Liar

In the beginning Adam and Eve called God a liar, along with many others all down through the ages.  Read what God told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

Next we have a conversation with Eve and the Serpent, read Genesis 3:1-7, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?’

And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’

Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”

Instead of believing God’s truth, they believed the lie and from Adam and Eve’s day mankind has believed the lies that the enemy has been telling them.  God had His best in mind for Adam and Eve all along, but they refused to believe Him, thinking they knew what was best for their lives.  There are many that still live that way in our day, learning from the multitudes that went on before them.  Since the days of Adam and Eve and their thirst to be like God and to run their own lives not trusting God, sin has entered the world and every one of us has been affected by it.  Multitudes, all down through the ages, have believed the lie and eliminated God from their lives and reaped the consequences for their choices.  Our jails and prisons are full of people that chose to live life their way, and I praise the Lord that many have been redeemed in these institutions because they have heard and received the truth.

Our society is made up of many socialists and progressive minded people, along with others that would love a godless society, where they could rule the people with their godless ideologies which are nothing new and it is because many haven’t learned from the past.  We are being taught there are no absolutes and no truths, but I know I am typing this Tidbit and that is true, also if I lay my bare hand on the muffler of my snow blower when it has been running for a while, I will be burned and that is absolutely true.  

In God’s Word it talks about how people have rejected God and rejected His truth around 2,000 years ago and it still goes on to this day.  Read what it says about this in Romans 1:18-21, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

They changed the truth of God into a lie and that is the reason our society is hanging on the brink of total disaster.  There are many people, even in our government, that are doing their best to take God out of every facet of our lives

Pilate had the truth standing right in front of Him and he still didn’t believe, and like I said, many have heard the truth and are still rejecting it.  What about you, have you heard the truth and rejected it?  Have you traded the truth for a lie?  If you have I want to encourage you to get into God’s Word and ask Him to reveal Himself to you; if you are sincere I believe that He will because He loves you!!  I have given you something to think about.  Now read Psalms 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”

May God bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!  

Why

Question: what do you believe?  The reason I am asking this question is that all of us claim to believe in something and we all worship something but not everyone believes in the Creator that created the Universe.  There are many religions but not all of them worship or serve the one true God.  For instance, those that believe in the big bang theory believe in something but not in the Creator.  Then there are those that believe, worship and serve idols that may represent the sun or fertility or even the stars or perhaps someone’s ideology, but we all believe in something.  And whether it is good or bad, it will shape our way of life and the way we think, depending on how much we believe in it.  We will also use whatever we believe to help shape other people’s lives because we don’t live in a vacuum, we share this earth with people and we also share our ideas.  That is why there are so many voices out in the world crying out in various ways trying to get our attention.

Think about the different thought patterns in the government, you have the liberals and conservatives and all the others in between, they all believe their way of thinking is right and they try to convince everyone else to think like they do.  The same thing goes on in organizations, and even in the church, sometimes in the form of clicks.  

There are some people that believe in morals and some that believe that men set the standard for the way we should live and that there are no morals.  If you believe in morals at all, you have to believe that there is a moral giver so then you have to believe in an intelligent being that sets up the moral laws in the first place.  Where did morals come from?  They came from God, and He, not man sets the standard by which we all should live!!  The only way anyone could set up moral laws is if the person was omniscient and knew all things and only God fits that category.  It is very easy to know that there is a God and that He exists.  I believe if you will humble yourself and truly seek Him you will find Him.

Read what His Word says in Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

I know that this was spoken to the Jews when they were in captivity in Babylon but I also believe it is still true today, if you truly seek God with a humble and contrite heart and ask Him to reveal Himself to you He will.

Read what King David said in Psalms 51:15-17, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.”

