Month: August 2018

Coming FACE-TO-FACE with Jesus


One major theme for most of us who seek God is the theme of coming face to face with our creator.  While some claim this divine experience on a completely personal basis, the bible through Jesus is clear about how to make such encounters.

The day of Pentecost provided believers with a gift promised by Jesus and that was the comforter, the Holy Spirit.  By this way, Jesus was to dwell inside of us, His believers.

They Holy Spirit might be considered the glue that webs together the entire body of the church headed by Jesus the originator.  Personal audiences with Jesus are ascribed for those who tend to …”The least of these…”

Thus, the answer is simple. If you indeed want to meet Jesus, then by the fiber of the Holy Spirit, one only needs to meet either with members of His church, or to engage with the Least of These as he explained in His sermons.

This method actually removes much of the mystery out of seek out God.  The methodology actually involves simple, down to earth procedures…i.e., simply search out His church or assist those who are in need.

Many will fail to do this as some would rather add an esoteric nature to their spirituality, but for those who would rather blend with reality, then one to one contact is the process.

Of course, it seems that a more difficult menu would prevail in obtaining God, but Jesus makes it all plain and simple.  Nothing difficult here.  All that really is involved is a dose of love and responsibility.

And so then, when you pray and seek out God.  Go to His children and you will find Him.  Your moral compass is the Bible, but the actuality is Him in the flesh through His church.  Face to Face is the encounter that establishes the reality if God in our lives and that which brings God down to us, person to person.

The blessing is in His presence and the contact of Him through you beams with the revelation that the truth of God is not only in words, but in the fact of the realness of Him FACE-TO-FACE.

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Find Out Just How Welcome Jesus Really Is Where You Go To Church


Jesus gets still one more chance to attend church without being thrown out.

Fat Beggars School of Prophets

Church hopping/church shopping.

I have written about it before.  We have turned church into the mall of God, essentially, and even the pastors have figured this out.  If they want to stay in business, they need to meet the customer’s desires and needs “where they are at”.  (The real Body of Christ is sustained instead by the Spirit of God, but a business posing as a church operates – below the surface – like any business seeking money and growth.)

Comfort.

We go to “church” where we are “comfortable”.

Stuff like: The preacher says what we like to hear; the music excites us; it’s a pretty building in a nice neighborhood; they give spiritual guidance to my kids; they have a men’s group that my husband needs.  It really might be just a matter of having friends there.  Or in a lot of cases, it “feels right” – maybe because…

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Jesus Christ’s Greatest Hits


As any Christian knows, we don’t really have any Greatest Hits for Christ, but truthfully, above anything else, we should.

I think top of the list there would be John 3:16.  This profound statement about God and the love for His people and Son is overwhelming.  Truly, this should be probably number one among hits.

In fact, the entire Gospel message should at least rank among the Platinum or Gold list as the benefits to man are beyond our wildest expectation.

Christ comes to earth as the Son of man

The Son of God dies on the Cross (Sins are atoned)

Jesus rises from the dead (defeats death) and roams the earth for 40 days

Jesus ascends into Heaven

Jesus is to return

If there were ever anything such as the Greatest Hits, these events should represent them.  How can anything else on earth compare to the love of God? All of these are our Lord’s Greatest Hits and so much more.  I am sure you have your own pet occasions to demonstrate the love of God for all mankind and into eternity.  If so moved, then list them in the comment section as we’ll all learn from you.

Welcoming and Eating with Sinners


Come and Get it. (Time to eat)

One Day Revival

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.‘

Then Jesus told them this parable: ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.‘”

Luke 15:1-7

In the 21st century we are not quite familiar with…

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Rest — Do I need it? Can Jesus provide it? — Quotes, thoughts and musings (Something to Sleep on)


I need rest. I get tired. There is good news. Jesus gives me rest. I find it in Him. Jesus, the Messiah and King of God’s country, challenges me to come to Him. Of course I am weary. That is something I have to confess to God. I am carrying too many burdens. They are […]

via Rest — Do I need it? Can Jesus provide it? — Quotes, thoughts and musings

We Aren’t anyone of mention to Anyone


For those of you as bloggers who worry about offending anyone with your great truths:  don’t be.  We are not big enough to cause concern to anyone.

In that sense, they think we don’t count as we are nothing more than small potatoes.

To this effect, I say that you should blog fearlessly as no one truly sees you as a threat.

So yes, yes.  Speak the truth and speak it loudly and boldly and unafraid as what you have to say is important.

You, like the rest of us are commissioned to preach the Great Gospel Message and so then do it with a divine purpose.

Actually, nothing on earth could really be more important than your message of SALVATION.

That’s just how important you are.

I encourage you, fellow Christians to keep it up. You are performing a good work and have followers.  And while those followers may be small, they are indeed so very important to our Lord and to the Kingdom of God.

Count it good that we are nobody to this world and know that we are everything to our Lord.

In the long and short of it, that is really all that counts.  For our relationship to our Lord is all that really matters.  For in that : we have established ourselves in eternity and the love that speaks it takes those with him.  Think of the eventual prize in standing before Jesus with all our friends you have brought to him.  To all of that I say:  God bless you.

The Prodigal Son Returns (That is US, the Christian)


We all know the story of the Prodigal Son who returns after messing up, big time.  Easily this story is about us, the Christian.

