Are You Good Enough?

You think you are not good enough to go be forgiven by Jesus and go to heaven? You drink everyday to excess. You had an abortion. You live a life full of wickedness. You have an anger problem that causes you to hit and curse others, maybe your spouse or children. You are a criminal, or were a criminal, who committed horrendous acts of violence or acts against others.  You do illegal drugs. In general you think you are a bad person because you did or are doing something that you know is wrong against the law and morals of society. 

 

Maybe it isn’t as bad as above.  Maybe you have a gossiping problem. Your heart is bitter. You are full of hate and anger. You have mental health problems. You suffer within yourself for things you think were wrong that makes you not good enough.  Your mind tells you that you are not good enough for Christ.

 

You get the idea right? You think you aren’t good enough for Jesus. You think the things you are doing or have done exclude you from ever being a Christian.  You think you are damned by your deeds and deserve to suffer in Hell for what you have done or are doing. You are wrong. 

 

Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”  

 

Romans 8:1says there is no condemnation for those with Jesus.  No condemnation means that you are not condemned; you are not censored from the promises of Christ if you are of Him, if you believe in Him as your Lord your Savior. You can be blameless before the Lord. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus as your Lord and you are clean.

 

Isaiah 43:25: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

 

Isaiah says that Jesus, if you accept Him will blot out your transgressions, your sins, and he will not remember them at the time of judgment.  How can this be? How can your horrible sins, your life of ill living, be forgiven for all the horrible things you have done?  It is simple. We are a fallen race of human beings, destined to commit sin for sin is in us since Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden and sinned, went against what God told them not to do.  To amend this fall you just need to accept Christ.

 

Since Adam and Eve sinned, sin has been part of our nature since their fall at the beginning of creation of humans.  We cannot help but sin and we get caught up in sin. Just because you have done bad things does not exclude you from the promises of Jesus as long as you accept Him as your Savior.

 

Don’t be fooled by the Devil or the world at large. We all sin, even Christians sin. We cannot help but sin in action or thought.  We all made and make mistakes and feel bad for them. But…if you accept Christ as your Savior, those sins ARE forgiven.  No matter what you have done, how little or how great you think the sin or horrid thing you have done would exclude you from Christ, you CAN be forgiven and begin to lead a life of promise from Jesus of heaven as your final destination. 

 

John 3:16: “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.”

 

Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

Since the fall of the human race, God made a way for us to escape death and have eternal life. This life is through Christ.  God loved us so much that he sent His only Son to us in the world to walk among us and show us the love of God. Jesus had to die, and knew He would, for the sins of all humanity. 

 

He was persecuted and killed in the most horrendous way and in the process took upon Him the sins of all the world, including you, so that if you accept and believe in Jesus as your Savior you would not go to Hell but have eternal life with Jesus.  Once Jesus died, he arose from death three days later and then shortly after ascended to heaven, awaiting the predetermined time to come back to Earth to take back His children, those who believe in Jesus as their Savior.

 

When Christ died for our sins he didn’t die for just “small” sins or specific sins, he died for ALL sins. Whether you gossiped or murdered, your sin was forgiven by Jesus as long as you accept Jesus as you Savior. 

 

Do you see a theme here? I do.  The theme is that no matter what you have done or what you are doing, the forgiveness is there for you to take. You can live forever blameless before the Lord as long as you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior.  You can be set free from the bondage that is hanging over your head from what wrongs you have done, regardless of how bad you think they are; they are forgiven by accepting Christ.  Do this and you are a child of the Most High: Jesus Christ. 

 

This isn’t very hard to do. It is rather simple. You have to, in your heart of hearts, pray and ask Jesus to be your Lord and to forgive you of your sins.  You can’t just say it, you have to want it, really want it. You can’t just say this as if in casual conversation or a prayer not heartfelt.  You have to really believe that this Jesus is real, that He died for your sins, was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven awaiting us to arrive to be with Him.  You have to be ready. You have to want it like water in the desert after days without water. You have to want it more than anything else you desire right now.  It’s that easy. But for some of you this will be hard.

 

Why will it be hard? Because you are stuck in first gear of your sins. You still think, that regardless of what is said, that Jesus would not accept you. This is not true. Jesus will accept you, no matter what you have done.  You are good enough to be a child of Jesus. You are good enough to join the ranks of those who will spend eternity in heaven.  Regardless of what you think, Jesus loves you and wants you. All you have to do is accept Him.

