Do You Belong To God Or Satan

Matthew 10:28; "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell".


The Word of God tells us that one's existence does not end when a person 's body dies but continues on forever. It will either be in the presence of God or in a place of punishment. In the presence of God will be the ones that have accepted Jesus as their Savior and He is the Lord of their life. The place of punishment is relating to the lost.

Jesus taught that there is a place of eternal punishment for those condemned before God. Matthew 23:33; "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell". Jesus is a righteous and loving Christ, so it seems strange that these words came from Him. Jesus was talking to ones that were furious, malicious adversaries to Christ and the gospel. He wanted them to know where they were going.

To make sure you don't go to a fiery hell there is one way to escape it and only one way. The way is to repent of your sins, ask Jesus to forgive your sins, ask Him to be your Lord and Savior and have faith Jesus will forgive your sins and be your Savior.

If you don't do this, your eternal life will be spent in a place of fire that never shall be quenched. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:41-42; "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; v. 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth". In these two verses Jesus is telling what will happen to all who cause sin and do evil. There will be great suffering. This place was prepared for the devil and his angels.

This is what happens to a soul that rejects Jesus Christ as Lord God Almighty.



For the people that will not accept the Bible as the Word of God and believe the Gospel will not have a place in heaven. Not being in heaven is a separation from the presence and glory of the Lord.

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". God gave His only Son so that no one would have to perish. It has never been God's purpose to send anyone to hell. The ones going to hell is because of them resisting the salvation provided to them by God.

The reality of hell should cause Christians to hate sin with a passion and wanting to warn everyone of the righteous judgment of God. Every pastor should give messages on what the true hell is like and also what heaven is like and how one gets to heaven, this is a must. Even though this can bother people they must know what is coming if they are not ready for Christ Jesus' return.

I urge each Christian to talk to people about Jesus Christ and His saving grace, the importance of accepting Him as their Savior.

Thank you for stopping by. May you always know the love, joy, and peace, of the Lord.

Bitterness

When you think of bitterness, what do you think of? Is it something you taste? Yes, you can taste bitterness but you can also feel bitterness. When you taste bitterness it is much easier to get rid of than when you feel the bitterness.


The dictionary says bitterness is the state or quality of being bitter; figuratively, extreme enmity; sharpness; severity of temper; biting sarcasm; painful affliction; deep distress of mind; animosity.

Hebrews 12:15; "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled". The root of bitterness refers to a spirit and thoughts that is described by intense animosity and resentment.

Bitterness can be directed towards anyone such as someone in the church, workplace, school, home, or even in your neighborhood. It can also be a bitter resentment toward God because of His discipline. One needs to remember when God disciplines us it is not because He doesn't love us, it is because He does love us.

When a person becomes bitter it results in defiling that person. The person needs to go immediately to the Lord in prayer and ask Him for the strength to overcome this bitterness. If a person doesn't work on this bitterness it can continue to grow and grow. Before you know it you have hate in your heart for this person or persons.  Then the bitterness and hate will cause you to have an unforgiving heart. Bitterness can even reach out and touch other people. This bitterness can create bitter fruits to others. Then before you know it the bitterness has caused you to have insincere principles.  The more bitterness, hate, and an unforgiving heart you have the less time you want to spend with the Lord.  Now, you have lost the fellowship with the Lord and you have walked away from the Lord. Where are you going to spend eternity now?

Whatever has started a person feeling bitter, it needs to be taken care of immediately. Bitterness leads to so many things and can cause a person to walk away from the Lord. There is nothing so bad that we should allow ourselves to carry bitterness around.

Colossians 3:13; "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye". Disagreements can happen between any two or more people, even in the church or family, but it up to us and our duty to forgive them just as Christ Jesus has forgiven us. We need to follow His example.

Luke 6:37; "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:" If you have bitterness in your heart, haven't you already judged that person. And you have also condemned them. If you don't forgive them, how can you expect to be forgiven? Bitterness seems to be a vicious circle. You may not have thought your bitterness could have grown and lead into these other things but it can.

If you find yourself becoming bitter, won't you please go to the Lord in prayer. If you let the bitterness take over, you could become a changed person and miss heaven.

Thank you for stopping by. May you always know the love, joy, and peace, of the Lord.



