A Known Hope.

I choose to believe. Why do I choose to believe? I choose because logic tells me that to not believe would mean hopelessness. There is no hope for those who have no belief. And if they say they hope without having to believe, what is their hope based upon.  There were people in Athens that had this--

Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. 

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

To have hope in the UNKNOWN, hope you keep nameless, could in truth be hope in GOD. If you're unwilling to admit to a hope in God, in giving your hope the name of God, may the Holy Spirit impress the truth of Him upon you so your hope is KNOWN. We don't have to worship ignorantly.

My Jesus tells me this--

He will never leave me.

He will never forsake me.

The Lord is my helper.
I will not fear what man shall do to me.

He is with me always, even to the end of the world.

The LORD my God.

He will be with me.

He will not fail me.

He will not forsake me.

I will not be dismayed.

Fear not.

God is with me.

Be not dismayed.

He is my God.

He will strengthen me.

He will help me.

He will hold me with his righteousness.

Heb 13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 

Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. 

Mat_28:20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Deu 31:6  Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 

Deu 31:8  And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. 

Isa 41:10  Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Life may throw me a lot of curve balls, in fact it can throw all of us many curveballs. And we could believe God forsakes us when we go through horrible things, but He doesn't. He is keeping us in Him, our painless lives are only promised in eternity, not in the temporary to eternity.

God help us always! Keep us in Him always! He is our HOPE now and ever! All through Jesus Christ our LORD, our SAVIOR.

Hope Beyond Horror.

Preach Heaven- Eternal in Time.

Eternal life.  None of us would want eternal life if it were to be a life filled with pain, would we? At what point does quality of life supersede quantity of life?

I came face to face with my mother's mortality when the announcement was made that she had a cancer in her body and it wasn't curable, that any attempt to arrest the disease would be devastating to her physically and only give her a few extra months of life at most. The cancer doctor actually told us that in a person of my mother's age and health- late seventies, that to treat this particular cancer with chemo and radiation would be cruel. However, he said, if it were found in a person of our ages (fifties) then he would recommend an extreme course of very aggressive chemo/radiation, but such a course for my mother might in fact be what kills her.

While we knew my mother's cancer was bad and instinctively wanted her to be treated- to have that hope- she also had the mitigating circumstances of  having incurable Alzheimer's disease. At this point we all determined, my mother included, that no treatment for the cancer would be taken. She would continue on as normal and let the disease run its course while treating symptoms as they appeared with pain relieving medication.

It was all so surreal. I'd sit there in the evening and watch her watching television programs with us, smiling, laughing, enjoying herself and I'd know that inside her she was being destroyed by cancer. It didn't seem very real not until the last few months of her life when everything went downhill very, very fast.  During the blessed lull of her illness when we lived in the delusional state of her seeming okay- we filled her life with her favorite foods, her favorite past times- her grandkids and jigsaw puzzles. We offered her things knowing they'd possibly be the last time she experienced them. We let her eat what she wanted, and encouraged her to enjoy the things she'd deny herself to watch her weight. We tried to give her a good ending to her life those last few years after her diagnoses with Alzheimer's and then the cancer. We tried to give her quality of life knowing we weren't pushing for quantity, and she wanted quality over quantity as well.

Back to the statement I made at the start of this-  None of us would want eternal life if it were to be a life filled with pain, would we? Of course we wouldn't. Or maybe right now you're trying to determine the pain threshold you'd be willing to endure to live forever. Let's take over all quality of life as being horrific, would you then want to live forever in the horrific state of existence?  Would you want to live forever if you had to live your life in advanced old age where you could barely do anything at all? It's inevitable, yes? The longer we live the more we become less able to do the things we once could do. Even the healthiest of the aged will slow down. Very few of the very advanced in age - into their hundreds- are living a great quality of life that would be acceptable to endure forever.  We see pictures, watch videos of the hundred year old's birthday celebrations, and only occasionally are they vibrant with seeming youthful exuberance.  Why do even those who seem healthy and are able to get around fine, and are enjoying their lives, end up dying if they don't have any problems that are life threatening? What takes them from life? It could be any number of things- things that take younger people much earlier in their lives. Not every aged person who dies is suffering debilitating illnesses that make their lives awful, but a lot are.

For the sake of the statement made- None of us would want eternal life if it were to be a life filled with pain, would we?  We are going to add that the life filled with pain was one of constant agony with very little relief, and the relief mainly in the form of being unconscious in drug induced sleep. No one would want that kind of eternal existence. The life they lived would be unlivable if the pain kept them from doing everything that made life worth living.

Eternal life, the eternal life preached to us by our Savior, promised to us by the Father, God, is one without pain in any form whatsoever, a distress-free existence. 

