We are not Forsaken

Was reading in C.H. Spurgeon's book Morning and Evening today and this is part of it:

No person can grasp the full meaning of these words. At times, some of us think we could cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There are brief periods when our Father’s bright smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness, but remember that God never really forsakes us. Ours is only an apparent forsaking; in Christ’s case, it was real. 

The verse was from Psalms 22:1 "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

The words that came from Jesus on the cross as well.  It really hit me after reading this the truth of something that there's no way anyone will ever know who is a believer in Jesus Christ.  Being forsaken.
Being left alone.
In Christ it's impossible.  For those outside of Christ, He is simply waiting on them to come to Him.  There's never going to be a forsaking coming from Jesus.  It's the choice people make at either acceptance of the free gift of Salvation or the rejection of it.  But nobody will ever be able to say they were forsaken by God ever. 
True forsakeness is beyond anything we could ever bear, which is why Jesus had to bear it on the cross.  The Psalmist who wrote that only thought they knew what it was.  God hiding His face for a time isn't being forsaken.  Being forsaken as Christ experienced it was true, full, complete, separation.  A breaking of relations and fellowship that had never happened before and never would again.  The breaking was so bad that for that moment in time it caused Him to cry out.  But He knew that when it was Finished that the authority that the Father gave Him would enable that to resume again.  He had the authority to lay down His life and the authority to take it back up again. 

Dear reader consider your life.

You may be lonely but you are never alone.

You may be going through what appears to be Hell on Earth but you are never forsaken by God.  You may be discouraged, distressed but you can never be alone.  God is there. Jesus is there. Waiting on us to come to Him. 
The love of God is so great that over 2000 years ago you were on His mind when He was dying on that cross taking your place.

He did go through all that because He loves you. He still loves you. 

If you haven't turned from your life your way, why not?  If you are honest with yourself you will look deep within you and see there's something missing.  Something is wrong and you don't know how to describe it.  That is Christ missing from your soul.  Come today.  Find in this blog the one that mentions the Romans Road.  I do not promise that your circumstances will change but I do promise that your despair and loneliness will go away.  For the first time in your life you will finally, truly, not be alone.
For the first time in your life you will experience true forgiveness.  You will begin to experience the Love of God.

Foolish and the Wise

We really are living in the times that Jesus said would be.  

2 Peter 3:4 "and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”"

That's what most of 8 billion people think right now. But what does Jesus say?  

Luke 12:35-48 

"Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

“But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

Peter said, “Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk;the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Think on those words. 

As one preacher put it, many in the Church see God only on Sunday and date other gods during the week.  Is that showing readiness?

Is that showing anything good? Not at all.

In that same passage Jesus goes on to say that people know how to read the weather and yet do not understand the times in which they live.  For Him to say that really gets it put out there that it's important to understand it. It's important when God says it's important.  He IS coming back and there's billions who will be caught off guard.  The reality of the Rapture will hit them after it happens. Questions will be asked. Governments will lie to cover up the truth. Likely millions will commit suicide due to guilt and anguish over those who were taken.  Millions will finally realize they need to hope in something or someone because they see only then that they cannot go on without direction. 

Many billions will believe the lies and follow a world leader. That world Leader will be the Antichrist.  

On the world stage, look at history again, there have been many Antichrist's.  1 John 2:8 "Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour."

Are you ready in this hour of your life? I am.

Jesus IS returning.  Unlike the liars of other religions, EVERY SINGLE prophecy about Jesus has come true. ALL.  Well over 500 not just a few. 

Be ready! Be found in His Word.  Realize the times in which we live.  Realize the truth about sin and death.  Realize there's a cross shaped hole in your heart that can only be taken care of by Jesus Christ.  Right now everyone is doing whatever is right in their own eyes.  Mega Churches are not necessarily the answer.  It's those who listen and obey.  Jesus told many that to obey is better than sacrifice. 

You will lose everything you have in this life when you die. All you will have to take with you is a history of your life and how it was spent. What you did, why you did and who you did it for.  

In Revelation that's what Jesus told billions of people. "Depart from Me for I never knew you". People who did live their own way on their own merits.  Who lived a 'good life'...apart from Jesus.  If you don't have the Security of Salvation in Christ Jesus alone you have NOTHING.  Not a single span or instance of good deeds will save you.  If that were possible then quite frankly Jesus died for nothing. 

Be ready.  Get serious about God. Come to Christ today.  Soon there will be no second chance. 

Hide us from God!

Hide us from God!

