My Mighty Rock

“In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah” (Psalm 62:7-8).

In salvation I find comfort and love from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the rock I lean on in times of trouble and glorify in times of joy. He is my refuge and my strength, which I pour out my heart in earnest desire to feel His presence and to hear His voice through the Holy Spirit in times of trouble.

I totally and honestly love the Lord with all my heart. I feel guilty though, a lot, for the sins I continue to do, even though I don’t want to do them, just as the apostle Paul said in Romans 7:15-18:

“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

I am by far not a perfect man. I make mistakes every day in thoughts, words and actions the moment I do, I regret it, knowing it was sin in me that took over for that one moment leading me to say, think or do something I knew I shouldn’t have, and I feel like I disappointed the Lord. 

Yet I know that God is my salvation and my rock. He is quick to forgive and is steadfast in His love for me, and for you. He loved us so much that He sent His only son down to earth to live with us and teach us of God’s love and then His son, Jesus, died for our sins.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

What strength and love that is from God, to give His only Son to us, to make a way for us to be connected to God through Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself to forgive our sins? It shows He is a great and loving God. By Jesus’ sacrifice, He made a way, a path for us by grace to have a relationship with Him for everlasting life—as long as we believe, truly believe, that He died and rose from the grave three days later to defeat death and offer us eternity through Him.

Because of His sacrifice, because God loved us so much, I know that He is the rock of my strength, the sturdy hand I can hold to get through each day, each week, and each hour. Without His strength I am just a feather in the wind, letting the wind take me this way and that way with no set destination, just floating through life without direction.

God is the God and ruler of the universe and yet he cares for me, and for you. Each one of us is important to Him. We are the “apple of His eye” in the entire universe, made in the likeness of Him for His pleasure to watch us grow with Him, live for Him and rely on Him to take care of us—to be our refuge in times of trouble and pain, and to share our successes.

Have you ever been in that position? Ever been in so much pain—emotional, physical, etc., that all you could do was cry out to the Lord? Even non-believers cry out to God when in times of trouble, but often they don’t cry for refuge, they cry out of anger thinking that God is the cause of their troubles, when in fact—God can be the refuge for their troubles. God is there to comfort us, to love us, and protect our souls from the troubles of life. All you have to do is believe in Him, that He is real, and that He cares for you unconditionally.

We are not ants that God enjoys stomping on or toying with for His pleasure. Through His grace and power He has breathed life into us by giving us souls with consciousness and morality. God’s signature is written on all our hearts. Whether a believer or not, we all have an inherent knowledge of right or wrong. 

Once you find God, once He becomes your mighty rock to hold on to and to stand with, do you find that you are more than flesh and bones with only a knowledge of right or wrong? You become a changed person trusting in the Lord to be there for you in those times of trouble when you can’t bear it on your own.

Once we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and pour our hearts out to Him and ask forgiveness of our sins we become true children of God. He becomes our strength and our rock that we can lean on, cling to, in this world we call earth and all the troubles that come with living in this fallen world. 

Each one of us faces troubles, some more often than others. We are persecuted in our own ways. People are harsh to us, take advantage of us, do their best to hurt us both emotionally and sometimes, physically. Some people have grown up in abusive homes, some in loving homes. Some people learned that life is about taking care of number one (themselves) and others learned that life is full of opportunities to excel and succeed to gain a name for themselves and to gain as much as they can (such as material goods).

And yes, some people grew up knowing God from an early age. Regardless of your background, regardless of how good or bad your life is, we all face troubles and seek ways to relieve our troubles.

Some people relieve their troubles through revenge. Some find refuge in drugs and alcohol. Some find refuge in sexual escapades. Some find relief and refuge in their careers; the list can go on and on. I propose though, and many have found, that true refuge comes from the strength and grace found in Jesus Christ yes, Jesus Christ.

We can’t see Him, we can’t touch Him, but if you know Him in your heart, you know He is real. He is the rock we can hold on to when we are sinking in the quicksand of life, when we have nowhere else to turn, we can turn to Him. He is there to lift us up, to give us refuge from life’s troubles. Will He solve all your problems? Will He take revenge for you against those that did you wrong? No, but He is there to comfort us and wrap us up with His love to give us assurance that we are being taken care of.

If you have Jesus and take refuge in Him, you see situations differently. Your refuge won’t be the same as it used to be. You can find comfort and joy in the Lord. You find forgiveness to others. You learn to love others, regardless of problems with them. You will look at your troubles and will take refuge in Jesus over all the other ways you tried before.