Recently a few shows/movies and such I've seen have the concept that no one would be happy or want to live in a world without any conflict. They promoted the idea that it's the conflicts in our life that give them meaning. To know the good we have to know the evil. To feel true happiness we must know true pain. We need something to compare happiness to in order for us to realize we are happy. People will point out the lives of people who can buy anything they want, and then say they can't buy happiness and maybe only those truly in that position can attest to the validity of it. To believe that we must always and forever have to have bad in order to have good is a very flawed belief, one we cling to because to do otherwise is to have to comprehend truth.

The truth is existing as created beings, created out of love, meant to return love as well as receive love. Eternal life, this most precious of offered truths, allows us to comprehend hope beyond the horror.

Hope beyond the horror.  Most of us have horrors that have occurred in our lives, and if by chance you've happened to somehow live a horror free existence, you most certainly know others who haven't. You know of the horror even if it's not your personal horror.

The horror of life comes in many, many forms.  Horror - otherwise known as - intense fear, intense dislike, shock, disgust, unpleasant, unsightly, hopelessness, anxiety, terror, revulsion, repulsion, awfulness, distress, dread, alarm, panic-  you get the picture, yes?  The level of horror varies and can be subjective. I might find surgery on a person absolutely horrifying if I were required to be the surgeon, while another would find it exhilarating. Some might enjoy jumping out of an airplane while I would most likely die from the sheer terror of being in that position. There are horrors that everyone would find the same- torture, extreme torture being one of those horrors.  That this world is filled with horrors we hate to even imagine exist and often sob broken heartedly upon hearing of some of the horrors being enacted, is without a doubt.  And as long as even the tiniest horror exists we need hope beyond that horror. Hope beyond the worst of the worst and the least of the worst.

Hope beyond horror, the truth of eternal existence with no horror at all whatsoever. No horror for you, no horror for me, no horror for anyone at all.

Eternal life is offered to us, this hope beyond the horrors is given to us, and we must grasp hold of the hope and never let it go. We must live our lives filled with this hope. As one tragedy after another is personally dealt with, or whether you face tragedy within yourself we need to grasp the hope eternal offered to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Eternal life - preaching heaven- giving hope in eternal time.

We All Live In Holy Time, Every Seventh Day.

Living in holy time. Hallelujah!

As the unseen door opens, a door from our world existing in unholy time to a door existing in our world in holy time, we are beckoned…realize and enter.

"Remember," God said. Did God know that man would choose to forget? He did, He knew. "Remember the Sabbath day," God commanded.

Not only did man choose to forget, man chose to misremember the truth of the Sabbath when he did remember its existence.

The holy. What does it mean to be holy?

Set apart for religious purpose, devoted to the service of God, belonging to or coming from a divine power, something sanctified, consecrated, hallowed, blessed, divine, sacred, righteous, devout, Godly.

During creation God did not make every day holy, this is truth. God did make one day during creation holy, the seventh day, the day He stopped creating beyond creating the Sabbath itself. God reiterated the holiness of the seventh day in a week consisting for seven days when He freed the Egyptians from slavery. God listed the sanctity of Sabbath among the ten royal, moral laws written by His own hand. God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, also reiterated the Sabbath when He said not a single jot (the dot of an i) or a single tittle (the cross of a t) would be removed from the royal law. Jesus commanded us to keep the royal law. We are told in the new world to come the Sabbath would remain.

Before sin entered the newly created world of mankind the Sabbath existed.

Time made holy.

Time set aside as holy.

This period of holy time would be endless, it would be eternal.

This one day in seven, this twenty-four hour period of holy time will never end, never.

Forever we will be creatures. Though we will be changed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible, we will never cease to be creatures, never.  As creatures we needed, and will always need, holy time. Whether we are old creatures or new creatures, we are creatures. Unfortunately as corrupted creatures we have a tendency to forget our creature status. God guaranteed the opportunity for us to never forget our creature status. God created the holiness of the seventh day, the Sabbath.

On the Sabbath, the door to holy time is opened to us. No one can escape living in the time of holiness, but they can choose to desecrate the holy time they are living in.

More on this tomorrow, by the will of our God, by the grace and mercy of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord now and forever!

Save Us From Ourselves.

Jud 1:14  And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 

Jud 1:15  To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 

Jud 1:16  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. 

Do you do one or more of the following?

Murmur. Dict. a complaint made in a discreet or secretive way (secretively complaining, resentful, begrudging)

Complain. Dict. to express discontent or unhappiness about a situation (outwardly revealing your selfish discontent and unhappiness excessively)

Selfishly Lust.  Dict. to have a very strong desire to obtain something (selfishly motivated to act on your bases impulses to fulfil a desire you have for something in such a way you are putting your desires before God)

Brag. Dict. to talk with excessive pride about an achievement or possession (Selfishly promoting yourself, taking all the credit for things in place of glorifying God)

Sycophant (Flatter). Dict. a servile or obsequious person who flatters somebody powerful for personal gain (Being nice to those who can help you obtain things who you otherwise would not be nice to.)

