ARE YOU ONE OF GOD’S CHILDREN ?

Do you want to be one of God’s children?

—“If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

Have you decided to follow Jesus?

—“No turning back.  No turning back.”

If you decided to follow Jesus, then what?

—“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

If you follow Jesus, what changes should you expect?

—“All who live Godly in Christ will suffer persecution.”

Will you be at risk of persecution?

—“You shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” —Jesus

Is it good if people hate you because you are a Christian?

—“Blessed are you, when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

Can you imagine joy in persecution?

—“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What evidence is there, that you would be declared guilty of being a Christian?

—“You are the salt of the earth [makes people thirsty for Jesus].”

—“You are the light of the world [people see Jesus in you].”

What if you were arrested for your faith?

—“And when they bring you before the religious institutions, and authorities, and powers that be, take no thought about how or what you will answer, or what you will say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in the same hour what you should say.”

 

Real Christianity Required Right Around the Corner.

NO MORE “ZONES”

The right of the people to keep and bear Arms and Bibles and Free Speech shall not be infringed.

Keep and Bear means Own and Use, anywhere.

No more Gun Free Zones.

No more Bible Free Zones.

No more Free Speech Free Zones.

—–First and Second Amendments, applied

(inspired by teacher calling Sandy Rios In The Morning on AFR)

THE BIG ONE

Fred Sanford didn’t avoid talking about “the big one” whenever sudden stress went over the top.

Most of us don’t talk about heart attacks—OR—emp’s—OR—stock market crashes—OR—

persecution ! ? ! ?

PERSECUTION, really, for me ?
– – –
If you are not a serious Christian, you do not think about it.
If you are a serious Christian, you choose a theology that says we’ll be gone.
Does the last three fourths of Revelation somehow not apply to us reading it now ?
Then why read it ?
– – –
Why don’t Christians in America talk about persecution?

Because persecution is so foreign to us.

Because we’ve had it so good in America, without serious persecution.

Because we don’t know how to talk about persecution.

Because we might get “persecuted” by our friends if we talk about persecution.

Because we’re so busy talking and dealing with other things.

Because we heard theology that says we’ll be out of here before persecution.

Because we don’t listen to the stories of fellow Christians persecuted around the world.

Because we don’t pray for those persecuted Christians.

Because persecution hasn’t struck close to home.

Because persecution hasn’t affected us yet.

Because we hope persecution won’t really happen here.

Because we have the first amendment to protect us from persecution.

Because we’re not ready for persecution.

Because our pastors don’t talk about persecution.

Because our pastors aren’t preparing us for persecution.

Because we don’t like the words, “All who live Godly in Christ will suffer persecution.”

If you are a Jesus follower, what if His words come true for you and me?

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets which were before you.”

Today, many Christians around the world are reporting joy in a special, closer relationship with Jesus, experienced only during severe persecution.

Very soon, Americans who call themselves Christians will get serious about Jesus, or get out.

IF I WAS GOD, I WOULD . . .

“If I was God, I would do things differently.”

So, if you were God, and did things differently, would that make people like you, happy?

If you were God, and did things the way you think they should be done, would that make everybody happy?

If you were God, would you care about making everybody happy—or just making you happy?

If you were God, would you still see things the way humans see them, or would you see things the way God does?

If you were God, would you want to have unlimited power, or unlimited wisdom, or both?

 

What if—

What if God’s unlimited wisdom already directs His unlimited power in the best possible way—better than all the eight billion different ideas of people wanting to be in charge?

Wanting to be God, or just wanting the world to be different—does that make any difference?

Is it a waste of time—wishful thinking?

Thinking about being God, is trying to avoid Him and live your own life without Him.

We do not want to be accountable to someone who thinks differently than we do.

 

Many people live like God doesn’t exist, and they imagine that it works for them.

We can’t ignore something out of existence—especially God.

Imagining a different god, or no god, does not affect the fact that God is—that He always has been, and that He is always the same.

We better deal with God on His terms, because He will deal with us on His terms.

 

So, what are God’s terms?

If you look at all the man-made religions, you find tremendous imagination about what God expects of humans.

And we keep inventing more ideas of how to deal with whatever is god.