Shadow Of Thy Wings

Have you ever watched a mother hen when she shields her babies from the rain, cold, or danger? It is pretty amazing the way she gets them under her wings. She knows just how to do it and if she feels there may be danger coming to those babies she can get pretty mean. She will even get upset with a chick if it tries to come out from under her wing. It is amazing how she does this.

Did you know God will put us under his wings and protect us? Psalm 17:8; "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings". Just as a hen protects her babies with her wings, God will protect us. Being in the shadow of God's wings expresses His love for us. We should always pray for God to reach out to protect us in times of danger just like someone who automatically reacts to guard the pupil of the eye from harm. God will be ready to shelter and protect us from harm as a mother hen.

When we go to the Lord in prayer we take refuge under His wings and rely on Him in faith. Being under His wings we are being protected from things that would work opposite to His purpose for our lives. When we say 'under God's wing this is a metaphor or figure of speech. God will always protect us with His love.

Christians sometimes forget to pray for themselves. They think it is important to pray for others but not themselves. They may ask others to pray for a specific thing in their life but they won't pray for themselves. There are situations that arise when we really need to be praying for ourselves. There are times when we aren't able to ask others to pray for us so if you don't pray for yourself, no one will be praying for you. To me that is scary.

God hears our prayers and will protect us. Prayer is our protection. If we don't pray we can not expect God to protect us. We must remember to pray with a sincere and pure heart. We should have no evil thoughts in our heart. When I become angry I will pray for God to take the anger away and help me to keep a pure heart.

In our world today it is easy to become frustrated and angry. Things just seem to be going so fast, people just don't seem to care, there is so much crime, and immorality. It just doesn't seem to be a friendly world anymore. This is why we need to have fellowship with the Lord, stay as close as possible to Him, we need to always pray, and we certainly need to give the Lord praise and glory for all that He has done for us.

We can always get the protection we need from God, His wing's are big enough for all who truly love and obey Him.

Thank you for stopping by. May you always know the love, joy, and peace, of the Lord.

Have You Ever Felt Alone

Have you ever felt like God has abandoned you? Have your problems seemed more than you can handle? Have you ever felt you were just standing alone battling your problems? Have you felt like your problems are bigger than anyone else's?

I believe most all of us can answer the above questions with an answer of yes. Our problem doesn't have to be a big one but perhaps a lot of little ones.

Sometimes we feel as if the Lord has forsaken us but He hasn't and He never will. Hebrews 13:5; "...for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". It doesn't say maybe I won't leave you but says "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" so we never have to worry that someday He may leave us.

Even though believers are faithful and loyal to Christ, we may experience great hardships or misfortune in our lives. God will continue to be concerned about us. He may use others to help us in our time of need. This doesn't mean God is punishing us or that He has forsaken us. Scripture tells us God tenderly continues to bring about all things to work for our good in times of trouble. Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose". By this we know Christians may endure sufferings of this life but God will bring good out of it. This is a promise God has made to those who love Him and have given their life to Him by faith in Christ. This by no means include our sins and negligence. No one can excuse sin by saying God will work it out for good. Sin is something God does not like.

Even though at times we may feel God is against us we should not always think adversity and hardship to be the result of God's actions or His displeasure with us. Satan and ordinary human experiences will at times inflict hardships on us. Luke 13:11; "And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself". Jesus does see some physical sickness as the direct cause of demonic activity. The crippled woman in this verse was afflicted by a spirit of infirmity.

Jesus healed this woman on the Sabbath causing the ruler of the synagogue to be indignant about this. He said there were six days Jesus could have healed her but not on the Sabbath. It makes Jesus angry when people no longer hear the cries of people suffering. People are trapped by sin, sickness, and death. They are in distress and great need. As we look around we can see that today we are becoming insensitive to the needs of the world. This is because of the entertainment media that major television shows are showing of immorality and violence for the sake of pleasure. We need to become more sensitive to the needs of people, we need to start complaining about what is being shown on television and the radio. We need to be better Christians, we need to be more like our Lord. We need to have the compassion Jesus has.

Psalm 50:15; "And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me". It tells us right here God desires to hear our prayers, He wants to help us and we will exalt Him. He is inviting all faithful believers to call upon Him continually in our time of need and trouble.

So, whenever you feel alone and feel your problems are more than you can bear or that you just can't handle your problems, remember God is still with you. He is just waiting for you to call on Him to help you and to make your load lighter.

Thank you for stopping by. May you always know the love, peace, and joy of the Lord.

