It's up to you

It’s up to you. It’s your decision. This is a decision only you can make. No one can make it for you. No one can force it on you. This decision will turn your world upside down. It will affect your life in all aspects. The decision you have to make has consequences, eternal consequences.  This decision you must make is to accept Christ or reject Christ.

I think it’s safe to say that most people, Christian and secular, have heard all or part of 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.” “Blah, blah, blah”, and “So what” is what secular people say. Some Christians don’t understand and so are on the same level as secular people too.

What Christ did for us was from unconditional love and of innocent blood.  Raise your hand if you would be nailed and hung on a cross for the wrongs (sin) of others so that they may live.  I don’t see any hands.  That’s okay, I didn’t expect any and my hand was down too. Look at it this way, would you take the punishment of death for a murderer so that he can walk free? I assume it would be no.

See the difference here? Christ laid His life down for all of us for all the sins we did and would commit so that we may have an opportunity to spend eternity with Him if we accept Him in our heart. This is the choice we must make, to accept Him or not- it’s up to you to decide.

Let’s say that you don’t want to believe, or have faith, that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose up after three days to give us the opportunity to have eternal life with Him. That’s okay I guess, for you. It doesn’t mean your life will crumble and it doesn’t affect my faith at all. You may still be successful in life, have a great family, a big house, etc.  Your life may be one of goodness and compassion for others. You may volunteer for the needy. You may do everything right in life. Then you get old and die and your spirit is released from your body and the decision you made here on Earth while alive determines where you go.

You may believe in God, but only as a notion of something greater than the world or yourself. You may feel that by living a good life it will get you through to the pearly gates.  So when you grow old and die, you will be surprised at what your eternity will be without Christ. 

In your life, right now or in the future before you pass, it is up to you to accept or deny Christ as your Lord and Savior.  It doesn’t matter how good of a person you are, were, or will be in this life. It’s all nil and as valuable as a peso unless you have accepted Christ into your heart and life. “Whoa- wait a second”, you may ask!  “Who are you to tell me what God to worship or what it takes to go to heaven?” Because I am a Christian who knows Christ is proven as true in the Bible, knows the truth and the way to eternity in heaven because I’ve accepted Him.

I made the decision to accept Christ in my heart and life.  I was like them, those secular and unsaved people, aimlessly wondering through life. Yet, when after many times of being introduced to Christ and denying Him, I finally decided to invite Him into my life.  I want to offend you and tell you that you are stupid if you pass up this opportunity with Christ.  You have been, at some point or another, introduced to Christ or have contemplated your destiny in the afterlife of where you will go after you die- to heaven or hell.  I will offend you some more- you will go to hell without accepting Christ. I know, I know, hell sounds like a harsh word to say in the politically correct world we live in now, but it is meant to be harsh. When you think of hell, you should have horrid images and feelings of fear.  Now you don’t want that kind of eternity do you? 

Your life without Christ may seem ok or you may think it’s great but I tell you that you are wrong.  I’m betting that there is something missing in your life. It isn’t a thing, but an internal thing you are feeling inside your gut or heart.  You may have an emptiness in your heart that you think can be filled with the things of the physical world, such as money, material possessions, life style changes (bad ones), drugs, etc., that you try to do to fill that emptiness and that internal thing you feel you are missing or are empty of.

I’ll tell you this, from personal experience and from the testimonies of others, that feeling of emptiness you feel inside, that thing you feel you are missing to make you life happy and complete, that is Jesus tugging at your heart. He is knocking at the door of your soul. This is clearly stated in Revelations 3:20 from Jesus:

“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.”

Christ is ever ready to come into your heart to fill the void you have that you can’t put your finger on. He is there knocking on the door of your heart, waiting for you to answer. That feeling you have that you are missing something in your life is Jesus knocking on your heart, just waiting for you to open and invite Him in. It’s up to you though to either answer the door to let Christ in or to keep and lock that door to keep Jesus away.  You can’t deny that He is real. You can’t deny that He exists, but you can deny his presence in your life. 

I often wonder why people don’t answer that knocking door.  Jesus never gives up knocking at your door, but yet people won’t open it. I believe people are scared to because they will have to give up their worldly pleasures and will have to change their lifestyle. This is absolutely true.  When you accept Christ and begin to live your life for Him, you will change. The change isn’t bad- though secular people think it will be.  You must ask yourself that if you accept Christ into your heart and life, would He make you miserable or give you peace and joy?

Having Christ in your life isn’t a burden as you may think. It’s freedom to have Him in your heart.  Some folks still ignore the whispers and knocking from Jesus because they love themselves and the world so much that they couldn’t imagine not being able to have the so called ‘freedom’ the physical world offers them.  They put their spiritual wellbeing with Christ second to the world.  Their priorities are backwards.