Again, all your problems won’t be solved, but your attitude toward them will be. By having God as your rock, refuge, and strength, you will have the means to face troubles knowing that God will not forsake you nor abandon you. As Hebrews 12:11 says:

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

We can take comfort that our troubles are temporary and occur to bring us closer to Jesus and to help us gain strength in our relationship with Him.

There is a lesson to be learned here. The lesson is if we did not have troubles, if we did not have hard times, if bad things didn’t happen to us, then we wouldn’t need to seek the Lord. Does God throw glass on the floor while you are barefooted just so you will seek Him to avoid the glass?

No. We live in a fallen world full of sin and bad people who are evil and do evil things; people who don’t know our loving Father. But God is there, always, for us to seek the refuge of his protection of our souls and the comfort we need to get through the tough times that life and the world throw at us.

I didn’t believe in Jesus for the first thirty or so years of my life. I believed in a higher power and had my own ideas of what heaven was and how to get there. I also believed that God liked to mess with me by throwing obstacles in my way in life: a bill I couldn’t pay, a person whom I hated, poor health, and a job I despised. 

I found refuge and relief in everything but God. I felt that God was pushing me away from Him, that He didn’t want me; that I was so bad He couldn’t love me. What I now know was that God was trying to get my attention through the troubles of my life. He was always there for me, trying to draw me to Him, but I didn’t seek Him. I was relying on myself to solve my problems while God was waiting for me to only just turn to Him and seek Him for strength and refuge from my troubles.

For thirty-plus years, Satan did a good job of keeping me from my Lord and Savior. Grace, I didn’t even know what grace is. I thought it was just a name like my grandmother’s name: Grace. Through great prayer from my family and through the urging of my wife to go to church with her, I began to recognize that God was not who I thought He was.

My heart began to soften and instead of daydreaming at church, I actually began to listen to what the story of salvation is. God began to break through my heart because I changed my attitude from hostility toward God, to wanting to learn more about this God. The God being preached about who is caring, loving, strengthening and, what hit home for me—is that He is a refuge for troubles. 

I learned that God was the missing link in my life that I needed to get through my troubles. I realized that through Him, through Jesus Christ, I could find strength and refuge in Him for my troubles. I began to turn to God for strength and comfort. I began to want God in earnest and I got saved and the Holy Spirit became part of my being. 

Prior to being saved, I was mostly angry at God for all my health problems. I hated Him for allowing me to have so much trouble with my health, all the ailments I had, all the medicine I was taking, and all the side effects from them: I just despised Him. Then after I was saved, I found that even though I have all these health problems, I could find strength and comfort in God. He became my refuge and strength. And when my health began to get worse, I found comfort in Him and strength in Him to endure.

I found that through my troubles, not only my health troubles, but all sorts of trouble, I could rely on Jesus to be my rock, my strength, and my refuge to seek when I feel overwhelmed by life’s troubles. I found that with my heart changed by accepting Jesus, my troubles did the opposite of what they used to do; instead of pushing me away from God, they brought me closer to God. With Jesus as my strength and refuge, I found in times of trouble, my relationship with Jesus is strengthened, not diminished. Glory to God for this!

For those who are not saved, if you don’t know Jesus, you face the same troubles as the rest of those who are saved and know and have Jesus in their hearts and lives. Troubles will always be there. No matter what you do, don’t do, avoid, or don’t avoid, troubles are always around the corner because we live in a fallen world full of horrible things and people.

Having Jesus in your life as your strength and refuge will change how you look at troubles. You will no longer fear the bad times. You won’t be moved by what wrenches life and the world will through into the gears of your life. Jesus will be there for you, to comfort you and to help you through those rough patches you are going through. 

The Holy Spirit will be there to help you work through the tough times. The Holy Spirit will give you the guidance you need, as long as you listen, to get through tough times, troubles, and every other problem thrown your way. All you need to do is accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you will attain what a lot of people don’t have: Assurance, refuge, and strength in Christ.

Time is short here on earth. You don’t have much time left to make your choice. If you need motivation to come to Jesus, let your life’s troubles lead you to the cross, to Jesus. Let your guard down, as I did, and be receptive to the words of God and the grace bestowed upon you by the sacrifice Jesus made for you to wash your sins clean. 

