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Archive for December, 2011

Are You Good Enough?

30 Dec

God is good!  Nobody else is outside of Him.

Luke 18:19 – 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

When God made everything in the beginning, it was good.

Genesis 1:31 – 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

After Satan in the form of the serpent deceived Adam and Eve, the earth, human race, animals, all became cursed.  It’s not good in the sense that it was when God had control of it in the beginning.

God entrusted man to rule the earth and the animals, etc, after He made them.  They fell and handed it over to Satan.  Satan is NOT good.  He was before he decided to be proud and took the fall.

To be saved, you have to be good.

Romans 3:12 – 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

So since man isn’t good, who can be saved?

Matthew 19:25-26- 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”   26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Romans 5:12-21- 12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

It takes someone who is good, dying and paying the penalty for those who are not good.

Second it takes those who are not good to receive willingly, while turning from their old sinful nature.  Perfection isn’t part of the transformation on this earth in how we still will act.  When it comes to turning from your old sinful nature it is in the effort, seeking, fighting the best you can.

Once you receive Christ and make Him Lord, He now sees you as perfect.  That’s some pretty powerful blood.  God’s blood to be exact.

You can’t ever be good enough.  The One who is good enough has you covered if you are willing to come back and follow Him.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration

 

If You Love Me, You Will Obey My Teachings

29 Dec

No, those are not my words to you.  I only tell my wife and kids that.  🙂

These words come from Jesus.

John 14:23-24 –23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

I could go on and on about this and it would be six pages long.  However, short and sweet still reminds us of the point.

Luke 6:46 – 46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

The sinful side of us says “OUCH!” 

However, it makes all the sense in the universe.

 
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Like A Thief In The Night – Part 2

28 Dec

Yesterday I talked about how immanency seems to be a factor in the last days.  The Lord says He will come like a thief in the night.  However, if He didn’t come until Armageddon, that doesn’t suggest like a thief in the night at all.

If He could come at any time, then He could definitely come like a thief in the night.

There is a section in Luke chapter twelve that refers to “Watchfulness.”

Luke 12:35-48 – 35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of
Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”

42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant
will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

This isn’t talking about the believing and unbelieving.  That’s why I underlined what I did above.  This is talking about the servants of the Lord.  About the ones not living the way they should for Him and living a life that is no different than all the unbelievers around them.

Looking for the Lord everyday helps keep us from sinking into the world.  We have to take the warnings deathly seriously.  This is not the only one either.  The New Testament is full of the exact same types of warnings.  The warnings are for us right now.  If we put them off and live worldly, sinfully, evil, and ungodly, and we know we are, what message are we sending to our Lord?

Take a stand in love for Him.   Take a stand against evil, which once again shows your love for Him.

He is going to come soon, because all the signs are happening.  For many, and I mean many, it’s going to be
like a thief in the night.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, End Time Prophecies

 

Like A Thief In The Night – Part 1

27 Dec

I am going to write two days on “Like a thief in the night.”

As a Pre-Tribulation Rapture guy, this is one of the things I’ve always struggled with on Jesus coming at the end of the Tribulation.

Luke 12:40- 40 You also must be ready, because
the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 – 1 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.

Have you read the book of Revelation?  Anyone and Everyone should know the Lord will be coming back soon by the time they are in about 5 years into the Tribulation.  It’s a supernatural hell on earth.  No business as usual during the Tribulation.  At least half of the population on the earth dies during that period.  People will almost be able to figure it out to the day when the Lord is about to return.  There is a 7 year peace treaty, the 3 and half years after the Abomination that causes Desolation spoken in the book of Daniel in the middle of the 7 years and then the Lord returns.

Thief in the night?

However, it makes perfect sense if He does come for the Church right before the Tribulation. Will He catch people off guard?  Look around you….it’s getting worse every day on two fronts.

First as the older generation are dying off, we are losing people who sought Christ faster than those looking for Him today.  Second the Church itself as a whole isn’t looking for Jesus to come back.

