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.

People seem to want a personal faith, one that is based on what they want to believe and not on what their parents or grand-parents may have believed. This is especially true of younger people, those under forty years old. They have been shocked into the culture of college and the beliefs or lack thereof of the educational system. What can be shown to them about Christ and following Him that will draw them back? The only possible thing is Truth and Christians who are modelling their faith genuinely. Other than those two things, being genuine and not pushy would be other ways to not alienate people from the Truth.

I know that Christianity is considered a “narrow-minded” faith but so are other faiths such as Islam. In many ways we may need to get away from being labelled as Christians altogether and be followers of Jesus. Since Christianity has been around for a long time it seems to have become so plain until it is hard to distinguish it from other religions except in name.

Of course, this is fine with Satan who is the ruler of this world only because God allows it. As long as we are doing the same things day in and day out and nothing changes, then he is fine with it. It is only when true followers of Christ begin to make a difference in their community and in the world that he will take notice. Regarding Satan, he will take notice of any movement that is bringing God more glory which is exactly what is needed in this world today.

I know that there are many who think that those of us who follow Jesus are narrow minded but there just happens to be only one way of having eternal life whether you choose to believe it or not.

Scripture: Luke 2: 8-20

In our culture today what does this time of year mean? To some it means that their business may end the year with a little money in the bank. To others it means that they hope they will get what they want for Christmas from Santa. What about in countries which are less fortunate than we are?

What about the children in Korea with their eyes so big and bright, what does this time of year mean to them? In North Korea, they may be looking for food and hoping they will have a meal tonight. In South Korea, where there are some churches and a fairly robust economy, they may be celebrating Jesus’ birth just like we do.

I wonder also about those who live in Africa. In places like Zimbabwe where the annual income may be fifty dollars, where people live in huts and never see shopping malls or a Christmas tree, what do they think of this time of year that is celebrated in most countries?

How about the Muslim countries, where Christmas is not celebrated at all?

I am sure it means different things to different people depending on their culture and their beliefs.

Do we forget about Jesus at this time of year? I have heard of people who set an extra place at the table for Him because it is His birthday that we celebrate. It isn’t our birthday but it is the Lord’s birthday and this is a time to remember Him and why He came.

Luke 2: 8-20

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told.

The announcement that went out to the earth about God’s Son being born went to the shepherds, not the temple, not the high priest. Why do you think God went to the outcasts of society to announce the birth of His Son? I think it is because they would receive the news with humble hearts and with willing spirits. They were chosen by God and told the news by a multitude of angels, they had to feel honored even if society said they didn’t deserve honor.

Shepherds were considered unclean and not allowed to participate in any worship service, even though they took care of the animals which were used as sacrifices.

What about today? How do we receive the news of Jesus and His sacrifice for us? Do we humbly bow and thank Him and ask Him to come into our lives and be near to us every day? I am sure that is what He wants of us but not just on holidays or at certain times of the year, or when things are going bad. Jesus wants us to be near to Him as He is with us every day and in all things, great and small in our lives.

Doesn’t He deserve our respect and praise? For all the things that God has done for us through Jesus and through His work on the cross the least that we owe Him is our life in service to Him. Is there any higher calling than to be called a “child of God”? I don’t think so and I don’t believe any of you think that either.

So, what are we to do when we realize who we are in relation to Him? Do we become missionaries? Yes, in a manner of speaking we are supposed to be just that, because Jesus told us to be the light of the world and to take the gospel to all people. We can do that every day while we are working, or at a restaurant or a ball game. We do it by our life and our witness to others and when His Spirit is working through you they will see it and recognize it.

Getting back to the shepherds and what they saw and did; they saw the glory of the Lord shining from those angels who were proclaiming that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. In the darkness of the Judean hills the light must have been breathtaking, like spot-lights shining all around them. Today with the technology that we have lights in the sky wouldn’t be a big deal, but these were angels and they were SINGING and there were no lights at that time except for a fire or a candle so the glory coming from them would’ve been much brighter than they were used to.

