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Archive for the ‘Encouragement’ Category

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

 

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

 

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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A King’s Example On How To Serve Others

13 May

John 13:5 – 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

On the night that Jesus was going to be betrayed and was just finishing His meal at The Last Supper, he told his disciples He was going to wash their feet.  Of course this was unexpected as these men had been with Jesus for three years and He was their Lord.  Peter even stated that Jesus should not have to wash his feet.

Jesus however was explaining to them something that was two-fold.

First, you need to have your sins washed of Me or you can’t be a part of Me. 

John 13:7-8 –   7Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
 8“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” 
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

Since Jesus had not yet died, the whole being washed by the blood idea was foreign to them.  Jesus knew in the future that it would make sense to them as he stated in verse 7.

Second, Jesus was teaching us how to be a humble servant.

John 13:14-17 – 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

If our King can wash feet, we can wash feet. 

How does that pertain in today’s world?   Here’s a thought and question for you.

Two men are participating in two different jobs.

The first man works his tail off and becomes a big company executive.  Even though he worked hard some other people had to be sacrificed along the way.  He acquires wealth.  Has multiple homes or a mansion.  Has the ability to travel anywhere in the world and can buy anything he wants to buy.  Many people in the world would state this is quite a success story.

The second man wanting to serve the Lord feels a calling from God to be a missionary.  He goes over where he sleeps in a hot muggy hut.  The food is challenging but he feels blessed to have food since people in nearby villages don’t have hardly any.  He lives to share the gospel to others so they may be able to pass it on to others.  Also should they die they have a chance to be in Heaven with the Lord.  The bugs and other creatures are a little more out of the norm than he’s used to and the medical facilities are almost non-existent.

Who is living more like the King who washes our feet?  Who is dying to self in this example?

2 Corinthians 5:17 – 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Which of the two men do you look up to?  The one who sacrifices comfort and tries to pass on God’s love to others, or the one who serves himself?

This scripture I think describes the situation for both men.

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. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I believe this scripture will be in many of my posts, as I feel in this generation, we need to hear it and be reminded of it on a regular basis.

Jesus washed his disciple’s feet, as an example of how we are to treat others.  John 13:17- 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

 
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It Is More Important To Serve God Than Man

12 May

Acts 4:18-20 – 18Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

This scripture really touched me as I read it recently.  In today’s world and the way our country is going, you are going to have to be strong in your faith.  You are going to be challenged to stop believing the way you are biblically supposed to.  It is already happening in the world and in the US.

The pressure of the world’s thinking has already made its way into many of our nation’s pulpits.  It’s no secret to those who believe God’s Word is truth, that God doesn’t think the same way as man.

Soon the biggest crime concerning religion will be intolerance.  This is already happening in the media.  It is the war cry for many religious movements that believe all roads lead to God.

However, that’s not what God says in the Bible.  There is only one way to God the Father and that is through Jesus, His only begotten Son.  We all know as Christians that a rekindled relationship with our Creator is not religion.

As we move forward don’t get swept away in the tide of the world.  It says in the last days some shall fall away.

1 Timothy 4:1 – 1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 

Folks, this abandoning isn’t a reference to non-believers.  This abandoning is a reference to those who believe they are serving God.

I am not one of those people who ignore grace.  Grace is what we are saved by.  I am not one of those people who sets a bar up high and believes you must be great or you will fail.  I’m just here out of love and obedience to God my Father and his Son my King and Savior, to remind you what the scriptures are telling us.  I am praying, pleading, begging, whatever.  Please just get into the Word of God and make Him number one in your life.  Make Him your first love.  Recognize the time your living in and don’t miss it like those who weren’t looking for him in his first coming.  There is a ton more about His second coming and there is not going to be any excuses. 

All you must do is make Him your first love and seek!  You will find!

 If you want to accept Jesus at this time and you haven’t yet, begin your journey now.  Head over to the top right column of this page and click on How To Accept Jesus As Savior.  It will be the most important day of your eternal life.

 
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What Are You Filling Your Spirit With?

11 May

You’re a sponge.

You’ve have been a sponge since the day you were born.