This isn’t limited to secular people only. Some people that claim to be Christians still live in the world and put their faith in Christ second to the world.  Sure they go to church, but that is where it begins and ends.  The only verses they see are the ones the pastor puts up on the projection screen. Some don’t even bring Bibles with them.  These so called Christians are only Sunday morning Christians.  After church they go back to their worldly lives and don’t even crack open their Bibles during the week. They don’t pray and worship the Lord, and don’t study the word of God; they are only Christians on Sunday.

So you secular people see these Christians and wonder what the difference between them and you is- not much. I’ll tell you that being a Christian isn’t just going to church.  It’s much, much more.  When you truly accept and have Jesus in your heart, you life will change and will be turned upside down from your worldly ways. Don’t worry, this is a good flip in your life. You will be awakened spiritually. Your thoughts and actions will change, as well as your priorities.

Accepting Christ is easy, denying Him is a conscious and purposely made decision that you make.  If you deny Him, you are denying He is the author of creation. You are saying that you don’t believe in a correct path to heaven. You, most importantly, deny your heart with the fulfillment of vast love and compassion for you from Him.

With Christ, there is power in Him for your life.  By denying Him, you are refuting his omnipotence in this universe and in your existence on this Earth.  Christ’s supremacy of grace, mercy, and love for you is something that secular people fail to recognize and therefore miss out on the greatest prize one could ever get: Love and forgiveness from Christ. 

Ultimately, the decision to get saved or not is yours.  Secular people and some misdirected ‘Christians’ have a choice to make- accept or deny- it’s up to you. If you aren’t saved (secular and those that only go to church and have never accepted Christ into their lives) it’s up to you to make the decision.  You don’t know when your life will end. You don’t know when the clock will stop ticking for you, so the importance of this decision is great and needs to be made now.  It’s an eternal decision you are making so choose wisely.

I gander that the world is holding you back- I mean the physical and fallen world we live in. As a Christian, you will be living in a world that is contrary to what you believe and what you know.  Everything the world has to offer sinfully will be seen through spiritual discernment that you’ll attain and grow into after you’re saved.

If you want to go to heaven, there is a tradeoff of accepting Christ. The tradeoff is the worldly pleasures and sinful ways that you have been living for endless love. This may make your blood pressure go up a bit because right now you are imagining giving up the joys and sinful pleasures in life that aren’t in line with a Christian lifestyle. This is the decision point for you. You’re at a fork in the road. One path leads to heaven with Christ and the other leads to hell without Christ.  Use your imagination a bit to see both paths.  Which one do you want to be on?  I don’t know of anyone who wants to choose hell and I gather most rational people would rather go to heaven. 

So… what are you going to choose? Which path does your heart lead you to?  It’s up to you to make that decision, but choose wisely: Christ or hell.

Sometimes...

Sometimes do you feel like a failure or worthless in your relationship with Christ or just life in general?  Joey was one of them.  His life was that of disheartening feelings of worthlessness and failures. Regardless of what happened, things never worked to his advantage. He was always left behind on the things of life that mattered most. He barely made it through high school. He dropped out of college after the first term. His life was full of failures because each time he tried something, it never worked out for him.

Joey couldn’t find a good paying job and either got fired for some frivolous thing or quit when things were starting to go well because of fear of getting his hopes up for something he knew would fail anyway in due time. So he floated along through life.

Still living with his parents because he couldn’t afford to live on his, he saw no future for himself, just another lump on the log of life waiting to decay into dirt.  Joey had no girlfriend, never did, and had only a handful of friends.  He never did drugs, but he did drink to help him escape the day he had and to numb his mind for the next day he would just get through again.

Joey was raised in a Christian home but never connected with God and never got saved. He still went to church with his parents, one of the conditions of living with them, but he never looked forward to it.  He felt so little and unrecognized in church.  He felt that what kind of God would make him feel as he did: worthless and a failure in life? Why did nothing ever go his way? Why did he just exist with no hopes of a pleasant future? Why, he asked, did God make his life so miserable?  Anyway, long story short, he felt like a failure to his parents, himself and God. ‘Worthless Joey’ is what he felt of himself and saw himself as.

Are you this guy on some level or at this time in your life? Maybe things aren’t going your way. Maybe you feel disconnected to Christ and His love.  Do you feel worthlessness or a failure to God? In your mind you may be think “ya, I am,” but I’m here to tell you that you are not worthless and are not a failure. 

You may have failed at things in life, such as college, a good job, finances, your family, etc., but that does not translate into a failure unto Christ.  The world will try to keep you down by showing you and leading you to failure, but Christ doesn’t think you are a failure.  You are the clay He is still forming in His hands to make you the man or women he wants you to be.  Don’t get into the mind set of being a failure or worthless to Christ.