Can you imagine how those shepherds felt? “What is this from God? Why is He telling us this?” They might have been thinking those things but they listened to the message and obeyed. They went to Bethlehem and found the Christ child and worshiped Him.

This is all that we are called to do in our lives but we are to do more than just worship. We are called to be ministers and teachers about our faith and why we have the faith that we have. We are to be the voice of Jesus and his hands and feet in a world that is rejecting Him now and in the future, until we are taken to be with Him.

Our Savior was born in the most humble of circumstances and His birth was announced not to kings or priests but the shepherds. He was a King at birth and still is today and yet people don’t acknowledge His kingship over their lives even if they are Christians. The crown that He wore on earth was one of pain and made from thorns, the one that He wears now is gold and is given to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Mighty Counselor, the Prince of Peace.

He is our Savior and the reason for the season and we need to humble ourselves and pray and seek Him every day. Make it a habit to do this and you will be better for it and you will be more like Him in your walk with Him.

There are some who would truly enjoy this because it would give them so much “freedom”, in quotes because they would not know what they were free from. The world would be a very ugly place, even more than it is today if Jesus had not been born.

Satan would have completely free reign over our world although God would not allow him to go too far. God’s plan was in place before Satan ever rebelled and convinced a third of the angels to follow him. There couldn’t be a world without Jesus, period!

He is the Word of God who came to ransom our souls from sin and He is the Creator along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. They are the triune God, the Trinity and without them the entire universe would not exist.

It is humbling to know that the Creator of the universe cares for each of us and craves a relationship with us!

My imagination can’t come up with a scenario to illustrate how different the world would be if Jesus had never been involved in it. Put bluntly, the world would not exist as it is today. He is the Word of God incarnate who became a man to die for our sins so that we can be covered by His sacrifice and forgiven of our sins.

To answer the question I will attempt to list some things which would be vastly different if Jesus had not come to die for us.

1. If Jesus had not come, there would be no church of any denomination, only other religions would exist.

2. The only knowledge of God we would have would be from the Jewish Torah (Old Testament) because there would be no New Testament.

3. We would all be looking for the Messiah since He was prophesied to come in the Old Testament. This is why we couldn’t have a world without Jesus, because if He had not come at the time that He did then God would be a liar and therefore He wouldn’t be God.

The promises and prophecies that the Old Testament prophets wrote down came to them through the Holy Spirit so if they weren’t true then the whole story of Creation would be suspect.

God has to keep His promises because He is God and cannot lie, so the Messiah had to come when He did and at the time that He did. He will come back at the appointed time as well so there is no question about His coming, we just don’t know when things will come about. The time will be accomplished in God’s time not our own, just as everything else is and has been from the beginning.

In this world and at this time, we have been pushing God out of every aspect of our lives. From public places and government and schools to television, there are people who cannot stand to hear any reference to the Bible or Jesus or salvation. God has always wanted a relationship with us but humanity, since the fall in Eden, has been on an ego trip. “I can do it myself” has been our mantra for many generations and it is not true! We cannot do it alone, just like toddlers who say “I can do it myself” we have to have help.

In spiritual matters we are dumb without God and His Word! The man-made religions of the world are just that, “man-made”! They didn’t do anything or create anything or anyone. Like a block of wood or stone or gold formed into an idol, man-made religions don’t have the ability to truly do anything! Just like those idols, our religions are static, stagnant, and dead.

God is everlasting and the Creator of all. To worship Him is to worship the True God not something that was brought on by a drug or lack of sleep or lack of water! Dreams, visions, and feelings can’t form a seed or a fish with a word or put stars in their places by thinking of where they should be, but God can and He did! Trust Him, follow Him and ask for His forgiveness because He loves you!

Do you know where to find this answer? The answer that most people give and the one that everyone thinks is the right answer is “in the Bible”. That is true, God reveals a lot about Himself in His Word.