 

The world, and I mean the world as in those things and people contradictory to God, as well as Satan, the Devil, will have you believe that your transgressions will make you ineligible to be a Christian.  The world will do it’s best to keep you in this thought and will not quit. Even when you become a Christian, the world and Satan will always fight against your heart and mind to make you think contrary to the promise of Jesus’ forgiveness of you sins.

 

Revelations 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

 

You may think you are not good enough but Jesus thinks differently. Once you accept Christ, you are saved. You salvation, being saved, means that you will be blameless at the end of the world and during judgment. Your sins will be covered, forgotten about, not seen, washed clean, and you will enter eternity with Jesus. 

 

Jesus is ready for you. He won’t ever turn His back on you if you accept Him. He is at your door, knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to open that door to Him to change your destiny, to be with Him and spend all of forever in heaven.

 

After reading this, or if you have heard about Christ before, or are thinking about becoming saved, you have a very important choice to make: to accept or deny the salvation offered through Christ Jesus.  If you don’t accept him now, you may never get the chance too. When you’re older may be too late. Next year may be too late. Next month may be too late, tomorrow may be too late. Later today may be too late.  You don’t know when you are going to die, do you? You may be in an accident that kills you on a drive today or tomorrow. You may have a heart attack or stroke that kills you. You may miss the rapture of Christians. 

 

Regardless, you still have a choice to make and you need to do this. I urge you to pray about this and open your heart to hear the voice of the Jesus. The tugging of your heart is the sound of Jesus knocking at your door.  Open that door and be with Christ.

 

Don’t be afraid of this. Your past is not important, your right now is important. Your future is what is important. No matter what you have done, no matter how bad you think you are or were no matter what you have done and think you are not good enough, you ARE GOOD ENOUGH for Jesus. You are good enough to spend eternity in heaven. You can change your destiny and spend eternity with Christ. Just pray and accept Jesus into your heart and life. This choice is life changing, not only for this time we are in the world right now, but for eternity, forever.

Make the right choice now. Accept Christ. YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!

 

 

Listening

I’m a stubborn man.  I like to do things my way and don’t like to be told what to do by others. Am I a jerk? No, I am a very likeable guy who gets along with all people and am enjoyable to be with. Well, that’s my perception at least. Yet when it comes to listening to God through the Holy Spirit, I’m not so good at that for, again, I’m stubborn in that part of my life and is a weakness I have which I’m a work in progress with Jesus.

I’ve gotten a lot better, but I still need a lot of work, some fine tuning, per say, to get me right. Will this take a long time or months, or days? I don’t know but listening to the Holy Spirit is a struggle for me because I’m not sure whether it is me talking to myself or if it is the Holy Spirit guiding me. I guess I’m just not in tune completely. Yet sometimes the Holy Spirit is very clear to me and I do listen. Right now I can think of two major examples of when the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly and I listened and everything turned out just fine. 

The first example was when I was a police officer in Las Vegas, NV.  I was married at the time to my now ex-wife. She was a preacher’s daughter from a small town where we both grew up.  Shortly after I finished my bachelor’s degree in law enforcement I tested and got hired by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department in 1997.

We packed up and moved.  Shortly after leaving a small town in Oregon to the big city life of Sin City Las Vegas, my wife fell into the Vegas lifestyle. She got into drugs, had multiple affairs and became a stripper. Needless to say, within three months of us being there the marriage fell apart and she left me and our two year old daughter. I could rarely find her and she would pop in and out every once in awhile to see our daughter. I was in the police academy when this happened. 

Shortly after graduating the academy I was assigned to the worse part of town with a training officer and worked until 1:00am four days a week. There was an incident that happened that really got to me and made me realize how dangerous police work was in that city and my mortality. 

The gist of the story was that after a shift, I and another officer in training went to a bar and grill to relax and go over our stories for the day.  Fast forward about an hour and six gangbangers came in to rob the place.  We took action and it was six against two.  We got our butts whooped and there was a gun in play by the bad guys and a car that tried to run us over.  I could have easily been shot because the guy I was wrestling with on the ground had the gun and I wasn’t armed at the time (off duty). He got away from me because two of his thug friends were kicking me and hitting me while I was wrestling with this guy on the ground.  The other group had my partner on the ground beating him pretty good. They knew we were police officers because we announced it to them. He was armed and they while they were beating him they were trying to get his gun.