The world is pretty darn good at making us feel worthless or failures. Satan does this because he knows if he can get you down in the things of the world, he can crack your armor and make you feel worthless and a failure to God as well.  I admit that this is still a struggle for me at times.  I totally feel like a loser sometimes and feel that I have failed Christ in some way in my life.

The reason this crack in my armor happens sometimes is because I let the issue get to me and I’m sure some of you feel the same.  I let Satan’s world get me down, and it is hard to get back up at times.  When I fail, for me, it makes me feel worthless.  When I feel worthless, I don’t feel deserving of Christ’s love for me. When I don’t feel deserving of Christ’s love, it begins to create a slippery slope of not feeling connected with Him anymore. 

When I feel this way, rationally, I know it isn’t true, but emotionally, I do feel like it is.  Am I a weak Christian? I’ve asked myself this many a time.  I’m not though- Christ is my center and my rock, but the world has on occasion gotten me to think otherwise. 

You know what I do when my rational mind kicks in and over powers the irrational thoughts of worthlessness to Christ? I get my good ole Bible out and I read 1 John. For me, the Gospel of 1 John calms me down and brings me back to Christ.  May be different for you, but it works for me.

When the world gets you down, it is easy to let it spread into your spiritual life. Yet we must do our best to remember that we are not failures or worthless to God. We may sometimes feel like we are but we are not.  Sometimes things in this world don’t go the way we want them to and so we sometimes let that slip into our relationship with Christ.  We just have to do our best to remember the promises and love that Christ has for us.

1 John 3:1 says: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

Worthless? A failure? I think not.  If you are a lover of Christ, a Christian, then we are called the sons of God.  We are His children and what father would do harm to His children? None of the Christian parents I know of. So if we love our children, just think of how much more He loves us because we are His children. 

He loved us so much that He came down to us in the flesh to be the blood sacrifice for our sins so that we may be forgiven.  He spilled His blood for us. He was the lamb that has made us clean before God so that we may well know that we are His children and will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Because of this we stand apart from non-Christians. They see the world differently than we do. As Christians we must not feel worthless or like failures because we are set apart and do see the world differently than non-Christians.

When we sometimes fail or feel worthless because of the things of this world, we should fall back on Jesus to keep us strong.  We may fail in the world, but we can fight that worldly failure from creeping into our love and relationship with Christ. This is so encouraging, isn’t it! I mean, we should be stronger in our attitude towards feeling worthless or that of a failure because Christ is so good!!! What an awesome God we serve, praise, and worship!

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him,” (1 John 4:9)

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” (John 16:33)

Sometimes tribulation can also mean failures in the world that then lead to a feeling of worthlessness. We must keep this at the forefront of our minds: we may fail, we may feel worthless at times, but we have an advocate with us that can overcome those emotions and turn it around for us.  Tribulation is the opposite of peace and Christ wants us to have peace. So even if you fail in the world, you can still have peace in your heart. 

There are things that this world will do that will make it hard to get back from failures to peace. Take for example that the world temps you in one of your seemingly never ending weakness in the world. This can be the temptation to gambling your life away at the slot machines, extramarital affairs- you get what I mean- big things that happen that can lead you to guilt, feelings of worthlessness and make you feel that you are a failure as a Christian. 

You know what? God knows.  He knows your weakness and your shortcomings.  When you face these and feel like a failure in your marriage or your finances, or whatever, it will be hard to overcome these for they are tribulations of your temptations on steroids. Yet, as hard as it might be, as hard and high as the hurdle may seem, you can overcome to make it to peace in Christ. Christ’s mercy and grace, through His sacrifice for us, is something we should be thankful for, joyful of, and can drink of daily.

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong,” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

What should we do when the world makes us seem like failures or we feel worthless for our shortcomings in the world that we have to live in?  The above verse says it all. When we fail and fall into temptation, or fail in the world such as our finances or such, Christ is with us. When we get so caught up in the moment that we forget of Christ and what He teaches us and tells us about our life, He is still with us.

We are refined through the fires of troubles, tribulations, infirmities, and any other challenge we may face in life. When you are distressed because you think you failed Christ, don’t despair, but take joy in the fact that not only will you will overcome, but the test you are facing will refine you and your heart to Christ. 

Each trial we face, we have the opportunity to either be refined or feel failure or worthlessness in Christ. I’m striving for refinement.  Even though we may strive, we still sometimes fail because we are sinners in a fallen world.  We are surrounded by secular people who just don’t get it and do their best to suck us into the world as they see it. Yet we can and do overcome those trials in life that really do set us apart from others.

You ever notice the difference in trials between a Christian and a secular person?  We can go through trials and tribulations with a smile on our face, while the secular person looks at us like we are crazy because they are freaking out over the same thing.  We are the face of Christ in times of trials. We have the assurance of God’s love for us while the secular person does not and so does not understand our reaction because they don’t know Christ. This is why we must not let the failures and trials in life effect us: we are the face of Jesus to others, an example to them.