Do you read it? I don’t mean a passage or two in church, I mean daily, with purpose. Asking Him questions about it while you read so that He can show you the meaning and the message that is meant for you in it.

Your salvation is linked to God’s Word because it was the Word made flesh that came to us as Jesus and died on the cross to save us. But, there are many people that just attend church and never look for more out of the scripture than what they get from the preacher. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us from Genesis to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It shows us His character and as much as we can handle on how He thinks about things.

God wants a relationship with you like the one that you have with your wife or husband. Let me tell you a story:

I read this testimony of an elderly missionary who was returning from the foreign field to the United States to live out the days he had left with his married daughter in the Midwest. Upon arriving on the California coast he boarded a bus to begin his trip across the country. The first night the bus stopped in Las Vegas. He had been out of the United States for more than thirty years. He had never been to Las Vegas. He checked into a hotel and took a walk down the strip. Although it was close to midnight, it looked like midday, because of all the lights. As he walked down the strip he heard the loud music, saw the amazing hotels, and even went to a car show where he saw the world’s finest automobiles. He saw the games being played in the casinos and heard the money coming out of the slot machines. He saw the marquees announcing the amazing entertainers. He saw the drink specials announced and the amazing food advertised in the restaurants. Eventually he went back to his room in the high-rise hotel where he was staying. He entered the room but didn’t turn on the light. He walked across the room and opened the curtains. In the quietness of his room he got on his knees in front of the window, looked down at the Vegas strip, then into the more impressive lights of the heavens, and prayed this prayer, “God, I thank you that tonight I haven’t seen anything I want more than I want you.”

Idleman, Kyle (2011-05-24). Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

There is no greater testament of faith and love toward your Savior than that, and that is what He desires of you. Is it possible for us to have that kind of relationship with our Heavenly Father? Emphatically, YES! He created the entire universe for His glory and to tell His story to us even if we can’t read. God loves every person on earth and until they realize that, they are missing out on the relationship of their life.

Many people think that following Jesus is going to cut into their “fun stuff” but that depends on what their fun consists of.

Have you ever considered what Jesus meant when He said, in Luke 9:23, to “deny yourself and take up your cross daily and follow me?”

In denying yourself, you have to consider the relationship that Jesus’ disciples considered themselves having with Him. Which was that of a bondservant, one who serves out of love to his Master and not because he has to.

Regarding taking up your cross, Jesus is speaking of your burden or the sacrifice that you make in being a Christian.  To us, that means putting Him first and foremost in our daily life. We cannot do this in our own strength but through the power of the Holy Spirit we can and we must! The outside world, outside of the Church, only sees Jesus through us and our actions and when those actions don’t line up with what is considered Christian behavior the church gets a bad reputation. That is when you hear things like, “that is where all the hypocrites go, and I am not going there”.

It doesn’t take but one instance of someone seeing you or someone in the church or even in your family and the word will spread to the point of no one coming but the faithful few. In the times that we are living in, we can’t afford for the body of Christ to be divided or the world to see it that way. Satan loves it when there are divisions and strife in the Church because as long as we are dealing with problems, no matter how trifling they may be, we aren’t effective witnesses for Christ.

We can be better because we are new creatures in Christ and we must show that to the world. If you haven’t made that decision to follow Jesus please do so today. He is only a prayer away. Ask Him to come in because once He does and you start living a surrendered life daily, nothing will ever be the same.

The reason behind this is simply Satan himself because even though he was created to worship God, he was given free will like we are and pride was found in him and he was cast out of Heaven because he wanted to be exalted above God. He is now the ruler of this world and all that is done on earth, especially things which are evil and which can cast doubt toward God he will do. Although, he is not totally in control because God only allows him to do what is truly in the will and knowledge of God. God knows exactly what will work to bring about our obedience and our recognition of Who He is, so that we will ultimately fulfill our purpose.

