He is referred to as “the Living Word” in scripture so in essence Jesus was the Living Word of God. Christians don’t deny this, only those who have not taken the time to study the Bible and get into its wisdom question these points. The Son of God, of which there is only one, does not need His deity to be proven because of the record written in scripture before He was born and after He was raised from the tomb.

So in our world, why do so many people choose not to believe in Jesus? Why does even His name cause controversy and anger? It seems that it is because of Who He is and what He represents. It also points to one simple truth and that is: If Jesus is Who the Bible says He is, the the Bible is true and all other religions have nothing to stand on.

That one truth angers billions of people because it would upset their religious beliefs and yet when He comes back, all will bow and acknowledge Him as Lord. Grudgingly, perhaps, but they will because they will have no other choice. He will be sitting on His throne and they will have no argument, no witty comeback in front of the Creator.

Jesus is the Creator along with God the Father, period. There can be no real argument on this point and yet there are many who believe or dis-believe other lies or half-truths, most of which are man-made. How can anyone read the book of Job and see where God answers him with the names of the stars in the heavens and not believe. God is the One who spoke the universe into existence. He formed all of us in the womb so that our purpose, His purpose for us could be fulfilled. We all have one and yet many people try to find it in other things and places.

God loves you, not because He has to but because He does, period! We have the choice to love Him or not, if we didn’t have that choice we would be no different than animals who follow their instincts. God even gives angels the choice of loving Him and serving Him and most do. The only ones who chose not to were cast from Heaven with their leader, Satan, and they will pay for their decision.

Our choice, our life should be to follow Him, because the life we have here on earth is but a speck compared to eternity. I want to serve Him, not only because I want to live, but because He loved me from the beginning and you too! I do not want any of my friends or my family to have to suffer in hell because they didn’t know about their Savior.

There are many who think that there is no hell, but if there is a heaven there has to be a hell. Would you really want to spend uncountable years in a place of punishment which was not created for you in the first place? Hell was created to punish Satan and his angels or demons, whichever way you look at them. It was not meant for us at all, but that is where we will go if we have not accepted Jesus as Lord. It is a hard teaching to follow but it is the truth because it is in God’s Word.

I know many people have said that Christians are crazy because we believe some old book and the Words contained in it. We believe without proof or evidence which is not true. There is historical evidence that the people and places mentioned in God’s Word existed and the simple fact that we exist, as does all of creation, is proof enough. Debating these issues is just an exercise in differing opinions and that is all.

God’s Word and His love for us is true and all we have to decide to do is to allow Him into our life and our hearts or not.

Romans 6:23 says:  ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yes, there is an answer to this and the answer may surprise some people. The Bible itself has many of the answers that people seek and as for a purpose in life, serving God is the highest calling I can imagine. During our teen years we begin looking for these answers but we don’t want to hear that our answer might come from some old book that has been around for nearly two thousand years! We want fresh, new insight into our problems and the solutions to those problems.

Guess what? The Bible is always fresh with new insight! Because it is the Living Word, each person who reads it in the context that it is meant to be read gets something different and new! If you read it as a book and don’t pray about what you are reading, you will only get what a book can give you. If you doubt what you are reading and don’t believe the things contained in it, you will get nothing from it, other than a headache.

But, if you are truly looking for the answers to your questions and ask God to show you what you are seeking, you will find it in abundance! There is more wisdom contained within its pages than in all of the libraries or databases on earth. As someone seeking the Truth, the Bible will give you that and so much more.

I have never been an eloquent speaker, but as I pray about what to write here, God gives me the words to say. I don’t claim to be a prophet, yet I am a preacher speaking the Truth and about God’s Word because it is the Truth that is needed in this world. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light. No one comes to the Father except through me. ” John 14:6

There are many who claim to be representing truth in this world and yet there is only One Truth and that is salvation through Jesus the Christ! If that is not what you have been taught in life, then you need another teacher. The Teacher you need is God’s Word, the Bible. Through the wisdom contained in it anyone can be saved and given the things which God has reserved for those who follow Him and do His will in their lives.

My life is forfeited because I serve the Living God. I can do no less because He has done so much for all of us. We are given breath and life and the sun and the rain, but we are also to endure through hardships in this life. This is a hard concept for some because it means that we are not give a free ride in life, we don’t have it easy when we become Christians.

