Who Will You Serve

Question: How long will you waver between two opinions?  I think everyone has to make this choice at some time or other.  The Lord said this at one point in His ministry, read Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”   Now think about idol worship, there were many people into idol worship in bible times and it still goes on today.  Many people idolize other people or material things or money or vehicles, sometimes it may be their own kids or their spouses or someone else in their family.  It may be a sports person or a TV or movie personality.  

In Elijah’s day the Israelites worshiped Baal and Asherah so Elijah had a showdown with these prophets on Mount Carmel and he said this in 1 Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came to all the people, and said, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.’ But the people answered him not a word.”

Joshua made a similar statement in Joshua 24:14-15, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

God said that He would have no other gods before Him.  In our day many still worship gods, maybe they have different names, but they can still be idols or gods and God won’t tolerate them if we are believers, so be careful who or what may be an idol in your life.  Think of this, an idol can be anything that you put ahead of the Lord in your life!!   Personally, I think people can make an idol out of their cell phones as they spend hours and hours on them while ignoring real friends and family, carrying them around everywhere they go even taking them to bed with them completely devastated if they can’t find their cell phone at any given time.  

My kids and grandkids come to the house at times and different ones are constantly on their iPhones, either talking, texting, playing games or watching or reading something on their iPhone.  Just try to ground someone from their iPhone and you will have a battle on your hands.  You want to see someone throw a fit just try to take their iPhone from them.  Or how many have iPads that they use like their cell phone constantly?  I am talking about believers and non-believers alike.  If believers took half the time praying and reading the Bible and spending time with the Lord as they do on their cell phones, iPads or some of the other devices they own, I would say that there would be many more spiritual giants around with far more spiritual discernment and far less believers being devastatingly deceived.

I know this will rub many people the wrong way and they will no doubt be offended but I am not trying to offend anyone, I am trying to get some people to see the error of their ways.  I know the truth hurts but you will need to hear it for yourself to be set free.  Check out John 8:31-32, “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

My prayer is that you will be encouraged and helped while reading this Tidbit, and you will decide not to be offended but to receive the truth and act on the truth, for it will set you free.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you all have a super day!!  Don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord for He is worthy!!

A New Life Begins

How would you like to wake up and discover that you have been so changed that you knew that something amazing happened to you, and you felt like a brand-new person, not perfect but your perspectives and the way you perceived things was different?  It’s like waking from a nightmare and loving your new life that you never imagined you could have.  This sort of scenario has happened to many, many people over the years.  It happened to me and it can happen to you also.

My life for many years was like living a nightmare from the time I was a young kid until I was around thirty-five years old.  My life was a mess; hating things and people alike and the circumstances I was in.  I grew up thinking that no one loved or cared about me.  I was sick quite often and probably depressed and lived in fear of so many things.  As I got older I got into drugs, alcohol, riding chopper motorcycles and partying most of the time I was a mess; a total freak, at least that was the way I felt after I thought about it. 

I was in two terrible marriages, because of my foolishness, that didn’t last long, like I said I was a mess.  What I should do is write a book on my life, I think it would help people not to fall into the same traps that I found myself in.  Then about forty years ago I got truly committed and very serious with the Lord and things changed.  I was delivered from the drugs and alcohol as well as the party lifestyle almost immediately.

I still had a problem with love and I have struggled with that for years but that seems to get better each day.  As time went on I had such a transformation I think it shocked some people, along with myself.  It seemed for a long period of time I was a freak for the devil and then I became what some call a Jesus freak.  There were times I felt I was on the mountaintop, so to speak, also many times I felt I was in a Job situation although the circumstances were different.  I don’t think the Christian life was meant to be a walk in the park like so many people would want you to believe.  Taking up your cross and denying yourself or working out your salvation with fear and trembling doesn’t seem like a walk in the park to me, as it says in Philippians 2:12-16, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”          

I don’t want these things that I wrote to discourage you, if God starts a good work in you He is able to complete the work that He started in you.  I think our problem is that we hear about the good life so often that if we go through any difficulties we think something is strange.  Paul could have never related to the Christian life that we teach today because he went through so much persecution as did the other disciples; our type of Christianity would have seemed foreign to them.  Jesus said in this world you will have tribulation, which means troubles and trials.  Paul said if anyone wants to live a godly life they will be persecuted.

When I read about the church in the Word of God it seems so foreign to what I see today also, at least in some parts of the United States.  It was said of those in Jesus’ day that they turned the world upside down.  I don’t think this would be said about many of our churches today, not with our user-friendly churches and all the entertainment that goes on and the watered-down sermons that are being preached and taught today in many of our congregations.  Most of the disciples were willing to give their lives for the faith, knowing that it wasn’t a walk in the park, so to speak, but also knowing that it was the best way to live; anything else would have been just existing.  

If you would like to have a very fulfilling life, the best you will ever have, you can have it if you make Jesus the Lord of your life.  But I want to make this clear, it may not be the easiest life, but with the peace of the Lord in you and the joy of the Lord as your strength you will be victorious and you with also be a new creation.  I think you must start this journey with true repentance.  Paul talked about godly sorrow leading to repentance unto salvation which need not to be repented of, but worldly sorrow leads to death.  True repentance means that you are truly sorry about your sins and are willing to make a conscious decision to reject your sins and confess your sins and ask the Lord to forgive you and to be your Lord and Savior. When this takes place, you will become a new creation in Christ and you will be a child of God!!  Then your new life will begin, and the Lord’s peace love and joy will fill your heart and life.  Without this rebirth taking place you will never see the kingdom of God!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you all have a super day!!

Good Works

We are not saved by our good works, but we are saved unto good works. Read Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  

These are some of the good works that we are saved to do. Read Matthew 25:32-40, “All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

I have heard it said that the only good works that we can do after we have been born-again is to tell someone about the Lord, and I fully agree that sharing the Lord with someone is very important, but it is far from the only good works that we need to be doing.  Take Jesus as our example; He went about teaching and healing and casting out demons and even raising the dead and washing His disciple’s feet and He also feed thousands of people.

Now read James 2:14-17, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Now read Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Read Isaiah 58:10, “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.”

All of these verses refer to good works and there are many more I could put down here.  Like the Word says let your light so shine before men that they might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven!!  I pray that this will be a blessing and an encouragement and that the good Lord will bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness.  May you all have a super, super day!!  Don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord, for He is worthy!!