We are in control only to the extent that what we do affects our lives and our immediate surroundings. We are not gods and were never intended to be. We were created by God to be in this universe and to be servants to Him. That is not to say, that we are slaves in the sense that many people and the devil himself tries to make us believe that we are. As Christians, we do it because we were loved and known by Him first and considered worthy enough that He died on the cross to save us from our own stupid, prideful, decisions. People do things, good or bad, on their own which cause others to fall into a life which will be ruinous to them and to others. It is just our nature, because of the fall from grace in the Garden and we must be redeemed from it through Jesus. He is and always has been the way to life everlasting. It has been called many things from many cultures and I am not saying that there is another way, by another name but one day everyone will know that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Whether you get it in a church or from an evangelist or from the Bible itself, when God calls you it will become clear to you that what you need was there all along, you just didn’t know that it was so easy.

Easy to claim the life of being a Christian, yet it is hard to live it daily. Many churches will tell you that the life of a believer is easy but it is not. Our nature keeps us from getting up every morning and laying down our own nature and taking up the nature of being a Christian. It can be done, but not under our own strength. We have to ask for His strength and through Him we can do what He wants us to do. I know that all of this sounds very cryptic because I am not going into specifics about Christian life and service, but the reason that I am not is because it is different for each of us. You may be gifted in one area, your wife or son or daughter may be gifted in another. Yet, through the Spirit, once you surrender your will to His will in your life, you can and will be able to do whatever He asks of you and shows you what He wants you to do.

God loves each person on this planet and wants each of us to come to know Him but until we do, He will not force us. It is not in His nature to do that and God cannot change because He is unchanging. Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come unto the Father except by Me” John 14:6. There is only one way which will get you to Heaven, and that is through trusting in the saving power of Jesus and the sacrifice made on the cross for you, believing Him for your salvation. No other religion or ceremony will do, no one can do what He did and yet He lives and will come back for His own. We will be tested and some will be found lacking in faith and there will be a falling away but if you will put your faith in Him and trust in Him, and cling to the Bible and the wisdom contained in it, you will find peace and life everlasting through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

What about your prayer life, do you have one? Many people don’t think about prayer, at least not until they have some trouble in their lives. Then they may pray to God or Jesus about it, but once the problem is taken care of in one way or another they stop. They may even be angry with God if the outcome wasn’t what they asked for, at which point they may never pray again. They just determine that God hates them and decide not to reach out to Him again.

It is sad when people choose to do something like this, but it seems to happen more often than it should because there are so many people who have given up on God. He hasn’t given up on us and never will for the most part. I say that because at some point you can harden your heart toward God to the point that you won’t come to Him, period.

If you haven’t come to that point, there is still hope but you must say four words that some people find hard to say, “I am a sinner”. Once you can admit that to yourself and to God, you are nearly there! At that point, just ask Him to come into your life and free you from the sinful life that you have led in the past. Then you are a new creature in Christ and your life in Him and through Him starts fresh and new!

Many people say things like “I’ve been too bad for Him to want me” but if He is knocking on your heart and you can feel His presence wanting you to come to Him, He wants you! He can use your talents because He knows what you can do, probably better than you do.

This reminds me of a story in the Old Testament about Naaman, the commander of Syria‘s army. There were four words that he didn’t want to say either, mainly because of pride and shame. He didn’t want to admit that “I am a leper” because of his high position and because of the disgrace it would bring to him. Yet a little child , one of the captives who was a servant girl in his household, knew of a prophet in her homeland who could ask God to heal him and she told him about it.

To make a long story shorter, Naaman went with many gifts and asked the king of Israel about this prophet and found him, but Elisha sent his servant to him and told him to wash seven times in the Jordan river and he would be healed. He was furious. That river is full of mud, he said and he stormed out and started on the way home. His servant told him that if the prophet had said to do some great thing he would’ve done it, so why not do what the prophet said?