We’ve all heard the adage you are what you eat.  The real matter of fact is you are what you absorb intellectually and spiritually.

It’s true, if you don’t eat healthy it will catch up with you and your body will start to remind you of that as life goes along. 

What you put into your mind on the other hand is how you run your life.  We have a tendency to spend our time doing what’s most important to us.  It is a direct reflection of who we are.

If you don’t like the opera are you going to spend much time at the opera?  Probably not.  Could we then call you an opera enthusiast?  Probably not.

You are what you feed your body.  Are you watching shows on TV that break all Ten Commandments, but then not taking any time to watch godly programming?  What are we feeding ourselves?

Are we listening to the secular radio?  Have you heard the words to songs?  I have to ask the question because the words are absolute darkness.  Are you listening to talk radio?  All of it may be entertaining, but it isn’t spiritually healthy.

Matthew 6:22-23 –  22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

I used to listen to almost all secular music.  Usually the older stuff as the newer didn’t do much for me.  My Wife only listened to the Christian radio station.  She was feeding herself with the word of God.  When the music came on she was listening to someone else singing praises to the Lord.  Guess what?  When she started singing along with them, who was she glorifying?

Jesus! God!  The Holy Spirit!

Who and what are we singing about when we are listening to other stuff?

All my rowdy friends?
Margaritaville?
She’s buying what kind of stairway?
You are on a highway to where?

Most of us know all these songs that and the list goes on and on.  

Guess what, you still going to like the beat of your old favorites.  When they come on at a reception, your passing through and can’t find something else on your going to want to stop and listen.

Here’s my challenge to you.  Start filling your spirit with good spiritual God loving stuff.  Like His Word, Christian television, Christian music, etc.  You are what you take in.  Make the effort today.  You will find yourself thinking more of Jesus.  You will find yourself praising God automatically.  You will find yourself leaning on God for help, healing, and your needs being met. 

Instead of doing something and the song in head being Hells Bells or Welcome to the Jungle, it will start to become “I was made to love You” by Toby Mac.  It will be “Blessed be the name of the Lord” by the Newsboys and Rebecca St. James.

When people start trying to tell you join them in doing things that are contradictory to what the Lord wants you to do, a voice from the Holy Spirit will go off in your head.  Why, because you have been reading his word which is the Bible.  If you’re not reading the Word and you don’t know it, you can’t.

Life is a walk.  You don’t just stop everything 100 percent and start everything 100 on a moment’s notice.

My challenge to you is to start listening to more Christian television, more Christian music, and please if you know Jesus as your savior, please get into the Bible. 

You’re a sponge.  Every one of us is a sponge.

 
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The Greatest Commandment – Part 2

10 May

Yesterday we hit on the most important commandment.  Today we will hit the second, which is like it. 

Matthew 22:34-40 – 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love your neighbor as yourself.  Would we have the problems in this world that we now have if we were more concerned about others versus ourselves?

The answer is no.  We’re sinful selfish creatures. 

If two married people only cared 100% about the other person would that marriage fail?  No.

If the people around you cared more about you and you cared more about them than you do yourself, what kind of world would it be?

You see this is how it was supposed to be before the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.  The system received a short circuit.

Where did the phrases “I’m going to take care of number one”, or “I’m looking out for numero uno”, come from?

You think it came from God?  Fwamp!  That’s the sound of my wrong answer button.

Oh, here’s a classic, “God helps those who helps themselves.”  Yikes.

Do I really even need to tear this one apart?  This statement is so far from Love your neighbor it’s ridiculous.

So what’s the number one reason we fail at the second most important commandment?

Because it’s all about, ME! It’s about being S-E-L-F-I-S-H-!

My observation and what I see is this.  The more were hooked into God the more we have victory over our sinful nature.  Thus in this area, we start thinking a little less of ME, and a little more on the practice of caring about others.

In the last days the ME factor is rampant.  There will be many scriptures and many posts coming in the future on this topic. 

It is essential that we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  It is also essential that we love others as much as we do ourselves.  Why?  Because the Lord didn’t request it, suggest it, or wish it.  He commands it!

 
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