God Makes Us Strong

 To Christians and non-Christians, the end of time or living in the last days can be quite a scary way of thinking or living. If we are not strong in our faith, or if we are don't put our trust in Jesus like we should, we can be frightened as we look around and watch as the world is falling apart. 

The following passage of the Bible shows a picture of what end times will look like:

 3But know this, that in the last days [a]perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [b]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. 2 Timothy 3:3-9

Sound familiar?  Its a warning to us of what to come. And as we know, it is already happening. And if we just dwell upon what the Bible says about the terrible things that will happen, we can become worried. But wait, there is more bad news:

12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 

We are sure seeing this in the world. But friends, it is not just outside of the church, but in the church as well. Satan is infiltrating even the churches that teach a little of the Bible because he wants to take as many people as he can to hell with him. He has cleverly tip toed in and through supposedly Christian pastors, people are being taught other gospels that DO NOT INCLUDE the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And some that do teach that, are teaching a very distorted doctrine of Jesus. Evil men (and women too) and imposters will grow worse and worse.... you Batcha.

Scary, frighting, worrisome? Yes!!! And so what are we to do? Well, that passages offers hope to those that love God and want to spend eternity with Him:

. 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

 And here is more hope that we can cling to during these times:

“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

God doesn't want us to live in fear. And even if man kills our body, he cannot kill our spirit. I believe it was John Mcarther who once said, "The only thing the devil can do to a Christian is to deliver them to Jesus." It was something like that. But its true. Satan can take us from this life. But if we are God's child, he cannot take us to hell.

So, as we watch what is happening in the world, we must diligently seek God and trust that He will take care of us. Because He is our only hope! And it is in our weakness we are made strong with His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9-11)

Thanks for coming by, friends. Have a blessed day and rejoice that our God is good!

End Times: Signs

Signs of the Times

 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers' places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Mathew 24:5-7

The disciples had asked Jesus what signs they should look for that would mean the approach of end times. He laid it out to them very simply in the passage above. Practically since the beginning of time we have had wars. And there have kingdoms fighting each other, famines and earthquakes. And seemingly on the rise in past few years has been more and more false prophets that have cleverly disguised themselves as Christians to deceive many people. Some say they even are God. You don't have to look far to find them. They are all over YouTube. One popular so-called preacher said in one of his sermons; "If you want to see God, look at me." His name is Jesse Duplantis, and he claims he has daily talks with Jesus who asks for his advice. He has made millions from his congregations and lives in a lifestyle that most of those people give because they don't see anything but that he is bringing them the gospel of Christ. Which he doesn't. He brings them the gospel of himself. 

Of course, there are many more of these people that are out to get every cent that they can out of the pockets of not only well to do, but the poor as well. They don't care if poor people give their last dime, as they preach the more you give, the more God blesses people when they give to their ministries. But what does the people giving get in return? A very very water down version of the gospel and lies from the devil.

Jesus warned about these people, and we must take heed because if we follow them, it is our very salvation that is at stake. 

Thanks for coming by friends. I apologize for not being here for the past few days. I will probably not be here tomorrow, but you may check if you wish, because it depends on some things going on in my life that may have to be taken care of. 

In the meantime, God bless you and yours

 Mathew 24:25.

How telling is that? You don't have to look very far to find 

Thanksgiving and Gratefulness

If I were to ask you what you are grateful for, I have no doubt you could name those things in your life that are blessings in your life. Those things that God has given or done for you. But did you know that there are benefits to be grateful as well? But first, what is the definition of the word grateful, anyway.

grateful: feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness.

So, what are the benefits of being grateful? Here are a few of them. (see 

5 Benefits of Being Thankful - First Things First for more info)

1. It can relief stress

2. It can make you feel more positive

3.It can strengthen your relationships.

4. It can make you healthier.

5. It can reduce your risk of depression

And let's also see what God says about being grateful as well:

According to the Bible, God considers it unjust to show a lack of gratitude

 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved 2 Corinthians 2:15

 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Colossians 3:15

And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. Leviticus 22:29

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Psalms 103:2

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, Psalms 107:8

💖💖💖

God's word speaks quite a lot about being thankful and grateful to He who is the Father of Lights, comes down from the heavens to give good gifts and does not change. James 1:17

This week being the week of Thanksgiving, we should be thankful for all things our Heavenley Father has given to us. But it does not end with just that day. We should be grateful to Him every day!

Thanks for coming by today. I am grateful for you that have stuck with this site even when I have not and could not be here to post! You are just one of the many important gifts that God has given me! 

I Wonder Why....