Thanks A Lot Jenifer and Debi

This has been one long weekend for me. It seems nothing has gone right. It all started on Saturday and continued into Sunday. I should blame my wonderful granddaughter, Jenifer and my wonderful daughter, Debi but it wasn't their fault. On March 3rd they both posted about being 'Grumpy'. You can go to Jenifer's blog to read what she had to say by clicking on Grumpy.  Then go to Debi's blog by clicking on Piggyback to see what she had to say. When a person looks back on their grumpiness it can seem pretty funny but it sure isn't when you are going through them. I have no specific thing that happened on Saturday, I was just in a really cranky mood. Dave finally asked me what was wrong. I had no answer other than 'I am in a bad mood'. He said 'I can see that'.



Sunday morning in Sunday School class the teacher said something and I must have taken it wrong so I asked him about it. He said that isn't actually what he said but there were three of us that thought what I had. It was about prayer requests, now when a person says it is time for prayer requests I feel it is for any type of prayer request and for anyone that needs it. He said something about the requests being just for unbelievers. So I asked him about it. He said requests are for everything and for everyone. Needles to say, it didn't go well, so there I am sitting in class and crying. I hate crying in front of people but the tears just came and there was nothing I could do.

I don't believe we ever got this settled in class but hopefully we will.

I did get a reprieve after Sunday School and before church. I went to get a drink of water and this boy appeared at a door not far from the water fountain. I thought to myself that sure looks like Little Kenny, my grandson, and then he said "Hi, Mamaw" so I knew it was him. I was not expecting to see him so it caught me by surprise, his family doesn't go to the same church we do. I went over to the door leading to the church and while I was standing there the Sunday School teacher asked if I had talked to Ken, my son. I told him no but I just saw Little Kenny. Well, I couldn't believe it, no one could find him so by now I was thinking I was seeing things. Dave went looking for him, still no Little Kenny. Then I saw him walk through the front doors of the church and I started telling everyone that he was there. Finally everyone saw him. Now I thought, I am sure glad he came back where we were, I wasn't seeing things after all. Ken was there also but we didn't see him until we had sit down.

We call Little Kenny this because he was named after his father and to call them by the same name would be confusing.

Then this afternoon Dave was watching television and of course he wasn't watching anything I like so I just left the room. I went to my quiet place, which is outside and I asked the Lord to help me understand Dave. I really wanted to pray that the Lord would change Dave but I knew better than that. I really need to understand why he wants to watch racing and the shows on how things are made. I guess you have guessed I don't like racing and I really don't care how things are made just as long as they work. While talking to the Lord, He said men aren't interested in the same things as women. I knew that but why does it have to be racing or how to make things? It is because this is what men like just as I like my animals, and Dave has put up with all these animals that I have had in the past years. Yes, he does say things about it at times but I have given him my view on racing and how things are made. Now, Dave used to race and I really liked it, there were a few times I didn't but the biggest part of the time I enjoyed it.
Well you know, when I went out to talk to the Lord things got so much better. Now why didn't I do this Saturday when everything seemed to be going wrong for me? Why didn't I even say a silent prayer to God in the Sunday School Class? It would have saved myself so much anguish but I didn't do it. I wonder if God wondered why I hadn't come to Him when things went wrong. John 16:24; "... ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full". I didn't go to the Lord and ask Him to help me through these things that were happening, I should have asked in Jesus' name to restore my joy and it would have been done, I asked Him today and He did this for me. Praise God.

I believe the reason I didn't go to the Lord in the beginning is that I had no idea it was going to continue to get worse and probably thought it was just to trifle to go to God. How wrong I was, I just allowed things to continue to get worse. The Word of God doesn't tell us to go to Him only when things are big and bad, it tells us to go to the Lord anytime. I hope I listen the next time.

I John 4:8; "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love". Since God loves us and we love Him it only makes sense that we go to Him for anything. Not just big things that bother us but also the small things. As a child, didn't you go to your Mother or Father with your problems no matter how small or big? What is the difference now? Shouldn't we go to the Lord with all of our problems? We certainly aren't going to be able to take care of them all by ourselves. Just like mine, they started out small but they just kept adding on until I was really 'grumpy' and everything seemed worse than what it really was.

So, the nest time you have a grumpy day just remember to call on the Lord. He is waiting for you.

I know this post has been long but I hope you have enjoyed it.  Thank you for dropping by. I have enjoyed our visit. May you always know the peace and joy of the Lord.