the truth.

Most of the time truth is just a matter of really adding something up, looking into it deeper.  It’s not about finding someone telling you what you want to hear, but really wanting to know the real answer.

John 8:32 – 31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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

Jesus’ words are truth, but seek to know why.  He invites you to seek. 

Matthew 7:7 -8-  7″Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Look at the promise he has for you in verse 8.  Everyone.  Everyone who seeks finds.  Everyone. 

The key is, you can’t be seeking what’s best for you or some special agenda you have.  You have to seek truth .  If you are open to the Lord revealing the truth, you will find it.

Seek Truth and you will find Jesus, but don’t take my word for it.  Seek.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Motivation

 

Do Not Love The World

24 May

1 John 2:15-17 – 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

 Roman 12:2 – 2Do 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.

 James 4:4 – 4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 

The above scriptures pretty much sum it up.  Living in America hasn’t made it easy on the fallen human.  Those scriptures are strong words to adhere by.  We need to separate ourselves from the world.  

How do we do that?  The best start is to pick up the Bible and find out what God’s Love Letter has to say to you about many things.

 
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Posted in Motivation

 

Eternity Is A Long Time

23 May

For my Christian brothers and sisters in the Lord, I want this post to touch your spirit.  I want it to put urgency in your soul. 

For those who haven’t accepted Jesus Christ I want to point out the urgent situation of your future.  I want to do this in most direct but loving way possible.

I have been saved now for thirty years.  It has been just recently that God has been allowed to put in my heart the love of not wanting anyone to perish.  I say allow, because God never wants anyone to perish and wants us to feel that too.  

In theory I have never wanted anyone to go through eternity in hell away from God.

Since I have opened up to God more lately, He has given me a real heartfelt emotion on not wanting anyone to perish, especially my friends and family who haven’t accepted Jesus.

On the flip side I want you feel the same way about your friends and family.

The two scenarios I’m about to use in themselves can be pretty generic so I really want you to take them to heart.

You have a friend and he is walking towards a cliff that is 1000 feet high.  He’s blinded for whatever reason and isn’t seeing the danger.  Maybe they are distracted by things.  What are you going to do?

Are you going to sit back and think to yourself, well if I tell them they’re going to fall to their death they might think its offensive.  I don’t want to step on their toes.   I’ve hinted once before the cliff is there, so now that’s enough.

No!  If it is a friend or family member you need to scream, yell, and tackle them before they do.  At least you should.

Another friend is walking into a burning building.  I say walking because he hasn’t gotten there yet.  Once again, are you going to let them just walk in to the building without giving it your best effort to stop them from doing so?

We’re not just talking about death.  We’re talking about DEATH ETERNAL.

We’re not talking about just being separated from you and God forever, but forever in torment.  This is an urgent matter.  Satan has had too much victory in the average American Christian life.

We need to pray and ask God to soften their hearts.  We need to pray that God gives us that nugget of gold that may reach them.  Pray that God gives you that spirit that cares more about your friends and families destination than rather than how they might receive it.

I promise you, if you sincerely love those people and make it known to them, they’re not going to be offended.  Nobody is offended about being cared for by a loved one.  A stranger on the street corner may get tired of you or agitated, but a friend or family member that knows you love them will not.

If they’re closed minded at first, keep praying.  I can’t emphasize enough the power prayer.  Pray that God gives you the right things to say, or puts you there in the right circumstance.  People have built some pretty big walls, but were human and since God made us, those walls they built have the potential to be breached. 

 Matthew 9:37 – 37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

If you’re a Christian brother or sister, don’t go into eternity without doing all that you can for your loved ones.  Don’t stand in front of God without knowing you did all that you could.

If you don’t know the Lord and you want to accept him now or learn more about him I have put pages in the right upper column that will help you with this.  If you’re still not ready to accept him please at least look it over fully before you die.

Eternity is an awfully long time for Joy or for Torment  (click for bible example) because you rejected God and his free gift of salvation.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Salvation

 

Reflection- King Solomon

22 May

King Solomon was the wisest man of his time and one of the wisest of all time.

He had 700 wives and 300 concubines?

Man,  I can’t wait to get up into Heaven and ask him “What were you thinking?”  🙂

 
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Posted in Reflections

 

The Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

20 May

Matthew 18:3-4  3And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We need to have faith like a child and be humble like a child.  We need our Father and should be excited about His agenda for us and our lives.  Do you remember when we were just little children?  We trusted things our parents told us and if they had an idea, we were on board.

What happened as we got older?  We got our own ideas and were going to do it our way.  It’s good to be unique.  God made us all with our own personality.  But as humans we’ve taken it much further than that.  Now the attitude is I’m a big boy or girl and I’ll do what I please or see fit.  Just remember one thing.  God said he who humbles himself like a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Humble yourself towards God and be his child.