 I wonder why God has me here and alive on this earth at this end time when Bible prophecy is taking place right before my eyes? I wonder why He doesn't just take us out of here.?  I wonder why we have to keep enduing this craziness.

 Many years ago, as I was growing up, my father thought he would be alive when Jesus comes back. But alas, he passed away in 2005 at the age of 83. 

And here I am. Instead of him watching and waiting on Jesus, here I am.

And so, I ask myself, why am I here while the world is off kilter, and I am supposed to "occupy until Jesus returns to the earth."?  Luke 19:13 

Actually, that scripture in Luke 19 is a parable that Jesus taught which means we should, be active and faithful in the work of the Lord until he comes back for us. And surely that applies to us today, that is, those of us that are watching for His coming and long for what He has promised us.  

But still. I have things going on in my little part of the world that have not been pleasant. Dealing with a teenage girl who is a member of my family that has gotten into drugs and causing trouble. Some of you may know what that is all about. I can honestly say the only time I ever had this kind of problem was many years ago when my husband was an alcoholic. Thankfully he did get saved after 15 years of marriage, and God redeemed him. 

But he had a lot to lose. A wife and four kids and he had experience to back him up that told him what he was doing was not a good choice.

This teenage girl doesn't have years of experience to know that yet. She wants what she wants and doesn't think getting addicted to drugs applies to her because she is too smart for that. And yet, she does not see what we see and what we see in her are not good choices.

So ok. Now you know what I and other family members are dealing with in our corner of God's world and does that apply to what is happening in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip?

So do I need to fear the awful things going on? Whether in government, the world and in my own neighborhood?

And I wonder, how am I to do that without being fearful?

Jesus told us to occupy until he comes. I believe that means that no matter what is going on around us or where the noise is coming from, we are to do just that. Even during these end times

In my case as well as other family members, we do have to carry on in his work to be ready for His coming. We don't just stop working. We don't just stop trying. We just don't stop praying. I did not ask God for what he has me in dealing with a entitled teenager. I took her in on an entirely different situation. Getting into drugs have been more current. Never-the-less, God allowed her to be here to try to help give her a family that loves her and one which she did not have before we met her. But the battles with her have been hard the last few months. And only God knows where this will end. 

Time for all humanity here on earth is short. We must do what we can to lead those that do not know Jesus to offer them a hope that will not lead them to where they may otherwise spend in eternity. 

Occupy until He comes again. Do his work faithfully until then. Wherever we are, and whatever is going on cannot not stop us or should not stop us because there are too many lives at stake. The eternal things, the things not of this world, they are what hangs in the balance. 

Due to the fact that Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I will post tomorrow but it will be something that has to do with Thanksgiving.  Then on Friday or Saturday, I will be back on the subject I started today. And it will be more about what Jesus told us about his second appearing, and what is going on in the middle east that has many people around the world, not only concerned but looking for Jesus coming back. 

Thanks for coming around today. 

Until next time, may God the Father bless you as He wills and give you peace.

Jesus Paid It In Full

 The year was sometime in the early 1980s A family struggling to just get through another week let alone buy Christmas gifts for their children. Christmas was sure to be a letdown for the kids this year. And they would be greatly disappointed. Their parents had just $25 to spend that Christmas. Even in that year, it would not buy much. Fortunately, the 2 youngest boys were small enough to not know. But the two older would.

One evening a strange car pulled up into the drive. And two people got out and came to the door. It was the Salvation Army bringing food and gifts! And then after they left, another car, and two more people came with food and gifts! 

They were to find out that a someone at a local church had given this family's names to the church and Salvation Army as needing help that Christmas. Who had done this? They would not tell. The person was and still is anonymous.

All they knew, was that God had laid it on someone's heart to help this family at a critical time that year. 

I know this because that family was mine. Years later I would never forget the help we got that year. And I have made it a privilege to help people myself, that do not have the blessings that I have had.

But the help we received that Christmas, and the help I have given others over the years is nothing. God considers these things as filthy rags in comparison with what Jesus did for us on the cross. The things of this earth will one day fade from our memories and become nothing. But Jesus will never fade away. What He did for us will go on forever. For he paid our debt of sin that he did not owe nor could we pay it ourselves. 

Does that give us an excuse then to not do for others?

Absolutely not. God wants us to give to the poor. Hebrews 13:16. 

However, in these times, there are many frauds out in the world that would love to take what they can from us. So, it is good to always make sure we give to those that God would have us bless. 

In closing, with the holidays upon us we should pray and ask God to show us who to give to and make sure that we do it. Because there are a lot of hurting people out there that we can help. Even if it's just a little. God will bless what we give, great or small. And even a little can go a long way when God uses it. 

Thanks for coming by today, friends. May God bless you as winter comes upon us.