Spiritually speaking, we live in a world dominated by Satan and are strangers in the midst of chaos. Keep this on the forefront of your mind that the world and Satan want to take you away from Christ. He will do his best to persuade you to let go of Christ. He does this through a lot of means including worldly failures. He wants those worldly failures to seep into your faith.  He wants failure in the world make you feel like you are a failure to Christ.  Don’t fall into that trap.

Christ is love. He will never willingly let you go because of some perceived failure. He will draw closer to you, if you let Him, in the times of trials in your life.  He is there for you. He wants you to be close to Him.

Christ doesn’t want you to feel worthless either. In Christ you will have peace. You will have an assurance of love. You are worthy of Christ and His grace and therefore you should have no reason to feel worthless because you are precious to Christ and are His child whom He loves unconditionally.

No matter the failures you have had or the attitude of yourself that you have, it is no reason to be separated from Christ. Christ is here for us. He is here for us to lean on and to run to for comfort when we do fall and feel guilty about ourselves. His grace is enduring and His love is unfathomable.

Don’t let the world get you down. Let Christ lift you up and keep you joyful through the trials you will face. The prize at the end of every trial, every failure you have overcome, is the prize of a stronger relationship with Christ.

Turn to God for strength and assurance. For when you are assured of the love of Christ for you, you cannot feel lik3 a failure or worthless.  You will feel loved and cared because you have Christ in your heart, mind, and soul. Christ is faithful and never changing in His love for you and me. When we finish the race and are taken to heaven, the race of hills and valleys in this world will be worth it, for we will be with Him forever.

Be with us

Walk with us Jesus for we need You more than ever. Now the time is unknown of Your return, but the season is here.  We need You to help us stay strong. We need You to lean on, to help us stay strong in this season of dire times.  What You mean to us is salvation and You help us to keep this on the forefront of our hearts as we tread and trudge through each day of this vile world.  You are our keeper, our grace, and we are Your sheep that need to be watched and cared for.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward You, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give You an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

We need peace in our hearts Lord. Peace and assurance of being taken of like a newborn baby.  We need You to feed us the milk of Your wisdom and the meat of Your knowledge. We need assurance of safety in these times of turmoil.  The world is against us but You are for us: let us not forget this.  As we face adversity, shine Your light on us, show us comfort and love, and give us peace of mind and heart. 

Every day is a day closer to Your coming Christ.  We are struggling to not be shut down by the world. We are surrounded by evil and the fight is hard. Sin envelopes around us like a pack of wolves, ready to pounce and feed on our hearts.  Be with us with our battles. Be our armor. Be our sword. Be our commander.  Help us to defeat temptation and give us an escape when it is seemingly unendurable for us to survive. 

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

We need Your love oh God. We need it to survive and to prosper in Christ. We need strength and endurance to finish the race put before us in our lives. We need Your love to embolden us to resist Satan. We need Your love to share with others Your glory and Your ways.  We need Your love for we love You and our hearts need that comfort only You can give to Your chosen children.

We Christians dwell in Your love and cherish You more than anything in this world. You are above all things and are the creator of all, including us.  You know each of us. You know our thoughts, or desires, and mostly You know our hearts. May our hearts show You the love we have for You, All Mighty God. Our hearts are with You and help us to remain faithful and strong in You as the end nears.

You say that if we dwell in Your love, then You will dwell in us.  Please Lord, I pray that You stay in us. Your promises are true and Your ways are always right. This is a promise You have given us that You will dwell in us if we love You.  We believe in Your promises, all of them, and know that whatever adversity we face from the world, You will be with us in our trials and tribulations. You will help us overcome and will help us stay on the path of righteousness.

“That Christ may dwell in Your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)



You are the center of our lives Jesus. Nothing can separate us from You except ourselves.  Stay in our hearts Jesus.  Keep us strong.  Knowing that our knowledge of Your love is not comprehendible to us, gives us assurance of Your caring and want of our wellbeing and our salvation with You in Heaven. 



We have a stumbling block in us though Jesus that we need Your help with everyday of our lives: it is sin, from our sinful nature.  The world is after us, hell-bent on taking us away from You. Unfortunately, this happens. The temptations are too overwhelming for some and they don’t take the escape You provide. The fall, they fail, and they get so far from You that the world gets them to believe that they don’t need You or they are not good enough for You.



We face temptation every day. It is thrown in our faces endlessly. Temptation and sin are always around the corner and knocking on the door of our minds.  We fail for we are imperfect creatures, but give us the strength to learn from our mistakes and give us grace as we ask for it when we do sin. 