 
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Posted in Motivation

 

I Love God!

19 May

I love God!  I love Jesus!

Do you love God?  Do you tell him?

How would you feel if the people you loved never gave you the time of day?  The ONLY time they came around is when they needed something.  Let’s say they ignore you.  Is that a true friend?

I don’t know about you, but I’m closest to the ones I’m in contact with.  The ones I hang out with.  Those are the individuals I care about the most.

God wants you to come to Him.  He wants you to cast your burdens on Him.  He wants you to thank Him.  He wants you to praise Him.  He wants the humble spirit, not the proud individual who has it all under control and sees no need for God.  He didn’t create you for that purpose.

Mark 12:30-  30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

We all have bad habits.  The best good habit you can form is to pray to God all the time.  Thank him for your meal.  Pray before bedtime.  Thank Him when things are going great and praise His name.  As you begin to do this you will have a walking and talking relationship with Jesus and God.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Reflections

 

What Will Our Resurrection Body Be Like? – Rapture

18 May

Does the Bible give us any indication of what our resurrected body is supposed to be like?

Philippians 3:20-21 – 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

It says that the Lord Jesus Christ will transform our lowly current body to be like His glorious body.

When is this supposed to happen?

1 John 3:2-3 – 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

When does the Church have Christ appear to them?

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 – 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

So even though to be absent from the body is to be present in the Lord, the dead will still meet the Lord in the air.  When is this?  At the Rapture.  That is when the Church that is still living meets the Lord when he appears.

It’s at that time our bodies become like His glorious body.  The perishable will put on imperishable.

1Corinthians 15:52-54 – 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

What was the glorious body of Jesus like?  We know He had the power to appear at will.

John 20:19 – 19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

He also appeared for Thomas a week later in a locked room.  So the body will be able to disappear and appear, yet it isn’t a ghostly body.

Luke 24:37-39 –   37They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

Just after this happened, we find out that this body will also be able to eat.

Luke 24:40-42  40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate it in their presence.

This should not surprise us.  How else would we be able to enjoy the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Revelation 19:9 –9Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”   

This body is dying.  This world is getting worse and becoming more evil as the Day of the Lord draws nearer.  Invest into your future.  You are everyday, one way or another.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, Encouragement, Rapture

 

If you’re Satan- How Do You Confuse Them?

16 May

If you’re Satan and you are at war with God and want to be like the most high, how do you get man to turn his back on God?

Man is already a fallen rebellious creature, because he listened to the serpent (Satan) in the Garden of Eden.

If you’re Satan and you tell him not to worship God, he’s probably defiant enough that he will.  If you tell man to worship you, he’s defiant enough he won’t.

So what do you do?

For a start, how about give him lots of choices?

Worship the sun, moon, stars, idols, yourself, false religions, anything…….but the one true God.

Imagine taking a white ping pong ball and throwing it into bathtub full of yellow ping pong balls.  Now stir up the balls.

Now a lot of people are going to look at the tub and say “Wow, that’s a lot of ping pong balls.  Do I really want to take the time to look for the white ping pong ball?  When I find the white one, is it really any different than this yellow one I like over here?  Who’s to say the white one is the right one anyway?  By the way, what am I doing at this tub in the first place?  It’s down-right confusing and who’s to say I need a ping pong ball?  I’m a grown up, I don’t need no stinking ping pong ball.  Ping pong balls are for the weak which need to play with their toys and I don’t need that.”

Does this analogy ring a bell?  I think it does.  It was a lot of fun to write too.     

You see Satan isn’t stupid, he’s evil!  He’s gotten to know man pretty good after six thousand years.

Now if someone wanted to, they could bend down with the light on and look through the balls and spot the white one really easy.   

So how did such an easy thing such as man falling, Jesus dies to pay the debt, you accept him as Lord, and your back with God again, get so complicated?

Satan’s been working hard that’s why.  Look at that paragraph on the ping pong balls again.  It does make your head swim.  Some people out there aren’t looking for the white ball (Jesus), but many are and it is confusing.

Can you help them?  Do you yourself know why you believe what you do?  Can you help others that are confused?  Because they need questions answered!  We need to study the word and build a foundation so we can.

The next question is, will you?

John 21:17 – 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
      Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

    Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to make Him your Savior, please click on “How To Accept Jesus As Savior” in the right upper column.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Opinion, Reflections, Salvation

 

Study Revelations

15 May

I want to encourage you to get a great study on the book of Revelation.

All of my favorite teachers have great commentary on the book as well as others studies. 

Chuck Missler
Hal Lindsay
Jack Van Impe

Grant Jeffrey has great books that are all laced with the end times and the book of Revelation but I don’t know that he has an actual study or commentary.

The neat thing about the study of Revelation, is it will take you through many other books such as Daniel.  

Their sites are over on my Links.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, Encouragement

 
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