What Does God Say?

 Sometimes we Christinas do the very opposite. of what we should do in a well...a situation that is hard.  Instead of instantly praying when something comes up, we instead try to fix it ourselves I was guilty of this myself a couple hours ago. I won't go into what actually happened, but it started with an argument with someone. And it could have gone out of control and become much more than an argument. 

Instead of immediately calling on God, I wound up in the argument as well as the one that it was directed to. I believe even a quick "Please help me God." I think would have got God's attention. But sometimes we get so frustrated with what is going on in our world, that we forget that our cries to Him goes to directly to His ears, even in the most terrifying moments. 

I am not saying that what happened was in a terrifying moment. But at bit scary it was. And it could have gotten worse.

However, there are quite a few people who knows about this situation, and I have no doubt that perhaps some called on the Lord when we needed it because it did not go on very long and this person calmed down. Eventually.

And it was then that I remembered to pray for God's protection.

After that, I texted a friend about an unrelated situation and quoted this scripture to her about her situation:

 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

And that was meant for me as well.

But there are times that we also need to just be quiet and know God is with us.

 and we are to trust Him in all things. Otherwise, we can do more damage than is needed.

Are you fearful in the things going on in the world today? In your home? Your extended family?

Be Still and Know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

This is what God wants you to do. 

Thanks for coming by today, Friends. I hope this post will encourage you every day. If you would like, please send me a comment. I would love to hear from you.  Remember as well that...

God i good all the time and

all the time, God is good! Amen!

 

A Right to be Depressed?

Jeremiah probably felt he had a right to be depressed. Read with me the following scripture that shows what he was going through during his ministry.

O Lord, You [b]induced me, and I was persuaded.

You are stronger than I and have prevailed.

I am [c]in derision daily.

Everyone mocks me.

8 

For when I spoke, I cried out.

I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”

Because the word of the Lord was made to me

A reproach and a derision daily.

9 

Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,

Nor speak anymore in His name.”

But His word was in my heart like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones.

I was weary of holding it back,

And I could not.

10 

For I heard many [d]mocking:

“Fear on every side!”

“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”

All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,

“Perhaps he can be induced.

Then we will prevail against him,

Jeremiah 20:7-10

He is known as the weeping prophet by some. He was constantly under attack by those he loved He didn't marry and have children because God had forbidden him to do this. He was lonely and felt defeated during his life. And yet, read what the next few verses say in that passage:

But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome One.

Therefore, my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.

They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.

Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

You who test the righteous,

And see the [e]mind and heart,

Let me see Your vengeance on them.

For I have pleaded my cause before You.

 

Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

For He has delivered the life of the poor

From the hand of evildoers.

Jeremiah 20:11-13

Isn't just like us as believers in Christ Jesus, to complain, feel sorry for ourselves and to be sad when things aren't going the way we want them too. 

I think Jeremiah was struggling much the same as we do in our lives today. We go from being thankful to God, to asking him why he is letting hard things happen to us. It can be so bad, that we can often let the sadness take over our lives. 

And we might wish that we had never been born.

And let the man be like the cities

Which the Lord overthrew and did not relent.

Let him hear the cry in the morning!

And the shouting at noon,

 

Because he did not kill me from the womb,

That my mother might have been my grave,

And her womb always enlarged with me.

 

Why did I come forth from the womb to see [f]labor and sorrow,

That my days should be consumed with shame.

Jeremiah 20:14-18

God doesn't want us to live like that. To be depressed and sad. And yet he knows us inside and out. What we are and are not. Because of course, he created us in our mother's womb. Psalm 139:13. And not only that, but he gave us his Word. To study, to understand what he wants for us. And to know that He loves us. That should be the most wonderful thing of all to mediate on in the darkest of moments. 

Jesus loves us. And he wants to spend eternity with us! Wow, what a thought! To be able to live with Him someday! Because Friend, not everyone will be able to say that. Because it will be their choice. Not God's. 

Thanks for coming by today. I won't be here tomorrow but hope to on Tuesday. And I don't know yet if I will continue on the same line because I have covered these subjects before. So as always feel free to roam around my posts and read what looks interesting but also important to your life. God bless you and yours!

What Do We Choose Every day? Gladness or Sadness?

 

How can we possibly be happy with all that is going around us. Not only in our own world but also in the world around us. As much as we love our families, many moms struggle with depression due to the everyday problems that seem to go on forever and no end in sight. Put that with the world or even local news, and what happens? We might decide to escape through alcohol or smoking pot. Or even getting addicted to other drugs. Or worse.

Some of you might disagree but, in my opinion, we as believers must sometimes choose to be happy by starting each day with deciding that as we get up each morning, As I usually will say, it starts can start by reading God's Word. 

