Jesus is God

Read John 10

“I am the good shepherd; 

and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

“As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father;

 and I lay down My life for the sheep.

“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold;

 there also I must bring, and they will hear

 My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

“Therefore My Father loves Me, 

because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

“No one takes it from Me,

 but I lay it down of Myself,

 I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

  This command I have received from My Father.

Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings.

And many of them said, 

“He has a demon and is mad.  Why do you listen to Him?”

Others said,

 “These are not the words of one who has a demon, 

“Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

                                                                                                             John 10:14-21
Who is Jesus?  This is the question you and everyone who hears about Him must answer.  It is a controversy, that has been around since Jesus started His ministry.  No other spiritual leader in history, has made such claims.
Jesus claimed to be God.  Those who opposed Him point that out as recorded in John 10:32,33:
Jesus answered them,

 “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. 

 For which of those words do you stone Me?”

The Jews answered Him, saying,

 “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because

 You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

If Jesus was not God, He had to be as C. S. Lewis stated “a lunatic, as mad as someone who thinks he is a poached egg.”
Calling Himself God, or claiming to be equal to God, was going to get you killed in the days Jesus walked the earth.  The only other possibility, is that He was who He said He was.  The choice is that simply.
Something to think about:
                  John 10:21 states:

"Others said,

 “These are not the words of one who has a demon, 

“Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

John 10:40-42 goes onto state:

And He went away again beyond the Jordan 

to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed.

Then many came to Him and said, 

“John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man are true.”

And many believed in Him there."

Question: Who do you think Jesus is?

Unifying Love

Read John 17

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me 

through their word;

“that they all may be one

 as You Father, are in Me,

 and I in You; 

that they also maybe one in Us,

 that the world may believe that

 You sent Me....

“I in them, and You I Me that they maybe made perfect in one, 

and that the world may know that You have sent Me, 

and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“And I have declared to them Your name,

 and will declare it,

 that the love with which You loved Me

 maybe in them,

 and I in them.”

                                                                       John 17:20, 21-23, 26
Here in Chapter 17 of John, Jesus prays for Himself, the disciples and in verse 20 to 26 for all believers.
He prays for their unity in love.  That the love of God, be in them, as it was in Christ.
We, as individual Christians, must first of all know what we believe and why we believe it.  That is why we must study the Word of God, and sit under a good teacher, we trust.
Then, it is absolutely, imperative, that we find a church congregation that believes as we do or as close as we can find.  A congregation where we feel God would have us work.  And we must submit ourselves to that group.
In order to do this, we must think, and pray.
A Bible School teacher once said to me, “most Christians think with their heart and forget God gave them a brain for that purpose.
They think their hands are only to use to pick things up with, not put together in prayer, and that their ears are the only thing they hear with.”
What he meant was, many Christians go to where they feel good, not necessarily, where God wants them.  That they never pray and seek God’s guidance about which church they should attend or what they should do.  They listen to others and what comes in through their ears, not what God is telling their heart.
Here Jesus talks about the unity of the believers, about them being one.  And He asks:
“that the love with which You loved Me  maybe in them,  and I in them.”
Something to think about:
I go back to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1Corinthinas 13:4-8a
“Love suffers long and is kind: love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
This is what Jesus prayed for, for all Christians. This is the kind of love we must show to both our brothers and sisters in Christ and the whole world.

What Really Matters

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... 

                                                                          Genesis 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God.  

He was with God in the beginning. 

Through him all things were made; 

without him nothing was made that has been made...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, 

full of grace and truth. 

                                                                                       John 1:1-3, 14

Perhaps one of the most controversial parts of the Bible is the Genesis chapter one, the creations chapter.
Non Christians point to it and say how could the world be made in six twenty-four hour days. They claim it took aeons.
Frankly I could care less. It doesn’t make any difference to my faith if the world was made in a hundred forty-four hours or a hundred forty-four billion years.
I believe the universe and everything in it was created by God. AND more importantly I believe that Jesus is God.
That he came to earth to live among His creation, to point mankind to heaven.
Jesus said of himself,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  

For God did not send his Son into the world 

to condemn the world,

 but to save the world through him.  

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 

because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. "

                                                                                                     John 3:16-18
God gives us a free will but he makes it clear that we have only two choices in this life.
To either accept Jesus for who he says he is. The very Son of God the Saviour of the world, or to reject him as a liar who has perpetuated the most monumental lie in human history.
The choice dear reader is yours.
Do you believe Jesus is Lord and God. The creator of the universe who came to earth to pay the price for your sins?
If you believe, then the question is, if you were to die tonight are you certain you would get to haven?
If not hear is a prayer you may want to pray.
Dear Heavenly Father
I know that I am a sinner. That I fall short of what you want for me in my life. 
I recognize that Jesus is your One and Only Son. That he came to die to take away my sins.
Please forgive me of my sins.
Please Lord Jesus come into my heart and life this day. Lead me and guide me from this day forward.
Amen

If you prayed this prayer and really meant it then Jesus will come into your life. I urge you to read the Bible. Start with the New Testament and read through the whole Bible.
Pray before you read each chapter that God will reveal Himself to you and that He will reveal what you are reading means to you personally.
The next thing is to pray and find a good church in your area.
I personally would recommend a good Baptist church as I have found their teachings to be very well balanced and in line with the word of God.
But above all of this Pray, Pray, Pray, that God would lead you to the right church or group of believers that can help you grow in Christ.
And remember always that with God in your life, if you let Him, He will change your life in a wonderful way.

You are Grass

You Are Grass

“A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” 

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” 

                                                                                                     Isaiah 40:6-8
      Question, do you know who the following are?
Humphry Davy, Peter Durand, Samuel Fahnestock, Barthelemy Thimonnier, John Walker.
Each one of these men have a first to their name. Each one created what today are common things, Humphry Davy invents the first electric light, the first arc lamp.
Peter Durand invents the tin can. Samuel Fahnestock patented a soda fountain.  Barthelemy Thimonnier invents a sewing machine. John Walker invents modern matches.
These men invented things we in the twenty-first century take for granted yet their names for the most part are lost to history. Remembered only in dusty library books or found in the occasional google search.
There inventions it could be argued made life somewhat better today. Yet their inventors names are not remembered.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.”
States the prophet. “People are grass.”
Have you ever looked out over a field of tall grass? Have you ever picked out a single blade of grass somewhere in the middle of that field. Then closed your eyes and turned three hundred sixty degrees, opened your eyes and tried to find that exact blade of grass again?
It’s virtually impossible.
That’s the way it is with humanity. Most people will enter this world live their whole lives in almost total obscurity and die never to be remembered except by a few close family. Even then after several generations the person is forgotten.
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Nero the persecutor of Christians has long past on to stand before his judge. And other than his name what he said is unknown.
Yet the word of God he tried to suppress continues on.
God’s word in the Bible is eternal. It is a road map to heaven. It doesn’t change. The words are eternal.
Today as you’re reading this I urge you to pick up a Bible and read it from cover to cover.
I find many of those who don’t believe the Bible have never read it. They have come to the conclusion that it is a flawed book with mistakes. Yet when asked to name a dozen mistakes in it they can’t.
I believe the Bible because I have read it with an open mind and come to the conclusion that it what is contained within it is real and relevant for today.
Can you honestly say you have read it without any preconceived ideas and come to the conclusions you hold today.
Think about it.