A thief in the night?  Yes it will be like a thief in the night for those (many) who have not been looking for Him.

Tomorrow we will stay on the subject and give a scary example of what Jesus was telling His disciples.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, End Time Prophecies, Reflections

 

Destiny Of Our Born Savior

26 Dec

John 18:11 – 11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Jesus became a man to die for the sins of the world.  It’s why He was snuck in as a baby that we just celebrated.

Peter’s actions to protect Jesus were humanly natural and brave.  However, where he failed is because he wasn’t looking towards the Lord on what was supposed to be.

We are created to worship and serve our God and Lord, not to run off and do what appears best humanly possible.

The destiny of our Lord was to come and die for those who would accept Him and crush the curse and the enemy.  He is going to be King of this earth for one thousand years and rule the universe for eternity.

We have a destiny that awaits us and because of free will it is ours to choose.  However, right and wrong is not determined by what we choose.  We just choose rather we will do one or the other.  The right or wrong choices in the end determines our future.

As simple as that sounds I believe in America today we’ve been brainwashed that we can call the all shots and make our own destiny.   Yet we have no final control on rather we even live through the end of the day.

Make your destiny serving the Lord.  It’s the one He wants for each and every one of us.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

Merry Christmas!

25 Dec

Merry Christmas to you all and God Bless You!

Thank you so much to those who continue to give me  encouragement.  It is appreciated a lot.

Unto us a Child was given.  That Child was and is our Lord!  Reflect on Him gratefully today and praise Him as Lord of your life and all.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Reflections

 

So Why Does Someone Stop Believing In Santa?

23 Dec

Almost all kids grow up hearing about Santa Claus and believing he’s real.  I was one of those.

So why does someone on a serious note stop believing?

They look at the facts, right?

Things just don’t add up.  You start asking questions like “Hey wait a minute, I don’t have a chimney?”

However someone while you’re young and naïve is always there to try and explain it away for you.  Oh he just goes through the door if you don’t or something like that.  Thank goodness that person was there to continue the lie.

Then you think to yourself, “How does he get around the whole world in one night?  I mean that’s a lot of houses.”  Once again someone tries to rescue you from trying to foil the caper.

Flying reindeer?  How do all the presents get in the slay?  How come I just saw Santa and is looked different down at that other store?

Finally too many stinking questions.  Fine!  He’s not real, but doesn’t believing in him make the world a better place?  In all honesty my wife and I chose not to persuade our children that the untruths were truths all in the name of what was best for them.

Back to the point.

This is how it is in America anymore except people don’t ask questions about anything.  They don’t ask questions about why other people believe the way they do.  They don’t even ask questions on why they believe the way they do.

This is where Truth comes into play.

Evolution?  You can look at it closely and it won’t take you long to figure out who has blind faith.  Not to mention it’s not hard to do the math that nothing from nothing times nothing doesn’t equal everything.  It doesn’t take very long to see how complex a simple a watch is and know that without a creator it isn’t made.  We as humans are much more complex than that by a million times and without the Creator we don’t exist.

Questions!  We don’t ask questions anymore.

Same goes for believers.  Why do you believe in what you believe?  To say that I just believe and go by faith or that burning in your bosom is acceptable for a few months.  However, you best start knowing why you believe what you believe soon, or someone is going to come along and give you a different type of Santa Claus.

Seek the Lord!  Ask questions!  We are very fortunate enough in this day and age that most sincere questions can be answered by men of God who also sought the Truth.

You stopped believing in Santa because the truth was evident and it wasn’t that hard to figure out.

Other things take more investigation and all you need have to do is seek the Truth and He will guide you to it.

On the other hand, if you choose to believe in whatever you want to, God won’t intervene.  That is until it’s the day of truth, which is the day of judgment.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Opinion

 

Self Controled Examples

22 Dec

Titus 2:1-8- 1 You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

 3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Life isn’t about running off and doing your own thing.  It’s about obedience to God, self control, doing what’s right.