Revelation 6:16 "and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;"

This mindset is in the world today.  People are seeking any escape from this world rather than to acknowledge the one true God of the Bible.
They listen to psychology, fake religions, use drugs, and yes, go as far as taking their life.

God doesn't solely exist within what is called 'time'.  We do.

God's still going to address every person at the Great White Throne Judgement. Every person who ever lived will kneel and bow to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.
Fighting the truth is what is in this world today.

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
James 4:17

Lies purvade the news. Just because a lie is repeated doesn't make it the truth. There are no self help books that work,  however they are disguised, that will ever bring peace. The only book that has the power to change lives is God's Word, the Bible. Mutilating a your body to change it from one sex to another will not change who you are before Jesus Christ.
Intentionally doing things, intentionally living a life or lifestyle that goes against God's Word is a sin.   All sin will be accounted for if that person isn't a believer in Jesus Christ.  Only those who are saved through Jesus Christ do not stand condemned.

"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Romans 8:1-2.

Jesus is the hope of the world, but you can't continue to live your life your way. There is no escaping the reality that everyone needs a Savior. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but through Him. There is no other way. All other ways are dead end roads that only lead to Hell.

The Reality of Obedience

Having worked 10 years in the grocery industry, one of the phrases that I had heard that to this day irritates me at a level few things do. "But WHY?!? WHY can't I have it NOW!?! BUT MOM!!!" Or "BUT DAD!!!"

The reason probably is not what you may think.

It's because of how often that I have had that conversation with God.  If you are honest with yourself you will say the same thing of yourself.

We want what we want when we want it.  But that's not how it works with God.  Mankind does what it wants in its own eyes.  Over and over again in the Bible that's what is said.

We do the same thing with relationships not just things.  God is trying to be gentle about moving us on to somewhere else and rather than trusting Him, we dig our heels in, just like a stubborn donkey. 

We don't want to really believe that a season is over and that God has other plans.  God is pointing the way and it's still up to us to follow. 
Wisdom is vindicated by her children as Jesus said.  If we truly trust in Jesus, that He knows what is best, then when He says go then we should go. A Disciple was a person who saw what His Master was doing and did the same.  He didn't argue and say "But Jesus!"  Yet that's what we do.  I have done it. Usually with disastrous results. We think we know enough to do the right thing, but we don't. 

If God's telling you to do something or go somewhere other than what you are doing or where you are.  Stop and obey.  You may not like it at first but part of trusting in Jesus is believing that He knows best.  Don't dig in your heels.  Go as far as He allows and do what He asks.  It's not just food for you it's food for me too.

The Days Ahead

When things seem to get worse this time of year there is a reason. 
God's enemy loathes this time of year. All his plans to discredit, ruin, and kill Jesus were laid waste.  This coming Friday is good indeed for the believer in Jesus Christ. In that the perfect Plan of God the Father to save mankind came at the right time. 
Jesus promised all those who would come to Him for Salvation would never be alone. He would always be there with them.  In the Gospels you can see the fellowship between the Father and the Son. God the Father turned His face away from the Son but for that moment when all the sin of every human being was placed upon Him but He never left Him.
A love so deep that death cannot shake it.
That same love is there for you.
That very same love.
If you knew Jesus it won't guarantee you riches.
If you knew Jesus it won't guarantee you a perfect body, at least not yet.
If you knew Jesus it won't guarantee you that perfect job.
If you knew Jesus it won't guarantee you that your life won't be filled, at times, with troubles.

If you knew Jesus it does guarantee your adoption into God's family that can never be revoked.
If you knew Jesus it does guarantee that you will never be alone.
If you knew Jesus it opens the door to a peace you cannot explain when life doesn't seem to be going right.
If you knew...well...now you do.

I don't have a perfect life, at least not yet. I have a life that's with Jesus.  Do I have ambitions? Sure. Are they important? Maybe.  I don't see things like I used to.  The importance of things isn't really there much anymore. The importance of my time with Jesus is greater.  Jesus said "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."
Matthew 16:25
That was one of the verses that I read yesterday.  As I grow older I am seeing priorities shift. Things that were important are not as much. 