I have had many to ask me why this is and the answer is simple, it is because Satan hates God and His children which we become when we accept Christ as our Savior! Satan and his followers cause all of the pain and disease and problems in the world but no one wants to acknowledge that he even exists, which is fine with him because as long as we don’t believe in him we aim our anger and frustration at God!

God is the only One who cares for us and wants the best for us in everything. Give your heart to Him, read the Bible, pray about what you are reading and it will open up to you like no other book can! In Service to Him, always!

Have you ever wondered whether you are good enough for God? Have you asked Him if you are good enough to get into Heaven? The answers to these questions are simple: yes, you are good enough for God and no, you are not good enough to get into Heaven!

Well, why not? Why am I not worthy to get into Heaven? It is because of our human nature and the fact that we are sinners from the time that we know right from wrong.

Can we change? Yes, but not on our own. Only by accepting Jesus into our lives and allowing Him to change us from our heart outward can there be any lasting change. This kind of change makes a difference not only in our lives but through our lives we are able to touch others because of it.

The change in us will be evident to others and they will want what we have because it gives us hope and peace. A peace that those in the world cannot understand.

Your life can be so much more than it is with Christ in it and yet, many people don’t want Him in their lives. To me, that doesn’t make sense but that is how life with Jesus is. If you have Him you can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want Him. If you don’t know Him, you can’t understand why anyone would want to.

Jesus died to ransom you from the penalty of your sins, regardless of what those sins are! It doesn’t matter if it is a lie that you told your Mom or your boss or your wife/husband, even that is a sin. It may be considered a small sin but in God’s eyes and in His universe this is no different from murder. Sins are just that, sins, regardless of the severity or consequences in our world! To a holy God, our God, sins are all the same regardless of the effect they have in this world.

This is a hard message to hear and to learn but it must be said because there is an eternity at stake and it is yours and mine! Think about what God might feel. He created all of us as His children, to learn about Him, to decide on our own to love Him because of what He does for us on a daily basis. Then, when we decide not to love Him and sin against Him, He feels it like a knife every time. Not just from one of us at a time but from everyone on earth!

We won’t be perfect even after we accept Christ as our Savior but we will have His righteousness to cover those sins that we do commit! We will still sin but we will know it, the Holy Spirit will let us know and we will want to follow Jesus’ footsteps toward the Father. If you haven’t allowed Him to change your heart and your life, please consider this…the fires of hell never go out and after your life on earth is over you will live forever regardless of where you are.

The eternal life that you live will have much more meaning and purpose if you serve Him now so you can serve Him then. If you choose not to allow Him into your life while you have this time on earth, (since we don’t know when our time ends we may not have another chance), your eternity will be very different from what it could have been!

Satan doesn’t care about you or your life other than getting you to choose not to follow Christ, as long as he can accomplish that he feels that he has hurt God more each time one of us chooses our own way instead of God’s way!

He said that when He comes back He will receive unto Himself those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior. This is an awesome promise and one that cannot be broken because Jesus is our Creator and equal with God so He cannot lie. Your life and mine are His, regardless of our belief in Him or not and yet when you give your life and heart to Him it becomes much more. The world looks different, your friendships are different. Everything changes when you change from the inside out and asking Him to come into your life changes your perspective in many ways.

Belief in Jesus and in Who He is will change you, and yet many people find it hard to do. Satan and his demons believe in Jesus because He is the Creator and they know Him as the Holy One of God so the point of view that some have today that there is no God is totally wrong!

He has never left us alone and is always there waiting for us to ask Him to come into our hearts. The place inside us where we know that there is supposed to be “something” and yet until we ask Him in, we don’t know what fits in that place. We have tried to fill it with many things, but none of them satisfy the longing that we feel at times. When He comes into our hearts, the satisfaction is real and it is lasting!

Decide to give Him access to your heart today! We are not guaranteed tomorrow so this is the day of salvation. Please do not wait!

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,

On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us

Our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power and the Glory,

Forever.

Amen.

“Our Father”, we acknowledge that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all of us, as well as all of Creation itself. He is the Father of Jesus, our Savior and redeemer. He alone deserves our praise, not some god that man has fashioned from his imagination or from some part of creation itself.

“Which art in Heaven”, with these few words we are telling God that we know where He lives and we realize that He is above all, our thoughts, our ways and our sins. But, we are also acknowledging that we are, in spirit at least, there in our thoughts and in our longings.