We live in a world rife with murmuring, complaining, selfishness,  bragging, and flattery.  More so now than ever before we are surrounded by these things so much so they've become the norm. There is nothing thought wrong about a person voicing their displeasure constantly in any way they can. Being offended and offending others is non-stop. Self-importance has become our focus, our individual rights are our outcry. We want to force beliefs on others telling them they have to accept them or they are now haters. We fail to call wrongs wrong any more. We justify every single trait a person may have and ignore sin's degradation of mankind. Rather than allow a person to live in a state of remorse, a state of repentance for their many, and quite numerous flaws unique to themselves and shared with others- we tell them they've nothing to be repentant of, nothing at all. Every single thing they are - through no fault of their own is acceptable simply because they can't help the way they are, they just are. And before anyone who might be reading this thinks I'm talking specific traits I'm not, because ALL the flaws WE possess are in need of being surrendered to God. All our flaws and we all have many of them are to be recognized for what they are and rather than despair over our condition, we accept that we are flawed and strive to live to serve God and through God, serve others, not ourselves encouraging the flaws. We surrender every single part of ourselves to God. We may not comprehend why we were born with our flaws, I know I sure don't, we know we are encumbered by many, many years of existence in a sin tainted world where anything goes. Satan has used his evil influence to drag mankind into debauchery ever since the very first sin. Society has strived and failed over and over again to bring the love of God to the forefront, but they often have twisted God's love into something unrecognizable by God. Hate, fear, pain, all of this has been used through the years to oppress flaws of all kinds and this in turn is used by Satan to gain sympathy for the flaws so he can twist them into being good things, calling evil good and good evil.

Self.

We've put ourselves on a pedestal and proclaimed self is all that matters. Self above all is that standard raised high. Self above God has become more important than ever before in our world, and it's a lie that will destroy millions and millions of people.

God help us!

Keep us from the evil of self and all its many, many disguises.

Let us live in YOU, Jesus! You will return and prayerfully in my lifetime! You will come back to claim those who are Yours! You will reveal to every single person the truth, and reveal through Your judgment whether or not they've put You first, or themselves. You've warned us, You've let us know the truth beforehand and we make the choice to belong to You or not. Please, LORD, help us to see only the truth, please forgive us! Help us! Save us from ourselves! Please.

All in Your name, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, now and forever!

Does Your Tongue Spew Forth Poison?

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 

Mat 12:35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 

Mat 12:36  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 

Mat 12:37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

From the heart our mouths speak. Think about that for just a moment. How often do we say things we don't mean or wish we could take back? I don't know about you but it seems almost daily my mouth betrays me by spewing forth things that I wish I didn't feel, or think. What happens when we don't want to say stuff but say it anyway? What's occurring to make this happen? Our tongues are unbridled, untamed.

Jas 3:8  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

This tiny thing in our mouth is full of poison. Right there the words are spoken NO MAN CAN TAME THE TONGUE, it is UNRULY, EVIL, FULL OF DEADLY POISON!  Who then can tame it? Only the Holy Spirit, only Christ in us, only the Heavenly Father keeping us from evil- these three can tame our tongues.

Recognize the evil that the tongue can do with its poison is something I don't do enough. I despise the person I am when my mouth lets loose with hurtful, spiteful, selfish poison. I walk away after shooting out the poison darts and almost instantly I regret shooting them. But I can't take them back. I lament the selfishness in me, the thing in me that refuses to be a grateful servant to others. I despise the self-server I am when I think for some reason I should be left alone to do my own things and not be interrupted by others. Even in the middle of a great task I should still be willing to lay it down completely, willingly, even dare I say, happily- in order to serve another no matter what is being asked of me. Why? Because we live our lives so wrapped up in self, we forget completely that our lives are to be lived to serve God who revealed we are to serve others. There is nothing that should be so important to us that we fail to reveal the love of God to others through serving them without resentment. That's what we are doing… our actions are revealing the God we serve to others. Every word we speak is revealing our God to others.

These are the things we need to comprehend. These are the truths we need to put before us. These are the prayers we need to earnestly pray that we can reveal the love of God to others, that God can use us in His service.

The tongue is a great revelator. We can take measure of ourselves by its use.

What is your tongue telling you?

Does your tongue spew forth poison? Are your words revealing the lack of God's love in you?

We need to remember this-- Mat 12:37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

The treasure that is within us will be revealed through our words.

