Are you ready to meet God?

 Are you ready to meet God?

The Psalmist writes,

"Be still, and know that I am God; 

I will be exalted among the nations, 

I will be exalted in the earth." 

                                                Psalm 46:10

There are many out there who say there is no God. Of these people someone once told me that by a person saying there is no God. There has to be a God. The logic is this,

“In order to say there is no God then one would have to have been everywhere and know all things. Attributes of God. Therefore the person saying there is no God is god.”

That being said I believe there is a God. A God that will be exalted among the nations, throughout the earth. A God that Christians are proclaiming throughout the earth as you read this.

I believe that every person that has ever lived, is living, or will live in the future will one day meet God, at the very least when they pass from this earth.

Thus the question becomes are you ready to meet God?

Please think about it.

God our refuge and strength

  God our refuge and strength

The Psalmist writes,

“God is our refuge and strength, 

an ever-present help in trouble. 

Therefore we will not fear, 

though the earth give way 

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

 though its waters roar and foam 

and the mountains quake with their surging.”

                                                                      Psalm 46:1-3.

If you consider yourself a true Christian is God truly your refuge and strength?

I know it’s in man’s nature to worry about things. That being said as believers in Christ Jesus, as believers in God, we should be putting our trust in God each day. Both in the good times and in the bad.

So do you truly trust in God, in both the bad times and good?

Is God your refuge and strength?

Please think about it.

Respect for others

  Respect for others

The apostle Peter writes,

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” 1 Peter 3:15,16.

Love and respect are two of the cornerstones of the Christian faith. If we do not show love and respect to those around us, they will not listen to us.

We must at all times love and respect even our worst enemy. 

At the same time we must be willing and ready to present the Gospel of Christ that gives us our hope, even in the darkest times of our life.

If you consider yourself a Christian. A true follower of Christ Jesus, are you showing respect to those around you irrespective of whether you agree with them or not?

Please think about it.

It will fall into the Abyss

  It will fall into the abyss

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7.

I forget where I got this definition of wisdom but I like it, it states,

"Wisdom is the acquired skill of applying knowledge rightly".

I like what Abba Hillel Silver wrote,

"Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society.  Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority." Abba Hillel Silver.

Having faith in God and following His commandments, His absolute values. Leads to a free and productive society.

Failure to do this leads society down the road to destruction.

We only have to look at Nazi Germany in the 1930's and early 1940's to see what happens if we fail to follow God’s commands and moral values. Tens of millions dead at the hands of Satanic men and women in the most destructive war in human history.

While I know, no government of earth today is Christian or God centred we still need a society that follows at the very least the basic moral principles God has laid down in the Bible.

For if society fails to do so it will fall into the abyss from which there is no return.

Please think about it.

Will you accept Christ Jesus today?

  Will you accept Christ Jesus today?

Matthews gospel records,

“While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples.  

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  

But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:10-13.

Jesus here makes it clear why He came to earth. To reach the sinner for God. To point the sinner to heaven. To show God’s mercy to all who would believe in Him.

The apostle Paul points out,

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  Romans 3:23,24.

We are all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. But all who believe in Christ Jesus are redeemed through Christ’s death on the cross.

The apostle Paul pointing out,

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

 The apostle John tells us,

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1John 1:9.

Will you confess your sin to God today and accept Christ Jesus into your life today?

Please think about it. 

A Command to Love

  A command to love

Jesus said,

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John13:34,35.

If we claim to be Christians, followers of Christ Jesus we must love as Jesus loved. And Jesus loved us so much He died on the cross for our sins.

In his letter to the Corinthians the apostle Paul defined Christian love this way,

"Love is patient, love is kind. 

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil 

but rejoices with the truth.  

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 

Love never fails....

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love."  

                                                          1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13

Just prior to this in 1 Corinthians Paul writes,

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  

If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

So my question to you dear reader is; 

Do you truly love others as Jesus did?