I want to encourage you to get into God’s Word and study, asking God to reveal Himself through the scriptures to you and I believe He will.  His purpose was for you to know Him in a personal way, so He made that possible by sending His Son to be a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be in right standing with Him as if we had never sinned.  Jesus was a man who had no sin but was willing to allow Himself to be crucified, taking our blame and our shame, dying for us in our place even feeling the spiritual separation from His Father, God.

Read what it says in 1 Peter 2:22-25, “Who committed no sin, (talking about Jesus) nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

We were all lost and Jesus loved us so much that He laid down His life for us.

Now read 2 Corinthians 5:12-21, “For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

That’s how much God loves us and wants us to know Him and be reconciled to Him.  God allowed His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer horrendously to pay for our sins so that we could be reconciled to Him, removing the separation from Him and us because of our sins, praise the Lord!!  Enough said something to think about!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!

In Darkness

This is the time of year when this subject should stand out, with all the dark and gloomy days we seem to have with no sunshine, to speak of, just gray days of winter when it seems to get dark so early and sometime it seems like night comes upon us before we even realize it.  But this isn’t the kind of darkness I want to talk about, I want to talk about spiritual darkness.  At this time of the year we celebrate Christmas, which is a time of year when we should reflect on Jesus and His birth and who He was and the reason He came.  Jesus came for various reasons but two of them were to give spiritual light and spiritual life to the people who would receive Him and believe on Him.  Before a person is born-again they live in spiritual darkness; Jesus came to dispel that darkness in mankind.

Read what God’s Word says in Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.”

This is good news; God sent His light into the world in the form of His Son, Jesus, and if we believe in Him we shall be taken from darkness into His marvelous light, He is the only hope of mankind.

Read this in John 1:1-12, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

When we receive Jesus as our Savior, we will reflect that light coming from the true light that came down from heaven.  Read what it says in John 8:12, “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”   

If you would like the light that Jesus provides, come to Him and repent and ask Him to be your Savior and Lord, which is the only way to go from spiritual darkness into spiritual light.  Jesus is the true light and He is the only one that can give us the light of life.  Something to think about, have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!

Jesus Loves Unconditionally

What do you think about the Lord?  Do you believe He loves you or are you having a problem with that?  Most of us know He hates sin because of the destructive things it does when we submit to it.  He knows that sin is a destroyer and will cause everyone who practices it harm and devastation and He hates that about sin.  The Lord loves people and wants only the best for them!!

Do you think of Him as a tyrant, just waiting for you to sin so He can punish you when you do, or do you think He only loves you for what you can do for Him?  Maybe you think you have been so sinful that Jesus couldn’t, or wouldn’t, love you or forgive you.  

You may have been brought up in a family where you felt unloved and unwanted, or maybe you were abused mentally, physically, psychologically, sexually or emotionally, or possibly in a religious home where the Word was taught but not lived out.  Many times people see the Lord the way they see their parents and the way their parents treated them, I am guilty of that myself.  It has been a real struggle for me to believe that the Lord could love me the way His Word says He does, unconditionally. I have struggled with that for many years as a Christian, always thinking that I had to perform and do good works to ‘toe the mark,’ so to speak, or the Lord would be angry with me.  

If you are familiar with the Bible, you know that the Lord never beat up on anyone.  Yes, He did use some harsh words at times and in two separate incidents He cleared the Temple, but that was because of His righteous anger, these men were using the Temple for what it wasn’t intended for.  These men had set up their tables so they could make money, taking advantage of worshipers who traveled many miles to worship God.  These people made a mockery out of worship, for their purpose was to take advantage of the people. The Lord’s compassion was experienced far more than His anger and when He got angry He didn’t just fly off the handle, so to speak, to take revenge, no, He had full control of His anger and never sinned because of it.  Jesus looked at the evil that was being done in the Temple as flagrant disrespect for God and that is what triggered His actions!!  Did the Lord love these men?  Yes He did! 