Remind us who we are on a daily basis. Remind us who we are to You and give our hearts comfort and strength to drive on. Help us to stay on the straight and narrow path leading to heaven.  Help us to not fail You, but help us to grow in our love and relationship with You as our days go on and Your reappearance draws near.  Keep us strong in You so we can overcome and resist Satan. Dwell in us Jesus. Keep us striving to keep You in our hearts every moment of the day.



“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” (Isaiah 54:10)



Continue to have mercy on those of us that love You Lord.  You are our Rock and our Steadfast Love.  You promise that Your kindness will not depart from us and You have given us a covenant of peace.  Let us be faithful in these promises. Let us place them in our heart and lock them in our minds and souls.  You are the great I Am and let us never forget this. Let us never forget Your ever and unending love for us.  Your promises You don’t break and Your love is too great for us to ever imagine.



Give us peace in this world full of those things contrary to You and the turmoil that is happening around us every minute of each day.  Let us be thankful for Your promises of peace and kindness towards us.  Keep us safe in Your hands. Be our Rock when the oceans rage. Be our shelter when as the storm around us intensifies.  We trust in You and Your promises Lord. You are our peace and strength.



“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” (Romans 12:9)



Lord, let our love for You be with genuine love, without dissimulation.  Teach us to avoid evil and to hold on to what is good in Your eyes. Some people who say they are Christians don’t have a genuine love for You. They just go through the motions. They go to church and that is it; they think it is good enough for You. 



Give those people a sense of needing more Lord. They are lost and help those of us who genuinely love You to help them find that true love for You.  Give us the strength and power to move these people. Give them the hope of a better future-a future of eternity with You.  Not everyone who thinks they are Christians are in the Book of Life, but let us add pages for You.



In the world we live in, we are surrounded by on all sides by evil. The world is pure evil and fights against us daily. We are hit on all sides by the world and Satan to break us from loving and wanting to be with You. Give us the insight to recognize evil for what it is, no matter how sneaky Satan and the world are with their temptations to us.  Help us to overcome and be our escape. If and when we do fail and give into temptation, be with us as we ask for Your forgiveness and pour out Your grace upon us.



“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” (Psalm 91: 14-16)



Lord, let us hold fast to our love for You. You are there for us and we need You more than any other time in history for time is shorter as each day passes. The world is in a mess and Your prophesies are being fulfilled in this season of eternity.  You are our hope and through Christ have covered our sins and have promised eternity with You in heaven if we believe that Christ died for our sins and offered grace to us for our sins.  We thank You for this and want nothing more than to be with You in heaven.



When we pray Lord, please heed our prayers and answer us in a way that we know it is You and You alone.  You are the light of the world and with You there is no darkness in us.  Keep us out of the shadows of the world. Keep Satan at bay in our lives and give us the power, through You, to resist Satan. 


You are our life and our hope. Keep us close to You and shepherd us to wisdom and knowledge of Your greatness and power.  Give us the strength to endure to the end and give us the hope and faith in Christ our Savior.

Overcoming Fear

What are you fearful of?  Is it that bill that you’re waiting for to come in from the mail? Maybe it is the future of your kids and their salvation or that of another family member.  What if you are fearful of the unknowns in life, such as tomorrow or next week or 10 years from now?  Are you fearful of your health, your relationships, and standing with your spouse? Are you worried about the rapture or fear that you really aren’t saved?  I could go on and on but I think you get the message: Fear can get a hold of us and hold us back and rip us apart.

Not all fear is bad though. I mean, if you are in the woods and see a bear coming towards you, I would hope most people would be scared. That kind of fear is a “fight or flight” fear which is good because it can save your life.  What I’m framing here is fear as it relates to everyday life and our relationship with Christ.

All too often we tend to get wrapped up and wound up over unnecessary fears that, in the big scheme of life, are really not too much to be fearful of.  Have you stayed up all night, lying in bed worried about tomorrow, some financial challenges, or as most parents, that first night your child has the car and is not home yet? 

When we get fearful of things, our minds seem to automatically go to the extremes of what bad things can happen.  The mind automatically switches from rational thoughts to catastrophic thoughts of what may happen.  We get worked up, stressed out, and our anxiety levels shoot through the roof, only to be finally tempered once that thing we were fearful of results in really nothing to have been scared of in the first place. 

We get a sense of relief from the fear that the medical bill’s decimal place wasn’t in the thousands, but the hundreds. We feel relief when our children come home safe and sound.  We feel the weight of the fear lift off our shoulders when we realize our fear was not necessary. Then you know what? The cycle continues and goes round and round each day, each week, until we turn into worry warts. This cycle of fear will spill over to our relationship with Christ and can disconnect us from Him.