Lord, please, create a clean heart within me, renew a right spirit within me because I don't want my filthy heart and evil spirit to control me. I need You controlling me, I yield to Your control of my tongue, my heart, my spirit. Keep the poison from even being formed within me so that it doesn't exist to shoot out its evil darts daily from my lips, my tongue, my mind.

Please, Lord, keep the door of my lips!

All through Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, now and forever, amen!!!!!!!

Communicating.

Communication.

The ability to communicate is a marvelous thing. Just ask those who can't communicate easily. Read the story or watch the movie about Helen Keller (worth watching). The story is based on the true life of Helen Keller a deaf and blind girl who learns to communicate through the efforts of her teacher Anne Sullivan. It really is quite something to watch the dawning light of understanding go on in Helen's mind when she finally puts two and two together and comprehends that Anne is using sign language in her hand to spell the word 'water'. When that dawning moment occurred, Helen couldn't stop asking what everything was around her, every object had a name and she wanted to know them all. Her life took on so much more meaning with the ability to communicate.

We take communication for granted until we come down with a really bad sore throat and it hurts to talk, or until something else occurs to prevent us from speaking- dental work, throat surgery, a broken jaw, etc. When these things happen and we can't speak we find other ways to communicate. We write things (type them) we get our message across.

Communication is universal, it is something all humans do in one way or another unless medically, mentally, physically incapacitated and unable to do so. The frustration of a person unable to communicate is very understandable.

Unless you're a recluse, on your own but not a recluse, or otherwise inclined not to talk with others, most people communicate with others every single day. A phone call, texting, online messaging, we communicate all the time- even often with complete strangers especially in the online world. We go to doctors, stores, have various appointments with others. We communicate.

The Bible has a lot to say about using our ability to communicate in the wrong way. Let's read a few of the things.

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 

Eph 5:4  Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 

Psa 5:9  For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. 

Psa 52:2  Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. 

Psa 73:8  They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. 

Psa 73:9  They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. 

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 

Mat 12:35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 

Mat 12:36  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 

Mat 12:37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Rom 3:13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 

Rom 3:14  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness

1Co 15:33  Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 

Col 3:8  But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. 

Col 3:9  Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds

Col 4:6  Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. 

Jas 3:2  For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. 

Jas 3:3  Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. 

Jas 3:4  Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. 

Jas 3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! 

Jas 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. 

Jas 3:7  For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: 

Jas 3:8  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 

Jud 1:14  And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 

Jud 1:15  To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 

Jud 1:16  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. 

Clearly our ability to communicate is important- life or death important.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST now and forever!!!!!!!

Our Loving God Wants Us.

Tit 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 

Tit 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 

Tit 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 

Tit 3:6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour

The kindness and love of God is beyond our ability to comprehend fully, it just is. We can get glimpses of love, but that's all. We feel heartbreak from loving and know the pain that comes from loving. On a very small level we can understand the pain God endured and endures from the love He has towards us.

God did not snap us out of existence. Just the other night my husband and I watched Avengers Infinity War and the (spoilers) the bad guy snaps his fingers and half the population on earth disappears. Just a snap of the fingers. The good guys of course were totally against genocide, against destroying half of any population anywhere. The idea of this act being okay was appalling to them. How could anyone simply use the power to kill like that? 

We understand how insane it would be for anyone to do such a thing. We have our own non-fiction wars where six million Jewish people were killed as a non-Jewish madman along with his insane cohorts dictated. There have been a lot of other wars where a certain group of people choose to try and kill off whole groups of other people in an effort to wipe those they don't like or agree with off the face of the earth. We always call this insanity no matter where or when it occurs. It's wrong, morally wrong on many, many levels to kill others, let alone entire races, entire ethnic groups. 

God could have wipe out the human race from existence with a mere thought, He wouldn't need special gemstones or to even snap his fingers. God chose to let us live and EACH one of us is given an opportunity to choose love over evil.

God allowed humanity to come into existence and offered humanity a chance to believe in His love above all. Humanity chose a self-serving action over the love of God, they chose not to believe in God, they chose to listen to a god-less creature rather than God, they chose to die.  Right then when that first act of disobedience occurred God could have eradicated humanity entirely. He'd told them they would die, they didn't know about a first death and a second death when God told them they would die. God had a plan to save humanity, a contingency plan. This plan would involve a second permanent death or an eternal life - a life that would be as God intended and each person would have the choice to live eternally.

When you take the choice from a person and kill them, they will not have a say so in that. They do, or did have a choice to choose eternal life before their first death.

Our loving God wants us! Our loving God does not want to lose us! Our loving God reaches out to us, draws us to Him, entices us to Him. Our loving God has left NOTHING undone or order for us to belong to Him willingly, lovingly, believing in Him and His love!

All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!!!!!!!