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A Son And An Heir

04 Jan

Galatians 4:7 – 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

I’m not going to lie to you.  I am so grateful that the Lord loved me enough to have His Son die for my sins, that being an heir is mind blowing. 

You’ve probably seen movies in which someone is saved by someone else or spared death.  That individual then lives for that person, because if it weren’t for them there would be no life to live anyway.  The Count of Monte Cristo was one of those movies.  I understand the concept and I am now (took me awhile) wanting to live for the One that died for me.

He’s God and could take His giant thumb and press down on us at any time.  Yet He is so loving He doesn’t want anyone to perish.

2 Peter 3:9 – 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Unfortunately since we were born into sin many choose to remain in darkness.

John 3:19 – 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Now He didn’t have to save us.  This was a choice that our loving God and Father made.  He didn’t have to do a lot of things.  He certainly doesn’t have to make us heirs, but according to scripture, He has reserved that right for those who are children of His.

Romans 8:17 –  17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

So how should an heir act?  Well a good start would be for one to live for God instead of the short term desires concerning this world.

We may sinners, but we have a choice of rather to live for ourselves or to live for God and Jesus right now.  Does that matter?  If you’re saved by the Lord, inside your heart you know it does.

We are co-heirs with Jesus and an heir of God, because we are His children.  Jesus is my King.  Just the idea to be able to serve under Him and with Him is exciting.

We need to live our lives as servants for God and Jesus.

 

When Do We Find God?

03 Jan

Jeremiah 29:13 – 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

 That statement doesn’t say when you halfway seek Me.  It doesn’t say seek the parts you wish to find.

Both of those things happen in this world and the result is someone making God out to be something other than what He is according to His word.

Proverbs 15:4 – 14 The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.

Today those who don’t know God tune into those who are teaching evolution and accepting it as scientific fact.  They also look to others that want nothing to do with God.  Yet they don’t seek God and the Word themselves.

God wants us to know Him!  We do however; have to put some effort into it.

2 Timothy 2:15 – 15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

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. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

We are to seek the God of truth.  We will diligently find God if we seek Him.

Too many people want God to be their own thing.  They have an idea of what they want him to be and then they try to support that.  Someone might say, “My God eats chocolate all day and wants me to also eat at least 3 pounds a week.  Also He is a lover of bulldogs.”  When someone else comes along and says, “Why do you believe that?”  They just fire back that it’s what they believe and they are allowed to have an opinion like everyone else.  In America today we are just supposed to respect others opinions, not to correct or seek truth.

God is real!  There are laws to physics.  There are absolutes.  Positive thinking isn’t going to get you in the good graces of God.  Why?  Because God made the rules on what it takes to get back into His good graces.  That would be Him sending His Son to die in our place.   Accept Jesus as Lord and His sacrifice and know that He is God’s Son and that He and the Father are One and you will live.

Seek God!

Look if you want to be good at tennis, what do you do?  You first seek on what it takes to be good and then practice, participate, and get good coaching.
If you want to be good at poker, what do you do?  Start reading books by winners.  Learn the odds.  Practice and play and play.
If you want to be good manager at work, which is respected by his workers below him and the upper management, what does he do?  He reads books.  He finds role models of those who were successful before him.  Treats others the way he would want to be treated.

If you want to have a great relationship with your Creator and God, seek Him!  Read the Bible and books that are by those who read the Bible.  We’re very fortunate to have that free ability, at least for the time being.

Seek God!  David sought God.  David was considered a man after God’s heart.  Seek God!

 

Quote – Augustine

02 Jan

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.
Augustine

 

Romans 10:9 – 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

To be saved it’s that easy.

By no means is that where it is supposed to stop.  Unfortunately in this country many of our churches don’t go much further.  Even worse many don’t give an alter call to even officially offer one to do so.

 
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New Year’s Resolution

31 Dec

Let’s all make our New Year’s Resolution that of trying to please God.  Listening to His voice and seeking what He wants to do through our lives.

The rapture is going to happen someday and by all the signs someday soon.  Will 2011 be the year?

I don’t know, but I can promise you’ll never regret living for the Lord like it is.

 

Galations 2:20

30 Dec

Galatians 2:20 – 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Followers of Christ are to be a new creation.

That means we don’t know what’s best.  How we feel about things should be first determined about how Christ and God feel about things.

How should we view homosexuality, bestiality, sexual immorality, marital unfaithfulness, drunkenness, gluttony, covetousness, and greed?

We need to look at them the way God views those things.  They’re wrong in God’s eyes.  That’s why it needs to matter to each of us that choose Jesus as Savior.  If God didn’t care, I wouldn’t care.  The reason I care is because the one who gave me life said, “Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony (lying), and respect your mother and father.  God does not tell us to respect everything around us.  God hates evil and who determines what is evil?  God does!

The devil and men which choose to serve themselves and not God, want to make the rules.  It’s easy to do.  It’s easy for everyone to want to believe everything they want to believe. 

There is a problem though, God is perfect.  Man is a sinful mess.

We that are truly in Christ are a new creation and need to die to our old sinful nature and to our selfish ambitions.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!   NIV 1984

God cares about how you think.  Truth is God cares about everything.

 

Hold Fast To The Teachings

29 Dec

2 Thessalonians 2:15 –15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

There’s a lot of stuff in the world.

Millions of different philosophies exist.

Can God be two total different people at once?

