Christian Living / Suffering

Where is Jesus?

John 12.26 states, anyone who wants to serve Me must follow Me, because My servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves Me.

God feels like an option. We do what we want to do with apparently little to no consequence for our behavior; at least in the short term. I am not speaking about breaking the laws of society but about doing the will of God in society.

If there really is a God, it seems like He could and even should demand our loyalty and allegiance and that we would willingly give Him both. (more…)

0 Comments
December 22, 2016
heaven / Judgement

Everyone Meets God Someday

Revelation 11.18 promises, it is time to judge the dead and reward your servants the prophets, as well as your holy people, and all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest.

In the end everyone stands before God to be judged. Those who lived in relationship to the Father through the Son by virtue of the Spirit will be rewarded for their deeds accomplished for God’s glory during their lifetimes. Those who denied the Son, ignored the Father and lived apart from the Spirit will be condemned to live forever in torment with all those who choose to live the same. (more…)

0 Comments
December 20, 2016
Christian Living / evangelism

Stop Watching, Start Doing

Luke 23.49 observes, Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching.

A lot of people are standing from a distance watching for God to do something.

Sometimes we are waiting for Him to rain hell fire upon our enemies because we know how much they deserve it. Sometimes we are waiting for Him to heal us or our friends because we know how much He cares for us. Sometimes we are waiting for Him to bless us because we know how much He loves us. We wait, we hope but….. (more…)

0 Comments
December 9, 2016
Christian Living / obedience / work

Determining What is First Place in our Lives

1 John 5.21 ends the letter with, dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

The Apostle John ends his letter succinctly with the summary admonition to stay away from anything that might take God’s place in our hearts. This statement feels much like the Lord Jesus’ summary of what God the Father really wants from us: love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. (more…)

1 Comment
December 6, 2016
heaven / Judgement / obedience

Living With God Requires Obedience

1 Chronicles 28.7 requires, if he continues to obey my commands and regulations as he does now, I will make his kingdomimage last forever.

The Jews understood and still believe, that they are God’s chosen people. Indeed, He did choose them thousands of years ago when God selected one man from all those living on the earth to be the one through whom He will build a nation culminating in His arrival as one of us, Jesus the Messiah.

God’s choice was His own, it wasn’t based upon the merits of the man nor of the people to come from the children born through that man and his wife. Today, the protestant church believes it too is the chosen people of God. (more…)

0 Comments
November 30, 2016
Christian Living

Loving the World vs. Loving God

James 4.4 warns, you adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it

Book page

again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

What does it mean to be a friend of the world? Being a friend to anyone means liking them, possibly imitating them and wanting to be their constant companion. So why does God warn us about being a friend of the world? (more…)

0 Comments
November 24, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

More Post Election Thoughts

Amos 5.14 commands, do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.

thump up and thums down

Do you feel like the results from our election were a blessing? Do you believe we dodged a worst case scenario bullet not having Hillary in the White House? If so, should we go back to normal and wait for the Donald to make everything right? Can he even do that? I don’t think even the proponents of Donald Trump believe him to be the savior of our nation’s moral and spiritual decay. (more…)

0 Comments
November 16, 2016
evangelism / obedience

God’s Message Awaits God’s Messengers

Amos 3.8 observes, The Sovereign LORD has spoken— so who can refuse to proclaim his message?image

The answer to Amos’ question seems to be most of the people of God. This was true in the day of Amos and it is true today as well. Why does this appear to be true?

As in Amos’ day, so few know the message of the Lord. This would not be true if the people of God were constantly declaring God’s message even as they lived that message. What is God’s message? (more…)

0 Comments
November 14, 2016
Christian Living / obedience

The Election is Over, Now What?

Hosea 12.6 begs, so now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on Him.image

The election is over so now what do we do? Will Donald Trump solve all of our ills as a country? The resounding answer needs to be, ‘no’ if we are going to move ahead as a country and ‘make America great again.’ The quagmire we find ourselves isn’t the result of government action or inaction primarily. The situation we find ourselves in as a nation is the result of the way we as a nation have chosen to live and behave.

So what should we do now? Exactly what God says to do as summarized by Hosea. Act with love and justice and always depend upon Him. How do we do this? (more…)

0 Comments
November 9, 2016
heaven / Judgement / obedience / Uncategorized

What Does God Hate?

Hosea 9.15 observes, The LORD says, All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels.image

Gilgal was a holy place. It was where Joshua landed with the people of Israel when he miraculously crossed the Jordan river into the promised land. It was the place where Samuel the prophet would make the will of God known to those who needed His judgement.

Gilgal was where God changed His mind about Saul being king as a result of Saul disobeying God by offering the sacrifice only the priest was to perform. Perhaps it is this last act that Hosea refers to when describing the leaders history of rebellion. (more…)

0 Comments
November 3, 2016