I remember after a few months of being saved, I had this great fear that I was not saved. It was irrational, but I couldn’t get over it. I stressed a lot, I became anxious, and I feared the rapture would come the next day and I would be left behind. This kind of slippery slope of these thoughts got worse and worse and then it got in the way of my walk with Jesus to a point where I was pleading everyday for salvation.  I eventually came to my senses after the Holy Spirit assured my heart that yes, I was saved and am a child of God. 

That was a relief to have my heart and the Holy Spirit assure me that I was saved!  Yet I still get scared of everyday life occurrences and challenges. That’s why I’m writing about this. I wanted to know what the Bible said about fear and it says a lot. I figured that if I’m fearful of things, then there must be others like me and we need the assurance of the importance of not being fearful or of being a worry wart.

“So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me,” (Hebrews 13:6).

This is talking the challenges we face daily through those of the world and the world.  Those of the world and not of God will try to snare and trap us into fear.  Satan uses this tactic to get into our minds to cause us to get scared with the hope that our fear will translate to separation from Christ.

Those of us that are saved are not of this world, but you know what, we are stuck in this world until it is time to go home with Christ.  We survive each day while being surrounded by wicked men, women, temptations of sin, and the battle of our minds and hearts against Satan.  Satan and the world will throw everything at you to give you fear in your heart. 

Having fear of this world will put you down and make you no better than the world around you. We are children of God, are separated from the world and Satan in our thoughts and actions. We are set apart from the world and should not face the fear of men of this world or the world itself.

Easier said than done, right? I mean, look, we are human beings, imperfect humans that have challenges all the time that are related to this world. Are they justifiable fears? Is it okay to be scared or worried about if your bank account will be in the negative before the next paycheck or how will you pay for your kid’s college? No, you shouldn’t have these fears, but we still do and we need to remember that rationally, we should not be fearful of worldly things.

What about our loved ones, especially those that aren’t saved? We love and care for them so much that it hurts and scares us to think that they may not be saved and we won’t see them in heaven.  We fear for their salvation, their wellbeing, and their safety.  We fear for our health, especially when the doctor says he needs to run some tests and doesn’t tell you why. God does not want us to be scared of these and other things. He says in Joshua 1:19:

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”

You see that? God is with us and we don’t need to be afraid.  We can trust that He will be with us.

Even this recognizable verse should remind of us to not be fearful of anything:

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me,” (Psalms 23:4)

Christ is our comforter in times when we do get scared of the evils of this world.  Fear is a powerful force that Satan can use against us to cause us to drift from our relationship with Christ. Yet, Christ is our rock that we can trust in to sustain us through those times when we are fearful of events or spiritual battles.

“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved,” (Psalms 55:22)

When we are burdened with fear, when fear has enveloped around us like thick fog, we can trust that not only is God with us, but He will sustain us until that fog clears and we can see again. It’s like trying to see the entire forest when you are in the forest; you can’t see the big picture of things.  We tend to look at life about as far as our hand can reach out and then begin to worry about things because we can’t see the forest from the trees. 

God will not let us be moved.  If we are saved and believe in Christ and His sacrifice for us, we can trust, without fear, that we won’t be moved. We won’t be swayed by the world or the fears and worries that they want us to feel to separate us from Christ.

John 16:33 says: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Christ didn’t come here in the flesh for us to have fear, but he came here so we can have peace.

Peace is the opposite of fear and peace is something we should all strive for.  Fear causes a lot of negative thought processes but peace brings that “ahhhh” relief to our hearts from Christ that everything will be okay.  Christ will take care of us and we would be wise to remember this.  When we face fear, we should automatically turn to Christ and ask for peace and guidance. We should not let our minds drift and fantasize about all the bad things that can happen.  

Christ, in the flesh overcame the world. If He did this, as our example, then we too should strive to overcome the world as well. Again, the world is a horrid place.  Other than death or rapture, we cannot escape this world and so we must learn to live in it, yet not be of it.  Like the verse says, he didn’t come to earth to let us fear, but he came so we could have peace.  What a wonderful thing He did for us!

So some of you may say how do we overcome fear and have peace?  We have the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us comfort to face and negate the effects of fear:

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,” (John 14: 16-17)

Those in the world do not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is for those of us that ARE saved.  Notice in the verse that it says “I will pray the Father.”  Christ is asking God Himself to give us the Holy Spirit to be in and with us.  I’ve forgotten what it is like not to have the Holy Spirit in my heart.  I can only imagine those without the Holy Spirit needlessly wandering around life without God inspired direction.  They don’t have a God given gift to guide them in everyday life as we that are saved do. 

To those of the world, it is a mystery to them that the Holy Spirit is in us.  They don’t understand the importance of having the Holy Spirit to receive the guidance to lead us and keep us on the path of righteousness and peace.  A lot of people don’t care about this, and that is their choice, for they are content with the things of the world because they are of the world. Yet we know that the Comforter is in us to keep us safe, to give us guidance, and to lead us to the things Christ wants from us and what He wants us to do in this life.