Satan wants you out of control and to do whatever you want.  Because if you’re doing that, you’re not obeying God.

In a movie do you look up the guy who sacrifices his life to save others, or do you admire the one who murders everyone for their own gain?

It’s not just a movie script, this describes the difference between Christ and Satan.

By living for God and Christ instead of yourself, your actions speak louder than words.  Choose to be self controlled examples.

 
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They’re Gifts

21 Dec

We are rapidly approaching Christmas day.  Many gifts will exchange hands.

I want to stop and reflect on your spouse and children.

They’re Gifts from our Lord.

How are you treating your gifts?  Are you grateful for them?  Do you take care of them the way the Lord
wants you to take care of them?

You’ve been given a great gift and a great responsibility.  You have been entrusted with lives.  Entrusted from our Lord with them.  How are you handling it?

Are you helping them seek their loving Creator?  Are you helping them serve their God?

I can tell you that just in looking at my wife and children I know how much God loves me.

They’re gifts, loving gifts, and the number one thing you can do for our Lord is put Him at the head of the household.  Don’t take anything for granted.  We will be held accountable as the head and hearts of our families and what we did for Him.

Ephesians 5: 22-28-22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

There is 50% divorce rate in this country and no wife or husband living both by these scriptures are
getting divorced.  There is no ME in these scriptures.  Why can a wife submit to her husband with confidence?  Because he is giving himself up just as Jesus gave Himself for the Church.  That means selfish me goes out the door.

Ephesians 6:1-4- 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the
training and instruction of the Lord.

What’s a family that’s hitting on all cylinders (at least for fallen humans)?  The one that bases the Word of God as its guide.

Thank the Lord this season for your gifts and never take your duties lightly or loved ones for granted.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Reflections

 

An Unrepentant Heart Will See Wrath

20 Dec

Romans 2:5-11- 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

Why these verses?

God is constantly trying to warn us to turn away from our sin.  As believers we have to keep praying for one another.

What is an unrepentant heart?  A heart that doesn’t turn away from evil.

I grew up believing in Jesus but never read the Bible.  What warnings was I getting?  Well at least they were better than today, but still since I wasn’t in the Word and I could just turn off a few people.

Today the church is full of not offending.  Don’t preach against sin, it’s unpopular and they might not come back.  Just believe and it doesn’t matter what you do or have you live.  (I must say my pastor is not like that and it is one of many reasons why we attend.)

Yet you read and study the Bible and that’s not what it says at all.  It constantly tells us to repent.  We’re inherently evil and fallen, making bad decisions.

Lip service is a problem.

You can tell someone you’re a great bowler.  However when they watch you, you throw a few in the gutter and your score is 103 game after game, people soon discover you’re not a great bowler.

It works like that in life.  If you have no love for others, it shows.  When you’re foul mouthed, drinking like a
sieve, and beating the family, it shows.  When you’re not following the Word of God it shows.

I have learned not to judge.  What is judging?  Judging is stating that someone is going to hell.

Judging is not pointing out a problem to someone who is a believer in love because you care.  Nor is it judging if all you’re letting someone know is if the Word of God speaks against it.  People getting defensive and saying don’t judge me is a defense mechanism used by Satan so others feel guilty and don’t say anything.  However, if we are living in sin and need a Word, does God want silence?  No, He wants us to lovingly, caringly, pray and try to help His wondering child and our brothers and sisters.

Grace is not a get out of jail free card.  Sinning against God knowingly is not a game.

If as a friend you slap me in the face and I say, please don’t do it again and you do anyway, over and over and over again, what are you indicating?

That’s what we do to God especially when we know it’s wrong.  Show Him you care and die to yourself and habitual sin.  Those habitual (almost every day) one’s are hard.  You will only succeed when you decide He’s more important than you are.

 
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