Read what it says in Hebrews 12:5-11. “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

The Lord was disciplining these men for a reason, not because He didn’t love them, He wanted them to do the right thing, which would not only benefit the other people coming to worship, but also for their benefit, if they were willing to listen.  Let’s be honest, the Lord does punish us when we sin.  I think people talk about the love of the Lord so often that it seems people think they can do most anything and the Lord will just let it slide and just over look it, but that is not true.  Maybe this is news to you, but the Lord corrects us because He loves us; correction is part of love. 

Proverbs 22:15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him.”

Now read Proverbs 13:24, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”

I am not going to tell you how to discipline, but if you can’t control your kids when they’re young, you will not be able to control them as adults.  This is my understanding, spanking your children on occasion out of love and not anger or any other reason, will not kill the children, and in the long run will help them learn certain boundaries which will be beneficial when they get to be adults.  Showing them love is the main ingredient, and that is what the Lord does.  People may dislike you or even hate you, but the Lord loves you more than you, or I, can comprehend or ever understand.

Think about this, He took our place and allowed himself to be crucified so that we could be in right standing with God.  He was terribly misused and He suffered to the point that you could hardly recognize Him and then He died and was buried.  Because of His obedience and love for us, even experiencing a separation from His Father because He took the sins of the world on His shoulders, a man who had no sin, so that through His precious shed blood we could be cleansed and made clean, as if we had never sinned; that’s how much the Lord loves us.  There is only one way that He could accomplish all this so I can’t leave it out; He rose again from the dead, so His grave is empty!  He is very much alive, not like other gods that men worship.

So if you think of God as anything but loving, kind, compassionate and merciful, you are wrong. Yes, God is just, so He judges sin and corrects us when we sin but He does it because He loves us and for no other reason.  He doesn’t do it out of revenge or to try to get even with us, no, He does it for our own good and we should thank Him for caring enough to keep us on the straight and narrow path that leads to His kingdom, praise His precious name!!     

So, I hope this has been an encouragement to you and you see the Lord in a different way if you are struggling with whether He loves you or not, He does love you more than we can ever know.  Something to think about!  May you have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!

A Revealing God

I want to say this to those whom God loves, but refuse to believe in Him.  What more does God have to do to get your attention?  Read Psalms 19:1-6:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of heaven,

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.”

Now read Romans 1:18-20, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

Do you want to be separated from God because of your pride, arrogance or whatever it is that is holding you back from experiencing His great love and His unmerited favor?  Why would you want to be so foolish that you would deny God?  Read what it says in Psalms 14:1:

“The fool has said in his heart,

‘There is no God.’

They are corrupt,

They have done abominable works,

There is none who does good.”

And now in Psalms 53:1:

“The fool has said in his heart,

‘There is no God.’

They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity;

There is none who does good.”

How can you be so deceived as to believe that there is no God when there have been so many prophecies that have taken place?  There have been many archeological findings that prove some of the things the Bible talks about, plus what you just read about and also the many, millions of lives that have been changed miraculously through the years!!  It is only because of God’s Spirit being present in the hearts and lives of people, that things still exist here in this world that we live in, but that will not be the case forever.  Plus God gave us the best He had to give, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  God sent Him to those he loved, but many of them rejected Him, but to those who received Him and believed on Him He gave them the power to become children of God and also eternal life!!  

Just give God a chance, read His Word, humble yourself and seek Him for the answers you want and let Him dispel your doubts and give you a measure of faith.  Read John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

How much more does God have to do for you so that you will believe?  Please don’t just scoff at this Tidbit, it is so important.  God loves you so much He allowed His Son to suffer and die for you.  Jesus loves you so much He gave His life for you, no one could have taken it without Jesus consenting to it and God’s Holy Spirit loves you so much that He convicts you of your sins so that you can repent and confess them and be sorry for them.  This is true love, accept it and live.  God would love to reveal Himself to you if you are willing to receive it.   

Something to think about!  May you have a great day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!  And for all of you who are believers that read this, don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!