Have you ever observed an unsaved person live life? They live it out of fear.  Even those that seem happy enough are fearful of life. They fear the unknown of death. They fear bad things will happen to them all the time and they live in fear because of this: they worry about everything.

They try to relieve this fear by living of the world and not of Christ.  They make a lot of money because they fear they will be poor. They fear death and live haphazardly through life with no direction, no Christ in their lives to guide them. They are in the midst of darkness and see no light except the darkness of the world that is ruled by Satan and the fear he has trapped them with.

We need not fear though because we have one thing to our advantage: Christ. With Christ on our side, what do we need to be fearful of? What thing or event can cause us to be fearful? Absolutely nothing. Does this mean we won’t face fear at times, no, but as we grow with Christ, we fear things less and less as our relationship with Christ grows and grows.

People, if you are saved and are fearful of the things in life, now is the time to give them to Christ and live a peaceful minded life. Christ will take those burdens of fear and will give you peace. This doesn’t mean life will be easy, nor will you be free of worry all the time, but strive to be at peace with your life and strive to grow in Christ.

As you tend your relationship with Christ, it will not only bloom, but will thrive like an overflowing garden.  Christ came to us and is here for us to have peace; Peace in this horrible world we live in and peace that we are saved to salvation with Him forever.  We are children of God and we live with hopeful expectation of life forever with Christ. 

Don’t let fear get in the way of your walk with Christ. Gain strength in Christ to overcome fear and defeat the world and Satan as they try to steer you away from Him. When you overcome fear and gain peace in its place, you grow stronger and are better able to face the tribulations of life that would cause great fear to the unsaved. Trust in Christ.

I am yours

“We love him, because he first loved us,” (1 John 4:19).

What a simple but beautiful verse.  I love its simplicity and it is so deep on so many levels.  His deep love for us is a wonderful thing. I ponder the bible and the stories of Him, the teachings He gave us, and the love He gave us through his sacrifice.  How can we not love Him for all He did and all He gave for us?  This verse makes my heart swell up and makes me proclaim: “Yes, I am yours!”

The love for Christ is so much deeper than the love for anyone else. He is our Savior, our first love.  No person, wife, child, friend, or family member should be before our love for Christ. The love for Christ is on a whole different level than the love for our friends and family.  Spiritually, He is our first love and for me at least, my only true love and I can’t wait until I meet Him in heaven. 

Love for Christ is an inward and everlasting testament to our hearts and souls that we are His. He is the Almighty and Great I Am that makes us His forever and ever.  I’m trying to put into words the feelings of love I have for Christ, but I can’t find words. Words are not enough to express the complete and overwhelming love for Christ that I have in my heart.

I feel so much joy and happiness knowing that I am His and He is with me. The thought of not me being His is a scary thought and knowing that I missed out on Him for over 30 years is time lost that I can never recover pains me greatly. I’m doing my best to make up for time lost. 

“Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him,” (John 14:23).

When you love someone, like your spouse, you will want to take care of the relationship and grow it and let it bloom ever day.  You want to support your spouse and will care for them day in and day out. You don’t one day love you spouse and then the next day not. It is a constant and evolving love together.  This is the same with Christ.  When we love Him we are in a mutual relationship with Him. Our relationship, together, will grow and grow until it finally blooms into that deep love of Christ he wants from us and we with Him.

If we love Him, we will want to keep His words.  We will want to please Him and it turns into a loving cycle of love of us loving Him and Him loving us. His love for us is greater than we could ever imagine.  What Christ wants from us is love towards Him, an everlasting love like He has towards us.  He is waiting for you to reach out to Him and grab hold of Him like a grandmother hold’s her grandchild: with warmth, caring, and tender unending love. 

Also notice what this verse says? It is talking about being home in heaven. Can you just imagine the love we will feel in heaven? I imagine it is so much more than we can comprehend.  We will be surrounded everywhere and everyway with love. It’s hard to comprehend this kind of love for the world we live in is so horrible, but we will get to know that love. 

 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” (Revelation 22:17).

When you are Christ’s and you hear him beckon you and you thirst for His love more and more, you are freely allowed to get as much of Christ as you can get.  Our life should be all for Him for we are His. This comes at a small price: that we surrender ourselves to Him. We must lift Him up in our daily lives, everyday, every moment we live. We must always be thirsty for Him and His love for us. We must lift our hearts to Him and give all of ourselves to Him.  His love is there for us to partake in, we just need to give ourselves to Him.

Open your heart to Him and He won’t fail you. Open your heart to Him and you won’t fail Him. You will be His and He will be yours.  Believe this my friends. Christ won’t ever fail you nor abandon you. Even in the moments of silence, when you may think you are alone, you are not. What you don’t see is Christ working in the background of your life and heart, working and shaping you into the child He needs and wants you to be.  He is always there is never takes a break in taking care of you. 