Please think about it.

God's forgiveness

  God’s forgiveness

The Psalmist writes,

“Lord, if you kept an account 

of iniquities, 

Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is 

forgiveness,

So you may be revered”

                              Psalm 130:3,4

The Psalmist here is telling us that if God kept an account of our iniquities no one would get to heaven. But the God we serve is a loving God. A God of forgiveness. 

The apostle Paul writes,

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:8,9.

 Do you believe in God and the grace that comes from Christ Jesus?

Do you believe the words of the apostle John who states,

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1John 1:9?

Please think about it.

I lift up my eyes

  I lift up my eyes

The Psalmist writes,

“I lift up my eyes to the hills— 

where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the LORD, 

the Maker of heaven and earth.” 

                                             Psalm 121:1,2.

I am so glad that I can say my help comes from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.

I am so humbled that God in the form of His Son Jesus Christ came to this world to save me. To help me in times of trouble. To be my guide in life.

Can you say this?

Please think about it.

The apostle Paul to the Athenians

 The apostle Paul to the Athenians

In the book of Acts we read,

"So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.  

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.  

Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  

You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean."  

(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) 

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.  

For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.  

And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.  

God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.  

‘For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.' 

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill.  

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." 

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject."  

At that, Paul left the Council.  

A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others”Acts 17:17-34.

The apostle Paul is speaking here to the Athenians and through them to us. He is telling us what he believed. Telling them about God and Christ Jesus who died for our sins and rose again that we might have eternal life.

Take a few minutes to read again what Paul said and ask yourself; Do I believe this?

Please think about it.

No God No Purpose

  No God No Purpose

In Ecclesiastes we read,

"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labour. 

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." Ecclesiastes 2:10,11.

Put simply a life without God is empty. 

The way I see it, God gives you purpose in life. If there is no God there is no purpose in living. I don’t believe that all we are on this earth for is to simply procreate and then pass on.

I believe life is eternal and that this life prepares us for where we will live in the next life.

Please think about it.

Lesson from a Faithful woman

 Lesson from a faithful woman

Isaiah the prophet wrote,

Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid,

for the LORD GOD is my strength

and my might;

He has become by Salvation 

                                            Isaiah 12:2

I write these blogs about two weeks in advance. But in the middle of March I sat at the bedside of a truly faithful woman. My wife Sharon. We’d been married for close to forty-five years. 

Sharon tended to keep a low profile. Serving the Lord in word and in deed without drawing much attention to herself.

But knowing her heart and kidneys were failing and that she was on life support. She asked to be let go into the arms of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Then with the family and pastor gathered around she and we sang Amazing Grace, said a prayer and took her off life support. 

The nurses made her comfortable as all in the room listened to worship music. Within an hour or so peacefully she got her wish.

Dear reader

Is your life right with Jesus. Can you say for certain,

Surely God is my salvation;

I will trust, and will not be afraid,

for the LORD GOD is my strength

and my might;

He has become by Salvation 

                                            Isaiah 12:2.

Please think about it.

A Call to tell the world

A Call to Tell the World

Jesus said to His disciples and through them to us,

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20.

As Christians we have a duty to Christ to go into all the world, be that world our neighbourhood, the nation we live in, or somewhere else in the world, and tell people about Jesus.

I believe the way we should be doing this is by presenting the gospel message in love. By saying “this is what I as a Christian believe. I leave it up to you as an individual to believe what I am saying, or not.

We must never force our faith on anyone. For a good example of how to present the gospel all we need to do is look at what the apostle Paul did in Athens a city filled with temples to a myriad of gods. 

Acts 17:17-31 shows Paul speaking at the Areopagus at the request of non-Christian Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.

Paul didn’t say I am right and you are wrong. He simply presented the gospel message and let them decide.

If you consider yourself to be a Christian take some time to study Pauls address to the Athenians to see how you can present the gospel message better.

Please think about it.