Jesus left this story with the Father receiving the Son and throwing a major feast for his returned, lost boy.  Anyone with half a mind can understand this one like so many other illustrations Jesus gives us.

Yet, now: let’s look at the son.

Let’s suppose after the son returns, he goes back to his old ways.

He drinks big, uses drugs, chases after women and more or less goes through the inheritance of his Father once again.

And once again is Father forgives him.

Not quick to learn, the boy goes through the exact antics again and again: never seemingly to learn or to turn from his ways.

Clearly, all of this is NOT GOOD.

And as bad as it is, it describes most of us to a tee.  Most of us perform the same behaviors over and over again and yes, expecting different results.

This type of learning curve really sucks.

What does it take for us to learn?

Unfortunately, for most of us it requires a near death experience. This is what was required for Saul.

Truthfully, I wonder why we are really that stupid.

We are so big on saying “It won’t happen to me.”

Unlike everyone else on earth, we think WE can beat drugs.

We can defy all the laws of nature.

Somehow we think we can sin without consequences and that we alone can escape the logic and physics of our actions.

Like the Prodigal Son, how many times must we come home?  What does it take to open up our eyes?  How long do we endure the very being of who we are?

At some point here we are to surrender.  WE are to admit we cannot do it on our own and look to our Lord, Jesus.

And while we might not be Dorothy who pursues a quest in the Wizard of Oz, our nature, our roots are homeward.

In total surrender, yielding to the truth of the Gospel, we discover our true Home in the Bosom within the lap of our Lord.

Remaining with Him, we no longer have to go Home over and over again, for we find there is no need to leave.  For most of us, I believe we will only truly discover this at or after the time of our death.

Most of us are that strong headed and simply fail to learn.  For most of us, you can see us as the continual, perpetual, Prodigal Son looking and searching for a way back home.

Just the Way you Ain’t (A good way to get a whole lot of people bent out of shape)


Many preachers preach the message that God loves you exactly the way you are and that you cannot get any better to join the kingdom of God.  Too, they state that His love is unconditional to all.

Okay, for part of this: I get it.  Just as we are with our children, we love them no matter what.  They are ours and so then, we have an affinity, a love for them, always.  The same is true for God with us.  Yet, let’s look at some conditions so as not to get too bogged down with semantics.

Jesus himself required for us to repent.

Jesus required for us to believe.

Jesus required for us to abide in Him.  (To do His will.)

Come on, now.  I would call this a condition.  You can slice this up anyway you want, this is a pretense, a condition of acceptance.

Look at this even more:  for those of them who preach the punishment of Hell.  Okay, that is just the way you are?  If there is no reason for change, then why would there be an encouragement to change?  When too would those who don’t change: those unbelievers: why are they cast into hell?  Is this unconditional love?

When one preaches that God accepts us unconditionally, just the way we are:  that premise seems so very inviting.  However, this is somewhat deceptive.

There is at least the expectation of change.  Wow.  Even with the prodigal son:  the message is that he left and was wayward:  yes.  However, the happy ending is that he came back home to his father and family.  That is the message.  Jesus would not have told the story had he NOT gone back home.

So yes, the Lord loves us because we are His creation.  We are His children and He would desire that none will or should perish.  However, many of us will in fact perish.  I believe that most of us will.

For as much as our God loves us, He has conditions just as any family has conditions of respect and conduct.  And this all centers along the lines of belief—the central core of our creed.  And for that: we are to repent, to believe and to abide in our Lord.  In the meantime, it is not a matter of just how we are.  More importantly, it is how we ain’t.  For in that way, we have all fallen short of the glory of God.

By way of Sin


Common among positive thinkers is the fundamental idea that most ordinary people are good.  This is the exact opposite concept from the bible whereas we are born into sin.

Like other living organisms, man is born with an instinct.  Within this instinct, this drive, man is straddled with two programs that advance our propensity to sin.  The first facet of our instinct is the fact that we are ‘hardwired’ for self-survival, i.e., we want things for ourselves to the exclusion of others. Thus, the lens of our eyes focuses only to the effect that whatever need we are seeking, it is for only our benefit.  This is a nice way of expressing the fact that we are exclusively selfish.

The second facet of our nature or personality geared for instinct and survival is our ‘software’.  Our software characteristics are those masteries and learning traits we have acquired through our senses and by route of cognition.

It is not enough that we are hardwired for sin, but we learn how to perform it better through experience.

Left unchecked, humans are capable of almost anything conceivable that is evil and bad. And so it is with the nature of man until the arrival of a savior.

The offering here is twofold:  the first is forgiveness for sin and the second is the introduction of another way.

In this way, man does not necessarily have to sin. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, man has a helper to overcome sin; and while we remain prone to err, our new nature gravitates toward goodness.

The plain fact is that nothing on this earth is perfect nor will it ever be within our lifetime.  However, the hope within Jesus goes beyond the nature of man and within the nature of God that is both Holy and perfect.  All of this comes for the mere asking and accepting of salvation.

The question is a simple one:  will man remain flawed and lost or will human accept the gift of redemption.  The verdict is out and the battle of souls remain.  Until that time of judgment: the struggle for righteousness will continue.  Whatever the final outcome, our job is to decide which say we will go.