Worship the Lord alone

 Worship the Lord alone

Jesus when tempted by Satan said,

“...“It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’’” Luke 4:8.

In the book of Exodus we read,

"You shall have no other gods before me."Exodus 20:3.

You may say in the twenty first century we don’t have other gods but we do. Our gods may not be carved idols. But people today around the world worship every thing from trees and animals to money to men and women, and things they believe to be true on the internet.

God however makes it clear we are to have only one God. That being The LORD God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Joshua speaking to the Israelite said,

"Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.  

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:14,15.

Be coming a Christian a follower of Christ Jesus and true believer in God means a complete breaking away of those things that you, even without noticing it, are your gods.

Are you willing to do this?

Please think about it,

They seen and touched Him

 They seen and touched Him.

The apostle John states,

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  

We write this to make our joy complete. " 1John 1:1-4.

The apostle John makes it clear that he truly believed that Jesus was God the Creator of all things. That he and the other apostles interacted with Him.

John referring to Jesus also wrote,

"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.  

In him was life, and that life was the light of men....

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 1:1-4,14.

If this is not true it is the greatest lie in the history of mankind. If on the other hand it is true each individual must acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.

The apostle Paul saying,

"For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Romans 10:12, 13. 

Please think about it.

Who is Jesus

Who is Jesus

In John’s gospel we read,

"Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?' Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.' Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?'" John 18:37-38.

Pilot ultimately found no wrong in Jesus. Never the less out of political expediency he allowed Jesus to be put to death.

So who is Jesus to you?

In the book of acts we read of the apostle Peter saying,

"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36.

Jesus himself said,

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  John 14:6

The apostle John writes,

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  

The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  

We write this to make our joy complete. " 1John 1:1-4. 

This is what men that knew Jesus personally believed Jesus to be. So are they right in what they believe?

What do you think?

Please think about it.

Do you believe this?

Do you believe this?

The psalmist states,

"I wait for the LORD, 

my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." 

                                                             Psalm 130:5.

Is your hope in the Lord?
The Prophet Isaiah wrote,

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? 

The Lord is everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. 

He will not grow tiered or weary, 

and his understanding no one can fathom. 

He give strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak. 

Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall;

 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. 

They will soar on wings like eagles;

 they will run and not grow weary 

they will walk and not faint." 

                                         Isaiah 40: 28-31.

If you are truly a Christian, a believer in Christ Jesus, do you believe this?
Please think about it.

Are you Seeking?

Are you Seeking?
The Psalmist writes,

“I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

 and in his word I put my hope. 

My soul waits for the Lord 

more than watchmen wait for the morning,

 more than watchmen wait for the morning.” 

                                                      Psalm 130:5,6.

Some time ago my pastor used the above scripture in his sermon. What he said is unimportant. The scripture struck a note with me for an entirely different reason.
I live in North America. I enjoy incredible freedoms. Sadly I see those freedoms used by men and women calling themselves pastors and evangelist to pervert the word of God. Then when someone challenges them they hide behind the freedom of speech laws or threaten a law suit. To silence their critics.
When I hear such things my heart cries out to the Lord. I cry as the Psalmist did,

“How long will the wicked, O LORD, 

how long will the wicked be jubilant?” 

                                                    Psalm 94:3.

Sadly the world tends to see the wrongs these pastors and evangelist commit and are turned off. They label all Christians with the same brush. That being said I believe anyone who is truly seeking God will find Him. I am reminded of what Jesus said,

“Ask and it will be given to you; 

seek and you will find; 

knock and the door will be opened to you.  

For everyone who asks receives; 

he who seeks finds; 

and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” 

                                                         Matthew 7:7,8.

For those who are reading this and are seeking God please remember the words of Jesus who said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’  
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23.
I would ask anyone seeking the truth about God, that you pray and read the Bible for yourself. Read the New Testament, that tells you what the early Christians believed about Jesus. What they taught about with respect to living a Christians life.  Ask God to show you the truth about what true Christians, true followers of Christ Jesus believe.
Don’t be turned off by those who twist the word of the Bible for their own gain. Seek God in spirit and in truth and He will show Himself to you.
Please think about it. 

Lunatic?

Lunatic?
John’s gospel records this interaction between Jesus and his disciples,
“Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.  John 14:5-11.
This if you think about it is quite the extraordinary statement. Jesus makes two statements that if not true makes him a lunatic. He states,
1. “I am the way the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me.”
2.  “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”
What Jesus is saying is, He is divine. He is God incarnate. The way to Heaven.
 C. S. Lewis said it best in his book Mere Christianity when he wrote,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
This is the choice the writers of the New Testament lay out before the whole world. Either Jesus is God incarnate, the Saviour of mankind, or he is not. The choice is yours.
Please think about it.

Signs

Signs

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. 
He replied,“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’  
and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.  
A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.”
Matthew 16:1-4

Here the Pharisees and Sadducees normally enemies had got together against their perceived common enemy Jesus.
They demanded a sign that he was the Messiah. They had no faith in him which is more than likely why Jesus refused to give them a sign.
He said the only sign they would have was the sign of Jonah. It was something Jesus had spoke of previously. Matthew recording,
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” 
                                                                           Matthew 12:40.
The religious leaders of his day were against him. I don’t think it would have mattered how many signs Jesus gave it would not have been enough.
The same is true today.
There are many things that point to Jesus being who he said he was, Lord and God, the Savour of mankind, both inside and outside the Bible. Yet no matter how many proofs are given many will not believe.
I have found over the years that true seekers. People who are truly seeking meaning to life will see the truth about Jesus and accept him as Lord and Saviour of their life.
One sceptic of Christ was C. S. Lewis an Oxford University intellectual and author of the tales of Narnia, Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain among other things.
After studying the Bible he came to the following conclusion,
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
                                                                                                       C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Think about it