With trust in Christ, His love will always find a way for us to overcome what we are going through. We are not alone. We are cared for more than we can imagine. And if we are cared for this much, how can we not trust the God of the universe to take care of us, even in trying times, He is there for us. He is never on break, never sleeps, but is always working in your heart to bring us closer to Him.

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked,” (1 John 2:6)

Did you ever consider Christ as your mentor? He is.  He is the image we should strive for in our lives. When we look into the mirror, we should see Him in us.  We are His children and are saved and set free from this sinful world. Because of this, we need to emulate what He did. What did He do? He loved.  He loved so much for all people. We too need to have that love in our hearts as Christ did as well.

We are free to do what we will, but if we have Christ in our hearts, then we should walk as he walked and love as he loved. As followers of Christ we are charged with this. We are charged to love our neighbors as Christ told us to do. 

I don’t recall in the bible anytime Christ turned someone away or turned His back on them. He did this because He loved. If we are His, we should do this too.  Let Christ lead you to do as He did.  Christ doesn’t want us to be closet Christians but wants us to be proud and loud about our faith in Him. He is the light of the world and we need to emulate this with all we come into contact with.

We do this by love and a loving attitude. You can’t be in a sour attitude and love at the same time.  The two can’t fit into the same space. You can either have love in the space or no love in the space. We sometimes take love out of the space and replace it with anger, pride, hate, disdain, etc. Instead push those thoughts and feelings out of that space in your heart and let your love shine. Let your light be blinding to others, regardless of what the situation is. 

“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God,” (Ephesians 3:19).

We can’t comprehend the love of Christ for us but we can be filled with the fullness of His love.  Remember God is love and it is never ending.  He created us and gave us the opportunity to choose between Him and the world: of accepting Christ as our savior or to choose Satan.  When we are full of God, Satan can’t touch us.  If we let Satan touch us, it was because we let our guard down and let him in.  God will never tempt you.  You tempt yourselves when you lose focus on your true love: Christ.

I want so bad to know the full love that Christ has for me. This verse says it is beyond my comprehension. So when I imagine it, it is many, many times more than I could even fathom.  I just can’t wait to feel that love and know it in my heart. What an awesome thing this will be when it finally happens.

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” (1 John 4:16).

To lukewarm Christians and the unsaved, you truly are missing out on this great thing: having God in you.  Once you get saved, you are in God’s love. But you just can’t get saved and then stay in first gear, you have to speed up and keep moving forward.  Don’t sit on the fence of salvation. Salvation is freely given, you just have to ask for it. 

For the lukewarm Christians out there, do something for God, for love. What has God put on your heart to do for Him to further His kingdom? I’m pretty sure that it isn’t just going to church on Sunday’s or just Christmas and Easter. You have to work for Jesus, not to earn your way into heaven for dead works will get you now where with Him.

God has a plan for each and every one of us. Mine is writing and sharing.  Yours is what God had put on your heart. For me, it was put on my heart to write for Christ. He wants me to encourage and help through words.  I never thought that I would be doing this all the time now.  The first time I wrote, it was put on my heart and I ignored it for a long time thinking I wasn’t good enough to write for Him.  Then one night, I couldn’t go to sleep but had this urge to write. I tossed and turned in bed then I had a strong feeling to get up to the computer. I did and words just flowed out of my fingers.  I haven’t looked back since, but instead look forward to the next thing God inspires me to write. 

What is tugging at your heart to do for God? What have you been doing to help His kingdom?  I’ll tell you again, it’s not going to church only.  Again, God has a plan for you. You probably know what it is too, but have either resisted or ignored it like I did for sometime. Let go and follow your heart. Follow your heart for what God wants you to do for Him. Get on fire for Him in the talents and gifts He has given you.

When you do the works God wants you to do, you will truly understand what working for Him is. It is joy. It is fun. It is worthwhile.  Don’t do what you think you should do but do what God wants you to do. Step out in faith and follow your heart of which the Holy Spirit will lead you to do for God.

Just remember that whatever it is God wants you to do, do it with love and He will be with you as you learn and endeavor through your path He has drawn for you in your life. Start today, not tomorrow.  Don’t say I’ll start on Monday, but start now. 

For the unsaved, God has a plan for you too. To get to open that door, you must choose Christ as your Lord and Savior.  You must believe in Him in your heart of hearts. You choose Christ, you just got a golden ticket into heaven instead of hell.  The choice is yours to make and it is an eternal choice of where your soul will go.  The easy choice my friends is Christ. Get yourself saved, and proclaim to him “I am yours!” 

May peace and the love of Christ be with you all.

John_lysaught@yahoo.com