“Hallowed be thy name”; we know that God is holy and we humble ourselves before Him. Because of Who He is, we can do no less. We can’t comprehend God anymore than a bacterium can comprehend us!

“Thy Kingdom come”; here we are telling God that we want His Kingdom to come and we are acknowledging that it is and will be His Kingdom that we want to be a part of it with Him!

“Thy will be done”; we know that God’s will is sovereign and over all. His will is over all of Creation and nothing happens outside of His will. Jesus said that not even a sparrow falls from the sky without the Father noticing it. Because He is in touch with His Creation to that extent, how do you think He feels when we push Him away?

“On earth as it is in Heaven”; we acknowledge that one day God’s will for us will be done on earth as in Heaven because He said so. The prophecies in God’s Word say that this will happen, therefore it will! There is no debate nor argument for or against this; God said it so it is done!

 “Give us this day our daily bread”; He will sustain us with His power and with our life’s work so that we can live for Him daily. If we choose not to live for Him, we are not forced but if He has a plan for our lives, circumstances will work toward getting us in line with His will eventually. Jonah found this out and we will too if we try to change things!

“Forgive us our debts”; we are to ask for His forgiveness for our sins humbly and willingly because we are guilty of being sinners.

“As we forgive our debtors”; this is the hard part to digest because it simply means that we are forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. Once you have asked Jesus into your heart and life, you are forgiven but you are to forgive others too. If you can’t forgive others, how can you show that you have been changed into the likeness of Christ?

 “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”; God doesn’t lead us into temptation, Satan does that by enticing us with things which he knows that we will pay attention to. If we are being led by God on a daily basis we will not be led into temptation, but we will be given the strength to resist it!

In delivering us from evil, God will deliver us from the evil influence of Satan and his demons by His strength as long as we are relying on Him and not our own.

“For Thine is the Kingdom”; we know that the Kingdom to come is the Lord’s and if we belong to Him, we will share in it. How could you not want to share in an eternal Kingdom with God?

“The power and the Glory, Forever”; God has always been, period. He is omnipotent or all-powerful. He is the Creator of everything from the smallest atom to the largest galaxy and everything in between! All of these things that He created show His wonderful majesty and awesome power! Our God, His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three in One and between them and their influence in our universe everything works, PERIOD!

This is just a small part of what Jesus said while He was here, but what a mighty impact it has had. Many people pray that prayer as their prayer but it is supposed to be a model for us to pray, not a memorized prayer! We don’t have to pray exactly the way this prayer is laid out, but as long as we acknowledge Who is in control and give Him our petitions and problems and have the faith that He will work things together in our lives for our good and for His Glory, we only need to lean on Him in prayerful dependence with faith like a child.

He loves us more than we can comprehend. The only thing that is required from us is to love Him, we don’t have to but don’t you want to! God gives us all that we ever need or that we could want, not out of necessity but out of love for us. He doesn’t supply all the money that we want but He does supply our needs, because He knows each of us far better than we do.

Give your heart and your life to Him and all things will work together for your life in His will and for the good pleasure of Him who sustains you.

]]> http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com/2012/03/21/the-lords-prayer/feed/ 3 gtemedtk1 http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com/2012/03/08/can-you-know-god/ http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com/2012/03/08/can-you-know-god/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:26:18 +0000 gtemedtk1 http://inhisservicetilhecomes.com/?p=540 ]]> The answer to this is, YES! He reveals Himself to us through the Bible. All of His personality and character traits are there, all you have to do is study and pray while reading it and God will be revealed to you.

I know, there are many other so called “religions” which say that you can’t know God or Allah or whatever name they call Him by. But, you can! He wants to know you and He does but He also wants to be known by you. He created us for this and we are His creation. We are not an accident or some other random occurrence of natural processes.

God has a sense of humor and is compassionate toward his creation. In many churches you never hear of this. God is seen and preached as a stern figure which holds us to rules and regulations. He is much better than that. Why would He send so much quail into the camp of the Israelites that they would be sick of it if He didn’t have a sense of humor? They asked for meat to eat and He gave them more than they could handle!

The Pleiades which He hung in the heavens are as beautiful now as they were when they were put there. He asked Job, “Where were you when I hung the Pleiades and all the other stars during Creation?”

