How can you tell

                                                                      How you can tell

Am I a biker? Well, I ride a motorcycle. I put a helmet on my head (because I don’t trust me). I get on it. I start it. And I can drive it down most roads with little to no difficulty. However, I don’t get into the curves too fast or ride it on dirt tracks or mountain passes. Why? Because even though I am able to ride a motorcycle when the road is smooth and straight, I am not necessarily an accomplished rider. I don’t take long trips on a bike. I do not spend much time caring for the machine other than putting gas and oil in it. I did wash it once this year. I ride a motorcycle but I am not a biker. There is a big difference between a biker and a rider.

Christianity has similar distinctives. There are a good many people today who would claim to be Christian. They attend church when they have time as long as it is not too inconvenient. They are often seen putting some small amount of money in the offering plate as it passes. In fact, many who claim to be Christian even try to do things in public that look religious. Is church attendance worship? Does giving a small amount “appease” God? Is doing good things the same as being holy?

I was at the post office this morning. A middle-aged woman driving a pickup truck pulled into the lot. After she entered the office she began to tell a story to the post master. In that story she made no attempt to refrain from the use of common vulgarities. What she did and said clearly caused me to wonder if she had ever been saved. I felt sorry for her as I wondered about her eternal state. As I passed by her truck I saw a large Bible on the dash in clear view. Was it her Bible? Did she actually claim to be born again? Later in the day I was on the computer and was directed to the page of a friend whom I am fairly certain would claim to be saved. As I read the entries posted by my friend I was actually shocked and at times appalled by what was there. Were these people Christians? Think this through carefully, were they Christians?

Believers today (those who claim to be saved) have no real sense of holiness. There is no revulsion toward sin, no actual hatred of sin. Christians today essentially sin and say, “oops” and go on with life. God calls us to a holy, sin free, life. Jesus told the woman taken in adultery (John 8:11) to “go and sin no more.” 1Peter 1:15 says, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.”  And we are warned by the Apostle Paul that if we do sin God will punish us for it if we are truly saved, Hebrews 12:5b-6, “…My son despise not the chastening of the Lord nor faint when though art rebuked of Him. (v.6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” These two passages are most enlightening. If we are not living holy lives we are living in open rebellion against God. And the evidence that we are God’s children is the chastisement (punishment) that God brings into our lives every day because of our sin. Here then is the dilemma. If we are sinning without God punishing us, are we saved? If we can live in un-holiness without guilt are we truly the children of God? It is almost like we want to be bikers without being dedicated to biking. We are trying to be Christians without allowing God into our daily lives, without allowing His Holy Spirit to reign supreme in our hearts.

We do not perform all the things that Christians are known to do in order to be saved. BUT, if we are saved and God’s Holy Spirit is living in our heart, if we have truly been born again we will naturally be living differently, II Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” 

When people see you, what do they see? Do they see someone who is living a holy life in compliance with the command of God? Are there noticeable differences between your life today and the life you lived before coming to Christ? What words come out of your mouth during a conversation? Or, what do your text messages and facebook postings reveal about the heart you said was changed by the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

Jesus left us here in this world to be ambassadors for Christ, to represent Him here. Everything we do reflects on the name of our Lord positively or negatively. We are His ambassadors. With everything we say, everything we post on these computers and every text we send we are telling a lost world something about our God.

What did you, by your actions or words, tell the world about Jesus today?

THE END IS COMING…AGAIN???

                                            THE END IS COMING…AGAIN???

You’ve heard it many times no doubt. So many people for so many years have claimed the end of the world is coming. I remember full-page advertisements in the newspapers of many major cities back in the late 70’s declaring the end of the world. Some claiming Jesus already returned and was seen in one location or another. We’re still here. And the Bible even predicted exactly that. Peter said,

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, (v.4) and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’” (II Peter 3:3-4)

To be sure that you would not believe Jesus’ return was near, Satan blinded your eyes with numerous false claims. One right after the other, until you were sick of hearing about it.

I am not saying Jesus will return by Monday morning. But he could. Look at the currency. With bitcoins and things of that nature on the market today, how far away is a universal currency? And, almost every person in the world can witness his second coming simultaneously. If not physically then by television and the internet. Christians are openly persecuted in many countries today. How long before they are silenced here and in Europe also? It is already beginning here. The cry for world unity is stronger than ever. And in essence that is not a bad idea, in and of itself. But a one-world government is essential to prophecy as well. And that government in the last days, will be severely anti-Christian and anti-Judaism. Immorality and anarchy will rule the day. Jesus said in Luke 17:26-30:

“And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (v.27) They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (v.28) Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; (v.29) but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. (v.30) Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

                 The depravity of the hearts of men in the days of Noah and Lot is praised in today’s society. In the time of Noah and Lot, the sinful activity of man was seen on the streets because it could not be hidden. How sick is the world today? It is horrifying to think what goes on with the use of computers and the internet today. Women and children being bought and sold like cattle and many of the governments of this world standing by doing nothing or even participating. Could the days of Lot and Noah be worse than what we already see today? I doubt it.

                There is, in my opinion, this one last opportunity to be redeemed, to come to Christ for salvation, before it is too late. Some, because they have heard about the rapture, have said they will wait until they see the Church (God’s people) removed and then they will believe and be saved. Please understand…that is not possible. (Message me if you don’t know what the rapture is, or have questions.)

When the rapture occurs and believers are removed from this world, ALL who remain here, will believe the narrative of the government at that time;

II Thessalonians 2:11-12; “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (v.12) that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” You will not believe, no matter how miraculous the event of our departure might be.

This may very well be your LAST opportunity for salvation. God loves you and is “…not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9b). But the choice is yours. God warns repeatedly, He cries out to be saved. But He leaves the choice to you.

The end is on the horizon, there is no doubt. Will you come to Christ today for salvation?