We could hear sirens coming towards our direction and so the group ran to their car, tried to hit us and pulled a gun on us as they were driving by. Thankfully there were not shots fired but we were beat up pretty good. This incident made me realize that if I got more seriously injured or killed, who would take care of my child?  Her mom was nowhere to be found and we didn’t have family in town.

The next day was my day off and I couldn’t get it off my mind so I prayed and cried out loud from the bottom of my heart to God and asked what I should do. Then I was surrounded by a voice that told me to “Quit and leave Las Vegas.” I, of course being stubborn, argued with this voice and then the voice told me again, “Leave Las Vegas or you will surely die here!”  I said okay and the next day, with great angst and tears flowing down my face, I turned my badge and gun in and quit and moved back to small town Oregon again.

The only job I could find was working at Wal-Mart. I went from making about 40k a year to minimum wage.  I couldn’t afford a place so my daughter and I lived with the ex-in laws for about a year. During that year I met my current wife (married now 15 years).  I then sold insurance for a few years and then joined the Army as an officer.  During my time as an officer my daughter saw her mom sporadically for years. Then I got assigned and unaccompanied tour in South Korea.

 

While in South Korea, my ex-wife came and parentally kidnapped my daughter (she was 10 then) and the judge said that since I was out of country, they could not stop her from taking my daughter. I asked for a reassignment from the Army and thankfully through God with a slim chance of getting it, I was reassigned back to the states.  I went to where my daughter was, with the court papers in hand showing I had exclusive custody and brought here back home to Oregon where I was assigned at a recruiting battalion. 

 

Needless to say a large custody battle ensured and because her mother and her new husband had more money than me, they fought for custody until I ran out of funds and I lost custody of my daughter.  This is where God, through the Holy Spirit guided me very clearly again and I listened.

 

I was in my seventh year in the Army. I had planned to make it a career and was a captain by then, waiting for company command.  The Holy Spirit put it strongly on my heart to resign my commission and leave the Army. I asked why for I didn’t know why He wanted me to do so but this time I didn’t get an answer and without arguing I resigned my commission and was out of the army six months later.

 

I stepped out in faith that God would take care of me and He did. I was blessed with a job offer that moved me from Oregon to El Paso, TX, where I have been now for nearly seven years.  About four years later from moving to El Paso, the reason of the Holy Spirit told me to leave the army came full circle. 

 

My daughter was visiting me (she was then 14) and spilled the beans on what had been going on for the last four years while living with her mother. Long story short is that her mother and step father had taken out of school to “home school” her. She did some school work but most of her time was spent working in their illegal marijuana farm in Northern California and in a house grow operation in Las Vegas. I of course called child services and the police. They busted her mom and step father on Federal drug trafficking. They are now both convicted felons and I have had my daughter since she was 14 years old and she graduates, with honors, this summer. 

 

The point was that I didn’t know what and why the Holy Spirit moved me to resign my commission, but years later, when my daughter stayed and lived with me, I realized through retrospect and by the Holy Spirit, that was why He wanted me to quit the military and get a stable job in one location: to be there for my daughter.

 

You may be wondering why I told you these stories.  The point I want to make is that the Holy Spirit is there to guide us to our plan Jesus has for us and to guide us to make decisions that will affect us in the future.  It may be immediate or it may be years, like in my case, to discover what the intent of the Holy Spirit’s guidance is for you.  If I hadn’t listened in both above examples, I may be dead or my daughter may not have been rescued from her circumstance.  You have to be patient and sometimes not expect an answer right away, but must trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

 

The Holy Spirit is here to guide us. Small decisions, large decisions, and daily interactions with people and situations; He is there to guide us.  This lesson is for me too. If you are in tune with the Holy Spirit, He will not lead you astray for He knows what you need and what you don’t need. He knows what is best for you and will guide you to the right decision and the right things to do in your life to keep you safe, alive, and on the path to salvation. This may not be immediate, but may take time to understand why the Holy Spirit has moved you to do something.