When Naaman humbled himself and decided to dip himself into the Jordan river like the prophet had told him to do (seven times), he found that the disease that he had for so long was healed and his skin was like that of a child. That is what happens to our hearts when Christ comes in. Our heart and our life becomes like a child of God, new-born and cleansed from our sins. At this point, we can do anything through Christ and others will truly see Him through our example and our character as we mature in our faith.

Jesus does love us all and has paid the price for our sins, all we have to do is come to Him and humbly say “I am a sinner, please forgive me”. Six words that will change your life and the lives of those around you forever.

Who are these who were saved? The Remnant of Israel. Although, today there is a so-called religion that professes to belong to this 144,000. I say that they are wrong!

Unless there are that many people in America who are true descendants of the tribes of Israel, all of them, I don’t believe that this religion has anything to do with the 144,000 saved from the wrath of God. These are also not the only ones who will be in Heaven because after the Millennial Kingdom and the Great White Throne judgment, there will be a new heaven and a new earth created upon which the Kingdom of God will be forever.

Our God’s word will not be changed to meet the needs or the desires of a man-made religion. He will set up His Kingdom the way that He sees fit, not according to our desires. The book of Revelation should be taken literally and read with a prayer so that you can understand the words contained in it. Our generation will see the coming of Him. He has not started His Kingdom yet. We have not had the Tribulation spoken of in the Bible yet. Don’t believe the lies that are being told today.

Hear the word of God and believe it.

There are many people in the church today who think that we, the church, will be gone before this happens. I am not so sure. There is another view that shows the church being subjected to the first half of the Tribulation and then taken away to Heaven before the wrath of God is poured out on the world. It is a very compelling argument and it has many scriptures to back it up. I am very interested to see just what will happen in the next few years because I believe we are that close to the time of Tribulation which will come on the whole world.

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only”. Matt. 24:36; our Lord told His disciples this in the Olivet discourse after they asked Him about the signs concerning the end of the age. We are living at that time or immediately before it right now. I know there have been many people who have said that the end of the world is on this day or this day, but no one knows! Your last day on earth is your personal “end of the age” and we have no clue as to when our last days are, thankfully! The times that we live in are and have been told about many times in God’s Word, from Daniel and Ezekiel to Joel and Isaiah then to the New Testament and the book of Revelation in particular. This time in our world should not surprise anyone if you have ever read God’s Word.

There are many who say that they will wait until their last day to accept Jesus as their Savior, but you and I don’t know when our last day is! It is arrogance beyond measure to plan your life that way because as soon as you leave home, your life is in danger! Even when you are at home, you may die of a heart attack, stroke, or any other ways. We are not given X number of years and days to live, and we don’t know when our last day is, only God knows that. Thankfully, He keeps that a secret from us.

The end of the church age is near and we are living in the “last days” right now and have been for a long time. Since the state of Israel became a nation again, there are few prophecies left to be fulfilled before the times foretold in the book of Revelation. In the past sixty years technology has advanced at a rapid pace, the world has grown smaller due to the rise of the amount of technology that is available to us on a daily basis. We do have the ability to talk to someone on the other side of the world and see them talk to us by way of the Internet. The Bible says:  “But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.” Daniel 12:4

Our world is beginning to see some of the signs of the “end of the age”, but not the ones foretold that would be immediately prior to it. God loves us all and wants us to have a relationship with Him. If we choose not to accept the gift of the grace offered to us through Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are the ones who will condemn ourselves to everlasting punishment! The day or the hour may not be known by us because our personal “day and hour” could be at any time since we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Get into God’s word, the Bible and ask Him to reveal what His will is for you because it is important to Him and to you and your family. He loves you and all of us and doesn’t want any to perish, but if we wait too long our chance to accept His gift of Grace may pass us by and then all you can say when you stand before Him is “I am sorry, Lord, I waited too long and I didn’t realize my condition in time”. The most dreaded words that anyone could hear at that point are “Depart from Me into everlasting punishment because I never knew you”. There will be a tear in His eyes when you are told this, but it will be too late. Don’t let this happen, come to Him and give your life to Jesus before it is too late!