Think about the word 'workmanship'. Workmanship isn't simply evidence of what you have done. Workmanship has many more implications. It shows your integrity. It shows what you feel about what you do. It shows others that there are or are not things that motivate you.  It shows craftsmanship. It shows intelligence behind actions. It shows emotion behind activity.
It can show many emotions at once or only one. In Christ we are His workmanship.
In spite of all the gender issues in the world today, God cannot and does not make mistakes.  To believe anything else is to believe a lie. In Christ, we are being made new. Into the person we were to be.  That will never include a change in gender.  It's Spiritual in its workings.
It's a careful crafting of truth with love. It's a careful extraction of unwanted and dangerous parts of us that truth cannot abide by.  It's a life that's being remade in the image of Christ.
I will say it's often painful at times, but honestly, so is physical surgery.  Faith and trust in Jesus means believing He knows what's bedt even if it means that I cannot see or understand the end result yet.
The change brought about in you may be twofold.  It may be that you, in Christ, can go through something because He knows you are strong enough. But someone else whose life you will cross paths with needs to know that in Christ, they can make it too. Much of what Job went through he had no clue about.  It's quite possible his ordeal went on for weeks or months.  In the end the Lord restored everything and then some. Now, in Heaven Job has even more. 
So when this next week gets rough remember, in Christ, you never go it alone.  If you don't have Christ, there is no better time than now to ask for Him to be your Savior.

A Life that was Saved

It's coming around.  Many times I am finding that it's absolutely nothing to do with 'Oh God's not answering your prayers!"  No, He is. It's just that He sees the whole picture, the beginning from the end. His view of my life is it's entirety, not the moment that I find myself in. 
I will always have moments in my life where I don't get it, that I don't understand...and it's ok.
Because that's what faith and trust in Jesus is about.  It's believing in His promises, all of them.  Not just the ones that I know or have had shown to me.  I have much to be thankful for in that. I can't imagine a life apart from God. I am thankful that I will never know that kind of loneliness or anything that goes with it.
Jesus saved me not only from my sin but from me.  If left to my own devices, interests or thoughts, my life would be a disaster. 20 years ago I had a pistol in my lap, despair and the weight of a messed up life had crushed me.
Now many I tell that to can't believe that I ever could consider suicide. But 20 years ago I did.
You want to hear about Godly intervention? As I was about to, my phone rang. He had me answer it.  After talking to who called, I put the gun down.  I realized that God was there, talking to me.  Showing me 3 paths of how this was going to unfold. The first was to go ahead and abruptly meet Him right then and there. End it all. The second was to continue on in the misery of living life my way, never coming out of that abyss. The last was to finally and completely give my whole dirty self to Him to do something with however He saw fit.
Doesn't take much to look at my life of the last 20 years to see God's fingerprints all over my life.  I can't live this life apart from God. In reality neither can you.  I, in all my filthiest, was still His.  I had strayed so far away yet He came back for me. Picked me up, dirt and grime and all and said "I love you. You are still Mine."
God can still do the same for you today.  You don't read of condescension in the Father's voice when the Prodigal Son returned. You hear what I heard, the voice of love that never gave up.  Don't think that you have it all together and that you don't need God either.  Because you can lose it all in a heartbeat. That heartbeat you have is on loan. It's a gift every day you are alive. Nobody is guaranteed a today let alone a tomorrow.  Those people you saw in the news who are now dead thought they had a today.
I am so thankful that Jesus never gave up on me.  In a world that is spiraling down, He sustains me and lifts me up. 
Don't think you need to get yourself right before coming to Christ. He will receive you as you are. He will work at cleaning you up. That's what He does. You are never so far away that He can't find you. Never so lost that you cannot be found.  Never so loved than you are right now. At your worst He still loves you.
We are coming upon a celebration of when the world rejoices at His death, but believers in Christ celebrate what happened afterwards, when He came back from the dead. Putting an end to death and making the only way to Heaven, through faith, in Him. Don't wait. Tell Jesus you are done with running, with all the grief, sadness, loss, and all that is clinging to you. Come to Christ and find what your life was meant to be.

A Bigger Picture

A Bigger picture.
An interesting thing has happened with me some time ago. Praying for guidance and direction. Praying for God's plan and purpose for us. Praying concerning dreams since I had none for the future.  Praying about what church to attend. Praying about many things. 
While I was attempting to look closer, God said, "No. Step back." God CAN and sometimes does show us things that people won't tell us out right.  He can tell us many answers about a great many things if we but ask. He is the revealer of mysteries, the Creator of the universe can and often does show us things if we but ask. We live in a world that wants us to live in the moment. To not think of consequences. To not consider that God's plans for us DO exist. To be reading His Word to see the things that are about to take place. 
The pictures that God has shown me and the larger view that He is showing me has been incredible. His return is near. It is close. Prophecy is being fulfilled.  All the devices and distractions of Satan cannot prevent it. He always has an Antichrist ready.  The world is turning to heavily focus on the middle east. On Jerusalem, on that part of the world.  Which is what God said would happen and it is.

God's view is always bigger.