 

The Holy Spirit has spoken to me as if He was in the room with me. He has spoken to me through putting a heavy feeling in my heart, and he speaks to me by that little voice in my head that tells me “no, that isn’t a good idea,” as well as strong feelings about things when I’m faced with a decision I am having a hard time making until I pray about it.

 

Another example is that I am ready to leave El Paso, TX and move on to progress my career. I’m content here, but my own desire has me wanting to leave to move up the ladder of career progression. Through one of my recent articles on being content, I have this strong feeling that we are to stay in El Paso for a time to be determined.  I will be content until He moves in me again.

 

I’ve applied to jobs that I am totally qualified for that are out of El Paso, but I never get an interview. With that “feeling” the Holy Spirit has given me to be content where I am, I have stopped applying for jobs outside of El Paso with the Federal Government I’m employed by.

 

Why He has not allowed me to leave, I don’t know, but I have learned that He knows what is best for me and my family and for now, I am to stay in El Paso until it is His time for me to move on, if He ever lets me and that is in the plan for me.  I don’t know Jesus’ plan for me, but it is obvious that my work in El Paso is not done yet.

 

How about you? Do you listen to the Holy Spirit? Are you stubborn about it like me? Do you choose not to listen to the Holy Spirit? I know when I don’t listen to the Holy Spirit, but do things my way, those things always fail or turn out bad.  Then I look back and tell myself that the Holy Spirit had told me not to do what I ended up doing anyway and I feel pretty bad for not listening in the first place. Then I’m stuck picking up the pieces of what I messed up on to make things right whether it is with people or situations. 

 

Listen to the Holy Spirit. He will guide you to what is right, just, and holy. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus will guide you to where He wants you to be and what He wants you to do or don’t do. 

 

Like I’m lacking, try to tune into that inner voice, the Holy Spirit that will guide you to no wrong, but only goodness and blessings. I find that when I do listen to Him, things always work out in the short run or the long run. When I do listen, I am blessed in ways that are amazing. I’m not talking about money or material things, but with life in general, relationships, and personal growth in my walk with Jesus my Lord and Savior.

 

I urge you all to tune into the Holy Spirit. It takes practice and you’ll make mistakes along the way, but the more you are in tune with the Holy Spirit, the more easily it will be to distinguish His voice and guidance.  Listen to the Holy Spirit and you will be blessed beyond your understanding and will not regret it. 

 

Psalm 25:4-5: “Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day” (KJV).

God Bless You All and may the Holy Spirit take over your lives and guide you to truth.

Are You Scared?

Are you scared right now? Something is going on in this world and it isn’t good.  Things are going bad in this world and seemingly get worse every day.  Look back ten years ago, was there as much turmoil, weather problems, violence, social debasement, or general hostility during that time? If you think about it, each year until this moment, things are getting worse by the day.

Materialism and political correctness are the name of the game now.  Conforming to the world is the mainstay for the population at large. Possessions, life, friendships, are all superficial. People are lost. They are the unsaved. They are people who don’t know about salvation. They are people who don’t know Jesus.

I have unsaved friends (working on them) who have the same feeling we saved folks have; that something is amiss, something is coming, but they don’t know what it is, to them it is a feeling of coming despair; a feeling of the unknown future and a fear of what is coming, though they do not know what that is. To the unsaved it is a feeling of an impending doom, that fear you feel when you almost rear end someone on the road, that moment you realize the car in front of you stopped and you didn’t. 

The unsaved, those that don’t know Christ Jesus as their Savior, don’t understand what is coming. They don’t understand the things happening in the world are suppose to happen this way. They don’t get that events must unfold as prophesy has announced. They don’t get that the end is near, very near. They watch the news, read the newspapers and are in awe of what is happening in this world. Some, I must say, don’t care, but those that are unsaved that I know are troubled by what is going on with our world and have a sense that something is afoot.

Their inner being is telling, no, warning them that something is going to happen, but they don’t know what to do about it. They don’t know that Jesus is the answer. They don’t understand and so they go on with life, with an inner fear, trying to distract themselves with worldly things and consumed with worldly desires and debauchery that Satan has to offer to keep them distracted from what is inevitably going to happen: The rapture of the saved; the whisking away of those who accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior who believed in his crucifixion and resurrection. 