It took trouble in my life to lead me to Jesus, and I fought and screamed the whole way there. Yet when I finally listened, really listened and took to heart the words I heard about Jesus and the promises He had for me, I was a changed man. I accepted the Lord and have not looked back since. I find His presence comforting, loving, and my soul is happy in the good times and yes, even in the bad times.

This is your time to accept the Lord. Whether you want help with your life’s troubles, you feel emptiness in your heart, or you want to see heaven, Jesus is the way to meet those needs and more.

“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Only by accepting Christ as your savior can you attain the life God has planned for you for His good pleasure and yours. 

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14: 6).

God is the mighty rock we can hold on to. Through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, you can be assured that whatever you may face in this life, Christ will be there to comfort you and the Holy Spirit will be there to guide you through the tough times in life, the troubles you face, and the adversaries you will meet along the way on the path to heaven.

Trust in God to guide you. Let Him be your mighty rock to stand on to face life with the confidence and assurance of Christ in you and assurance of eternity with Him in heaven.

With all blessings and love,

All quoted Scripture is from the King James Version of the Bible

Debauchery

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Timothy 3: 1-5, NIV)

 

This verse seems to reflect the world today. It’s like summing up the daily news or what is on TV or what you hear on the radio, or what is going on in people’s homes and lives.  It is really sad though that this is happening here in the last days.  It saddens me that this is happening and it is happening in our churches too.  You can’t seem to go anywhere, even in churches, where this debauchery is occurring. It is horrible that we live in such times, yet here we are, living in the middle of the fire, trying our best to be clean and blameless before the Lord. If you are of the Lord!

 

Does this verse sound like you? Read it again. If it does then you are in a world of hurt with the Lord. You’re mad at me for calling you out? Good, because you need to be awakened to your shortfalls with the Lord. If you proclaim you are a Christian and are described above, you need to reconsider your standing with Jesus.

 

In church a recent Sunday, the pastor was talking about fruitfulness. He asked the congregation what they thought fruitfulness meant.  Some said that fruitfulness meant personal wealth. What? Did I hear that correctly? Fruitfulness meant getting personal wealth? Then another said having a good life and material things like a nice house or car. What? What is with these people? These came from a people who have attended this church for years and they spilled out this junk of what fruitfulness is and say that they are Christians! Unbelievable! Fruitfulness is not a good life or material things it is different from that as the two verses below give examples of what fruitfulness is:

 

“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1, KJV).

 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galations, 5: 22-23, KJV).

 

Then there are those who live wild lives Monday through Saturday night (or the early mornings of Sunday) and come to church smelling of alcohol or look strung out on something. They are lovers of themselves and selfish for partying and living it up during the week, only to come to church to “proclaim” their love for Jesus. Hypocrites! This just makes me upset.  I mean I’m not perfect in any way and am a sinner and make mistakes like the rest of us but I don’t live my life as described above in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5.

 

Then there are those who are boastful of themselves. They talk about the things they have, things they do, what good Christians they are, and how perfect and blameless they are.  But you know what, I see them outside of church and they are by no means acting like Christians. They party, they gossip, and they curse out people; they live out parts of the verse 2 Timothy above. What is this world coming to when professing Christians act this way? It upsets me and frustrates me because the world sees these people and assume that this is what being a Christian is like. They think they can have all the worldly pleasures and still find their way to heaven because of the example some of these so called Christians portray.

 

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (Titus, 1: 15-16, NIV).

 

These people are corrupted. For some reason I don’t think they are really saved and walk with Jesus. As this verse says they say they know Jesus but their actions don’t show it.  Really, they are worldly people pretending, or believing by delusions, that they are Christians. Just because you go to church and be nice to people or smile and shake hands there doesn’t make you a Christian. They may say they believe in God and Jesus and they are saved, but their actions and demeanors outside of church say otherwise.

 

These people are corrupted. If they truly accepted Jesus in their heart they would be different and act differently. Jesus doesn’t say its okay to go party Friday night and then get right with Him on Sunday at church, every week. He doesn’t tell you to go make as much money as you can or buy all the material things you can’t afford. He just wants your heart and when you get Him in your heart, you change. You become a new creature. Without Him, with pretending to be with Him, you are still and old creature of the world and live in and of the world.