God created joy. In fact, it is one of the fruits of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith

Do you know that a happy heart is good medicine? It's true. That scripture is found in Proverbs 17:22. But notice with me the rest of that verse. 

But a broken spirit dries up the bones.

If we could just make people understand that how they let feelings of rejection, low self-worth, sadness and all like emotions of that kind, really helps kill us. We get defeated sometimes as soon as we get up or perhaps even during the night as we toss and turn, that things will never get better, or life is too much to take.

And if we could just learn to be joyful ourselves. For I believe most of us do struggle with those things that want to take us down. And possibly kill us.

 

However, we are not alone. Some of God's own people in days gone by suffered from depression. 

You may want to look them up to check them out for yourself. Here are a few.

• Jonah (Jonah 4)
• Job (Book of Job)
• Elijah (1 Kings 19) 
• King Saul (I Samuel 16:14-23, etc.)u

Others include Moses, Naomi, Hagar, David, Nehemiah, Hannah, Job, Judas, Paul, and John the Baptist.

And I wonder how many pastors actually preach sermons on any of these people to show that God's own people in the Bible struggled with depression and how they were able to deal with it. Because after all, God did want this subject to be in the Bible which over all is to teach us how to live. Right.?  It had to an important subject to Him.

I don't believe that we have to walk around all the time like there is nothing wrong in our lives. We are not meant to be a person that lies to people to make them think that we have no problems. But I do believe we can be a joyful person in the midst of our suffering, knowing that our God gives us good things. And more importantly what Jesus did for us on Calvary. Just His love alone should cross out all negative feelings. At least most of the time.  But I don't think we should let those things that are so heavy to carry, to weight us down all the time and take away our happiness. 

 

I am going to do a dive into the lives of the people mentioned above and see what we can find out just what their problems were and how they handled them. Please come back tomorrow and we will begin with Jonah. You may want to get a head start on him in Chapter 4.

Thanks for coming by. May God bless your coming and goings today and every day. Deuteronomy 28:

About Faith

How can we have faith in God not only through the rest of the year, but through 2024 and beyond? I mean, we need it now in these uncertain times. Right?

And like I said in yesterday's post, we all have a bit of faith. The thing is, what kind of faith do we have? It could be in our job, our family or maybe in ourselves. But God wants us to have faith in Him. 

The thing is, if we are believers, we already have a bit of faith that can grow. For Jesus said this

• Matthew 17:20 KJV: "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

And I believe that grain of faith is born in us when we accept Christ as our personal Savior. It takes faith to believe that Jesus lived, died, was resurrected and died for our sin. Or maybe for some that was the easy part. If you as a child was raised in a Christian home that taught you these things, it may have been easy to believe that. It was for me. 

But those years have passed. As time went along, I grew up and faced some difficult challenges in my life. But like I said, with each trail that I faced, it helped me develop a strong faith that I now have. 

For Christmas last year, my daughter gave me a hoodie. And it has the word Faith embroidered on it. Surely the past 14 months of my life had left me with a challenge that I didn't see coming when my husband had passed away. And thankfully, and because I had learned what faith was and had let it grow, it got even stronger now that I had become a widow. 

But don't be fooled by my testimony. I am not perfect. Or better than anyone else. But along paths way, God had been preparing me for the year of 2022 when suddenly my husband would be gone. It wasn't easy, or fun many times when I was faced with a trial. But these events had changed me. 

And it had directed my life on to the path that God wanted for me to travel.

Many people look at the news every day and see what horrible things are going on around the world. They have no hope if they have not trusted God. But he says that we will have troubles in our life. Look at what he tells us.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

But there can't be much peace in what He was saying unless we have faith that this was not just something that He felt like saying. No, he meant it and when we see the crazy things happening, if we ask Him, he will add to our faith. 

I think faith is something that some people get a little at a t time. With every step forward it is added by God to our situations. Perhaps to prepare us for a far away journey in life that we will need to really be strong in it.

I will add one more scripture to this because it is important to know that God really wants us to grow in faith. 

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews11:6

We must believe that He exists to please Him. It is a must if we want to please God. And then He will reward us when we seek Him. 

Faith the size of a mustard seed. We have that much at least when we accept Him. But how much more can we please God when as we grow, we know that when we go through the hard times of life, that His grace has been what has taught us to know He is with us getting us through them.

Thanks for coming by this evening, Friends. I won't be posting tomorrow, November 8. But I plan to on the 9th so I hope you will join me that day. I will most likely be posting in the evenings and be online line with them by 10 pm ext.

God bless you, And may He be with you and yours