I truly feel sorry for these people in a compassionate way. These people are not just those who don’t go to church but they are Sunday morning Christians as well.  These Sunday morning Christians are just that, they are only “Christians” on Sunday mornings, gloriously saved for the couple of hours that they are in church, then leave.  I’m not saying there are those that aren’t truly investigating the Lord and have a heart to be with Him and to be saved, but there are many who go because they feel that is enough; going to church and singing and listening to the message of the pastor is good enough to go to heaven. 

They may raise their hands during worship, may say “amen” when everyone else does, may shake hands with everyone and give great big greeting smiles, but when church is over, they go home back to their regular routine, without a thought of what was said in church or a thought about God. They just want to get home so they can watch their favorite team with a beer in their hand, go shopping at the mall, or whatever. 

What a surprise they will have when the rapture comes and they are left behind.  “Woe is me” they will think and say. They thought going to church was enough. They thought being good people was enough. What wasn’t enough was that they didn’t accept Christ, his blood, his sacrifice for their sins. 

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

How simple is John 14:6?  Jesus is the way to salvation, the way to heaven. All one has to do is accept that Jesus is their savior who forgave their sins and washes them clean of uncleanliness.  I don’t know why this is so hard for people to do. Once I figured it out, it was the easiest and best choice I ever made. 

I believe people are scared to be saved. I think people are scared because they will have to give up the worldly ways, give up their autonomy to do what they want without consequences to their conscience because once you get saved, there is a new standard to live by: that of Christ and what the bible teaches. 

These people are scared because they think they will lose their freedom. What they don’t realize is that they will be released from bondage and will be freer than they have ever been when they accept Christ.  Ask any believer this and they will tell you that with Christ they feel freer than they did before they knew Him. There is freedom in Christ, a fulfillment of love and hope. 

To those that do feel scared about accepting Christ, don’t be scared. Don’t be scared of losing your freedom, for when you accept Christ, you will lose your old self and will become a child of God, a marvelous and wonderful thing.  You will be free from the bondage of the world.

What I mean by the world is that which is not of God. The world is what is against and opposed to Christ’s teachings. The world is full of temptations, of ungodly acts, and Satan uses the worldly things, like money, sex, drugs, fads, etc. to distract you and keep you away from God.

Satan and the world are opposed to God. The world is revolved around things that are not of God and is designed to keep and distract you from God.  The world keeps you in bondage to the world. It’s like a circular pattern that never ends. You live in the world and get stuck in it, going around in circles without hope, without a way out, without God in your life. The only way to break this cycle is to become a child of God through accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. 

The world and Satan will do their best to keep you away from Christ.  The world offers all sorts of things and temptations that are so keen on keeping you away that most of the time the world is effective at doing so: it and Satan has had thousands of years of practice and refinement in their effort to sway people away from Christ.

I urge you to break that cycle by accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you are scared to do so, know that it isn’t you that is making you scared, but the world and Satan’s influence on you has planted that seed in your mind that accepting God is not fun, is not the only way to heaven, and will take away your freedom.

Accept Christ and you will be set free from the bondage of sin and death. By death I mean hell. Christ is the only door through which you can enter to heaven. Just being a good person isn’t good enough. You have to accept Christ in your heart and live for Him. Do so and you will be a changed and saved person.

You know what the world fails to do to distract you from Christ? It is your heart. If you are not of Christ, there is a sense in your heart of dissatisfaction with life, and emptiness that just can’t be filled. Just sit for a moment and think about this.  Does your heart feel empty? Does your life feel like it is lacking something? The world and Satan will have you believe you can fill that void in your heart and life through the world and not Christ by tempting you with material things, sinfulness, and other distractions that you may seek to fill that void in your heart but never will.

The one and only thing that can make your heart feel fulfilled, to take that emptiness in your heart away, is Christ. It isn’t about feeling good, but it is about fulfillment of your heart.

Even when you accept Christ, you will still face troubles of everyday life and will face challenges. The things that will be different will be your heart filled with Christ and you will be able to face those troubles and challenges with a different, godly attitude that you didn’t have before because you will know that God is with you and will support and take care of you, regardless of the situation, His love will never end for you.

Don’t be scared of Christ. Embrace Him. Turn from your old ways and become a new person with Christ as your central focus. By accepting Christ, you will not lose anything but will gain everything, specifically, a heart full of love and eternity in heaven. 

God bless all and take care.