 

But people are deceived, both in and out of the church. Maybe it’s our society, maybe it’s their misinterpretation of the bible, but I know it is of satan. He has slipped into these people’s lives and they have fell for his lies of what being a Christian is about. He has them believing things like fruitfulness is about money and good lives, and people believe it. They think to have Jesus is to get a better life and to have better things. That is not what Jesus is about; Jesus is about love and having love in your heart. Am I wrong?

 

Being a “Christian” while living in the world is the best of both worlds, as these people probably think. They can have it both ways: Get the fun and good things of life like wealth and partying, or living unholy lives and have Jesus at the same time. They are wrong; You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Living for Jesus does not include living in the world. It means delving yourself into Jesus and His desires for you and having Him in your heart to live the life He wants you to. Jesus doesn’t want us to pursue the worldly things of this world, but to be content and thankful for what we have with a humble heart and to follow Him and to strive for Him in our walk in salvation.

 

“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10 NIV).

 

We who love God and follow Jesus do labor and strive to live the way He wants us to and to follow Him in our walk through this life with Him. We have the hope of eternity, the hope of everlasting life with Jesus. We believe in His word and do our best to live out His will for us; not to do what we want, but to do His will for us. This is what we strive for and have hope and labor for: Jesus in our heart and heaven with Him forever.

 

There are those who don’t get this. They may know it and believe it, but they ain’t living it. They go about their lives thinking they have Jesus when in fact they have nothing of the sort. They are either ignorant of that fact or are deceived by satan that how they live is their path to heaven. I say they are both. They are ignorant to the truth because satan has been able to deceive them to believe a different truth than the real truth.  Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Some people are blind to this and I feel sorry for them that they think they on the right path, but they took the wrong exit somewhere along the way.

 

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1: 5-7, NIV).

 

There are people (including so called Christians) who walk in darkness and don’t know it; I don’t know what light they think they are walking in. They go day to day living life thinking they are in the light but they aren’t. As explained above, I don’t have to revisit the reasons other than they have been deceived to think that the darkness they live in is the light and the light of God is something they only have to live on Sunday mornings.  They don’t live out the truth that Jesus is the light and that is sad to me. It grieves me to think of all the people that will stand at the judgment seat and be told that God didn’t know them.

 

Is there hope for these people, both in and out of the church? Yes, and that hope is Jesus. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6, KJV). I think it is easier for new believers to realize this than it is for those who have been in the church for a long time and are deceived by satan by their actions that contradict how they are living their lives and how they have probably never lived by this simple promise.

 

If people would live by this verse, and are truly saved, they would not be living out the actions in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 (top of page). They would be living for Jesus; Their actions and demeanors would reflect the love and the guidance Jesus has for us as given through the Holy Spirit and in the Bible.  I believe this to be true and I am reminded everyday by this verse that I’m to live for Jesus and be a reflection of His love for others to see.

 

If you are not living a good solid Christian life, now is the time to get back on track. We all make mistakes and we are all sinners, but we must strive to live out and reflect the love of Christ for ourselves, our families and others.  Pray and pray and pray for Jesus to be in your heart and your life. Turn from your old ways of living the worldly life and turn to the life Jesus wants for you; Freedom for the evils of this world and the ways of the worldly life we are stuck in the middle of.

 

Is this hard for some people? Yes, it is hard for all of us because we are surrounded by the enemy on all fronts, but with the armor of God, we can overcome this world and wily tricks of the devil. Will we stumble on our walk with Jesus? Yes, but he will be there to take our hand, lift us up, and put us back on His path for us as long as we trust in Him and live for Him.

 

If you’re reading this and are not saved, or want to be saved from eternal damnation, please pray to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and ask Jesus into your heart. Dust off that bible and delve into His word and pray often, everyday, for guidance from the Holy Spirit and live your life for Jesus.

 

If you do this, you will become a new creature of God and will be part of His eternal family in heaven.  You will change, no doubt, and will begin to change from the inside out. Your heart will change and you will begin to look at your life and the world differently. You will want to turn from your old ways and turn to the ways of the Lord. Are you scared of this? Don’t be. It is a great adventure and a decision you won’t regret. Having Jesus in your heart will give you an unspeakable joy and you will have a better outlook on life and your eternal destination once you pass from this world.

 

Don’t want Jesus? That is your choice, but you will be missing out on a life full of joy and contentment, and most importantly, you will miss out on heaven. Make the right choice; make the choice of letting Jesus in your heart and let Him rule your life and overtake you with His love and compassion. You won’t be disappointed.

 

God bless you.