Can someone break through the fog and make these things clear, for once, and for all (of us)?

 

Okay, here goes:

God is love—that’s good for us—what a relief—I’ll take that kind of God.

God is holy—that’s not so good for us—that’s scary—who wants that kind of God?

God is truth—and He wrote down in words that we can read, the facts that make things clear, for once, and for all (of us).

 

HOW DID ALL THIS GET STARTED?   In the beginning, God created everything, and it was all good.

HOW DID IT GET ALL MESSED UP?  Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and so do we also sin.

HOW DOES IT GET FIXED?  God’s Son, Jesus, died to pay for our sin, and we can accept His sacrifice and turn from our sin.

HOW DOES IT ALL END?  One day Jesus will take all who accepted Him to a perfect heaven, and all others go to hell.

 

Don’t take my word for it.

Open the Bible and read it.

Don’t debate it or question it.

Don’t try to change it.

And don’t say you didn’t know.

ALL GOD’S CHILDREN ?

I have something God doesn’t have.

And it’s beautiful and most valuable to me.

GRANDCHILDREN

Your parents’ faith does not make you a child of God.

You must believe in Jesus for yourself and ask Him to forgive you.

I BELIEVE I’M CLOSE TO GOD WHEN . . .

“I believe I’m close to god when . . . ”

Question:

Does nature have that kind of freedom to operate every which way?

No, only people have freedom to make up anything we want to believe, and expect it to fit into reality in the spiritual world.

In other words, we see the natural world has order, run by consistent laws—but then we count on the spiritual world to be completely random, run by and answerable to 8 billion different, fluctuating ideas from wishful thinking.

 

Natural world:

“I believe your gravity is okay for you, but my gravity is different.”

Question:

Would you show me an example?

 

Spiritual world:

“Your truth is not my truth.”

Question:

Is that true?

! S T R E S S !

Stress holds a gun to your head and shouts,

“RELAX, OR I’LL KILL YOU!”

 

Jesus holds his arms out to you and says,

“Come to me, you weary;

Come to me, you overloaded;

And I will give you rest for your soul.”

13.6 BILLION YEARS AGO ?

“Astronomers caught a glimpse of the beginning of the universe 13.6 billion years ago.”

—–side story on weatherbug site today

They keep adding years—lots and lots and lots of years—to make more room for their theories.

“Scientists” talking definitively about billions of years is about as credible as me publishing a log of my trips to Mars and back in a travel guide that everybody reads.

It seems like most people actually read and buy their travel guide telling us where we’ve been, a long, long, long time ago.

Fact is, anyone who can tell us where we’ve been, is likely to also tell us where to go (might be favorable to them and not to us)

– – – – – – – – –

I’ve seen an accurate glimpse of the beginning of the universe, which anyone can discover if they will, by opening the Bible to the beginning—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Sounds pretty clear to me.

It hasn’t changed or needed an update in thousands of years.

You can take it or leave it, but it’s still true.

I’m just thankful that He told us how it all started—and, everything else we really need to know.

I feel a whole lot better about a clear instruction manual for this thing called life, rather than yearly updated versions of a guessing game.

And that certainty is available for everybody.

Check it out yourself, before you make conclusions about anything important.

P.S. to WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM ?

Obviously, you need to read the other post first.

Notice, I did not say, “If you fixed your problem” or “If you figured out how to fix your problem” or “If someone else told you how to fix your problem” or “If ‘the doctor’ told you to fix your problem, or else” or “If . . . ”

I said, “Simply, if your problem was fixed, . . . ”

 

But if you would like a Bible verse to put this in perspective, I do have one:

“Seeing that all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”

There is something about our conversation, our very spoken words, that directs our lives—just like there is something inside that directs our conversation, our spoken words.

You see, our spoken words (not our thoughts) put us on record before other people with accountability—like built-in technology that impacts everything in our lives from day one.

“SCHOOL ZONE”

Signs of these times?

Sign A:

SCHOOL ZONE

NO SPEED LIMIT

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS

 

Sign B:

SCHOOL ZONE

NO ARMED SECURITY

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS

 

Sign C:

SCHOOL ZONE

SECURITY

PROVIDED BY

GOD AND GUNS

DURING SCHOOL

HOURS