Is it possible to know Him as a friend? Yes, when you spend time in the Word of the Bible you will come to know Him as a friend. When you pray to Him daily and listen for His voice speaking back to you, then you will know Him as a friend. God is our Creator and our friend and He wants that relationship too. Our lives can be so much more productive for Him when we follow Him daily. Give Him your heart so that He can give you life!

Our country is being judged now and it will be judged by God in the future according to our actions as a nation and as individuals. Is it possible for us to do anything about this? Not on our own, but if we turn to God and repent of the things that we have done we may soften the judgement somewhat.

I know that people don’t like to be told when they are doing something wrong but according to God and the Bible there are many things wrong with our nation spiritually and fiscally. If there is no remorse for the things that we have done wrong there will be no repentance and if there is no repentance, there will be no one asking for forgiveness. Our nation was founded by people who were here to further the Kingdom of their Lord Jesus Christ and we have forgotten that.

We have forgotten because it is no longer taught in schools or in many homes today. Even people who call themselves “Christians” and go to church pick and choose what they will or won’t believe from the Bible.

The Word of God is not a gourmet line menu that can be chosen from, you have to take it all and live by it or you will be judged by it! Just as our own laws can’t be picked through and decided about which ones we will follow and which ones we choose to break or not follow.

God’s Word is not a rule book but a guide-book and as such it gives us boundaries to stay within. Our country and its people have been pushing the Bible out of schools and other public places for a long time and like a relative that is told to leave, God will leave too.

When the blessings of God, that have been on this country since its beginning, are gone we will notice and I believe we are seeing the effects of that right now. Our country and the people need to get back to God and be the people that we are supposed to be!

He came to us to redeem us to Himself so that we might have life with Him in Heaven. Why or how could we be so arrogant and prideful to think that we could add Him and the appearance of being a Christian like we put on a pair of shoes? Is it possible that by taking prayer out of our schools, that we have doomed our children and future generations to thinking that God is irrelevant?

We have to realize that He is absolutely in control and He is not irrelevant! There are many people who risk their lives daily to spread the word of Christ to people in areas where He is not preached! How can we live in a country where we can worship freely and tell others about Him and yet we act as if He is too hard to live with or too politically incorrect for us to tell others about?

God loves us, which is why He sent His Son to redeem us by His death on the cross. The death that Christ endured by being nailed to the cross was insignificant compared to the point at which God had to turn His gaze away from Him. In that moment, Jesus was alone for the first and only time, but it was the most agonizing part of His sacrifice. This is the part that many people don’t quite understand because we can’t understand it.

Everyone thinks that Jesus was afraid of the torture that He had to endure prior to being crucified and the crucifixion itself. He may have been but He also knew that at some point His Father would have to leave Him and at that point He would be alone for the first time in His life! The relationship that Jesus had with His Father was ingrained in Him and had been there since before the world began, so He had never known a time without the presence of His Father.

We have the same ability today through the atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our daily lives can be in the presence of our Heavenly Father because He is there, whether you acknowledge Him or not. Once you do accept Jesus into your life, you will have a daily relationship with Him. He is waiting for you, why not ask Him in today and find out what life really is about because without the author of life, our lives aren’t worth much no matter what you do or who you are.

Without Him we are nothing, with Him we are and have everything!

In many ways the old saying of “the devil made me do it” isn’t far from the truth, except that he didn’t make you do anything. He just encouraged and prodded you in that direction, you make the decision. In many ways, our world would be far better off if Satan had not come down here but that was part of God’s plan as well.

God loves us all and wants the best for us but He knew even before we were born that there would be rebellion because there was rebellion in Heaven before the world began. There are some religions today that discount the original sin of Adam, but it happened and we are all inheritors of it. God promised a way of salvation to Eve in the “seed of the woman” and to the rest of us as well. That Promise was Jesus Christ and through His sacrifice on the cross and through the grace that God has given to us through Him we can all be saved from our sins and our sinful nature.

Do we have to do anything to be saved like obey the Ten Commandments or other laws that were handed down through Moses from God? Actually, the answer is no, because we can’t accomplish more than Christ did on the cross! He paid the price needed for our salvation, all that we have to do is believe in Him and His sacrifice and ask Him into our heart to cleanse us so that we can be His.

Choose the life that you were meant to have, the one with Him in it. If you do the rewards will be unbelievable by the world’s standards, if you do not then eternity will be unbelievably long and painful because of your choice alone.