Can God be love and then in another religion not even have the characteristic of love?

Can God promise one people that they will live in a land and be ruled by the Messiah one thousand years, be the same God as another religion says he tells them to kill all of those same people and drive them out into the Red Sea?

Can God say I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like Me, do not worship idols, be compared to a religion that thinks they are all Gods and everything is God?

Impossible!  God cannot be two opposite individuals at once.  Most humans aren’t even that messed up and yet they want to believe God is everything that every human can think up and all those roads lead to Him. 

Now it’s possible they can all be wrong, but it’s impossible that they can all be right.  So what are we supposed to believe?

You are incredibly made.  The universe is absolutely awesome and was created by the same God.  You don’t think there is a true way that God has communicated to us?  You bet He has.  The Bible has stood up to the tests and is only ridiculed by those who won’t serve any God.

Hold fast to the teachings.  It’s the Truth, the Word, the Living Word, and God’s Word to us all.  That’s A-L-L.  We choose to follow or we choose to reject. 

How do we please God?  By faith and obedience.  Obedience to…..what?  There has to be an absolute to be obedient to.  Obedience to His Word.

Paul knew the importance of having people understand what they missed.  He knew the Old Testament scriptures and how Jesus had fulfilled them.  The Holy Spirit worked through Him and the other Disciples, because God wanted His living Word passed on for the children of the future.

Many have obeyed, died, and sought God, so we would have it today.  Hold fast to the teachings. 

If you insist on making God whatever it is you want to make Him you might be about the 5 billionth person to do so.  God is more absolute than you and I will ever be.

 

We Have All Heard The Saying, What Would Jesus Do?

28 Dec

WWJD?  Stands for What Would Jesus Do?  Not too many haven’t heard of this by now.

But I want to expound a little on this, because I think some people look at it and dismiss it easily for one reason.  They say to themselves, ”Wow, Jesus was perfect and the Son of God!  So whatever he did is unattainable by me and if I fall short of that, so be it.”

Fair enough.  Actually that is a true statement.  We can’t be perfect no matter how hard we try.  But we do need to do our best to be Jesus with skin on and try to do the best we can in following the Lord.

So I’m going to not ask you what would Jesus do?  I’m going to ask you to be honest with yourself and to ask yourself, “What does Jesus want me to do?”

Did He give me life to be anything I want to be?  Did He make me to do anything I want to do?

Why did He make man? 

It’s when we can answer this question, that we realize what we are supposed to be doing.  We are made to worship and have relationship with the Lord.

Now let’s get back to that question.  What does Jesus want me to do?  How about first and foremost seek Him and God.  That’s the first and most important thing we can do.

Matthew 6:33 – 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

When you get “you” out of the way, it’s amazing what He can do in your life.  We are all created by the incredible glorious God, who created the whole universe.  Same Individual that created the Milky Way, created you.  I think He knows what’s best for us than we do. 

So is this earth a proving ground?  Well in one respect out of many it sure reads that way.  You’re not just showing the Lord that you love Him while being here, but rather or not you trust Him, seek Him, worship Him, try to bring others to Him, or that possibly you have no time for Him at all?

Of course I’m not referring to salvation in that paragraph, but everything else beyond that.  You’re saved by the Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.   To accept His death in the place of yours, we are to make Him Lord and Savior.

So what does Jesus want you to do?  Won’t you be happier when it’s time to stand before Him, if you at least attempt to do those things? 

Today is a new day.  Today is the day we all try to seek and serve Him more.

 

God Already Loves Us

27 Dec

There are some neat scriptures that I think we tend to look over without noticing this.

 1 John 2:15 – 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

Notice the last part of the scripture.  It doesn’t say the Father won’t love him, it states that if anyone loves the world, their love for the Father is not there.  God already loves us.  When we read through the scriptures, it’s about what are we doing when it comes to loving God.

 1 Corinthians 2:9 – 9 However, as it is written:

 “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,
 and what no human mind has conceived”—
 the things God has prepared for those who love him

Deuteronomy 7:9 – 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Romans 8:28 – 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

James 1:12 – 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 2:5 – 5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

Not for those who God loved, but for those who love God.  The ball is in our court.  It’s in our court when it comes time to asking for forgiveness.  The ball is in our court when it comes to repenting and turning away from our own sinful ways.  It’s in our court in choosing to love God.

 

The King’s Birthday

25 Dec

Happy Birthday Jesus!  You are my Lord, Savior, and King!

May you all have a great celebration of our Savior’s birth.

God Bless.

 
 

The Importance Of The Virgin Birth

24 Dec

For many young Christians the importance of the virgin birth of Jesus is overlooked.  I remember the first time the importance was explained to me, it made a lot a sense, but had it not been addressed I wouldn’t have thought much more of it other than another miracle that could have only been from God.

It’s ture that a virgen birth seems even more like a miracle than a regular birth, but it goes much further than that.

For Jesus to be perfect, He needed to bypass the sinful gene that has been passed down through Adam after he fell in the garden along with Eve.  Man passes this gene, not the woman, so the virgin birth bypassed it.

When Jesus died on that cross, He died as a perfect sacrifice for everyone who accepts His death in the place of theirs.  He was God, and God’s Blood can wash away our sins.  If Jesus was just another man entering in as a sinner, there is no significance of the cross.

By bypassing the sin gene, Jesus was God and Jesus was a perfect man.

Luke 1:28-35 – 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.