The Lord Is Our Only Hope

Question: What do you put your trust in as your only hope?  Is it your money, your parents or a close friend, how about your popularity or maybe you are a TV actor or a movie star or a sports star?  It might be the business you have started or the President or a dozen other things.  All these things will fade and be gone in time, but the Lord God has always existed and will forever.  His reign has no beginning, nor does it have an end.  He has always been trustworthy, honest, fair and just, and gracious and loving, kind and merciful and long suffering.  He is not overly harsh, but always willing to forgive a true repentant heart.  He has always been in the business of restoration and deliverance and healing.

There are archaeological finds that match up with what the Word of God says, look them up and see for yourself.  The fact that we live in the end times is unmistakable.  Please read Matthew chapter 24.  Whether you know the signs of the end times or not, the things that the Bible says about the end times, point to what I am talking about.  When God decides it is time, He will send his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, back for his people that are still here, and we will be with him forever and ever.  But, all that rejected Him will be separated from Him for ever and ever and that will be a very sad and a devastating day.  

The good news is that no one needs to be separated from him and if you are, it will be by your own choice.  Please 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.”   Whosoever includes you and everyone else who believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son.  

This is very important, please read John 6:43-45, “Jesus therefore answered and said to them, ‘Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.’”     

I keep stressing this because people are powerless to receive the new birth called, being born-again.  It is by God’s grace and nothing that anyone can do outside of being broken and truly repenting, turning from your sins and turning to God for His mercy and grace through faith.  Please read Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Only when God draws you to Jesus and the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sins, can you respond by making the right or wrong choice, receiving or rejecting the offer given you.  

You cannot come to the Lord by your own righteousness, the Word of God says this in Romans 3:9-20, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Please read how God accepts us in Romans 3:21-31, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

He definitely doesn’t accept us on our own merit, for sure, but only on His grace, mercy and love and by the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross when He became the sacrificial Lamb of God, laying down his life and shedding His blood for the sins of mankind, the only sacrifice that God would accept.  Praise be to God, the Father, and praise be to Jesus, his beloved Son, our precious Savior, if we are born-again and we cannot praise you both enough.  

Enough said may the good Lord bless you all and may all of you have a super, blessed day!!  If you haven’t yet today, give them both a shout out of thanksgiving and praise!! 

Transparency

I have been reading the book of Psalms and it seems like the men who wrote the Psalms were very transparent and they told it the way it was.  They talked about their struggles and fears and their doubts and the situations they were in.  They seemed to bare their hearts to God and the rest of the world, to all who would read God’s Word throughout the generations from their time and to all the generations that would come after.  

They also thanked and praised God very enthusiastically at times.  Then there were times when they seemed so discouraged and fearful and down and then at other times, they seemed very up and cheerful and excited.  It seemed like their emotions were all over the place, like what happens to real Christian people at different times in their lives.  It seems like many people that would call themselves Christians today, seem to hide their true feelings, maybe because they don’t want to hear about their lack of faith, or they must have sin in their lives or some other negative statement which may be true or not true.  

I know in my walk with the Lord, I have had some real struggles and other times I have been overly excited.  Think about Elijah when he was up on the mountain with the Prophets of Baal.  When the fire of God fell and consumed his sacrifice and licked up all the water, how excited he must have been, but not long after that experience he was on the run because King Ahab’s wife Jezebel threatened his life.  It seems like the enemy of our souls likes to attack just before a breakthrough or at times not long after a victory.  At one time Jesus said this, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”  So we can expect trials and even tests and unexpected problems and situations and circumstances to take place in our lives, even if we haven’t sinned.

Just think about Job’s situation he was tested, and it had nothing to do with sin.  In fact, his three friends accused him of sin but that wasn’t the case at all.  Now think about what Paul said at one time in the Word of God, “If you live a godly life you will be persecuted.”  So, if you are living a godly life and you haven’t been persecuted yet, you can look forward to being persecuted at some point in your walk with the Lord!!  If you know anything about the Apostle Paul, he seemed to be persecuted continually in his walk with the Lord and it even seems to me that he looked forward to it.

Please read Philippians 3:8-12, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”

Paul loved the Lord and was willing to suffer for Him and he did, to the point of being martyred for the cause of Christ.  Paul was a very transparent person and if you are not, you may want to try it.  And for the person that is always judging other people’s motives or actions, you may want to use mercy, grace and love as your motivator.  I hope this has been a help and an encouragement and may the good Lord bless you all with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness.  If you haven’t yet don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord for, He is worthy.

A Certain Amount Of Faith

I think faith is inevitable, but some things are done without thinking about the faith factor.  Think of this example, when someone sits in a chair, they in many cases do it automatically just taking it for granted that it will stay together and not break, unlike the experience I had not long ago when I sat in a plastic chair.  The problem I had was, it wasn’t long when I heard a big crack, and I was lying on the concrete because one of the legs of the chair broke with a loud cracking sound, which was very unexpected.  Not long after that, maybe an hour or so, I sat on a porch swing and I heard a snap and that broke also, but not all the way, so it didn’t fall, thank the good Lord, and also for not getting hurt when the leg broke off the plastic chair.  When a person gets on a ladder or goes to a doctor, they need to have a certain amount of faith in both cases.  And what about when you get into a bathtub to take a bath or shower.  We don’t call it faith many times, but if you think about it, that is what it should be called because it is so easy to slip and fall.  Even when you go to a restaurant or a fast food place like Mc-D’s you have a certain amount of faith that nothing is wrong with the food you order.

What is faith, this is what the word of God says, please read Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”   

I believe every person alive needs to have a certain amount of faith just getting out of bed and walking out your door to go anywhere.  I realize so many of us take things for granted and many don’t think about it being faith at all, they are so used to doing the things they do.  Faith is so important, but what you have faith in, is even more important.  Some people don’t believe there is, or ever was, a creator or they just don’t want to acknowledge that there is.  I know the popular thing today, in some circles, is evolution which says the earth, as we know it, has been around billions of years which took place from a big explosion and everything eventually came together perfectly, but as for me I will take the Bible’s account for what took place and that also takes a lot of faith.

Please read what it says Romans 1:16-23, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith. 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. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”  

As for me, I chose to believe in God’s creative work because we all have been given a free will to choose for ourselves what we believe, so I believe that the Word of God is true, so naturally I believe that God created the earth and all that the Word of God claims that He has created.  Please read John 1:1-3, “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.”

Besides believing in His creative powers, I also believe desperately that we need Him to reveal Himself to us more and more every day.  But, like I said in other blogs, the things of God are spiritually discerned and without the spirit guiding and leading you into all truths with God’s spirit living inside you, you cannot comprehend spiritual things.  This is part of the born-again experience.  When you are born-again, your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Please read 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

 

If you would like to have a personal relationship with the Lord so that you can have spiritual discernment and a strong faith in what I believe is real and lasting, repent of your sins when you feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction and don’t put it off, turn from your sins and turn to the Lord, confessing and rejecting your sins and ask Him to come into your heart and be your Lord and Savior and to forgive you of your sins!!  I believe that God wants everyone to be saved, please 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.”  

And don’t forget to ask Him to help you to love every person, even your enemies, and to have the kind of faith that will move mountains if need be.  Enough said, may you and yours have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours also!!